rmcjacket23

how does that change the fact that no matter who it is that ends up starting, we have a bunch of guys wasting roster space while other parts of our roster are still incomplete? and why does everybody keep talking about whose starting anyway. there are 10 people on that list! you only get to field 11 at once...

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?

The Ravens are picking for next year, certainly not this season. They will cut Ngata and Suggs in salary cap moves. The BPA only makes so much sense for Baltimore it has become and absurdity unless you look at these drafts long term. Ngata is 15 million against the cap this year.

 

They will not win this year with such glaring needs on the O line.  Flacco will regress again this year.

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.

well, for starters...we were never thin there.

Chris Canty

Haloti Ngata

Brandon Williams

Terrence Cody

Kapron Lewis Moore

Pernell McPhee

Courtney Upshaw

Deangelo Tyson

just drafted the Jernigan kid

now Urban

only 6 (and even that is a little excessive) of these cats tops make it on to the 45 man list on any given game day, that means we're going to have at least 4 guys twiddling their thumbs back at the castle every sunday.

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.

Just read that Josh Gordon may face a season-long ban for another failed drug test... That almost automatically translates to the Browns taking Lee or Latimer at #35...

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.

Anything other than a WR and RB in these 2 rounds and i'll be disappointed. i wouldn't waste time gambling on these safeties and tackle. we can find tackle depth later. I'd be looking at Hyde, West, Hill, Robinson, Matthews, Latimer, etc

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.

I predict 30 seconds into the future that Ryan Jensen&Jah Reid get the bulk of the snaps at RT if Ozzie can't get O-line help in this draft.

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

Best available or admiting a miss on 2nd rounder Brown just last year?. Dallas needed defense way more than offensive line help and they passed on Mosely taking "our" real need in this draft, O-line help. We just missed on Martin by the flip of a coin................but why would Dallas let CJ go when they need defensive LBer help so badly? In Ozzie we trust but Castillo needed us to move up one spot and save our franchise QB from another season of looking up after every passing down. Is Jensen really that good? Can Jah Reid be counted on to get Ray&Joe back to the AFC North title? The Browns improved. Bengals improved. Steelers improved and we took the best available player---In Ozzie we trust?

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.

Pick Manziel at 17, trade him to the Browns for pick 26 plus a third rounder. Trade the third round pick for Stevie Johnson from the Bills. Then use pick 26 to get thier safety. See, I can do Ozzies job, I will send my resume.

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.

sorry.....didn't need an ILB.......We blew it by not grabbing Johny Football......22 interceptions last year,an ILB is not helping that!

Johnny Football isn't very good at football.

That would be a problem.

Check your facts! He has played more then nine games at Center. Your logic about Gino playing just as good in college is wrong. Gino's level of talent he was playing against was Ngata compared to Zuttah. And where do I give 100% credit to Zuttah in any of my statements? Also guess you know more then College scouts, since College play doesn't matter! LMBO

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?

He hasn't allowed a sack in the past 2 seasons and he is still only the 22nd best center in the NFL... Centers are better than I thought they were.

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.

@rmcjacket23, what he is saying, is it starts with center. Each play & each block starts with the Center, the center sets up the Oline in best position possible to win. So his argument is as center, his Running backs florish, as center, he has help kept his qbs upright, how many times was out line blown up at the line of scrimmage last year? look at the production in tampa with zuttah at center, look at the numbers compared to gino as center all year. you cant argue production.

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.

You don't know anything about him. Don't assume that I don't! I liked him when he went to Rutgers. He is one of the reasons Ray Rice had such a great college career. The world doesn't revolve around only your Knowledge, my friend! There was another  Running back that did very well in Tampa Before Rainey but was injured, then Rainey took over, And don't forget the Muscle Hampster. That is 4 RB that have done pretty well running behind Zuttah, including Ray Rice.

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.

Yes and apparently 1 inch and 8 pounds goes a long way.

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.

Gradkowski is being replaced because he's too small and not very good, fact.

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

From the Sun: "He graded out as the 22nd-ranked center in the NFL last year, according to Pro Football Focus, and did not allow a sack all season. However, he became expendable when the Buccaneers signed free-agent center Evan Dietrich-Smith, formerly of the Green Bay Packers. " Hope he works out. Can breathe a sigh of relief that Gradkowski won't be out there. Leaves WR and opens the door for speculation on Calvin Pryor over a first round Ebron, Lee or Cooks. Early season the bobbleheads predicted Oz would not pick another safety in rd one but I think that may have been premature. Since Oz has deep reservations about WR's in the early rounds and success with Pitta in the middle and Torrey in the second I would not be surprised to be a complete update on their needs forthcoming. Sure another tackle. But now a DE can be moved up the ladder and even a ILB or NT. This is a good move given the circumstances. Hey Zuttah gave up no sacks. That's is the best news yet.

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.

Where did you get the impression that Alex Mack will get 10M per season?

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.

Right now at this point in time... if we can find a cheap veteran RT in free agency and maybe a cheap 1 year stop gap FS to plug in... I wouldn't mind at all to see us trade our 1st and 3rd this year, and a 2nd next year to move up for Sammy Watkins. I know this wont happen and Im going to get negged but its my opinion.

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.

with this move it sure looks like we are going defense (ha ha clinton dix) or a d-lineman in the 1st rd. imo. a lot of right tackles and guards will be available in the 2nd or 3rd round if we still have the need for one before the draft depending on if osemele moves to rt or wagner/jensen/reid/mims can get it done. i do not see us drafting a receiver in the 1st 2 rounds. welcome to the ravens family zuttah

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

I still wish we could have afforded Alex Mack from the Browns.... I don't see why if he wants to be here why the Browns tagged him just to keep him out of the division.. maybe we should have done that last year with Kruger.... I know we should not take this stuff personal but I take this move by the Browns personal..

The Browns tagged him because hes a good player, they could afford to tag him, and probably wanted more time to negotiate a deal.

We didn't tag Kruger because Kruger wasn't worth the price to tag him, and we really couldn't afford to pay a player that much anyway.

Hahh, Aaron Wilson has just backed me up:

 

"Sources say Ravens have high opinion of Alex Mack, but thought all along it would be too complicated and expensive to pull it off." (source: Aaron Wilson on twitter)

To me, the idea that a division rival would allow a player that they clearly consider to be top quality to walk away to another division team while having plenty of money to be able to afford to keep him never made any sense to me.

I think too many fans thought that Mack was a FA and we could just simply get him anytime we wanted to. I would have said at the absolute peak of the discussions (which was prior to signing Monroe), we had maybe a 10% realistic chance of landing him.

I just don't think fans ever really understood the business side of such a move, and how incredibly difficult it is to make something like that happen.

What pick did they give up?Do you know?Who said he would start at center?Did Mike Preston tell you that?

5th rounder, and we have no idea what position he will play, although LG or Center seem like the only logical two options it could be.

where all the realist fans who knows that we are not contenders as of now

Contenders for what?

Also... what month is it again? Is this March or August?