Adreme

And shouldn't...

I still remember the playoff games. Anything more than a being #3 will burn Melvin big time.

I remember the playoff games to and I remember when the Patriots realized that "throw it to whoever Melvin is covering" became basically there playbook in the 2nd half of that game.   Webb showed probowl level play before his back injury and probably deserves a full season healthy before I say he doesnt have it anymore.

I think you're operating under a misconception. Gilmore is our #1 TE both blocking and receiving in 2015. I see Maxx coming on and making some plays as well but, in my view, it's a mistake to classify Gilmore as a pure blocker. He's a great blocker and he will be called on to do so early and often, but we didn't spend a 3rd round pick on a 6' 6" 275 lb behemoth just to block. I could see Gilmore having a slightly higher ceiling than Heath Miller.

Also, considering Maxx's body is nowhere near strong enough to consistently take on NFL LBs and DEs, it would be a huge strategic liability to make him the #1 this year. Would be way too obvious what we were doing when he was in the game and we'd be hamstrung in our base sets because wouldn't be as effective running the ball.

Honestly I think you are stretching hard on comparing him to Heath but I to can hope that he reaches that point but I just cant see it.  As the main receiving option at tight end I do not see him having better numbers then even Owen Daniels had last year.  He just is not a mismatch in the way that Pitta is or in the way that Williams can be once he gets a real NFL body,  

I would also not even consider that a waste of a 3rd round pick if he merely turns out to be one of the best blocking tight ends in the league who can also occasionally catch passes thrown his way and is a secondary threat in the redzone.

I dunno. He's our #2 TE. If your #2 TE is the difference maker on your team you're already in trouble lol. Personally I think it'll be fine. He's like the opposite of a Stephen Hill. Don't let the measurables fool you, kid can ball.

Most offenses use a pass catching tight end and a blocking tight end together and he is no doubt supposed to be our pass catching tight end while Crockett will fill the role of our number 2 blocking tight end who can sometimes catch the ball.

Yep, high football IQ and instincts. What people should be commenting on is how amazing he's going to be once he has an NFL body.

The problem is he does not appear to have that now which considering now is when he is needed could present a problem come the regular season.

I dont think players bodies could handle playing 8 more games and playoff games not to mention it devalues the regular season as a whole.  The NFL currently has the perfect amount of games with the perfect setup time for games and I would not be interested in changing that.

Matt Elam could have the best camp in the history of the NFL and I would not care because his biggest weakness as a pro is his inability to tackle and take the right line to the person he is trying to tackle and those are not things that will get solved in a minicamp.  They will get shown in real practices and in the real games where you get to see how much they have developed.

For all the love the Ravens gave to defense over the past 3 years they were still starting a corner from another teams practice squad .   When your secondary unit for the second half of the season can honestly be called one of the worst in the NFL and if not for Will Hill I would probably say it might have very well been the worst and they still managed to do the best they could with what they had.  Pees understood that a lot of the opposing offenses drives would either be 3 and out or they would reach the red zone where you could rely on that amazing front 7 to carry the day.

 

There are some concerns about these positions for me too, but not a cause for any real concern imo.  Perriman is a day one starter.  He has 1000+ yards written all over him and might be better than Torrey soon than later.  But he will be better that's for sure.  Smith Sr. will not see reduced snaps.  He'll be the main receiver and leader for the first 6-8 weeks at least.  I fully expect someone to step up and supplant him as the No.1 WR but he will also be flirting with 1000 yards of production too. I'm also comfident in Aiken, Brown, Waller, Camp and Butler.  These guys will continue to develop and are already quality depth.

 

Either the Ravens have been lying all offseason or Steve Smith will see reduced because they saw his production drop off at the tail end of last season after being top 5 in the league for the first half and that was attributed to giving him to many snaps.  Personally I attribute it to teams realizing he was the Ravens number 1 WR and not Torrey but I also think its foolish to dismiss fatigue as also playing a part.

I would be thrilled if Perriman were better then Torrey year 1 but that is a lot to ask of a rookie and not every rookie is going to be Mosley, and of course the Ravens did not get to pick much earlier to boost there chances of grabbing another Mosley.  Maybe he was not the 5th WR on the Ravens board but without knowing there board I can assume he was at least 3rd  just based on who was drafted ahead which means there were 2 WR they thought they could get more out of.

Even if he manages to be as good which would likely put him in contention for rookie of the year which is asking a lot of the 5th WR picked but I think he can pull it off then the Ravens WR core is still worse then last year and it was not great last year.   Camp looks like he can play the slot but he keeps getting hurt, Brown cant get seperation and somehow cant win jump balls over people he is 6-7 inches taller then so its basically can Aiken take the next step and become a number 2 WR or was he basically another average player made to look better then that by Flacco.

The weakest position is WR as it stands.  Before we talk rookies you have Steve Smith who's snaps the Ravens talked about reducing this year in order to make sure he holds up and then a bunch of WR who showed they can be okay 3rd and 4th WR but none of them really looked like they could jump to the number 2 WR spot on the team.  So even if Perriman turns out to be a little worse then Torrey, which would be a strong rookie season, you are still looking at a fairly weak position barring any late round picks and undrafted picks somehow making the transition which not impossible is not something one counts on.

After that its probably TE.  The TE group is Pitta who may or may not play, Gillmore who is okay but not spectacular and then 2 rookies who have never played a game which means you should never overestimate them.  I think they wont be weak as blockers but its possible the Ravens will be lacking a great pass catching TE this year.

Im still worried slightly about the corner position even though they did add depth there Arrington cant really play the outside and the corners all got hurt so they now are all injury prone but it is unlikely that such a perfect storm happens again but I would still rank it as the 3rd biggest area of weakness if only because the rest of the roster is filled with quality starters and quality depth.

He's not on the Mattison level no doubt. Man he was bad.

 

Every year it is the excuses for Pees. Every year someone predicts how we'll be a Top 5 defense - and then, we aren't. What are the excuses for the other years Pees was here?

 

This year we gave the offense the love and while I'm aware we're dealing with change at OC, I expect them to improve, not decline. The previous 3 years we gave the defense the love and stayed status quo or declined. That isn't above average at DC in anyone's book.

Im pretty sure having one of the worst secondaries in the NFL, excluding will hill, is a pretty good excuse to not be a top 5 defense and finishing 8th was amazing considering and the only reason they werent in the top 5 was because of course the secondary that was starting other teams  practice squad players gave up the most deep passes in the NFL and there is no real excuse for that.

Even if he plays a full season, this will be Pitta's last year as a Raven. Maxx and Boyle along with Gilmore will be the TEs in 2016. Pitta can help the young guys learn so they can make a major impact next season.

Why would the Ravens cut him if he played the entire season well to save only 500k and leave 6M in dead money on the possibility that the young guys might be better?  Just from a purely logical perspective I can not see the Ravens cutting Pitta unless they have to for another 2 seasons when the savings become actually meaningful.

Ray and Ed made it work.

Not a bum but pretty much Cam Cam level. He IS holding the defense back.

The only reason the Ravens were not a top 5 defense is because they could not stop the deep ball and no matter how great your front 7 is they cant stop the deep ball from going out.  Every move in the offseason on defense was designed to fix the fact that the Ravens gave up the most deep passes in the NFL and if they fix that they are a top 3 NFL defense for sure.

I agree he deserves respect, but I wouldn't say it's bashing him to say that he isn't as good as Jimmy and that we'd sign Jimmy over him. Hell, given the limited cap space you mentioned earlier that's what we actually did.

There is also a really easy way to show that most of the NFL beleive Jimmy is better and that is that almost everyone in the NFL believes the Ravens got a great deal with Jimmy who is making more then the 49ers paid Torrey and that contract is at best market value and honestly I would say probably slightly overpaid for what he is though fast WR typically do get overpaid.  So if the team considers him better and the experts who loved the contract thereby consider him better how can we say they are even close to the same.

Also before people say that corners usually get more I believe the corner franchise tag is actually 1M lower then the WR one which means top WR get paid more then top corners.

Also on the topic of Pees, I think he gets a lot of flak from people who just want the Ravens to blitz on every play but honestly the Ravens already suffered from being the team with most long passes completed against them in the NFL so the last thing that would help that is sending more people to allow more potential openings.  Pees understands that you have to base your defense on the roster you have not the roster you wish you had and its probably the only reason the Ravens were able to salvage there defense with honestly a horrible secondary.

Mincing words my friend. The fact is the record shows we wanted him back from Harbaugh's lips to God's ears. Someone else paid him more. We deemed him worthy of what we offered, he deemed himself worthy of more and so did the 9ers. Your statement has no basis in fact, hence speculation. Unless you have some knowledge outside of what is on the record, which you often purport to but I sincerely doubt, your comment on this matter is your opinion and nothing more.

Never EVER trust what a coach says about a player because he will always say something like that even if it is not true.  

If he said anything else you basically risk losing the locker room which is the one thing you cant afford and more importantly John has a habit of talking down his great players and talking up his lesser players in order to keep the lesser players motivated and the great players from getting to cocky.  

Also just because someone gave him that much money does not make him worth that much.  Every year you see teams go out and overspend on free agent players who drastically under perform and while 5 years 40 million is not as backbreaking as some of the more noteworthy mistakes its still overpaying for what he did and what he is worth.  I know a lot of Ravens fans are not used to seeing it because the Ravens front office in general does not try to sign linchpin players in free agency because that honestly is almost as big a risk as the draft with a much bigger investment cost.

I kind of agree with you.I don't think it's as much of a no brainer as you make it seem because of Jimmy's injury history and they're pretty much on the same level talent wise when they are both fully healthy.The only reason I would maybe opt to sign Jimmy over Torrey is because finding talented and consistent CB's has become harder to do.Other than that they are pretty much on the same level at their positions.

There talent level is not even close to similar.  Injury history aside Jimmy Smith has emerged into one of the top CBs in the game who's sole weakness seems to be he isnt as much of an interception machine as other top CBs but the numbers backed him up as a shut down corner whereas Torrie is an above average receiver who has very good speed and is a solid route runner but has poor ball tracking ability which often causes him to lose track of where the ball will go and force him to readjust on the fly.  

I love Torrie but he got drastically over payed whereas the Ravens managed to get a great contract in terms of value when it came to Jimmy and top CBs are not exactly much cheaper then top WRs.

I typically put low stock on saying multiple people who never played a single down in the NFL are safe bets to be productive starters.  The situation at WR is basically that Perriman is likely going to start and play a lot because none of the other WR who have played in the NFL have shown to be anything more then a number 3 WR and the situation at TE is Pitta, Williams or no real receiving TE.  The others will be great blockers but not so much about the receptions and they were not drafted to be that.

When talking about that 3rd pass rusher with the system they use, it basically requires it to be one of the linebackers. Someone on the dline can be a threat like how Ngata was a threat and how historically we have had other people on the dline be a threat but having 3 linebackers who can rush the passer is huge and I know there are 2 possibles for the spot and if one can step up that will be a success.

He needs to be able to play ST as well.  He's not going to dress if he can't contribute on ST.  I heard learning the def scheme and not being that great on STs is what prevented him from being activated most of the season.

I would like to think that at this point he knows the defensive scheme so basically it all comes down to special teams though I do wonder if he is potentially cut if he cant contribute on ST this year because the Ravens do have a lot of spots to fill there roster with this year and can they really carry someone they will never use.

I'm expecting Luck to surge this year....Drop them INT's down and play Rodgers-like...

That whole offense will be better with their youth getting another year better...Andre + Gore are upgrades that will be playing inspired. Dorsett will ease himself in and probably have a John Brown like season.

I believe in Pagano also.... Don't sleep on em

There offense will be amazing but playoff games typically are not shootouts and there defense is mediocre at best and will likely mean they lose a game 45-30 in the playoffs because most playoff teams have decent defenses.

As for the Broncos I would not sleep on them just because Manning was hurt last year and didnt play as well.  I will believe Manning is on the decline when he does not play well when healthy but I dont question Hall of Fame QBs until they start playing bad when healthy.

The Patriots are a team that on offense will be the Patriots and on defense I have no idea what they are planning.  I know they will certainly get pressure on the QB but you cant get pressure every single down and they dont have there top 3 corners from last year but then again they released the 3rd willingly so they must have some confidence in there depth at that position.

In the AFC North I am fairly confident that the Bengals are taking a step back but I dont really know what to expect of the Steelers (or Ravens).  The Steelers have the potential to be way better but they also have a lot of the same problems that got them knocked out of the playoffs in the first place so they could be 12-4 or 9-7 and neither one would surprise me all that much.  As I said earlier I am hesitant to pick against HoF QBs and Ben is on his way to becoming one of those.  

Lastly for the Ravens they have a lot of potential questions that if they hold up how the front office hopes they will they will be great but there are about 5 key things the Ravens need to have go there way.

1.  They need Perriman to be able to fill Torrie's role fairly quickly otherwise they will be fairly thin at reciever with a ton of number 3 recievers but no real 1 or 2 outside of an aging Steve Smith whos snaps they want to limit to keep him at full force come playoff time.

2.  Will Pitta return and if not Can Maxx Williams fill that void otherwise you have the same problem as the one at WR?

3.  Can Timmy fill Ngata's role over the course of an entire season?  Unlike the first 2 questions he has played in the NFL but being a starter is way different then being a situational player.

4.  Who will fill McPhee's role as the 3rd great pass rusher for the defense?  A lot of the options for this are again players who have either limited or no NFL experience so projecting is not a sure thing by any stretch  I am less worried if they are unable to fill this role but in the NFL you want to have 2 great outside pass rushers and someone from the inside to make the same mess if you want to have an elite pass rushing unit

5.  Can the Ravens top 2 corners who now both have an injury history stay healthy for the entire season but after Arrington the depth is still rather shaky and in many cases it has its own injury history.

Honestly if the Ravens can answer yes to 2 of those questions I think they win the division and if they answer yes to 4 of them I think they are the favorites to win the AFC because I think most of the top teams took either a step back or didnt address the right areas in the offseason.

Never trust what Harbs says about the people on the roster.  If fans and the media of critical of them you can trust him to talk about how they are looking really good and he is really excited to either see what he can do or they are trying to find a way to fit this player in more to the system.  On the flip side if fans are the media are really hyping up a player you can typically expect Harbs to talk about how "yes he is a great player but everyone has to earn there spot" or something along those lines.

During a interview today Elam sId he lost about 5% of body fat and has gotten leaner and faster. Was his weight or speed ever the issue? I thought it was his tackling and coverage.

There is not really  much more else he can do other then that until camp starts.  The best he can do is just put his body in the best position it can be to learn and improve.  I do take some joy in that his spirit has not been broken yet and that he still is trying to get his body more perfect for the position so at least he has that going for him.

I think the Ravens have put together a good enough team to make the playoffs and provided they dont have any glaring injury problems like last year can be very dangerous and in the NFL that is all you can really ask for.

Honestly the draft picks do not even have to be CJ Mosley levels of great for this team to be good they just need there early picks to not be a burden and there later picks to be works in progress for this team to be dangerous which is the standard for even average drafting teams which over the years the Ravens have established themselves to be quite above that.