steelcityraven

  1 hour ago, stuckonaboat13 said:

Brad Kaaya -2nd Round
Look what the Patriots did with Jimmy G ... the Ravens need to follow suit as Flacco is no spring chicken. Why not start grooming a guy now? Don't talk to me about other needs, without a reliable backup your season is over when the starter goes down. I'd rather not wait until round 7 to draft ball state college of technology keith Wenning

Never gonna happen

BC a second round pick on a guy who will sit the bench for 3 years makes little sense when we have as many legitimate holes as we currently do. We expect a 2nd rounder to contribute now.

Plus the Ravens have had more success with veteran FA QBs then drafted QBs... Too many holes right now to spend a 2nd round pick on a guys who will not contribute (for some time)

Considering all of the charity work and donations Ben Watson tells us about it may a blessing in disguise when the Ravens release him so that he can spend more time on his philanthropy.

Why would we relapse Watson?:
1. He is super talented with a track record better then Pittas
2. He is a great leader and role model on and off of the field
3. He comes way cheaper then Pitta
4. He is a sure handed veteran who can help aid in the development of some very good young WR prospects that we currently have.
5. He is good in both the passing game and the run game and that versatility can go a long way in what we are trying to establish
6. While his injury was significant both Suggs and SSS showed us that even an aging veteran can come back from this.... while Pittas injuries are way more scarier then Watsons
7. He could be our NFLPA player rep.

  1 hour ago, steelcityraven said:

Round 5. Zach Banner- G- USC (behemoth - at 6'8 261 and moves very fluidly for his size. He has a slower first step and sometime would get beat to the outside but sliding him in at G would prevent that and placing him beside Ronnie Stanley would make quite an impressive wall to protect Flacco for years to come. Plus Banner is a nasty run blocker who would fit well in Greg Romans system)

Round 6. Ronnell Pumphrey- RB- SDST (speed. He is an electric playmaker who can make you miss and move the chains. He would make our offense more explosive and dangerous. He is a little on the frail side but he would not be an every down back playing with Kenneth Dixon (who will see he brunt of the work) Pumphey is a perfect change of pace / make a play guy with good hands and a lot of make you miss).

I save these replies for the draft thread but Banner is a sloth and the action inside between the tackles is actually faster.

Also, his name is Donnell Pumphrey and I cant see the FO selecting  a runt when they need day one plug in and play guys.

Banner is a mauler in the run game -watch the film on him and albeit the action maybe faster on the inside (which I do not agree with) I will it doesn't matter either way bc at G he would have help on either side. Where at T he typically will not. Banner is not lazy and actually very fluid for a enormous guy. - While he is not as athletic as KO he reminds me a lot of a larger Alex Lewis who played well for us at G.

Yes it is Donnell not Ronnell Pumphrey... typo... thanks but either way... we do not need a plug in and play RB... Kenneth Dixon is clearly going to be our workhorse. The coaching staff is very high on Dixon and they should be but Dixon lacks the explosiveness on passing downs to turn those sort completions into home run threats. Pumphrey is a great compliment to Dixon.

The only way we grab a plug in and play RB is if Dalvin Cook falls to 16 or if we grab Jamal Charles of off FA (and I still don't see Charles being much more then a complimentary back to Dixon)

Just curious what your thoughts on McKinney and TreDavious White are? and what do you think of Jabrill Peppers in round 1?

Round 1: Takkarist McKinney- OLB- UCLA (great athlete / great motor)

Round 2. TreDavious White-CB- LSU- (a Jimmy Smith type-plug and play)

Round 3. JuJu Smith-Schuster-WR-USC- (athlete, playmaker, with good size and maybe be very under rated- he can start now)

Round 3. Rasul Douglas- CB- WVU- (very physical and big CB- good in press and good athlete- still raw but well worth the pick at end of round 3)

Round 4. Devonte Fields-OLB- Louisville (very under rated- He and McKinney can be our future replacing Suggs and Dum- we have Judon but never have enough pass rushers and that is what Mr. Biscotti wants)

Round 5. Zach Banner- G- USC (behemoth - at 6'8 261 and moves very fluidly for his size. He has a slower first step and sometime would get beat to the outside but sliding him in at G would prevent that and placing him beside Ronnie Stanley would make quite an impressive wall to protect Flacco for years to come. Plus Banner is a nasty run blocker who would fit well in Greg Romans system)

Round 6. Ronnell Pumphrey- RB- SDST (speed. He is an electric playmaker who can make you miss and move the chains. He would make our offense more explosive and dangerous. He is a little on the frail side but he would not be an every down back playing with Kenneth Dixon (who will see he brunt of the work) Pumphey is a perfect change of pace / make a play guy with good hands and a lot of make you miss).

Would love to see us bring in a veteran OL (Mangold, Zieiler, or Whitworth) to upgrade that area. Any of those three added to our existing OL would be sick and I like Zeitler the best of the bunch but would be really happy with any of them. I am just picturing an OL with ALewis, Yanda, Zuttah, Zeitler, Stanley.... and that would be impressive.

I am with everyone else and would love to see us land Dont'a Hightower... the two bamma products playing beside us in the middle of our defense would be sick... but not sure how realistic that is. If we cannot land hightower however, I would love to see us bring in Zach Brown. I think he is more realistic and his athleticism and speed would be the perfect compliment to CJ and Zach is good at taking TE's out of the game!

Finally there are some great CBs available in the FA market this year. (LRyan, Reevis, Brandon Carr, Dre Kirkpatrick, AJ Bouye, Prince Amukamara, Trumaine Johnson, Stephon Gilmore and Michah Hyde)

Some other intriguing FA's who could really help us:
(Damarcus Ware, Kevin Minter, Alshon, Garcon, Calias Campbell, Tony Jefferson, Tyrell Pryor, Jamal Charles, Lorenzo Alexander Robert Woods, DJ Swearinger, and Julius Peppers)

Basically what I am trying to say is that we need a lot of help... and while it is not realistic to sign everyone... signing 2 or 3 of these guys before the draft would really change the complexion of the draft for us.

Of course we hardly ever sign anyone in the 1st wave of FA but I do think this year has to be a little different. I expect to see us sign at least one or two players early (who we will be excited about)!

IDK what "competitive offer means.... I would love to hear some numbers but I guess it is simply a little bit of a waiting game. I think we could keep MW- BW -RW, Ducasse and KJ and still clear cap space by letting go of: Webb, Arrington, Guy, (Z Orrs contract and SSS contract need to be factored in) . Letting Pitta walk, letting Kamar, letting Elam go and KLewis and maybe even Dumervill, and Sharece Wright. (and possibly Zuttah, JPowers and JHurst)

Okkk... I know it is really early but here is a really early draft projection.

1. Jabrill Peppers- S- MIch (ball hawking athlete who changes our defense)

2. TreDavious White- CB- LSU (insert and play)

3. Isaiah Ford- WR- VTech (as much raw talent as anyone in draft. needs some work with his ball skills but he is a great playmaker - what we need in our offense)

3. Joe Mixon-RB- Okla- He a Ray Rice type of player... explosive all purpose type of play maker

4. Devonte Fields- OLB- Louisville- A steal in round 4 and can get after the QB

5. Marques White- CB- FSU- more speed and athleticism in our DBackfield. with Peppers, TreDavious and Marques... our defense gets younger, faster, more athletic and more versatile right now.

6. Zach Banner-OG- USC. the guys is huge and can move fluidly for his size. 6'7 335 pounds and is a mauler. perfect for Greg Romans system... he is the type of OL we are looking to re-vamp our OL. BIg, fast and nasty. He played T in college but the move to G will protect his slower 1st step and not allow people around his outside. With Alex Lewis, Yanda, Mangold and Banner (along with Ronnie Stanley) we will have big and nasty OL!

Sidney Jones- CB -Washington (He has good size and can flat out fly 4.33 range)

Marcus Latimore-CB- Ohio State (big physical and very talented CB)

TreDavious White- CB- LSU- (Big -physical-athletic and can be a shut down CB)

I really believe that we will go with one of those guys in RD 1. Unless Cook or Mike Williams fall possibly even Corey Davis.

I think we will take a CB in Rd 1 and Peppers in Round 2.

I think were gonna see a lot of Kaufusi and Canady. They had plenty of time to study the playbook and with our new strength coach should be stronger and faster.

Agreed.... really want to see what Kafusi will bring to the table... Have to like his size and athleticism. I also agree that Cannady may surprise a lot of people. He looked great in the preseason and if he gets a little more physical... he may shock some people.

The thing is Mangold hasn't been very good the past 2 years and has graded worse than Zuttah so why pay for an older player who is likely a downgrade.

That's why you cant really go by grades.... Mangold has played injured and with a re-vamped OL, as well as a crazy QB carousel - Nobody in the league believes that Zuttah is better then Mangold and some of Zuttahs play has to be attributed to his having Marshall Yanda playing beside him.

If Mangolds ankle is healthy - he is a clear cut up grade over Zuttah. If Mangold is healthy and motivated... We could have another gem at the end of his career! (like some many others that we have landed Rod Woodson, Derrick Mason, Michael McCrary, Daryl Smith, SSS, Boldin, McNair, Weddle, Bryant McKinney, Matt Birk, Corey Redding, and so many more).

Mangold is a mauler with a nasty streak and just the type of player that we are looking to add in the new Greg Roman system

i think mangold, garcon gonna be ravens.

Agreed.... I think that there is a good chance that we sign both.

I really believe that Bwilliams is gone. (as much as I would love to see us re-sign him... I just don't think we can keep him). I also think Wagner will be gone. (I would love to keep him also) but just do not believe that we are in a position to keep either one and we seem to already have their replacements in house (Michael Pierce and Alex Lewis respectively). So- I see that clearing cap space for us... but I do believe that we will bring Juice back. He doesn't command that high of a price tag and he becomes an extra TE in essence. He is versatile and remember with he addition of greg norman we will look to improve the run game and short passing game. Juice will help in both areas. I really believe that Juice will be back.

IDK about Jensen. He is a quality back up but not sure we would count on him to be a starter at this point. So... it is looking like the most unlikely candidate (at the time we drafted him) Juice... will end up being our only player left from the 2013 draft. We could end up getting a comp pick for BW and RW however...depending how FA plays itself out this year!

Stanley-Lewis-Mangold-Yanda-Wagner

I'm happy

Lewis-Yanda- Mangold- Ducasse- Stanley

Would love to have Mangold playing beside Yanda. That would be nasty! (and in Greg Romans system)!

  4 hours ago, steelcityraven said:

As for Tony Jefferson.... I would be excited to have his athleticism and skill set back there beside Weddle. He is the real deal and we could probably land him for less then we are paying Webb!

Well even if we can't land him for less, I would be okay with the same amount. Instead of paying that type of money for a 32 year old safety, we would be paying a 27 year old in his prime with the ability to play out his contract at a high level.

Agreed 100%

I will take pitta over Watson any day of the week reguardless of salary

Really why? Pitta is smaller then Watson, slower then Watson and doesn't come close to the career production that Watson has put up. (Watson in 11 seasons - nearly 5000 yards and 38 TDs / Pitta is 6 seasons has just over 2000 yards and only 13 TDs

Watson is coming off of a serious injury but his pales in comparison to Pitta's injuries. Pitta is 5 years younger but I do not believe that his body knows that.

and we have Watson at nearly 1/2 the salary as Pitta. Just curious why you say that you would rather have Pitta over Watson every day of the week... (I can only assume that this has more to do with non-football related preferences)?

An extra 3rd round pick in this years draft is a big deal of us. DBs

I think Quadry has a valid question as to why can't we develop young receivers. Is it just a coaching issue? Sounds too simple to be just that. You would think that they could at least learn from the vets that we have had, and we have had some good ones- Mason, Boldin, SSR and so on. I don't understand it either. That is really the only position that we see the slowest development (or none at all)

Hard to develop WRs in a run first offense, who has a new OC every year and a QB who wants to make his living off of check downs! They need to get Joe coached up and we will be shocked and how good Perriman gets!

As for Tony Jefferson.... I would be excited to have his athleticism and skill set back there beside Weddle. He is the real deal and we could probably land him for less then we are paying Webb!

CUT PITTA PLEASE. Trade him if you could but that would be tough. I have a hard time thinking Rodgers wouldn't want him. Get a 5th or 6th rounder

I think several teams may be interested in a TE who had 86 receptions last year. Its a solid gamble for a team with a young or rookie QB who wants a security blanket with good hands. I think Pitta best serves the Ravens as trade bait at this point. Everyone under him is ready to take his spot and all of our TEs together are not making as much as Pitta. TRADE him!

10 reasons not to bring Pitta back.

1. I would not feel like a down grade if any of our TE's had to step into that spot. We are loaded at TE and can get equal or better production for significantly less money!

2. Watson is just simply a much better deal (as a veteran presence) then Pitta. Even if Pitta takes a pay cut... it will probably still be a higher salary then Watson- who is at least equally as talented (I think more)

3. NO YAC.... Pitta gets no yards after the catch and while a sure handed guy who can move the move the chains is highly valued in this league. Pitta simply does not move the chains. Look at his stats. Sure he gets a lot of catches but that is the majority of Joes meaningless check downs. (Look at the failed pass completion stats from yesterdays article). Pitta does not move the chains and cannot turn the small catches into something meaningful anymore. (and frustrates Ravens fans to death by always running routes short of the 1st down).
No YAC renders much of his production meaningless.

4. His presence hinders the progression of our young TE's. Gilmore, Maxx, Waller, and Boyle all seem to simply not be getting the reps they need bc of a veteran presence who ceiling is fairly mediocre.

5. BC the passing game is hindered by Joe's reliance on Pitta. He looks for Pitta so much that he does find the open WR's or give the play time to develop

6. Gilmore, Boyle and probably Maxx are better TE's for our re-vamping the run game (and can still catch and move the chains).

7. Waller and Watson can split the seams and stretch the field and keep both the LBs and S's honest where as Pitta doesn't bring that same threat.

8. Pitta is an injury away from his career being over. (high investment for someone so fragile). Albeit, all players are only a play a way but Pitta has shown a propensity to serious injury and he commands more money then most of TE's put together (other then Watson)

9. I think he would make great trade bait. More so then probably Maxx, Gilmore, Boyle, or Waller (and at least equal to Watson). With as many needs as we have and the depth in this years draft... Pitta could land us a 4th round pick who can be an integral part of our future. (maybe 5th)

10. and this is no small point. Cutting Pitta puts Joe on notice. He seems to have called the shots on Trestman. He seems to have called the shots on retaining Marty. Joe had his way and didn't produce... now it is time for the management to due what is best for the team and tell Joe to stopping worrying about FO decisions and worry about playing QB and producing. This is not about taking care of your buddy or some boys club this is the NFL and with out production you get no say.

  2 hours ago, steelcityraven said:

  2 hours ago, nj_ravens said:

  2 hours ago, steelcityraven said:

  3 hours ago, bioLarzen said:

It was, indeed, painful to see how often Flacco threw to targets yards short of the yellow line on third downs. TRhis, and his apparent utter reluctance to speed up things in the 2-minute drill periods, casually jogging to the line like there were minutes left, when the clock showed 35 seconds, with one timeout - only to throw a pass short ofd the first down marker, to the middle of the field, leaving no chance for the target to step out of bounds stopping the clock... It genuinely seemed like he couldn't care less if he tried... And I'm not saying it was the case - but it certainly seemed so.

Unfortunately.... our FO and HC stated after the season that they thought Joe's injury hurt him this year. I think that survival does (just as you mentioned) to people. They don't make the decisions that are best for the team but the best for survival. Get the ball out of your hand ASAP and hope for the best. That is what Joes season looked like. I guess that I get that from Joe's end... the problem that I have with it... is that if the FO and HC knew that he was unable to perform at the necessary level and that he was simply making survival decisions... why was it allowed to continue.

Why not play Mallet a few games and give us a chance? That is in no way suggesting that Mallet is better then Joe -just say that Mallet is better then a 50% Joe- who cannot go through his progressions bc of the injury that he has or bc of the fear of exacerbating his injury.

because where do you draw the line? was he 50%? Was he 65%? I don't think they knew, I think the HC and FO were speaking in hindsight.

I don't know what % - I just know he wasn't 100% and couldn't go through his progressions. Wouldn't stand in the pocket and give plays the necessary time to develop and refused to manipulate the pocket enough to give a less then perfect play the chance to work.

Not sure how any OC of offense for that matter can be successful when the QB is holding the offense hostage. Like I stated before. I am a Joe Flacco fan and when confident and healthy.... I think we have a guys who has and can win us super bowls.

But when he is not healthy... why not give us a chance to win and at the same time allow him to get healthy and re-gain his confidence... not set him back!

Again, my opinion is that because there was no reinjury, they didn't really know he was still not healthy until they watched him play for an extended period (hindsight). And even Joe said he wouldn't really know how he would feel until he went out there.

If his problem was confidence, I STRONGLY disagree that BENCHING him would be beneficial for his confidence. If they had started Mallett week 1 and waited for Joe to feel better that would be a different story. But as soon as Joe decided he was ready for week 1, that option goes out the window.

Agreed that benching him 1/2 way through the season would have been a disaster. I do think that he should have been evaluated more thoroughly in the pre-season. Allowed to play more to either get his rhythm back, to re-gain confidence and to give the coaching staff a better gauge on where Joe was at.

Since that didn't happen.... the only option would have been to announce that he aggravated the knee further, play him on the injury list -assuring him that when healthy the position is his but at the same time... allowing us a chance to win and Joe a chance to heal.

Confidence was an issue and that was evident in the way he would simply check down and not allow plays to develop (survival). But not confidence in his ability but in his health.

He clearly looked uneasy in the pocket and I think his lack of confidence in his knee caused him to quickly check everything down and make decisions that were out of survival.

I hear what you are saying and agree that just benching him would have been the wrong move... but I am also saying that knowing that Joe was coming off of a serious injury should have prompted us to do our homework more and we should have been more vigilant... not needing hindsight but honest evaluation based on preseason reps and game situations.

We also should had the foresight, once we knew where he really was to be able to handle this without causing a storm of controversy and further damaging the credibility of our franchise QB...(which is ironically what we ended up doing anyways).

Lets just hope that we can put the pieces around him this year to keep him upright and successful.

  20 minutes ago, steelcityraven said:

  1 hour ago, bioLarzen said:

It was, indeed, painful to see how often Flacco threw to targets yards short of the yellow line on third downs. TRhis, and his apparent utter reluctance to speed up things in the 2-minute drill periods, casually jogging to the line like there were minutes left, when the clock showed 35 seconds, with one timeout - only to throw a pass short ofd the first down marker, to the middle of the field, leaving no chance for the target to step out of bounds stopping the clock... It genuinely seemed like he couldn't care less if he tried... And I'm not saying it was the case - but it certainly seemed so.

Unfortunately.... our FO and HC stated after the season that they thought Joe's injury hurt him this year. I think that survival does (just as you mentioned) to people. They don't make the decisions that are best for the team but the best for survival. Get the ball out of your hand ASAP and hope for the best. That is what Joes season looked like. I guess that I get that from Joe's end... the problem that I have with it... is that if the FO and HC knew that he was unable to perform at the necessary level and that he was simply making survival decisions... why was it allowed to continue.

Why not play Mallet a few games and give us a chance? That is in no way suggesting that Mallet is better then Joe -just say that Mallet is better then a 50% Joe- who cannot go through his progressions bc of the injury that he has or bc of the fear of exacerbating his injury.

because where do you draw the line? was he 50%? Was he 65%? I don't think they knew, I think the HC and FO were speaking in hindsight.

I don't know what % - I just know he wasn't 100% and couldn't go through his progressions. Wouldn't stand in the pocket and give plays the necessary time to develop and refused to manipulate the pocket enough to give a less then perfect play the chance to work.

Not sure how any OC of offense for that matter can be successful when the QB is holding the offense hostage. Like I stated before. I am a Joe Flacco fan and when confident and healthy.... I think we have a guys who has and can win us super bowls.

But when he is not healthy... why not give us a chance to win and at the same time allow him to get healthy and re-gain his confidence... not set him back!

  20 minutes ago, steelcityraven said:

Unfortunately.... our FO and HC stated after the season that they thought Joe's injury hurt him this year. I think that survival does (just as you mentioned) to people. They don't make the decisions that are best for the team but the best for survival. Get the ball out of your hand ASAP and hope for the best. That is what Joes season looked like. I guess that I get that from Joe's end... the problem that I have with it... is that if the FO and HC knew that he was unable to perform at the necessary level and that he was simply making survival decisions... why was it allowed to continue.

Why not play Mallet a few games and give us a chance? That is in no way suggesting that Mallet is better then Joe -just say that Mallet is better then a 50% Joe- who cannot go through his progressions bc of the injury that he has or bc of the fear of exacerbating his injury.

Because Mallet doesn't give us much chance. He's on his 3rd team, got kicked off the Texans, has a bad TD-INT ratio overall and the very last time he took over for Joe his second throw was an INT in Cincy. He only got called upon for Baltimore because we had already lost other QBs back in 2015 after Flacco went down, so he was more of a desperation play and even in those 2 games he only played well in one of them.

I am not and was not saying that Mallet could be or should be our starter.... What I am saying is that it was painfully obvious that Joe wouldn't or couldn't go through his progressions and simply opted to unload the ball as quickly as possible. Regardless of if it gave us a chance or not.

Mallet (albeit is not Joe Flacco) was at least healthy enough and talented enough to go through his progressions. Adapt enough to stand in the pocket and allow a play to develop. Mobile enough to leave the pocket if necessary and confident enough to not become overly dependent on our TE and check downs.

Yes his 2nd pass was an INT in the Cincy game but how many practice reps did the guy have before that? He looked adequate vs that Sqeelers....leading us to a victory... and he did that with a very depleted and injury riddled offense.

I have to believe that he gave us as much of a chance as 50% Joe who was unable and /or unwilling to perform at the level that we needed to have a chance in most games. (At least until Joe got healthy enough to get his confidence back).

This is not and was not an endorsement for Mallet... this was and is a call to the FO and HC to put the best team on the field that we can. To commit to giving us a chance to win... and not coming out after season is over and saying well... Joe couldn't perform up to a higher level bc of his injury.

IF they knew that all a long then something should have been done to bridge the gap. I do believe that a 100% Mallet would have given us an equal or even a great chance to win then a 50% (or less) Joe Flacco.. who seemed to regress as the season progressed!

It was, indeed, painful to see how often Flacco threw to targets yards short of the yellow line on third downs. TRhis, and his apparent utter reluctance to speed up things in the 2-minute drill periods, casually jogging to the line like there were minutes left, when the clock showed 35 seconds, with one timeout - only to throw a pass short ofd the first down marker, to the middle of the field, leaving no chance for the target to step out of bounds stopping the clock... It genuinely seemed like he couldn't care less if he tried... And I'm not saying it was the case - but it certainly seemed so.

Unfortunately.... our FO and HC stated after the season that they thought Joe's injury hurt him this year. I think that survival does (just as you mentioned) to people. They don't make the decisions that are best for the team but the best for survival. Get the ball out of your hand ASAP and hope for the best. That is what Joes season looked like. I guess that I get that from Joe's end... the problem that I have with it... is that if the FO and HC knew that he was unable to perform at the necessary level and that he was simply making survival decisions... why was it allowed to continue.

Why not play Mallet a few games and give us a chance? That is in no way suggesting that Mallet is better then Joe -just say that Mallet is better then a 50% Joe- who cannot go through his progressions bc of the injury that he has or bc of the fear of exacerbating his injury.