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Next year in the AFC its likely going to look like the Patriots then several steps down the Raiders then below them about 5-6 which include the Ravens fighting for the AFC spot. Now if you want to have a shot at a ring you go to one of those teams if not you go to one of the teams with cap space which with the exception of the Patriots is not one of those teams.

If you only say we havnt been in the playoffs in 2 years ignoring everything else then yes its pointing downward. If you notice that 2 years ago was an injury filled mess and that this year was close before the Ravens best defensive player went down and that they have overall a pretty good core for the next few years I would say they are certainly trending upward. I dont know where this negativity comes from but they are going to be better next year then this year and they were a playoff level team this year (ask the Dolphins how good the Ravens are) which is the definition of trending upward.

Let's also not forget everyone saw Oakland and Dallas last year and now wants to also have that full offensive line because shockingly it turns out that a great offensive line is more important than a great receiving group.

Which basically means both are gone.

Its really impressive that somehow in your mind the Ravens manage to both not draft any good players but at the same time always seem to have huge pieces leave in free agency that they drafted. Being able to pull off both is just amazing.

I would accept Mosley as a playmaker but Timmy is worse at his position by far than either Williams or Wagner with Wagner being the best pass blocking RT in football which is a huge deal in the modern NFL and why he might just get the 10M that he wanted.

That seems sillly when the Ravens BEAT Pitt earlier in the year and almost beat them later in the year without there best defensive player.

We did offer KO a very good offer though its not our fault that Oakland VASTLY overpaid him to an extent that the Ravens could not hope to match.

If Ozzie is having such bad drafts how come every year the Ravens have some of the top free agents on the market. 2013 was seen as a bad draft class but they still have 2 of the top 32 players from it so how bad could he have really done?

The thing is Mangold hasn't been very good the past 2 years and has graded worse than Zuttah so why pay for an older player who is likely a downgrade.

So release the best player by far on the Ravens defense? Are you perhaps a fan of another team who really wants an elite CB? Otherwise, I don't really think you watched the Ravens play that much because he carried that secondary.

How about that over the past 2 years he has been worse than Zuttah per PFF. There is a reason he got retaliated and it's not because how good he was.

The Ravens are not in as bad a position as it seems heading into the draft. What they NEED is a corner to go alongside Jimmy, another pass rusher and a possession/slot receiver. They already said they will likely do the latter in FA which really only leaves 2 starters you are hunting for and then the rest of the positions you have time to groom them as backups. Yes not every starter is an All Pro but they are certainly getting the job done. The DLine is stacked. You know who your ILB starters will be and you have time to groom Suggs replacement. On offense maybe you want a new center but assuming you can keep Wagner the rest of the line is pretty set so you can draft some depth there because OLine depth is always useful but thats pretty much it. You are not drafting anymore TE or WRs since you have tons of those in development already and the Ravens already have 2 RB they like so at best they might draft a speed guy in later rounds. Basically there are not that many real needs so you can go hunting for gems who you think will be huge.

They are not going to put Lewis at RT. If it were even something they were considering they would have done it when the opportunity was there to do it in the season. Instead they did not and kept him at guard because they view him as a guard and since they see him practice I am more likely to believe them. Also it is not a "slight" downgrade, you are going from top 5 at their position to likely bottom 5 at their position which is a massive dropoff. The Ravens entire offensive line woes stem from weakness in the interior, specifically that none of them were really healthy and couldnt really get any push in the run game. However the outsides were great especially as the season drew to a close and Stanley starting looking less like a rookie and more like a top LT in his prime.

I wouldnt even say Wallace is expendable if Perriman becomes the number 1 WR. You want to have 2 speed guys on the edge and the chain mover in the slot so his spot is still save. Even as a number 2 Wallace isnt at a bad number.

We never low balled KO. He just got massively overplayed by Oakland. He got top tier LT money to play guard.

Whatever RT you sign will be worse and probably far worse considering the free agent class than Wagner. Also any edge rusher at Dooms level will cost more than what you will pay him so be ready for that cap hit.

You are going to end up losing ToP in games you lose because by the 4th quarter you are throwing more and they are running more. If those numbers are not far below the Ravens season average then the other teams in the NFL have failed.

OL is a position that's value has been going way up over the past few years and people are going to look at Oakland and Dallas and want to imitate their recipe so I can see him getting that especially considering he is a top 5 at his position and has been for a couple years.

Considering the amount of money they offered im I am pretty sure they knew what kind of effect him leaving would have. You just can not outbid a bad team that decides to overspend.

I get that making demeaning nicknames to players seems witty but I promise you it isnt by the 30th times its been said. Also plenty of teams are contending with 20 million dollar QB deals. The Championship games were 3 teams with teams that had a HIGHER QB hit than Flacco and then Brady who does his own thing for a lot of other reasons mostly involving having a wife who makes over 40M a year and his own endorsements making him around his contract already. Establishing that it is completely possible to build a contender with a 20M QB and it is also completely possible to build a solid defense around him with a solid O-Line. If you want to know how I know that I can look at the Ravens last year and realize they had a great defense and were just one piece away from a great O-line and are about to cut a bunch of pieces to help speed along that process. So if you like being doom and gloom by all means keep pouting but in reality the Ravens contend for the playoffs every year barring MASSIVE injuries and once they get in they always make there mark.

There is already a thread in the main forum where someone listed every 2nd round pick in Ravens history and its pretty obvious if you look at it that the picks have gotten better over the years compared to where they were. Pulling off getting a couple Hall of Famers with 1st round picks is nice but you cant pull that off consistently and if you are those MLB and S are the positions that you can pull it off late in the 1st round because those positions are far less sought after then the positions the Ravens picked. However it seems silly to say the Ravens are drafting bad when every year there is a free agent or two considered one of the top in the market who will price himself out. This year its Wagner and Williams and so I find it silly to say they are bad at drafting when they have two of the top 32 players in the draft.

Alternatively it could be that since John came aboard the Ravens have been drafting much lower every year since they have been winning so on average the drafts are going to be worse. The very first draft the Ravens get a high pick in is already one of the best in franchise history.

It seems risky to decide to become worse at 3 positions to become better at one aspect of one position.

Williams you are 100 percent correct on but Lattimore is in a weird position where there are maybe 4 teams ahead of Ravens who really want him but there are other players who will likely be available that they want or need more.