RaRaRavens

Ravens coach John Harbaugh said team has made "competitive" offer to right tackle Rick Wagner per Jamison Hensley. It'd surprise me if he would take it, considering he already declined one offer.

Just to name the first that come to mind: Justin Houston Alshon Jeffrey Vontaze Burfict (Went undrafted, could have had him without wasting a pick. But we didn't even consider him as was reported later. He was an early 1st round projection and our FO (again my gut tells me it was largely due to the opposition from Harbs) didn't even try to get him to our practice squad. And I know what you're gonna say, he's a dirty player who gets flagged a lot, but at least he plays with an edge, is a game changing defender and puts fear into his opponents' hearts. That can't be said about many of our defenders.) Keenan Allen Noah Spence

If you'd bother to actually think when you read you'd notice that my real issue wasn't with us not taking Brown. It was with our recent draft philosophy of not taking risks by drafting some talented players with "character concerns", and instead going with safe choices who are, no doubt, more comfortable for coaches but often have much lower ceiling talent wise.

Talking about drafts, remember when we drafted OT Harewood one spot before the Steelers drafted Brown? We went with Harewood, who was another "high IQ, great character" player but (surprise-surprise) managed to play only in handful of games, instead of Brown, who had some character issues but is now the top dog among WRs. Another CLASSIC draft fail from our FO, and pretty much the entire story ever since Harbaugh arrived. I know-I know, Oz pulls the trigger on draft day, but for some reason Oz has started drafting discreet, smart players and turned away badboys with huge upside and chip on their shoulder, because they have "character concerns" ever since Harbaugh got here. And that is precisely how we have ended up being probably one of the most timid and mild teams in the NFL, both sides of the ball.

Shanahan is very FB oriented coach and now with 49rs he has more than enough to spend on versatile FBs like Juice. At least much more than we'd be willing to.

You are 100% right, and it has looked like that for years on Flacco's part. It literally looks from his actions, demeanor, posture and everything else that he could care less if the team wins or not. On multiple occasions he has been casually conversing and laughing with some teammates on the sideline, while we were behind and the defense was grinding it out. Coaches want to force him into the team leader role. Well, leaders lead by example. So if Flacco's the team leader, I guess it pretty convincingly sums up why we have been average team at best with absolutely zero desire to win at times the past couple of years.

As the article explains, no. I think more accurate name would be "ineffective completion". Basically a completion, that doesn't do much good. So basically most of Flacco's completion that he dumped off to Pitta or one of the RBs right near the line of scrimmage was a failed completion. It doesn't surprise me that he set a record of those "failed completions" considering it was his go-to pass. Just sad.

So how's your bookmark working out for you. Reportedly literally no early interest in Cutler to the extent, that he hinted retirement. Still think a below average QB like Flacco is worth being paid 24,5 mil? Just to add the source: “(He’s) one of several veterans who are still considering whether they want to play, whether they want to not play, retire, walk away,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said Wednesday on NFL Total Access. “A lot of things in play here for Jay Cutler.” The Cardinals, one of the possible landing sports for Cutler noted they have ‘zero interest’ in the QB.

I completely agree, 2013-2015 his cap number corresponded very fairly to his quality as a QB. It was not the problem back then and not once did I complain about it. From 2016, however, he is one the highest paid QBs. Unfortunately, he is not playing even as a top 10 QB. If he was, I would not complain. Or, if his cap hit ranked around 15th among QBs (which would still be pretty generous), i.e. he'd get 18-19M, I would not complain either. It would open up enough cap space so we could afford not losing some of our key FAs. Instead, he's soon to be the top paid QB, but in spite of that needs a lot of help from his teammates to be adequate. We can not afford that, though, one of the biggest reasons for that is Flacco's contract. Of course it was just one year under his enormous cap number. Who knows, he might be the league's MVP next year and justify his contract. I really really hope so. But if he doesn't and has another below average season, it'll be interesting to hear what the FO has to say about him. I also agree with you that this probably would not be an issue, if we would have been able to draft better, especially in the early rounds and especially on offense. But we haven't. This is the other major reason why, in my opinion, we are in such a crappy spot right now. And I've called out the FO on these boards many times for it. In fact, most of our recent early round draft picks have been some of the biggest busts in the league. And the few truly great early round picks we manage to find we can't keep, because we don't have the cap room.

All that is true, that is why I didn't say Flacco or his contract is THE problem, I said it was one, and in my opinion, the biggest problem. It's very unfortunate how everything went down with Rice, Q, Pitta, etc. But with the money Flacco's making, he should not go from being among the league's best to being one of the league's worst, because of losing these players. Some drop in production is justifiable, flat out tanking to the bottom is not. QBs who are paid in that ballpark should be able to make others around him look good, not the other way around. But with Flacco it is the other way around. And since he eats up such a big chunk of the cap, there aren't enough players around him to lift him up. And that is the biggest issue in my opinion. Ofcourse there is much more going on than Flacco. But all these other players who do not live up to their salary get cut rather sooner than later, as was evidenced by Ngata like you pointed out. This is not an option with Flacco, though. So until we are able to find a solution by making him play better or getting his cap figure lower, he and his contract remain the biggest problem.

That is actually a fair question. The FO had basically 2 options, both of which had risks: OPTION 1: Sign Flacco to a hefty contract, hoping he will be able to pick up where he left off in his playoff run and carry this team pretty much on his own. Risk being that Flacco fails to live up to the expectations and ties up much needed part of the cap space. OPTION 2: Refuse to pay Flacco the top dollar and let him walk, hoping you can find an effective replacement for him, but at least keeping the rest of the team balanced. Risk being that Flacco keeps playing on high level somewhere else and completely justifies his big payday, while we struggle to find true franchise QB. Of course everyone is smarter in hindsight. And I'm sure FO did what they thought was the smartest decision at the time. I'm not blaming anyone for the decision to resign Flacco, never have, though I'd love to know more about the thought process that went into the decision. I respect the decision, even though it didn't turn out as hoped. Now we just need to figure out how to be successful in spite of the difficult position where this decision put us. However, it irritates me when people act like Flacco (or his contract) is not the reason, why we are in this difficult position in the first place. There are other factors as well, of course, but Flacco and his cap hit are the biggest ones! We would probably be doing MUCH better, if Flacco were to play as was hoped when he got resigned. But he is not playing well at all. He needs serious help to play well. We can not afford help, because we do not have the money, big reason for that is Flacco's salary.

It does not matter what Flacco receives on his bank account at the end of the day, it matters what his contract costs for the team's cap space. That will be $24,550,000, i.e. if Flacco is on the team in 2017, 24,55M of our cap space will be used up by Flaccos contract. And just to prevent you from distorting facts, yes it is true that Flacco's base salary for 2017 is $6,000,000, which you were probably referring to. But cap hit does not equal base salary. Cap hit=base salary + prorated amounts of salary + any bonuses a player might be entitled to under his contract (roster, workout, etc.). Flaccos enormous cap hit comes from the prorated amount which is $18,550,000. This too counts against the team's salary cap. Thus, his cap hit in 2017 is 24,55M. I don't know why did you even bring up the amount that he'll actually earn (hint: what player earns and cap hit aren't the same thing). The rest of your comment did not make any sense whatsoever so I don't even know how to reply.

Not only that; the article states that basically Romo's cap hit is higher than Flacco's. What has Romo done? How many playoff wins does he have? Championships? Talk about overpaying and underperforming - Romo is the poster child for that!!! Yes, the article states Romo's cap hit is higher, but the implication is that Flacco is getting paid too much. What does it matter what Romo has done?! We are not paying Romo, we are paying Flacco. And ever since getting his big fat payday, with the exception of 2014 when he indeed did deserve his salary, Flacco has done next to nothing for us. At the same time he is holding up very valuable cap space that could be spent on players who actually might do something for us. Again, please stop talking about how Romo or Cutler or whoever hasn't done anything either. These players are not playing for us! Flacco is. Our only concern should be Flacco's salary compared to his playing level. That's it.

A true Flacco Hater This "Flacco Hater" just stated that Flacco does not deserve to be the #1 highest paid QB in the NFL. Since you obviously disagree, I suppose you think Flacco is the best QB in football?? Now, Flacco is not the best QB in the NFL, not by any standard whatsoever. Therefore, I'm only left to conclude that either you are delusional or you are labeling people as "Flacco haters" without paying any attention to what they are saying.

Gonna bookmark this paragraph and wait until you see how much Tony Romo and Jay Cutler get paid in FA this season, as proof to validate what Joe's value would be worth (plus inflation) 2 years from now when that happens. Should give me a good chuckle. You can not seriously suggest that Romo or Cutler will get paid 24+ mil?! You know what, how about a wager? If Romo or Cutler get paid in the same ballpark as Flacco (23-24,5 mil cap hit(!) for 2017) under their new contracts, then I shut up for the rest of eternity regarding Flacco's salary and admit that below average QBs are worth 24mil. But if Romo and Cutler both get paid less than 23 mil (cap hit) for 2017, then you publicly admit that Flacco is vastly overpaid for a mind numbingly below average QB that he is and stop defending his contract. How's that, sound fair?

I can not believe all the hate you are getting. I seriously do not comprehend how people can even defend Flacco's contract in this situation. Yes, he was signed after a SB run for the ages. But Oz himself has said that in this league you get paid based on "what have you done for me lately". Well, FACT is that lately Flacco has been among the bottom 10 of QB and FACT is that Flacco is getting like he is the #1 QB in the NFL. I just honestly do not understand how so many people can seriously believe that Flacco's salary is fair and fit considering his playing level.

It's very lopsided statistic, I mean high QBR does not mean good QB, but below average or flat out bad QBR shows pretty convincingly that a QB has serious shortcomings.

I wonder, what must Flacco do for you to stop making excuses for him? Yes, all what you say about patchwork o-line, RB averaging 48 YPG, TE being the leading reciever is true. But Flacco is a seasoned vet and SECOND (!!!) highest paid QBs in the NFL. Experienced QBs who get paid as much as Flacco does should not need All-Pro O-line, RB averaging 150 YPG and elite starting WRs to play well, let alone play on average level. Flacco seems to need all that, and then some, just to play adequate football. Seriously, you're ridiculous with your excuses for Flacco. He probably could intentionally hand the ball off to the other team on every play and you'd still find that it was somehow the center's, or whoever's, fault except Flacco. Even Biscotti called out Flacco for his play. But I guess someone who has "played football on a professional level" like yourself knows better than the owner of the team, right?

WOW. You had -1 votes when I got to your comment. Some people on these boards are seriously ridiculous. Literally everything in your post was FACTUALLY TRUE. Obviously some people just can't handle facts and the truth about this team.

Quarterback: Joe Flacco’s $24.55 million ranks No. 2 That one right there. *sigh*

And roster fillers is what you get when you trade back in draft to skip on the likes of Myles Jack, Noah Spence and Sterling Shepard, and then draft KC. It seems our FO makes one brain-fart of a decision after another. Can't wait to see on which impact players we'll skip this year just so we could hoard draft picks to use on more mediocre roster fillers.

"...but he’s ultra-competitive and loves the game." This right there should be one of our key traits to look for at least in the next couple of drafts. With SSS gone, we've seriously lost our edge and desire to win. Outside couple of veterans like Suggs and Weddle, I haven't seen much fire and passion in the demeanor of our other players, especially younger ones. The general attitude seems to be something like "If we win, it's great! But if we don't, it's not that big of a deal!". Very little passion and competition is displayed on Sundays.

To sum up your point, over half of our roster is filled with players who were supposed to be the next big things, starters and maybe even cornerstones for this franchise. Almost all of them (talking about the past 4-5 years) have failed to live up to the expectations. Which is why aging veterans need to carry this team and we have the highest average starting age in the NFL. THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM! For example, if both Suggs and Doom were to retire, guys like KC and Judon would be non-factors replacing them and this team would be picking among top 3 for couple of years at least. And this is the issue at several vital positions. My fear is that unless all the young guys you named, and many others, do not step up, we will soon be the bottom feeders of NFL. Whole other issue is, why plethora of our young talented players (especially early round picks), towards whom we had so high expectations, are consistently failing to live up to these hopes. If it was couple of players every draft, I'd probably say it was just an unfortunate pick. But it has been the case with most players in every draft for the past 5 years at least. So I'm left with no explanation other than either our scouts are doing a miserable job or our coaches flat out suck at developing very talented players. And the few true game changers we do manage to find are not resigned because we are in salary cap hell because of all the veteran contracts we have to sign (not to mention the far below average Joe who eats up 22+ M every year, while his playing level is worth 17 at most). Either way, something has to change if we want to be considered relevant again.

Depressing part is that Luke Jones' point when he says: "That’s why a deal may not make sense for either side in the end. Even when they both want it.” actually makes A LOT of sense. We have just TOO.MANY.NEEDS literally all over the roster. Williams is one of my favorite players and it breaks my heart that I actually have to hope that we won't resign him because we have other gaping holes to fill. And the fact that we are in the position where we have so vast list of needs and thus can't probably resign Williams is the direct failure of the FO over the several past seasons. P A T H E T I C

I agree. Comparing the Patriots roster to ours, aside from the QB position and with healthy J. Smith in the lineup, they had no position group that was clearly better from ours this year. Which makes our blunder (or their SB victory) that much more impressive. And when going back in time, I think in 2014 we actually had a better team than them. So there has definitely been no deficit between us talent wise. It has been all coaching and then some adequate QB play.