RaRaRavens

Completely understandable. Last years numbers are misleading. No YAC, small % of catches moved the chains, mostly dump offs that that created the large number of "catches". Then there is his health. If he actually does run for yards after catch, how long can his hip hold out? I like him but pay cut is understandable. @Bat-mite All what budman said, and in addition consider demand-supply ratio. Ravens have an abundance at TE, with younger, more explosive and even a more experienced options on the depth chart. Sure, Pitta's had a (somewhat) solid year and he didn't have to take a paycut. It was the same with Ngata couple of years back and he decided not to take a paycut. But since he had become replaceable, he was traded. It's a similar case with Pitta. Glad he took the paycut, though. Now let's hope Flacco targets someone else, too, for a change.

“Black on blacks, no question. Those [uniforms] are their best combination.” I agree 100%. However, remember when Harbaugh even stopped using all-black uniforms for a couple of seasons because of the "bad-boy" image it presented? What a joke! I wish we'd wear all-black more often!

I LOVE how the additions have given us some flexibility for the draft.

Some very nice and thorough thoughts, pleasant to read! And wow did you get me pumped up for 2017! lol All in all I think you might be right. I do not share your big optimism regarding C or WR position however. I really don't see Jensen being able to handle C, let alone be an upgrade to Zuttah, who was mediocre. I've never been a huge fan of Jensen as a player, but who knows, maybe he will be the next player who comes into his own in his last year and plays himself out of our price range at LG. I sure hope so, that would allow us to move Lewis to RT and we'd only need a C and some depth to finish up the O-line. Still, don't think Jensen will be good enough of a starter. As to WR, I was disappointed that we did not sign any of the vets out there when I saw how little they got paid. 5M for relatively sure pickups in either Marshall or Garcon would have gone a long way for us. Now, whatever we do it will be a huge question mark until we play a significant game come September. We might be off great with inhouse talents and drafted additions, but considering our history of drafting underachieving WRs and bad luck with injuries at the position, I don't see our WR core being in a great shape. Definitely not good enough to carry us deep into the playoffs, if it should come to that. Marty must get mighty creative with his weapons and Flacco must find a way to play well enough to help out his inexperienced WRs, something he has never been able to do. But with the rest of it I agree, especially regarding defense. Gotta give it to Oz and the rest of the FO, they've pieced together the perfect FAs on defense that fir perfectly to what we're trying to do on defense. Now a disrupting pass rusher and a starter at MLB and we're set. Everything on from there will be just quality depth. lol, same here. Mostly post from work on slower days. I'm following the best team in NFL from the other end of the globe, though. Making it to a Ravens game would be awesome! Bummed that I can't make it to the Ravens game in UK, but one day...

all these defensive signings make it look like the FO has finally completely given up on Flacco and the offense and are banking on the defense to score all the points as well. jk ofcourse, but our O is not receiving nearly any help at all, whilst it very very badly needs it. woodhead signing was nice, but we had starters at the position. we're still missing a lot of other starters on O and now can add C to that list.

Why do you say that? Is it because he held OBJ to 73 yards & 94 yards? Or is because he held AJ Green to 50 yards (0 TDs)? Or maybe because he held Mike Evans to 59 yards (0 TDs)? Then it must be Alshon Jeffery's 70 yards & 0 TDs? Jordy Nelson's 68 yards & 0 TDs? Yeah, that guy is no good.... what a bum, right. lol at all who think this wasn't a brilliant pick up.

I'm starting to wonder if we even out all the possible compensatory picks we would've received from Wag, Juice, others leaving by all these signings we've made?

Last I checked we weren't even in the bidding for Mangold, which is baffling. There's probably as much chance for Browns to win the SB as there is for Flacco taking a paycut lol.

lol, i did indeed misinterpret your comment, sorry about that! good to know we're on the same page. peace, bro!

Why the hell should he?! That's what keeps him hungry, motivated, his motor going and trying to prove everyone wrong. I hope he remains haunted and wants to prove every other 31 teams who we might face that they made the biggest mistake when not drafting him. This kind of passion is extremely rare sight here in Baltimore ever since 2012, shame on you for wanting it to end.

Nevermind, just read about Dixon's suspension.

Hmm...I don't get the logic of that signing. Is he really the breakaway RB Harbs was looking for? Hardly. Why did they bring him in?

Well done FO! Congrats BW, well deserved!

We needed to bring in at least 1 "big name" FA to fill a need to even pretend we can compete in 2017. It seems people do not comprehend how many voids we must fill. WR position was our best chance to do it and hope we can solve the rest. We will literally have almost half the roster to fill.

FO continues to fail through again and again. If we do not manage to sign one of the top WRs we have failed the FA cause we have no managed to fill one hole that we needed to.

So true, man! It' painful to watch. And I don't get how some people think Flacco's contract is not the issue. Yeah, he had the perfect leverage for a big payday by winning the SB and the FO took a gamble by giving him the extension. I'm not against the decision itself, how was the FO to know that Flacco's success was a fluke. Unfortunately, the gamble didn't pay off. But now to say that non of our problems stem from the QB play vs pay ratio is ridiculous. We would be off pretty good if either of the following would happen: 1. Flacco would play well on a regular basis, or; 2. We would have enough cap room to bring in enough help that Flacco needs to play well. The reality is, Flacco is not playing well enough and to make matters worse we don't have nearly any money to hire/re-sign great players who would help him play better. Even Biscotti recognized and called this out after the season. So how can some people, including Harbaugh, justify our QB situation is beyond belief for me.

Church! I think that's what's bothering me most about Harbs. I mean, when he says stuff like that with a straight face, and actually believes it himself, then he obviously is not recognizing one of the main problems this team currently has. But when he actually does not believe it himself, then he's just lying to everyone instead of calling out Flacco to play better. I don't know which one of those is worse, but either way it makes me lose trust in him as a HC.

I know, right. "Wizard Oz" gang is like a cult with their "In Oz we trust" mantra. It might have been the case 5 years ago or so, but now it seems people are just clinging on to past success and refusing to recognize and take into consideration some serious recent failures. Don't get me wrong, Oz is still one of the best GMs in the game and manages to make some sweet FA grabs each and every year. But considering he has lost his "magic touch" for drafting, especially in early rounds and made some VERY strange and questionable in-house personnel decisions both player and staff wise, he is far from being the idol of a GM some fans want keep pinning on him.

Alshon Jeffery reportedly wants to be with a contender. No chance for him to sign with us probably.

Wouldn't mind resigning Wallace to multi year deal with reasonable cap number. He showed he can still take it to the house. And we need the veteran presence, now more than ever. Now only if Flacco would throw to anyone else other than Pitta, that'd be great.

Just read this: John Harbaugh: "Ravens will contend for a title because of Joe Flacco". OMG, I haven't laughed so hard in a really long while. Oh jeeh, that's good stuff. If anything, we'll contend for a title IN SPITE of Joe Flacco. This was really just too much.

I need some of that stuff that Harbaugh is smoking. Because unless the FO have a crystal ball that they'll use to strike homeruns with every last one of their FA and draft decisions, there is no realistic grounds for Harbaugh to state things like "no doubt we will contend for a championship". Even some players admitted at the end of last season that this team is VERY far from being a contender. With SSS retiring and B.Williams, Juice and Wagner probably leaving we're left with even more holes. So again, unless we have the best offseason ever in the history of everything, we'll be lucky to even make the playoffs, let alone be in serious competition for any titles. But technically yeah, we might be contending for a championship during the first 2-3 weeks or so, when the difference between the best and worst teams is not more than couple of games. Other than that, some mighty strong stuff that Harbs is puffing.

Draft process considers all those things as well, so it's very valid article to reference the philosophy. And I am aware about your article, actually when you look at the comments under it you see me praising they change in direction. But when you look at the interview where Biscotti said that Ravens will (again) be taking chances with players with minor past problems, Harbaugh and Oz had the longest face ever as if someone had a very serious conversation with them just now. That's why I think it was direct command from B to change this BS mentality of only taking safe sure and goodygood players, and I think it's the right move.

You are right about the missing time being unacceptable, though you can't deny Burfict's sheer talent and play making ability when he is on the field. As for the fear part, I can not agree with you. I'm not talking about afraid-for-your-life kind of afraid-to-play-against-this-player fear. My point was, when a receiver runs over the middle and just violently gets lit up when catching the ball, he won't run that route again with so much confidence. Every week we see receivers drop quite easy catches because a DB like Earl Thomas was just in the vicinity. We witnessed it ourselves during the haydays of Suggs - when Suggs had flat out punished the QB for 3 quarters with vicious hits, the QB would at one point just rush his throws and force INTs when he thought that Suggs just even might get to him. That is also fear. That is what I'm talking about. And that is what has been all but gone pretty much since 2012. In my opinion, largely due to Harbaugh's ban of the badboy mentality.

Harbaugh has repeatedly stated in the past, that he does not want his team anything to do with players with past problems. If you want to play ignorant then just read this article: http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/11002821/baltimore-ravens-coach-john-harbaugh-very-concerned-field-incidents. Let me quote: "Harbaugh has taken a lot of pride in how he transformed the Ravens' bad-boy reputation since taking over as coach in 2008. He even stopped using all-black uniforms for a couple of seasons because of the image it presented.". If that does not convince you that Harbaugh has something to do with the FO no touching players with "character concerns" with ten-foot pole - no matter how talented they are - then you are just willfully naive.