raveninct

This defensive focus in 2017 will keep the Baltimore defensive flame burning bright for a very long time. In recent years since Harbaugh took over, it was beginning to flicker because the Ravens were caught up in an identity crisis. Now, they've looked themselves long and hard in the mirror and realized they need their old mojo back and they began the process with the first 4 picks! Loved it.

I'm happy with the picks and really hope the B-more defense turns into a total monster ala the 2000 season. But part of the reason for the 4 defensive picks was simply because the offensive guys they wanted weren't there for them. And Ozzie did the right thing by picking the best available rather than stretching for an offensive player that wasn't worth that particular pick. As far as receivers, Watson has to become a go-to, sure-handed guy for Flacco. Pitta already is, but we need another because 1) SSS is gone, and 2) we have great depth and talent at TE. But I would be very excited if they could somehow bring back Anquan or someone similar. Ozzie certainly isn't finished yet . . . .

Words can't express the sorrow and sympathy I feel for Todd Heap and his family. I hope the whole Ravens family can go out to AZ to be with him during an unbelievably hard and sad time. Many prayers for the Heap family.

Think this is a smokescreen. No way the Ravens take Jones at 16 w/ his injury. He needs a full pre-season and the Ravens need immediate help at CB. Who knows? Maybe he falls far enough for Ravens to get him in the 2nd. Doubt it, but you never know. Regardless, if they take him at 16, I will be nervous and disappointed.

One cannot help wondering how and why the average football fan's memory span is so short... Every single season, fans of cap-strapped teams play the same old "will our key UFA's be retained" game - totally forgetting that thay have played the same game the last time, and before that, and before that... only to see said key UFA's leave just about every time - because UFA's almost invariably follow the money trail... and it never leads to cap strapped organizations. So, for the 21st edition of the annual "Which Key Ravens UFA's Will Be Back In Baltimore Next Season" show, the answer is... what it has almost always been: none of them. It was clear as day all along, so nobody with a good grip on the notion of the cap system is surprised to see Brandon Williams, Rick Wagner and Juszczyk leave - JUST LIKE ALMOST EVERY SINGLE KEY UFA LEAVES CAP-STRAPPED TEAMS.

Let's not play like it's surprising... we, football fans, know better.

Completely agree. Williams and Wagner are definitely out of here. If they were staying, a deal would've been done by now. Maybe Juice stays because the premium for him from another team won't be quite as large, at least on a dollar basis (not on a percentage basis). But even that's a stretch. Pearce will have to step up (optimistic that he can, but not certain), and hopefully we can find a RT in the draft. I would go CB in the 1st round and OT/RT in the 2nd.

  1 hour ago, raveninct said:

O-Line is the biggest problem. What's the deal w/ Stanley? I wish the Ravens would quit playing cute and tell us what's going on with him. It's a repeat of last year when nobody would say anything about Perriman. Anybody notice that we're 3-0 with Stanley in the lineup (I think)? And Alex Lewis = Drive Killer. Two straight weeks w/ back-to-back penalties - holding and false start. Ridiculous. Can't have that in the NFL. But he wouldn't be in that position if Stanley wasn't hurt.

Secondary is the 2nd biggest problem (no pun intended), for the 2nd year in a row. Injuries and poor tackling. Time for Weddle to really step it up and sort those guys out. Isn't that why he's here?

3rd, our higher draft picks just aren't performing. Perriman, Stanley, Elam, Brooks. That puts a lot of pressure on a team that overpaid its QB and put themselves in a money hole. And now it's showing. Great job by guys like Judon, Jernigan, Williams, Pearce. But the guys that were drafted in the low rounds are expected to play like a low round draft pick. Ours aren't. They're barely on the field in the first place.

Agree w/ previous comments. Harbaugh is on the hot seat. Don't think anything will happen til the end of the season. But if we go 5-11 again, or worse, I think there's a greater than 50% chance he's gone.

I live in the NY area and went to the game. Incredibly depressing.

So you're putting the blame on everyone accept Joe? open your eyes man

I said he was overpaid. He's a good (not great, btw) qb when he gets good protection. ANY qb who gets knocked around a lot is going to have a bad day. What's the best way to stop Brady? Knock him around. How did defenses stop Peyton? Knock him around or force him to move. As everyone always says, "it all starts up front". That said, Joe compounded a bad day for the O-line by making a bunch of bad throws.

O-Line is the biggest problem. What's the deal w/ Stanley? I wish the Ravens would quit playing cute and tell us what's going on with him. It's a repeat of last year when nobody would say anything about Perriman. Anybody notice that we're 3-0 with Stanley in the lineup (I think)? And Alex Lewis = Drive Killer. Two straight weeks w/ back-to-back penalties - holding and false start. Ridiculous. Can't have that in the NFL. But he wouldn't be in that position if Stanley wasn't hurt.

Secondary is the 2nd biggest problem (no pun intended), for the 2nd year in a row. Injuries and poor tackling. Time for Weddle to really step it up and sort those guys out. Isn't that why he's here?

3rd, our higher draft picks just aren't performing. Perriman, Stanley, Elam, Brooks. That puts a lot of pressure on a team that overpaid its QB and put themselves in a money hole. And now it's showing. Great job by guys like Judon, Jernigan, Williams, Pearce. But the guys that were drafted in the low rounds are expected to play like a low round draft pick. Ours aren't. They're barely on the field in the first place.

Agree w/ previous comments. Harbaugh is on the hot seat. Don't think anything will happen til the end of the season. But if we go 5-11 again, or worse, I think there's a greater than 50% chance he's gone.

I live in the NY area and went to the game. Incredibly depressing.

I, too, was surprised at his comment. $8.5MM per year is "not much at all"? I think that was pretty insensitive, especially to all the people in our country and around the world who are struggling just to get by financially. Even if we hadn't made the mistake of paying too much for Monroe, I still doubt the Ravens would have payed as much as the Raiders for KO, anyway. And they couldn't really pay Yanda less in order to pay KO. That wouldn't be logical given Yanda is an HOF'er, probably.

I don't know a thing about Correa and Kaufusi, and we can't assume anything about how good or bad they'll be in the NFL. I still trust Ozzie & Co. For everyone who wanted Spence, there was never any chance of Ozzie taking him. Just today on this site, there was a quote from Harbaugh about (paraphrased) 'the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior'. So I don't think the Ravens ever seriously considered Spence. And taking guys like Jack w/ injury concerns was also a non-starter after their experience w/ Perriman. Can you imagine the embarassment if they took Jack and he ended up not playing? So, to focus on what we do know, my question is whether Ozzie took too little to move back. Other teams who were picking behind us seemed to get more for their picks. We moved back twice and got a 5th and a 4th rounder, and the 5th rounder was for our 36th position. The teams behind us who traded down got 2 picks, I think. I know one team got a 4th rounder plus a 2017 pick. So I feel like Ozzie left a little bit on the table. I could be wrong. Curious what you all think.

I tend to disagree that the Steelers/Bengals have become the prime rivalry in the AFC North. First, I think most people were disgusted by what Burfict did in that game. And they were also disgusted by Shazier's reaction after spearing Bernard. My next door neighbor, who is a rabid Steelers fan, thought it was awful. The main reason why the Ravens/Steelers rivalry was downgraded this yr was because the Ravens essentially stunk. Even still, they swept the Steelers! How great is that?!?! That's the essence of a rivalry - even though one team may not be having a great season, they rise up to defeat their nemesis. And I think football fans, in general, prefer Ravens/Steelers to what they saw from the Bengals/Steelers. Ravens/Steelers games are always incredibly hard-hitting, but they're not crazy-brutal like Sat night's game (and in particular, Burfict's plays). I'm very glad we don't have Burfict. If I was a Bengals fan, I would be tearing my hair out over the Antonio Brown hit. And Pacman's penalty would've put me over the edge. No, give me CJ, Sizzle, Joe Cool, and SSS. I'll take them any day of the week over Burfict and Pacman.

Great news! SSS has a lot of catches left in him. But I think his leadership for the whole team, and not just the receivers, is huge. With Ray Lewis gone, then Sizzle hurt, then SSS hurt, we had no inspiration. Flacco just isn't that kind of guy (which is fine - I don't blame him for that). But you need an individual to get the team fired up, and SSS is definitely the guy. Regarding the receivers, I will stick to my view that we should not draft a WR. We've already proven that we're not so great at that. I don't know why. It just is what it is. But what we are good at is bringining in late-career receivers who become hugely important to the team. Examples are D-Mason, Q, and SSS. So . . . . I think we take the plunge and spend the money on a high quality FA. Then use the draft to shore up the secondary. Just my opinion, but I'm convinced that for some reason we're cursed when it comes to drafting WR's.

I think it will take a miracle for the Ravens to win this game. But I'm going to be there in case it happens. If it does, it will be euphoric. If not, well, we weren't really expected to win. But I'm ok with people selling their tix. They're expensive and Steeler fans may put a higher value on them. They're dollars are green, too. More than happy if Ravens fans relieve the Steelers fans of a few Jacksons so they can wave their little yellow towel-ettes (which is getting a little old, btw).

IMO, it was a dumb decision. 4th and under 5 from the 45, maybe. 4th and 9 from the 20, no way. Harbs has said we're going to give some younger guys playing time and see what they can do. Basically, they're learning. But they also have to learn how to win, and Harbs didn't give them that opportunity on that play. The odds were that he was going to leave the defense, who is also banged up and in need of confidence and in need of lesson on how to win a game, in a no-win situation. There's a difference between taking chances and being reckless. The fake punt fell into the reckless column, IMO.

What struck me about this article is that Rosburg has been around since '08. Didn't realize that. I wish our other assistant oaches would stay that long. The fact that the OC and DC positions have been a merry-go-round over the years has really hurt us (and has made our successful record that much more impressive). I was always jealous that teams like the Steelers and Pats keep their OC/DC for much longer, it seems. Perfect example is Dick LeBeau. I assume Trestman won't go anywhere next yr, but what happens if we have a great offensive season in 2016? We may be in the same place again. Not sure what the answer is.

Prayers for Ellison's family, especially Sage, from the Ravens family in CT.

I think it's time to invest in a significant free agent wr. For whatever reason, whether it's bad luck or bad scouting or bad medical reviews, we have not been great at drafting receivers. Examples are Perriman, Taylor, Clayton. But we are good at picking up late-career wr's who play well for us. Examples are SSS, Q, and Mason. And we are good at drafting defensive players. So . . . spend the money on a FA WR (for the person who mentioned Belichick, I largely agree with what you said, but even he will open the purse at times - Randy Moss, Darrell Reveis). Then use the draft on the best CB we can find. The whole Perriman saga has put me over the edge. We should admit the fact that we're not great at finding college receivers who can be stars in the NFL and hit the FA mkt.

I would like to see Ray run for mayor. Seriously.

There will be no easy games this yr. There never are, but this yr especially. Joe has to step up and put the team on his shoulders. With Suggs and SSS out (can't see how he can play w/ broken bones; don't want him to for the sake of his long term health), Joe's the veteran Raven, along with the O-line. Time to really step up, Joe, and earn that $20MM/year. Great qb's have done it before with depleted WR crews. So now it's your turn. And the defense needs to be what we always expect from a Ravens defense - physical, flying to the ball, killer instinct. We barely beat CLE last yr at home. So next week's game will be difficult. I'm sure the Browns smell blood in the water. GO RAVENS! We can do this!

I've decided that I really don't like these preseason games. We (the fans) look at them like regular season games. On top of that, and more importantly in my mind, a lot of top guys get hurt. I hate that. And that goes for many, many teams. Ask the Packers, Panthers, and a bunch of other teams. 2 preseason games maximum. I would prefer that to the 4 that we play now.

Hurry up regular season! Puuuullleeeeaseeeee!!!!!

GO RAVENS!!

I think the Ravens are embarrassed that they didn't pick up on this genetic knee problem (assuming that's what's holding Perriman back). Their #1 pick and they missed something crucial like that. Or maybe they knew about it, but mistakenly thought it wouldn't be a problem. Either way, it doesn't look good for the front office. It's obvious that something is wrong. It has been a month and his knee condition seems to be the same. There's a huge problem. And the comments have been the same: "he'll be back soon . . . maybe he'll play next week . . ." etc etc. They're not admitting anything outside of the front office. Hopefully inside the front office they're being more realistic and doing some serious planning. But this is obviously not what they thought would happen. Someone missed something.

Two bicep tears in one training camp. That must be odd. And maybe it's not a coincidence. I wonder if the Ravens training staff is trying to figure out the cause. Perhaps they're doing something wrong with the younger guys in terms of their weight training? I'm not an expert at all. But it just occurs to me that maybe there's a reason these two bicep injuries have happened.

Tucker just got more valuable and Ozzie will need to pay him. JT is already, and will continue to be, incredibly valuable. He's a guy that puts points on the board which makes him different than, say, a guard or a linebacker. Tall receivers (like the guy we just drafted) also just got slightly more valuable because they can be used to catch short passes (jump balls) on 2pt conversions.

Seems like a great move. Welcome to Baltimore and the Ravens, Jeremy! We have high expectations and I hope that's what you want out of a team and its fans.

Just wondering if this was on anyone else's radar, other than Ozzie's? I'm on this site a decent amount and had never heard a mention of the possibility of Jeremy being available. Obviously Ozzie & Team are living and breathing this 24hrs a day. To me, it just kind of shows that we really never know exactly what's going on, but at the same time we can be confident that the FO is looking at improving the team from every angle possible.