First off, I appreciate the detailed response and you make a lot of valid points. I'm sorry if I implied that I don't have faith in Pierce or that I don't want to see him on the field.
For starters, I don't give a NT much credit or criticism when it comes to sacks because I know that it comes and goes. He may have 7 one season and 1 the next and have a better year overall. Sacks is not a NTs job. Ultimately, a NT needs to swallow double teams and dictate to the opposing offense where the run game goes. B.Will is one of the best at doing that. He regularly makes life easy for our DEs and MLBs. That comes from overall awareness of scheme and football IQ. And of course you need to be physically gifted to be able to do that against opposing linemen.
pierce is a fantastic athlete and can push a car over if he wanted to. I'm just not sure he diagnoses plays and knows when to sacrifice his body or stats for the better of the team. That's not a knock on Pierce but the Ravens play a complicated scheme on the line and if one person steps out of line then we give up big plays not an extra yard or 2.
Pierce started loosing playing time as the season went on and to me that's a big concern. Maybe it's not his fault but that's an indication that he's just not ready. Early in the season when our D was full strength, we put Pierce in situations where he didn't need to think much. Just beat the guy in front of you.
well to keep things simple, having Bwill start and Pierce play 30-50 percent of snaps is a luxury that id love to keep. Dline was one of the few consistant units on this team so why mess with it if you can afford to keep it? We can handle an injury crisis but if Pierce is the starter then he gets hurt or we need more bodies on 3rd and short or goal line then what?
If Williams demands 8-10 mil a year then he's a talent that is worth us working around. It's not like he's going to ask for Suh money or we can't get out of his contract whenever Pierce is ready.
i think iv said this on another thread, the Ravens ultimately have 30-35 million in cap space to work with for 2017 without letting go of players who started last year. If we keep b will and Wagner that's probably gonna count 10-12 mil against the cap combined in 2017. That leaves 15-20mil to attack a draft and FA this year so it's not like we were 2 years ago where we need to make a lot of sacrifices.
Id love to have Gilmore but now we may be talking of something like 12mil a year money and I'm not sure our FO would have 2 CBs making 25 mil a year.
B.Marshall on the other hand is someone that I think we should pursue before he gets released. Heck throw a 6th round their way and we're done here lol. His 7.5 mil cap hit is so doable and we could even sign him to an extension and spread the cap hit as he is in his last year of his deal.
This will be an interesting off season as our current roster doesn't have any glaring need but a whole bunch of positions that could get upgraded.