BloodRaven

Lets hope that when he starts getting the usual Ravens receiver stats he won't tear the team apart. 

That's not really true. At least not in my case. Steve Smith has always been one of my favorite players in the NFL period. With his smash mouth attitude he'd fit right in with us, and although he's clearly lost a step, he's still a pretty good WR.

With that being said though, I'd prefer we go younger and just get a WR in the draft, especially considering this class is stacked. I love Smith, but I really don't want another stop gap at WR. And for those saying he could be a mentor to Torrey Smith, I don't really get it. Torrey is a vet himself and he's the one who should be mentoring our younger guys which will hopefully include some WR's from this years draft.

What I meant to say was those who think he's a washed up old man have never watched him play. If you're concerned about going younger we still would regardless of if we sign him or not, the WR position will be addressed in the draft and we already have talented starters. 

He really should have been retained and retired as a Panther. Oh well I hope we can capitalize.

I remember playing franchize mode way back in Madden 02 and I always traded for Steve Smith, his ratings sucked back then but because of his speed he would always develop into a monster.

Anquan Boldin was a stop gap. He came in here in 2010 and left in 2012. Housh was a stop gap as well as Lee. Some of our draft picks have been like stop gaps. All I'm saying is Joe needs some more people who he can grow with.

Mason almost single handedly carried our passing game during his tenure and we won a Super Bowl with (and largely because of) Boldin so I don't see how either is an argument against stopgaps. Lets not forget that the average NFL career is 4 years so theres little point holding age against still productive players, almost half of these rookies will be out of the league before Steve Smith hangs up his cleats.

As I mentioned earlier there are already homegrown players he is growing with and we'll add more during the draft, we're not rebuilding an entire receiving corps like the Jets we're trying to build a balanced and dynamic offense with a proven commodity.

See what people don't understand is, he is another stop gap player who will leave Joe Flacco in a year or two. I'm tired of the Ravens doing that. We need someone who will grow a develop along side Flacco, instead of getting rentals. I rather have Eldeman than Steve Smith at this point of their careers.

Smith, Brown and Pitta aren't stopgaps, besides it's about adding proven veteran leadership and skills. People like to point at Housh and Lee Evans as reasons for not bringing in older players yet conveniently leave out Boldin and Mason. You can't teach intangibles and toughness to rookies.

I want to see us take a run at Henry Melton or B J Raji. Both are great DL guys and since losing Jones we need some fresh blood there.

Melton is coming off a rebuilt knee, BJ Raji was a bust in Green Bay.

Those who don't want Smith obviously have never seen him play, nobody plays bigger than their size than Smith. He's the biggest man on the field any day of the week 35 years old or not. Whoever gets him is going to improve their offense for the next few years.

It's the Raiders. 

True. Al Davis would have been proud.

I'm not sure about that. Saffold could have been their LG solution with swing tackle ability in case Watson wasn't ready. We'll know if they sign a LG in free agency.

$8.5M average for a pass blocking guard? that seems unlikely.

I like him in the slot actually. I think he would be fine there. Keep Webb outside.

Personally, I'd love for us to sign Clemons. I know it's not a great solution but a one year deal would be good for us and him. I also wouldn't mind signing Cook if he gets past the Niners.

Cook could be an interesting #2 on the outside but he's missed 30 games in 4 years. 

They still have Menelik Watson and I figure he would be their left tackle for the future.

They wouldn't have tried to sign Saffold if Watson was their designated LT of the future. They're either stuck with him, or they draft a LT.

I'm all for Munnerlyn if he comes on a decent deal. His market has been quiet. 

He's one possibility, size isn't really the knock on him because he's physical but he'll get burned on the outside.

The market for center is dead. I think we could get a player for a mill smaller than proposed.

It seems that way but there are still big contracts being handed out.

Now that the Raiders have lost both Veldheer and Saffold I'm guessing they're going to address LT in the draft, that leaves the Falcons with Lewan at #6.

Oakland raiders Classic Saffold Fails Physical won't be signing. lmao!

http://nfltraderumors.co/report-rodger-saffold-fails-physical-not-signing-with-the-raiders/

I wonder who their GM and head coach will be next year?

Not sure it's a complete 180 when all but one player is a carry-over from the previous year (although I guess Pitta almost counts as a new player). Either way, I do think we'll be better.

Far from 180, we still have to fix our non existent ground game and give Flacco space to step up in the pocket and time to throw.

Graham played well and deserves his contract, not bad for a guy buried as a ST player.

With that said there are still a lot of corners available, a few would be upgrades over Graham.

$$$?

I would tweet Steve Smith all the comments around the league about how old and ineffective he is, then sit back and watch him in his final enraged form destroying secondaries.

DeAngelo Tyson is a downgrade from Art Jones so we're going to take a hit to our run defense there, do we really want to line another coverage MLB up next to Brown?

Which is why I think he'll potentially come cheap and has the potential to be dominant as hes shown flashes of in the past. He could play the 3 tech in our 4-3, and I think he could be successful as a sort of modified 0 tech in our 3-4 bc of the talent in our front 7 with Canty, ngata, suggs and doom coming off the edges.

He doesn't have prototypical size and may not be able to handle 2 gap assignments against the run, but there are plenty of teams now who have their 0 tech only responsible for 1 gap especially when they're quick, athletic and have especially high pass rushing prowess. Wade Phillips does this all the time.

He's only 27 and could come cheap and I like his upside. He'd give us versatility with our fronts, and would give us more pressure up the middle, something we've been missing lately. I think the lack of a threat to bring pressure up the middle is why our pas rush suffered so much at the end of the year. They keyed on doom and suggs and that was it. Ngata wasn't getting it done and Cody is nothing more than a blob, zero pass rushing ability.

Im all for bringing in players with talent and adapting scheme to fit them as opposed to saying hey hes not a traditional 0 tech, he doesn't fit what we do.

EDIT: the knee construction is a legitimate concern, but like I said, im only interested if its minimal financial commitment.

I guess I was confused because you said he would play nose and allow Ngata to move back out to DE. I agree with your assessment that we need to build and/or adapt to the strength of our players, a 3 man front isn't going to collapse the pocket without a blue chip stud like Dontari Poe, it's clear that Ngata is no longer that guy.

I'm starting to think we're looking at either Pryor or Clinton-Dix with our first pick in the draft. I think Pryor would be a great pick there.

I'm thinking we may also look at a NT/DT type of guy in FA... At the right price the guy from Chicago would be a great pick up and would allow ngata to go to DE.

Melton? he's a 3 tech tackle coming off a knee reconstruction.

I don't think it matters that much.  Webb slid into the slot because Graham was much better playing on the outside in 3 CB situations.  Webb is more than capable of playing the outside if we go for a pure slot guy.

Yeah Webb gives us flexibility because he can play inside or out. Theres still a possibility that we fill that role by promoting someone from out current corps or through the draft.

On defense we need a starter at free safety, because we don't have one.

 

then we should add a nickle corner, and maybe add a DT to fit in the rotation. 

 

Ozzie gets that done and I am a happy camper. 

From the names that are left I'm thinking Pat Sims, Bengal fans want him back, Oakland fans want him back yet he has no suitors? I've given up trying to figure out how these GM minds work. He's a high motor two gapper who has a similar game to Art Jones.