vinnystp

I guess he forgot about Alex Lewis too. He was a 4th round pick, but no mention, despite he started half the games. Alex Lewis filled in impossible shoes, with the loss of KO, and while not entirely silent (due to our run game), made it somewhat bearable. Now he could be moved to RT if we lose Ricky Wagner in FA, where Marshal can continue to help mold him into a better OL. Then we can either fill in Urshel/Jensen or draft another OL to plug into LG. Or Jensen plays LG, and Urshel takes over starting Center if they deem Jeremy too expensive.

This years draft class was one of our better hits, in recent years.

Dang. Frazier turned around the secondary's ability to focus on takeaways. This one stings. Hope they keep up the tennis ball drills during OTA's and training camp, to keep that laser focus.

can they all lose? If not, anyone in the NFC over AFC.

  2 hours ago, drillem said:

I can't even imagine Harbie being here next year. There are so many more qualified coaches available. Whether it happens or not I don't know but a guy can have hope can't he?

Qualified coaches? Who? Rex "Choke Artist" Ryan? Josh "Trade all my picks for Tebow" McDaniels? Kyle "Horrible without Julio" Shanahan?

There is a reason the top teams in the league (Squealers, Bengals, Pats, Seahawks, Packers, Saints) are always near the top. Because they stick with their HC thru "losing" seasons. Teams that don't - Browns, Jets, Philly, 49ers, Bucs. See the pattern?

Harbaugh is one of the best coaches in the league, period. Not perfect, but what coach is? You saw what happened to the 49ers when they fired Jim Harbaugh - how's that team doing the past few years? Chip Kelly was the hottest "up & coming" coach - what did he do in Philly? How about in SanFran?

The problem with this team the past few years is talent & injuries. The Ravens have no explosive RB (West must lead the league in 1 yard rushes). They have no true #1 WR. No mismatch at TE (Pitta not the same as he was, Waller has brick hands), etc. Same story every year, WRs can't get open, RBs are plodding, run into the wall types so offense struggles to put up points (doesn't matter who the OC is). That's not a "great roster". Defense still needs pass rushers & cornerbacks (as does EVERY team in the league). This is a team that got old very quickly and we are just now seeing quality replacements. Mosley & Orr replacing Lewis & Smith. BWill replacing Ngata. Stanley replacing Monroe. There is no quick fix and it's not a perfect science.

If you told me that the Ravens would finish 9-7 with a chance to win the division on Christmas, I would take that every year.

Thank you! Yes, THIS every bit of THIS! Is Harbaugh a perfect coach? No. But I would take him over any other option at head coach. There are no upgrades at Head Coach for this team. Not Rex, not any other "flashy" HC picks.

For years, everyone was calling for Dean Pees head. Now that we have a top 5 defense (with Jimmy), and Pees is on the sidelines calling the plays and making adjustments, the screaming has tempered. (Although, one could argue that the 4 game stretch of losses in the middle of the season was enough to start hearing people scream again.)

Even with all of this said, the Defense wasn't really our problem in 2016 (until the 4th quarter in some games, and getting off the field), it was discipline (too many drive killing penalties on Offense, and drive extending penalties on defense) and lack of offensive identity. Part of that is injuries, mostly with the OL, and Joe getting back into his old self. I would accustom some of it to timing with his receivers, and feeling comfortable in an patchwork OL.

But let's hear all the complaints about how bad Flacco has been this year....Oh wait, so was Aaron Rodgers. This year has been horrible for almost all teams with offensive identities. Who would have predicted Derek Carr would be a top QB in the league this year?

My point is, we had a great draft in 2016, we will need another impact draft in 2017 to remain competitive, and I am not looking forward to who we can't afford to sign in FA...when its time to close the books on 2016 and prepare for next year.

The positions we need the most are CB, WR, and DT. I like Guy, Pierce and Jernigan, but if we lose Williams that will hurt.

Hey SVP...you are right, but put this one in the bucket of what Harbs and the Ravens presented to the Competition committee before the season, as to defining "what is not reviewable" instead of what is reviewable. (Before it was taken off of the table) Make everything reviewable with exception to the proposed plays, and you have a better system. Again....you still only have 2/3 challenges per game, per team. So adding the number of "types" of plays that can be challenged, doesn't really impact the flow of the game. Unless you are adding certain calls to the "Turnover/Scoring plays" as reviewable content.

As stated by the commentators when the flag was thrown, we can't see what Cromartie's right are is doing immediately before the flag was thrown, so we can't see if his "interference" was a push off attempt that was well disguised, just before intercepting the ball. (I thought so, but I am biased) Anywho, the penalty was called, and the outcome of the game was not impacted....this time.

Does anybody else miss Jermaine Lewis?

1 hour ago, Moderator 3 said:

2 hours ago, dirtybird66 said:

i'd lik to know why the players are off monday,if you lose you practice,they'l focus if they have to work after a loss.

They have a union contract that guarantees them a day off.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Can't wait to see him go up against Timmy and Brandon, between the whistles.  KO sounds saucy, but we offered him a fair deal.  If he wants to be saucy, whatever, move on.  Liked you when you were here, but I am not losing any sleep without you.  (Besides we are 3-0 without you, and grooming a rookie to replace you)  Jensen and Urschel could easily step in to play LG, and Alex is doing fine so far.  Would obviously love a better run game, and better run blocking scheme on the left side, but we are 3-0 and have plenty to work on as the season grinds on.

Did Maxx Williams get any reps?

Yes, a few. One of the critical plays Maxx Williams made was a key block, allowing Justin Forsett to gain enough yards at the end of the game on the final drive. Setting up the 1 yard First down run by Terrence West, which we subsequently ran down the clock to get the W. Great block by Maxx, great run play by Justin.

Baffling to me, is that Brooks was cut, when they could have retained Brooks, and just parted ways with injured Elam. If they were going to put him on IR anyways, then just cut him and give him an injury settlement. They already have opted to not take his 5th year option, so the writing was on the wall already.

I am not going to be a negative spirit....This is fantastic news for Breshad, and I hope he can remain healthy and finally get on the field. Nobody dreams of making it to the NFL, only to never put on the pads and play a down.

Now that the Browns are drafting at 8, they might be targeting Elliot, and developing a QB drafted in Round 2-5.

And yet no expansion to reviewable plays. "We want to protect the integrity of the game". Except when it comes to officiating, and getting the calls right.

3 hours ago, sami said:

jravens131, I agree 100%. If we still had thumbs up and thumbs down I would have given you a thumbs up (I sure miss those)

Thumbs up still exist, you just have to do it through the Forums, rather than directly through the Article reply.  Sucks

WOLF PACK!!! Grats Morgan, glad to have ya locked up for 5 more!

His leadership will be missed. Thank you for helping anchor the line Chris, your contributions will not be forgotten.

I don't like this move :(

$22.5M - 2016 
$24.55M - 2017 
$24.75M - 2018 
$26.5M - 2019
$28.25M - 2020 
$24.25M - 2021

22 minutes ago, fusuymada said:

What I heard today about the Ravens cap is that if you take into consideration Joe's new deal, the increase in cap money, the franchise tag on Tucker, the deal to KO, and keeping Aiken at a 2.5 mil restricted contract, we are still on the wrong side of the cap number. So in order to do anything in free agency, all savings from here on out will be as a result of players we cut loose. Flacco's deal is only worth 6 mil against the cap this year and since we were already the second worst team against the cap this year, by the time you count what the Ravens want to do and have to do, we are poor again. When you take into consideration the guys the Ravens can cut and save money, there isn't a whole lot out there to save.

Actually, the plan is to offer Tucker a multi-year deal, which could keep this years cap number down.  Same with Aiken, but who knows if they only offer him a 1 year RFA tender, or if they try to extend him now to get more bang for the buck.  If Aiken doesn't want an extension, and opts to be a UFA next year, then yes, it depends on the tender the Front office wants to extend to prevent teams from signing.  All we do know is that if Tucker doesn't agree to a deal before the cut-off date, and he plays under the franchise tag number, our cap situation is not where we want to be.  

We don't exactly know the details of KO's current offer, but I can assume that this years number will be relatively low, to fit within the cap window of what we expected to have available.  Pair this with his signing bonus, and spread that over the course of the entire contract, and we can expect a huge number, but still should be under the cap.

Yes, we can expect some cuts...as much as I love ALL of our guys, we can expect to see some guys not make it to the 2016 roster, who are cap casualties.

It is not time to start panicking....yet.

I know it might not be a popular move, but if the player we covet is not available at 6, then I can absolutely see Ozzie making a similar move to 2008, when we drafted Flacco. The important thing to remember here is not who the Ravens covet, its who the other teams covet, and what they are willing to give up to move up. Everyone might want the bright and shiny new Benz...as do I...but not as badly as finding play-makers in every round possible. We have found some nice hidden gems in later rounds the last few years, not superstars, but valuable contributors.

After what I saw last night, between the Steelers and Bengals...I am not too worried. Bengals might be cutting some selfish players with hot heads, who are more disciplined. Too bad that Marvin Lewis didn't get control of it before it destroyed their season. It might just cost him his job.

I just for one year, would like to experience a year without a huge contract in Dead money on the table. I know many teams deal with this, and its a product of diminishing returns on contracts that award players for past production, and the results never meet the expectations of the contract signed. I get it. I am not advocating cutting any players with massive contracts, to free up cap space, this also leads to dead money. I just worry with the looming question (2nd year in a row) of what happens with Pitta. Will he play, or will we have another year of dead money. This year I think we are more confident than ever, that we have 3 men on our active roster, who without a doubt can contribute at this position, if Pitta does decide to retire. I hope he does whatever he wants, and will not hold it against him either way. Health before everything. I just want a 2016, without tons of dead money. If Webb is considering a position move to FS...then draft a top Corner, premier DE or bookend tackle to replace KO who is obviously priced out of our range now. As much as we are in need of a playmaker WR, Perriman hasn't hit the field yet, to see where we are with him. Too soon to call him a bust. We have a good foundation, just need discipline to not commit 1140 penalty yards in a season, and we need a better turnover differential.

Just a heads up to all you Flacco haters, saying he needs to take a pay cut. Yes, this "contract year" was built in with the intent to renegotiate, and also pay Flacco for his success after his rookie contract, rightfully earned with that big shiny ring on his finger. The common misconception comes when people compare Flacco to Brady, Brees, and Manning, with regards to renegotiated contracts. Brady and Brees DID NOT take a pay cut. They kept their contract number, and the teams converted part of their salary for the year to a signing bonus. This immediately frees up the team from that money, and pushes it to later years, while the player still gets to remain paid exactly the same. Each game check might be lower, but they have this hefty signing bonus sitting in the bank. Manning did take a pay cut, to reduce the cap hit to the Broncos, by 4m if I remember correctly. However, Manning is also on his 4th??? contract in his career. This is still Flacco's second contract. Comparing apples to apples with Manning, is not fair to Flacco, especially when one of those players is a 4 time MVP. So if everyone expects Flacco to accept less money, while also creating cap space for the team, let's be fair to the player. Flacco has earned his paycheck just like you and I have. Just be realistic about the expectations of the end result. The expectations might be more along the lines of, contract extension, converting a huge chunk of the salary to signing bonus, while keeping the annual salary contract money down to a reasonable annual hit. This is where we, as fans, need to keep our expectations of the upcoming pay negotiations. If I had a guess, his number for 2016 might be somewhere around 16-18m, then expect each year to increase from there. While converting the remaining 10-12m to signing bonus.

I don't care about the result of Week 17, I care about beating Pittsburgh, in our house. So do they. So let's take care of business, and Play Like a Raven. Not like the bunch of penalty, turnover giving up guys you have been all season long. Like the way we played the last 2 trips to Heinz Field. Get some!

Honestly, I think this move is to keep as many veterans as possible from ending up on IR. Not really, but at this point we might be better off if it was. Stash veterans on the bench, and play the younger players. Keep the veterans from injuries that might impact their ability to contribute next year.