bioLarzen

And how would you manage this cap-space wise?

I don't think the Broncos offensdive production in 2015 and 2016 would warrant Dennison long, serious looks at OC... Not really a success story.

As huge an icon as Ed was as a player, and as much as we all know he knows his trade inside and out, the truth is that his stint as a coach in Buffalo hasn't been really great. Ed still has to prove he can be a good NFL coach - and I'm not sure it should be in Baltimore... Also, I'm not at all sure he's really into the idea of coaching under Harbaugh...

Only place Williams is a beast is at the dinner table ,he is so overrated he makes some plays but he takes plays off and at times gets man handled by 1 on 1's with guys that are smaller than him Apparently you know better than just about the complete NFL analyst and expert scene... Because the prevailing view on Brandon Williams is quite the opposite of yours...

YUP, we need a new Center... Urschel who has been the backup... Could he be a replacement? If he was better than Zuttah, he would long be the starting C. If he's not an upgrade over Zuttah then why replace Zuttah with him?

What I fail to see here is how a run game specialist will make a change if the OC continues to abandon the run...

Why would having a run game coordinator mean the O-wall coach is gone? The two are obviously not the same.

Why should you - when the problem with him was the exact opposite: that he's forgotten sopme of his old tricks?

“We have not run the football well enough or enough, really, for the last two years. That has to change,” Harbaugh said last week. Ha, if we were to have a drinking game where we, Ravens fans have a beer every time Hargaugh acknowledges that something "must change"/"done better" - and then nothing at all happens (or it actually gets even worse) - the Ravens Nation would be a bunch of thoroughly drunken fans...

Sorry, this is gonna be a rather long one. But I think the problematics we call "wide receivers in Baltimore" warrant longer soliloquys... Fact: the Baltimore Ravens have never in their 20-year history drafted and then groomed a legit WR. The best may be Torrey Smith - and he is nowhere near top-shelf. All the really productive WR's (Mason, Boldin, Steve Smith, Wallace) have been brought in via free agency or trade. What may be the reason? I can think of four possible answers: 1.) it's nothing more than a spectacular run of bad luck; 2.) the Ravens scouting and/or talent evaulation system is not suitable to pinpoint and identify WR talent who can make the transition to the NFL; 3.) the talent pool drafted is OK, but the Ravens WR coaching/developing is simply not good enough to turn the raw talent drafted, into NFL-caliber players; 4.) the proper talent is identified and drafted, then suitably developed - but the Ravens offensive system is not one WR's can really be productive in. I guess we can rule out #1 - I refuse to believe in 20-year (and counting) runs of bad luck. That's more than unlikely. So, where does the problem lie? In the scouting/talent evaluation? The player development? The offensive philosophy and system? A combination of any of these? I don't think we, simple fans will ever be in the position to gain any kind of real insight into the organization's scouting and talent evaluation system - and there's no problem with this: after all we're talking about business secrets here. So,we're not in the position to judge whether the heart of the problem lies there - and those who do won't ever talk about it - for the afrorementioned reason. Here is the complete list of WR's Ozzie drafted for the Baltimore Ravens (UDRFA's not included) (format coding: WR'S drafted by the Ravens; notable WR's still on the board when the Ravens were on the clock; NOTABLE WR'S STILL AVAILABLE WHEN OZZIE PICKED A WR) 1996: Jermaine Lewis (Round #5), James Roe (6) ; notable WR's drafted by other orgs: Terrell Owens, 1997: - / Derrick Mason 1998: Patrick Johnson (2) / Randy Moss, HINES WARD 1999: Brandon Stokley (4) / DONALD DRIVER, 2000: Travis Taylor (1) / Plaxico Burress, 2001: - / Chad (Ochocinco) Johnson, Steve Smith, TJ Houshmanzadeh 2002: Ron Johnson (4), Javin Hunter (6) / Antwaan Randle El, Deion Branch, 2003: - / Anquan Boldin, 2004: Devard Darling (3), Clarence Moore (6), Derek Abney (7) / JERRICHO COTCHERY, 2005: Mark Clayton (1) / RODDY WHITE, VINCENT JACKSON, 2006: Demetrius Williams (4) / Santonio Holmes, Greg Jennings, BRANDON MARSHALL, MARQUES COLSTON 2007: Yamon Figurs (3) 2008: Marcus Smith (4), Justin Harper (7) / Jordy Nelson, DeSean Jackson, PIERRE GARCON, 2009: - / Mike Wallace, Julian Edelman 2010: David Reed (5) / Emmanuel Sanders, ANTONIO BROWN, 2011: Torrey Smith (2), Tandon Doss (4) 2012: Tommy Streeter (6) / Mohamed Sanu 2013: Aaron Mellette (7) / Kenny Stills, 2014: Michael Campanaro (7) / Kelvin Benjamin, 2015: Breshad Perriman (1), Darren Waller (6) / TYLER LOCKETT, STEFON DIGGS, 2016: Chris Moore (4), Keenan Reynolds (6) / TYREEK HILL Talent evaluation is, of course, not black and white, not an exact science where anyone could go for sure - it's enough to think of Tom Brady... Also, guys can develop totally differently with one organizatiuon than another one - just to use the rpevious example, maybe if, say the Bucs or Bills draft Tom Brady, he never develops into what he has become... or a totally forgotten QB could have become "the" Tom Brady if drafted by Belichick and, say, not the Bucs or Bills... so, knowing that Ozzie passed on WR's who then went on to become real stars, to pick WR's who never really grew to be real factors in the NFL doesn't automatically means a thing. Still, just to think that we could have had Steve Smith play his entire career in Baltimore... that we could have ended up with real stars like Hines Ward, Roddy White, Brandon Marshall, Pierre Garcon instead of guys like Patrick Johnson, Mark Clayton, Demetrius Williams, Marcus Smith - and the most mind boggling: Ozzie picking David Reed (now long out of the league) instead of Antonio Brown... it's really hard not to think that WR talent evaluation may at least be part of the problem... Passing on so many great guys and picking trash instead, at least 5-6 times... that seems to be more than mere bad luck... In 20 years the Baltimore Ravens drafted 25 WR's - that's 1 WR oer year, plus one more every fourth year. From these 25 players 0 went to the Pro Bowl, and 0 became what we could legitimately call a star in the NFL. That basically means if Ozzie randomly picked WR's, he could have gone better - but probably not worse. Wanna have it sound even more depressing? The Cleveland Browns picked better WR's... Or,. would the culprit be talent development? Another thing we, fans can never know, as we never see most of the coaching and development work done. But one cannot help noticing that no WR drafted by ther Baltimore Ravens went on to become a star in the NFL after leaving Baltimore for another organization. So, these guys were/are really just not good enough - or were never properly developed by their drafting oprganization - namely the Ravens... Or is it the offensive system? C'mon... we've had at least about 10 different OC's in these 20 years... could it ppossibly be that all of them had non-WR friendly systems? Sounds very unlikely to me. So, I think the likeliest scenario is that the Ravens are unable to either identify/evaluate WR talent, or cannot develop the drafted talent to succeed in the NFL - or the combination of both. Either of these two is to blame, it's personnel-related problem: either the scouting system or the WR-related coaching staff must be fixed. The question is why it was never fixed in 20 years... And if it wasn't fixed in 20 years - and it wasn't... - what should we base any hope on, that it will be fixed... Because as long as it isn't fixed, the best we can apparently hope for from our home-grown WR pool is Torrey Smith... And that simply doesn't cut it in the NFL.

Practices and camps are best held as "private" as possible. That's the best for the team. Not because they don't like fans - but because practices aree mostly not spectacular, emoptions are high - and there are things that should be kept secret: tactics, strategies, calls code language etc...

after having one of the best drafts in Ravens history last year can you elaborate on that? I'll elaborate on that, no problem. NFL teams are built through the draft. I don't think a single knowledgeable football fan would argue that. Some teams do well and get lucky, and hit on players in rounds 4-7 every so often, which is a serious boost to the team. But the foundations of great teams are built in rounds 1-3. This is obvious and simple. Here is a list of 1rst-3rd round picks over the past 7 years. Elam Perriman Arthur Brown Maxx Williams Cody Kindle KC Kufasi Carl Davis Brooks Jah Reid Upshaw Not only are none of these players even close to sniffing any kind of pro bowl talent, but a lot of them already have or are going to end up not even being able to play in the league what so ever. Because they are not any good. 1rst, 2nd, and 3rd round picks. That aren't even good enough to play in the league.....hmmmm. Drafting is driving the Ravens into the ground. Someone has to answer for that. This year. Stanley is awesome. At 6 overall, you better get an awesome player. After that, let's talk about this "one of the best drafts in Ravens history". We draft KC in the second round. Doom and Mosely are out for big sections of the year and KC isn't even good enough to play. at ll really. But he's a "hustle" player. Whatever that means. So we waste a pick on a guy that might never be good enough to play, instead of players that made an impact the entire year, and will be foundations of their franchises going forward- Sterling, Spence, and Michael Thomas are just a couple. All positions we need too. Then Kufasi. Yeah he got hurt, but bottom line, another high pick with zero production or experience after year 1. Not to mention he was another "hustle" player that didn't have any outstanding traits at all and was someone that "needs time to develop". Our 4th round was good. Finally. But Young is the only sure thing. Chris Moore didn't contribute this year, except for a costly drop. Alex Lewis got a lot of hype, but he was only average when he was on the field. Henry didn't play at all this year. And I am a fan of Dixon. Then Judon looks good but is raw and completely unproven. So this draft was ok, but the only reason it looks good is cuz we're comparing it to our GARBAGE drafts of the past several years. We drafted about 2 pro bowl players in the past 5 years. And one of those was a kicker. It's pathetic and very sad and helpless for the fans. If we don't hit on rounds 1-3 in the next several years, we'll be sitting in 3rd or 4th in the division for years to come. Note that the general downturn in drafted talent in the higher rounds coincides with the Harbaugh era. Could be a coincidence, or it could be his influence to find "high character, high football IQ" guys who were team captains, etc. The result is a lack of playmakers, pro-bowlers, and (unfortunately) no decrease in penalties. This might be doable in New England, where you have elite coaching and QB play, but not here. I would love to know what Ozzie's board would have looked like over the past 5 years without the coach's influence. I don't think Harbaugh bought his own scoutiong system and department with him - so, I have to think if there's anything, it's mere coincidence. But, if you study the earlier drafts, you will find about the same rate of hits and misses in the early rounds. Maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less. Talent evaluatiopn and the draft is never a black-and-white thing. If it was, Brady would have never been left on the board until deep in the 6th round, and players like Tucker or Zach Orr would have never reached rookie free agency undrafted. Seems to me like there are scout departments in the NFL who seem to be better suited to correctly gauge and assess big talent - and thus make their organiztations pick in the early rounds better, and there are scouting systems that seem to be better suited to realize hidden, more subtle talent, making their organizations more successful at picking better in the late rounds. What baffles me is the Ravens scouting system's apaprent inability to correctly assess talent at WR. It seems like they are just unable to pick out good WR talent. While players like Antonio Brown and Beckham get picked where they would have been available to us, Ozzie picks Clayton, Perriman and Torry Smith: not awful picks, but not Megatrons, Beckhams and Browns either...

... and all this in a season where the Ravens will be rather tight against the cap - as usual. It's like when the child in a poor family writes a Christmas wish list that fits a solid middle class family...

"Ultimately, Harbaugh’s decision to retain Mornhinweg reflects a belief that the Ravens need more talent rather than better coaching." In a season where we'll gonna be rather tight against the cap... meaning we'll be likely to come out of the off season weaker - or at least not stronger... - than we enetered it... It's like saying you want a better car when you know you won't be able to afford it...

"Does Mornhinweg deserve a fair chance to succeed?" Do the Baltimore Ravens fandom deeserve a chance for an O that's actually not a pain to watch?

"Some popular potential candidates included Norv Turner, Mike McCoy, Greg Roman and Rick Dennison. Hensley explains why none of them were clearly better than Mornhinweg." Here we go again. How was Harbaugh "cearly" better than Billick in 2008? How was he a "proven upgrade" over Billick? If it wil always ber about the risk of picking an unknown option over a proven - although bad - option, Harbaugh will always stay in Baltimore...

"Harbaugh reportedly looked around, but was there really a better option?" Ahhh, please... Back there in 2008 when Billick was fired, did ANYBODY think about Harbaugh as a good replacement before his name first came up officially? He was the ST coach of the Eagles - how many ST coaches do people know? There are good enough guys around - they're just have to be found. Just like Harbaugh was found in 2008.

Don't we all?

I couldn't care less about how much Harbaugh is risking by retaining Mohrnhinweg - it's his own deal. What annoys me to the extreme is that he uses the team I love and would love to see succeed, for taking risks. John, go and play risk with something that's yours - not our beloved team please. Don't use my Baltimore Ravens to try and break the age old adage about the definition of crazinbess (doing the same thing again expecting different results). Please.

I think the core of the problem is what the risk is with appointing a ST coach to HC. No matter if you're a DC or OC, you HAVE TO understand both sides of the ball to succeed - both the O and the D - one is your court and the other is the one you'll have to be successful against. But ST? They have to be good v the other ST. The heart of the problem with Harbaugh IMHO is that he simply doesn't know the O side of football well enough - ergo, he HAS TO rely on this OC. He didn't "veto" what he called "the worst call in history" v. the Eagles because he relied on his OC fully. There's a reason you either don't see former ST coaches promoted to HC, or if it happens, he has great OC's and DC's. If not... then, well, no playoffs most of the time.

I like Wallace but he's just not that, "playmaker" cat to me. Going forward w/o SSS, would you guys consider Wallace to be your "go to guy?" WR's whose primary trick is speed are seldom go-to guys. Those are usually mid-range guys: possession receivers and TE's. "By default" Flacco's go-to guys now should be Pitta.

Yep, the O did improve - but they improved from a miserable level to an OK-if-you're-the-Jets level. It's like a kid who, after a series of F's and E's brings home a D. That is undoubtedly an improvement... I still wouldn't call it a cause for jubilation ;)

It's totally impossible to make any sensible predictions for next season now. We won't even know their rosters in more than half a year...

OK, if that's the decision, then that's the decision. There's one thing I was sorely missing from Harbaugh's presser: we all know the good old definition of craziness: to do the same thing expecting a different result. As I wouldn't want to feel crazy, I would welcome an explanation from Harbaugh: if the O remains the same, why should we expect a different result than past season. Actually, "this season" - but for the Ravens it's the past season... So, John: if the O is going to be the same, what should we fans base our hopes of a better-than-mediocre offense, and a QB that actually looks like he cares when out on the field?

Yep - and it's only slightly relevant here, but I cannot help chuckling when I recall a guy who, upon hearing that KO signed with trhe Raiders last off season, said here that it's a shame KO chose money over success (as if earning a lot with your job wasn't a success on its own merit...) - but, he said "I'd like to see KO's face at the end of the season as we go into the playoffs and the Raiders flop again." Well, LOL