callahan09

We don't give chances to WRs drafted in the 5th or later? Kamar Aiken? Undrafted. Marlon Brown? Undrafted. Michael Campanaro? 7th round. Darren Waller? 6th round. Our roster currently only has 5 WRs on it, because Perriman is injured. Steve Smith is a former 3rd round pick, and he's currently 36 years old. Of the remaining 4 WRs, half were undrafted, and the other half were 6th and 7th round picks. I mean, I'd call it "stupid", to be honest, but you could also call it "giving them a chance" to have 4 out of 5 receivers as lower than 5th round picks.

Bedard's comments about Flacco are a freaking joke. They show a fundamental lack of understanding of the game of football, either that or a fundamental lack of watching the darn games. Flacco put the game-winning TD pass in his receiver's hands in Denver, twice, and neither one was caught. You can't ask your QB to do too much more than that. He also executed the game-winning drive in Oakland, but the defense gave it right back. He was then given the ball back at his own 20 yard line with just 26 seconds left, requiring a TD, and I did the research on that going back to the 1994 season (that's as far back as such stats are searchable on PFREF.com), and NEVER has a team succeeded at that situation in that span (literally *ZERO TIMES*). So we can't EXPECT Flacco to will a win out of that situation when it's literally never been done as far back as the stats are recorded. And then there's the Cincinnati game, where he engineered the game-winning drive YET AGAIN (that's two games in a row where he DID engineer a go-ahead scoring drive, in case you weren't counting) only to have the defense give it right back. We are now expecting Flacco to engineer MULTIPLE go-ahead late-game drives per game, because the defense can't hold the first one each game? I mean, it'd be superhuman QBing if he pulled it off, but just because he CAN'T pull it off doesn't mean he isn't doing his job and living up to EXPECTATIONS (it is unfair to EXPECT perfection and especially given the cast of players he's working with). Consider that Steve Smith Sr is his only reliable target, and it's actually pretty incredible what Flacco's doing these past couple of games. Not enough, OK, but there's a whole field of players on offense & defense that are contributing to it "not being enough", and Flacco I would argue is just about the least of those worries. On the final drive of the game against Cincy, the O line broke down and he had to lob the ball over defenders in his face on 2nd and 3rd downs, setting up 4th down. A little protection from the O line might have been helpful there if we are to expect Flacco to succeed. Then he hits the 4th and 3 play for a 1st down, but it gets called back due to an O line penalty. Then on 4th and forever, he has little option. Marlon Brown, despite some people saying he should have thrown to him, was NOT open. He was on the opposite side of the field and had the safety over the top, there is no way that would have been a smart throw. Forsett is not a playmaker after the catch, he has never demonstrated that ability, and he ain't Ray Rice converting 4th-and-29 on yards after the catch, so throwing to Forsett with defenders at a good angle to him and over 10 yards from the first down marker, would not have been a smart decision either. Who did he have? He had an open Maxx Williams, calling for the ball. So he threw it. That's a tough throw, and a tough catch, and it just didn't work. Flacco is not the problem.

Brown was not even remotely open on that final play. The safety had a perfect route to pick that off if he tried to throw it there, especially given the hang time that the ball would have had throwing across his body and to the opposite side of the field. That was a good decision not to throw that ball. Forsett is not "Hey Diddle Diddle Ray Rice Up The Middle", either. You could check it down to him, but Forsett has shown questionable hands and a weak ability to make plays after the catch. Ray Rice once converted that 4th and 29, but Ray Rice was always a playmaker as the checkdown option, and Forsett has proven that he's really not a threat in that regard. I don't blame Flacco for throwing to a truly open receiver who was past the 1st down marker. It could have been a completion, too, but oh well. If he'd thrown to Forsett, and Forsett didn't get the 1st down, people would be even more critical asking why the heck he threw to a guy 10 yards shy of the first down when he had Maxx Williams open deep for a first down.

He gets open and has good hands, but I have a major problem with his ability to smartly play the ball. I wish him nothing but the best, of course, but I see him do things not come back for a comebacker and not jump for a jump ball... he runs good routes and has good hands, like I said, but I haven't seem him demonstrate that he'll fight for the ball. He seems to have a problem with letting the ball come to him rather than going to get the ball. That's why I honestly predict a lot of interceptions will be thrown his direction this year. It was the same with Torrey Smith last year, he wasn't playing the ball smart, wasn't fighting for the ball, wasn't going to get the ball. That kind of passivity in a receiver leads to defenders who want the ball more being able to go fight for and get the ball. I have a major problem when I see receivers letting that happen. Hopefully I'm wrong about Kamar, but from what I've seen of him so far, that's my perception.

I disagree that Aiken hasn't made any critical errors this preseason. First interception Flacco threw in game 2 wasn't his fault by any means, but he could have done something to stop it from happening, and indeed possibly even gaining a PI call. He was supposed to look for the ball and jump for it, and he didn't do that, he just kept running forward and let the ball fall behind him. Yes, the throw could have been deeper, but the receiver didn't play the ball smart and do his job to stop that interception from happening on that one. In Joe's defense, that was the kind of ball that he threw to Torrey all the time and Torrey would go up and try to get it, and more often than not he wouldn't make the catch but in having to stop short and go up, the defender would have no recourse but to contact him and he'd get that PI flag. Joe could throw that same pass exactly like that and reliably get a positive result from Torrey, but Aiken wasn't on that same page, I guess. But by far the most significant error from Aiken was when he didn't come back for a come-backer in game 3. Joe throws him an easy come-backer and he just stops and stares at the ball waiting for it to come to him, rather than actually coming back to get it. Complacency in waiting for a ball to get to you rather than converging on it on those come-backers is one of my biggest pet peeves from wide receivers. He let the defender jump the ball in front of him, because the defender actually decided he wanted to go get that ball. This is a critical error, and often leads to interceptions. COME BACK TO THE BALL! Don't wait for the ball to come to you when you're covered, because you're just inviting the defender to jump in front of you and take it away. Huge, potentially game-altering flaw not to come back for a come-backer.

Thanks for the GIF. I've seen enough. It's an absolute joke if the NFL doesn't suspend this guy for repeatedly pulling this same move trying to injure players heads/necks. He shouldn't be playing.

I need to go back and watch the first 3 pre-season games again, but so far nothing positive truly stands out to me from Aiken, but a lot of negative memories immediately come to mind. He just doesn't seem to play the ball in a smart way. Flacco's first interception on the deep pass in the 2nd game was a problem for me. Aiken should have tracked the ball and jumped to make a play on it. Instead he just kept running, letting the ball fall behind him, making essentially no play on it, thus it got tipped and the INT occurred. But I'm even more unhappy with the play today at about the 2:57 remaining mark in the 1st quarter, when he threw to Aiken and Amerson almost picked it off. Once again, Aiken just sits there staring at the ball, doesn't come back to it, on an obvious come-back type of throw, and just lets Amerson (the defender) jump in front of him and almost pick it off. Aiken just doesn't seem to play the ball, doesn't fight for it, doesn't track it, and just lets the defender make a play on the ball when the play is there to be made from him. It's Torrey Smith all over again as far as it looks to my eyes, I ALWAYS harped on Torrey not playing the ball properly and letting defenders have plays on the ball that Torrey himself should have made, and I'm seeing the same stuff from Aiken right now. It's very frustrating.

Yeah, the first throw wasn't bad. Aiken could have jumped up and fought for the ball rather than just keeping straight ahead and outrunning it and not playing the ball. I mean, you can't expect Joe to put it much closer to "on the money" than that every time. Remember that when we talk about these deep balls from Joe, for whatever reason they're *ALWAYS* these "hit the man in stride down the field while he's being covered" types of plays. Every time! It boggles me mind. So many of the deep balls I see from the likes of Stafford, Brady, the Mannings, Rodgers, Cutler, etc, who are all pretty accurate on deep throws, are throwing to guys who get open deep down field and sit at a point where the ball can be delivered to them. I feel like I don't see that many of these "throw the ball 40+ yards down field to a covered receiver and try to hit him in stride" kind of throws outside of what Joe is always throwing. Those are really hard throws to be accurate on because you don't know how much separation the receiver is going to have by the time the ball gets there, you don't even really know where the receiver is going to wind up on the throw because they aren't anywhere near where the ball is being thrown at the time the ball is let go. It's a combination of a calculation and a guess where you're even supposed to put the ball, much less then the actual ability to put it exactly at that spot. These throws really don't concern me when they're as close as Joe got that one to Aiken. Now, the ball that sailed 5 feet over Marlon Brown's head just a few yards upfield, that was an absolutely awful throw. No clue how that happened, but I don't think we need to worry about seeing too much of that. The bad luck of the first throw and then the one bad throw on the second drive really limited the amount of action Joe got to try out in that game. The final drive he was in on was with backups across most of the OL and there was just no time to find a receiver so the drive stalled, and there ya go, he's out of the game. We didn't learn much of anything, there wasn't enough opportunity for action, and I'm glad that Joe threw that atrocious ball to Marlon so that he is aware of that kind of thing and knows to focus and not make that mistake twice!

He's talking about when he is keeping the ball, not the playcalling and gameplanning becoming pass-first. He's saying that he's still going to be focused on finding a receiver to unload the ball to, rather than take off with his legs, on the plays where he's keeping the ball for himself. In other words, some QBs seem to give up on the pass and just run with it really quickly. Joe is saying he's not going to do that.

Campanaro is a very smart football player. He understands this offense and his role in it, and he knows how to react to what the defense gives him and be on the same page as his QB. He will be a great asset to this offense if he can get over the injury bug that's plagued him to this point in his career. Jeremy Butler didn't impress me, and in the same way I often criticized Torrey Smith for screwing up his routes and not fighting for the ball leading to interceptions, I have to criticize him for Schaub's interception for the same reasons. Maxx was awesome after he dropped that one pass. That was a bad play, but you have to love his response. He was more mad at himself for that drop than anyone, and he made good on redeeming himself for it. That 4th-and-20 play was amazing! This kid has a lot of heart and toughness. I think he will be a great player some day, hopefully not too long in development before he gets there.

Ryan Tannehill strikes me as being pretty overrated. The guy is a relatively smart player and doesn't make mistakes, but he has far below average arm strength and accuracy, and his team asks VERY little of him. He has some great weapons that pile up the dink & dunk yards for him on a ton of short and intermediate passes. He is one of the worst deep passers in the league despite having targets who would be a dream for some QBs. I don't think he's as good as his passer rating, his passer rating is a product of a safe and friendly system that asks him to make easy throws.

I agree that he's ON TRACK. The problem is, that it's a lot of IFs, and that's still a lot of years. If he continues this track for another 7 or 8 years, I think he's a HOFer. But 7 or 8 years is a lifetime in the NFL, so let's all just hope Joe can keep it going til age 37+!

I'd really like us to get to the AFC Championship Game for the 4th time in the Harbaugh era. I'd be extremely pleased with that. I'd be pretty very happy with a playoff win. I'd be happy to make the playoffs. I'd be OK with a winning record and no playoffs. I would be very letdown with anything else.

He also had a mediocre (at best) QB with a poor arm and a wobbly "spiral", most of those drops were on lame passes. From what I've seen, he tends to be strong with those rocket passes that Flacco tends to throw.

An interesting thing I discovered tonight: Joe has post-season wins against 9 *different* teams. I thought that sounded like a lot, so I did some digging. That's tied for 5th most with Terry Bradshaw. The 4 guys in front of him are John Elway, Joe Montana, and Tom Brady. Only 3 other guys even had as many as 8. Here's the list: Tom Brady: 14Joe Montana: 12John Elway: 10Terry Bradshaw: 9Joe Flacco: 9Brett Favre: 8Steve Young: 8Ben Roethlisberger: 8

The Ravens are 20-10 in Prime Time games in the Harbaugh era, including playoffs. 11-2 in those games over the past three seasons.

What's his Erdős number?

As long as Joe Flacco is QB, he'll get the buy-in. Flacco is not Jay Cutler.

About Trestman being the "QB whisperer"... despite everybody clamoring about what a failure the 2014 season was for Trestman, there is this: In 2014 Cutler had a career high completion percentage, career high in touchdowns, he was below his career average in interception rate, passed for the 2nd most yards in his career (most since 2008), and he had his two highest passer rating seasons in 2013 and 2014 under Trestman. The problem is, Cutler just isn't a very good quarterback, and he quit on the team. Aaron Kromer seems to be a detriment in this equation as well. I'm really hoping (and assuming, because to me it would make no sense otherwise) that he is not brought along with Trestman. And let's not forget that the defense was bottom 3 in just about every relevant category for the 2014 Bears. Cutler had fumble-itis as well. And I believe Trestman will be a better OC than HC in the NFL, and he'll have Joe Flacco instead of Jay Cutler. As a result of Cutler getting in his own way, the Bears had the third highest rate of drives ending in turnovers last season. You're going to have a bad football team and an offense that doesn't put up points when you have that awful of a defense and your QB is that turnover-prone, which Cutler has been for his entire career. This is not a new phenomon under Trestman... in fact, Cutler had 47 interceptions + fumbles in 1035 action plays (passes + sacks + rush attempts) under Trestman, while he had 158 in the 3416 action plays prior to Trestman. That's a rate of one interception or fumble every 21.62 plays before Trestman, improved slightly to a rate of one every 22.02 players under Trestman. For comparison's sake, Flacco in his career has 152 interceptions + fumbles out of 4165 action plays, for a rate of one every 27.4 plays, much better than Cutler's average. Joe's seasons by plays per turnover: 22.3, 28.5, 30.1, 26.6, 31.5, 23.0, 34.0 Jay's seasons by plays per turnover: 12.5, 21.5, 29.7, 18.0, 20.5, 25.4, 23.3, 23.4, 21.3 Cutler has played in 2 more seasons than Flacco, and yet Flacco already has 3 seasons with a lower turnover rate than Cutler's best season, and Cutler has only had 4 (out of 9) seasons that were better than Joe's worst season. Joe has never had a season that's even as bad as Cutler's career average (which is one every 21.7 plays). Joe had three outlier seasons (worse or better than one standard deviation from the mean), his rookie season & 2013 which were well below his average, and this year under Kubiak which was well above his career average. Cutler has had two outlier seasons, his rookie year which was way below his average, and 2008, his one pro bowl season, where he was way above his average. If we remove the outlier seasons, then for their careers they are: Joe: 81 turnovers on 2352 plays = one every 29.0 plays Jay: 169 turnovers on 3837 plays = one every 22.7 plays So the difference of +5.7 plays per turnover moves to +6.3 plays per turnover when we remove the outlier seasons.

I'm not unhappy with the choice if that's the case. I think he could be excellent. This was kind of unexpected, though. I didn't even hear about an interview taking place!

Schefter says Trestman: https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/557635548471623680

I am just glad that we have a real, NFL-caliber center again. Gradkowski simply isn't an NFL-caliber center. He really hurt us last year and was a significant reason why we couldn't gain yards on the ground OR keep Flacco upright long enough for our receivers to get open.

Quick comparison of Cam Cameron's offenses vs Gary Kubiak's offenses in the NFL. These stat lines are Year, Points Scored Ranking, Yards Ranking: CAM CAMERON BALTIMORE (OC)2012 10 162011 12 152010 16 222009 9 132008 11 18MIAMI (HC)2007 26 28SAN DIEGO (OC)2006 1 42005 5 102004 3 102003 16 142002 20 16 GARY KUBIAK HOUSTON (HC)2013 31 112012 8 72011 10 132010 9 32009 10 42008 17 32007 12 142006 28 28DENVER (OC)2005 7 52004 9 52003 10 72002 7 32001 10 222000 2 21999 18 14 Sorry if it's kind of hard to read. Key points are that in terms of yards, Cam had 3 top 10 seasons in his career, which were 2004, 2005, and 2006 in San Diego, where his offenses ranked 10th, 10th, and 4th. That's 3 out of 11 seasons, and only 1 in the top 5, best being 4th. Top 10 in scoring 5 times. Kubiak, on the other hand, had 13 top 10 ranked offenses out of 19 seasons. That included two times having the #1 offense, a #2, an excellent FIVE times ranked 3rd, a 4th place offense, and two fifth place offenses, for a total of 11 top 5 offenses! He only had 2 bottom half offenses out of 19 seasons. His offenses were top 10 in scoring 14 out of 19 times! I'm very happy looking at Kubiak's resume. Edit: Removed 2013 from Cam's resume, not sure how that slipped in there, but I didn't include it in what I discussed in my write-up, so nothing else changes.

Saw on Twitter that Shanahan won't be hired: Aaron Wilson ‏@RavensInsider29mSource: Kyle Shanahan won't be joining the Ravens' staff: http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-source-kyle-shanahan-wont-be-joining-ravens-staff-20140127,0,6507549.story … That's disappointing, but I guess I'm happy we finally found an OC and a QB coach. Aaron Wilson ‏@RavensInsider nowRavens hire Rick Dennison as quarterbacks coach: http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-ravens-hire-rick-dennison-as-quarterbacks-coach-20140127,0,2570825.story …

On the contrary, I think all routes suffered the same problems. The deep passes for instance... how often did you see in our offense that a receiver came open deep down the field and was able to just sit and turn and wait and THEN have Flacco throw the ball to him? All of our deep attempts this year came in coverage or in timing sensitive situations where the QB had to throw the ball *before* the receiver actually comes open, and the receiver is supposed to run downfield and meet the ball. The very few "wide open" receivers deep downfield that I saw this year were situations where the ball was thrown before the receiver was even open, which means it suffered from *exactly* the issues I described in my previous post, making them low percentage throws. When did you see Jacoby, or Torrey, or anyone really, run 15 yards down field, stop, turn, and be able to give Flacco a chance to find that wide open receiver sitting still looking at him and able to point the ball and get it uncontested? Easy deep throws like that? It just wasn't there, but most of Brady and Peyton's deep throws, are ones just like this, they just aren't doing many of those timing-sensitive throws where you toss it up deep while the receiver is still en route, they throw it AFTER the receiver is open, but we don't have routes like that, we have 9 routes, where the receiver just sprints for the end zone and Flacco is expected to put it to where they WILL be, as opposed to where they ARE. That's a tough ask, if you ask me, and it's why we don't complete a high percentage of passes.