[News] Eisenberg: League Drafts Offense, Ravens Draft Defense

[BR News]

The Ravens board was stacked heavily with offensive players, but the defensive players fell to them.

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[TheConquerorWorm]

Defense wins championships.

[T-Phizzle]

Build the middle of the defense. 6 draft picks on 2 MLB, 2 S, 2DT. Let's go

[Jokerraven]

Same offense exact same result . and if you can't score points you have no shot of beating the teams who can no matter how many defensive players you draft .

 

I don't believe for one second our draft board had any offensive players stacked on it . Ozzie had no intention of drafting offense high . It doesn't really matter Ozzie couldn't draft a probowl receiver if his life depended on it

[Crimson Raven]

Teams win championships. Ever heard of the Gritz Blitz, Dome Patrol, Gang Green. Great defenses but no rings because of very poor offenses. Eventually, Joe is going to need help and fast.

[Bruce_Almty]

Very, very disheartening to pass on the best class of wide receivers to enter the draft in years. And picking the 25th best WR with pick 134 doesn't count.

Looks like Justin Tucker will have a real shot at being the most valuable Raven next season will all his FGs.

[ravens4life86]

Looking at 4th and 5th round options..

I would still like a O lineman, there has to be someone better then Wagner and Jenson... I mean Antonio Richardson projected to starting RT by most, just because he might not be Martin type prospect doent mean hes bad. Or you have Gs like Yankey,Dozier both who would be starters.. Could slide KO over to RT... Or get Cyril Richardson OT/G 6'6 340 frame

Martavius Bryant a beast WR and the best of whats left, Bruce Ellington, Brandon Coleman,

Freeman RB FSU, Storm Johnson RB

CB somewhere.. Jaylon Watkins, victor Hampton, Mcgill, etc..

More Pass Rushers.

[Valid1]

Disheartening is the word Bruce. The Mosely pick yesterday drained the joy right out of me and today was didn't lift my spirits any. Brooks and Jernigan are good players but I'm not sure how Jernigan fits and taking Crockett Gilmore ridiculously early after missing out on Moncrief wnd West just tore me up. For some reason we're just never going to have a great offense in Baltimore, despite having the QB to pull that off.

[Bruce_Almty]

Eric D says he's comfortable with the quality of the O-line players they drafted last year in rounds 5 & 6 but they feel the need for a do-over of last years first 3 picks. Is that logic/explanation, John, supposed to calm the bewildered fan? Hmm.

[Fe Caprino]

This is how I look at things: the Ravens certainly would have liked to grab T West in the last third pick. The Browns screwed it. They probably liked Jernigan too much to pick someone else (Latimer - WR, for example). If Lee was there, who knows. There was a pretty intense run on OL today...

All that stated, I look at our offensive starters (Flacco, Rice, Monroe, KO, Zuttah, Yanda, Wagner, Torrey, Steve, Jacoby and Pitta) and I'm not sure we're as bad as I hear people say we are. Sure, we could use OL depth and maybe a starting RT. We have Owen, Marlon, Bernard Pierce, Juice. I think the biggest need for the offense was a change in the direction and coaching staff. That came with A grade. I'm convinced we're not gonna be an amazing offense. But I'm sure we're gonna be MUCH better than last year.

[runamuk]

Cameron Fleming Stanford OT, projects to play rt in the nfl. no need to move KO. haven't seen his name mentioned . I really did think this year we would get that top ten offense .

[asham27]

Very, very disheartening to pass on the best class of wide receivers to enter the draft in years. And picking the 25th best WR with pick 134 doesn't count.

Looks like Justin Tucker will have a real shot at being the most valuable Raven next season will all his FGs.

 

Am I missing something or did Marlon Brown, Steve Smith, Jacoby Jones and Torrey Smith all just tear their ACLs or something?

[BmoreBirds22]

There's no doubt we were going to get terrance west with that late third and Cleveland knew it . It's gut wrenching to see that we had the pick of the litter of backs with our 2nd rounder and then come our 3rd round comp pick the top 6 are gone , Carlos Hyde bishop sankey jermey hill Charles sims tre mason and terrance west . I'm not saying Jernigan or brooks were the wrong picks because they're strong picks but we are extremely unfortunate to have the top 6 backs to before our 99th pick . Kubiaks whole system revolves around his RB and a unproven fragile pierce with ray rice who's slowing down (and could grt suspened ) the fact that we chose not to get leggarrette Blount or Toby gerhart ,we needed to get a talented back to compete and potentially start and it looks like they're all gone now ...........

[Valid1]

Eric D says he's comfortable with the quality of the O-line players they drafted last year in rounds 5 & 6 but they feel the need for a do-over of last years first 3 picks. Is that logic/explanation, John, supposed to calm the bewildered fan? Hmm.

Add to this that Williams and Brown barely received any playing time because of the titans of athleticism Josh Bynes and Terreance Cody and who knows if they can even play.

I could totally see us sitting Jernigan and Mosely for a large amount of time just cause seems to actively try not to play rookies unless injury demands it.

[BmoreBirds22]

Our wide receivers are fine if anything the one offensive need that we disappointingly didn't fix is RB Because we can easily sign a solid vet RT . We have Torrey a good young wr ,marlon brown who lead our team in tds as a undrafted free agent plus Steve smith and Dennis pitta can and will pick up plenty of first downs . RB is what we needed ! Kubiaks whole offense is his run game and when you only have ray rice who's declining and could get suspended plus a fragile non every down back in pierce , we needed a young impact rb from this draft and we were unlucky that the top 6 Sankey , Hyde , Hill , Sims , Mason and West were gone by our comp pick . We also missed out on signing gerhart and leggarrette Blount so were in big trouble at runningback and might now have no other option but to hope and pray pierce can improve and look more so like his rookie self and that ray still has something left in him .

[Ravenous_Ravens]

Add to this that Williams and Brown barely received any playing time because of the titans of athleticism Josh Bynes and Terreance Cody and who knows if they can even play.

I could totally see us sitting Jernigan and Mosely for a large amount of time just cause seems to actively try not to play rookies unless injury demands it.

Players play by earning the right to be on the field on Sundays. Every Raven knows this, and every new Raven will learn it. All those players played, various amounts sure but it changes game to game and is a direct reflection of what they've shown and what the situation dictates. No one is ever 100% correct in their decision making but to think they're purposely holding players back is absolutely ridiculous.

[Valid1]

Torrey is solid but has proven he needs help. Marlon preformed okay but his stats are more reflective of opportunites than they are talent. I agree that we need to give him a chance to prove himself and that is one consolation from this offense empty draft. Steve Smith will be turned to dust by the end of the year. It take WRs time to adjust to the NFL typically. Finding a good player to sit behind Smith would have been ideal. Pitta is already aging, and Daniels is made of glass, much like last years Dallas Clark.

I really think it's fair to say we could use some receiving targets and before you say anything, blocking TE Crockett Gilmore doesn't count.

[runamuk]

Our wide receivers are fine if anything the one offensive need that we disappointingly didn't fix is RB Because we can easily sign a solid vet RT . We have Torrey a good young wr ,marlon brown who lead our team in tds as a undrafted free agent plus Steve smith and Dennis pitta can and will pick up plenty of first downs . RB is what we needed ! Kubiaks whole offense is his run game and when you only have ray rice who's declining and could get suspended plus a fragile non every down back in pierce , we needed a young impact rb from this draft and we were unlucky that the top 6 Sankey , Hyde , Hill , Sims , Mason and West were gone by our comp pick . We also missed out on signing gerhart and leggarrette Blount so were in big trouble at runningback and might now have no other option but to hope and pray pierce can improve and look more so like his rookie self and that ray still has something left in him .

I agree with this the wide receivers are good I think Marlon is going to bypass torrey this year. I think the Browns jumped us because they knew we were going to take west, huge disappointment. I'm not worried running backs can be found in later rounds . I was hoping to get another big bodied red zone target but you can't have it all.

[T-Phizzle]

Desir is a quality corner that would be an absolute steal for any team who drafts him from here

[Valid1]

The Ravens FO isn't infallible. In fact the past 5 years they've been sub par. By that I mean the league on average has produced better players through the draft than we have. If you think that is untrue I don't even know what to say to you.

[DFence4ever]

Our offense won a Superbowl 2 years ago with Boldin, Torrey, JJ, Pitta, and Dickson. Our current offense is Smith Sr, Torrey, JJ, Pitta, and O.Daniels. I'm pretty sure that's an upgrade. Since our Superbowl winning team, our current offense IMPROVED, our special teams is still SPECIAL, and our defense is MUCH better. I'd rather have an amazing defense any day. How did the BEST offense do against the seahawks in the superbowl? Oh that's right they couldn't do jack squat. Our offense is just as good as the seahawks, if not better. And quit complaining about not drafting any probowlers. Flacco, Pitta, Torrey, Webb, A. Jones, none of them were probowlers but they had a significant impact in our superbowl run.

[Crimson Raven]

Seattle had more than just great defense. And the Broncos were hardly the best offense. The best the Broncos were in that category was passing, but they were weak in rushing as well as Clady had been injured and their defense I think was missing Miller and Dumervil. The Seahawks had good offense with receivers and rushing attack mixed with good defense and O-line. Plain and simple Seattle beat the Broncos at every phase.

[birdland blitz]

Add to this that Williams and Brown barely received any playing time because of the titans of athleticism Josh Bynes and Terreance Cody and who knows if they can even play.

I could totally see us sitting Jernigan and Mosely for a large amount of time just cause seems to actively try not to play rookies unless injury demands it.

The Ravens refuse to start rookies? So is that why Michael Huff was released and Matt Elam started almost the whole season instead? No injuries there.

[52liveforever]

say what you will about the draft so far, but i am in love with the way this draft is playing out. IMO mosley is the best LB in the draft and he is going to be the rock of our dfense for years. The fact we got jernigan in the 2nd round is such good value. i would have been happy picking him up in the 1st. and brooks is definitely a raven with his playing style. he misses alot of interceptions because he seems to get a little excited. with some maturity those missed opportunities will turn in to INT's and with his speed and athleticism he could be quite the playmaker with the ball in his hands.

[riseNConquer81]

are we pretending this is a good thing? do we feel smarter or more clever than the rest of the league for this? i dont. know why the league is drafting offense? because they (like us) are already set on defense. At least the people that matter. The Bengals, the browns, the broncos, patriots, chiefs, niners, seahawks, aka everybody we'll have to go through to get a trophy. they already have all the defense they need and they're smart enough not to waste their draft picks adding to a unit that wont get any better no matter who they bring in. they realize you have to score at some point to win a game. we still havent quite figured that out yet apparently. Justin tucker my be the franchise leader in points next season but hey: at least we got an inactive list full of unneeded defenders to wave at every sunday.

this the best shape our defense has been in entering a draft in a while, the only thing we really needed now, or in the near future was a safety. we're basically set on one half of the ball and had our highest pick in 6 years, the perfect chance to finally fix and strengthen this offense and we threw it to the wind. smh

[reed20fence]

A few things folks, BPA according to Kiper's board or Mayock's List or Cbssports or PFT or Roto is not BPA according to the board that is the fruit of our own scouts and player developer's year long labor in evaluating these guys' talents and digging into things those pundits can't begin to imagine.

Second, good or bad, the Ravens are who they are because they do not lie as an organization. Will they deliberately get vague and obfuscate to avoid tipping their hand or protect their players, sure. But these men, I've come to see over the years, do not lie. So when they say the draft happened to evolve such that guys on D happened to stick out like sore thumbs when their turns approached, I believe it.

All that remains is the philosophical debate on whether we should reach as an organization and betray our own board and hard work just to fill needs by placing warm bodies in slots on the depth chart, or should we stack our team with guys who are genuinely the most gifted at their position at the point we had to pick given the full pool that remained.

[FloridalovesRavens]

naysayers, get over it. Ozzie and company know a lot more about this then you do. If what we originally wanted was not there why take second best just to fill that particular position. I will trust in the Ravens picks regardless of what side of the ball they play on. Go Ravens.

[mika33390]

So far so good , it seems that the media community think we are having a very solid draft.

personally, when i read the ravens had 180 draftable players , i knew there was going some surprise ...but really good ones !

 

1/ CJ mosley : the clearly number 1 inside linebacker prospect of this year , Da costa said he was on his top 10 list so nabbing him at 17 seems like a steal ;-) we've got now very good insurance behind Daryl smith . solid move.

 

2/ Timmy Jernigan : Another solid move , a young defensive lineman , capable of disrupting the pocket , will be a nice rotationnal player and devellop into a productive player. a round 01 potentiel and possible steal here.

 

3/ Terrence Brooks : a natural centerfield FS we 've lacked last year , he is rangy, great close up speed, great sideline to sideline speed, average hands and will miss some tackle looking for the big hit but he is a superb addition . I personnaly really love this pick and think he will be better in NFL than in college...

 

4/ Crockett Gillmore : the typical ravens blue collar player ! love this pick ! a true in-line TE , great blocking skills we lacked for years at the position , will be a good not great player and will thrive under kubiac scheme. will without a doubt boost our running game in I-form and double TE set ! lots of media scouts had this guy high on their list and he is a ravens now !

 

I still think the ravens will draft an OT or a OG in the 4th or 5th round , remenber with 180 draftable players i'm sur the coaches still have some good cards in their pockets... I also would love the ravens to pick a RB and a CB in later rounds...

 

Can't Wait ! Go Ravens GO !

 

[YankeeRaven]

Wouldn't mind at all if they could snap Eric Winston for a good price the defense has gotten so much better with these draft picks and Ravens truly sticks to the defensive side and that's great, I fell in love with Ravens defense when I became a fan. There is still some fine offensive players available like RB Andre Williams and WR Michael Campanaro a guy I would love to see Ravens take in the 5th round. A defensive position I see Ravens still needs to address is CB, but it's not unreasonable for us fans to expect Ozzie fill that need today.

In Ozzie we trust!

Offense wins games, defense wins championships!

[The Greek]

glad to see we are rebuilding the defense. we will sign some vet o-linemen to get us by as clubs cut them in training camp.