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

[verified]

look how fat and slow this guy is haahah what a joke of a pick

[kjvisser]

I go to Coastal Carolina and watched Taliaferro a lot. His style will translate well. Im so happy we drafted him.

[riseNConquer81]

True, but...

Upshaw is a linebacker, Canty and Ngata are both essentially in "contract years" and could both easily be gone next season, and basically there isn't a single player on that list that has shown anything. Do you have a ton of faith in Tyson, McPhee, or Cody as a full time starter? i sure don't.

Granted, the Urban pick didn't make much sense to me, but the Jernigan pick sure did.

how does that change the fact that no matter who it is that ends up starting, we have a bunch of guys wasting roster space while other parts of our roster are still incomplete? and why does everybody keep talking about whose starting anyway. there are 10 people on that list! you only get to field 11 at once...

and please stop telling me Upshaw is a linebacker like i dont already know that. he plays on the line on run downs, he doesnt stand up or drop in coverage, we use him more like an end than anything else. you can get stuck on his official listed position all you want, that wont change the fact that he plays on the line and that when ever he's on the field, one of those other 9 wont be.

[BaltimoreGold]

I was happy with the first 3 picks, but honestly, I don't really like our recent picks starting with that last 3rd round pick. We need more depth at OT and could have selected a good WR with that last 3rd round pick. Not sure what we are doing, but I hope it works long term.

[the deepster]

I had faith that Kubiak would find a RB late. But he can't catch out of the backfield and he is not as good as Terrence West but still decent. Like the pick don't love it.

[evass#ravensnation]

I love our first 3 picks!!! but after that I wish we could hit the reset button

[rmcjacket23]

how does that change the fact that no matter who it is that ends up starting, we have a bunch of guys wasting roster space while other parts of our roster are still incomplete? and why does everybody keep talking about whose starting anyway. there are 10 people on that list! you only get to field 11 at once...

Because while we do consistently rotate players, you can't wait until next season when potentially two of your "starting" three defensive lineman are cut, which is a distinct possibility.

Not to mention the fact that I would expect at least one or two of those players to be released during training camp/preseason. I don't expect Cody to make the team, and who knows, maybe Tyson or Kapron doesn't either. I'd bet on Urban ending up on the practice squad anyway. I think its naive to think we will have 10 defensive lineman dressing on Sundays.

I'm not necessarily advocating that we keep taking DL, but why would we take a RT who we don't think can play? If the FO doesn't think there are any RTs or WRs of value right now, then why on earth would they take one? Just to say that they did?

[Ravens69]

They can't cut Suggs after this season... would cost more than to keep him. He's essentially locked onto this team for at least 2 more seasons, and likely 3.

And by glaring needs on the offensive line, you are basically saying we have ONE hole correct?

I do agree generally though... we are drafting for the future, not for the present, which is precisely what we should be doing. This team certainly is nowhere near being in "win-now" mode like the Broncos and 49ers are.

You are reading more into my post.  I never said we had 1 need only.  I will say we have done nothing to fix this O line ion this draft so far.  It is unlikely that we will get a 1st year starter in the 5th to 7th rounds.  I have no problen with drafting for the future, however, this is a "win now league."  The Ravens have pretensions to be a at least a playoff team, if not a Super Bowl contender.  No matter what coaches, owners and GM's say they do have to pay attention to the fans. 

[riseNConquer81]

The FO said they wanted a Power back and if we Sign Winston then bam we have a right tackle, anything else?

youre not done with that question. hypothetical situations do not an answer make. Come back when you dont need to use the word "if." Not to mention if Eric Winston doesnt have a job by now there's a reason for it. You'd think Ravens fans wouldve learned that lesson from Billy Cundiff, Lee Evans, TJ Houshmandzadeh, etc. etc.

[Crimson Raven]

Ozzie is really making my head scratch on these last three picks. He must see something he really likes in these players.

[riseNConquer81]

Because while we do consistently rotate players, you can't wait until next season when potentially two of your "starting" three defensive lineman are cut, which is a distinct possibility.

if you cut 2 guys, you still have 8. and just like every other season, the draft will once again occur prior to the start of the next season, and the season after that, and the season after that. Plus, i dont get how you're more concerned about the future of the defense that has more players than we can field but not about the offense that doesnt even have enough players to field a full o line (that we can trust). that's a really confusing position to me.

[verified]

the draft coverage doesn't even bother talking about our picks. thats how bad they are

[aruba1]

upshaw is LISTED as OLB, he IS whatever we need him to be in the moment, much like Suggs and Dumervil.

and when have you ever seen us run a defensive play with 4 Ends and 4 DTs on the field? do you even know what 3-4 means?

 when i listed 4 ends and 4 tackles i meant as depth at the position. in other words we should have 2 left ends on the roster same with RE and DT. obviously they wouldn't be on the field together ever unless its field goal block. 

[jlswartzii]

@verified I don't know what draft coverage you are watching, but ESPN has shown footage on every single one of our players.

[rmcjacket23]

You are reading more into my post.  I never said we had 1 need only.  I will say we have done nothing to fix this O line ion this draft so far.  It is unlikely that we will get a 1st year starter in the 5th to 7th rounds.  I have no problen with drafting for the future, however, this is a "win now league."  The Ravens have pretensions to be a at least a playoff team, if not a Super Bowl contender.  No matter what coaches, owners and GM's say they do have to pay attention to the fans. 

You are right, we haven't. Maybe that was never the intention. The only thing the FO ever said was that they were going to get bigger and better on the interior, and they brought in Zuttah to do that. Frankly, we haven't had a quality RT in years anyway, including the year we won the SB, so I don't think its nearly as big of an issue as fans think.

They may have to pay attention to the fans, but the fans don't tell them what to do or how to build a team, and they definitely don't care about what prospects fans like.

[Ravens07]

youre not done with that question. hypothetical situations do not an answer make. Come back when you dont need to use the word "if."

 

Isn't every draft pick an "if"? We don't know how any of these guys are going to pan out. That's why the Ravens follow the board and get the best possible player. This team didn't win two championships from saying, "okay let's take a receiver here" or "we need a linemen with this pick." If we did that we would've had Phillip Buchanan instead of Ed Reed and Lawrence Phillips instead of Jonathan Ogden.

[Crimson Raven]

On the upside, Lorenzo looks like a very good power back.

[brutt3raven]

youre not done with that question. hypothetical situations do not an answer make. Come back when you dont need to use the word "if." Not to mention if Eric Winston doesnt have a job by now there's a reason for it. You'd think Ravens fans wouldve learned that lesson from Billy Cundiff, Lee Evans, TJ Houshmandzadeh, etc. etc.

Well using that logic the season must start tomorrow and we cant sign any veterans late in the offseason like Corey Graham, Bernard Pollard, Vonte Leach or Ricky WIlliams like we have before

[joekster10@mac.com]

I am befuddled. This draft seems too similar to the 2013 draft. I don't think the Ravens lost games last year because of their D-fense but this draft is not going to make the offense better at all, even down the road. Quite frankly, I am not looking forward to watching a historically bad run offense continue to get 2 yds on what seems like 1/3 if not more of their offensive plays. Add to that, the fact that the Ravens #1 pick's career is full of injuries, I don't have confidence that even the defensive picks will prove to be good for the team. They have done nothing this off-season to convince me that they will be better than last year's 8-8 season. The only saving grace is the soft schedule. Other teams are getting better. Ravens, not so much.

[Moderator 3]

On the upside, Lorenzo looks like a very good power back.

Also good at picking up the blitz and chipping.

[rmcjacket23]

if you cut 2 guys, you still have 8. and just like every other season, the draft will once again occur prior to the start of the next season, and the season after that, and the season after that. Plus, i dont get how you're more concerned about the future of the defense that has more players than we can field but not about the offense that doesnt even have enough players to field a full o line (that we can trust). that's a really confusing position to me.

I'm not concerned about the defense... I just understand what we are doing. We might have eight players, but if 6 of them can't play (and frankly none of them have shown they can so far), then it doesn't matter how many we have.

I think they like Wagner, or a FA that they want to sign. I haven't trusted the Ravens offensive line in well over five years, and we've still managed to do pretty well during that period. Even during a SB season, no realistic fan could say that they felt "confident" in our O-line. We spent the majority of that season with Oher the penalty and turnstile at LT, a natural guard playing RT, and a rotation of mediocre or worse veterans filling LG spots. Heck, we a deep playoff run in the past with Yanda playing RT.

Put it this way... from my perspective, we appear to have four quality offensive line starters. That's about the maximum that any team in this league can ask for. We might be and probably will be weak at one position, but that's been the case with the Ravens offensive line for as long as I can remember.

[Ravens69]

Because while we do consistently rotate players, you can't wait until next season when potentially two of your "starting" three defensive lineman are cut, which is a distinct possibility.

Not to mention the fact that I would expect at least one or two of those players to be released during training camp/preseason. I don't expect Cody to make the team, and who knows, maybe Tyson or Kapron doesn't either. I'd bet on Urban ending up on the practice squad anyway. I think its naive to think we will have 10 defensive lineman dressing on Sundays.

I'm not necessarily advocating that we keep taking DL, but why would we take a RT who we don't think can play? If the FO doesn't think there are any RTs or WRs of value right now, then why on earth would they take one? Just to say that they did?

I think a lot of people are questioning our scouting dept.  We pick the O linemen for the same reason that we have picked the d linemen.  Do you think that a Daktoa Dozier or Cameron Fleming could not make this team or at least the practice squad?  They were both graded higher by many scouts than Brent Urban.

[verified]

ozzies washed up. I'm ready for decosta to take over

[CapoRocky]

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

View the full article

 

Spin it for us, bro.

[RavensFootballFan]

John Harbaugh was just on NFL Network live talking about the draft. Even he said there are "fights", disagreements etc among the FO, coaches and scouts and if it is ok for them to disagree and agree, then it is ok for Ravens fans to disagree and agree. I am not gonna wait till the 175th pick as my body agrees to take a nap after 3 days of research, debating and following the draft non stop. It was fun though and sometimes some pretty funny comments loosens up the day. Thanks all for the fun. Looking forward to training camp.

[CapoRocky]

John Harbaugh was just on NFL Network live talking about the draft. Even he said there are "fights", disagreements etc among the FO, coaches and scouts and if it is ok for them to disagree and agree, then it is ok for Ravens fans to disagree and agree. I am not gonna wait till the 175th pick as my body agrees to take a nap after 3 days of research, debating and following the draft non stop. It was fun though and sometimes some pretty funny comments loosens up the day. Thanks all for the fun. Looking forward to training camp.

 

Take a nap, rook. We'll keep watch while you sleep.  Never quit, never surrender.

[BmoreBirds22]

Love the urban pick 3-4 DE with a lot of upside , length , disruptive and can bat balls . But we already have brandon Williams , Karpon lewis Moore and deangelo Tyson ! Youngsters with upside , now we have Jernigan and urban on top of that plus to solid vets in canty and ngata . So can we keep them all ? Because We're simply wasting talent if we let go of our youngsters with potential by kicking them out for two new ones . However if we can somehow keep Jernigan , urban , Brandon's Williams , deangleo Tyson and Karpon lewis Moore along with ngata and canty ( who could be cut ) then watch out offenses because the youth and talent on that d line is unbelievable plus being able to rotate a lot of guys . So hopefully were stacking on talent along with our already youngsters in brandon Williams , Karpon lewis and Tyson and hopefully were not wasting talent by letting go any of these guys .

[Crimson Raven]

Agree to Disagree. The point is that all of us wants our team to succeed. We want to be champions even though we all have different ideas of getting there. The fact is no one champion does it the same, but are still champions at the end of the day.

[riseNConquer81]

when i listed 4 ends and 4 tackles i meant as depth at the position. in other words we should have 2 left ends on the roster same with RE and DT. obviously they wouldn't be on the field together ever unless its field goal block.

Left end and right end are the same position: End. you dont need 4 of them. and in a 3-4 defense you certainly dont need a 4 deep DT chart. In base 3-4 you might use 2 or 3 DTs on occasion in special sub packages, but more often than not, if we arent on the goal line or blocking a field goal, we'll only be using one.

[CapoRocky]

Love the urban pick 3-4 DE with a lot of upside , length , disruptive and can bat balls . But we already have brandon Williams , Karpon lewis Moore and deangelo Tyson ! Youngsters with upside , now we have Jernigan and urban on top of that plus to solid vets in canty and ngata . So can we keep them all ? Because We're simply wasting talent if we let go of our youngsters with potential by kicking them out for two new ones . However if we can somehow keep Jernigan , urban , Brandon's Williams , deangleo Tyson and Karpon lewis Moore along with ngata and canty ( who could be cut ) then watch out offenses because the youth and talent on that d line is unbelievable plus being able to rotate a lot of guys . So hopefully were stacking on talent along with our already youngsters in brandon Williams , Karpon lewis and Tyson and hopefully were not wasting talent by letting go any of these guys .

 

The pick would have made better since in the 5th or 6th round.  We may have had a better TE, too.  I am happy with Mosley, Jerrigan, and Brooks.  Less than happy with the rest.  It all balances out though.  Urban has a lot of competition and we still need help at OL and WR.