Poes Crows

Don't be lumping everyone together into the "We" category. The record here will clearly reveal this fan believes Jacoby was a key addition that made our receiving corps dynamic. This fan has also been clear player sets are all about chemistry. There is no "we" here. He is essential but the team is still missing that "go to" possession receiver. Lets be clear about Jacoby Jones age. He is 29. His birthday is July 11th 1984. Which means he will be 30 next year when the season begins. He will not be 31 at any time next year. Lastly, he caught that TD vs the Jets with his hands. No body trap at all. That was a heckuva catch on a long wind-borne ball that was "pushing" for the sideline. But aging is catching up with us, though not the aging of players. When is 57 like 70?

Well said, I think you're right. Promised I wouldn't talk about him any longer, but I must mention that Reed's Raven Replacement was credited with a "pass defensed" for the overthrown ball that clanked off his hopeful hands. Stats are not what they appear to be.

I'm so pleased for Reed I can't even begin to express it. First he has been coming off surgery. We've seen players like Revis and Maurice James Drew and Three Sticks III not look anywhere near their previous year's form. Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce have been nicked up and look at their production fall off. What happened in Houston was a very weird aggregation of circumstances. That team was a consensus pick to go Deep into the playoffs and they went into a tailspin that they can't seem to recover from. Though sporting a Number 1 Defensive Rating, they reached the determination that Ed was part of the reason why. When they pulled him their replacement safeties faired no better than ours and began getting scorched over the top for easy TD's. Of all the errors in the NFL, getting beat over the top is the worst it gets for reasons to obvious to get into. Ed Reed is still a great center fielder. Being demoted was too much for Ed and he spoke up. He tweeted. Upon reading those tweets it was very clear they weren't going to go over well in Houston. Houston has problems and they made Ed the scapegoat for them. This fan despises tweeting, but firmly believes there was some method in Ed's madness. I believe he realized the Houston team was foundering and that he didn't fit as well in their scheme as he had in ours. I believe he forced Houston's hand. You could see it coming, just like the Flacco Bombs to Anquan in times gone by. Many here don't believe Ed has game. It's hard to understand how they come to that conclusion. The view here is that they are not even sincere in that. The phenomena here has been that if management jettisons a Raven player or that player departs for a better future, that individual becomes "Persona Non Grata". The crowd roots Against those former Ravens. It's hard to understand, but this fan can never do that. But then this fan is a fan of the players, not the entity. Ed Reed is my favorite Raven of All Time. When he goes into the Hall of Fame, I will be there. That said, Ed had 4 picks last year, one a pick six and an additional pick in the Championship Game that altered field position after Harbaughs mistake in going for it again. (He has a penchant for poor decisions in that regard and we've been burned repeatedly this year the Général.) Rex was our defensive coordinator and in his time Reed shined. He knows Ed and his team is developing quickly now. For the Jets its going to come down to how careful Gino Smith is with the ball, but if Gino plays with maturity, the Jets are going to excel with Ed Reed on their team. Believe in Ed. Who has been more accurate in their assessments this year. Poes Crows, Sami 84 and a few others or the crowd around them? Our Front Office wanted Reed back, but at a discount. After Ed departed, was released and cleared waivers they didn't show any interest. If the F.O. is sincerely content with our Safety Play it's viewed here as a further indictment. If our F.O. is too vain to admit the mistake in not retaining Ed it's a heightened charge. For some time will tell, but the answer is already known here.

They already said they won't be signing Reed so you're proposing a hypothetical. Don't know we'd have to cut anyone. Omar Brown could go back to the practice squad. However, if we had to cut someone the vote here would be Cleats. The sooner we send him packing the better. There's no way they'll do that at this juncture. There's some guarantee money and all, but at the end of his salary cap impact the position here is he'll be gone.

Throughout the devolution of the Ravens the point conveyed here has been that a player can be vastly more valuable to one team than another. That essential quality has been lost to more "influential" people than the posters here. Stats are a very poor barometer unless one is playing fantasy football, the operative word being fantasy. The threads here will reveal that this poster stated Reed would go unclaimed. That is not a surprise for a number of reasons so there's no need to get into them. But if he wants to play for another team its likely he will. I'd like to see him with the Jets, lighting up Joltin Joe for a pick six to further illustrate the ineptitude of our Front Office. The only relevant stat is 4-5. You are what your record says you are.

Yeah our safeties are much better than last year. Read that Little Napoleon stated the Ravens have no intention of signing Ed in any capacity. We'll just have to add that one to the litany of missteps the "managers" have made in the last year. Of course Little Napoleon had eye-wear on. It was decidedly flowery in color.

I'd neg you again for these, but I ran out of negs for the day. Thats right, one is limited on negs, no matter how justified. I think Ed Reed still can play. I'm certain of it, basing that certainty on the posters here. They are a perfect reverse barometer.

Finally, someone that is discerning! I nominate you for the next Raven G.M. You're second may come relatively soon.

I don't concur with a single word you used. I'll stick to the elaborating upon one point, because its the lynchpin to all this. That pass was not over Cleats head. If Ed Reed got as much of his hands on it he'd of come down with the ball. We got the ball anyway, but that's not the issue. The point was Cleats struggled to reach the ball and judge the ball for the reasons we've been discussing all along and then when he did touch it he accelerated it with his hands of stone. He sucks. That was the last post on Cleats. You all will understand. Its just a question of realization.

I understand your position. My allegiance is not absolute, but neither are my criticisms. The F.O. can win me back by managing to get this team to the playoffs. There's plenty of fans in Cleveland, Detroit and Jacksonville that never question. We had a very good team and key pieces were tossed away and questionable pieces were added.

Wait a minute...the whole "Cleats is playing poorly because he's out of position argument" is solved by Reed's return correct? Maybe that is the catalyst to bring the playoffs back. Either that or CLANK....CLANK....CLANK. the sound of leather bouncing off hands

Maybe, but now we suck at safety....and Cleats is never gonna make the grade

Don't know if other teams will put in claims for Reed. He's expensive, they have to pay his negotiated salary correct? He'll clear waivers and then be a Free Agent. He'll have the Texans guarantee money and if our F.O. is shrewd this time, they'll convince him to come back. But Reed is outspoken and Little Napoleon may not want him back. The key question though..."Is our Safety Play at a satisfactory level". I'll answer that one with a resounding NO

You're talking about a team (Texans) "augering" into the ground after a fight for the flight controls. That team is in complete chaos. After they pulled Reed, I saw their safeties torched over the top. They looked like Cleats and Digger staring into the backfield. Did Reed speak up? Yes he did. Did it cost him remaining on the roster? I think it did. But guess what, theres guarantee money. It was an expensive position of principle to let him go for addressing whats really wrong with the other safeties playing like abbott and costello... I mean ours. . Anyone judging Reed's remainder on the disaster in Texas is playing Fantasy Football.

The Ed Reed affair in Houston was not what it appears. Houston crashed and burned. In the burning they began looking for reasons why. Ed's recent "Tweets" didn't help his cause. Upon reading them, I posted he appeared to be poisoning the water. They singled out Schaub and Reed, but divesting themselves of those players is not going to resolve the inherent problem. Read somewhere recently, that following stats alone is folly, as they pertain to football truer words were never spoken . You want Fantasy Football, you follow stats, you want to win, you start players who are winners. If you watched one of Diggers interceptions Sunday, it glanced off Cleats "Hands of Stone" Elam. It shot into the air as if out of a cannon. Harder hands have rarely touched the ball in the NFL. But I knew he had palms of granite long ago. Luckily Digger was there to round it up. At the end of the game Digger tried to hand the game back to Cincinnati but made amends later. We are weak at safety....as in fatal weak. It was a HUGE mistake to not resign Ed Reed for one more year and of the following I am certain: he still has game, regardless of the chaos down in Texas. Especially, for a team with safeties that are wishing and praying the big score is Not on them. We suck at safety and if we don't make the playoffs it will be because of the play at Safety and the lack of a "Go To" clutch receiver. But we've known that since April.