Asmodeus1971

Not sure why I even look at the comment section anymore but, personally I think this is a brilliant move on so many fronts. It allows a very aggressive attack on the pass while not weakening the run defense. Humphrey, Smith with Young in the slot, various other combinations where you could put a safety in as an MLB/ILB and play three safeties, CB blitz, etc, the possibilities are endless with this depth and collection of skill sets. The ability to cover will also help young pass rushers develop their skills as they won't be pressed to press but will develop the step to bring those skills they had in college up to the play level of the NFL. It also adds a line of defense against teams with great offensive lines. Even a great line tires after too many long plays and with the depth the Ravens can keep fresh 4th quarter legs in the secondary, those teams are either going to run or they are going to be a lot of long plays or forced pass attempts. Either way that sounds good to me.

This is good. I really hope we can get another DB in the draft, the more depth you have, even if he only makes the practice squad it could play to our advantage later in the season and hopefully the playoffs.

I'm really not trying to be an alarmist but the way I see our roster is this: Offense: QB - set RB - I am fine with what we have but so many feel we could use an upgrade TE - I am fine with what we have but so many feel we could use an upgrade WR - Need to replace SSS and maybe Aiken Oline - Need to replace Zuttah and maybe Wagner and add bigger stronger depth Defense: Safety - Webb needs to be upgraded CB - Need upgrade opposite Jimmy and possibly another quality addition to back up jimmy when he misses games as he does MLB - need to replace Orr OLB - need more pass rush Oline - there will most likely be a drop off in production if Williams goes so we will need to try and help Pierce and maybe Davis if they are not up to the task. So thats every group but QB, RB and TE. I know we have young draft picks that should be able to fill some of these voids but the FO doesnt speak about them with confidence. I think we will field a respectable team next season but it will be a surprise if they can fill all of those weaknesses. I also have high hopes that Maxx will have a big year after setting rookie TE records last year. And our draft picks from last year may also contribute in a possitive way taking some of the pressure off the FO. Why are Ravens so hot on Wagner. What has done, nothing to speak of? Can anyone tell me why is so coveted? Same with Ureshal. If they are so good, why aren't they starting? Ummmm yea. Youre right about Urschel but Rick has played extremely well. He has started the last three years. Injuries hampered him in 2015 and he ended up having a down year but in 2014 he was rated as the league best RT in the league and as the 5th best tackle (RT or LT). This past year he was rated as the 6th best RT. Its pretty darn good for a fifth round draft pick. I am not sure how you came to the conclusion that he has done, "nothing to speak of". He is coveted and he deserves to be coveted. If the left side when Stanley was in was so good and not allowing hardly sacks or even QB rushes, then where were they happening? Wagner got beat often and some reason still was scored good on that joke of a scoring system. Him and Zutah are our main weaknesses on offense period. Second, would be the fact that we don't have any WRs that know how to get open or play back to the QB if he is under pressure. That could be in the coaching, it could be on the players. Wagner just isn't worth the money.

Just a post before I read the article that will probably be like a lot of the fluff pieces on here that never take the gloves off and hit the problems. Inside the box (conventional thoughts) 1)improve the right side of the line You have Yanda and Lewis who are both able to move pretty much anywhere on the line and except for Stanley at LT, where ever they are, honestly they are an upgrade. We need a RT like Stanley, that we can say he is the best at his position on the team. We don't need backups at tackle, we already have them in our guards. We need to find two guards that would be starters for most other teams. Someone gets injured we bring them in to play guard, if it was a tackle injured Yanda takes the right, Lewis takes the left. We need a better RT, very few of the sacks or QB rushes came from the left side. There were many games Wagner got beat bad. I don't care what grades he got or what some site says I watched the games. Wagner and Zuttah were consistently the weak spots on our o-line. The only time that wasn't true is when Hurst(bye) played. On those two guards get the best you can get from the draft if possible. The o-line is the most important players on the offense, so don't be cheap get two players who will challenge for the starting spot and start them if they are best. If it turns out your starters become backups, so what that just means your starters are on rookie contracts so you can afford to have the best reserves in league. Make Urschel the center and try to find someone to challenge him that if we have the room is on the roster but hopefully we can keep on the practice squad which should be kept stocked with o-line and DBs 2) Find receivers who can get open. If they run the route and Flacco still has the ball work back to him. Pay attention to what he is doing as often as possible so if he is under pressure you can turn and work toward him giving him a better chance when under pressure. OUTSIDE THE BOX 1) draft your future QB In the next two years draft a QB worthy of being a starter and make Flacco earn his job from that point on 2)Get a coach who can coach scrambling and make drills where Flacco needs to get out of the pocket. Emphasize getting rid of the ball and make it second nature, either pass it to your receiver, run if there is an opening or throw it to someone or no one out of bounds or ground it.

First our defense isn't bad, not great they did cost us our shot at the playoffs. We need a center and a right tackle. I don't care what people say, or what grade some lame website gave them. Wagner sucks and Zutah just gets manhandled. We have three guys who play great when healthy and two of them were rookies so get off Ozzie's jock he picked multiple quality starters this year any other GM is happy getting one quality starter the Ravens often get two or three out of the draft. Sadly with free-agency rules and salary cap those players are often here for only their rookie contract, but that is just the character of the modern game. Simple we need a better o-line and we need more quality and depth in our secondary. Even the players like Weddle everyone seems to be drooling over made mistakes that ended up costing a game or two. But when your one CB capable of shutting almost any WR down on his good days misses a game pretty much means you are losing you need more depth and better quality. As far as replacing Orr, impossible if he was healthy he would have been a super star. He played that good, his instincts were just getting better because something clicked this year in his film studies and he was just around the ball instinctively much like other greats in Ravens history. You don't replace the Ray Lewis type who just fit the system and know the game so it comes natural on the field. Orr had that and you could see it this year watching the videos, at the end of the play even if he didn't make the tackle he was often there and had part in the tackle happening. He lead the team in tackles didn't he? He also probably lead the team in redirecting the guy with the ball so others got the tackle. Especially later in the games you could see players with the ball seeing him in their vision and just turning the other way often before they even looked to see if it was clear. You can't teach instinct and Orr had that along with a great film study. Now out of the players we have Onwuasor maybe, maybe we get a LB who can cover or a DB that is maybe too big for the NFL, just a little too slow for coverage every down but can line up at MLB cover most backs and be great on covering larger TEs. Like I said though: Dixon, Stanley, Lewis and Young at points were all starters and rookies. 4 starters that all made names for themselves as rookies because they started and played great as rookies. People want to attack Ozzie? They all did well when used correctly and were healthy. Yeah Ozzie lost his touch, stop your whining you sound like Patriot fans!!! Give Moore, Pierce and Reynolds more time and this last draft could turn out to of been incredible. You don't draft Ray Lewis, Reed, Ngata and players like that every year. If you did then they wouldn't be that special they would just be replaced the next year. Three once in a lifetime players all picked by the same GM. Ozzie often did that with winning or even playoff seasons the year before which meant he did it later in the draft. You want to see a bad draft look at Cleveland who is often the number one pick and yet still messes it up year in year out.

Practiced squads get used different ways but different teams but developing players like it is the minor leagues in baseball is just one of them. Often players are kept because they are capable of reproducing the playing styles of players on teams you will be facing so they make good practice to get ready for those situations. Sometimes you keep a player knowing they will never fit your team but they could fit another team too well. One of the two players the Ravens added was on our practice squad. Why not pick up potential players that are free agents going into the offseason?

I think this alone makes your comment wrong, "graded out as the seventh-best linebacker" his play supports him being there. So I guess you don't look at stats before you post. Only thing is the guy standing next to him should be there also. Orr is the biggest snub and even the writers fr the Ravens are snubbing him because they didn't even mention him as a snub. Williams is another snub and I would put them both above Weddle because Weddle has made mistakes that cost us at least a few scores and possibly a game or two.

Did you happen to see the verbal exchange on the NFL channel with Ray Lewis and they were announcing the QB’s? Even other NFL players were making fun of "Ray's Guy" Joe. Joe better pay attention or history will show he was just lucky and his contract was unwarranted. Quick...Pick one. A QB who puts up numbers and wins NOTHING (Example-Rivers and Ryan) or a QB who is good and has the ability to lead his team to playoff wins and a SB Victory. If Joe ever wants to get past the first playoff round again ever again he is going to have to play better. He also can't let OC's make dumb calls and just go with it. Joe still has time but does he really want to end up rated around with Jeff Hostetler and Trent Dilfer.? http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/162272534/ranking-all-57-super-bowl-starting-quarerbacks. You mean the same Flacco that the Steelers said would never win a Super Bowl? Sorry when you have that arm it only takes getting on a long hot streak to become Superman. 2012 things came together at the right time. Will that happen again? You never know but in 2012 a body catching WR in Jacoby Jones made some great catches in the playoffs and hit his career peak at the right time, with a QB who hit probably the longest near perfect streak of his life. Don't hold your breath but also don't count Flacco out.

Is it just me or is the biggest snub Zachary Orr? How do you have at this point 85 solo tackles, 3 pass defends, 2 INTs, 1 forced fumble and 2 fumble recoveries and you started out your career as a rookie free agent and don't make the Pro Bowl?

This is just one more reason this is my last year watching the NFL. Sorry in today's world the NFL has only Sunday Ticket for people who live outside of Maryland to watch Ravens football games week to week. After paying $250 for the season of that just to find out 1/4 of the games or more are blacked out because they are on Thursday, Monday or broadcast on a local station. Then having to get Sling TV to watch those games. So in order for me, a native of Baltimore who lives in Washington state because of my wife's military obligations, I have to pay over $400 a year to see the game? The NFL also needs to learn the nation in National Football League, is the United States, not the United Kingdom. You want to see a game live and in person, fine come to America. The NFL is a business I get that but they are already making tons of money. The owners are already millionaires or billionaires, how rich do they have to be to be satisfied? That has become the problem with this country and the world for that matter. The rich even though they have tens, hundreds, or thousands of times more money then they will ever need in their lifetime, their kids' lifetime and maybe even grandchildren's lifetimes; they all want to get richer. When people get that rich it just means everyone below them gets poorer. There is only so much of the pie to share. This type of greed just makes it so the people at the bottom often don't make enough money to survive and the NFL through their actions aren't only supporting that they are helping to create it. Then you have the players who more and more are becoming nothing but thugs or maybe just with the media and social networks today it is finally being exposed. I doubt it really is anything new it just wasn't reported before. You have players that make in their career over a hundred million dollars and five or ten years after they stop the game many if not most are broke. Sorry, that is sickening. I don't want to hate on the players because even though by my standards they get rich. Even most of the unknowns make more money in the matter of a few years than my father made during his lifetime working 40-80 hours a week. There is no way they should be broke in their 40's or 50's when they made that much money in their 20's and sometimes 30's and early 40's. Them, the NFL and their sponsors don't respect us, we are just the fools who pay their paychecks while we struggle to survive. Even their salutes to the military or Breast Cancer and other charities are just public relations so they make more money. The players often do put their hearts into it but the owners are on both sides, they may feel for the poor but in reality, they helped create the poor. The NFL won't do this because it may eat into a little of their profits, but my first complaint is so easy to fix. First, stop trying to move into new markets outside of this country. As Baltimore fans should remember how it feels when you don't have a home team, there are many cities here in the US that want teams. Time zone changes are hard enough on teams when they are 1-3 hours different, teams don't need 5-8 hour time zone changes or the crazy travel times to play in the UK. Plain and simple with things like this, the rule changes making the game "safer" for the players but taking the hits and tackles that made the game worth watching, the NFL is destroying the game. I stopped watching MLB after the strike canceled the World Series. The only baseball game I have been to after that was a game where the Orioles played the Pirates we got free tickets to because my wife got swore into the US Army as part of the pregame show in celebration of the Army's birthday. I loved baseball as a child. I can get used to not following, and not spending money on football. Too many other things to do for pleasure and too many other things I can spend my buck on. Was a Ravens fan from day one, was an Orioles fan from as long as I can remember. Got to see the greats from the mid 70's on until I stopped following in the 90's. Will always be a fan of the teams when I just happen to see the scores, just can't keep following and spending money when in truth I know to them I don't matter. It would be so easy for the NFL to show more respect to fans. To still make a profit but to stream games online and use technology to bring people in other markets the games in a reasonable matter. The $250 a year I could deal with if I got to see every Ravens game. Stop the blackouts, you aren't increasing ticket sales, you aren't increasing viewership on TV, you are actually closing the door on a market that has fans that have followed the NFL for decades. I've been to about 20 Ravens games, over a hundred Oriole games in the 70's and 80's, even a Baltimore Colt's game when I was a small child. The Stars, Stallions, Skipjacks, and Blast also, so for Baltimore teams, I always gave them my support until they turned their backs on me, on the fans, went out of business or left. This season is paid for, but this is my last...

This fixes nothing, the first three weeks the weak side was actually the right or right down the middle. Stanley and Lewis did great but Zuttah and Wagner were awful. Yanda had more penalties three games than he has had the last few years combined. If Yanda, Zuttah, and Wagner don't play better it won't fix much unless we run to the left. We need that from our offense and we need our defense to keep pressure whether on the QB. Our secondary can cover if there is pressure, if not any decent QB will have a field day waiting for the coverage to break somewhere and that isn't on the secondary that is on the front seven not getting the pressure. Seems like the pressure comes in a few series and then disappears. It may come back again a few series later but that is no good it needs to stay steady.

According to this the Ravens o-line was worse with them, 11 sacks compared to 9. I think something is wrong here: "There’s no doubt the Ravens are better with Stanley and Yanda on the field. But they still had trouble preventing pressure even before injuries knocked them out. The Ravens gave up 23 quarterback hits and 11 sacks in the first three weeks. They surrendered 27 hits and nine sacks over the next four weeks"

I put a big part of this on the coaches and the FO. Sorry, you don't sign a player just before the beginning of the season to start game one, who wasn't on another team and practicing. No way he was in football shape and you are just asking for pulled muscles and similar issues. They should have signed him mid August so he would have at least been more in game shape, maybe he wouldn't have had these problems or they would have surfaced earlier when they could have replaced him with minimal cost.

Always thought Elam has gotten a bum rap the way he was treated, used and supported by fans. Really most of his time they were using him in positions that were not his normal positions Other times you have to look at the rest of the secondary. They tried putting too much on his menu and this overloaded him so he lost skill at the things he was originally good at. Pretty sure this has Hester getting ready to be dropped.

I liked him but got to be honest he was overshadowed pretty much by every other back on the team this year.

Two things lost us that game, coaching and the o-line. The o-line has been bad all season. Wagner gets beat over and over. Forget the center. Even today with backups the left side was comparable if not better than the right. Yanda has gotten more credit than he deserves. The rookies when they were healthy were actually the stronger side. If they were healthy I think the o-line should be LT Stanley, LG Lewis, C Urschel, RG Zuttah or Jensen, RT Yanda

The O-line just isn't working. Oddly the problems are in the center and the right. Stanley has growing pains as far as the penalties but Zuttah and Wagner are getting manhandled too often. I think Yanda is even getting more credit than he deserves because he has had more than a few questionable plays that aren't his norm. Maybe we should try to run more to the left. Forsett is running sideways way to much. Him and West both need to run more north to south, hit holes when they are there and otherwise make holes or take the yards that are there. Every time they go sideways that ends any forward progress, very few plays did they recover and then move the ball downfield.

Pees called a good game, but no one will say that with all the haters that come to these message boards.

Elam is on IR so not sucking up a roster spot. The only thing cutting Elam would have done was make it so the Ravens didn't have to cut Forsett, it would have changed nothing for Butler. As long as Butler stays on a practice squad we can still grab him if injuries or bad play by one of the WRs requires it but he just didn't fit what coaches and the front office thought the team needed.

For the other team how to cover speed like the three speedy WRs we have and then deal with TEs, Smith, and Aiken on routes all over the place, don't forget the run or screen because the guys in the backfield can also catch. Just hope injuries stay away...

Butler can produce? oh you mean against 2nd & 3rd stringers in the pre-season....Last year the Ravens WR was decimated - it was any man's chance to shine. Kamar stepped up, Butler did not. He has below average speed and can't get open against quality CB. Fumbles lose games, especially ones on your side of the field during returns. Camp fumbles, Hester does not. Every year - the same whining - why they cut Bobby Rainey - he's a beast. Why John Simon - he's a beast. Why Bryn - he's a better QB than Flacco. Why Omar Brown - he's baby ed reed. Why Tommy Streeter - he's 6'4" with 4.4. speed........BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. Outside of James Harrison, you can't name one player that the Ravens cut that has become a quality starter in the NFL Tyrod Taylor As others have said not cut.

Perriman will bring something Butler won't and that is respect for his speed. Just look in the one game he played, when he was on the field the safeties were playing deep. Wallace will command the same respect, so on plays with them on the field it will leave the middle and short plays left with weaker coverage and open up the run. Chris Moore also has that speed, can you imagine a defense trying to cover all three at once? Those three speedsters combine with what we can do over the middle with Smith, Aiken, other WRs and TEs, then you throw in the running game. Our OC has one problem; if we don't produce he has little excuse outside of massive amounts of injuries. The good thing with Butler is right now he is on a practice squad and we can still sign him away with a spot on our 53 as long as he stays on the PS. I still think we may do that at some point this season. Sad for him right now we have a lot of options at WR and TE if everyone stays healthy but a limited amount of spaces. The press makes it seem like TE is now a concern but only if Pita can't stay healthy. We have decent talent on suspensions that will be able to join the team plus Juice and several WRs have capabilities to play TE. All said and done we aren't off bad but I would have kept Butler if it was my choice and probably would have cut Henry. I would have kept Brooks over Lewis also, but I'm just a Monday GM. We also have enough CBs that would have the capability to play safety if injuries required it.

Boldin gets way too much credit from Ravens fans. He is a great WR but as a Raven, his best season was 921 yards and his best year for TDs as a Raven was 7 and they were different years, the 921 year he had 4 TDs. Aiken had 944 yds and 5 TDs last year but gets way less respect than he deserves.