rmcjacket23

My guess would be that you can make an easy argument that the offensive players who are "pushing the pile" are actually engaged with defensive players when they are doing it, hence "blocking". Very gray area in the rules though.

I honestly don't know... but my guess would be that the Ravens FO likes what we have currently (with Wagner and/or possibly Osemele or a FA) more than what they liked in the 2nd round and later of the draft, which is completely reasonable. I think if we win the coin toss with Dallas, we are having a completely different discussion, as I have no doubt the Ravens sprint to the podium to draft Zack Martin, but there's really not much we can do about that. What I would be extremly disappointed in the Ravens FO is if they drafted a RT in the 2nd or 3rd round that they didn't feel like was a good player. That would be foolish on any teams part. I'm far less confused about us not drafting a RT and far more confused about us not really getting a pass catcher until the late rounds, but all that really tells me is that the FO has much more faith in Brown and Mellette than I do and more than I thought they did. Overall, if I had to do the draft over again, I certainly would have done it differently, but then again, I'm a fan and I'm not paid to construct a team and have not been successful at doing so. I would have taken Clinton-Dix in the first round, and beyond that, I might have done things a little differently. But as I said before... I'm not in the business of evaluating talent. I'm sure five years from now, if Clinton-Dix and Pryor turn out to be nothing more than mediocre or worse players, and Mosley turns into a quality starter, no Ravens fan will come in and admit that they are wrong. Will we miss on some studs taken in the mid-to-late rounds? Of course, because every team does every single season. But thats not the point.

I'm not concerned about the defense... I just understand what we are doing. We might have eight players, but if 6 of them can't play (and frankly none of them have shown they can so far), then it doesn't matter how many we have. I think they like Wagner, or a FA that they want to sign. I haven't trusted the Ravens offensive line in well over five years, and we've still managed to do pretty well during that period. Even during a SB season, no realistic fan could say that they felt "confident" in our O-line. We spent the majority of that season with Oher the penalty and turnstile at LT, a natural guard playing RT, and a rotation of mediocre or worse veterans filling LG spots. Heck, we a deep playoff run in the past with Yanda playing RT. Put it this way... from my perspective, we appear to have four quality offensive line starters. That's about the maximum that any team in this league can ask for. We might be and probably will be weak at one position, but that's been the case with the Ravens offensive line for as long as I can remember.

You are right, we haven't. Maybe that was never the intention. The only thing the FO ever said was that they were going to get bigger and better on the interior, and they brought in Zuttah to do that. Frankly, we haven't had a quality RT in years anyway, including the year we won the SB, so I don't think its nearly as big of an issue as fans think. They may have to pay attention to the fans, but the fans don't tell them what to do or how to build a team, and they definitely don't care about what prospects fans like.

Because while we do consistently rotate players, you can't wait until next season when potentially two of your "starting" three defensive lineman are cut, which is a distinct possibility. Not to mention the fact that I would expect at least one or two of those players to be released during training camp/preseason. I don't expect Cody to make the team, and who knows, maybe Tyson or Kapron doesn't either. I'd bet on Urban ending up on the practice squad anyway. I think its naive to think we will have 10 defensive lineman dressing on Sundays. I'm not necessarily advocating that we keep taking DL, but why would we take a RT who we don't think can play? If the FO doesn't think there are any RTs or WRs of value right now, then why on earth would they take one? Just to say that they did?

They can't cut Suggs after this season... would cost more than to keep him. He's essentially locked onto this team for at least 2 more seasons, and likely 3. And by glaring needs on the offensive line, you are basically saying we have ONE hole correct? I do agree generally though... we are drafting for the future, not for the present, which is precisely what we should be doing. This team certainly is nowhere near being in "win-now" mode like the Broncos and 49ers are.

True, but... Upshaw is a linebacker, Canty and Ngata are both essentially in "contract years" and could both easily be gone next season, and basically there isn't a single player on that list that has shown anything. Do you have a ton of faith in Tyson, McPhee, or Cody as a full time starter? i sure don't. Granted, the Urban pick didn't make much sense to me, but the Jernigan pick sure did.

Whats amusing to me is that this board is filled with people who claimed that "we didn't need any more WRs", yet people are outraged when we choose one offensive player in our first four picks. There's two positions on the offensive that look "vulnerable" in my opinion... RT and RB. It should surprise nobody that we didn't take a RB on day 2, because I don't think anybody realistically thought we would. The only possible "disappointment", for me, is that we didn't take an offensive lineman, but that doesn't mean we won't. Would I have liked us to target a receiver in the draft earlier? Yes, but it appears the FO has more faith in Brown and Mellette than I thought they did.

Hindsight being 20/20, but sure makes them at least second guess not taking Watkins at 4 instead of trading back and getting Gilbert. If I were Cleveland, I'd do just about everything I could to make this an almost exclusively offensive draft.

1. I think 2nd round would be far too early to grab a RB, and I probably wouldn't take one until Saturday. 2. Saying we need tackle depth implies that we have a starter at the position already, which nobody can say with certainty. At best, we will be starting somebody who is unproven at the position. I do agree that I expect a WR to be taken on Friday.

Wagner/FA signing would be where the smart money is.

1. The Cowboys biggest defensive need was safety, and they had their choice of Clinton-Dix and Pryor. They chose neither. So using your own logic (that they didn't choose Mosley when he filled a bigger need), that means that the Ravens were justified in not picking Pryor or Clinton-Dix, because the Cowboys didn't like them either. 2.You mentioned Jensen and Jah Reid, neither of which are in the running to start at RT, which is the only position on our offensive line that needs an upgrade right now. Naturally, because fans can't see more than 30 seconds into the future, they ignore the remaining draft picks and the 3-4 full months left in the offseason. 3. You can't call the Steelers pick an upgrade and call our pick not an upgrade, because there is no basis for that.

And when the Browns say no to that deal (which they would have), we are stuck with a guy who can't play for us. And that, ladies and gentleman, is why cattle are cattle.

Have no issue with the pick, although probably the toughest pill to swallow for me is the fact that we likely lost Zack Martin literally because of a coin flip. I have no doubt we would have sprinted to the podium to pick him if Dallas didn't.

Johnny Football isn't very good at football. That would be a problem.

1. Considering Zuttah played for the Big East in college, I'd rather play against Delaware competition. 2. College scouts matter when people are in college. Based on my ability to read, I now know that Zuttah is NOT, in fact, in college, nor has he been since 2008. Thus, why on Earth would anybody care about what he did in college, when he's played in the NFL for five seasons? Do you really believe any NFL scout or coach cares one bit about what he did in college? They traded for him because of what he did while in Tampa and what they saw based on his NFL game film. They could care less if he blocked for Ray Rice in college. Do you think the Ravens gave Joe Flacco $52m guaranteed because he put up great offensive numbers at Delaware?

Obviously there's a lot of factors that go into that. Run blocking and the amount of pressure he allows on the QB would clearly be major factors. He could allow zero sacks the whole season, but if he's allowing free rushers on every five dropbacks, he's just not very good.

Right but thats my point... Zuttah has about 9 games under his belt as a starter at center, and most of them came last season, when the Bucs struggled to run the ball (ranked 22nd in the league at doing so). His production needs to be noted that much of it was while playing guard. To me, this tends not to matter very much, because I'm not just annointing him as the starting center right away. I annoint him as a likely starter, but I honestly don't know what position it will be at. Its possible the coaching staff finds a line of Monroe/Zuttah/Gino/Yanda/KO to be more effective than a line of Monroe/KO/Zuttah/Yanda/Wagner or rookie. If we were to draft somebody like a Zach Martin in the 1st round, then yes, it would appear the center job is Zuttah's to lose. But if the Ravens did very little in the draft in terms of O-lineman, then its possible he ends up starting at LG. Does he appear to be an upgrade? Without seeing him with our players, yes he appears to be. But maybe he's only marginally better than Gino. If so, that doesn't mean the offensive line will struggle. I'm hoping we have a more effective RT than we did last season. If we do, then at the very least, we've upgraded our two biggest areas of weakness on the line. That alone should make us better. Perhaps not 2008-2010 run the ball 40 times a game for 200 yards good, but better.

Flawed logic. Was Zuttah the only guy that blocking ahead of them? If not, then why are you giving him 100% credit for it? Seems a bit short-sighted to me. Obviously, I don't really care about how great a blocker he was in college, because Gino was equally as effective in college. Once you become a veteran in this league, nobody should care one bit about what you did or didn't do in college. In general, the game films of college prospects are all the same. At the end of the day, if you OBJECTIVELY look and see what is going on, you would be left with a certain amount of questions... such as... 1. He has started 9 out of 44 games at center.. is that a good or a bad thing? During your claims that he single-handedly led Doug Martin to a big season, he played guard mostly. Do you know for certain which position he will be playing on this team? I don't... and neither do you. 2. Perhaps the biggest question... why was he traded to begin with? I mean we know the Bucs acquired Dietrich-Smith in FA, but why acquire him if they already have somebody they clearly liked in Zuttah? It couldn't have been the money, because Zuttah just signed a new deal last season, and for a guy who mostly played guard, his salary was pretty affordable. These are the things that YOU don't know, because nobody knows these things. You may THINK you know, but you don't.

Well, we don't really know that, because he hasn't taken a snap for us yet. If he gets beat out by Gino for the job in training camp, then apparently it doesn't go far enough.

You are aware that the difference between Zuttah and Gradkowski is 1 inch and 8 pounds correct?

I don't think MLB is realistic, because we just re-signed Smith for like 3 years and traded up to get Arthur Brown last draft. I don't think thats a position we will consider drafting in the early rounds. Defensive line makes a little sense, although basically the same thing that applies with Arthur Brown also applies to Brandon Wililams, and our team likes the idea of a rotation of defensive lineman based on down and distance anyway, so I don't consider that likely in an early round either. I'd consider FS, pass catcher, and offensive line (in some order) to basically be our first three picks in this draft.

1. He's fully guaranteed that this season. 2. It wouldn't be that much on a long-term deal, but even at the $7-8m per year average range, he's still out of a realistic price range for us.

Valid request. Problem is... that price you just named won't get it done. To move up to get Watkins, you probably have to get to #2, which would essentially cost us the same thing or more than what it cost the Redskins to move up and get RGIII. I'd say the minimum for us to get Watkins is our two firsts and two second round picks, and I'm not sure that gets it done either.

If I were a betting man, I'd rank our first round options in the following order... 1. FS 2. Pass catcher 3. Offensive line 4. Defensive line