Inqui

Our cap situation's tight enough as it is, imagine having to pay Tucker as well. O_O I can see this forum melting over his contract too.

How do you know he'll run an Air Coryell? For all we know if he gets hired it might have been because of his ideas on a WCO or he pitched the idea of putting Torrey and Deonte on slants more frequently.

It seems like all you're really saying is "give the guy a chance if he gets hired". I'm surprised that's not a bigger voice around here.

This, this, this, this and this. I'm not advocating for Hostler, but if we do promote him I do advocate the radical course of action and giving him a fair go with this offence. I'd rather not act like the sky's going to fall until it actually falls.

I think the main question about Kyle is whether we're prepared to see him move away from the run in a big way - because from what I've read it sounds like he will. Won't necessarily make him a bad OC, but I remember Cam got heat a couple of years back for not using Rice enough (that magic 25 touches).

Not a fan of the idea they proposed as I don't think it would change the dynamic of the game. I'd be in favour of pushing the kicker back 15 yards though.

I'm really not an expert on the Lions offence, but it seems like their play calling was far more creative than ours - putting Megatron on a few different routes, getting Reggie Bush involved in a few different ways, etc. Might have to watch a few Lions games. What kind of scheme does he use? How about his more common formations?

We only today found out that the Shanahan interview was "good", so I wouldn't hold my breath.

Or at least, before the Browns find a guy willing to get fired in 2015.

If we don't have a new OC before the draft I'll tun naked down Queen Street and upload the footage. Before the Super Bowl I think is closer to 50/50. I think we will, but I could understand taking longer.

I think Flacco's ceiling is somewhere in the ballpark of Drew Brees (and I think Drew's 2012 season and his years with Cam should suggest how integral his weapons and his system are in his success). I'm torn between wanting to quickly appoint a guy and focus on signing FAs (mainly our ones) and preparing for the draft; and between wanting the FO to take their time and get it right. I mean, you don't want to dither around looking for an OC for the whole offseason but you also don't want to Jerry Jones the appointment either.

I really liked one of the top comments: "Jet jettisoned from jet."

It sucked in a huge way at the time, but the Evans fiasco got us Jacoby and the Cundiff fiasco got us Tucker. I can understand people maybe keeping Evans over Jacoby (not really going to comment too much on that as it involves a lot of speculation), but I can guarantee there isn't a single Ravens fan out there who'd keep Cundiff on for that 2012 season if it meant missing out on Tucker. Hell, winning the Lombardi in 2013 means there'd be people who'd even be glad Cundiff missed. I don't really buy the whole "everything happens for a reason" line because it assumes someone has an inside line on the fates and the spiritual dimensions, but this organisation is one of the best there is at adjusting to things that go poorly. Agree re the Rich Gannon quote. It doesn't seem crazy to think they'd try to stash a few more coaches to potentially replace the next OC. Again, Shanahan as QB coach or something (it's not exactly like he's hot property at the moment). But I still reserve the right to want to know what direction this offence will be taking.

I'm not hoping we hire him, but if we do promote Hostler I think he at least deserves a season before we start saying he did a bad job for us.

Yeah, I think he'll be able to get Joe going with the short passing game AND attack the middle of the field (I know right, haha). As well as fitting with Juan's schemes and helping make Ray Rice look good again. Wouldn't be opposed to him at this point.

Just saw on NFL Live that Adam Schefter said Kubiak is "interviewing" with us. Suggests it hasn't happened yet, but it will.

I thought the Shanahan news broke a couple of days after he was interviewed? At least, that's how I understood it. And like someone said earlier, unless he's from the area or has family living there, you'd think if he was seen in a seafood restaurant in Baltimore that he'd have had a word with Ozzie/Harbs/Joe at some point.

I agree. What makes it worse is that if we don't get anything done tomorrow we're all in for a LONG weekend. I wonder how much the Lions taking their time on Caldwell had to do with our OC situation.

If he was a spoiled pratt like some are trying to make out, I trust that will have shown up in an interview. I'd be willing to bet they asked stuff like how he'd cope with having most of his staff allocated to him or others like that. If it turns out he's an average guy with as average a personality as you can have after being put through the gauntlet Washington, I like what he can do. Anyone who incorporates screen passes will be a huge upgrade over what we've ever had.

Yeah, the amount we just don't know is really quite staggering. I didn't mean it to give Shanahan a black mark among Ravens fans, but it seems we're in the process of absorbing as much information about prospective OCs as possible at this point so I went looking. Especially after the guy a few posts above brought up his negative history. I really don't know what to make of it. On the one hand it sounds like something dysfunctional's going on over there and someone probably has an axe to grind, but on the other you could argue there's no smoke without fire (and apparently La Conforna and Snyder have a bit of a history if the comments are to be believed, so that doesn't help clear the air either way). And on the third hand its 4am and I should have been asleep hours ago, haha. I'm going to reserve judgement on it and trust the FO brought up those allegations (is that the best word?) and others in the interview. Of course, if there is anything like that going on then you'd back Harbs to snuff out anything he felt was hurting the team environment.

That Redskins fan I asked earlier did credit Kyle with making the zone run work - even behind an offensive line that by all accounts was almost as bad as ours. And then of course Kubiak's a known disciple of a zone offence. No reason to think either would struggle to work with Castillo (from the Xs and Os perspective, anyway). Juice is one of the guys I'm dying to see. I really hope he can double as a lead blocker and a release valve who spills out of the backfield and takes a screen pass or a quick checkdown. I just think there'll be growing pains while all the parts and personnel come together. I'm just saying it won't be like changing a pair of socks, and while I for one am more than prepared to live with some stuttering for even as long as a full season or (god forbid) two I just hope people temper their short-term expectations.

I should have said "albeit maybe not by choice", but that doesn't really change what you said. I think the appeal with Norv (and that Chud still has) was that he represented a straight upgrade for the system - better caller, better set of plays - and the promise of minimal transitional pains, if any at all. I'm still in the camp where sticking with that wouldn't have doomed us, but I think you're right in that the FO's looking at something more modern and hopefully more varied. Considering the changes the offence will be going through during this offseason, this is probably the best chance we'll ever have to make a big philosophical change. The personnel will be upgraded so we get the normal chemistry stuff early on, which they can work on WHILE adapting to a new system. I don't think we'll be promoting from within, unless we have a much worse reputation among coaching circles than we suspect (the Browns say hi), and I definitely agree that this is a potentially exciting period for the Ravens. It'll be really interesting to see where we go and what Joe can do. Although if we do make wholesale changes I just hope the fans are prepared to give the new guy time to put everything in place. No way will a major change work overnight imo.

Apparently he quite likes his yes men. Take that at the value you will. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/writer/jason-la-canfora/24375961/kyle-shanahan-staff-inexperience-at-core-of-redskins-dysfunction

Norv and the Vikings are close to a deal, per Schefter. http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10302787/minnesota-vikings-close-hiring-norv-turner-offensive-coordinator?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=ESPN&utm_term=NFL+NEWS&utm_content=NFL+NEWS Looks like we might be going away from the Coryell, albeit not by choice (or at least having the decisiveness on the matter plucked from our grasp). ED: Some guy on Twitter's just said it's a 100% done deal, but I think he might be flinching in the trenches on that one.

I think you might be right. There hasn't been too much about going for a guy like Chudz or Norv at this point, beyond the speculation that we might be interested. Then again, we all got taken by surprise with the Shanahan interview so they've probably talked to someone else that they like who we haven't thought of. I know I'm mooting for Norv in my sig, but at the end of the day I'll be happy if whoever we bring in builds the offence around Flacco and injects the creativity we need to become a consistent offensive threat.