Ray Rice Injury

[arnie_uk]

And to think I got slaughtered when I said not to resign him

[Puntit]

Rice turns 27 this season but lets not forget that HB wear and tear is cumulative and in Rutgers he had 910 carries, thats equivalent to 3 years as a featured back before he was drafted. He has peaked.

Time will tell if he peaked, but I doubt he is done. Actually the Ravens have pretty consistently over the years made frequent use of change of pace RBs to spell Rice. Far more than other teams with big name RBs do. They haven't really exploited him as a bell cow the way that some teams do -- there has always been a McGahee or a McLain or a Pierce or a Williams carrying a decent chunk of the load. This is actually the fewest RBs that I can recall that they have ever carried on the Roster. And they have habitually employed a fullback as lead rusher, which also cuts down on the wear and tear of an RB. So I think his longevity ought to be better than a lot of other backs.

 

There haven't been running lanes this year and the guy tweaked a hip. Don't write his obituary just yet.

[BloodRaven]

Time will tell if he peaked, but I doubt he is done. Actually the Ravens have pretty consistently over the years made frequent use of change of pace RBs to spell Rice. Far more than other teams with big name RBs do. They haven't really exploited him as a bell cow the way that some teams do -- there has always been a McGahee or a McLain or a Pierce or a Williams carrying a decent chunk of the load. This is actually the fewest RBs that I can recall that they have ever carried on the Roster. And they have habitually employed a fullback as lead rusher, which also cuts down on the wear and tear of an RB. So I think his longevity ought to be better than a lot of other backs.

 

There haven't been running lanes this year and the guy tweaked a hip. Don't write his obituary just yet.

 

I'm not saying he's done, but the time has come for his role to change.

[usmccharles]

I'm not saying he's done, but the time has come for his role to change.

I dont think Rice's role should change at all, our offense is struggling and things will work out.  But a guy a guy like rice needs to touch the ball as many times as possible in a game, he has too much play making ability to spend time on the bench, besides we have to get our moneys worth. 

 

But, with that being said.  BP has huge upside and he should see the field as much as possible.  Ive been saying this for so long and i dont think anyone has ever commented on it: put BP in the backfield and have Rice in the slot.  I think that would create such insane mismatches and would still open up the run game.  You could also switch Rice and BP every now and then, i think he should be used like a brian westbrook style.... I think rice needs 20+ touches a game at least

[flaccopoe]

Any update on his injury?

 

As for the debate, I think Rice is still the key to BAL's O.  He's a great feature back that's also a veritable threat in the passing game.  Pierce compliments him nicely, reminiscent of HOU's backfield.  The run game puts pressure off the pass rush/man defense.

[Poes Crows]

 

I also note that though you find discussion of salaries "repulsive", you launch right into a discussion of Dumerville's contract in the very next paragraph...

 

Isn't it fairly clear that I did not refer to Dumervil's salary in regard to whether he was worth it?  That's the kind of discussion that is too prevalent. The point was the agreements are very one-sided and many "Fans" are far too conditioned to support management rather than those that play the game.  The larger point was the Salary Cap and "Conditional Contracts"....(Conditional upon what management wants to do)...have to be "restructured".  How'd you like that last term? Yes, it was an intentional "Pavlovian" reference to stimulate the subjects.

 

The Players Union is closer to a subsidiary of the NFL than a true union. But that can change. The owners want more regular season games. There is leverage here. Now is the time for the Players Union to Man Up and support the players rather than be a growing conduit for the owners wishes.

 

Pittsburgh's troubles are more clearly related to poor drafts, poor trades, injuries and poor decisions not related to salaries.  They have been and certainly are a team in decline. Great teams can regress, that's a lesson that is not team specific.  If the Steelers beat the Ravens in the first meeting what does that indicate about your Steeler's point? .....Nothing I bet!

[Puntit]

Isn't it fairly clear that I did not refer to Dumervil's salary in regard to whether he was worth it?  That's the kind of discussion that is too prevalent. The point was the agreements are very one-sided and many "Fans" are far too conditioned to support management rather than those that play the game.  The larger point was the Salary Cap and "Conditional Contracts"....(Conditional upon what management wants to do)...have to be "restructured".  How'd you like that last term? Yes, it was an intentional "Pavlovian" reference to stimulate the subjects.

 

The Players Union is closer to a subsidiary of the NFL than a true union. But that can change. The owners want more regular season games. There is leverage here. Now is the time for the Players Union to Man Up and support the players rather than be a growing conduit for the owners wishes.

 

Pittsburgh's troubles are more clearly related to poor drafts, poor trades, injuries and poor decisions not related to salaries.  They have been and certainly are a team in decline. Great teams can regress, that's a lesson that is not team specific.  If the Steelers beat the Ravens in the first meeting what does that indicate about your Steeler's point? .....Nothing I bet!

I have no clue what your first paragraph is trying to say so no, its not "fairly clear".

 

But focusing on the last paragraph,

Pittsburghs problems are HEAVILLY based on salary decisions. These have paralyzed them. They are already comitted to something like $120 million in salaries next year. And that's to players who will be lucky to again get to an 8-8 season this year, and will be a year older. That's what you call cap hell. Worst situation in the NFL. Poor drafting and injuries exascerbated this problem, but this is the underlying problem. That's why everyone in the division signed a multitude of free agents while Pitt lost Walker and Mendy and Harrison  (and almost Sanders) and didn't really replace them. Its also why Pitt can't replace their injured players with anyone who isn't a league minimum salary kind of player. Why did they dig themselves such a hole? Probably because they realized that teams only get a top 10 QB every couple of decades, so they decided to go "all in"  and double down while they had Rothlesberger on the roster. So they started down a road of restructuring and restructuring, pushing cap money down the road, knowing full well that you could only borrow from Peter to pay Paul for so long before that balloon payment came due. They are now stuck with a ton of dead money, and can't really sign free agents, a problem that is going to haunt them until they ultimately declare a rebuilding year(s) and start unloading any star players that still have trade value.

 

This is a mess that Ozzie and several other GMs have intentionally avoided, but the Steelers are running with. In Baltimore we have parted with a number of stars the last couple of years, and likely will again at the end of this year. Again, the only explanation I can think of for Pitts actions is that they feel their chances of winning are best now (or at least in the past couple of years when they restructured these contracts), while Rothlesberger's still got his arm, and they are willing to suffer the lean years that may follow. I feel bad for Steeler's fans, though, because I think the coming famine will be a lot longer than some expect.  Look at Cleveland -- this division is a historically a tough one to climb up from the basement.

[HoldingCall]

Like I said before we cut Rainey... Rainey was by far our best Rb of the preseason (check the stats), probably a harder runner at this point in their career's than Rice. Just imagine the relentless explosiveness of Rainey to go with the down-hill running of Pierce... Too bad we cut him. Smh
 
Pierce has had durability concerns, and Rice seems stuck in 1st gear. Hopefully with some improvement on the O-line (perhaps shift back to a man blocking scheme) we will improve the running game and re-kindle some of that chemistry from Rice's days of domination (2009-2011).

I don't know how true it is but I've heard it stated that keeping Juan Castillo in Philly caused Andy Reed to be fired and now he's here as the run game coordinator.

As for Rainey, in spite of what some say, it's clear they should NOT have allowed him to get away. He was the best option in the event Rice or Pierce went down.

[ravensfan520]

Does anyone know how good the free agent running back is.... I was hoping we could bring Berry back... he could play on special yes and knows our offense if Rice begins to have a lingering injury. I have no doubts in Pierce but we will need to give him a break at some time.

[omar586]

1. honestly i think rice injury is serious than what they tell us , i can see rice setting out at least 8 weeks , so pierce and droughans have to grind it out until than.
2. the WRs corp will improve as the season goes on, Brown will only get better, stokly will make more critical plays b/c teams will focus on smith and brown, and hopefully we will get deonte soon, and Doss will start making plays in passing game.
3. the weakest link of this teams is TEs position and ironically covering other teams TEs, Harb might have to start giving Billy B. more reps in passing game, Dickson is unreliable.

[HoldingCall]

Remind me, what did Rainey do against us? Anything at all? Right.
 
Also, the dude is already like 27. He won't be effective for very long. Sorry, just the cold, hard truth.

I just checked the Cleveland Brown's site, Rainey is listed as 25 yrs old. We never gave him game experience with the one's so it difficult to judge him negatively. What I do know is he always looked good against second teams and he lacks the wear of active RBs.

[GrimCoconut]

• honestly i think rice injury is serious than what they tell us , i can see rice setting out at least 8 weeks , so pierce and droughans have to grind it out until than.
• the WRs corp will improve as the season goes on, Brown will only get better, stokly will make more critical plays b/c teams will focus on smith and brown, and hopefully we will get deonte soon, and Doss will start making plays in passing game.
• the weakest link of this teams is TEs position and ironically covering other teams TEs, Harb might have to start giving Billy B. more reps in passing game, Dickson is unreliable.

What do you see that indicates Rice's injury is worse than we know? Is this a feeling or is it based off of some evidence?

[The Raven]

I just checked the Cleveland Brown's site, Rainey is listed as 25 yrs old. We never gave him game experience with the one's so it difficult to judge him negatively. What I do know is he always looked good against second teams and he lacks the wear of active RBs.

 

All I know is he didn't do jack [profanity deleted] as a returner or a rusher against us. Next!

[HoldingCall]

• 
  
• honestly i think rice injury is serious than what they tell us , i can see rice setting out at least 8 weeks , so pierce and droughans have to grind it out until than.
• the WRs corp will improve as the season goes on, Brown will only get better, stokly will make more critical plays b/c teams will focus on smith and brown, and hopefully we will get deonte soon, and Doss will start making plays in passing game.
• the weakest link of this teams is TEs position and ironically covering other teams TEs, Harb might have to start giving Billy B. more reps in passing game, Dickson is unreliable.

I agree with number 3.

[GrimCoconut]

I just checked the Cleveland Brown's site, Rainey is listed as 25 yrs old. We never gave him game experience with the one's so it difficult to judge him negatively. What I do know is he always looked good against second teams and he lacks the wear of active RBs.

You do realize Rainey was a feature back at WKU right for his junior and senior years? He has 888 carries under his belt for his college career. I realize that his NFL mileage is low but that doesn't mean everything. I'm a Rainey fan as well. He's not 27 but he'll be 26 next month.

I wish we kept Rainey and even mentioned as much before we cut him. I said I'd like to keep him around in case Rice gets hurt. Rice isn't deemed out yet. Let's see what happens with Rice before bringing up Rainey more

[HoldingCall]

All I know is he didn't do jack [profanity deleted] as a returner or a rusher against us. Next!

He got "0" carries as a RB against us. I am not saying your opinion is wrong, just saying Rainey never had the opportunity with the one's to be judged negatively. So, your statement is just your opinion of him and not based on fact, and that's OK!

[HoldingCall]

You do realize Rainey was a feature back at WKU right for his junior and senior years? He has 888 carries under his belt for his college career. I realize that his NFL mileage is low but that doesn't mean everything. I'm a Rainey fan as well. He's not 27 but he'll be 26 next month.

I wish we kept Rainey and even mentioned as much before we cut him. I said I'd like to keep him around in case Rice gets hurt. Rice isn't deemed out yet. Let's see what happens with Rice before bringing up Rainey more

Fair enough!

[Puntit]

I just checked the Cleveland Brown's site, Rainey is listed as 25 yrs old. We never gave him game experience with the one's so it difficult to judge him negatively. What I do know is he always looked good against second teams and he lacks the wear of active RBs.

Yes he looked good against second teams -- so did an awful lot of the browns starters, unfortunately. After Richardson, Mingo, Kruger and Haden the team is a bit light on players who would even be starters elsewhere. The Browns are apparently going with a new QB, Hoyer, so it could be a very long year for them. I don't see Rainey being an impact player on that team, as if he even gets that opportunity, it likely means they will have lost their best player.

[Sami84]

Yes he looked good against second teams -- so did an awful lot of the browns starters, unfortunately. After Richardson, Mingo, Kruger and Haden the team is a bit light on players who would even be starters elsewhere. The Browns are apparently going with a new QB, Hoyer, so it could be a very long year for them. I don't see Rainey being an impact player on that team, as if he even gets that opportunity, it likely means they will have lost their best player.

the browns are lacking in a qb and wr and gaurds. their D is player by player a top 10 d in the league.

[beanfigger]

What do you see that indicates Rice's injury is worse than we know? Is this a feeling or is it based off of some evidence?

 

I think this is the same guy that said he felt we would be forced to play the entire season without Webb, who's career was likely done because he wasn't ready to fully practice in minicamps after tearing his knee up in October.

[buckwild307]

I heard it wasnt to bad but there going to rest him and hope hes ready by sunday

[Puntit]

the browns are lacking in a qb and wr and gaurds. their D is player by player a top 10 d in the league.

I think you are drinking the koolaid. They have one good corner. they have Kruger, who in my opinion is overhyped considering he wasn't even a starter in baltimore and mostly padded his stats here when Suggs  was in the game and was drawing coverage on the other side. And they have a rookie pass rusher who looked very promising in one game, although he maybe caught McKinnie asleep at the wheel early in the game and people are focusing on that one early sack. I think that when all is said and done, the Browns will settle back into the woodwork. That isn't a defensive lineup on par with the personnel of Baltimore, Cincinatti or even Pittsburgh. And nobody is calling teams in this division a top 10 anything in the league yet. Did Cleveland stymie our run game Sunday? Absolutely. Did they really hold us to 14 points or did we cost ourselves another dozen with our "communication" issues and poor kicking? You be the judge. But I think people like to get carried away with offseason moves and draft picks and annoint teams as good before they even take the field. The Browns haven't looked good yet this year. They couldn't get into the end zone and they couldn't defend a halftime lead. And we made plenty of mistakes Sunday that good teams might have taken advantage of.  nuff said.

[Sami84]

I think you are drinking the koolaid. They have one good corner. they have Kruger, who in my opinion is overhyped considering he wasn't even a starter in baltimore and mostly padded his stats here when Suggs  was in the game and was drawing coverage on the other side. And they have a rookie pass rusher who looked very promising in one game, although he maybe caught McKinnie asleep at the wheel early in the game and people are focusing on that one early sack. I think that when all is said and done, the Browns will settle back into the woodwork. That isn't a defensive lineup on par with the personnel of Baltimore, Cincinatti or even Pittsburgh. And nobody is calling teams in this division a top 10 anything in the league yet. Did Cleveland stymie our run game Sunday? Absolutely. Did they really hold us to 14 points or did we cost ourselves another dozen with our "communication" issues and poor kicking? You be the judge. But I think people like to get carried away with offseason moves and draft picks and annoint teams as good before they even take the field. The Browns haven't looked good yet this year. They couldn't get into the end zone and they couldn't defend a halftime lead. And we made plenty of mistakes Sunday that good teams might have taken advantage of.  nuff said.

dquell jackson, phil taylor,tj ward, jabal sheard?

 

thats some talent not including mingo , haden and kruger.

[Edgar]

If you watch the play where rice fumbles i think he initially tweaked his hip there and it gave out later. watch it he favors that hip after the fumble

You're right. You can see him on the side right after his fumble stretching his leg.

[The Raven]

He got "0" carries as a RB against us. I am not saying your opinion is wrong, just saying Rainey never had the opportunity with the one's to be judged negatively. So, your statement is just your opinion of him and not based on fact, and that's OK!

 

If he didn't get the opportunity, maybe Cleveland didn't think he would be good enough to do something against us. We shut down Richardson, and Rainey is his back up. I doubt Rainey would have done anything even if he did get the chance.

[Puntit]

dquell jackson, phil taylor,tj ward, jabal sheard?

 

thats some talent not including mingo , haden and kruger.

Yes, and without being able to use our TEs, having very little run production, and not being able to hit a field goal to save our life, we still came roaring back with two unanswered touchdowns in the second half. We played very poorly on offense. We left lots of points on the table. And they still couldn't protect their lead. Not a top 10 defense, sorry. At least not for the last 30 minutes. And much as we don't get credit for being good just because we played half a good game in Denver, Cleveland should get no credit for playing half of one in Baltimore. The whole division is weak, but I think its fair to say that as of this moment you'd have to rank Cleveland toward the bottom of our division, defensively. And bottom of the division in a weak division doesn't equal top 10. Maybe top 25.

[PeRK82]

And to think I got slaughtered when I said not to resign him

Wasnt me,  i look at RICE like i used to look at Mcghee ( how every you spell it )

 

He peaked his 3rd yr.  If RICE couldnt catch the ball he would be worthless and he really hasnt been thrown too that much in the 2 games we played

 

That Bengals RB scares me, they are using him like how we used RICE in the past. Check downs , etc.

[ellicottraven]

• 
  
• honestly i think rice injury is serious than what they tell us , i can see rice setting out at least 8 weeks , so pierce and droughans have to grind it out until than.
• the WRs corp will improve as the season goes on, Brown will only get better, stokly will make more critical plays b/c teams will focus on smith and brown, and hopefully we will get deonte soon, and Doss will start making plays in passing game.
• the weakest link of this teams is TEs position and ironically covering other teams TEs, Harb might have to start giving Billy B. more reps in passing game, Dickson is unreliable.

your belief without evidence regarding Ray Rice means nothing.

[Sami84]

Yes, and without being able to use our TEs, having very little run production, and not being able to hit a field goal to save our life, we still came roaring back with two unanswered touchdowns in the second half. We played very poorly on offense. We left lots of points on the table. And they still couldn't protect their lead. Not a top 10 defense, sorry. At least not for the last 30 minutes. And much as we don't get credit for being good just because we played half a good game in Denver, Cleveland should get no credit for playing half of one in Baltimore. The whole division is weak, but I think its fair to say that as of this moment you'd have to rank Cleveland toward the bottom of our division, defensively. And bottom of the division in a weak division doesn't equal top 10. Maybe top 25.

i think they have a much better D then the steelers.

[Alexir]

We should trade Rice to the Colts for a first round pick. Oh wait, only a stupid franchise would get rid of their best, young offensive weapon.