Ravenous_Ravens

Throwing short of the needed yardage to me suggests one of several possibilities:
- receivers are not getting open downfield
- Flacco is not trusting his receivers enough to let it rip and let them make a play
- WR routes are not well designed to create natural separation
- Flacco requires a more aggressive mindset when dropping back to pass
- play calling needs work, based on such high numbers

Either way, Flacco really better step up his game all around as well as put in extra time with his WR this offseason. I shouldn't need to be said, but if Flacco has another horrible season, at his current price tag, he very well might be writing the end of his time here.

I am becoming more and more interested in the possibility of drafting a decent QB this draft for both competition and to replace Mallet, who I do not believe the Ravens will retain based on market value and cap space. at the very least some new young blood that can challenge for a starting role would do wonders to bring out more competitive play at QB period.

There are just not enough top talent pass rushers this year to invest and early (round 1-3) pick on, barring someone legit slips for unforeseen reasons.

They drafted pass rushers last year instead of more secondary players.

Targeting pass rushers before addressing the secondary would prove to me that the F.O. has admitted to themselves that last years pass rushers were not good picks and are ready to move on.

IMHO I think that is not true and the pass rush talk is mostly "time-filler" material only.

Pass rush will always be more effective when you force opposing QB's to hold the ball longer. Period. That happens due to a solid secondary.

If opposing QB's are holding the ball, on average 3.5+ seconds, then we can talk about lack of quality pass rushers.

I'll keep and retain Elvis over Barwin any day. Familiarity, comradery, knows the system, less expensive and healthy after dealing with injuries and hungry to boot. Plus when both him and Suggs are playing, they are a force to be reckoned with.

I can't wait for the "Holy ....., did you see those guys"? days again in Baltimore. Kinda missing it actually. Over the past 5-6 yrs we've gotten progressively less imposing. Its time we get back our toughness and defensive mojo. When we step on the field, the other team needs to be intimidated period.

There is a big difference between looking intimidating and just plain out being intimidating and looks don't matter.

No need to worry about ILB in rounds 1-3, they drafted KC last year and he had the entire year to learn the system and new position.

Round 1 - Best CB available, unless a rare talent drops for unseen reasons
Round 2 - S Budda Baker, he's a real ball hawking safety and is fluid and tracks the ball extremely well (also sets up a good young core with T Young for the next several years) + Return man and moves to boot (Reed-esque)

This is going to be a similar type of decision compared to the K.O. and Yanda. I would really like to see both stay but it looks more likely only one will be here next season opener.

The best thing going for the Ravens F.O. right now is the fact there are many options on the table at this point. It's like dominoes at this point, set them up as you like, but once they start to fall that is that.

I actually love the fact that this was brought up. Nothing like lighting a fire to motivate Flacco to have a much better season at those numbers. No injury to work off this season so no excuses to not hit the ground running.

Before dipping into FA for (a) pass rusher(s), fix the secondary. IMHO that will greatly improve the pass rush.

Plus last draft, they went pass rusher crazy instead of secondary and look what happened. If they draft a lot of pass rushers again then we know their thoughts on last years pas rushers..

This is really a over complicating things. A second J Smith-esque caliber CB and the Ravens arguably, but very likely make the playoffs last season. It should have been enough to win at least one extra game down the stretch and another in the early season with the close games.

Offense really just needs to be able to run and pass and not get pigeon whole into being singularly a pass or run team.

Fix the elephant in the room then address the other items. Too many drafts lately go by and ignore the elephant in the room. Time to move the elephant out of the room for good, if not he will not let you forget.

Although he, Dixon and Tavon Young all had very promising rookie seasons, there are countless examples why we should all wait until they have their sophomore seasons under their belt. Just look at ZaDarius Smith, who, after a very good rookie season, had a rather pedestrian sophomore season. Which is the real Z? We'll see... Let's hope that all of the three aforementioned rookies turn out to be the real deals - but let's not just take it for granted now.

Well spoken. some success is good, sustained success is best. Tough to move on from a sure thing to a coin flip.

All aboard the T-West Train, straight up the field, down the opponents throat, I mean defense. We'll see how much they can stomach before they beg for the end to come.

  6 hours ago, sami said:

I am probably a cult of one but I would like to keep Aiken and USE him more.

Cult must be a more than one and generally is a small group of people. :) Aiken would be alright to bring back but he doesn't fulfill the need for another young speedster on the outside. Possession type and the R's have plenty of those.

Actually "cult" is a shortened reference to "culture" and refers back to the wholeness/fullness of all things that comprise one's existence or in other words how they live life. Too many people have misused that word and now have no understanding of its true origins.

Lost of people keep posting garbage non-sense about the Ravens needing to address every issue but the elephant in the room in the secondary. This is for two reasons: A) They don't want to see the Ravens succeed, so they put forth much bad advice in the form of many distracting thoughts, but never explain them or fully understand them themselves. They also know that Baltimore is dangerous already and that the weakness of the secondary is what gives their teams a chance to more easily match up. Together it pretty much implies that they know if we secure the secondary they will not but able to score much if at all. So do the right thing and address the secondary if you want to see the likes of Tom Brady's, etc squirm in their pants every time they face the Ravens. Just think how much good ol' Ed Reed bothered Brady, even when his prime days were behind him and then consider what a younger suitable ball hawking Raven would add that was missing.

Bold prediction: Baltimore Ravens will keep 4 TE this next season. Pitta, Watson, Boyle and Waller.

Pitta and Watson are easy as they provide stability, experience and reliability. Boyle and Waller offer the most and have shown to be the most dependable of the remaining current TE.

Side note: the extra roster spots could be well used for towards secondary depth potentially. I say secondary only because injuries have too often become a determining factor down the stretch of a long season. If they draft young secondary talent, it could mean hanging on to some of the current secondary players for insurance/assurance, at least for a year. TE injuries could always be overcome with slight changes to using an extra Back or Receiver (for those thinking TE depth would be an issue with keeping only 4).

AT least his only fan has five arms to draw extra attention!!!

Alex Lewis is more ready and capable to step in and replace Rick Wagner. Not a knock on him, but rather just being honest about the difference in talent/skill/size, etc.

Michael Pierce is definitely exciting to watch and looks to be trending in a good direction. He looks to be able to one day hold down the fort, but IMHO I think he will need another solid campaign before he is ready for a full time role. It is a big role to fill. BW might not put up huge sacks but not many NT do period and that could actually be in the Ravens favor. BW does eat up a great deal of double teams allowing CJ and Z Orr (sorely missed) to do their thing. A lot of teams, while they would love to have big BW manning the middle of the field, are not going to jump at spending big dollars at NT compared to other positions. Cap increase is about the only x factor I see as there is generally less demand for NT's.

With 6 TE's know that 2 will be cut at least. Maybe more if they draft any. Reality suggests Pitta is staying for certain. There is little to gain for a trusted security blanket for your QB. When you can only suit 4 TE's it makes zero sense to keep 6 unless two TE sets are the standard.

I'm sensing a theme this off-season of thinning the herd. There is a bit a of a pile up at TE and WR with no clear favorites outside Pitta and Wallace. Time to turn them loose and feed them and see what they can do or move on. Spreading the snaps around is one thing, but the number of snaps some of these guys are getting is just too little to really get into a groove and improve and grow. There needs to be a trial by fire, it is the only way. Pressure builds character.

Maybe late first to early second round talent wise, but more likely mid-third to mid-fourth round due to size and experience playing standing up. IMHO probably will need a full season to really get the his size up and adjust to standing up. Could be a great pick with the comp pick for Osemele.

Coby you deserve to be healthy. God has given a cure to all mankind and yet many will tell you there is no cure and then proceed to sell you their "experimental drugs"??? What is wrong with with people? He is a child and its okay to give him experimental drugs, when no one can guarantee the results but the cure in the natural form, herb for the healing of the nations is strictly withheld only to leave those who could and can be healed to suffer in vain.

I applaud Jacoby for sticking with Coby through the tough times and vice versa. It says a lot about both of their characters.

All these analysts talk about aging pass rushers, who are still getting things done adequately. Ravens also drafted pass rushers last season, who did not get enough snaps to even say for sure how good they can be. If the Ravens fix their secondary, guess what? Those pass rushers will get the chance to sack the QB. Don't be fooled into beLIEving the analysts, as their job is to entertain and keep people glued so they can sell the advertising. The more outrageous they talk, the more you know they are just pushing their fluff.

Makes he happy they drafted Ronnie "Rico Suave" Stanley last draft.

Thing that comes to mind was McKinnie was only at his best when everything was on the line, which is good, but at other times he literally just didn't seem to care enough, either about himself staying healthy or staying motivated to play to his potential. It was a night and day difference.

This article IMHO is not worth the read. Pure and simple the Ravens are much closer than they are far off. To put things into proper perspective, a big reason why the ravens run defense is as stout as it is, is because of BW. You take him out of the equation and the run defense suffers period. Remember he picked up and filled the void left by Ngata and did not miss a beat. This will only be more evident now that Z Orr unfortunately had to retire, who happened to be a tackling machine last season.

Complain for more weapons. I hear it every year but what everyone is ignoring is the fact they have WR's already that they need to utilize better. So many in fact, most of them do not see significatn snaps. If they cannot get enough out of their WR's, then it is time to address the scouting of WR, the development of WR and the coaching of WR even down to the offensive strategies being implemented. When you have a history of drafting well on defense and a history of not drafting well specifically at WR, you gotta be honest and fix things in house instead of passing the blame along to the players all the time. Always going to go get a vet WR suggest they are already aware of this fact and continue to ignore it. Fix this issue in house and stop with "we need more help at WR".

There is also no need to go sign a FA CB. Draft and develop and save the salary cap space for the players already on this team that must be retained. Reaching for a FA to fix a situation is always a risk which eats up more cap space than drafting well and developing. Only real reason to get a FA is if you have that much spare cap space or if a drafted player cannot be expected to contribute in a meaningful manner.

An ostrich must have written this article, with their head buried in the sand. Reality is much different when viewed from above ground.

This is one season I think the Ravens are best off to not go sign a vet FA WR. Those cap dollars are best spent retaining the players you already have that are set to hit FA. Also they need to let the young WRs prove themselves and that doesn't happen when they get limited snaps. If they do not put much stock in this idea it would be mostly their own issue from failure to draft and develop the WR position. Mike Wallace is a solid vet player and had a great season, even thought he slowed a bit towards the end. Too many WR's and not enough balls for everyone, even with the ridiculous amount of attempts from Flacco this past season.

WR's should be Wallace, Perriman, Moore primarily and force feed them the ball. They have plenty of TE's and do not need so many WR's as in the past, when the ball cannot be spread around enough to get good value. Keep a few bodies for injuries, etc but that is it.

Should see a lot of 2 WR, 2 TE, 1RB sets or slight variations (2 WR, 1 TE, 1 FB, 1 RB). Baltimore is not the team to play spread offense regularly, maybe a few plays or series here and there based on situational. This would also help out the run game with the extra blockers and provide options with extra eligible receivers.(TE/FB). It might be a fairly simple formation, but it provides a lot of ability and flexibility to fool opponents with little wrinkles and misdirection.

Maybe the Pats have their stats, but to be considered the Greatest of All Time one has to have honor. Cheating no matter to what degree is not honorable and undermines the integrity of the game.

The Pats also collected their stats during an era that heavily favored the Pats, eg: Tom Brady rule, and basically allowed for QB's to post massive numbers and stats. To suggest Tom Brady is better than the greats that came before him is laughable. He had a much easier road to get there and a gift wrapped division throughout his career thus far.

Yes he is good, but GOAT? Try earning it fair and square like the rest of the honorable players who willingly choose to maintain their integrity.

Some might call to attention the fact Jerry Rice can out and said he cheated, but he didn't, he mislead people to sway public opinion. When he used the stick-um, which would later be banned, it was not illegal when he did so. Once it was announced as illegal he prompted stopped. See Jerry Rice was and still is honorable.

If Tom Brady makes HOF give him a special corner by the restrooms called cheaters corner. I would honestly hope all those current HoF'ers would veto his admittance on the grounds he lacks the honor to be included amongst all the greats who earned their reward honestly with integrity.

Would the Ravens sign Eric Berry? He just said hes not playing on franchise tag again.
I know I know, probably a 2% chance kc lets him get away but without a contract he could sit out. And there was the Dumervil fax issue.

So hypothetically Berry doesnt re-sign with kc, Ravens have to try to sign him. 28 years old, much younger then 31 year old Weddle when signed and playing like a Ed Reed esque free safety.

If salary cap were not an issue then maybe there would be room for him. Yes he's a ball hawking safety, but at his age, being in the prime of his career, he will command a high price tag. To pick up a player like him would most likely mean saying goodbye to BW and maybe others.

It makes much more sense to draft a younger safety and take advantage of good veteran leaders already on the team to show them the ropes.