Maryland

How do you rank our needs by position? It's early in the season, but I think most would agree Center, Safety, 5-tech, and #2 CB are all pretty obvious needs that could be listed 1 through 4 in some order. LG/RT will be a big need if Wagner leaves in FA. Depends if they see Lewis as a future RT or LG (I'm assuming Wagner becomes a comp. pick and Lewis the future RT). WR could be a need if Perriman doesn't finish the season healthy, if they don't plan on extending Wallace after 2017, if they don't believe in Moore, or if they just want more depth beyond those 3. SSS is retiring and Aiken could leave in FA. Hybrid LB/S could be a need, since they were looking for one last draft (rumored to be interested in both Ramsey and Cravens), plus Levine is a UFA. P/K returner should be a need, since Hester is old, and who knows if Reynolds has a future with us (he could be picked-up off our PS or simply not have the talent). Backup QB (Mallett is a FA). I'm actually leaving NT off of this list even if Brandon Williams leaves in FA. Pierce seems to be a stud, and Carl Davis could still be a backup.

Pretty early to call him a bust in my opinion, considering he missed all of TC and his rookie season, but you can call him whatever you want--that's the beauty of opinions. Hell, you can even attest that you were right about him all along even if he turns into a perennial pro-bowler someday, since I doubt anyone would call you out on it anyway.

I was more satisfied with the run:pass ratio. Saw an article on RSR complaining about the ratio, but I think those numbers were lopsided a bit simply by having to move the length of the field with ~90 seconds left. Fact is, even the teams that run a lot only run ~40% of the time. There was only one set of downs where I was surprised Marty didn't run the ball once (some point in the 2nd half, 3rd quarter maybe). Plus they had some success with deep passing. Can't complain about Mornhinweg too much. Now the penalties on the other hand... Lol, seriously. Those TE screens have been awful! Even our RB screens are predictable and fail quite often.

Suggs doesn't have a face for television lol Hah! That would be awesome. Get Sizzle a gigantic arm brace and some deer antler spray pronto.

Meh, I was okay with the 4th and 1 decision to go for it. Can't remember the article/stat specifically, but your chance to win improves at a high enough percentage to justify the play in most cases. I probably wouldn't run a pitch play that starts developing ~5 yards behind the LOS, but that's an issue with the playcalling itself and not the decision to go for it in general.

I feel like we want two things to be true that just aren't true right now. We want Correa to be good right now, but he's not. And we want him to play, but there are other players on the roster who are better than him right now. Correa's sole career highlight is a pass defended in the flat at Jacksonville. Other than that, he's gotten stone-walled by average OTs as a pass-rusher and washed-out in run plays coming at him (all in limited snaps, but that's all we have to go on). Correa simply hasn't shown that he deserves playing time right now, and I'm sure his performance in practice compared to other players on the roster has further proven that. There's a reason coaches opt to use McClellan over him.

Not really sure how anyone can argue /w your observations here. Yes, there are drops from WRs, OL struggles, and penalties all over the place to make life difficult for Joe, but it's a fact that sometimes he locks-on to his first read and then forces a throw. And it's a fact that some of his passes (especially to end the game) were off the mark, likely due to poor mechanics--a problem he's had all year. Plus the way he ran the hurry-up offense with little urgency rubbed me the wrong way. And he really needs to be able to read that a 7-man blitz is coming and get the ball to his hot receiver. Ravens have many problems apart from Joe, but Joe himself isn't beyond reproach because of these other issues.

My memories of Upshaw dropping into coverage are defined by a sense of futility as RBs and TEs would simply run by him through his zone. He made a good play here and there, but generally not someone you want covering anybody. He should have just put on some weight and played on the DL, which is what he's doing now /w Atl. as a rotational DT.

I know I'm late to the conversation, but I want to give my 2 cents, even if just for myself. I'm going to try to avoid getting into a blame-based analysis here, but the reasons this team has struggled post-SB is because of 1) scouting/drafting, and 2) the allocation of cap space (ie: which players we've sign to big contracts). Regarding scouting, I sometimes wonder if the scouts forget to consider scheme/fit when evaluating a player. I look at John Simon (4th round pick) as the main example of this. It seemed like our coaching staff had no interest in using him on defense, yet after being cut in TC his 2nd year, he went on to be a solid contributor for the Texans as a depth OLB. Simon seemed like a tweener coming out of college, so maybe the coaching staff couldn't find a position for him. Arthur Brown would have been a much better fit as a Will LB on a 4-3 team, though a lack of instincts and inability to contribute on ST ultimately caused him to be inactive daily (he seems like a bust regardless of scheme). Keith Wenning had a noodle arm, which didn't fit an offense that attacks vertically. Upshaw was a poor fit, since Pees seemed to require a Sam LB who could drop into coverage. Elam was a SS who couldn't form-tackle. I'm starting to wonder if Correa will be a player without a true position on this defense, but it's waaay too early to make that call. In addition (and I think this is to your original point), our drafting seems to ignore the skill positions, namely WRs, DBs, and edge rushers. They've drafted heavily on interior DL, OL, and TE, but they've either ignored or missed on WRs, DBs, and edge-rushers (especially 5-tech DEs, but also rush LBs). They've spent a lot of picks on the RB position, but have little to show for it. In terms of drafting, as has been mentioned and accepted by most every Ravens fan, our scouts/management have not hit consistently on picks in rounds 1-3. I think 2010 is the first really bad draft we had in the Harbaugh/Flacco era, missing on two 2nd round picks (Kindle, Cody) and a 3rd round pick (Ed Dickson)--the only saving grace was getting two good starters in Arthur Jones and Pitta. 2011 yielded 3 good starters (Torrey, Jimmy, McPhee), but they missed badly on Jah Reid, a 3rd round pick. 2012 was underwhelming: some consider Upshaw a success, but 2-down LBs can be found as UDFAs; they wasted a high 2nd round pick on Upshaw as far as I'm concerned. They also missed on Bernard Pierce, a 3rd round pick, and Gradkowski, a high 4th. KO is the only really good pick from 2012. 2013 was really bad to start (Elam and Brown), but they still managed to get 3 starters. 2014 was pretty decent, only missed on Terrance Brooks among the early picks, but they managed to get 2 starters and 2 solid depth players. 2015 is not off to a good start, and I'll leave it at that. 2016 is already looking pretty good. To compensate, they've done well in later rounds. You should also consider the starting/depth UDFAs we've gotten over that time: Tucker, Michael Pierce, Orr, McClellan, Ellerbe, Jameel McClain... did above average there. A specific trend that has emerged in our scouting is in the southeastern area scouting. These struggles seemed to precipitate in 2008 when Joe Horitz was promoted from southeast area scout to Dir. of Player Personnel. I'm not sure who succeeded Horitz as the SE area scout, but Ian Cunningham was promoted to SE area scout in 2013. It's hard to know which schools count as being in the "southeast," but in that general area, we've drafted and missed or disappointed on the following players since 2008 (not including 7th rounders): Tavaris Gooden (3rd round, Miami), Davon Drew (5th, E.Carolina), Sergio Kindle (2nd, Texas), Terrance Cody (2nd, Bama), Jah Reid (3rd, UCF), Chykie Brown (5th, Texas), Courtney Upshaw (2nd, Bama), Christian Thompson (4th, S.Carolina St.), Tommy Streeter (6th, Miami), Matt Elam (1st, Florida), Aaron Melette (6th, Elon), Terrance Brooks (3rd, FSU), Lorenzo Taliaferro (4th, Co.Carolina), Robert Myers (5th, Tenn.St). (I'm leaving off some recent picks like Perriman because they jury is still out) Some of those players were pretty highly drafted, and when you look at our busts as a whole, it seems a larger % come from the southeast. During that same span, the players we've drafted from that region who are not busts are: Mosley, Jernigan, McPhee, and Oher (and some would consider him a disappointment as a 1st rounder). Seems like a low rate of success in the southeast. I imagine this is just the cost of everyone poaching our scouts--you inevitably promote someone who is unqualified eventually. However, the area where our FO has struggled the most is in its allocation of cap space. A lot of this is bad luck, though some of it was unwise in context. Just off the top of my head: Webb, Pitta, Benjamin Watson, Jacoby Jones, Eugene Monroe, and Ray Rice did not live up to their contracts after signing (the Pitta one was unwise, the Rice an unforeseen event, and the rest due to unexpected injuries). It could be argued that Jimmy and Flacco are underpreforming their contracts. Justin Foresett only played last season under his extension, which is an underperformance imo. Billy Cundiff was cut 1 season after an extension, though he really only had one blunder of a kick to deserve the cut. Ngata was underperforming his contract until the year before he was traded. Fabian Washington and Foxworth were dumb FA signings. Especially over the past few seasons, we've had a lot of salary cap space allocated to people who were not performing for one reason or another. This really hurts your ability to compete in a salary-capped sport. The good news is that these contracts will hopefully be behind us soon enough, and the dead money not too painful moving forward. TLDR, what has hurt us the most is: 1) scouts drafting players who don't fit schematically, 2) scouting has missed in the mid rounds, 3) scouting is/was especially bad in the southeast region, and 4) poor allocation of cap space. Doubt anyone reads this book lol.

Lol, that's a pretty interesting coincidence.

I appreciated your playing devil's advocate. Good perspective on how the NFL works sometimes.

Part of me is actually kind of excited we activated Onwuasor. His penchant for hitting too hard is actually an asset when he's tackling the opposing team. I wonder if he'll even be active, however.

I'm surprised this forum took me seriously, especially after suggesting Hester wear a shoe that is 10 yds long just a few posts prior.

It'll come down to which is worse: their OL or our pass rush lol. Both have been underwhelming.

Our redzone efficiency has gone way down. To fix this, they need to run more wildcat, at least until teams prove they know how to stop it. The key to running a successful wildcat will be bringing Keenan Reynolds up from the PS. Just give Reynolds the ball out of the wildcat inside the redzone and we'll score more TDs; he led the FBS in TDs for a reason.

I wouldn't say McClellan sucks, just that he probably shouldn't be playing ILB unless it's on an obvious run down. I am okay with him coming in as the Sam LB for Doom/Judon on early downs though. I would rather see Levine in there next to Orr than McClellan for the most part. I'm thinking they go right back to using Wright as the primary #2 CB now that he's healthy, though I'd rather see Tavon Young get the nod on plays where there's only 2 corners on the field. Our secondary played better with Young on the field last week. Would like to know what others think.

Apparently the coaching staff saw it possible to have only one of Judon or Doom active on a given day. I'm excited to see more Judon, since Doom just wasn't himself, and he was blocking Judon from playing. I think they keep him on the 53 though rather than IR him. I have a feeling they want to use that IR-designated to return option on Elam, and if you IR Doom, you're faced with a tough choice. If Doom gets healthy, he could provide a serious boost to this pass rush... but that's a big "if," and one that may never happen this year... or ever. Doom is probably going to be a cap casualty at the end of this season regardless, but I wouldn't completely rule-out the possibility that he re-signs after getting cut.

Agreed. If I was going to pick a bone with this organization, the first place I'd go is our FO. Coaching, QB play, and other misc. factors are all secondary concerns compared to how many early and mid-round picked we've missed over the past 5 years or so, and how many long-term contracts have disappointed. Granted, some of the draft and contract disappointments are due to unforeseeable injury, but others are due to poor scouting and/or drafting players who don't fit our system. When you miss on draft picks and waste a lot of cap on players who are injured or underperforming, you're going to have a weaker roster. If you want to win in a salary-capped league, you have to draft better than everyone else and make every contract extension count. We've drafted alright, getting some nice players here and there, but we could be doing better, especially in rounds 1 through 3. We haven't drafted any major impact players in quite awhile--guys you have to franchise tag because they're too good to lose. There is a barbell-effect going on with our age distribution because a lot of those players who should be in the final years of their contract as major contributors aren't here. Ideally, your roster is filled with starters on rookie deals, but that's not really the case with us; we have a lot of old veterans filling in the roster roles, hence why our average age is pretty high compared to the rest of the league. Simply put, our scouting needs to improve, and we need to have better luck with our contract extensions.

Jerry Coleman was asked this question specifically (is Harbs losing the locker-room) and said any notion that that is the case is patently false. I'll take the opinion of someone who actually visits the team's locker-room after a game over some internet speculation

They're on a 3-game losing streak; we're on a 2-game losing streak. Some crappy team has to win this game, so why not us? lol Like @JoeyFlex5 said, the only thing that really scares me is their WR corps, but if we can get enough pressure, Eli will get rattled pretty easily, same as he did vs GB, who has an even worse secondary. If we can control the clock with a healthy TOP, I like our chances.

Was Stanley's participation in practice limited, I assume? Just wondering if he actually practiced /w everyone else or just did his own thing on the side.

I have to agree. Jimmy just isn't quick enough to keep up with Odell consistently. Is it crazy to think Tavon Young might be the best one to cover Odell?

If we go like 5-11 this year, Harbaugh's seat will be warm in 2017. If he does poorly in 2017, there is a chance he's gone. But this is all hypothetical, and really just indicative of how safe his job is at the current moment. The only way he really ever gets on a hot seat is if he loses the locker-room, and there is absolutely no hint of that right now.

I will say our OL will be arguably the worst it's ever been in like the past decade if Stanley, Yanda, and Wagner are all out. Then you'll be looking at Lewis, Urschel, Zuttah, Jensen, and Hurst... good luck Joe! /Actually we might have sported an OL of McKinnie, Shipley, Gradkowski, Yanda, and Oher in 2013 if my memory serves... that might be worse, but probably not.

But anyone who watched Wallace throughout his career knew he didn't have good hands. He has always been a body-catcher who short-arms everything away from his body. For this reason, I'm not really upset when he drops a pass--low expectations, Joe knows he has to hit him in the chest to make a catch. I actually expect more from Perriman and Moore because I've seen them make some nice hands-catches when they concentrate on the ball.