StephenGreen

The writing is on the wall for the '16 Ravens. You can ignore it all you want. We are significantly more likely to get lumped in with the Browns than with the Bengals and Steelers. Tell this board which members of the current Ravens squad you would trade for, if you were the GM of Cincy or Pittsburgh. Would you trade Leveon Bell for Justin Forsett? Would you swap AJ Green for Chrs Givins? How about this...would you trade Big Ben to get Joe Flacco?

Every team has injuries, some teams have injuries to players that matter (like Jamaal Charles). KC? Where are they? In the playoffs. Baltimore? Where are we? We are watching a presser where the owner and front office staff make not even the slightest nod toward accountability while our division rivals have both youth and talent over us in spades.

What would ever lead anyone to think "Suggs is coming back HEALTHY"? He has torn the same achilles TWICE. Once, the probability of a healthy return at same levels as before is not good (http://lermagazine.com/article/return-to-football-after-achilles-tendon-rupture). Twice, no one has ever done it. Not to mention the minor issue of weight, and the fact that the only coach he ever responded to before just left for Indy. All the guys you mentioned are good guys, good players. But not even one of them is anyone that our division rivals would trade for. Our problem is talent, not injuries. Even if every injured player returned at the same level as their highest production year, we still do not have an AJ Green, an Antonio Brown, a Leveon Bell. tell the board who you would trade for on the Ravens if you were the GM of Pittsburgh or Cincy...

My head is still spinning from this presser. Not one thing was said that made any sense, and for anyone here on this board who does not recognize that we are falling behind competitively with our competition, you are seriously missing some glaring issues (spare me the Steelers 2 wins this year). Even had we stayed healthy we wouldn't have been any good. Where's our Antonio Brown? Our L'evon Bell? Our AJ Green? Our anybody! Outside of our kicker and punter, there isn't even one player on the Ravens that any team would pay "up" for, and yet, we have this tendency to overpay our talent whom no one else will trade for! You could not get a washroom attendant in a trade for Suggs, yet some here think he's gonna be a pro-Bowler in '16...are you kidding me?!?! He has torn the same achilles 2x, plus he's overweight. Try trading him and let me know what the offers look like. Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but I predict a horrific '16 due to intransigence, followed by a house cleaning. Believe me: wish it was not so. But for Bisciotti to not recognize the problems will only ingrain a growing losing spirit in the locker room.

Completely out of touch presser today. Ravens have a long term problem. Bad player personnel, contract, draft decisions will continue to be made. Presser was almost as if Bisciotti and Ozzie thought the season went perfectly well. I love continuity as much as anyone, but there is a gentle way to move people laterally and allow for some better talent to drive contract decisions. This crew is burying the team for a long time. Prediction now for 2016: 4-12. At that point, Bisciotti will clean house, going two steps further than he should, but his ire, and the fans', will be at a boiling point. Unfortunately, the decisions he will make in a year, should be made today. Harbaugh is great, but anyone making draft and contract decisions needs to be moved sideways and allow for better decisions to be made. Let's start by making Eric Weddle a priority signing. Solid character, good for the team, the kind of leader players respond to, doesn't get hurt, not expensive. Show some original thinking guys.

Thanks. What I do not get is why we gave Suggs a deal at all after he turned 30... The misfiring on talent evaluation (draft choices, contracts, trades, releases) is almost stupendous at this stage. I give Harbaugh 100% credit for getting the most out of what is arguably one of the worst hands ever dealt to a coach in this league.

The local media is not exactly fearless (this ain't Philadelphia folks), and so outside of Jerry Coleman, mostly the questions will be massive softballs, but what I'd like one member to ask Ozzie are these two: 1) whatever gave you the confidence to sign Suggs as long as you did, knowing full well his age and his conditioning? and 2) why are both Jah Reid and Michael Oher starting on playoff teams when you in effect said the Ravens had no spot for either (even though we could have used both)? Ozzie has almost all of the explaining in today's presser, though I won't hold my breath waiting for a hard question or a straight answer (the stick is he'll withhold media credentials, or at the very least delay them, for next season to the first reporter who publicly calls him out today - mark my word).

Do not allow Ozzie to strike any more contract deals for anyone, ever, on the Ravens. His 'deals' will cause a 2-3 year slide in the Raven's W-L record because we can not get out from cap hits til 2017 at least, if not '18. Insane. We are BY FAR the worst team in the league when it comes to contracts. BY FAR. Who gave Suggs his deal? Smith? Webb? Pitta? These will hurt us for time to come, with almost zero production from any of them

Same amount of dead cap money this year is same as next: replace Rice and Ngata for Suggs and Webb (more or less dead money even if they are kept on the team). Not a good long term situation. Someone needs to relieve Ozzie of contracts.

Tebow. Let;s at least have some energy.

You might be right, I obviously don't know for sure, but the news reports say that he tore the same achilles 2x, once in 2013, and again this year: http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Terrell-Suggs-Suffers-Torn-Achilles-Done-For-Season/a3b443cd-f091-4218-98f7-73d454124d92 If it is an achilles, all I know about that is my brother tore his 2x, and was a D1 player, and if he wasn't basically done the first time out, he was seriously done the second time. Could not push off the same foot ever again. My gut tells me that Suggs is done. And my only point on him is he is symptomatic of how the Ravens overpay for past performance, at positions which are more replaceable than others where we really do need help. And Suggs' contract will crush us for next year, and only slightly less the year after that. For a guy not likely to visit the playing field ever again.

The past tense. He would have been a disruptive force. Almost impossible to come back in any kind of elite fashion from a 2x torn Achilles. His contract will absolutely kill us for two more years...while he in almost all likelihood does nothing, either from the sideline or as retired. We need to stop overpaying guys. Bottom line. I can just as easily lose with a bunch of undrafted players as I can with overpaid players. The difference between the options is at least with the low-paid undrafted players, I have some wiggle room should there be a window to the playoffs.

Ozzie's problem is not drafting...it's deciding when to back up the Brink's truck which has landed his seat a bit warm now. The Ravens arguably have negotiated the worst contracts in football for five straight years...almost guaranteed that when we offer the big money, the player goes soft (Ray Rice, Jimmy Smith, Webb), gets injured (Suggs, Pitta), or outstays his welcome (Ngata). We are batting almost 1.000 at "bad money deals" for the past five years, hamstringing anyone's ability to sign quality players for this season and next. That's on Ozzie and deCosta, and if anyone is looking for any change from Bisciotti this off-season, I'd keep your eyes on the front office. They had a great run in the early 00's; but the record for five straight years is the worst in the NFL.

The Browns are laughing at us already. The major problem for us is 2-fold: bad long-term contracts, and critical injuries. The first will take 2 more years to erase (assuming Ozzie is not allowed to overpay anymore); the second is simply bad luck. (I'd add a third, which is player discipline, but I think bad discipline comes with losing, and good discipline comes with winning. One thing that sticks in my craw is Suggs showing up to camp so overweight...he was guaranteeing an injury somewhere...bodies can not take that kind of abuse at the NFL level) Oh well. Onto to 2017...this year and next are washouts. Sorry to be a debbie downer, but there is literally no magical escape valve. We have to eat Suggs and Webb's deals before we open enough cap to get going again. I'm thinking that Bisciotti (gracefully) cans Ozzie if this team goes 2-14, but still exerts effort (he'll stick with Harbaugh if the effort is there...not much a guy can do with no talent). The owner will seek one high profile firing, as they almost always do. The problems here stem from the front office, and we are backed up for this season and next.

Not one team in the NFL would give you even a 6th rounder for either. PLUS, whatever you would get, you'd still be forced to pay their salary. Suggs "WAS" a beast...not "is". After tearing the same achilles 2x, he'll be lucky to walk properly again let alone play in the NFL let alone play at a premium level. yet, he has two more hugely expensive GUARANTEED years left on his contract, with no way for the Ravens to get out from under the cap commitment (you can't even let him go without suffering the cap hit). The same is basically true of Webb, with only a slightly lower cap hit. Both guys were wildly overpaid, and will hurt us for some time yet. Bottom line is the Ravens need to do a much better job negotiating contracts going forward. Perennial winners like the Pats teach us that large contracts should only go to one player, the QB, with WR, TE, and DB the best place to invest otherwise...every other position is too easily replaced to lay your chips on, especially LB. Ravens will need two full more years to escape the cap hits that have already been agreed to.

Harbaugh is about the best coach in the NFL, if not for his X's and O's, his character. Total class act. I actually believe if not for him, we'd be getting blown out in every game; this team lacks quality at nearly every single position. Yet we manage to keep games close? What concerns me most about the ravens is not a down year, but rather what is looking like some disturbingly long-term drags on the cap space. In other words, we sign ridiculous contracts. I don't pretend to understand how the cap technically works, but what i have seen is that no matter what happens next year with both Suggs and Webb, their previously guaranteed contracts will impact our ability to sign quality players. Suggs: there is no way a 2x achilles tear player will return. Webb: he's just seemingly lost, and carrying an attitude to boot. You could not get a 6th round draft pick for either anymore, plus you'd be forced to pay their contracts. So two of the most expensive dead-money pieces left over after this year will simply replace what the Ravens get from Rice/Ngata. Meaning: we are in a long term ugly holding pattern until Ozzie stops overpaying. My two cents.