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

[outkast1]

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.

The past five years they pick at the bottom of the draft and your Browns pick at the top and still stink!You can.t be a Ravens fan?

[PolishRifle]

People have a right to be naysayers, if they want to and I do think it's atleast understandable after this draft. The Ravens got good players out of this draft, sure (I'm not denying that Mosley might be an exciting player), but they are almost exclusively defensive players.

Last season the Ravens drafted a safety, an ILB and a NT and now they did the exact same thing. There is a ton of depth across the board in the entire defense, while the offense has close to none. 

As soon as KO got hurt and Gino tried to replace our starting Center, the whole OL fell apart. Jensen, Gino and Wagner were just not good enough to be starters. While everyone assumes, that ageing players like Owen Daniels and Steve Smith will immediatelly improved our offense, which is not garanteed (Owen Daniels is injury prone, just like Pitta for example), we already know that without them most of our receivers had trouble to make plays consistantly. Not to mention that out RBs are both coming of injuries.

So, yes, I don't think it's so ridiculous, that some people are upset, that the offense is lacking in depth, even after the patch up work the FO did in FA, while the defense is several players deep in most positions.

[The Greek]

qb, o-line, rb, wr today and i cannot wait to see which ufa's we invite to camp

[throwback2000]

Out-manuevered so far, lets hope we get needs and depth today. Losing out on West and the center from Colorado State hurt.

[jackrogers]

There is a reason why all these guys dropped to the Raven's. They all have serious issues, medical and otherwise. I can understand gambling on one pick, but not every pick. They could have picked Pryor, Latimer, Gabe Jackson or Terence West, and Brandon Thomas. Lets hope for the best. You never know.

[law215]

Yet another year of stacking the offense with retreads and 30 yr olds. Another year of inconsistent offense, saying the defense could be better if the offense could sustain drives,seeing Joe asking why Joe can't throw for 4,000 yards. You invest $120M on the QB but pass on guys that could have helped. Passed on Jace Amaro, Proyor, Clinton-Dix, Latimer for an undersized DT which injury concerns? Even if drafting offense at #48 would be a little bit of reach, it is an investment at position of need and supporting your $120M investment. Local media and loyalist will somehow justify it. I will be interest to see the draft grade national media give Ravens. I hope am worng, but it looks like a blown opportunity to add to the offense in the deepest draft in years.

[Jokerraven]

People have a right to be naysayers, if they want to and I do think it's atleast understandable after this draft. The Ravens got good players out of this draft, sure (I'm not denying that Mosley might be an exciting player), but they are almost exclusively defensive players.

Last season the Ravens drafted a safety, an ILB and a NT and now they did the exact same thing. There is a ton of depth across the board in the entire defense, while the offense has close to none. 

As soon as KO got hurt and Gino tried to replace our starting Center, the whole OL fell apart. Jensen, Gino and Wagner were just not good enough to be starters. While everyone assumes, that ageing players like Owen Daniels and Steve Smith will immediatelly improved our offense, which is not garanteed (Owen Daniels is injury prone, just like Pitta for example), we already know that without them most of our receivers had trouble to make plays consistantly. Not to mention that out RBs are both coming of injuries.

So, yes, I don't think it's so ridiculous, that some people are upset, that the offense is lacking in depth, even after the patch up work the FO did in FA, while the defense is several players deep in most positions.

very well said ! we don't even know if KO will get back to form .then all year the forums will be full of Joe flacco sucks  blah blah . ugh and today we will stock the practice squad and ir for the upcoming season go ravens .

[Jokerraven]

Yet another year of stacking the offense with retreads and 30 yr olds. Another year of inconsistent offense, saying the defense could be better if the offense could sustain drives,seeing Joe asking why Joe can't throw for 4,000 yards. You invest $120M on the QB but pass on guys that could have helped. Passed on Jace Amaro, Proyor, Clinton-Dix, Latimer for an undersized DT which injury concerns? Even if drafting offense at #48 would be a little bit of reach, it is an investment at position of need and supporting your $120M investment. Local media and loyalist will somehow justify it. I will be interest to see the draft grade national media give Ravens. I hope am worng, but it looks like a blown opportunity to add to the offense in the deepest draft in years.

+100

[rayvens5252]

Everyone needs to realize that we were one quarter away from making the playoffs last year. With joe throwing the ball to the other teams! So if our defense this up coming year is air tight and lights out. Also if our special teams are dominate. Then the offense just needs to be able to not turn the ball over and get tucker close enough to kick feild goals. Dont ever forget defense can score touchdowns too. Getting to and winning Our first superbowl was due to defense. The "ray"vens were built on defense and that is the way it was and always will be. They will find some players to help the offense down the road and any production we get fro joe and the offense next year will just be iceing on the cake...

[Pharaoh]

qb, o-line, rb, wr today and i cannot wait to see which ufa's we invite to camp

that's the problem the offense only ever get late round picks and UFAs

[Bruce_Almty]

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

Under Harbaugh, it takes players time to develop. In 2 yrs, when Smith & Jones have moved on, you'll be saying,  "We're missing something, what happened to our wide receivers"?

[The Greek]

i see us signing eric winston

[Jokerraven]

that's the problem the offense only ever get late round picks and UFAs

exactly and the entire fan base expects Flacco to put up better numbers then Manning and they can't figure out why he can't this team doesn't even have a number 1 receiver .

[law215]

Just disappointed Ravens couldn't find reason to get a highly scouted offensive playmaker. That being said they did stick to their "identity" It's defense first no matter what you pay the QB. Long term this defense could be monstrous. Short term, offense will be pedestrian at times. If they can add a playmaker on offense in round 4-6, draft could be very solid. My disappointment can't stand up to OZ track record.

[RavenManiac#7]

Once again Ozzie goes defense. I'm beginning to think the man just can't help it. If ever there was a draft where he could have helped our 29th ranked offense it was this one. And today doesn't really matter. The help that was available is gone. The rest of the draft and UDFA's are luck, pure and simple. While watching the third round, after the run on RBs, I told my son, "Oz is gonna pick Terrence Brooks, not Terrence West or Andre Williams, just watch". We all saw. And then, to not take Williams at the end of the third? Is the TE he chose So much better than Furstenburg that we resigned ourselves to not filling our running back need? Time will tell, and I sure hope so. I'm not saying we didn't get good players, not at all, but if Ozzie thinks he has done enough to fix our offense from the mess we saw last year, I think he's going to be Very unpleasantly surprised. Just as unpleasantly surprised as he was not unhappily concentrating on the wrong side of the ball the last two nights. I hold out more hope that maybe, just maybe, some veteran free agents can be had to try to help the offense that Ozzie chose to ignore. And I'm not buying that BPA stuff either. Like I've asked, if the BPA in round 1, or even rd 2, had been a QB, do you think Ozzie would have "stayed true to our board"? I don't. Not for one second. I'm not saying you should totally disregard BPA, but there is, also, a place for some consideration of your team's most pressing needs if you want them to get filled and improve. I'm just concerned about our offense. Despite the moves in free agency already made, I still think it is in much more need than our defense. It wasn't at all fun to watch last year, and I just very much hope we're not going to have to suffer through another year like that. Bottom line, the offense needed more help than the defense but, yet again, it was the defense that Ozzie addressed. Sound familiar?

[partmachine]

It's a typical Ravens draft. Expect today to be filled with at least one O-lineman, and the rest receivers and corners to try out for special teams. Not exciting at all but somehow they manage to win. I for one don't have a problem with winning.

[The Greek]

Yet another year of stacking the offense with retreads and 30 yr olds. Another year of inconsistent offense, saying the defense could be better if the offense could sustain drives,seeing Joe asking why Joe can't throw for 4,000 yards. You invest $120M on the QB but pass on guys that could have helped. Passed on Jace Amaro, Proyor, Clinton-Dix, Latimer for an undersized DT which injury concerns? Even if drafting offense at #48 would be a little bit of reach, it is an investment at position of need and supporting your $120M investment. Local media and loyalist will somehow justify it. I will be interest to see the draft grade national media give Ravens. I hope am worng, but it looks like a blown opportunity to add to the offense in the deepest draft in years.

i dont see how pryor or dix would help flacco on offense

[rmcjacket23]

Whats amusing to me is that this board is filled with people who claimed that "we didn't need any more WRs", yet people are outraged when we choose one offensive player in our first four picks. There's two positions on the offensive that look "vulnerable" in my opinion... RT and RB. It should surprise nobody that we didn't take a RB on day 2, because I don't think anybody realistically thought we would. The only possible "disappointment", for me, is that we didn't take an offensive lineman, but that doesn't mean we won't. Would I have liked us to target a receiver in the draft earlier? Yes, but it appears the FO has more faith in Brown and Mellette than I thought they did.

[The Greek]

Once again Ozzie goes defense. I'm beginning to think the man just can't help it. If ever there was a draft where he could have helped our 29th ranked offense it was this one. And today doesn't really matter. The help that was available is gone. The rest of the draft and UDFA's are luck, pure and simple. While watching the third round, after the run on RBs, I told my son, "Oz is gonna pick Terrence Brooks, not Terrence West or Andre Williams, just watch". We all saw. And then, to not take Williams at the end of the third? Is the TE he chose So much better than Furstenburg that we resigned ourselves to not filling our running back need? Time will tell, and I sure hope so. I'm not saying we didn't get good players, not at all, but if Ozzie thinks he has done enough to fix our offense from the mess we saw last year, I think he's going to be Very unpleasantly surprised. Just as unpleasantly surprised as he was not unhappily concentrating on the wrong side of the ball the last two nights. I hold out more hope that maybe, just maybe, some veteran free agents can be had to try to help the offense that Ozzie chose to ignore. And I'm not buying that BPA stuff either. Like I've asked, if the BPA in round 1, or even rd 2, had been a QB, do you think Ozzie would have "stayed true to our board"? I don't. Not for one second. I'm not saying you should totally disregard BPA, but there is, also, a place for some consideration of your team's most pressing needs if you want them to get filled and improve. I'm just concerned about our offense. Despite the moves in free agency already made, I still think it is in much more need than our defense. It wasn't at all fun to watch last year, and I just very much hope we're not going to have to suffer through another year like that. Bottom line, the offense needed more help than the defense but, yet again, it was the defense that Ozzie addressed. Sound familiar?

the 2000 ravens and 2013 seahawks won with dominating defenses and we needed an infusion with suggs ngata dummervil and canty being in there 30's and not dominant like they once were.  i understand the anger with not drafting offensive players early but we have the guys to be succesful especially with kubiak running the offense now plus we will pick up veterans in the summer to fill holes

[mendii]

Why are people suddenly acting like we didn't need Terrence Brooks when a safety has been our biggest need this entire draft? And hasn't it been the plan the whole time to bolster the meat of the defense after watching Art go to Indy? Then we all wanted Baltimore to snag a dual-threat TE who can block. The pick that makes the least sense is Mosely and we all seemed to love that pick. This is a good draft, we've addressed needs we all knew we were going to address, y'all are just mad the Ravens didn't match up their big board with Mel Kiper or NFL.com.

[law215]

i dont see how pryor or dix would help flacco on offense

I know Pryor and Ha Ha are on defense. don't be ridiculous. comprehend the point

[ellicottraven]

And finally, when the night drew to a close, because we didn't have a single offensive player drafted, we decided to reach and pick a prospect that was slated to go in the 5-6th rounds! Yay! Justice served.

[blitzking33]

At the end of the day.. While other teams got their 1 impact offensive player then staked up on second and third tier players on offense.. we continued to stack on top-notch defensive players.

You can't really get mad at that because you got to have people who can stop these offensive minded teams. I'd rather have a decent offense with a powerhouse D.. And don't forget Ozzie already stacked up on O before the draft even began.

[Ravens07]

BPA in draft, fill needs in FA.

[T-Phizzle]

Fans upset with this draft have a legitamte clause. They wanted to see the offense get better, our FO didn't use a high pick on offense, think to our recent team history - Flacco, Rice, Torrey, Yanda, KO, Bernard Pierce, all early rounds. I'm not angry at our FO, I see what they are doing in this draft. but the fans who are upset have a solid reason to.

[Peej]

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

 

What you are missing is our (the fans') core group of contrarians...if the Ravens did exactly as these wet blankets wanted, they would just move onto the next gripe in their lists.

 

Look at where we are in terms of what the Ravens "still don't have" (at least according to the aforementioned wet blankets)....

 

OL - The Ravens have only one (repeat ONE) real question mark: at Right Tackle.  The team has two second year players in Wagner and Jensen as well as Jah Reid.  That seems to me to be a good pool from which a starter can emerge.  If not, FA will most likely yield another veteran for a short-term solution.

TE - Pitta and Daniels are both chain movers and good intermediate threats...and neither is exactly tottering around using walkers.  Daniels may only be a one-to-two year solution, but for this season, he is OUR solution to complement Pitta.

WR - With Smith (squared), Jones, Brown, Mellette, the Ravens have a mix of young and veteran players all of whom can really fly.

 

Now let's look at what they DO have - and all high-character guys including:

 

LB - They drafted an impact player and leader who will compete for playing time but also who can ease into his role learning from a savvy veteran (Smith).  This group has always been the Ravens' strength - and it got stronger!

DL - They drafted another beast (Some of our wet blankets say Cody, I say Kelly Gregg) from a championship program.  Not exactly a replacement for Arthur Jones, but that group has a lot of young "next man up" types, and the Ravens added one more good one to the mix.  This one moreover, has a chip on his shoulder from his fall from the first round...motivated?

FS - They drafted a center fielder from a championship program.  This guy, from the film I saw, is fast, has good ball hawking skills, is well coached and will most likely be the next FS starter!

 

My opinion of the "bottom line" for this draft so far is that the Ravens will not get high marks from the NFL network dweebs for sexiness, but have another solid draft class that will add to an already elite organization and team.

[RavenManiac#7]

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 ...........

Took away your neg. You're right, we should have drafted a RB. I was counting them down once the run on them started. We Did have a chance to get a decent one, but passed. Andre Williams, from Boston College, is the only one left that I think could help us, but to think he will last until our comp pick in round 4 today is very unrealistic. Whoever Ozzie digs up from what is left doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence.

[RG3raven]

I think for the rest of the draft, we should grab cyril richardson and logan thomas in the 4th, andre williams in the fifth, and antone exum in the 6th.

[BEACHBOY]

Zero help for an offense that ranked 29th overall - picking a nobody at TE doesn't count. Coulda' had Clinton-Dix, settled for Brooks, coulda' had Jace Amaro, but settled for Davey Crockett. You can't stand pat in the middle and expect these offensive players on your board to simply "fall to you". I realize half our picks were compensatory so we couldn't trade up, but that should tell you to think outside the box. IMO they should have drafted for need and saved the best player available philosophy for the later rounds. They took Jernigan at 48 when they could have gotten a REAL NT in Louis Dix (6'3" 326) who didn't come off the board until 83 (both graded the same btw). As a result they wiff on Amaro, Fiedorowitz and Niklas; Robinson, Latimer and Landry; Sankey, Hill, Hyde and West plus Moses and a slew of interior linemen who you could plug and play. And that's what this team needed out of this draft - guys who can make an immediate contribution by filling a void. Instead we mirror last year's draft and all that means is somebody's not getting on the field - Smith, Brown, Williams, Daniels??? They said they needed to hit a home run in this deep draft and I think they are one player shy of taking a horse collar in the first three rounds.

[HomeoftheBRAVENS]

Sometimes I wish we had a more offensively biased regime.We finally found a QB after years of wishing and waiting and he's never going to reach his full potential that he flashed a year ago because he's with an organization that doesn't care enough about offense.Idk what to say about it.Lets just hope that T Smith,some late round pick wrs,an undrafted wr and a 35 year old slot receiver actually works out this year because that same formula crashed and burned last year.