Halshayeji

Great post! I agree, if we can trade monroe before Jun 1 then let's eat that dead cap now rather than later. I have been wondering for a while now if we can straight up ask Pitta to take a pay cut only for 2016. Hell potentially shed 3-4 mil against the cap and we can revisit this next year. I would love to keep Pitta in the building and if he decides to give it another crack then he can earn what's left of his contract.

Ozzie will indeed get this team back to contention sooner rather than later! Iv whitnessed him and our FO do more with a lot less. We have a solid foundation and a few holes to plug. We don't lack playmakers. We already have that we just need descent depth and a bit of luck. Im extremely optimistic looking forward to next season.

There are numerous teams who also don't spend to the cap limit. Jacksonville is one of them. There are many teams that annually carry $20-30M in cap space over because their owner would rather be more profitable than spend it. One can question the decisions of our FO and allocating cap space. No one can question their desire as they always spend till the limit. Our facilities are state of the art and our staff is always amongst the highest paid and most sought after. We truily have been spoiled lol

Since it is before the new league year starts, they don't have to be under the cap yet, so a deal with KO could happen. If he agrees and the Flacco contract doesn't get extended or redone, they still would have time to make other cuts and adjustments before needing to be under the cap. True, but as I recall, Ozzie doesn't go beyond the cap limit even this way if he can avoid that. And with Tucker currently at tag figure, the picture is even murkier. Just imagine: if KO accepts the offer and the Flacco-/Tucker-talks break down, Ozzie will have a HUGE problem in his hands, which can only possibly be solved by getting rid of several key players... I think some players on this squad are as good as gone. It's just a matter of when they are released. When it comes to KOs contract. I don't expect to see a huge cap hit this year because of the nice signing bonus he'll earn. Iv bee saying for months that we indeed have a lot more flexibility this year than we did in the past 3. Oh and I got torched by some for stating what I believed was the obvious. We will have more next year. I see the light in the tunnel and expect nothing less than another run at the super bowl.

I expected that all along. treadwell is probably working 90% on his speed and 10% everything else right now. His best 40 time is probably not good enough to go top 10. He has one more month to lower it as much as he can for his pro days. I wouldn't be surprised if he only runs the 40 at his pro day and nothing else. Just a side note:- if you run a 4.4 at the combine you can easily run a 4.35 on your pro day. That's because the computer timer is a bit slower than the stopwatches on pro days. Most players that run the 40 at both often shed some time off at their pro days and it's no coincidence. He's still a really good player with probably the best hands in this class. He's just admitting that he's not that fast. If he does a 4.41 at pro days then he's a top ten guy. If he does a 4.55 the GMs know that he had an extra month to prepare and the stopwatch helped him. Leaving his actual speed at 4.6 on a normal day which may drop him to the end of the first or even he second. Someone will benefit from his arrival but probably not in the top ten.

Perriman won't surprise anyone next season. He's just gonna remind everyone that we stole him in the end of the first round. One may argue he might have been the first drafted WR in this year's class. FO may have handled the situation a lot better but at least they played it safe and eventually shut him down for the year. Now I assure you that knees are stronger than they were a year ago because he's just been rehabbing like a horse all year long. I also assure you his knees are being monitored by doctors that specialize in these cases and that's all I can ask for. Go out there and prove all your doubters wrong. I promise you we'll be hearing stories about how good this guy looks in camp!

Congrats Brandon! Its been a pleasure rooting for you for the past 3 years. You have continued to mature on and off the field. For that I salute you and hope you are a raven for years to come.

Great post, Il be keeping an eye on this situation. I think Neil stays in GB but the way your explaining it, Perey might be the steal of this year's FA class

My definition of a cheap deal would be 3mil 1 year deal. Crom got a one year 3.5mil prove it deal just 2 years ago with the Cardinals when he was 29. theres already half a dozen good FA cornerbacks and that number will only go up in the coming weeks. That's a really good indicator that a few good cornerbacks will get raw deals in FA. I predict that FA opens and 3-5 guys get monster deals then the market cools down and we go out and snatch someone. I'm hoping for something like what happened last season at WR. It was a deep draft and a good FA class. Thus trading for a WR was cheap as dirt and some descent WRs were avaliable on the cheap just 1 week after free agency opened. If sharece stays then we are good because that's exactly what we need. I don't want Cromartie specifically but I want our FO to keep an eye on this FA situation. Wait for the first round of marquee signings then make a move for a solid guy. from the looks of it, we both agree that we need a long term solution as well. And you rarely solve any long term problem in free agency. If we go CB in the first round then all bets are off and il lay off this topic. If we go some other route in the draft then this FA class could make or break our upcoming season.

From the looks of it, you probably have seen the packers play a lot more than I have. Nick Perry is a guy I liked out of USC but he hasn't lived up to his first round mark. How much of an upgrade if any would he be over Z.Smith?

I think we need both. A short term solution and a long term solution. Unless we take hargreves or ramsey with our first pick, it's unfair to expect a rookie to start and play well as a CB in the NFL day 1. At the moment we have 1 shutdown corner thats injury prone and no one to play across the field from him and a huge drop off of talent if he gets hurt. Sharece wright is probably gone and will Davis is still a question mark. We need a #2 cb and #3 because teams will throw 3 WR sets at us on a regular basis. Walker is a project that I like but he's still a project. So I hope our FO addresses this situation with both Draft and FA. Cromartie may not be the ideal fit but if he gets devalued to a point that we can snatch him on cheap deal then heck bring him in to line up across J.Smith and whoever we draft in the slot. Whenever a young gun outplays him in practice then get rid of crom. This year's CB FA class is as deep as I ever remember. I'm sure we can get an above average CB for really good value. Last year I was pissed off that we didn't go for a CB but it really wouldn't have been a good move because they were so overpriced. This year it's different, it's on Ozzie to find a gem out there;)

I appreciate that

When was Ngata a greedy player? In fact he played out of position for the benefit of the team for years. Played banged up more than most. And yet played at a pro bowl level every single year he was here. Why don't you wish him the best wherever he goes?

We were 8th in total yards and that's the only significant statistic that the Ravens were above average, part of that may be attributed to teams being ahead of us and just ran the ball as we attempted a comeback. 12th against the run, and 25th in points allowed per game. Our red zone, 3rd down, and takeaways weren't great either. This D showed flashes of playing great great football. Theyd force four three and outs in a row then followed it by allowing 3 long drives and 17 points. I didn't see enough in game adjustments and often saw a front seven and a secondary on different pages.

I hate talking commenting on topics like this because it usually sounds hypocritical whichever way you slice it. Iv read a lot, and i mean a looooot about PEDs and sports. To keep things simple, lets just say there are 3 types of PED. a- More strength, speed. (Usually used when a player needs to get stronger and faster real quick.) Most commonly used by players with expiring contracts. Most athletes reach a point where their body just cant get stronger or faster. With this stuff, the outer layer of muscles are broken and another layer is built over and strength increases are visible within weeks and just keep getting better and better until you go off that stuff. Really bad long term effects but not as bad short term if used properly. b- More endurance. (Like an espresso shot to a normal person) Soccer players often use them to play 90 minutes like its their first. Players often crash for 24 hours after a tough game. Some players just sleep and never wake up because of the workload their body just went through. Horrible short term not as bad long term. c- Faster recovery. (Usually used to recover faster from workouts and injuries) U know how legs day at the gym leave you soar for a good 5 days. Yeah with this stuff you can literally do legs again in 2 or 3 days. When a player is injured and goes through rehab, most of that time is actually rest and recovery. If a normal person tears an ACL, he would rehab 3-4 times a week for an hour or 2 each session. The rest of the time hes just allowing his legs to heal and recover before he works it again. With this stuff, athletes can literally have 2 rehab sessions a day and can even cut the whole recovery time in half. Side effects are yet to be seen but you can only imagine how this could shorten someones life drastically. 1- A lot of NFL players use PED. Theyr just smarter at hiding it. Some credible sources have estimated that upto 50% of NFL players Juice one way or another. 2- Rookies in the NFL are subjected to random testing throughout their whole rookie season. Then after that, a player is tested once a year and can't be tested again that year unless theres probable cause to retest him. Whats funny is that the NFL tests guys in the off season so if your tested then go ahead and do whatever you want till next off season. (this explains why rookies often explode in their second year) 3- First strike, you get a warning and are treated like a rookie again and subjected to random tests for 2 years. if you stay clean for 2 years you are off the list and are treated like every other player. (that explains some players having 2 hump years in a row then all of a sudden are revived and have 5 good years) Second strike, it goes public and player faces 4 games. Third strike, 10 games. Fourth strike, a whole year and commissioner decides to bring you back or not. Fifth strike, out of the NFL. note:- All that needs to happen in 2 years. 4- HGH testing is a joke in so many ways. Players know their ways around a positive HGH test. The players union religiously fights the NFL because most players actually need it. Imagine having a 300 pounder fall on you 25 times in 1 game. I swear you'd be soar for weeks thats if nothing is broken. NFL players need to practice in a few days and then another game in 7 days. Thus, the NFL just made a deal with the players Union. (lets make a test that's good enough to fool the public into believing that we are fighting this and yet dumb enough that all NFL players can pass it in their sleep) Boyle my friend has been caught 3 times in 1 year to be where he is now. I get that you were drafted in the 5th round and are so deep down the depth chart that you feel the need to prove yourself or lose your job. But when were you gonna say ok i got it and lets fight from here on out? I find it extreemly alarming that this guy kept on juicing while knowing he could be tested any day. And he failed again and got 4 games and continued to juice and got 10 games. Dude are you serious? Now all you have proven is that you can't keep up with the big boys without PEDs and you cant even come close to PEDs for 2 more years. So basically, to NFL teams you are another dumb 5th rounder that doesn't even know how to cheat like a normal human being. I wouldn't touch him with a stick until those 2 probation years are over because he obviously cant do much without them. I wouldn't let him anywhere near my locker room because this guy's actions are beyond just dumb. I hope the raves have it in them to setup a good support system for him until hes back from his un-payed suspension. Then I hope we let him go as soon as we can because this reflects badly on all of us and will bite our behinds if he gets one more strike.

There is absolutely no way Flacco gets cut. A more realistic scenario would be to trade him. Jay Cutler was traded for two 1st round picks and a 3rd rounder just a few years ago. Flacco would at least land us a first rounder and some pocket change if we had to put him on the block. I'm assuming what hunter is trying to imply is that it makes no financial sense whatso ever to the ravens to even think of moving on from Joe this year. 3 mil in savings wont bring us a franchise quarterback unless we draft Goff and bluff Linta for real. Next year on the other hand is a whole different story. Just stay with me and youl see how much leverage Linta loses in one short year if the Ravens make that same proposal of Trading him away to the highest bidder. 1- Joe will be a year older. 2- The Ravens open up 15mil in 2017 and 20mil in 2018 to move on to whatever QB they like. 3- The Raven get some value in return. and can make sure he doesn't go to a contender. 4- Flacco has to honor the remaining two years 20mil each on his deal (non guaranteed) 5- If Flacco gets hurt or underperforms with his new team he gets close to nothing as a 34 year old FA about to turn 35. If i was one of Flacco's advisers, I'd advise him to stop hard balling the Ravens and take what they give you now. Make up the difference in escalators and endorsements in Baltimore where you already have a nice brand. If you sign now, the Ravens build a team and future plans all around you. If you wait till next year, the Ravens in the meantime will have a plan for the next five year without you in the picture. The last 10 guys that hard balled the Ravens all lost in the big picture. Dont be #11! You wanna be here and the Ravens want you here. GET IT DONE!

I think he already is on a little bit of a hot seat because our FO wont accept missing the playoffs 3 out of 4 years. Pees on the other hand, his seat is literally on fire! Hes gonna get rocks thrown at him the minute this D slips up a bit. Regardless of our overall record, Pees needs to be top 10 in every meaningful statistical category a D can be in (red zone, 3rd down, total yards, takeaways). We also need to see some value in players that were drafted so high. Elam, Brooks, A.Brown, T.Walker, and W.Davis for him to work with. Last year and the year before we gave Pees the excuse of his starters, (Webb, J.Smith) were injured and the backups were a bunch of 6th and 7th rounders that probably wont make a roster if they were cut. Unfortunately the guys that left played better with their new teams and the guys that came played much worse that they did with their former teams (Arrington, Lewis)This year Pees has 3 quality starters when you include HIll in the secondary and a litter of great raw talent. If you cant make something out of them then its on you Pees. Arrington:- never was a big fan but he played much better with the Patriots as slot CB Lewis:- Never was a big fan but he played much better as a Cheif and a Texan Elam:- !st round. I'm not asking to make him a pro bowler but for gods sake put him in a position to at least help not hurt the team. T.Walker:- 4th rounder W.Davis:- 3rd rounder Brooks:- 3rd rounder 2016 Draft and FA:- Unknown but you know some talent will be added If pees cant find 1 starter and above average depth from these guys then he never will. I hate to throw this out there but all Pees has proven since Ed Reed left is that Ed was right to ignore his calls and pull the secondary strings on his own.

The Cowboys had one of the worst pass rushes in the NFL and their best performer (hardy) is gone. Why would they pass up on the best 4-3 pass rusher in the class? And how did Mel Kiper assume the Browns pass on Goff for a division 2 QB with the second overall pick?

Webb didn't look healthy till the latter part of last season. His skill set fits perfectly for a FS when he's close to 100 percent. He's a good tackler. Surely can call the plays back there. And still has enough speed to run sideline to sideline. Above average hands and could end up with more picks as a FS. His only downside as a cornerback was he lost his cut speed or burst. That's not as necessary when playing FS. Have some fath, Webb is gonna ball!

I believe webb is actually the second best tackler in that secondary behind will hill. Besides webb is probably gonna play deep more often and hill will play closer to the line where he excels in. Cutting him may not make a lot of sense financially but I was hoping for a paycut and we revisit this next year. I really believe Webb has a good chance of playing better at FS than he ever did as a cornerback.

Not smart bro..... Wishing you luck getting back on the field and staying clean from PEDs Next time your probably out of the NFL for good.

You're not accounting for RFA and ERFA tenders, which we will give out that cost cap space, and slotting in draft pick compensation, which will cost probably in the neighborhood of $3-4M. Those amounts are earmarked and are essentially already spent. So basically, after tenders and draft pick earmarks, we're right at the salary cap. It means pretty much all of our cap space comes from cuts, extensions and restructurings. Tucker is likely to get the tag in the next 2-3 weeks, and thus that's $4-5M spent right off the bat. I'm not really making any assumptions...I'm focused on the status quo. I'm operating under current contract terms...Flacco deal is unchanged and so is Webbs. Maybe they change their deals, maybe they dont, but I also don't think either is happening before FA opens. As far as your cuts, while there's plenty of guys we could cut, they are all depth guys who need to be replaced by other depth guys. We aren't filling 10 positions from the draft...we'd be lucky to fill 3-4. Some of the cuts are obvious, and others, like cutting Mallett, make no sense, because his replacement will cost just as much. Not sure where you got your Art Brown $4M cut amount, but he saves less than $1M to cut. Pretty much same for Elam. I think your cut list is way too long, and if they were to be cut, we'd be signing similar players at similar prices, not spending it on somebody like KO. My bad, That 4 mil was for the 4 guys on that line combined not a.brown alone. I totally forgot that K.aiken will count 2-3mil if we keep him. Im not advocating letting go of mallet but it's just an option as his contract is not guaranteed. I was also hoping we give Tucker an extension vs the Tag because it would reduce his cap hit to a lil above 2 mil this year vs 4.5 I only assumed so many guys are gone because we already have 56 guys under contract for next year. If we keep 4 of our free agents we have 60 and draft picks. I mean how are we gonna even keep them all?

1- According to estimates, we should have around 3 mil in free cap to start with. 2- For simplicity il say Flacco and Webb save 5 mil in cap space. That number could go up if we feel desperate and need more cap space but i hope we don't jeopardise our future for this. 3- In my books, Canty, Arrington, and levine are gone its just a matter of time. thats another 4.5 mil right there. thats 12.5 Million and i see that as being the minimum coz Flacco and Pitta could 5- Elam, K.Lewis, Mallet, A.Brown, (4m) and D.Smith (2.5m) These guys are on their last straw it would be hard to let them go but if we need the cap space it can be made. Well, I don't think we should attempt to make serious prediction based on estimates That's fair. It is that time of the year where I'd pay money to be in that room to witness Ozzie and Decosta in action.

I never said we can do both. I said we have the option of keeping all of our own which is a luxury that we haven't had for a while. I may have said it in a wrong way but I meant keep our own and draft or draft and get a few descent FA Correct me if I'm wrong but to my understanding a team signs free agents and then has a deadline to fit them in the cap for the new calendar year. its not like if you have 5 mil in cap you can't offer someone a 5.5 mil deal. 1- Lets keep Flacco's deal for another day because its a whole different discussion. But for simplicity lets just say Flacco frees up 3 mil in cap and i don't think thats a reach. 2- We have to cut players and rework some deals regardless. I see some players that are as good as gone but its just a matter of time till they are officially cut or whatever. the likes of Canty and Arrington come to mind. They are probably gone but the logic I'm after is "why would i cut him unless i need that money to allocate to another player. if i sign a guy then i cut him because if i cut him not and not sign the guy i wanted then i lose both." You absolutely right that if we keep KO, Tucker, and Upshaw and not touch Flacco's contract and not touch webbs contract we won't have much money left. But here you are and you made assumptions but blame me for making other assumptions that could or could not be true. Were only talking in theory here and i usually respect your assumptions for the purpose of making a point wether i like them or not and i sure as hell respect that you take the time and answer thoroughly I truly believe that webb will take another pay cut or restructure saving us 2-3 mil in cap. Monroe on the other hand, it'll be tough because he has all the leverage at the moment. Flacco is a whole new discussion because he can free up 2 mil and upto 10. if he frees up 10 mil then problem solved but we will have a problem in the future. Pitta is the joker here. If we need to free cash then we will designate him as a post jun1 and free up 4.5 mil this year and 3 next year. If we don't need the cap this year then well just cut him and swallow all the dead cap this year freeing only 600k. I never said were gonna go chase von miller or that we can. but we can sign a few 3 mil a year guys that will help drastically. and quite frankly i think thats all we need if we can keep KO, Tuck, and Aiken. with all the guys coming back from injuries. stay with me here and i hope youll see it too lol I'm not saying we have much but we do have enough and we have options if we find a really nice deal. 1- According to estimates, we should have around 3 mil in free cap to start with. 2- For simplicity il say Flacco and Webb save 5 mil in cap space. That number could go up if we feel desperate and need more cap space but i hope we don't jeopardise our future for this. 3- In my books, Canty, Arrington, and levine are gone its just a matter of time. thats another 4.5 mil right there. thats 12.5 Million and i see that as being the minimum coz Flacco and Pitta could 5- Elam, K.Lewis, Mallet, A.Brown, (4m) and D.Smith (2.5m) These guys are on their last straw it would be hard to let them go but if we need the cap space it can be made.

We keep talking about it because we actually do have cap space. This year we have the option to keep all of our players if we wanted to. Usually we lose 3-4 starters and look for cheaper replacements but not this year. We don't have much but we can make a move if it's worthwile.