Offense, Defense

[display name]

Our team has always been and probably will always be built around defense. But, ever since we drafted Flacco, we've had something called an offense, hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What do you think about the looks of our positions in 2010?

[Ravenite]

Do you mean the future of our offensive positions?

[display name]

Future of both Offense and Defense.

[Ed_Reed20]

[quote name='display name' date='09 February 2010 - 02:33 PM' timestamp='1265743981' post='358051']
Future of both Offense and Defense.
[/quote]

The future of both units look bright in my opinion.

On offense, the entire starting o-line, except for Birk is under 26. Oher, Grubbs and Gaither all have Pro Bowl potential in my opinion and it's going to be great watching them grow together. There's equal promise at both the QB and RB positions with Flacco and Rice. Rice has become one of the top dual-threat RBs in the league and Flacco is going through the same growing pains all the good to great QBs before him did.

The main questions lie at TE and WR where there isn't a single player that I see still on this team in three seasons. Obviously, Ozzie and Co. will look to upgrade both positions in the coming months.

On defense, things are a bit hazier. Ngata is a force in the middle stopping the run and when fit, Suggs is an impact player. Lardarius Webb showed a lot of promise in his rookie year and if he recovers nicely from his injury, I think he could be a Pro Bowl player as well. Foxworth improved as the season went on and the team might have found it's new Jack LB in Ellerbe. After that, there are immediate or long-term questions.

Ray doesn't have many years left, Ed's injury could force him to retire this off-season, Pryce is on his last legs, Gregg isn't getting younger, there is little depth at the CB position and there are no consistent pass-rushing DTs on the team.

I personally feel the latter three problems will be addressed in the draft. It's replacing two HOF players that will be near-impossible.

Even with the issues, I think there are enough good core players that will keep this team consistently in contention for years to come.

[display name]

I think Demitrius Williams has lots of potential. If Heap stays healthy who knows?!!!!!!

[Ed_Reed20]

[quote name='display name' date='10 February 2010 - 07:42 AM' timestamp='1265805730' post='358289']
I think Demitrius Williams has lots of potential. If Heap stays healthy who knows?!!!!!!
[/quote]

Williams [b]had[/b] potential. The player he is now, is the player he'll be the rest of his career in my opinion.

I love Heap but even if he stays healthy(huge if), he can't stretch the field anymore which really limits what the Ravens can do. I want him back but the Ravens have to(and will) draft a young TE who will allow the O to run two-TE sets.

[marek0393]

i believe this may be our last year to win a champinship with ray and ed, so i say we draft some good rookies to come in and get mentored by lewis and company so that way when they do move on in their careers they will have the right gear set to be great and play like ravens. as for offense, we finally got it going the past few years with the development of Flacco and Rice the only thing we are missing is a solid reciever setup, hopefully heap stays healthy and mason gives us one more year. that being said i am a huge believer in mentorship, you bring the right rookies in while we have these amazing players and not only do they get to learn from the best they get to play with them to. All in all im looking forward to 2010 as being very promising.

[shaikh015]

I think that we need to draft a RG and after we draft this RG we should turn the other 2 Rg's we have into down field blockers. The Rookie's goal is to protect Joe Flacco and we would have the highest rank offense in the league with two lineman down field blocking at all times... A total of 7 lineman on the field at all times... Ngata use to check in as the 6th lineman and damn right it worked out just fine...
God Bless America...

[jravens13]

We have been focusing on the Offense more recently, especially if you look at our first 3 picks the last few drafts.

2009 1st Oher OT, 2nd Kruger OLB, 3rd Webb CB
2008 1st Flacco QB, 2nd Rice RB, 3rd Gooden ILB
2007 1st Grubbs OG, 3rd Figurs WR, 3rd Yanda OG
2006 1st Ngata DT, 2nd Chester C, 3rd Pittman CB
2005 1st Clayton WR, 2nd Cody OLB, 2nd Terry OT

In the last 5 drafts we have drafted 10 Offensive players in our first 3 picks compared to 5 defensive players. We have only seriously addressed the WR position once and have ignored the TE position.

Look how bad the 2005 draft class turned out... probably not one of Ozzie's proudest drafts. But even scarier is the 2004 draft...

1st: Traded for Boller (previous draft)
2nd: Dwan Edwards (solid contributor but never played up to where he was drafted)
3rd: Devard Darling (In 4 years 35 catches 331 yds and 3 TD's
5th: Rodrick Green (17 tackles, 2 sacks in 2 seasons. Mike Nolan brought him out to SF, but he's now out of the NFL)
6th: Josh Harris (didn't make the team and had a brief AFL career)
6th: Clarence Moore (29 catches, 353 yds, 5 TD's I used him in Madden because he was 6-6. Only lasted 3 seasons)
7th: Derek Abney (Never made the team, or any pro team for that matter...)
7th: Brian Rimpf (I remember him as a back-up, turns out he started 7 games in his 3 year career and played in 16)

This might be why Ozzie refuses to trade 1st Rounders anymore...