rmcjacket23

Ozzie and Co. are respected around the league when finding talent similar to how Bellichick finds players the big difference is he has Brady! Hogan WR where is he from and their new RB picked in what round and where he from just like Edelman no one heard of him look at him now! Brady makes them all look like geniuses! So trying to criticize Ozzie and Co. and how they do things is pointless!

Well there's certainly valid reasons for criticism, given how some of the more recent drafts, and in particular high draft picks, have performed.

2012 draft class was a complete joke, save for one player, we got mega busts out of our top two picks in 2013, and the entire 2015 draft class is looking very shaky right now after two seasons.

Belichick whiffs in the draft plenty as well. Nobody is immune from criticism, especially when its the biggest reason we are in the position we are in right now.

  20 hours ago, Tenacious Faulker said:

I loved Kubiak here in Baltimore, but I knew that IF he decided to be an HC again after his time here and recovered from his health issues he'd be a short-timer. here. I always liked him as OC for the Broncos and HC for Houston and knew he'd help Baltimore greatly. I was "right" on both accounts though. He did help us and he did leave after a season when his old buddy Elway asked him to coach Denver. I never liked Kyle for his personality and I never like nepotism (like in Washington) but I have to admit that he ran a stellar offense in Atlanta with Joe's 1st rd draft-mate Matt Ryan. In retrospect I wonder if it Kyle mught not have been the better option for long-term benefits for the offense.

Shanny would have been 1 and done too. And I'm still not sold on him being a "top" OC or Coach (see play calls in SB - 4th quarter).

It's the Falcons - pretty easy to play call for them.

1. Throw the ball to Julio
2. See #1
3. Hand off to Freeman or Coleman
4. When all else fails, see #1

Well they weren't world beaters on offense before he got there, and had largely the same offensive personnel.

Can argue they actually have less talent on offense than they have in the past during the Ryan/Julio era.

"Arians said he was “shocked by the money.” Says it all.

Or it says nothing at all...

9 hours ago, GENE2407 said:

I don't know where all these players are coming from. We only have one first and one second rounder and we're going to draft a top notch WR, DE, ILB, OT and CB. Dream on. Just get the first two right.

So we're not capable of getting good players past round 2? Have you even looked at some of the quality players on our roster and where they were drafted?

Some of the positions you listed, like DE or ILB, I don't think we have very much interest in drafting at all to be honest.

12 hours ago, Purple Dawg 96 said:

So where did I hear it "BUDDY"?!

That's a question only you can answer. Maybe some highly unintelligent fan blog or listening to quacks on ESPN and thinking they know anything.

On you bud. Not on me.

3 hours ago, Halshayeji said:

Well time of possession is not necesarrily a great indicator if one ignores every other statistic avaliable. Our offense was amongst the worst in time per possession, yards per drive, and points per drive.

51% is not so great when you consider that our defense was amongst the best at forcing Punts. 

Just look at the NE game and you'll see how time of possession is misleading along with other stats. Keep in mind that our defense had to stop Tom Brady 14 times! It's really no surprise they put up 30. We scored 23 points yaaay. But in reality, 14 of those points were when the offense started deep in NE territory so it could have been a loooot worse. Yes we led in time of possession that game but we scored less than 2 points per possession. Teams don't win many games with that. It's even worse if you consider that the muffed punt return yielded 7 points or it would have been even worse.

we can debate and argue stats all day and al week if you like. The bottom line is. Our offense didn't do enough to sustain drives. When our defense played lights out the offense didn't put games away and when our defense got exposed, the offense couldn't be counted on to stop the bleeding.

Also Pees reverting to vanilla play calling the last 5 mins of games helps no one and I hope that changes ASAP 

 

Cool.

Has nothing to do with my point. My point was to shatter these dumb exaggerations that people make without spending maybe 30 seconds to actually see if their dumb exaggerations have any substance or basis whatsoever.

We can play the game by game analysis all day long if we want to compare offense vs defense. We could look at the Pittsburgh game at the end of the year and you'd have a difficult time blaming the offense for not sustaining drives or leaving the defense out there too long, especially in the second half.

The only valid point here is that there were very few instances where both units played well at the same time. 

13 hours ago, Militant X 1 said:

It's not about what Ed Reed did once he left the Ravens, it's really about what has a "Joe Flacco-led" Ravens team done since he's been handed the reigns?

Have some winning seasons and have some losing seasons.

Basically the same thing as what happened when Ray and Ed were here.

At the end of the day Ozzie and Co. will have "ANOTHER" success draft but like people are saying around the league "The Ravens have the weaponry it's the QB that is suspect"! We have a Super Bowl caliber team and Ozzie and Co. will pad their pockets like they do every year with talent and i can't wait to see the players they get this year!

Nobody around the league is saying that.

Ross...."So Flacco can unleash his cannon arm". I thought that's what the plan was for Perriman, you know, the should have been 4th rounder we took with our #1 pick.

Well he did average 15 yards/catch, so...

  3 hours ago, Tank 92 said:

  5 hours ago, Bruce_Almty said:

Ray Lewis lead the Ravens to a Super Bowl triumph, Joe Flacco was later handed the reigns.

LMAO!  Ray Ray was a shell of his former self and on his "last ride". To be frank that's what he did, came along for the ride. 

Ray and Ed were so bad that the Ravens made the playoffs 4 of the last 5 years since they left. Those goal line stance was terrible in 2012. Man, I glade their gone. Sarcasm at it finest.

What did they have to do with that goal line stance?

Also, what exactly did Ed Reed do once he left again?

  1 hour ago, bioLarzen said:

I especially liked the boat-prank because it doesn't frighten anyone. While Bell's one as real good too, no denying that - it presumeably brought some unaware steelers-fans on the brink of a heart-attack

Russel Street Report also did a great job. My favourite part:

"Given the dearth of talent at center in the 2017 NFL Draft, most assumed that Nick Mangold would have been signed by now, but the 7-time Pro Bowler and 3-time All Pro is still looking for a new employer. The longer Mangold remains available, the lower the asking price, and then, perhaps he fits Ozzie’s credo, “right player, right price.”

BUT…

The native of Ohio comes from a family of lifelong Browns fans who despise the Ravens. If it was earlier in Mangold’s career and the dollars were bigger, such loyalties might be overlooked. But given the relatively modest salary that the former Jet is likely to command, upsetting the family dinner table on Thanksgiving by becoming a Raven, isn’t worth it to Mangold.

And then there’s this…

During a recent Locked on Jets podcast, Mangold was asked about the possibility of going to Baltimore following the departure of Jeremy Zuttah. Mangold shot down the idea saying, “Besides my family’s disdain for the Ravens, there’s Marty Mornhinweg. I played in his system for two seasons in New York and when the Jets parted ways with him, I offered to take him to the airport just to make sure he was leaving.”

LOL

I think we are trying to wait until May 9th to sign either Mangold or Boldin bc then they will not count against the comp pick formula.

I don't expect us to sign either.

In terms of Boldin, I don't think he has any interest in signing with anybody until like June/July at the earliest. He didn't even sign with the Lions until late July last season. He has zero interest in going through an off-season program with a team.

Mangold could easily be looking at the same type of thing, and there's nothing I've seen so far to indicate we are interested in him or that he's even good.

1 hour ago, Cawtious said:

He's 25 going on 26.  Young enough. 

Remember also that he missed his entire first season due to a Jones fracture of his left foot.  He got spotty play his second year, as illness moved him down to PS after being cut (Apnea). Fought his way back to the 53 by the end of the year.

 I think this is his year and I hope he takes advantage of the opportunity.  Last year they monkeyed around with him as far as position.  I think Center is where he'll do work.

The issue I see is that he wasn't even the backup Center this season, nor did he do anything to overtake somebody like Zuttah who didn't play that well.

I've seen nothing to suggest he's even being considered as an option at Center. I think at best he's competing for a reserve Guard spot.

6 minutes ago, RavensFanMania said:

Do you realize that this forum is in the English language.  You should learn that first before trying to understand the salary cap, which you clearly do not.  

Don't bother. He's trolling everybody by doing this.

  16 hours ago, b93333 said:

Urschel comparable to KO??? Do you really believe that?

KO is a physical freak.  John by no means is in that category.  John is fairly tough, but he doesn't seem to have the killer instinct.  He's an intelligent football player, but if his technique is a little off, he gets outmatched physically on pass pro.  He's not bad at run blocking, but he's not even close to KO's caliber in that department. 

Jensen IS nasty at the point of attack.  He's a good run blocker, and is always looking for that second level block.  He has quick hands and placing him at center will play to his strengths.  His opponent is going to be lined up closer to him where his hand speed will help him win battles up front.  He's heavier in the legs and arms than John, and he'll be able to anchor better than Zuttah.  I think that's the key for Joey.  We've got to keep the center of that pocket out of his face.  I've not seen Skura in action so I don't feel I could formulate an opinion on him.

There has been a lot of saltiness over the prospect of John and Ryan starting.  Lots of folks want the shiny new guy to show up and save our O-line.  There is the sentiment that "they didn't start last year, so they're not good enough to start this year.  I don't think a green player out of the draft is necessarily the answer. 

I say let John, Ryan, and Matt battle it out.  May the best man win.  Saying that a player cannot improve over last year, especially three guys as young as they really  is pessimistic at best. 

We should pick up a C/G in the draft for development.  I wouldn't burn a high round pick on one, though. 

Would point out that Jensen is going into year 5 in the league, so he's not exactly young by NFL standards.

I agree that players obviously improve, but I don't think you're seeing very many examples of guys who are average to below average for the first 3-4 years and then take a major step forward.

5 minutes ago, Purple_City39 said:

In all honesty, if the Ravens were stupid enough to cut/trade Joe with a post June 1 designation (if cut), they could manage it.  Don't down vote me just yet lol.  They could take the 6M in savings and not touch it, rolling it to next year to offset a little of that cap hit for Joe's dead money, bringing it down from 29M to 23M.  That's huge, but we did just see the Cowboys take a 22M cap hit for Romo to ride the bench all season.  Of course we'd need pretty good QB play from Mallet all season which seems laughable to imagine, we'd need an o-line that's the best in the NFL, we'd need to draft the best rookie class in history that all become day 1 starters, and then we'd need every starter to stay healthy all year...........

That said, this would easily be the stupidest thing the Ravens front office has ever done without question and would cause me to do nothing but call for them all to be fired and Bischotti to sell the team due to pure incompetence.  But in theory, there's a 1% chance it works out somehow

Well, just to be clear about one thing that needs reiterating...

Tony Romo mostly sat the bench last year because he got injured in the preseason. If he never gets injured, nobody knows who Dak Prescott is. That takes an incredible amount of "luck" for things to happen the way they did for the Cowboys last season. There was zero foresight from the Cowboys organization that Dak was actually better than Tony and would have won an outright competition over him, so lets not give too much credit. I give them credit for drafting him and evaluating him the way they did, but not for some perception that they actually chose him over Romo, because that didn't really happen.

If people think they can adopt this model from Dallas, then they will be fools and they will fail miserably doing so.

Joe isn't going anywhere. It makes no financial sense. It makes no production sense.

  21 hours ago, bioLarzen said:

  21 hours ago, drillem said:

All we need now is a good quarterback. And going by ship for that game in GB is similar to staying in Calif for a week between games a few years back. We all saw how that went. You get in a plane, you get there quick. You get on a ship and you just float for days. Who is making these decisions?

Well... sorry to have to break it to you, but...

 

1.) we already have a good QB - one that played rather poorly at stretches of last season - but not a bad QB by any measure;

2.) I'm afraid you've been fooled. That ship-thing was an April's fool prank.

Sorry to break it to YOU! No, the Ravens do NOT have a good QB. PJ's living quite famously off a wing and a prayer heave, botched by the safety. A lifetime QB rating of 84% for a ten year starter is AWFUL! You can see how bad Pathetic Joe and Self Righteous John have been since Lewis retired. You can make every excuse in the book you want for these two, but it doesn't change the facts.

If I asked you to explain to me what QB rating is even what it means, you couldn't do it.

And that's why NFL teams don't take joke statistics like that seriously, and why fans shouldn't either.

Ya John, our Defense let us down a few times but they were on the field for 45 out of the 60 minutes played and exhausted. Offense has to stay on the field long enough for the defense to get a breather.

This is a myth of course. Go check the time of possession from 2016. Offense is on the field 51% of the time.

Basically an equal split. That's not good compared to good teams, of course, but 30 of the 60 minutes a game is the more accurate number.

'Surrounding Flacco with the right tools' is another way of admitting the $120M QB has not lived up to the contract.

The number one problem with the offense was not the lack of playmakers. In fact , going into last season, this site talked endlessly about how Flacco has 'so many weapons' and how the returning o-line along with addressing LT would be a much better offense.

The problem isn't the right tools, it's the coaching staff that did not know how to use them. They barely ran the ball and made boneheaded calls that cost the Ravens at least 2 games (Raiders, Redskins). If those things changed, the Ravens would have been 10-6 and in the playoffs.

The defense lacks speed in the secondary and a consistent pass rusher. That BPA will be there at #16. My concern with drafting offense is the offense had weapons (Smith Sr, Pitta, Wallace, Dixon, Juice, West) , a 1st round LT, a HOF Guard (Yanda), and a top 10 RT (Wagner) and still looked pathetic.

Ravens need the right coaching since you can only draft and pay so many players.

Guess its just a matter of perception.

1. In terms of the run game, its a combination of not sticking with it AND not being effective at it, with the latter being the bigger issue. A lot of fans like to complain about us abandoning it, and in SOME but not all cases, this was a problem.

The REAL issue is the lack of effectiveness when we did do it. Regardless of perception, we're still running the ball 20-25 times a game most of the time, and in many cases, that simply wasn't yielding much productivity on on offense.

I have zero interest in a volume based approach to running the ball. I have interest in a efficient and effective based approach to running the ball.

2. The weapons argument has and always will be debatable. The fact that the list of weapons you provided includes a TE who caught a lot of passes but didn't actually gain much yardage when he did (which is kind of important), a RB like West who is the very definition of average, and a rookie RB who essentially missed about half the season and lacked effectiveness when he did play kind of summarize the situation. It also includes a guy we knew was retiring and was like 40 years old, and a FB.

The offensive line has some good players, but it also had a lot of injuries, and it was weak in the middle, which is the worst place to be weak at.

In the end, coaches coach. That's all they can do. Every game plan is drawn up with the expressed intent and research of being effective. The effectiveness of it in real time actually has nothing to do with the coaches... that's all on the players. Coaches aren't drawing up plays that are designed to lead to negative yardage, turnovers, etc.

On 3/30/2017 at 9:40 AM, SeaHawk said:

In addition to the boards being made by members here, I want to say that Russell Street Report has an excellent website and a great board to discuss all things Ravens. Like most of you all, I think facebook Ravens is a great place to get ticked off at the ludicrous comments made by fair weather fans who have no clue what they are talking about. I just thought I'd pop in and let you guys know there are far better ways to communicate in boards like this one without having to discuss with moronic fans in places such as Facebook. 

If you're looking for better conversation than just "fair weather fans who have no clue what they're talking about", then you'll be disappointed with RSR. This place has no shortage of ignorant fans as well, but RSR is even worse in my experience.

Might also have something to do with some of the writers there. There's some pretty good one's, but there are some horrible one's also.

5 hours ago, January J said:

Its a 1 or 2 year stop gap for likely a very cheap price and doesn't mean we can't draft a receiver ontop of that. ( which we will) ..we usually have 6-7 receivers on the roster. Right now we have 3. 4 if you want to include Campanaro which I'm sure many won't. He's the exact type of big bodied chain mover/ possession receiver Joe needs. We tend to struggle in the redzone which is where he excels. Had more TDs last year than our top 2 guys combined. Not to mention he already has a rapport with Joe- and he replaces that feisty vet leadership void left by steve. So there are certainly plenty of reasons why it makes ALOT of sense. Won't hurt anything to bring him in- he's not going to demand much money at all.  He'd be a #4 or #3 receiver at best. A corps of these guys doesn't really stand out - but would actually be pretty solid.

1) Wallace

2) Perriman

3) Draftee? ( Williams, Davis, Kupp)

4) Boldin

5) Campanaro

6) Moore

7) UDFA / Waller? 

 

If you're bringing in Boldin, then that 1-2 year stopgap means that the guy you drafted isn't playing much for a year or two, or if at all.

Also think its naive to think Boldin is just going to be the #4. He was 2nd in targets on the Lions last year, and they have a lot more talented pass catchers on their roster than we did or do currently. I also don't really care so much about his TD numbers from last season, since they are unsustainable and show great inconsistencies throughout his career.

Plus, the obvious elephant in the room is why in the world he would want to come here to play. Detroit is very much in a better position to win now, and he could easily resign with them if he wanted to... among other teams.

If we're going to draft a possession receiver, the time to put him on the field is now. We risk practically nothing by doing so.

Just now, January J said:

Thats on you. But besides the fact that it makes perfect sense this is the FA thread and that's what he is. The board probably won't be around by that time if did decide to bring him back so I am going to discuss it now.

Well its certainly debatable whether it makes perfect sense or not. It makes very little sense if you recognize that the same problem will exist this time next year if we take that approach.

On 4/1/2017 at 0:41 AM, PurpleHorseman said:

It could be manageable. If an expensive QB playing poorly is doable. Then so is overcoming the 18mil cap hit cutting him. However there is a catch. To overcome it we would have to find a franchise QB in the mid rounds of the draft or cheap in free agency. Such as a QB a team gave up on to early or flew under the radar. Potentially Mettenberger Aaron Murray. Two QBs I think could excel if surrounded by a dominant line and functional weapons. Or draft a Chad Kelly or Brad Kaya in round4 or later that impresses in short order. As well as a really good draft.

Not favorable scenarios but not out of the question. Of course the better idea is to surround our QB with a dominant line and good weapons. And not have to consider.  cutting him.

Except you're not factoring in the 2018 cap hit that we would incur if you designate him a post June-1 cut.

All a post June-1 cut does is spread out the total dead money over two years. It doesn't eliminate any of it.

So you'd have a $18.55M cap hit in 2017, and a $28.75M cap hit in 2018.

While obviously this is not happening because there's no reason for it to him, if you cut Joe at any point during 2017, he will count at least $47.3M in cap space in the present and future. The only question is whether you take it in one year or two years. It doesn't change the total amount at all, and there's nothing he or the Ravens can do to alter that.

The Patriots were taking significant cap hits for Aaron Hernandez while he was in prison. That's how borderline impossible it is to recover guaranteed signing bonus cap space from NFL players, even in extreme situations.

The biggest cruise ship ever built is barely wide enough to house a regulation sized football field. Yeah.. nice try.

Doubt they'll need a full-width football field for a practice week.

Most of the indoor training facilities that teams have don't include a full-width indoor field either.

5 hours ago, eze17 said:

Well, agree except for the recently retired Chris Chester, who was one of our 1st rounders who played very well for us. New Orleans was willing to give him a bigger paycheck at the time, which we declined to match. So it's not automatic.

You're thinking of Ben Grubbs. 

Chester didn't play all that well for us or really anywhere for that matter. He was pretty average everywhere he went.

Grubbs had a great career with us and played 3 pretty good years in NO as well. A neck injury basically ended his career in 2015.

As I said earlier, for the most part, you're quality first round picks get 2nd contracts from us. We chose Yanda over him ultimately, and that obviously panned out.

3 hours ago, PurpleHorseman said:

I disagree. A team full of average players means 8-8. The average player isn't taking you anywhere. Like Cal Ripken later in his career. Played every game but batted .250. A great player give me 10 games and the playoffs and that is more than the average guy can give in 150 games. Take into account an average cornerback going into season 10.  Playing every game isn't helping the team if he is getting beat like drums.

Claiborne least gives you the opportunity for a difference maker. No surprise great players with an injury history are consistently drafted before average players. Denver took a chance on Peyton Manning as opposed to an average or below average quarterback. That isn't helping any

Yeah except we're not talking about a team full of average players. We are talking about ONE average player at a position where we already have two well above average players. You're making a gross generalization and applying it to an entire team.

I still see nothing on game film or anything in the last few years that makes anybody think Claiborne is a difference maker. Feels like you're judging him based on his college track record and actually ignoring what he put on tape in the Pros, which was certainly nothing spectacular.

The Peyton Manning example could also prove my point, considering the last time you saw him he was the average, injured QB, got replaced by somebody else, and nothing changed on the team. The year they actually won the SB, he was without question one of the worst starting players on that team, and easily one of the worst starting QBs in the whole league that year.

I'd also like to see some examples of the "great college players with injury history getting drafted before average one's", and in particular, which one's actually panned out. Feels like if I went back through draft history I'd show the exact opposite is happening. Also a pretty weak argument, considering we don't anoint great players based on how they played in college, so its hard to label drafted players as such.