RavensBaltimore

Well, again, yes and no. It did allow us to sign those players, but it also meant we had to let certain players go that we otherwise may have wanted to keep. His contract, and in particular the future effect of said contract on the team, is a MAJOR factor in whether we are able to resign players now and in the future. The entire point of backloading a deal is to prolong a window where the team can sign certain players and make another run at a SB. That's the entire goal. This goal, obviously, was not accomplished. This is hindsight analysis of course, but knowing what we know now, we'd have been better off not backloading and not signing some of the players that we did, because at the end of the day, the purpose of signing said players is to win more games than you lose. In our case, we really haven't done that. And because of that, the time has come where Joe will cost more from a salary cap perspective than ever before, and we aren't likely to see a major increase in production to reflect that growing cap price. The same could be said about most players, which is why teams have gone towards a much different approach with contracts. They are looking to align contract costs with production as closely as possible. I think we are very likely to see an increase in production to reflect that growing cap price. Last year, the FO finally showed a willingness to use multiple high draft picks on pass catchers, and Ozzie said he wants to add 1 or 2 more this offseason. Joe was on pace for about 4,500 yds last year, and that was with the worst receiving corps in the league. We are not going back to Cam Cameron's power running offense, and when Joe finally has some healthy weapons around him, there's no reason to believe the numbers won't increase as a result.

If KO wants to be paid more than any guard in the league, then he's already got what he asked for, or at least close to it. The Ravens reportedly offered him a contract that would make him the second highest player on the team, which obviously means he'd be making more than Yanda, who's the 3rd highest paid guard in the league.

Depends on the replacement cost. Forsett costs $3.7M and Allen costs like $700K... is Forsett $3M better than Buck Allen right now? Tough sell. Daryl Smith costs $4.4M and Zach Orr costs $600K... is Daryl Smith $3.8M better than Orr? Tough sell. The reason people are talking about cutting those guys over cutting guys like Elam or Art Brown is cost. Cutting Art Brown really doesn't save us much money... cutting Daryl Smith does. That's the difference. We didn't have two full squads on IR when we started the year 1-6. That was with a pretty much fully healthy offense. And the defense itself was about as healthy as its been in years. Only key member of that defense missing was Suggs. We started the season without Perriman. You can downplay the significance of that because he's a rookie, but he's one of the fastest players in the league and our only speed on offense, on a team that desperately needed exactly that. The offense still played pretty well in the first 7 games, outside of the opener in Denver. On defense, we lost our best player, and our best corner was just a shell of himself because of his injury, so we were basically without our top 2 players on defense before Jimmy got in better shape.

I think the reason the media (and myself included) are surprised is because of our apparent lack of cap. I'm still puzzled by our FO's talk on how much freedom we have and how active we can be, even without renegotiating Flacco's contract. I'd never call myself a cap expert, but I thought I knew enough to see that we were pinched this year. I still don't get how this is all going to work, but I suppose we'll see. I'm not so sure about Monroe being a post June 1 cut. I suppose he could be ... if Pitta is going to play, which I just can't see happening. My thought all along was that Pitta was going to be that post June 1 cut. We rarely ever do post June 1 cuts, because it doesn't free money in the time frame when it is most needed and that it pushes a lot of dead money into the following year. We may do one, but certainly not both. We wouldn't need to cut Monroe after June 1st. I think the second scenario I mentioned is much more likely, if KO ends up staying.

I don't know why the media is so surprised that the FO offered KO a deal. LT tackle has been a problem area for us for a while now, and if they feel KO can be a long term solution for us, it's worth the investment. We can save plenty of money this year by cutting Monroe after June 1, and cutting him sooner would only save 2 mil this year, but it would save a lot more in the next couple years, when KO's higher cap hits would probably kick in.

Richardson is not washed up. I think he's only 26. He was just never successful in the first place. I don't think this is going to be similar to the Schaub situation. Schaub got more guaranteed money than Richardson will probably get, and he was brought in to be the backup qb. There is no guarantee that Richardson will make the team. He is probably just being brought in just for a chance to compete for a spot.

I'm pretty sure it means that Ozzie is trying to keep a poker face by not saying that they need to get a deal done.

And normally, I'd buy and agree with this concept. In theory, a high cap number from Joe means you spend less on other players. That could mean bad offensive lineman, bad receivers, etc., which would obviously directly impact Joe's production. A decline in production makes him less valuable, and as such, when new contract negotiations come up, the Ravens may get more leverage. Most of the time... I'd agree wholeheartedly with this. The problem I see is simple... the market for QBs is sky high, the demand is sky high, and the supply coming out of college of one's as good as Joe is almost non existent from what I'm seeing. In a good year, you'll find ONE QB better than Joe in the draft, and its incredibly difficult many times to figure out who that is. So if I'm a smart agent (and Joe Linta definitely is), I'm just showing the Ravens the market. I'm showing them that Kirk Cousins gets $20M a year on the franchise tag, and that QBs as good or worse than Joe are making similar money to what he is now. Once you show that... its pretty much checkmate from a negotiation standpoint. You've set a floor, and the floor is what he is making now. 3 years ago it was a big deal... now its largely a standard deal. Joe is going to get an extension that slots him in the range of an Eli, Big Ben, Rivers type contract. In theory, if he was real crappy in 2016, we might save $1M a year on negotiations. That's relatively chump change in the grand scheme of things. Not to confuse anybody, but let me be clear... its in Joe's best interest to sign an extension in the next couple weeks. He will undoubtedly make more than the $18M hes scheduled to make in 2015, he gets more guaranteed money (which technically he has none remaining on his current deal) and he gets more years added to his deal. My point is that his desire to do so doesn't have a whole lot to do with the Ravens reducing his cap number, because that's not a priority for him. That's up to the organization to figure out. How do you know that reducing his cap number isn't a priority to him? Did you ask him? I would think that it would be a major priority. Joe seems like someone who wants to play well and win, and reducing his cap number would be conducive to both of those things.

Right after Perriman's first MRI, which I think was in August, Harbaugh did say it showed inflammation indicative of a sprain, and the doctors were calling it a sprain. Jamison Hensely reported that he had a PCL sprain in August. I have no idea why the writers on this site kept acting like it was some kind of mystery injury, but the video of Harbaugh telling the media that the MRI showed a sprain was on this site.

People say those things about Perriman because they simply don't know what they're talking about. When has a knee sprain ever caused chronic issues in a young player's career? I can't remember that ever happening. The fact that he played all but one game in his college career shows he can play at full speed and take hits without getting injured. It was ONE lingering injury, and it lingered so long because he retore it, so he obviously isn't "soft", because he tried to come back a little too early. Just because an injury takes longer than usual to heal DOES NOT mean that it will become chronic.

I disagree. He had his best year as a pro in 2014 (under Kubiak). He did regress IMO this past season. Well he is not the Elite QB that warrants that kind of paycheck. Is he a good QB? Yes. Does he have a strong arm? Yes. Can he read Defenses? Questionable. Don't get me wrong I like Joe Flacco but I have expected more from him and gotten so much less especially last year before getting injured. Yes he did have a good year under Kubiak but still blew it in the playoff game with New England. We had a little time and we didn't need to go for it all on that pass to Torrey. Again famous over throw/under throws and considering what we do pay him I personally don't think he has lived up to it. It is not questionable at all if Flacco can read defenses. I guarantee you that you will never hear any of his current/former NFL coaches question his ability to do that, nor will you ever hear a credible film analyst question his ability in that reguard. 100% of that noise comes from fans who do not know how to read defenses. And blaming him for "blowing it" in NE makes no sense. He and the offense put up 31 points and built 2 14 point leads. Since 2010, he has played well enough to win the SB in every postseason he's been in. He doesn't have the horrible playoff games like the ones Brady and Manning have on an almost yearly basis. Based on what he's consistently done in the postseason, and based on the fact that he's only missed the postseason when his weapons were decimated by injuries and his defense can't hold leads, he has absolutely earned his contract.

And we will not have the opportunity to draft the best CB in the draft for a very long time if we don't take a CB in the top 10 this year. It could forever be our achilles heel in the playoffs under the Harbaugh regime. CB was only our achilles heel once in the playoffs, and that's because we had 5 of them on IR.

Flacco has won more playoff games than anyone since coming into the league, and he has the best playoff stats since entering his prime in 2010. It wasn't just one SB run, and he's still in his prime, so there's no reason to believe he can't do it again. In the 2 seasons we've failed to make the playoffs, our receiving corps was decimated by injuries, and probably the worst in the entire league, so it makes no sense to say we can't win by building around Joe. You say he's not Brady and he doesn't have the numbers to build around him, but Joe's numbers are just as good as Brady's in the years that Brady hasn't had Gronk or Moss, and Joe's playoff numbers are better than Brady's even with Gronk and Moss. There is absolutely no reason to believe that Joe can't put up huge numbers and win consistently if he actually gets a chance to play with a good receiving corps, like all the other qbs you mentioned. You have "better qb" and "better receiving corps" confused.

Yes, he needs a good defense. He just doesn't need a Broncos levelvet defense. We already know he doesn't because he's proven he can win without one, considering he hasn't had a Broncos level defense in his entire career. Flacco at his worst is still significantly better than what we all saw from Manning this year. Too bad facts and stats don't back you up on that. Yes they do. Fact: Denver's D was ranked #1 this year. Flacco has never had a D that ranked #1. Fact: Even in his worst year, Flacco has never had a TD/INT ratio or qb rating as bad as Manning's this year.

Flacco has gotten the job done in crunch time far better than any other elite qb in the league. His playoff numbers prove that, and his % of scoring TDs in the last 2 mins when needed is right up there with the best, and he's never had the weapons of the other elite qbs. He has thrown for more than 25 tds, and he was on pace for about 4,500 yds before he got hurt this year. Also, you can cherry pick good plays from our D in our last SB run, but they were not consistently good, and they gave up a lot of points and yards in the postseason. If our 2012 defense was "rabid", then about half the teams in the league have a rabid defense every year.

I agree with Eisenberg 100%. First of all, it would be foolish for anyone to use the Broncos defense this year as a template. The Broncos' D was one of the top 5 of the last 20 years. A unit like that is too rare to think that you can just build one and maintain it for consistency. Also, we have had a top 3 defense several times since 2006, and we kept falling short. When we finally broke through and won it all, we had decent weapons around Flacco(that's all he needed), and our offense led the way, despite having the worst defense of the Harbaugh/Flacco era. We do need to upgrade our D, but we've already found out that neglecting the offense to use most of our resources on defense only gets us so far, unless we had a historically great D, like in 2000, but again, defenses that great are too few and far between to count on.

The other safety position is a big question mark? How's that? Disregard that part of my comment. I have no idea what I was thinking there.

There is actually a legit chance that the secondary could be a strength for us next year. We may draft a CB early, Jimmy Smith and Will Davis may be back at full strength, and if Wright can continue playing the way he did at the end of last season, we'll have solid starting corners and decent depth. I think Webb is going to be a good safety, but the other safety position is still a big question mark.

We don't know that anybody can stay healthy, but BP never got injured in college, and it would be completely unprecedented for a PCL sprain to ruin someone's career, so I don't see any reason to believe he can't put his injury behind him once he's finally 100% and stay on the field.

One major reason for optimism that they left off the list is that Jimmy Smith should be at full strength next year. He was out of shape and slow in the first half of last season, but played much better in the second half. Even with everything else being the same, if Jimmy doesn't get torched in all of those close games, a few of those close losses would have been wins, and we would have been right in the playoff race before Joe got injured.

Dilfer wasn't really that bad in his SB. He threw a perfect deep ball to Stokely that gave us an early lead, and I knew our defense wasn't going to give it up. He completion % was terrible, but he managed the game well, didn't turn it over, and he made a big play that gave us control of the game.

Watching other qbs in the playoffs should really make everyone appreciate Flacco more. You can debate if he is elite, but in the postseason, he is the best in the league, and one of the best all time. Carson Palmer had an MVP caliber season, and couldn't handle the pressure of the postseason. Brady has a horrible playoff game like the one he had in Denver almost every year. Manning has never been great in the playoffs. Newton was supposed to be the next face of the league, and he was awful in the SB. Since entering his prime in 2010, Flacco has always played well in the postseason. He has 24TDs and 4INTs since then. Neither Brady nor Manning has ever come close to a dominant run like that. Flacco has 4 consecutive postseasons with at least a 3-1 TD/INT ratio. That's more than the entire careers of Brady and Manning COMBINED. He hasn't thrown more ints than tds in a postseason game since 2009, and he has an all time record(which is still active) of 8 consecutive postseason games with multiple td passes. I could go on and on listing his postseason accomplishments, and he's done it all without ever having a great receiving corps, and there's been a revolving door at OC.

The Ravens D was better for an entire season, they were better in the SB, and they were better in the whole postseason. Besides giving up 0 points and less than 200 total yds in the SB, they only gave up 1 TD in all 4 playoff games combined. In 4 playoff games, they gave up a TD and 3 FGs, which is exactly 4 ppg. Even though the Ravens played one more playoff game than the Broncos, the Ravens gave up less than half as many points in the postseason as Denver.

Don't count on that happening any time soon. I don't think we're going to see another defense as dominant as the 2000 one for a long time, if ever.

The Broncos' offense reminded a lot of the Ravens' 2000 offense. On a lot of drives, they didn't even attempt to pick up a first down. They were content to just not turn the ball over, punt and let their defense win.