[News] Eisenberg: Who Says Either Marshal Yanda Or Kelechi Osemele Must Go?

[Bruce_Almty]

Like perriman replacing torrey?

 

Players waiting in the wings are: Aiken, Brown, Butler, Camp. Perriman is a bonus baby.

[harfordravenfan]

Players waiting in the wings are: Aiken, Brown, Butler, Camp. Perriman is a bonus baby.

Agreed, was just messing with Sami knowing her opinion of our first round pick lol

[January J]

Players waiting in the wings are: Aiken, Brown, Butler, Camp. Perriman is a bonus baby.

yeah but ofcourse those guys wouldn't have been Torrey's direct replacement... Perriman was drafted to fill that void of a deep threat to stretch the feild.

[757RavensFan]

With Urschel waiting in the wing, unfortunately one will go. Unless the Ravens can get some kind of home team discount. That will be next year's problem, we have them both this year so lets concentrate on winning SB 50.

 

I honestly see Urschel as our next center, replacing Zuttah after this season. 

Edited July 26, 2015 by 757RavensFan

[TheFact00]

it would be great if we could keep the both! we had to let players go that Baltimore Loves i hate to see these to Monsters go. Even more so now J.Flacco has a pretty good O-Line core.

[AsianRice]

If we have to restructure or cut some players to retain Osemele, we have to do it; nothing more important than keeping top 2 O-line in the league in tact. Tired of watching Joe getting hit, chase, and knocked off.......

[Postapocalypse Raven]

"The Ravens always find a way to keep ‘ascending’ players"

 

McPhee, Ellerbe, Torrey... just to name a few.

 

No NFL organization can retain ALL of their ascending young talents. That's how the cap system works.

Here's how I interpreted the quote. I don't think John literally meant "always." In this case always means routinely, or regularly. It wasn't meant to imply that we "always" find ways to keep ALL of our ascending players because it is clearly obvious that that isn't possible. 

Edited July 26, 2015 by Postapocalypse Raven

[ellicottraven]

"Who says either Yanda or Osemele must go"? Seriously John? You (media) guys planted that seed in our head given the salary cap situation. Believe me, the fans would like to keep every great and potential player on the roster permanently playing for the Ravens!

[NeilfromBarbados]

One thing that I know is that the media know about the same as me and every other casual contributor to this board. EllicottRaven is correct... the media told us that the Ravens COULD NOT/WOULD NOT keep both Yanda and KO. Now here we go with Eisenberg slipping, sliding, zigging and zagging about how we can keep both. In Ozzie we trust! We let plenty of great players go: Boldin, Vonta, Reed, and plenty more. So if KO or Yanda leave the stable, I'm sure a great replacement is a-coming.

[hen826957]

If Joe extend his contract, release Zuttah next season to free some room, put a younger and cheaper Urcshal at center, and maybe a little help from Monroe to reduce his contract we could have a chance to keep both Yanda and K.O. So it would be Monroe LT, K.O. LG, Urschal C, Yanda RG and Wagner RT as our starting offensive line next season. :-)

[boldtown]

realist time. the nfl is a business and the players are a part of that. top players know who they are. especailly now. with all the media harping and making stories of whos and wheres. in todays game trying to get a top player to spend their career in one place is increasingly rare. i just hope the ravens can atleast keep one.

[rmcjacket23]

From what I see, there's a couple things going against the "key them both" theory...

 

1. Having the cap space in 2016 to afford both is frankly the easy part. What fans rarely consider is whether we can afford them in 2017, 2018, etc., because if you can't afford them then, you can't afford them now.

 

2. Just because we can afford them doesn't mean we WILL afford them. We had the cap space to keep Torrey... we didn't. We had the space to keep Ngata... we didn't. The reality is that the FO may not feel that KO is a $7-8M a year player. Given our success at drafting and developing interior lineman, it seems somewhat counter-productive to have a couple of guards taking up 10% of our cap space.

 

I think we as fans are focused too much on the "affordability" aspect of this and not focused enough on the "value" aspect.

[StrongSideRavens]

Let's not forget how important the Center position is for a stable offensive line i.e Matt Birk to Gino Gradkowski and this was using the same system a year removed from a superbowl with Jim Caldwell. No doubt we have amazing guards but we can't just pull another mistake like we did when we gave Gradkowski the keys to the car.

[J.O.14]

"The Ravens always find a way to keep ‘ascending’ players"

McPhee, Ellerbe, Torrey... just to name a few.

No NFL organization can retain ALL of their ascending young talents. That's how the cap system works.

IMO McPhee is the only "ascending" player there. I get what John means. Those are replacable players. Jimmy Smith, Flacco, Justin Tucker, those are ascending and not really replacable as the others. CJ Mosley, B. Williams, Jernigan, those are gonna be players we try to keep.

[Moderator 3]

We also need to remember that one (or both) may actually want to change teams. We've seen it before where a player wants to move to another part of the country to either be closer to "home" or for a different climate or culture.

[Corvus]

Let's not forget how important the Center position is for a stable offensive line i.e Matt Birk to Gino Gradkowski and this was using the same system a year removed from a superbowl with Jim Caldwell. No doubt we have amazing guards but we can't just pull another mistake like we did when we gave Gradkowski the keys to the car.

 

To be fair, our entire line was below average in 2013, not just Gradkowski.

 

That said, we are set at center for at least 3 more years. Zuttah got that extension after the team traded for him and while he was overshadowed by Yanda, Osemele, and Wagner before he got hurt, he was certainly no slouch last year either. Urschel showed he is capable of being a good center as well during the offseason and he certainly has the mental acumen the position demands.

[law215]

Watching NFL Game rewind vs Steelers and its clear that Yanda and KO dominated the Steelers line. I know it will come down to how much of the cap Ravens want to allocate to O-line and market price, but KO is young and dominant while Yanda is dominant and can kick out to RT. Hopefully a guy like Myers can step up too.

[ALSKAN RAVEN FAN]

We also need to remember that one (or both) may actually want to change teams. We've seen it before where a player wants to move to another part of the country to either be closer to "home" or for a different climate or culture.

I hope both Yanda and K.O. don't feel that way but good point.

[Quiet Man]

I would love to see us keep them both and agree that O-line is a major key to winning, but I doubt that we will. We didn't keep Ben Grubbs when he played here with Yanda and we have young guys that have shown they are ready to go.

[Postapocalypse Raven]

This is nothing more than a game of musical chairs. Yanda vs KO, and one chair. Which one wants the chair the most?

[smolina2o1]

Idk what I dislike more, grooming an "ascending" player and letting them go bcuz we can't afford them or losing a veteran that is completely respected by any real Raven fan. Its tough to imagine our offensive line without Yanda, but I thought the same about our secondary and our d-line after Ed Reed and Ngata left. In the end the one true consistency about this great Ravens organization is that they do all they possibly can for the players they absolutely know they wanna keep around and if they can't, Ozzie and the rest of the front office will do everything in their power to make sure the rest of our team can step up and be prepared to endure whatever loss we may come across. Maybe not right away when we freak out about hearing someone got released or traded for a low draft pick, but eventually things get back to being normal and we always bounce back. Thats honestly the most important reason why I love this team. #resiliency #letsgoRavens #keepKOandYanda

[RavenManiac#7]

I know how difficult it will be, but nothing would please me more than to somehow be able to keep Yanda And Osemele here where they belong. Having the best guard tandom in the league for years to come would be a tremendous strength that Any team in the NFL would love to have. Just ask Joe if he'd like to have both of them guys blocking for him, protecting him. Then ask Justin Forsett how much he would love to have both those guys opening holes for him to run through. It may be considered a luxury by some, but it's one that would help the Ravens tremendously. Joe, you could, actually, help make it happen. With your restructure, try to put in the caveat that Ozzie, with the money you help provide to him, go All out to make Both of these guys happy financially and. also, Ravens. Somehow find a way, Ozzie. If you want it bad enough, you can always find a way.Don't forget, you're the Great and Powerful Oz!

[roamingcharges]

I said this same thing in a posting a few weeks ago. I guess it's better then second... or 100th time. The Ravens will be foolish not to try to keep Osemele simply because they will be paying Yanda. Having one great Offensive Lineman and 4 average guys is like having 5 average guys because teams will dedicate a "goon" to take up that one stud and then run roughshod over the feckless bunch. You gotta be strong on the interior so that your QB can step into throws.

[rmcjacket23]

I said this same thing in a posting a few weeks ago. I guess it's better then second... or 100th time. The Ravens will be foolish not to try to keep Osemele simply because they will be paying Yanda. Having one great Offensive Lineman and 4 average guys is like having 5 average guys because teams will dedicate a "goon" to take up that one stud and then run roughshod over the feckless bunch. You gotta be strong on the interior so that your QB can step into throws.

You're right, you do.

 

The only major question is whether you're willing to pay $15M a year to be strong on the interior. In particular, whether a team who has a history of drafting and developing mid-round players into quality starting O-lineman should be paying market value to TWO players at a position where they could probably get very good production out of somebody making peanuts for at least 3-4 years.

 

That's the question. Affordability, at least in the short-term, is probably the easy part.

[FLBoyRaven]

Osemele is key to our success, the kids a beast and has many yrs of football left. We will find a way trust me Kelechi is no Ben Grubbs.

[Postapocalypse Raven]

This is nothing more than a game of musical chairs. Yanda vs KO, and one chair. Which one wants the chair the most?

Get ready... The music is about to stop!!!

[vannlambert]

By the time the season is over they might be able to get rid of some of the deadweight to make room for Yanda's contract. I would not worry at this point.

[alexbayrobin]

I know I'm late. been away. marshal is one of my favorite players. He embodies what it means to play like a Raven and is one of the many reasons I chose the Ravens as my team to follow and root for.