Maryland

Daniel Brown and Tom Nelson have no chance of making the 53 man roster. 

I also doubt they keep a 7th WR, which means Butler will be on the PS another season. He would have to have some kind of phenomenal performance in game 4 to make a push.

SS89, Perriman, Camp, Aiken, Brown, & Waller are all locks. 

I hope he does make the team. He should get better as he gets more healthy and fit. Plus we really need DE depth with Urban out and Canty getting old.

I actually like the 4th preseason game. If you are someone who likes to see the conclusion of major position battles (ILB, WR), or if you just like seeing who could be a developmental prospect on the PS, then this is a good game to watch.

Eh, that comment doesn't really mean anything. Harbs says the same thing almost verbatim after roster cuts.

If Pitta doesn't play at all by the end of the season, and if our current trio of Gilmore/Maxx/Boyle remain healthy, then I have to believe they cut their losses /w Pitta before June 1. It's too much risk /w that much salary to pay for a player we may not need and who may not be able to play ever again. That said, I wish the best for Pitta and would love to have him back healthy.

I doubt any veteran WR they bring in is going to be much better than what we have. Teams don't want them because their performance isn't good or their talent doesn't match their contract. Plus they would have to learn the playbook in a short amount of time, develop chemistry. It seems like out WR corps is a whole lot of injury prone guys /w talent and average guys behind SS89. Really hope Camp can stay healthy because I love the way he gets open.

I think the comparison to the Pats offense from a few years ago is a good one. Our TEs may not be as good as Gronknandez, but they will probably be relied upon almost as much because our WR corps is kind of weak (like the Pats). Hard to gauge the run game from what we've seen, but if everyone gets/stays healthy at OL and RB, it should be the same as 2014. /e forgot about using the RBs a lot more for passing. We will definitely see more of that and Juice rolling out in the flat. 

I've actually been pretty impressed with our run D (although that Eagles game did look bad). I think teams will probably pass on us just as they did last season because Run D so good; pass D average to weak (I want to believe in Melvin, Webb, Lewis, but I'll believe it when I see it). We should produce a lot of sacks simply because there will be more passing situations. 

I think Campanaro could be a wildcard on offense. If he stays healthy, he could be a real clutch chain-mover. 

I guess he should've only asked him about SS's touchdown catch and run.

I don't mind some negative questions, but you have to mix in something positive. Like

"What made that kick return so successful"

"What do you think about so-and-so's performance" 

"What plays stood out to you"

Something like that to keep him from getting pissed off. You don't just go into the Safari Zone throwing rocks.

I think he won the kick returner job (although no one is really challenging him). However, punt returner is a different story. For fair catches they will absolutely have Webb or SSS do it.

Coming into the season, I wrote Brooks off as a sure IR candidate. That knee injury was gruesome. I can't believe he's already back and making plays. He must have the same recuperative powers as Wolverine.

It's cool because Crockett Gilmore doesn't even need a nickname--his name is cool on its own.

Awfully cranky with Brent Harris, too. I'll give Harris credit- once Harbs got hissy, he just sent it back upstairs...

In Harb's defense, those were some stupid questions. Every question was negative, and all he can really say in response is something like "yeah, that's bad." Ask him a question without an obvious negative answer and you'll get a better reaction. 

I think we all just need to say a prayer for Timmy Jernigan's knee ligaments.

I would honestly think that if the Ravens had the chance, they'd front load more contracts because you have to consider that as players age, if their play drops off, you'd want to be easily able to cut them. 

It actually works the opposite. Backloading a contract with non-guaranteed money makes them easy to cut later on. Most if not all of the guaranteed money is in the form of a signing bonus, so it really works out to where the cap hit is small up front, but the player is receiving a lot of money, and then the cap hit grows to be big at the end while the guaranteed money is minimal (or dead money if cut). If they want to extend a player, that non-guaranteed money usually becomes a signing bonus. 

You can check out these contracts on OTC. For all of the longer contracts Oz dishes out, the structure is about the same, where the initial cap hit starts small and then goes big. Some teams have a different philosophy, however, and usually they have a lot more cap space year to year compared to the Ravens. 

Yanda and to a lesser extent KO are going to be taking much bigger contract numbers then I think you are expecting especially considering both are elite guards and Yanda is still probably the best guard in the league.   Just at those 4 I would say you are looking at maybe 18-20M a year just ballparking it which is a lot of capspace.

Contract numbers get bigger later on in the contract though. In the first year they're very small unless they front-load it for some reason (which Oz never does).

We have a projected 14 mil before Flacco restructuring and before any increases in the cap. That's enough to sign all 4, and then some.

That said, I think KO walks and nets us a nice compensatory pick. 

With the Hill signing, we really don't have many high-priority UFAs for next season.

Tucker

Yanda

KO 

Upshaw

And Tucker will absolutely be franchised if he is not resigned, so we really only have 3 big FAs to worry about (barring the emergence of someone unexpected). Seems pretty manageable with how much cap space we are projected to have (and a Flacco restructure likely). 

From what I read a about this kid so far is that he uses his body well to shield defenders.

I hope so, since one of the criticisms of Marlon is that he doesn't "play big." We need a big bully like Waller. Both Waller and Brown could learn a thing or two about using their bodies to get open by watching some Anquan Boldin highlights. 

I can't say I would be upset to see Bryant suspended week 4. I remember him passing by Webb like he was standing still lol.

I'm wondering if Waller is our best deep threat /w Perriman out. Even if he is a little slow off the line (and I am aware of his 40 time), he is always open with that size, kind of like how Mike Evans and Vjax are good down-field threats. 

I'm not sure what fans you are talking to because they may be delusional. It has been stated in multiple reports that he wanted out of Philly because they never gave him a chance to play outside. So if he never did, how can you possibly, or anyone for that matter, say that he played horrible outside? And PFF may not be the be all statistical company, but they have been doing their job long enough. Forgive me, but I'll listen to them more than you and "the people you talked to".

Also, in an earlier post you stated Arrington was the better player. I stated that Boykin was a top 10 CB rated by PFF and Arrington was near the bottom. We can nitpick all we want about how they keep and rank their statistics, but let's get real, their numbers aren't that wrong for that much of a discrepancy. There's no harm in saying that the Steelers made a good move.

Can you find a quote where I said Arrington is the better player? I said they both play the same position, slot corner, and Boykin has the advantage of being on a rookie contract.

Having 3 slot corners doesn't really help when you need an outside corner, so still don't understand how trading for Boykin would help, unless you're saying, hypothetically, if we had passed on Arrington and traded a 4th for Boykin we would be in a better position. I don't really care about hypotheticals though. 

Philly didn't want him to play outside the slot because when he did he was terrible lol. That's a fact. Go watch some of those Dallas games. He and Cary were getting abused like crazy. It was almost as bad as watching Arrington getting abused out wide in the playoffs. 

Boykin was rated one of the best CB's last year. Arrington was not. Sorry, but Boykin is much better than Arrington. This is according to PFF. They had him rated as a top 10 CB I believe. Arrington was the third worst at giving up fantasy points (I know it's fantasy points but to give those up you are giving up passes left and right)

Also, Boykin is cheaper right now than Arrington. Although it is the last year of Boykins rookie deal and they will have to sign him to something more substantive next year, he was a fourth round pick so they have him for a relative bargain at the moment.

That might mean something if PFF's DB ratings weren't garbage, and I say this as someone who has subscribed to them for 3 years now. Too much subjectivity to correctly assign blame on a given play, too many ways to improve your grade while struggling at the thing that matters most: coverage. It's neat to look at PFF's ratings, but when they have Antoine Winfield as their highest-rated CB you know you need to take it with a grain of salt. For this reason, actually watching a player play will always be more reliable than some number representative of their play. 

I saw Boykin get burned almost as much as Cary Williams. The Eagles fans I talk to were pretty frustrated about his play on the outside. Boykin was chirping about wanting to play on the outside, Chip didn't think he was good enough, and the fans I talked to seemed to agree that he just isn't talented enough to succeed outside the slot. Hey, maybe he'll prove me, Chip, and all Eagles fans wrong, but I hope not because he's playing for Pitt now lol.

Shame we didn't offer the eagles a 4th rounder for boykins..

Trading for Boykin would only create further frustration as he gets abused repeatedly on the outside. Boykin is almost identical to Arrington: dedicated slot corner who gets burned when playing outside. The only advantage Boykin has over Arrington is that he's on a rookie contract. 

Even though Ngata is gone, I have a feeling RGIII will probably think twice about scrambling /w the ball vs our defense, lest he experience some painful flashbacks to 2012. I think everyone around the league knows by now that the Ravens are happy to take a free shot at your QB whether he has the ball or not as long as it's legal.

Looking at the Packers and Steelers' recent casualties, you quickly realize it could always be worse. Hell, the Jags lost their #3 overall pick, Dante Fowler, for the entire season the second he stepped onto the field. At least these guys won't be out for more than a few weeks (the same cannot be said of Urban and Elam though, unfortunately).

I would like it if he played a little closer to the receiver, but he is probably being coached to play way off. If he continues to make solid wrap-up tackles, I think he can at least be a Cary Williams-caliber starter in this league. Sure tackling, or a lack thereof, pretty much lost us the NE game. I'm sure getting picked on during his final game of the season gave Melvin all the motivation he could ever need.