CorvusMagnus

Harbaugh is a good head coach (top 5 at least) in doing the specific things a head coach does (motivate, discipline, build culture) but probably not among the best in terms of contributing to personnel selection and offensive of defensive play calling. That said, apart from Bellichek (which is a completely unreasonable standard) no HC in football does all of those things at a high level, including Mike Tomlin, who I consider one of the other top coaches of this generation. Hop on the Steeler's boards sometime, Tomlin messed up clock management at least as often as Harbaugh, but is still one of the best of the best. The issue with replacing Harbaugh with most of the candidates mentioned in this feed is that we are essentially rolling the die on whether a young coordinator can successfully do the things Harbaugh is already great at either now or in the near future. Overall what we get in return from offensive/defensive performance wont matter a bit if we turn into the pre-Gase Miami Dolphins. Plus, even if that young coordinator can foster such a culture, it may be 2+ years before we see positive results. In my experience immediate success after a HC change is generally preceded by multiple years of losing records and high draft picks and we don't even come close to qualifying. In short, its a lot like replacing a QB, something a franchise only does when they have no other choice and they're going to lose the fanbase either way. Basically I agree with the more moderate posters on here, Harbaugh isn't Marvin Lewis who saw his team crumble after a few free agency losses and utterly implode after 3-4 injuries, in fact it took the most injuries in team history (including the franchise QB) to knock us down to a losing season for the first time in Harbaugh's tenure. He gets at least one more year.

I realize its probably way to early to be putting out positive signals but lets face facts, we just almost pulled off a road upset against one of the hottest teams in the country and marched on to the playoffs. At the end of the day the Steelers are most definitely a playoff caliber team and came within seconds of pissing all over their parade. That said, I was genuinely scared for this team longer term if we made it into the playoffs. While the Raven's have gotten the most of out a hodge-podge of old and new talent, the Steelers appear to have done a better job of building a corps of blue chip players to retain and form their veteran core of late. I'm especially concerned with the pass rush where we really have no plan to deal with Suggs retirement and no reasonable hope to land a replacement without decent draft position. As for Harbaugh, I actually think he did pretty well considering the offensive issues caused by personnel discontinuity and an injured QB, or problems with the pass rush. That said, Joe Flacco still outplayed Ben Rothlisberger on the road with inferior weapons and protection even without taking several critical drops into account. Plus the difference between a rusty Flacco with 4.1 seconds of protection (1st half of season) and confident Flacco with 5.0 seconds of protection (2nd half of the season is all it would have taken to push us into the playoffs. Hit the draft for OLB and OL, with a good possession receiver and some CB depth sprinkled in, we'll be right back into the thick of things.

I think its safe to say that with each game we are seeing more and more signs of mobility (roll outs and scrambles) from Flacco on designed and broken plays (I saw a season high against the Bengals). I think this is a very encouraging sign given that our OL probably isn't going to get better then "OK" in pass defense this year, so we need all of the wrinkles we can muster to slow the rush and buy time for the deep bal. That said, my question to the board is how much of this increased mobility comes from the changes at OC (I definitely noticed an uptick post-Trestman) or a change in attitude at the QB position (Flacco gaining trust in his repaired knee).

In terms of overall impact I'll probably go with Stanley. A rookie being "OK" starting at LT in the NFL is something you can go several years without seeing (as several people pointed out the last one I can think of is Tyron Smith). If he starts for the rest of the season I don't think it'll be much of a contest. In terms of value my head says Young, he's been our no. 1/2 corner in several games and held his own, which is more then we have any right to expect from a 4th round rookie at the CB position. The most important thing about Young is that he has a head for the game that can compensate for his physical limitations, and can ride the razors edge between physicality and aggression (he reminds me of Sherman in that regard). My heart says Pierce tho, even with his snaps seeming to shrink each game. Personally I REALLY want to see what he looks like after a season of professional nutrition and physical training. As an experiment I'm interested in how he would play at somethign closer to Aaron Donald's weight (300-310 lbs) given his explosive lower body.

Joe Flacco will either get it together or he wont, personally I think he's been here before and he will find a way to turn things around. That said, at the end of the day it comes down to opportunity cost and there is no way it makes sense to move on from him at the end of the season, no matter how irate the fans get. As for the draft I think 2016 may go down as one of our best ever top to bottom, and one more like it (preferably not as high, with another pro-bowl player picked) will put us back in business.

Three positive things I saw on the last game that I think need to continue: -Continue to build Correa and Judon by using them in a specialized manner, adding more diversity to their responsibilities as you go. Using Correa as a run stopper, Judon as a pass rusher in tandem worked well, and it helps both of them develop as two way players. -Emphasize stop routes for Perriman, Wallace and Flacco. Ironically the play everyone criticizes him and Flacco for in the Jets game is a sign of things to come. Corners have to turn their hips early with Perriman or eat dust, if he comes back to the ball and Flacco hits him in stride, he's got positive yards and a chance at YAC. -More Dixon on short passing routes a la Ray Rice. While I love me some Terrence West his catching limitations mean that he often has to stop and be floated the pass in order to secure the ball. Dixon can take the ball in stride, and once you get that kid in space, good things can happen.

From the perspective of inexpensive role players this is the best Raven's draft I've seen as a fan (which isn't terribly long, 2010), and that's really the most encouraging thing about it. I think there is some indication that Ozzie can do a considerably better job on the other side of the round, and I think we can reasonably expect that this year unless we blow up against all odds. In terms of playing rookies, Correa is my biggest concern, since he desperately needs playing time but he's not seasoned enough to be anything but a situational rusher, and the vets aren't playing well enough to put him in those positions without becoming a liability.

The irony is that other then winning, player development is my passion when watching the NFL. I'm almost looking forward to the season becoming a forgone conclusion because we will see our rookies get piles of playing time and hopefully develop more quickly as a result. At the end of the day we are a team that has a done a good job at drafting quality complimentary players (especially in specific positions like defensive line) with high picks for years to supplement truly great picks we made years ago (IMHO Suggs and Yanda are the last truly league leading player drafted by the Ravens). At this point we can limp no further, and it is going to take a couple of high draft picks an a little luck to get us back on our feet again. Nowhere is that more evident then OLB where we are asking journeymen (McLelllan, Smith) and grass green rookies (Correa, Judon) to do the work of a future HOF (Suggs) and a top dollar veteran (Dumerville). The thing about rookie OLB is that you can get production as long as you keep things simple/situational, unfortunately our ability to do that was predicated by Suggs ability to do everything all the time. I honestly think a lot of the run defense issues in the last game were the rookies pinning their ears back and making mistakes on playing the run.

You do realize the kind of dead money you're talking about would require crushing our cap for at least a year and cutting a pile of much needed veterans to get rid of a QB we can't reliably replace? And that the biggest reason Prescott is able to do what is doing is a first round RB and a another 4+ first round OL, which we don't have? And that Wilson is probably the biggest quarterback draft steal since Tom Brady? I understand the sentiment but you're insane.

I'm kind of wondering if foot-injury = turf-toe and they're trying to avoid naming it to panic the fans. The only reason I can think they would hold him back so long is if the issue is something they are worried could become chronic and career ending.

Tough loss, plenty of blame to go around, but for me the biggest losers are the Raven's LB and OL. On offense when you go max protect and DEs are still landing in your QBs lap before he even finisher your drop, even Brady is going to look like hot garbage. Plus we couldn't run and we don't have the receivers to dink and dunk. We DESPERATELY need a YAC monster with good hands, and it just doesn't exist on this team right now. As for the Raven's D those big run plays were as uncharacteristic as they were devastating. I think the LBs and S took turns blowing assignments, there's a lot of young guys and a lot of shuffle going on back there.

I agree that part of Correa's issue is that he came into the league a ILB/OLB tweener, and doesn't necessarily have the godmode athleticism (i.e. Clay Matthews, Troy Polamalu) to win across multiple positions. I agree that choosing and tailoring his body to ILB or OLB would be a good first step, but the bigger problem is his technique, especially in hand usage. Correa is small for an OLB both in height and weight, he simply isn't going to win in a match of strength against an NFL OL. I like the example of Bud Dupree, because for both of them most of their production came from cleanly off the line and that simply doesn't happen consistently in the NFL no matter how fast you are. If you don't have an understanding of how to absorb a punch, or fight through a block when someone gets inside your pads, you basically get taken out of a play even when you play to the whistle like Correa. Once the light turns on for Correa (and Dupree for that matter) I think he has plenty of physicality to execute even with a tweener body.

That is my observation as well. Perriman is catching fine when he is able to put his eyes on the ball and follow its trajectory in flight. If you look at his stats, his drops tend to come on very short throws where there is limited time to adjust to the ball in flight, and very long bombs where he is trying to keep his eyes off the ball until the last second to avoid tipping the DB. The key is having an internal clock synchronized with the QB which allows you to position yourself based on where your memory knows the ball will be, rather then where your eyes say it will be. In other words these are the most "chemistry" dependent throws, and require the QB to be consistent in their execution as well (I actually think this is no. 1 secret to Brady's success). To me the most encouraging thing about Perriman is that his best work has been on contested throws where he hasn't been schemed loose, beat his man and Flacco isn't throwing him open. What separates a no. 1 from a no. 2 like Wallace or Torrey is the ability to produce when the other team is planning their whole backfield around keeping you covered, and I think Perriman is showing flashes of that.

Ed Reed is in Buffalo because Rex Ryan is in Buffalo. Ed wants to work for Rex, Rex was willing to pick Ed over a more experienced secondary coach. Frankly I think Rex is welcome to it, being a good player is far from a guarantees that someone can coach, he may as well be the one taking the chances. Throw that in with the fact that Ed and John have historically not gotten on (Ed never forgave John for taking the HC over Rex) and the fact we already have a more then qualified secondary coach this year in Frazier (an elite player and former HC), and I'm not sure why we're even talking about Ed Reed right now. Our secondary issues are partly a lack of depth beyond Jimmy but mostly a lack of pass rush, plain and simple.

A head coach has three basic jobs: create the culture of the team by motivating/disciplining player, selecting top coaching staff (OC, DC, STC, etc.) and top level game management (timeouts, challenges, etc.). Yes there are head coaches who are also their own OC/DCs (ex. Payton, Ryan), but the vast majority follow this model. Note I do not include personnel selection through the draft, because on most teams the head coach is just one vote among many, and generally not even the biggest one. That said, I challenge you to find another coach in the league who crafts and preserves team culture better then John Harbaugh. Whatever the talent level of his teams they play their asses off no matter how far in the hole they are and that is by no means a given even in the NFL (see Browns, Jaguars and other bottom feeders). Can you question his performance in the other two areas? Maybe, but pop over to any team with a "top 10" coach and you'll see them bitching just as hard as we are (over at the Steeler's forums they have this same discussion after practically every loss despite being a perennial play off team just like us). The chances of randomly promoting a college coach, OC or DC and expecting John Harbaugh or better is laughably small. The new ones are a crap shoot (HC is NOTHING like OC and DC) and the old ones usually have at least one issue or they would still be HCs. Firing an HC is something a club goes to great lengths to avoid because it can trash your franchise just as fast as a bad QB pick. Plus, do it too many times (like the Redskins) and the best candidates wont even apply. We just drafted high for the first time in nearly a decade and by all accounts did a spectacular at it, if it happens again at the end of this year it'll suck but I expect a similar influx of talent. 2018 is the earliest I expect a serious conversation about replacing Harbaugh given the team's current trajectory.