Maryland

I'm wondering if Pitta being healthy would limit us to 5 WRs. I'm fully expecting a surprise cut in training camp, maybe Aiken or Brown.

Did you completely miss the part where it said Hill was the best strong safety, and listed Weddle as the best free safety?

Well to be fair, it was his mother who failed to notice that part of the argument. 

The only thing I really dislike about it is the surprise 2pt conversion is taken away. Remember that Week 1 game vs the Steelers when Koch just walked into the endzone near the end of a blowout victory? That is no longer possible.

Que the "Every Day is Leg Day" meme

The silver lining of having so much dead money is that it tends to open things up for the future. Of course, if you're backloading a lot of contracts, the savings won't be as easy to see (The Flacco contract, for example). Since I'm here looking at 2016, it looks like Guy, Levine, Canty, SS89, Webb, Daryl Smith, and Pitta are possible cuts, depending how they play in 2015.

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I can't help but feel like Urschel is setting himself up to have some kind of novelty role as a football math wizard in the future, kind of like how they have a sportscience segment on ESPN. Not that'd he'd need the money or anything; when you can crunch numbers like he can, the job market is full of opportunities. 

If my memory serves me correctly, Flacco is 5-0 against the Dolphins. I would think Dolphins fans would be the last ones to criticize Flacco and his contract after how he and his team have dominated them.

My only concern is I just heard on CSN couple hours ago Bellicheat and Kelly are the two HC's who came up with this idea. Now those are the only two coaches in the NFL that will call anything and everything at any time. So this tells me that because 2 PT Conversions are such a failure from the 2 yard line statistically, given more field to work with you would expect more success. I expect these 2 HC's atleast in this one year trial period, to pull a lot of fake FG 2 PT conversion attempts from the 15 with players like Gronk at NE disposal, and how Kelly utilizes weapons there is no doubt in my mind this is just another TRICK so those turds gain competative advantage.

It gets shutdown after this year, or Make sure to boycott

Plus BB just inexplicably drafted a long-snapper in the 5th round, just to add to your conspiracy. 

The only thing I can say with Pitta is that maybe his hip surgery was botched the first time around, but maybe the second surgery fixed what they did unsuccessfully the first time around. Hoping he stays healthy, even if it means retiring.

Carl Davis will fill in nicely for Ngata. He may never be as dominant as Ngata was when he was at his peak, but he'll be good if he can stay motivated. Urban will be the clear-cut top DE if he picks up where he left off from last year's training camp. Jernigan will play DT on our 4-3 looks, and we already know Brandon Williams is a stud NT. Ozzie has our D-line stacked.

The franchise tag for guards and kickers is pretty affordable. Either one can be retained an additional season if needed.

Well Upshaw, I'll believe it when I see it. Your play on the field and the statistics on your resume say that you're not an effective pass rusher even when you do get the opportunities. You seem like another Jarret Johnson (not that that's a bad thing). I'm one of your doubters when it comes to your pass-rushing skills--prove me wrong.

since we're deep in DL position, you're gonna have to cut somebody, people that have contriubted and actually played like tyson and guy should make and have better chances of making the team & have tape on them, but urban and KLM have not played not even in pre-season. clowney is a 1st rnd pick well known due to his draft status, than  urban is a 4th rnd pick, not that clowney has set the world on fire,,,, but u know.

We're deep with mediocre talent at DE. Canty, Guy, Tyson, and Bilukidi would be backups on just about every team in the league. I honestly don't see who is going to stop Urban from becoming the starting 5-tech, barring injury. None of the named players have any significant financial investment, so cutting them would be a non-factor in terms of salary. 

I don't think it's fair to say Pees dislikes press coverage. I think they used to play that in NE when he was there, although who knows if he made that call or if it was Bill. The bottomline is that we didn't have the CBs to play man coverage last year with all our injuries and revolving door. We should be able to do it now, so this year we should see more press and hopefully some bail. I love press-bail coverage. 

It seemed like Cary Williams was at his best in press coverage, yet Pees often played him 10 yards off. 

Though I agree that last year we absolutely did not have the talent at CB to press, other than Jimmy, who did press somewhat often. 

I would like to see them play more press, but since this is not the way Pees does things, I would just like our CBs to make the first tackle, rather than whiff repeatedly and allow Edelman/Amendola to jog into the endzone.

Maybe I'm just misremembering the good ol days, but it seems like missed tackles was never this big of a problem in the NFL. I guess it's all thanks to the non-contact practice rules dictated by the new CBA. Of course, widespread poor tackling hurts everyone equally I suppose, at least in theory. 

Probably old news but

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2015/2015-broken-tackles-defenses

Ravens were 6th best at avoiding missed tackles. Matt Elam, despite playing roughly 56% of the snaps (according to my math from PFF), accounted for 11 of our 70 missed tackles according to this article. 

I like the criteria you set. 

I'm really surprised only one other person picked Urban. There is so little depth at DE ahead of him, he could easily make an impact if he stays healthy. 

I think I'm comfortable with the depth we have. Asa Jackson looked good enough to play a game if he had to. I mean he's no starter, but he's not Chykie Brown either. Rashaan Melvin will have a year to get better. Tray Walker looks like he could play zone alright.

Obviously KLM will depend on how far he has come along in rehabbing his achilles tear. If the season is about to start and he needs more time to recover they could stash him on PUP and come to a decision later (in the event someone else gets hurt early). -that's what they did with Terrance Cody one year, I think.

If I remember correctly, it sounded like KLM was safe to make the roster as a solid rotational player last year. He was having an above-average training camp. If he can regain that form I think he'll find a spot. It's not like Canty or Guy are anything more than solid depth, and neither has upside for the future. KLM, meanwhile, has some upside, I think. Canty provides no pass rush anymore and tends to pick up nagging injuries all season, while Guy is just a guy. I wouldn't be surprised if anyone among Canty, Guy, or KLM are cut (we are minimally invested in all of them), but I still think KLM makes the roster if healthy. 

Urban is a no-brainer. He will have a major impact if he can regain his form last season. Supposedly he was tearing it up in camp before going down. 

I got the sense that he's just going with the YOLO mentality, just giving himself one last shot at living his dream as a pro, and if it happens, it happens. I hope somehow he can stay intact, mostly for his family. It was horrible seeing him go down with no contact in that Browns game.

It's amazing what a strong draft can do. That 2014 draft might end up giving us 9 to 10 solid contributors for the next few years. 

Mosley 

Jernigan 

Brooks

Gillmore

Urban 

Taliaferro

Urschel 

Camp

Hurst 

Orr on spec. teams

I think they'll reap 3 starters in Mosley, Jernigan, and Urschel in a year or two; I'm bullish on Camp, I think he'll be an athletic slot guy to rival the likes of Welker or Edelman; everyone else looks like decent backup material at the very least. Urban is a mystery prize, since this is his redshirt rookie season.

I think our weakest spot on the team is pass rush depth. If Doom or Suggs get hurt or regress, it'll put a lot of stress on the secondary. We're going to miss McPhee. 

That said, I think we should be favorites to win the division. From there, anything goes. 

It's cool that he wanted to be here--and by here, I mean the state of Maryland, not just here with a successful organization. I like that.

Even if his drops remain a problem, he'll still command respect simply because of his speed, just like Torrey Smith. If he can learn to run every route and make the correct reads, he'll become something better.

I find PFF ratings on DBs to be almost worthless, and I say this as someone who pays for PFF. 

It's subjective whether a reception belongs to the CB or the S on a given play. They don't tell you whether they're mostly playing man or zone. They don't tell you when a guy has no safety help. And you don't know when a reception or TD is in junk time/prevent defense. 

PFF is an alright baseline, but some guy like Antoine Winfield would tear up their ratings every season just by accruing points from making tackles.

The best measure of talent is through actually watching them play. Arrington will be above average as long as he never leaves the slot. 

Yes, NE won it without Welker but Edleman took on that role and his play style is very similar to Welker as a slot WR. I def. see Camp beating out Butler and worthy. One thing for sure is that we're carrying 6 WRs.

Also I just don't imagine Camp being cut, Oz had to see something not only during and draft but before it to trade up for him. There must be plans for him.

I'm surprised the people on here aren't as high on Campanaro. I think he'll be our #3 WR next season. 

I think Aiken is closer to the bubble than Camp, but I see Aiken as a shoo-in on most of these lists.