reed20fence

Just to sum up the tally, IR has on it: Our starting QB; Starting RB; Backup RB; Starting WR1; Starting WR2; Starting TE; Starting C; Starting OLB/DE; Promising DE; Backup SS Potential KR/PR slot WR. BTW this list includes the 1st round picks from 2013 and 2015. Yet we still keep fighting and winning and losing games by 3 points here, 4 point there. And some members of the Raven Nation Family want to have a serious discussion about how our coaching sucks and needs an overhaul?

The day is fast approaching when knee braces become a standard part of an nfl uniform. The sheer number of ACL tears in this sport are staggering. They should certainly be a standard part of a quarterbacks armor. Especially the front knee.

That plus the fact that we're talking about a guy that literally walked it off, got back in the huddle and finished the game. Even if it's a complete tear, this guy is clearly tough enough to rehab and power through to a quick comeback.

Prayers for peace and perseverance out to this member of the Baltimore family. May your place of reunion be in the promised Life to come. Amen.

I don't think every fan realizes what a blessing it is to sit at the bank and watch our guys (even when we may not be playing well). It's something you start longing for once you no longer live in the area.

People are increasingly excited about Joey Bosa but I've cautioned myself from getting too excited. He's clearly a good player but not making it happen isn't the end of the world. There are several good edge rushers in this draft. If it's any consolation it helps to remember that T-Sizzle was the 4th defender taken in the 2003 draft. 3 D-tackles went before him. For that matter 8 defenders were selected before Polamalu.

Even though we'll likely get top 10 picks in each round, I'm looking more forward to Free Agency next year than the draft. It's not exactly rare, but it is uncommon to have rookies serve as foundational pieces of deep playoff runs. There are a lot of variables involved in the cap picture of course, but there are some probabilistic assumptions we can make about next year. Assuming the cap increases (and it may not be a likely possibility) similar to this year, it'll be around 150 million. If we assume no contracts or roster changes we're looking at $5.5 million plus in space. But we know there will be extensions, restructures, parting of ways and retirements. If we extend Joe to flatten him out at 20 million a year we're looking at adding ~5 million more, That's 10 million in space. We likely part ways with Webby to take the 6 million dead money but save 2.1 million for 2016 bringing the total to 12 million in space. Pitta is the same. We take $6.6 million in dead money (that'll bring total dead to 12) but free up 600k. If Steve Smith indeed does retire it's an added 3 million to the cap space. 15 million total. Other notable discrepancies between cap figures and dead money are Kyle Arrington and Chris Canty, parting ways with which would raise another 3.7 million. Bringing the total to 18 million. That's a lot of free agents we can re-tool with. Then you add in the rookie class, a healthy Perriman (G-d willing), our young stud TEs with another year with Joe, etc etc. There is light at the end of this tunnel.

The pick value chart is pretty cut and dry. Hypothetically if we finish with the 4th pick and a team below the 20 pick mark wants to move up then yes, they'd have to toss in next year's 1st and more to do it. Although I don't think we'll want to move down if Bosa somehow falls to us. Losing Sizzle on the edge completely unwound our defense at every level.

Just heard Breshad's presser and will say this... fans need to stop being such jerks. It's clear the guy was reading all the garbage that was being tweeted to him and all the negativity being spewed by childish fans. Yeah it's an entertainment business and you're a paying consumer and blah blah blah. But these guys aren't some playthings that you treat like objects and throw away when you're no longer interested. They're human beings, and treating them like genuine members of the larger Baltimore family instead of livestock will pay both tangible and intangible benefits down the road when it comes to their motivation to perform and stay loyal to this community.

It's just a little ironic that in an article that's lamenting the injury to a 5th round find in a rookie tightend we've got folks questioning our granting of second contracts to players that are labeled 'busts.' It's like we love the front office for finding guys no one else believed could contribute in one breath, but then dogging the same front office for not being able to predict injuries to other players. Maybe someone should take on that project of going back and recounting the context that we were faced with making a decision on Pitta, Jimmy or Webby and it'll tell us exactly why we had to make those extensions. I remember Jimmy's because it was the most recent, but there weren't too many people calling it a bad move on our part the day the news was released that he extended. And I agree with RMCs point.. only to add that if the Baltimore Ravens get in the business of punishing guys that get hurt by releasing them and not even entertaining the possibility of signing contracts to extend them, LOOKOUT, because veteran free agents will not look favorably upon a franchise in a bidding war when they know one isn't loyal to its players and will abandon them the moment they get hurt... which, you know, tends to happen in a contact sport.

I still think Juszczyk is the unsung hero of the group. He does the dirty work of a FB, and half the time he also lines up as a tight end. Will he ever get any love? I was also thinking the other day... one bad season can't possibly get football fans in Baltimore down. Maybe it's fitting that a crappy year is happening in our 20th anniversary. It gives us pause to remember things like Baltimore being the only city to have teams that have won Lombardis, Grey Cups, and USFL championships. It's almost Thanksgiving so we could reflect on the blessing of having a world class franchise to root for in our city and state. I think we grew accustomed to constant success due to the 5 year long story that was written leading up to our last Super Bowl, but we should remember that there were teams that featured Hall of Famers like Ray, Ed, Suggs, and Ngata in Baltimore that had losing seasons. We still stuck it out as fans. If we survived being robbed of a team for 13 years, we can survive a year here or there of bad luck.

Imagine if the time off his knee actually helps. Imagine if he comes back and explodes onto the scene, torching past secondaries. What will his naysayers do then? How will all those Ravens fans that dogged him for getting hurt face him? I'm sure people will be tripping over themselves backpedalling all the hate they spewed about BP being a bust. Worst yet, these same people could be begging him to show loyalty and extend his rookie contract come 2020. Why should he be loyal to a fanbase that questioned his manhood?

You could tell by Joe's body language on the final drive that nobody was happy about putting our defense out there yet again to be last on the field. It's a known recipe for disaster. Not sure if the team would ever admit it, but I think consensus between Joe and the coaches is growing that if we're winning and there's 6 minutes in the game, either we need to hurry up and get out, or we need to run the ball and try to end the game fully. When there's anything less than 4 minutes left and you trot our defense out, chalk it up as a loss. Between penalties and psyching ourselves out, our coverage couldn't prevent a toddler from crawling into fieldgoal range.

Just some hard numbers here. I know we can do a deep dive to further explore the meaning of these in the context if each individual team, but it's just interesting to look at. The source is Over The Cap. Top 10 teams ordered by Dead Money: Team -- Dead Money ▾1. Saints $33,263,542 2. 49ers $27,827,835 3. Dolphins $25,462,318 4. Bears $25,115,528 5. Buccaneers $23,924,573 6. Ravens $22,122,798 7. Chiefs $20,754,746 8. Lions $19,312,759 9. Steelers$18,429,050 10 Patriots $18,164,933 When adjusting by de facto dead money due to IRed and PUP players Team Dead Money ▾ -- IR/PUP -- Total of Dead and IR money1. Ravens $22,122,798 -- $21,600,000 -- $43,722,798 2. Dolphins $25,462,318 -- $16,700,000 -- $42,162,318 3. Steelers$18,429,050-- $22,800,000 -- $41,229,0504. Saints $33,263,542-- $5,527,000 -- $38,790,542 5. 49ers $27,827,835-- $8,700,000-- $36,527,8356. Bears $25,115,528 -- $8,175,000 -- $33,290,5287. Buccaneers $23,924,573 -- $7,900,000-- $31,824,573 8. Patriots$18,164,933-- $13,400,000-- $31,564,9339. Chiefs $20,754,746 -- $10,600,000-- $31,354,74610. Lions $19,312,759 -- $9,500,000 -- $28,812,759 Hate to admit it but if we're being fair, the Steelers are toughing it out.

Questionable calls and no-calls within the last 2 minutes of the half and the game should be reviewable in New York. Too many times have we now seen phantom PI and holding calls and missed blatant holding calls and false start/offside penalties that totally ruin the outcome of games. This isn't Baseball or Basketball or hockey where if you get screwed by a ref's human error you've got 161 or 81 other chances to mitigate the risk. These guys play 16 games and each one is vital. People say they don't want to watch longer football games. That's BS cuz those same people tune in to invest 4 hours to watch every Sunday if not 8 or 12 hours to watch games in the later slot and Sunday night football. Then again on Monday Nights. That's a horsecrap argument. This isn't the 1960s where you can claim we don't have the technology. We can fly over the backwaters of any corner in this world and spy on people but we can't find a way to watch 22 guys playing in a stadium in the heart of America's largest metropolises? Cmon! I get that CBS, FOX, NBC and ESPN want us to stick to the allotted slots they provide because it neatly fits their advertising templates, but you've now got serious challenges to the integrity of outcomes impacting not just smaller market teams like Baltimore, but huge market teams as well. I can't imagine that the Rules and Competition committee don't devise ways to get more accurate and justifiable results on these contests. No one should take for granted that people won't tune out. People will tune out if they feel that factors of incompetence outside of the athletic performances themselves are impacting outcomes and no one is doing anything to correct the errors.

Someone is probably gonna write an article about this but if you use OverTheCap's figures we rank 6th in official dead money. But if you combine the technical dead money with the de facto dead money of guys on IR we leapfrog to the top of the list with somewhere around 35 million plus worth of talent missing. It's interesting because ESPN showed graphics today that said all of the Bengals starters combined have missed only 8 games. Suggs alone has missed more than all the starters of Cincy combined. Nevermind Perriman, Pitta, SSS etc.

It's the same story that it has been all year long. Only one side of the ball plays to win at one time. When the defense holds a 1 point lead after turnovers on drive after drive, the offense finally wakes up, but then the defense caves. We're not a team that seeks to win by dominating an opponent. We're a reactionary team that's coached and executes based on fear of failure. That's why we're so easy to predict on both sides of the ball. Well, fear and key pieces on IR.

Not sure what everyone is so worked up about. All three phases were doing their level best to make sure we owned the tie breaker against Jacksonville in the 2016 draft. Could our guys have done a better job of ensuring we lost? The innovative ways we came up with to seal the loss are a credit to our ingenuity.

Hope the best for Denny with his health and the best for his family. I really hope we can work it out and bring him back next year perhaps on a mutually agreed-upon salary reduction. Either way, let's not kid ourselves - for anyone excited about having those chunks of dead money for Ray Rice and Ngata fall off the books next year, if Pitta retires or gets released or traded (or even reduces the salary portion of his contract) we're still starting 2016 with 6.6 million in dead money. This sucks all around.

Honestly i get the feeling most Ravens fans didnt want Rice released and still to this day would welcome him back. And I'm one of them. Be it next year or 40 years from now, this organization evetually will have to come to terms with the fact that we weren't our best selves during that whole episode.

The reality is that Jerry Jones and the Cowboys have the clout that Bisciotti and the Ravens don't. Advertisers and sponsors and suite PSL holders pressured Bisciotti with threats of pulled revenue. Note the extensive explanations Bisciotti had to publish publicly and pay close attention to who he addresses his apologies to. The situation is inverted with Jerry Jones. The Cowboys are such a large brand that he can simply dangle a huge waiting list of Good Ole Boys waiting for suites and advertisers trying to get the eyes of cowboys fans directed to their products and everyone goes quiet. Money can talk, but it can also hush.

I'm still as excited to see BP today as I was the day we drafted him. This guy is 6"2' 200 lbs plus and clocked a 4.24 40 according to nfl.com. If guys like Peterson that have come back from completely shredding their knees, and prior to that clocked 4.4 40s, and still get clocked with this knew technology running 21 and 22 mph, imagine how fast these WRs are running? And he's 6"2'!! Also, it looks like we got a smart trade in for Chris Givens for our 7th rounder. St. Louis just lost Bailey for 4 games for PEDs. Austin is mostly a gimmick reciever, and Britt and Quick are barely getting any receptions. Good thing we got the trade in before things went south for the Rams cuz there's no way they part with Givens if they knew how weak their WR corp really was. Not to mention Givens gets a shot at payback soon. Blood and Guts.

But again I'll stress, it's not so much about the reality that he can't catch, it's more about the perception that the guy still has enough speed to get behind coverage so he needs at least one defender to account for him. At this stage maybe we just know the younger guys can beat JJ in a foot race?

I'm not sure anyone is in a rush to sign Dragonfly. So why not take the bye week and maybe play one more game and if it's not working out with the younger guys, then sign him?

I guess we're not IR-ing Perriman because we hope to get a good sample size of his abilities this year before deciding how aggressively to pursue WRs in Free Agency and the draft next year. My only concern with this startegy, if it is indeed what's happening, isn't with Perriman's current injury. It's what happens every other time during his career when he has strains in his ligaments in all different parts of his body? Will strains sideline him for months on end because his sinews just take forever to heal? WRs with his build running as insanely fast as he runs are highly risky when it comes to bad landings and contourted catches. AJ Green has missed weeks on end multiple times just because he landed and slightly bent his leg the wrong way. If Harbs says this is the slowest recovering PCL in all history, what happens the next time he strains a ligament? Or the time after that? He could be an absolute beast and uncoverable when healthy for all we know. But it's not the talent we're questioning, it's the "when healthy" part.