baltimorefan328

Even though Moore dropped that (bad throw too), really like how he catches everything with his hands. Nothing is brought into his body, snatching the ball out of the air will be big on deep routes where he can elevate over the defensive back

For the last few years I've really bought into the "Pees does what he can with the players he has" kinda thinking. Obviously this is preseason and we need to wait until the whole defense is in, but the most troubling thing to me is the lack of adjustments we have seen. I think its very telling that the same complaints come up every single preseason and season, i.e. guys playing too far off the ball and the bend but don't break defense. The Ravens are a very smart organization, it just seems like someone would have come up with some sort of adjustment over the past few years

Terrell Suggs

I'll preface this by saying I haven't watched any full game tape or done extensive analysis, but I'm starting to like this Moore pick moore and moore the more I read about him. Can't speak to the reliability of the source, but here is a pretty in depth breakdown of him: http://nfldraftreport.sportsblog.com/posts/11513382/cincinnati-s-chris-moore-catching-lots-of-attention-at-the-senior-bowl.html. There are three main reasons I like him from watching a little bit of him: He catches the ball with his hands; he high points the ball; and he makes catches in the red zone, something the offense could use desperately. He seemed to play best against his best competition. I'm not saying he is a day 1 stud, but he seems to have all the skills to become something more than just a deep threat #4 WR.

Maybe Lawson, but I don't think I'd want to take a risk on a player at #6 in the entire draft who says himself he'll likely need microfracture knee surgery possibly within 5 years. Not saying he won't be great, but that is a gigantic risk at #6.

I respect the move from Arrington (obviously respect the move from Yanda, Flacco, and whoever else as well). Knows he didn't play well and hopefully comes back hungry. The dude comes from an organization that only knows one thing: winning and came to an organization that typically only knows one thing: winning. Hopefully with another year in the scheme he'll figure things out again a little bit. *edit in bold

Ha I don't believe so. Also as (if) the cap continues to increase, signing players or getting extensions like this done early becomes more important. Having Flacco signed for that many years means the Ravens no longer have to worry about paying him (would be the same for any player, Flacco is just the obvious present example) the market rate as the cap increases to reflect that increase.

I agree with a lot of this that if the Ravens stay healthy and can get a couple pieces in the draft and maybe some vintage signings, they can definitely get back and compete. One interesting nuance I see, however, is the schedule. Obviously the division has the same division games, and play the AFC East and NFC East this year. Although the Ravens play a third place schedule, this may not be what it seems. Bengals: First place schedule - Texans and Broncos Yes, the Texans and Broncos won their divisions, however this may be the easiest of the three even though it is a first place schedule. The Texans will either have to sign another mediocre veteran or draft a rookie QB, both tough spots. Second, noone knows if Manning will be back, and if he is back how effective will he be. Yes the Broncos should still have a good defense, but these are two first place teams who may not be as strong next year. Couple that with the Bengals talent and this could be a much easier than anticipated first place schedule for the Bengals. Steelers: Second place schedule - Chiefs and Colts The Chiefs should still be decent next year, however with limited WR besides Maclin (maybe even worse than the Ravens at times) and questions always surrounding how far Alex Smith can actually take a team, the Chiefs may not be great next year. Now the Colts will be getting back Luck but the Colts have some older playmakers (Johnson, Gore), a below average defense (2015 - 25.5 ppg), and we will have to see how Luck comes back from injuries. With the Steelers offensive weapons and very solid front 7, the Steelers could be a very good team next year as well. Ravens: Third place schedule - Raiders and Jaguars Now the Ravens. This is a third place schedule but the Ravens lost to the Raiders this year and "lost" to the Jaguars this year. Yes the Ravens should have won, but they still would have only won 20-19. The Raiders and Jaguars are improving teams who played hard this year. Both young QBs played decently well this past year. With the Ravens recent struggles and injury history each of the past few years, these games could be more difficult than given credit for. So in the end, I am not telling you the Ravens have the hardest "schedule dependent" games next year, but there are certainly questions around each team. And those 2 games could mean all the difference in this division between winning it and not even making the playoffs

I was about to bring this up but saw you beat me to it, if Ozzie drafts an Alabama player (of course assuming Ozzie can't draft the rights to Calvin Ridley already) I would much rather him take a later pick and draft Drake. He had that terrible injury but has explosive speed, he's sort of a bigger and faster version of Shane Vareen. Certainly wouldn't mind a player of that caliber on the Ravens, especially with how Trestman loves throwing to running backs

I think this is getting blown out of proportion a little bit. Reed is a first time coach. He always loved (like a lot of players) Rex Ryan and knows the system. I'm just happy for Ed that he was able to go from player to begin the coaching ranks in such a short period of time. I'm sure Ed is well aware the Ravens organization would welcome him back at any time

These sorts of situations (unfortunately the Ravens are dealing with it) always make me laugh. The Ravens made the deal and if it comes down to it must respect it, but you have to think Flacco understands his salary at its present number will severely hinder this team from being able to compete and get back to a super bowl, which I assume (hope) is the ultimate goal. I have/will never be in a situation where I'm making a decision over millions of dollars like this, but I'll be interested to see how these negotiations with Flacco play out. Newsome says he is comfortable going into the season with Flacco at his current hit, which is respectable because he made the deal and will honor it, but realistically at this point Flacco just has to know this team can not compete at his number

Overall Alexander is looking pretty solid, I didn't see the missed tackle but sure seems like a willing tackler to me

I, like most Ravens fans, think very highly of Ozzie and the front office and although some recent picks haven't worked out as well as the Ravens would have liked, the front office is still getting talent. But I agree with the bolded part 100%. I am all for trading picks and acquiring more, but this Ravens team doesn't exactly need a large quantity, but rather quality picks to get them back to contending. There are some clear holes, but I'd much rather the Ravens take their shots to get 4-7 above average to high quality young contributors at the #6 spot in each round rather than trading around and drafting 12 players all over the board and playing a numbers game

I agree with this 100%, I always laugh how the NFL judges defenses based on total yards allowed. The last 8 games of the year the Ravens averaged giving up a little over 23 ppg, which for the year would be right around tied for 16th. Not horrible but certainly not near the Ravens defensive quality we expect. I don't care if the Ravens give up the most yards in the league, but if they're 16th in points thats not getting the job done.

I'm not so sure about that I think Trestman is sort of in this for a longer time. There were a ton of questions about his leadership style as a head coach before going to Chicago, and I don't think his time in Chicago really made believers of his head coaching ability to a lot of teams. I think he is a great offensive mind but not a great head coach, and I'd be more than happy if he remained here to continue implementing his offense

See Demarco Murray

That late for work article was interesting with Monachino potentially being a highly regarded choice for Colts DC under Pagano. I've never been a complete Pees hater as I also think the Ravens have had some lack in talent lately, but could be interesting to see if true, if the Ravens think about jumping the gun and ending the Pees era and promoting Monachino to DC in order not to lose him. I don't know much about him if he would be a good DC, but he certainly seems to know how to coach some linebackers. Also he seems to be one of the best coaches the Ravens have.

Here's my problem exactly. I agree with much of the above about problems trading within the division and everything with Thomas, but on the Osemele page I just worry about Osemele's injury history. In the last 3 years he has played 35 of a possible 48 regular season games, and although he has played 14/16 each of the last 2 years and you can't expect every player to play every game. I also feel like he has had nagging injuries throughout those seasons as well. I certainly see the problem of the Ravens maybe not being able to go the draft route depending on where the board falls. I think Osemele is good but if the Ravens resign him just a lot of questions result like what happens with Monroe and can Osemele stay healthy.

Ah thank you for that, I wasn't sure about the roster bonus impact. I agree intra-division trade is unlikely, but I wasn't sure it would actually take the Ravens first round pick plus monroe to make a trade like that happen

With the projected picks the Ravens have I was looking at a possible scenario. Joe Thomas has seemed like he may be having a change of heart of wanted to remain in Cleveland and wants to try and go somewhere that he has a chance to go to the playoffs and win (http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/01/04/joe-thomas-isnt-sure-if-he-wants-another-year-in-cleveland/ among other sources). I haven't seen this much myself but around the boards here I have also seen people think Monroe does not want to be here. So if the main left tackles in the draft are gone or the Ravens want to go in a different direction, I'm wondering if this could be a possible scenario the Ravens explore. Looking at the contracts (all according to Spotrac): Joe Thomas cap hits: 2016: $9,500,000 - age 31 2017: $10,000,000 - age 32 2018: $10,000,000 - age 33 2019: UFA Yes Thomas will be 34 by the end but the Ravens could possibly extend his contract a couple years to get that cap hit down just a little bit and he is still playing at a decently high level. I think even after 2018 he could still play at a relatively high level until potentially 35-37, so the Ravens could get 4-6 years of sound left tackle play. What's very important as well is Thomas carries not more dead money for the remainder of his contract. Eugene Monroe cap hits: 2016: $8,700,000 - age 28 - $6,600,000 in dead money 2017: $8,950,000 - age 29 - $4,400,000 in dead money 2018: $8,950,000 - age 30 - $2,200,000 in dead money 2019: UFA We all know Monroe has been inconsistent here and as I mentioned above may not really want to be here. He is younger and cheaper than Thomas and has played well at points in his career, so maybe a change of scenery could help him and the Browns would like that. So, obviously Thomas has been in Cleveland his whole career and he is slightly more expensive and older than Monroe, but the Ravens could potentially extend Thomas to try and lower that cap hit a little more. Even if Thomas ends up slightly more expensive than Monroe, Thomas is typically regarded as a top five left tackle every single year. He wouldn't necessarily be an immediate stop gap either because he could still have 5-6 very productive years in him. This also wouldn't really change the Ravens salary cap at all because even right now Thomas is not making that much more than Monroe. With the Ravens likely getting some decent comp picks this year, and Thomas being 31 at the start of the season, I don't think it could hurt the Ravens to at least talk with the Browns and see what kind of pick in addition to Monroe the Browns would want. Also, the Browns typically have a ton of cap room so Monroe's salary likely wouldn't be much of a concern for them. Again, of course this scenario is unlikely from both sides, but just thinking outside the box of how the Ravens could maybe solve a large problem on their offensive line while still having the chance to allocate the majority of their draft picks to other holes

Ah alright well thanks to you and Grim for clearing that up, I certainly agree continually asking him to take a cut, even if he does do so, may not feel fully invested with the team anymore if they continually treat him in that way

I could be wrong as I saw this from Spotrac, but here is my understanding. Webb's cap hit next year is still 9.5 million, which before any free agency or anything like that puts him as the #12 highest paid cornerback for 2016. Playing free safety at that value would make Webb the 3rd highest paid Free Safety, at just $400,000 less than Earl Thomas. I like Webb a lot and I think cutting him would just create even more holes to solve next year, but I just don't know if the Ravens can justify paying Webb that much money to play free safety at this point with how little cap room theyll likely have

Ahh shoot, my mistake. Well the Ravens could still potentially have 4 4th round picks which is nice

I think it's important to remember that compensatory picks can be traded this year. So those potential likely two 4th rounders for McPhee and Smith are even bigger now. That fact coupled with the Ravens draft position in every round, and if the talent evaluaters do their job, this draft could be a very fruitful one. I'm not great with knowing talent in the draft, but if there's guys that can help the Ravens they could pull off some crazy moves like trading up to have 3 first rounders similar to the vikings a few years ago. I doubt Ozzie would do that, be there likely could be the opportunity to get a first round talent at receiver, cornerback, and pass rusher

I couldn't agree more with this. Ravens will still have a top 10...likely a top 8 pick and whether they're at 4 or 8, should still be some game changers to draft. If the Jets win and Steelers officially do miss the playoffs, a small drop in the draft was definitely worth it.