EdTheMythicalOne

Then what do you mean by "faster" if you are not talking about speed? I've played too and I don't think it is as common as you seem to think. I buy more into that some guys practice better than they play and vice-versa. But you are either fast or you aren't. You are either twitch quick or you aren't. You are either strong or you aren't. The reason why he might look faster and stronger than he might be is because of his relentless motor. That's a good thing. I like hustle and a guy that never gives up on a play. Let's not mistake that for talent though. His clear weakness is his lack of strength in the upper and lower body. It shows on tape on the field and it is verified at the combine. Luckily for him if he's been busting his butt in the gym this offseason; and I am sure he has been, he can work on that and improve the strength part of his game.

That's why it would be so awesome!

Purp and I both mention his name and both of us think he's a decent fit in an short term situation as he moves out from DE and back to OLB for us in our scheme which is where he had success before with the Eagles before they changed their system.

I am going to be admittedly facetious here but, is he suddenly going to get stronger on the field than in the gym? Is it because he will be wearing pajamas with an "S" on his chest under his uniform? This is a way of me saying that I don't really buy that argument in a majority of cases. His 40 time really doesn't matter to me because he's not going to be sprinting after a QB 40 yards away with nobody in front of him while he's not wearing any pads at all.

I am no longer having a conversation with you about Ed Reed or Bernard Pollard. I also never claimed that Matt Elam was a good pick, in fact I have been very vocal in the other direction. Just because Matt Elam wasn't a good pick doesn't mean that it wasn't time to let Reed and Pollard walk for very good reasons. You are making a very large leap accusing me of not knowing the past. It is you that is making some sort of revisionist history in regard to Reed and Pollard. If you want to speak about the draft then go to the 2017 Draft Thread and we can talk there. This thread is about Free Agents so why not go ahead and take a look at my posts about players we might want to sign and see what you think about that and get back to me.

Another problem was with how easily our guys simply fell down in coverage. Not being pushed down, but actually just falling over trying to maintain coverage. Then there were the blown assignments again. Didn't see as much of that this year as the previous couple, but the were still very costly...especially the one that Elam got burned for and Weddle tried to chase down after he realized Elam blew it.

On a side note about Bronson Kaufusi there is an interesting nickname for him that clearly dates myself and he might not actually like given his religious beliefs but... The most popular Bronson I know is Charles Bronson who was in many movies but might be best known for the series of Death Wish flicks he did. "Death Wish" Kafusi playing next to "Hacksaw/Darth Sizzle" Suggs. Here's to hoping that Bronson can be part of a "Magnificent Front Seven."

Kaufusi was a beast in only two categories, the cone drill and shuttle. In every other measure he was pedestrian or worse. We didn't cut Dumervil because of Kaufusi. Bronson attempted to play OLB in college and was horrible at it. I hope he succeeds like I do for every Ravens draft pick, I just am not ready to buy into any hype on him until I see it in actual real live game time. Training Camp and Pre Season doesn't really mean much unless you are absolutely tanking. Since you brought up the comparison though here are their combine numbers: J.J. Watt / Bronson Kaufusi 40: JJ: 4.84 / BK: 4.87 Admittedly not much difference here Bench: JJ: 34 reps / BK: 25 Reps: That's a pretty significant difference considering one of the knocks on Kaufusi is functional strength at the NFL level. Vertical: JJ: 37" / BK: 30" Think about J.J Swat for a minute and wonder if his ability to jump more than half a foot higher than Kaufusi might help. Kaufusi is only an inch taller than Watt. Broad Jump: JJ: 120" / BK: 111" A knock on Watt was that he might lack some initial explosiveness off the ball, and that is also a knock on Kaufusi. Here Kaufusi once more shows off that his lower body is not as strong as it might need to be. 3 Cone: JJ: 6.88 / BK: 7.03 Both numbers are very good and Watt was tied for 2nd in his own class and would be second overall in Kaufusi's class. Kaufusi would still be 5th in Watt's class. Shuttle: JJ: 4.21 / BK: 4.25: Again, both have very good numbers here. Watt again would be second in both classes (tied with Joey Bosa and Shaq Lawson) and Kaufusi would have been 3rd in Watt's class. J.J was a top performer in every drill save for the shuttle. Kaufusi only in the cone and shuttle and you can see the pretty large discrepancies in bench and the jumping measurements which focus solely on the main area of weakness in Kaufusi's game...which is weakness.

I think it is price on both of those guys that have their names being absent around here. I haven't seen much run on those names, but I admittedly don't look on here every day and I don't scan back through thousands of posts. Murray is a plodder overall and has averaged 4 yards a carry in his two seasons as the primary starter. Though he did pound the rock in for 12 TD's I find that pretty great especially for our offense that failed to do that in the ground game. His YPC number though is exactly the same as West's was last year. I kind of like the idea of adding him, but now you have to figure out where he fits in with West, Dixon, and Woodhead. I personally wouldn't mind letting West walk if it meant having Murray instead. I just don't know how high his market is right now. As for Charles, he's a different story altogether. A big time home run hitter. Problem is he's 30 now and in 2015 he played 5 games and in 2016 he played only 3. Again, not sure what his money number is looking like but that is a big risk at this point to anoint this guy as your feature back. If healthy that would be sure fire thing, but then again he probably wouldn't still be on the market hunting for a job.

ye kin drin da beer bud dahn ye dare bun di spliff... I am fluent in a lot of slangs.

Have to expect CB Sidney Jones to drop not due to a poor combine or off the field issues. He suffered what is being reported as a ruptured Achilles Tendon and will be expected to need 8-12 months to recover which would essentially have him missing his entire rookie season. Touted as one of the top 5 corners in this draft he is certainly going to drop off some since he can't actually play for anybody needing an immediate impact/starter from the draft. Question is, how far does he drop? I don't think the Ravens should draft him 16th overall, but if he's there in the second round at 16? I am not so sure he makes it past the 2nd round.

I would say it is only a waste of time if you can't read that, look up the stats for yourself, and then see what reality is. I mean I am not making this stuff up. I am not a draft guru. I don't follow college football at all so I won't engage in an effort where I am ignorant. My opinions would carry very little weight. If the guys that do this for a living (mock draft guys) can't get it right almost ever, then what chance do I have?

Supposedly his best position is at Guard. We've got a lot of bodies on the team right now for possible LG/RT positions but not a lot of them have starting experience or very good starting experience. Ryan Jensen at times has looked decent when filling in and horrible other times. James Hurst was a disaster at LT and maybe he is a better RT, but I don't want to risk Joe's other knee. Urschel doesn't seem to be enough of a mauler for the ground game as we might need at any position. Of course we have Alex Lewis and it really depends on where he lines up. After that you've got some people a lot of others wouldn't be that familair with: Jarell Broxton, Jared Pughsley, Stephane Nembot, De'Ondre Wesley, and Matt Skura.

Here's an under the radar signing for the Ravens interior line if they decide to kick Alex Lewis out to RT: Tim Lelito has played all over the line in his time with New Orleans from LG, C, RG, RT, and has lined up as a TE. He is known as a better run blocker than pass protector at this point. He's only 27 and I am not sure what his market looks like but he's not one of those sexy names attracting a lot of attention. Might be worth a kick of the tires and if he doesn't pan out as a starter he offers very versatile depth.

I accidentally started a new thread about this, but now I think I've found the right place to post it: I am not an adept student of the college game nor do I have any real clue as to who is being drafted when. I will let the other guys around here that know more than I do sort all that out. I simply want to get this conversation started for my own curiosity and offer up one name in the news recently. The player is CB Sidney Jones who is considered by many "experts" to be a top 5 corner in this draft class and a day one pick. The news on him is horrible though. He suffered an apparent Achilles tendon injury on the very last drill of his pro day. Since he's expected to miss almost all if not all of his rookie season his draft stock has obviously dropped, but by how much? Will he make it out of the first round now? If he drops to the second round will he drop low enough for the Ravens to pick him up? If he is there in round two should the Ravens draft him? They need corner help now, but being able to stash away first round talent at a second round price (or maybe lower?) and being able to team him up with another free agent pick up or highly touted draft pick next season might be intriguing enough. I could also envision a team that doesn't really have a high pick and not needing immediate help this season picking him up very late in round one if they believe in the talent.

You are all right guys, I didn't notice there was a completely different section for drafts. Didn't have any coffee this morning. I will repost this there and sorry that I have created extra work for a mod.

Here are the "official" deets on the Jefferson and Woodhead contracts via ProFootballRumors: "Danny Woodhead, RB (Ravens): Three years, $8.8MM. $4.25MM guaranteed. $1.75MM cap number for 2017 (Twitter links via Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun). As Ian Rapoport of NFL.com observes (via Twitter), that represents a sizeable investment for a running back in this market. Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports tweets that Woodhead gets a $2.5MM signing bonus. Tony Jefferson, S (Ravens): Four years, $34MM (max value of $37MM). $19MM guaranteed. $5.5MM cap number for 2017 (Twitter links via Zrebiec). La Canfora tweets that Jefferson gets a $10MM signing bonus." I agree that we're paying Woodhead an awful lot after coming back from a couple of severe injuries and at age 32. It very well could be a 1 year $4.25 million deal. For about a million more we could have kept Juice. We all knew Jefferson wasn't coming here for peanuts but the Browns offer was supposed to be higher, I am just wondering by how much more?

I appreciate your comments and feedback and in the end I share your opinion on the fee concept. This team should not have to make money off of the site considering all of the perks it got coming to Baltimore and the fact that it makes a ton of money every season. Perhaps I am biased and think there is a rather large number of people that consider this their go to location to talk about their favorite team. I wonder if they promote this site and the fact that it does have such a robust message board community on their other social media platforms? Perhaps if they did, they would find themselves gaining even more passionate followers commenting here. I am of the opinion that the true value of this site is actually all of us. We're the ones reading the articles posted here and caring about them in one way or another. I am sure most of their clicks come from us. Social Media is a frenzy and seems to be the way of the now. I admit I am an older person (40's) and I must be an old fuddy duddy at heart. I can walk around without my smart phone either glued to my ear or my fingers every second I am awake. When I did participate on Facebook and Twitter it was only when I was a writer for two other outlets that I won't mention here. I would have otherwise continued to ignore it as I do now. Those outlets are not a place to have conversations about this team. I suppose in a broad spectrum analysis of the situation, yes, in theory this site could connect to more fans through Twitter and Facebook, I am just hoping that the number they will be losing by proceeding with their current path is large enough to make them reconsider.

A lot of that happened via stupid penalties and horrible short yardage play calls. More commitment to the ground attack which was actually doing well in the latter part of the season could have helped. I don't know how many times in a row we called for the stupid screen pass 3-5 yards behind the line of scrimmage to a covered up Juice because the team knew we were running that play...AGAIN.

I know what the real # 1 reason was. Me. I predicted the team would go 10-6 and make it back to the playoffs. I jinxed them.

I have asked Admin3 who has been referred to as the digital media boss and I have asked the people that would receive my "contact us" message several things, but two questions were: 1) Is this a financial decision? If so would a paid membership help offset that cost? 2) Is is a personnel/financial decision? Are they paying too many people too much to make it cost effective. I then asked if volunteers with viable experience in handling the technical aspects of websites would be able to help. Many people have already offered to do so. I would offer my services in this realm as well if I had the proper skills to do so. I have received no feedback whatsoever. I wrote my "Contact Us" message almost a week ago and in defense of Admin3 I only messaged that person yesterday. It would be nice to actually get some sort of answer though. So far a lot of members have been participating in my poll and hopefully that gives the powers that be a better understanding of the people they are alienating. I believe it will give them an accurate measure of how many currently active members there are (so please, please start voting), will either prove or disprove my notion that many of us will simply ignore this site and its other social media outlets because we think so little of those outlets, and that some fans are willing to either pay a yearly subscription fee or donate some funds once in awhile just to keep this board running. I mean if that doesn't show them how dedicated we all are, then I don't know what would.

So the message from the powers that be is to be less special? "Run a message board like a Raven...oh, wait..."

Hopefully with a year spent recovering and another off season to get himself ready to go he can improve on the weaker spots of his game and we can see what he can really do on the field. I hope he becomes a monster. And of course when you're picking 3rd and 4th round you are hoping to get at least a quality depth player and if you get a starter it is a bonus. The Ravens have been pretty good and finding talent in these rounds in the past.

@BOLDnPurPnBlacK As for Ryan Clady at RT...not so sure about that. There is the injury history going and I suppose if no other team offers him a lucrative enough contract to be a LT, he might be willing to move to RT on a short term deal just to prove he's healthy and is also now versatile enough to do that. C: Nick Mangold's name has been uttered numerous times around here because he's really the best option out there in an extremely weak market. G: Lang is being heavily pursued by the Seahawks, met with the Lions, and the Packers want to bring him back. To me that spells bidding war and too high a price tag. WR: Floyd is a risk and the question becomes right player, right price. For the right price he's worth the risk in my opinion but first thing is first for him and he needs to make sure he's taking care of himself. If that is the case and he's handling it then I suppose he deserves another chance. I've had a few people I know get killed by drunk drivers so I consider DWI's and DUI's to be rather serious. Patterson is supposedly wanted back in Minnesota but he still wants to get paid. We need a bit more of a reliable weapon that he is and we do have other return options on the team. ILB: Perhaps Brown's asking price is much higher than anyone wants to pay and that's why there's been no movement on him. Or perhaps his agents are waiting to see what Hightower gets to set the bar on his contract ask? Other than that I don't understand why the chatter is so quiet for him. A return to Buffalo doesn't seem likely. If Minter is good enough against the run we could do a rotational thing where on passing downs he gets replaced by a hybrid safety/backer like Levine or Onwusar? OLB: Doom is an option for sure on a smaller contract, I don't think Ware is a good option for us because we need starter snaps and that applies to Freeny as well. I don't want to pay for a one year wonder like Walden, Datone Jones could be a nice rotational piece between OLB/DE like a Pernell McPhee, and out of all of the options I like Connor Barwin the best. I think Mario Williams if anything should be considered more of a 3-4 end than an OLB. S: Byrd was a star in Buffalo before having two injury seasons in New Orleans before getting benched in his third. He still registers a lot of tackles. The knee injury is a torn meniscus and has been giving him fits with swelling since the original injury occurred. Since he wouldn't start for us maybe he can stay healthy for a full season and prolong his career this way. I like the idea of Webb coming back on a more team friendly deal and expressed that when news broke of his release. DE: Don't like the idea of Hunt. He was getting coached up by Kevin Greene this last off season and we're not looking for more developmental talent here, we've already got that. I like Devin Taylor. Getting Odrick would be interesting. He visited the Pats and they passed on him before signing Guy. Odrick could come here to replace Guy? I also think if Mario Williams is going to continue his career it should come at this position. He would be guaranteed nothing but a chance to earn starter snaps based on how well he performs. He could be completely done, but if he has anything left in the tank he would be a great pick up assuming he would play well. Big risk there, that's why the salary would have to be almost peanuts. CB: House or Claiborne with Claiborne being my first choice. Not interested in Carr because he's likely to get paid higher than his production. His numbers have really tailed off the last three seasons as a full time starter and now he's 31.

I guess. A bit cart before the horse right now though.