[News] Late For Work 9/2: Ravens Showed Interest In RB Fred Jackson. Why?

[Drew P]

In my opinion they should not go after Jackson. We will be okay once Lorenzo comes back. Now Ozzie should consider interest in signing Tim Jennings because will make our team a whole lot better in the secondary along with Jimmy Smith then we have quality depth like Melvin, Webb, and Arrington behind them so you will be in great shape for injuries. Now you can rotate the corners around so everybody can have playing time like having Jennings during Cover 2 and have Melvin on big Wr man to man coverage. You could also rotate Arrington and Webb as well in the slot so we can be fresh. Ozzie should also consider Trindon Holliday to our team because we need a good kick and punt returner can make plays. Trindon Holliday is one of them and we need this in the playoffs. So hurry up Ozzie because Jennings already visiting the Bucs make at least an interest.

 

Trindon's a runt that fumbles too often, zero value.

[The Mom Gene]

if espn putting flacco at 87 in their top 100 is insulting then the nfl players' poll, that has him at 97, must be a slug in the gut.

It's unacceptable... 

[hen826957]

@Drew P Well, that's the only good quality returner available in the free agent market that I know unless you know somebody else that's better. I wouldn't mind trading for a player like Cordarrelle Patterson from the Vikings if they're willing to trade. We need some kind of good returner on this team.

[Bohica5]

The browns.....Always picking up our slackers.....hahahaha..And if we could ever get Corderrelle Patterson!! He's the toughest player in the NFL right now.....that would be great!!

[rmcjacket23]

@Drew P Well, that's the only good quality returner available in the free agent market that I know unless you know somebody else that's better. I wouldn't mind trading for a player like Cordarrelle Patterson from the Vikings if they're willing to trade. We need some kind of good returner on this team.

Why exactly do we need a good returner? The highest volume kick returners only bring out like two a game, and you're really looking at MAYBE 10 yards a game difference between a high quality returner and an average returner.

 

Punts are even worse... still looking at close to a 50% fair catch rate, and the gap between quality and average punt returners is less than 5 yards per return.

 

ST is one of those things where its nowhere near a requirement to be great at it. You can have a mediocre kicker, punter, and kick returner and easily hoist the Lombardi (we've seen this many, many, many times). With ST, the only thing you can't do is suck at it. 

 

Never been a big fan of wasting a roster spot (we saw how valuable even a single roster spot last season was) on a guy who will mostly just stand in place, catch the ball, and take a knee. I'd much prefer a player who can do that to be somebody who at least offers something else somewhere, even if its only depth.

 

Take a look at the stat board at the types of players who are returning kicks. There's a lot of Darren Sproles, Pacman Jones, Tavon Austin, Ted Ginn, Antonio Brown, Devin Hester, Leodis McKelvin, Jeremy Kerley, Andre Roberts type players on that list. Mostly backup WRs and CBs, who at least offer something of depth, even if its minimal. A lot of these guys are 3rd or 4th WRs on this team.

 

Besides, not really sure what people see in Holliday anyway. Think we are pretending like this is the 2012 playoffs when its really 2015. A lot has changed since then.

[SorryNotSorry]

For what?

Nothing is wrong with Brandon Williams, Jernigan, and Davis as far as i know, and we dont need a 4 man Nose tackle rotation.

Nothing is wrong with any of our defensive linemen... B. Williams is however the only true NT on the 53 man roster. 

[Purple Dawg 96]

Fred Jackson would have been nice! Smh but I like whom we have already!

[Purple&Black]

Hearing buffalo might cut bryce brown (rather brown's brother) as well. Super talented just hasn't found the right system since he was in philly

[Purple&Black]

If Tim jennings doesn't sign in Tampa, I would love if he brought him in.

[The Mom Gene]

Did you'all see this?

 

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/09/02/nfl-joe-flacco-baltimore-ravens

[Halshayeji]

Wow Will Hill 92 PFF. I'm looking for great things from him. I if Campanaro can stay healthy he could be big on third down. They always put Joe down as a bad Quarterback even though he has beat nearly all the quarterbacks that they say are better. According to them he should lose every time when he faces these quarterbacks. What a shame that he gets such little respect.

No shame brother it just makes victory a whole lot sweeter

[Halshayeji]

Why exactly do we need a good returner? The highest volume kick returners only bring out like two a game, and you're really looking at MAYBE 10 yards a game difference between a high quality returner and an average returner.

 

Punts are even worse... still looking at close to a 50% fair catch rate, and the gap between quality and average punt returners is less than 5 yards per return.

 

ST is one of those things where its nowhere near a requirement to be great at it. You can have a mediocre kicker, punter, and kick returner and easily hoist the Lombardi (we've seen this many, many, many times). With ST, the only thing you can't do is suck at it. 

 

Never been a big fan of wasting a roster spot (we saw how valuable even a single roster spot last season was) on a guy who will mostly just stand in place, catch the ball, and take a knee. I'd much prefer a player who can do that to be somebody who at least offers something else somewhere, even if its only depth.

 

Take a look at the stat board at the types of players who are returning kicks. There's a lot of Darren Sproles, Pacman Jones, Tavon Austin, Ted Ginn, Antonio Brown, Devin Hester, Leodis McKelvin, Jeremy Kerley, Andre Roberts type players on that list. Mostly backup WRs and CBs, who at least offer something of depth, even if its minimal. A lot of these guys are 3rd or 4th WRs on this team.

 

Besides, not really sure what people see in Holliday anyway. Think we are pretending like this is the 2012 playoffs when its really 2015. A lot has changed since then.

I agree that it's hard to carry both a designated returner and a long snapper that do nothing else. But you are being a bit too dismissive of a few undeniable facts. 1- in 2012 a Denver returner almost cost us the game. 2- Some can argue the Ravens wouldn't have beaten the niners without jacoby. 3- yards per return are unfair because when Hester was in his prime, he may have only averaged a few more yards per return but every team kicked out of bounds or fly balls to deny him from getting a chance. Punts were shorter and when you take into account all aspects it's not just a few yards. 4- a good returner makes smart decisions that don't count on the stat chart but could drastically affect a game. 5- in a 16 game tough schedule a team has 4-6 or even 8 games where a call here or a play there makes a huge difference. Having a elite returner could be the difference between winning a game or 2. 6- I've seen games where the bears were just horrendous. They would literally have 2 good drives. A few points off turnovers. And 2 nice returns from Hester that led to long field goals and the miserable bears got through.

A solid returner won't help you win a shoot out but can certainly help your cause in a nasty low scoring trench war in the AFC north.

I hope that letting Jacoby go to save 750,000 in cap space doesn't haunt us. I'd normally have Jacobys back but the guy literally dropped more balls than catches for the majority of last season lol.

Bottom line is someone needs to step up real soon or we may have a problem. Harbs takes pride in fielding the best punter, kicker, long snapper, and I'd be shocked if he just goes with a pedestrian returner

[hen826957]

@rmcjacket23 What's up rmcjacket how are you doing :-) but okay let's get to the point. Okay sure you really don't need a good kick returner to win a Super Bowl but having a good returner will make our field positions more easier. If you have Asa Jackson returning kickoffs, he won't give us many good field positions manly make our field positions even worse like the 10 or 15 yard line instead of 20 or more. Most of the time he should always take a knee unless it's some real open holes. In the playoffs, having some sort of a threat at returner is a good idea because you usually always need some sort of a big play like moments to win the Super Bowl.

[dirtybird66]

HEY JUSIN TUCKER,if you see this why don't you just UNDER-INFLATE the ball so it's not as hard on cold day's,ha!ha! and CAMPANARO would be the best returner but HE'S TO VALUABLE AS A RECIEVER,REMIND'S ME OF wes welker.

[Fastynart]

I don't know why it is that the Ravens think so little of a kick returner. A guy like Jacoby Jones is a game changer. Asa Jackson is not. Ok, Jacoby had his faults, but, every time he lined up to receive a kick off, he was a threat. They did the same thing with Jermaine Lewis years ago, poo pooing him because he was "only a third string wide receiver". Are you freakin kidding me? He was the best return man in Ravens history and they let him go too.

[RaRaRavens]

Did you'all see this?

 

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/09/02/nfl-joe-flacco-baltimore-ravens

Thanks for the great read!

 

That really hyped me up for the upcoming season. At the same time, this kind of hype and our ability to live up to it is my biggest concern. This kind of talk about how we are Supe Bowl contenders is probably the main reason I've been vastly disappointed about our pre-season. I KNOW, the games don't count and performances don't matter, but I still hate to see the Ravens losing, and losing so concisely.

Still, in general I agree with King, we have most of the tools to get to the Super Bowl. Our Achilles' heel is still the secondary. IF Smith can stay healthy and eliminate opponents' 1st WR threat for most part and IF someone else at CB position appears capable to at least control 2nd WR to some extent, I believe we'll survive and have hell of a shot at the SB. On the other hand, if Smith goes down (knock on the wood) or rest of the DB group plays below par again, good QB-s will pick this secondary brutally apart, if not during the season then in the playoffs where it matters the most. Just like Brady did. 

 

In conclusion, I believe in our team, yet I try not to get caught up in all the hype just yet. It doesn't help that our 1st game is one of the toughest of our whole season. But I know, that if we'll lose to Denver, I'll be so bummed. Damn how exiting, can't wait.

GO RAVENS!

[rmcjacket23]

I agree that it's hard to carry both a designated returner and a long snapper that do nothing else. But you are being a bit too dismissive of a few undeniable facts. 1- in 2012 a Denver returner almost cost us the game. 2- Some can argue the Ravens wouldn't have beaten the niners without jacoby. 3- yards per return are unfair because when Hester was in his prime, he may have only averaged a few more yards per return but every team kicked out of bounds or fly balls to deny him from getting a chance. Punts were shorter and when you take into account all aspects it's not just a few yards. 4- a good returner makes smart decisions that don't count on the stat chart but could drastically affect a game. 5- in a 16 game tough schedule a team has 4-6 or even 8 games where a call here or a play there makes a huge difference. Having a elite returner could be the difference between winning a game or 2. 6- I've seen games where the bears were just horrendous. They would literally have 2 good drives. A few points off turnovers. And 2 nice returns from Hester that led to long field goals and the miserable bears got through.

A solid returner won't help you win a shoot out but can certainly help your cause in a nasty low scoring trench war in the AFC north.

I hope that letting Jacoby go to save 750,000 in cap space doesn't haunt us. I'd normally have Jacobys back but the guy literally dropped more balls than catches for the majority of last season lol.

Bottom line is someone needs to step up real soon or we may have a problem. Harbs takes pride in fielding the best punter, kicker, long snapper, and I'd be shocked if he just goes with a pedestrian returner

1. I don't care what happened in 2012... that's my point. Where are the examples from even last season where a great returner was integral to our success or even the success of other teams? I just don't see it. Maybe we don't win the SB in 2012 without his SB return, OR, maybe we do. Maybe instead of him running back the kickoff he gets tackled at the 20 and we drive 80 yards for a TD... surely that would have been a realistic possibility correct? That argument never works, because literally every single event changes if you change one big event like that in a game. Impossible to know.

2. Nobody is kicking out of bounds or away from returners anymore. They weren't kicking away from Jacoby in 2012 when he had a great year returning.

In addition, why would I pay a guy significant money to solely stand there and have other teams kick away from him... and where can I even find that player right now? Which returner walking this planet right now warrants that kind of respect and how would we get our hands on him? Again, I don't see one.

3. So basically, from your Bears example, a great returner is extremely valuable when your offense is struggling. If we are returning a kick when we are already up by 20, it doesn't really mean much in the long run. So how about we take the money we would spend on a returner to stand there and take a knee and invest that money in, o I don't know, the OFFENSE?

4. Would you consider Jacoby a great kick returner? If so, you do realize that he notoriously is known for, at best, questionable decision making on some of his returns right? I mean for half of the 2013 season, he was consistently bringing kickoffs out from 7 yards deep and getting dropped at the 15 yard line, a net loss of 5 yards. Ask anybody on these boards who watches games, and they'll remember numerous times screaming at Jacoby to take a knee when he doesn't.

Great kick returners who make smart decisions typically make the more conservative decision, meaning giving up possible yardage as a tradeoff for ball security, which is the most important aspect of ST in my opinion.

[January J]

Why exactly do we need a good returner? The highest volume kick returners only bring out like two a game, and you're really looking at MAYBE 10 yards a game difference between a high quality returner and an average returner.

Punts are even worse... still looking at close to a 50% fair catch rate, and the gap between quality and average punt returners is less than 5 yards per return.

ST is one of those things where its nowhere near a requirement to be great at it. You can have a mediocre kicker, punter, and kick returner and easily hoist the Lombardi (we've seen this many, many, many times). With ST, the only thing you can't do is suck at it.

Never been a big fan of wasting a roster spot (we saw how valuable even a single roster spot last season was) on a guy who will mostly just stand in place, catch the ball, and take a knee. I'd much prefer a player who can do that to be somebody who at least offers something else somewhere, even if its only depth.

Take a look at the stat board at the types of players who are returning kicks. There's a lot of Darren Sproles, Pacman Jones, Tavon Austin, Ted Ginn, Antonio Brown, Devin Hester, Leodis McKelvin, Jeremy Kerley, Andre Roberts type players on that list. Mostly backup WRs and CBs, who at least offer something of depth, even if its minimal. A lot of these guys are 3rd or 4th WRs on this team.

Besides, not really sure what people see in Holliday anyway. Think we are pretending like this is the 2012 playoffs when its really 2015. A lot has changed since then.

have you not been watching any of our preseason games so far? Your right, basically you just have to have guys that don't suck, but guess what? From what I've seen all of our options pretty much do suck. Yeah they won't get many oppurtunities with touch backs and fair catches... But you have to be Able to Atleast catch the ball first. You also have to know when to call a fair catch. Muffing the ball as a KR or PR before even catching it and giving the ball back to the other team with that feild position is completely unacceptable and can easily cost you a game. I for one am not looking forward to being uncomfortable every time I think we are about to get the ball back and have to worry about them even catching the ball cleanly. We've seen Atleast 5 drops so far and they were all from diffrent candidates. Now by no means do I think Holliday is the answer either, but we have to do SOMETHING. Unless we just put SSS or Webb back there to fair catch the ball everytime. That seriously may be what we have to do.

[rmcjacket23]

have you not been watching any of our preseason games so far? Your right, basically you just have to have guys that don't suck, but guess what? From what I've seen all of our options pretty much do suck. Yeah they won't get many oppurtunities with touch backs and fair catches... But you have to be Able to Atleast catch the ball first. You also have to know when to call a fair catch. Muffing the ball as a KR or PR before even catching it and giving the ball back to the other team with that feild position is completely unacceptable and can easily cost you a game. I for one am not looking forward to being uncomfortable every time I think we are about to get the ball back and have to worry about them even catching the ball cleanly. We've seen Atleast 5 drops so far and they were all from diffrent candidates. Now by no means do I think Holliday is the answer either, but we have to do SOMETHING. Unless we just put SSS or Webb back there to fair catch the ball everytime. That seriously may be what we have to do.

Cool, I'm fine with that. 

 

If our goal is to catch the ball and signal fair catch, put SSS or Webb back there. The Patriots do the same thing with Edelman, and we alone have done the same thing in the past with Ed Reed.

 

I worried a lot more about Jacoby when he was fielding punts and kicks than I did when Ed Reed was doing it, and Jacoby is an actual kick returner.