January J

Gotcha. IMO he will still be on our board top 25 but if he's there at 16 another team would likely give up more to up and take him. Would be the perfect opportunity to get a nice haul by trading back. Esp if 2 teams want him and get in a bidding war. Best case scenario I think is coming away with a extra 2nd and 4th.

Pretty unrealistic. Im sure we'll take 1 but I wouldn't be surprised if we don't take any. The FA route is more likely and we'll probably add 1 from each. That has us at : 1) FA - Garcon/Marshall/Pryor 2) Wallace/ Torrey smith 3) Perriman 4) Campanaro 5) Moore 6) Draftee 7) possible UDFA

So the question now becomes do we keep an older mike Wallace who faded out in the 2nd half of the season who is slated to count about 8 mill-or go with a younger Torrey smith who's numbers have been almost non existent ( chalk that up mostly to piss poor qb play) who could be had much cheaper, save us around 3 mill in cap space- and whom also already has a rapport with Joe? Decisions decisions... If we don't pick up Wallace's option this week expect a Torrey reunion to become very likely. I'm sure he will consider a hometown discount after seeing how important a qb is to help his stats which will effect future deals. Was hoping for Marshall but insiders are talking as if new England is the destination he has set in stone.

Looks pretty spot on but no Cook in the top 25?

Yeah right now I think it makes more sense to go pass rusher / OL in the first & 2nd and then grab a guy like Kazee or Douglas in the third.

After watching bits and peices of the combine- the DB's that caught my eye the most were: -Kazee -King -Douglas - Jones -Baker No particular order. I also am slowly coming back around to Peppers who I originally liked but then kinda just went sour on him. He did well though IMO.

That's a good point. Best bet there would be to trade back for Feeney or whoever else falls.

Dang he's a short little dude but yeah he's pretty smoothe. Does remind me of a Darren sproles. Being that short can be a great advantage BC the defense often cant even see which direction he's going behind the line and before you know it he's hit the hole and he's gone.

Again- it has nothing to do with Dixon- its about staying true to the BPA mantra. If the top corners and pass rushers get plucked, the top WRS are gone AND we can't get a tradeback- then certainly Cook would be the best move is it not? And when has it ever hurt to have 2 dynamic backs? Always great to have insurance incase of injury and to keep both guys fresh. Then we have an extra asset that could be useful when it comes time to renegotiate a 2nd contract or to use as trade bait.

One side note we actually don't have a 7th round pick this year due to the givens trade that was a complete failure. Was worth a shot though

Your right about it being realistic but honestly I would absolutely hate this draft. Top to bottom. The 2nd round and third round comp pick I'd be cool with I just think we could do so much better. But yeah unfortunately I could def see things falling very similarly to this. EDIT: the more I look at it its actually not that bad. I think the first round just ruined it for me and left a bad taste in my mouth. I could see a lot of fans complaining about picks like this only to have them grow on them throughout the year.

Maybe we can have a spelling bee instead. Lol all jokes aside I think this could have been a decent idea if it was presented better. Much better.

Fournette as a possible trade-back target?

No thanks -we're looking for an upgrade. Certainly not as a starter - and better depth can be found elsewhere- and is probably already on the team.

Yeah Webb's a lot safer than pitta right now IMO. I'm so torn BC he has the great rapport with Joe and led the league in receptions at his position but he had the highest amount of "failed completions" ( I think he had like an 8 yd average per catch) and was a huge liability as far as blocking. He already took a paycut last year ( although he got most back in incentives) and putting up those stats he might say heck no- but we know he has such a bromance with joe and juice and them and you know he's not going to want to uproot his family so we will see. But if we do release him that will give us 4 tight ends alll on rookie contracts. Some will say we need his vet presence-but I think crock is ready to take that next step as long as he can stay healthy.. And I'm more than comfortable going into the year with a corps of 1) crock 2) Waller 3) Maxx 4) Boyle...a good combination of blocking and pass catchers. As far as Webb being cut - Jefferson from AZ has been the name thrown around the most as a potential replacement.. But he really is the same type of player as weddle- and Webb did a pretty good job paired with weddle- esp considering it was his first full year at the Position. neither of them allowed many big plays throughout the season. Webb has always been a team player and been more than willing to help the FO out..but you have to wonder if he might finally say enough is enough. Regardless his number is far too high and hopefully he is willing to consider getting paid like a safety now of his caliber...having continuity on the back end will be a plus- and I expect then to get even better- despite the departure of Frazier.

Logan Ryan was a name to look out for- but his strong postseason upped his price tag quite a bit. We will have the room to grab him if we want to- question will be do we want to pay that much when we can go the draft route with it being such a strong class at the position. Not many intriguing pass rushers on the open market either. The only positions I see us going after in FA are WR, OL, S, and maybe a linebacker to replace Orr... Although they are hoping KC can step up and fill that void, which would be ideal.

I think we make allllllot of cuts this year and pretty much let everybody walk. The only one I DEF see us retaining is juice BC he won't demand too much on the open market. West might get a 2nd round tender but a third is more likely. But yeah I think we free up a ton of room and break our trend by uncharacteristically making a few big name FA splashes. Particularly on a WR. For the first time in a while I see us having a very healthy amount of cap space. Not sure if Webb or pitta will both agree to ANOTHER paycut but I'm pretty sure atleast one of them won't be in a ravens uni this season.

Yes they are extremely hard to pick but I disagree about most of them getting cut. Very often you can find solid contrubutors in the 6th and 7th...shoot look at the gems that the ravens find that go undrafted. Orr and Peirce were both UDFAs... Waller and Campanaro may not be the best examples but they were both late round picks.. The example I use most often Is Antonio brown- he was a late 6th round pick. So you never know. But yeah your definitely right about them being extremely hard to pick. The entire draft is really. Its all a crap shoot BC you never know how the board will fall.

I think our best bet would be to try trading back a few spots to around 20 or so and take Feeney- which he should almost certainly be there. That would probably only net us a third though- so we could try trading back a little farther around 25 -26 to try and acquire an extra 2nd and hope that Feeney is still there - which is certainly possible... And if he's not we could just fall back on a guy like Howard. Ofcourse that's only if a team even wants to swap picks. If we stand pat at 16 and one of the top corners is there such as Jones or Wilson you just have to assume we go that route. Ppl have been banging on the table for it similar to how they were clamoring for a first round WR before we took Perriman. Not that I think Ozzie or decosta will cave to what the fans or media think by any means- but it also just makes sense and the cb position has been arguably our Achilles heel for years now and not having taken one in the first since jimmy. Everytime Jimmy went down it was glaringly obvious that our secondary began to buckle. With the strong addition of tavon last year who showed he can play inside and out- 1 more strong corner will give us a very solid core 3 moving forward. So yeah if one of the 3 between lattimore , Jones or Wilson is there at 16 I think you just almost have no choice but to grab one- unless another team offers up something ridiculously crazy to move up.

I don't think its about not believing in Dixon- atleast not for me. But when does it ever hurt to have 2 dynamic playmaking rbs? 1 they will both be able to stay fresh and not get run into the ground and two incase of injury we have a contingency plan. Cinci has hill and bernard- Pittsburgh has bell and Williams...I don't think taking Cook is a sign of us not wanting or thinking Dixon can't be the guy at all..and a little friendly competition is always good. They will both push each other and may the best man win. Add in west to that equation who also has shown great promise and that's a pretty strong 3 headed monster all on cheap deals- and that's not even including juice. If we did go that route I would certainly take a lineman in the second and then use both our thirds on cb and safety. Many might be upset about not taking a pass rusher early but hopefully we will get major improvement from judon and ZDS - get another solid year from suggs and hopefully find some hidden gems in the middle rounds similar to what we found in judon.

And don't forget the possible tradeback targets such as Feeney- Howard- or Watt- none of which I would be mad at. ESP if it involved picking up an extra 2nd or even 3rd.

What do you think about going the FA route for cb and taking a Logan Ryan and then focusing more on pass rushing and the o line in the draft? Kinda hard to do with so much talent at the top of the draft at the cb position- but a veteran such as Logan may help us more right away...and we can focus on finding that elite pass rusher and bolstering our o line to help the running game while simultaneously opening things up for the deep ball and giving Joe more time to pick defenses apart. That's not saying we don't take a cb at all either- Elder might not be your guy but like I said this draft is so stacked at the position we could really wait until round 3 or 4 and still find a solid contributer. Im a fan of Kazee who can def be had in the 3rd and maybe even 4th. Id be pretty hype about a cb corps consisting of Jimmy Smith- Logan Ryan- Tavon Young - Kazee Ryan and young can both play inside and out- which would give us a lot of flexibility in case of injury. However if you don't like Elder BC of his height I'm sure you won't be a fan of Kazee as well- BC he's also under 6 ft tall lol I agree we do need to get taller- esp when going up against some of these AFC north receivers who constantly win jump balls from Big Ben and Dalton.

I'm actually a pretty big fan of this mock! I brought up the idea of taking Howard a while ago - while it wasn't popular opinion at the time I think its starting to grow on some ppl. And we know how ozzie covets those alabama guys- esp at his former position. I can see joe salivating over this pick giving him that big bodied redzone target and another effeciant blocker. He's also a great trade back target- which would give us another third and possibly even 2nd to address a pass rusher. If our top corners and pass rushers on the board are gone at 16- this may be our best bet. Rounds 1-3 are a knockout- however I'm not so sure about grabbing a rb where you did since we will be ignoring the pass rushing need. ( unless like i said we gain an extra pick) While I like elder- I also like the idea of taking a cb in FA such as Logan Ryan- and then going pass rusher there instead. If TJ watt falls deep into the 2nd I would do everything I could to jump back into the 2nd and grab him. But assuming we trade back into the LATE 20s for howard and gather an extra 2nd- that could potentially give us a haul of : 1) Howard 2) Elflein 2) Watt 3)Elder Which that alone would be an AMAZING draft and have me doing backflips. And that still leaves us with atleast 5 picks in the mid to late rounds which is the area of the draft that is usually our bread and butter. Instead of going Hunt with our comp I would take Desmond king - if he was there of ofcourse...which isn't likely but certainly possible. If we did draft Howard let's think about what our TE corps would look like. You would have to assume we move on from Watson and pitta while saving us alot of cap room. I think we would certainly hold onto 4 - and in my mind those 4 would surely be : 1) Crockett 2) Howard 3) Boyle 4) Maxx That's 4 tight ends on rookie contracts...and gives us a great group of both blocking AND pass catchers. And actually I think we hold onto waller as well- but he will be looked at as more of our 7th receiver and hybrid tight end. No way do I see us moviing on from him with the potential he's shown and his special teams contributions. If keeping that many doesn't work with the numbers game- I think it will be open competition between waller , maxx and Boyle for the last TWO spots. And keep in mind injuries or suspensions may narrow things down and make the decision for us.

I wouldn't hate it- decent draft but I expect us to do better.

Its definitely not my first choice I'm just saying I would understand it and wouldn't hate it. If Jones, Wilson, Williams and a few others are gone then I think you either go for a tradeback or take cook no question.