[News] Late For Work 6/3: Clues This May Be Steve Smith's Final Season

[Gorgee3]

If it's SSS last season I hope we win the Super Bowl. It's his time as well as a few others on the team.

[sami]

The Titans have agreed to terms with TE Phillip Supernaw.....Jim Wyatt makes it sounds like Supernaw was a hold out. lol I wish him all the best and will keep an eye on his career.

[harfordravenfan]

i hope we win SB for SSS & D. smith.

Gotta be the best way to leave after such great careers

[EvilWayz]

Looks like Cleveland is so desperate for players, they are signing 9 year olds. Just playin must have been a good day for that kid.

In all seriousness though, Steve Smith Sr. is probably planning retirement, so what if he is. I don't know why some people like to make a big deal about players retiring or not liking the contract offered by their current team and leaving for another, why? It happens every season guys either get traded, they retire, become free agents, or leave for bigger contracts elsewhere. What Steve Smith has done here for us has been great and will not be forgotten, but if he choose to retire I can respect that. Nobody expects a player to play forever in this league. As messed up as it is to lose a guy of that caliber you have to except the fact that its going to happen sooner or later. You just have to find someone else to fill that void and sometimes it may take two people to do what the other guy did in certain situations. So I say Steve Smith Sr. thanks for your dedication and commitment to this team. Have a great season.

I don't think Matt Shaub arm is done. I think we chose the best backup QB available. If Joe goes for whatever reason, I would feel comfortable with Shaub stepping a lot better than some of these other guys out there. The Houston Texans needed someone to blame for their struggles, unfortunately he was part of that. Lets not forget that he did have some success with Houston, hell they gave us a run for our money a few times. The QB gets the glory when a team wins and all the blame when a team looses. So I'm not worried about Shaub one bit, plus our Baltimore Ravens know how make guys better. Lets remember, ED Reed, one of, if not the best Strong Safety in football, also didn't have any success in Houston either. Just a thought.

[steelcityraven]

I see us bringing in another veteran WR at some point. We have a ton of talent currently at WR but one of our 2 starters is 36 and the other is a rookie. If one of those two would go down to an injury- it could be a serious blow to our offense (much like our CB situation last year). With $7.33 million in cap space... I really see us making a move to bring somebody in! I think that Marlon could step up in a situation. I think that Kamar could also but we are two deep everywhere this year... I just don't see Ozzie and company rolling the dice here! I think we bring in a veteran WR before camp starts!

[rmcjacket23]

I will say... I think the Panthers did a good job with the structure of that Newton deal. It has a lower cap hit in year 1, but from year 2 through year 5, the cap hits never fluctuate more than about $4-5M in any given year. He's basically right around that $19-$23M cap hit range for most of his contract terms. I think the Ravens should attempt to do something similar with Flacco's next extension. Trying to "straight-line" his contract seems to be a lot easier to deal with in the long run, and it can be done while still allowing Joe to get more money up front. Just don't think having these $10M jumps in cap hits year over year is long-term sustainable, and I think the FO realizes this now.

[reed20fence]

I will say... I think the Panthers did a good job with the structure of that Newton deal. It has a lower cap hit in year 1, but from year 2 through year 5, the cap hits never fluctuate more than about $4-5M in any given year. He's basically right around that $19-$23M cap hit range for most of his contract terms. I think the Ravens should attempt to do something similar with Flacco's next extension. Trying to "straight-line" his contract seems to be a lot easier to deal with in the long run, and it can be done while still allowing Joe to get more money up front. Just don't think having these $10M jumps in cap hits year over year is long-term sustainable, and I think the FO realizes this now.

This would be really nice. There's just something about back-loaded deals for players that everyone knows are franchise guys that doesn't make sense. Give him something like an added $3.5mm signing bonus for extending til he's 35 and use the 20mm baseline for every year. That'd bring the existing guaranteed signing bonus money to ~6.5mm, keep the injury guarantees for 4.75mm and pay the rest as salary til you get 20mm a year.  

Atleast this way your year-over-year roster planning gains some stability.

[rmcjacket23]

This would be really nice. There's just something about back-loaded deals for players that everyone knows are franchise guys that doesn't make sense. Give him something like an added $3.5mm signing bonus for extending til he's 35 and use the 20mm baseline for every year. That'd bring the existing guaranteed signing bonus money to ~6.5mm, keep the injury guarantees for 4.75mm and pay the rest as salary til you get 20mm a year.  

Atleast this way your year-over-year roster planning gains some stability.

I have no issue with larger signing bonuses. Something in the $25-30M range is perfectly fine. I had no issue with the $29M signing bonus they gave him to begin with, and really didn't a have a problem with the $1M base salary in year 1, because that's pretty standard.

 

The two "problems" I had with the deal were:

 

1. They did another $15M option bonus in year 2 and a $7M option bonus in year 3. Would like to see that significantly smaller or non-existent. I get why you MIGHT consider doing that as a hedge in case he was completely awful for like 2-3 years, or if there were some questions about him as a the long-term option for the franchise (sort of like an Andy Dalton scenario), but there were none of those when Flacco signed.

2. The base salaries in year 2 and 3 (2014/2015) are just far too low. He had a $6M salary in 2014 and will have a $4M salary this season. I'd much rather see those up in the $10-15M range at the minimum, so that you don't have ballooned salaries in the $20M range later in the contract (which they do the last two years).

 

Ideally, I would have removed all or most of those year 2 and 3 option bonuses and just elevated his base salaries, particularly in those years. He would get largely the same amount of money, and the cap hit would help flatten out over the last five years of the deal.

 

Though he's made plenty the last two years, Joe himself is only making $11M this season, by far the lowest amount he will make in any season under his contract. I just don't think that works with big contracts like these in the long run. I fully expect the Ravens to take a bit of a different approach in terms of his cap impact on his next extension. Fans might not like it as much, because you'll probably seem him hovering around the $20M per season cap hit range, which we haven't ever seen, but I think its a far more realistic and effective approach in the long run.

[jrock6587]

Steve Sr. deserves to go out a winner. I believe he will this year and if he decides to retire he can rest assured that the young receivers got a lesson that money couldn't buy.

The Ravens have been fortunate having someone like Steve Senior. Let's not forget another great receiver who came here and gave us his all, I'm speaking of Derrick Mason. GOD Bless You"Mase" and you too Senior. Thanks for being Ravens.

[Amesr52]

Steve Smith reminds so much of Derrick mason. I have a feeling he's done after this year so I hope the 2nd 3rd and 4th wide outs this year can prove that they can be relied on next season. I wanna see us take a defensive approach next year to the draft. Might see us draft a guard first Rd though if Yana or osemele end up leaving. But Id like to see us follow our winning strategy of defense defense defense.

[Mr.Incredible]

I hope we can get SSS his first sb, he deservers it. If this is his last year I hope we can give him the Ray Lewis special and he can ride off into the sunset waiving his sb ring in the air!

[RAVENSNAYSHUN]

Who's still questioning Flacco's contract?

[WNC-Raven]

Please cut Schaub after ota's and quit making excuses for him please.........the guy.....is DONE!! and was Done last year...........I don't mind bringing him in for ota's but to keep him would be an Unbelievable mistake,he is unqualified to continue in the nfl as a qb......

There is more to being a veteran backup with extensive first hand knowledge of Kub's system than just holding a clipboard

[bmoreNgatay]

Jacoby looks so sad.

[gtalk12]

Steve Smith is my favorite WR of all time. It would be a great send off to him if we won another superbowl after an AMAZING career considering his injuries in the past.

 

I can only hope we get him one.

 

January Joe for President

[mettro79]

At what point do we move on from Joe's contract?

[Grapple Raven]

Despite the division rivalry, and our history with Cleveland, I'll suspend that for this one day, as that was a first class act the Browns did for 9 yr. old Dylan Sutcliff today.  What a heart warming story...great read! The look on that child's face was priceless! (See the photos through the story link).

[Bat-mite]

Glad to see Carolina giving Newton so much of their cap. Wish other teams would do that. Maybe Washington will give RGIII twice that amount. And Big Ben? I'd like to see him get about $50 million a year.

[hen826957]

I wish Jacoby could've stay but it is a business. I'm sure he will retire a Raven.

[FloridalovesRavens]

There will never be another Jacoby. He will be missed. I hope he does well for himself ( except against us).

[Space11jams]

i hope he comes back and retire as a raven....good luck JJ12

[Bohica5]

There is more to being a veteran backup with extensive first hand knowledge of Kub's system than just holding a clipboard

Handing out towels in the shower is about all i could come up with.......and kubiak was like here for 10-15 minutes them BAM.......Gone.....