berad

6 minutes ago, usmccharles said:

Do you know anything on how the scouting department works?

Generally, I believe I do.

Some teams do it in different ways but, for the Ravens, they have area scouts across the country looking into prospects and collecting personal reference information from college sources (coaches, trainers, admin, etc) while comparing that with their own opinions of the players talent and personality.

Throughout the year (or years) of research, they write reports and determine whether a prospect is worthwhile, 'draftable' is a word I've heard them use.

Eventually, all of these scouts (and guys like DeCosta, Hortiz, etc) reconvene and compile these players into a list. From there, I believe they go about grading and ranking these players with input from the coaches. I'm sure a few players get bumped off the list after further review. The 'final' product is the mythical big board.

From there, it's time for the draft where they weigh value with their selections, play the matching game of guessing who teams will pick, and turning their selections in.

They also have processes for self-scouting and scouting players on other teams but I know less about that because they discuss it less.

Am I ignorant to something with the scouting? I would like to know - because I am interested - and don't want to be clueless about it

On 2/27/2017 at 6:13 PM, ellicottraven said:

 

Here's a good article on the topic. Read it all the way through because its pretty interesting....

http://russellstreetreport.com/2017/02/26/street-talk/ravens-comp-picks/

Didn't see any specifics as top players the Ravens did not sign in FA because they wanted comp picks instead. The author just says they could've had a number one WR or lockdown CB - that's nice to say but, without an example, it's baseless. The Ravens rarely shell out big money at those spots in FA but that has less to do with comp picks and more to do with team philosophy.

Only specifics in the article were bemoaning that some of the comp picks didn't turn out to be good players. That's more of a comment on our scouting, drafting, and development than it is the accumulation of picks. And, at the end of the day, that's a different complaint.

4 minutes ago, allblackraven said:

Rotoworld also reporting Chiefs likely to tag Berry again and let Poe walk

1 minute ago, JO_75 said:

Berry already has said he will sit out the season if he is tagged again. That will be interesting to see what happens there.

Probably just a time-grab before they can work out a long-term deal.

1 minute ago, allblackraven said:

That's true but if we finally stop throwing big money on veterans like Pitta, Webb, to some extent Dumervil, we might be able to afford some of the guys we were forced to let go.

The first two were home-grown guys who 'made good' and produced. Mid-round picks, too, you want to reward those guys. It generates a positive culture, imo.

The Ravens aren't alone in overpaying certain players. I think the current issue is the lack of some top-drafted talent from the 2012 and 2013 drafts not producing and that's come home to roost. Another one, like usmc mentioned, is that our defensive system has faltered. Darian Stewart was pedestrian here but is beasting in Denver on a great defense. We used to be that

4 minutes ago, ellicottraven said:

I think its time to revisit our comp pick accumulation strategy. There is enough data out there to let us know if it has worked or not. I don't believe it really has worked in our favor because we've let too many good players go and not signed other players in free agency. I say we stop this nonsense and participate in free agency without worrying about comp picks.

They became more valuable recently because they've been freed up to be traded. I'd still like the Ravens to consider it when hunting the FA market. They're not afraid to go at a player who isn't that, though - Weddle and Watson.

Danny Amendola aka Vanillatron available for interested teams with the right offer

14 minutes ago, rossihunter2 said:

it's so late now that i don't think we are gonna be able to resign any of our free agents except maybe juice - it's so late in the process that the players can 100% wait a couple more weeks and dip their toe in free agency at which point they will be gone

That's one way to look at it. The other way is the fact that the heavy-lifting of contract negotiations usually takes place during the combine week, where the FO and agents are in the same place at the same time. Combine starts tomorrow.

The clock is ticking, though.

Matt's only decent year was 2013 when he was FS.

The rest of the time, he put the stank on the field as whatever his SS/nickel role turned into. He regressed. If he was limited in coverage, we could probably deal with that. Not all safeties can do that. But he lost his ability to tackle consistently, it is inexplicable.

Still, he'll have that game-sealing pick vs the Lions on MNF... after he had made some regrettable comments about Calvin Johnson during the week

14 minutes ago, The Raven said:

Lol yes please

He's got a nice, shiny Pro Bowl to his name now - he's a hot commodity

Now that Mangold is a FA... sign him and trade Zuttah to the Jets for Sheldon Richardson lol

10 minutes ago, jazz1988 said:

 

So is The NFL going to announce a cap increase or is the cap  going to stay the same? Maybe they already announced  it and I missed it.

Will be announced soon. The league year (and salary cap compliance for 2017) starts on March 9th.

Boldin was horribly misused in a Cam Cameron offense. Running him on verticals was a waste of his talents. That was less on Joe, more on the inflexible system and coordinator.

We saw the shift when Caldwell came in. They ran posts, slants, etc that emphasized his skill set and size at the position more often. Then, after that, he was traded away. A move I still don't like and was surprised to hear about. Oh well...

You could probably say the same for Housh, although he was not the same caliber of player.

Is Elam now one of those 'bad-boy' players that the Ravens so desperately need?

Ty Nsekhe might only be an ERFA based off this article - http://www.csnmidatlantic.com/washington-redskins/need-know-redskins-ot-ty-nsekhe-unlikely-go-anywhere

Weird circumstance

New England Patriots

OG Brandon Fusco

0.5 stars

13 hours ago, JO_75 said:

Think we may need @berad to go into OL Free Agency thread and delete some posts to clear up any confusion. 

Got a few invalids in the middle. Let me know if you see anymore.

On 2/23/2017 at 1:39 AM, PurpleCity5 said:

I think the big issue on the offensive end was Red-zone scoring, I love Tucker but the offense made him look too good, they need to keep him off the field sometimes. 

I would like to point out that while the Ravens were good at avoiding 3 and outs, they surely did not do a good job of obtaining 1st downs ranking 26th in the league in that category, you can find all of the worst offensive teams in the league in that group. I think the issue is still the Ravens not being able to sustain Drives, especially in situations where they got good field position, something we saw too many times. 

All of this is definitely true. Something they can hopefully improve on with a better running game and more commitment to it

On 2/22/2017 at 9:04 PM, ellicottraven said:

Thanks for the links. I stand corrected on time of possession then. I could've sworn were terrible. I wonder if we could get stats for the 8 games we lost and how we fared on ToP in those games? I am probably still not completely off base perhaps?

On 2/24/2017 at 10:34 AM, Adreme said:

You are going to end up losing ToP in games you lose because by the 4th quarter you are throwing more and they are running more.  If those numbers are not far below the Ravens season average then the other teams in the NFL have failed.

I was looking for quarter-by-quarter TOP and 3-and-out stats but had no luck. Same too for strings of games. Outside of tallying it yourself, there might be nothing out there.

3 minutes ago, ravensnick said:

I don't like trading down in my mocks, because often it just ends up being pipe dream trades so I can get all the players I like. But definitely, as deep as this draft is, trading down would be an excellent idea unless a Fournette/Foster/Adams type is on the board with our first pick

Yeah, that's a pitfall of mock drafts. Tough to project.

Just now, ravensnick said:

I'm not too worried about age. He's not like Brandon Weeden old, so it shouldn't hurt him. I sort of agree about OL. That's a big need I didn't cover in the mock.

It's just tough to match those picks to players. If you wait until round 5 to take a player, can you really expect them to be a difference maker? It happens, obviously, but no GM would bank on that.

It's why I'm a proponent of trading down... of course, dependent upon who's available then and what we have done in FA.

19 minutes ago, ravensnick said:

Walterfootball just mentioned that he has character issues, not mentioning what they were. I haven't heard another source report anything about them. 

Yeah did some googling and can't find anything glaring. He came from a rough Florida area - Liberty City. He had to go to a junior college because he didn't meet academic requirements but that seems to be the extent of it. Attitude thing, maybe? No tangible arrests, suspensions, or anything like that. He seems totally fine.

No clue, maybe that is overstated. They said Jimmy Smith had character issues, too. The worst thing he's done since being here is get thrown out of an Ocean City bar lol.

As a prospect, he's a little older because of his time at junior college and Illinois. Does that detract at all?

As to the rest of the draft, I like it. Like getting those two DBs. The one thing is that there are no OL players - at all. The only time the Ravens haven't drafted along the OL was in 2002. I still think it makes the most sense for the Ravens to trade down in the first round, accumulate some 2nd or mid-round picks, and make legitimate selections at DB, OL, WR, and pass rusher.

I've heard Phillips has some character issues - what are those, exactly?

1 minute ago, Yatagarasu said:

EXAMPLE:

Robert Alford    
Base Salary $2,000,000   
Dead Money ($19,000,000)    
Cap Hit $4,000,000

So let's say I cut him with the special rule, then it means I save 2 Stars, since I wiped out his dead money.

Yup, you got it

Just now, Yatagarasu said:

I don't understand what the special cut rule or the special trade rule mean.

Can someone give me a better detail on it? Is it something like a get out of jail free card that wipes the dead money that exceeds the cap hit?

You can ignore the dead money on a player and save the 'stars' in the base salary

So... If  I wanted to release/trade Brady under that rule, this is his salary cap details:

He's got a $14M cap hit, $27M dead money, and $1M base salary. Using this rule, I ignore the dead money ramifications and can release/trade him with a 1 star savings rather than a 13 star gain from the dead money. Otherwise, a player like him is unmovable.

And, before anyone gets wise, he's not up for trade lol

Is it too late to predict that both Kyle Shanahan AND John Lynch will not last the length of their 6-year contracts?

I'd give it, at most, 3 years. Maybe 4 if Jeddy boy is hemorrhaging money on his bad front office contracts. Remember, 'You can't fire owners'.