Ravens4Real

I'll comment on this after week 17 of the season. I can't remember the last time we made it to the playoffs where it didn't come down to one of the last two weeks.

It would be nice to clinch a spot in week 12 like the Patriots somehow seem to do every year.

AFCN: Who Got Stronger Offensively and Defensively This Offseason?

According to separate analysis by Ravens, Browns and Bengals reporters...Baltimore did the better job.

http://espn.go.com/blog/cincinnati-bengals/post/_/id/17164/afc-north-roundtable-steelers-bengals-browns-ravens-quarterbacks-help-offseason

When it comes down to the defenses (not reported in the article above), I would say that the 'key' areas of concern have been addresses and somewhat surpassed expectations by the Ravens. The defensive secondary is stocked to the point that the training camp competition should be the 'best' we've seen since the early 'Reed' days (No, I'm not comparing any of our current players to Reeeeed! Just the deep bench). As a result, we should not only field a top 5 DB squad, but have several 'next-man-up' DBs available to keep the pace.

This thread only showing a 57% Ravens lead is not aligning with most polls in the AFCN and the league. The Ravens are overwelmingly ahead of the rest of the division according to most, currently.

It would be awesome to win an offseason trophy. Reading your analysis is always with a really dark purple shades on.

Simply, the games are played on the field. Can't wait until the real stuff starts so I can quit reading who is winning the offseason.

Agreed, I think smith is the better football player by far. Dupree is a far better athlete and for that reason alone may have a higher ceiling. If Dupree can learn football he has the potential to be a dominant pass rusher though I don't think he'll ever become well rounded because he's not patient or disciplined enough to play the run at an elite level.

Smith is new to football (I think senior year of HS was his first time playing) so developmentally we may only be seeing the tip of the ice berg.

And to be that new to the game, his arsenal of pass rush moves is really impressive. His hands and footwork are top notch. It's clear he understands how to win 1-on-1 with technique even when his athleticism doesn't allow him to win right away.

He re-establishes himself and takes the appropriate angle to attack the QB even when he's blocked past the play or the QB scrambles. He understands his role within a scheme or even a certain play and was partially responsible on some if not many of Dupree's big plays.

For the guy to be as polished as he is in his technique and understanding of the game this early on in his development is really really impressive. It's exciting that he'll get to continue that development in black and purple.

If I was betting on which of the 2 has a longer, more successful career when all is said and done I honestly believe Smith is the safer bet. IMO his floor is to be a solid rotational pro that will always have a market as that 2nd or 3rd situational pass rusher.

Dupree has the requisite athleticism and raw ability but has much further to go when it comes to learning the game and the detailed technique necessary to succeed at the pro level. Much more likely to completely bust.

Some of you guys and your optimism is great to read. I can understand now the people that read the Steelers forum and see them saying that Jesse James is going to be better than Max Williams because the exact same thing happens on our boards.

I'd like to agree with you guys but, through watching film, just can't even come close. Smith seems slow off the ball to me and if that's the case, he better have strength to bull rush elite tackles and I don't see it on film. He's adequately fast that we can run stunts and such with him, just like McPhee. I feel that is his ceiling is amounting to what McPhee was. OLB is going to be a MAJOR need in a year or two because I just don't see Smith being able to start and play full time.

Now to Dupree. I hate to do this because he is on our biggest rivals team, but, I was ABSOLUTELY in love with this kid. Would have done back flips if we could have landed him in the first. I don't even know who to compare him to in the NFL. 6'4 270 and runs a 4.5. I don't know who has that size and speed comparison in the NFL.

There are only two real flaws in his game at the moment. He doesn't have a real complete set of pass rushing skills, at the moment (but can be taught). Secondly, some plays, he just simply looks like he has no clue what to do. He hesitates at the line and looks as if he's a QB spy but that can't be the case playing OLB. But when this kid does seem to know what he is doing, he looks like he was shot out of a cannon. I'll give the Steelers one thing, they're turning their defense into one fast as heck one.

Summarize, I love Dupree. These guys are all rookies and meant to be taught up. They aren't coming in here and being all pros. OBJ as an outlier. If the Steelers give this kid time to learn and teach him what he is doing every play, he is going to turn out to be real good (as much as it pains me to say).

pitta was 25 in his first season.

I don't know who's the youngest player to be drafted this year but i think maxx williams might be up there as one of the youngest. He will get stronger and faster. He's just 20-21.

I remember seeing a chart of solely offensive players in the draft and their age at being drafted. Williams was the second youngest in age of TE's, Jesse James was younger, and fourth youngest overall. Gurley was the youngest one out of them all.

Does anyone know what the heck the Patriots are doing with their CB's? They have now gotten rid of it didn't sign their top 4 CB's from last year.

Don't forget that the Steelers will be without Bell for that game too. If their offense s as bad without him as it was last year when we smoked them in the playoffs, this might be a win-win.

I think DeAngelo Williams will be a better RB than whatever guy they had there in our playoff game.

It's may seem like a stretch for me to say this but, when we played our playoff game, I think our CB group was in a better state than what the Patriots are currently projected to use.

Steelers D is still a question mark with all of their young unproven guys, but without Brady and Blount and basically no CB's on their roster worthy of starting, I see very little chance that they can keep up with Big Ben and their offense.

But the Ravens pulled it off in the playoffs, so we will see.

When trying to do the depth chart, I just see simply no way that we can keep 7 WR's on the 53 man roster.

To do this, we would have to sacrifice depth at two positions that we are truly injury prone at. I can find no reason that the coaching staff would keep a 7th WR on the team that would never see the field over a D Line or D Back.

Every outlet that I have seen is predicting a multi game suspension. Let's see if it actually happens and how long it will be.

The part that strikes me as major red flags is after the situation came to light in the national media. In the report, it stated, that Brady and Jastremski has not talked through phone/text for 6 months. Then the allegations come forth and all of the sudden for the next three days they spend almost twenty minutes each day talking to each other one the phone when the only previous communication they had was through text or in person.

Now to any reasonable/objective person with no previous knowledge, would look at that and say something shady is going on. It's as if they were trying to get their stories straight because they both knew [profanity deleted] was about to hit the fan.

Patriots fans, I have glanced at their forums and it's not pretty, are typically saying that although he may have done something wrong, there is no hard proof of him admitting to it. I believe that if you put this to a court and jurors, I don't see how you could look at all the outside facts and not say that Brady lied to the NFL and knew what was going on.

That's why I believe Brady will be suspended. Not because of the whole deflate gate situation. But because he blatantly lied to the faces of investigators and the commissioner about the whole situation and then tried to cover it up.

One thing I think important to mention in regards to Perriman and his NFL pedigree - looking at his father coming out of college and how he progressed as a pro - he was a speedster, though much smaller than Breshad, and wasn't a polished route runner.

To stay productive and successful he became a pure technician with route running to make himself an available target on many plays. I think this bodes well for Breshad.

I think that's his biggest area for growth... If he can refine his route running and learn to not just rely on speed and strength to win 1on1 he can be darn near unstoppable.

And since his dad learned the finer points of the craft he should be just another resource to continue Breshads development in that area. That connection is invaluable and I don't think is being paid enough attention. That's a 24/7 365 teacher who mastered the skill Breshad needs the most work on.

Keep in mind, from what I understand Breshad didn't fully commit to football until highschool. So the position is still something he's learning and is relatively early in his development. That's not a bad thing though because if he can be productive early, that bodes well for the possibility that he can be dominant once he's fully developed.

I'm really confident we now have our AJ Green, Julio Jones, Dez type receiver. Add to that getting what I think will be a dominant pass catching TE and this offense is primed to take off like we've never seen before.

Were about to enter the Flacco era of the NFL where he, Luck and Wilson will fill the void left by Manning, Brady, Rodgers and Brees.

You do know that Rodgers is only a year older than Flacco, right? They will probably retire around the same time so I don't know how you could say that Flacco is going to be in the next era of QB's. Also, Luck and Wilson will be around for years to come after Flacco.

I'm saying Brady is suspended for 4 games and it is reduced down too two. This issue will come out like the Big Ben one did a couple years ago. The evidence was not there to support anything and he was released of any wrong doing, but he made the league look so bad that they suspended him for 6 and knocked it down to 4.

Sometimes theres this outside force called money that motivates these decisions.

There is a max that teams can offer to UDFA. All 32 teams have probably offered him the max that he can receive. It would be pretty dumb for any team in the league to not offer him a contract.

Honestly I just have so much more hope in our ability to develope wide receivers.

I hope this is sarcasm?

Steelers fans are already going on about how Jesse James will be better than Maxx. lol. Maxx reminds me so much of Todd Heap and his name is perfect for fans when he makes a big play. Instead of Heaaaaaaap. Now it will be Maxxxxxxxxxxxx!

Williams looks to be a better player on film than Jesse James, but James was def. my second favorite TE. Many people around here do not like combine numbers but James, compared to Williams.

40

Williams: 4.78

James: 4.83

Bench Press

Williams: 17

James: 26

Vertical

Williams: 34.5

James: 37.5

Broad Jump

Williams: 9.9

James: 10.1

That verticle is the thing that I loved about James. I know I'm supposed to hate him now and believe everything about him sucks (like most around here). But imagine having a 6'7/6'8 dude with that vertical in the redzone. Lob city all day.

I love Za'dareus Smith a lot! Every time I saw Dupree's highlights prior to the draft, this 94 kid was always around helping make sacks happen for Dupree. In fact the tape that was supposed to highlight Dupree highlighted Za'dareus much more! To think that we got him in the 4th and he may end up being a better NFL player than Dupree just makes my heart warm!

'

Are you talking about the video above? There wasn't one play where Smith looked better than Dupree, hence which it is why it's Dupree's highlight real.

About 50% of SEC 1st rounders bust. It ain't exclusive to the "minor" leagues.

Not saying you are wrong, but, if you don't post a valid and reliable source/article, then I will simply choose to not believe you.

I'm sure the Ravens were concerned about that when they drafted Joe Flacco...

For every one Joe Flacco, who produced in an inferior league and still did well in the NFL, I could find you 20 players who did the same and fell on their faces in the NFL. It's easy to cherry pick.

Averaging 21.5 yards a catch with a disembodied arm throwing him the ball won't cut it? Well.

So, you are stating or my reading comprehension is off, that if Perrimen were to come out of every one of our games with 1 reception for 22 yards, you would be happy? Even as our number one pick? Sorry bud, but I have a little more hope than that.

I wonder if La'el Collins would consider coming to Baltimore after his legal problems are figured out. We couldn't offer him a starting job in 2015, but 2016 and forward would be his to lose. I'm probably dreaming though; he could be an immediate starter on a lot of teams as a guard, maybe a RT on a few others. Of course, whether or not Ozzie and Steve would want to take him in is a different story.

/edit: I just read that Rex Ryan met with him today, so I guess he is already being pursued as a UDFA

Maybe in Madden

I'll be thoroughly surprised if Collins does not end up with the Saints. I just don't see how you can grow up in LA, go to school in LA, and not have an affinity for the Saints. Usually in these situations, the players favorite team will be the selection. Unless there is some outside force that had him rooting for another team growing up, I'll say with pretty good confidence that he is a Saints fan.

Another way that he could pick another team, is if there were friends/ LSU Tigers on a different team persuading him to join their team. Problem is, for the Ravens anyways, I can't think of one person from LSU, of the top of my head, that is on our roster.

My problem with Perrimen is the competition he went up against. We are all throwing out how his stats could be better but his QB is hot garbage. Well look at UCF's schedule. That is hot garbage.

There were only a couple teams that I could even find that I deemed, personally, respectable. Of those games, he had a good game against NCState, decent against PSU, and didn't have more than 43 yards against Mizzou and UCONN. The thing that frightens me, is out of that whole list, I can only think of Byron Jones UCONN as the only CB he would have went against that was drafted. Held him to 2 for 43. That simply won't cut it.

I'm not saying that he is going to be terrible just because he didn't do well against good competition. Just saying some need to temper some expectations until we actually find out what he can even do against NFL caliber starting CB's. He's not going to get to see CB's from BETHCO and TEMPLE University every week.

Orioles game tomorrow will be played but will be closed to public. Lol WHAT?!?!

Well would you rather take a long trip to SF, come back and take another trip to ARZ and back later in the year? Evidently, the front office thinks not. I remember a few years ago, the 49ers traveled to Cincy, then stayed east for a week before playing the Eagles in Philly. Similar thing here.

And for what it's worth, we have an extra day to travel because the Cardinals game is Monday Night.

Not disagreeing with the premise of your whole post. The comment about it being little travel in the NFL is the only portion I had a gripe about.

Well if we're staying out west between SF and ARZ, I really wouldn't consider it a big deal, even if it is more travel than SF and OAK.

SF to ARZ is still very little travel by NFL standards.

SF to Arizona is the equivalent of the Ravens going to Jacksonville for a road game. I don't constitute that as 'little' travel compared to the rest of the NFL teams. We could probably get to over half of the NFL teams with less travel.

Some of you guys obsessions with Pittsburgh is hilarious to read. Every thread turns into a 'what's Pittsburgh doing' and 'Pittsburgh has it worse than us'.

They may be our biggest rival and best competition but did we all forget that we can't beat the Bengals recently. They have finished above us the last two years. On top of that, both Browns games, I believe, we were losing at one point.

Just smh.....