[News] Late For Work 1/4: 10 Big Questions For Ravens Offseason

[BR News]

Flacco’s contract and rehab? Who will be the LT? Franchise tag on Tucker? Cap casualties? Draft targets?

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[HomeoftheBRAVENS]

Eugene will be our left tackle.IMO,it would be a huge shock if we cut him.

Edited January 4, 2016 by HomeoftheBRAVENS

[stixfix69]

Doubt we cut him, i think if Monroe passes his physical we will find a trading partner with a lot of teams in need of a LT.....He stays if KO leaves for more money and we will be forced to draft a top LT....So much will ride on the FA period....We also will really need to address the ILBer position....JMO....

[Waka Flocka Flacco]

Ravens 2016 Draft:

1st - DE Bosa, LT Tunsil, LT Stanley.

2nd - WR Tyler Boyd

[Purple Hazard]

I think Monroes future depends on what happens with Osemele. I'm not sure about Upshaw but if there is a Team throwing big time money at him he is gone. If not we should try to keep him. Don't know if we can get a top CB with the 6th pick. Chargers and Jax are in need of a corner as well and they are ahead of us. Maybe we go for an OLB. But we will have to wait and see. Things change a lot til draft day and there is a long time left until the combine.

[MadStorkSociety]

Cap Casualties - I don't think letting Daryl Smith go is a wise move.

[bioLarzen]

Another interesting question position-wise for the offseason is the on ly position where we seem to have surplus: RB. If both Forsett and Taliaferro come back, we will have 5 RB's on roster. And while releasing Magee (and then maybe bringing him back on the PS) seems an easy decision to make, we'll still have 3 very good RB's..

And this is, of course, a blessing - especially if none of them go down with in jury during the season...

[bioLarzen]

Ravens 2016 Draft: 1st - DE Bosa, LT Tunsil, LT Stanley. 2nd - WR Tyler Boyd

 

While any time this side of the combine is way too early for serious mock drafts and projections, right now it seems, for any intents and purposes, impossible that Bosa will still be on the board at #6 - and also, draftniks seem to agree that the Titans will take him at #1 - which would automatically rule out any trades up to get him (no way Ozzie would trade up to the top spot... and rightly so).

 

But it's really way too early.

[bioLarzen]

I think Monroes future depends on what happens with Osemele.

 

What I don't see is how the +2M cap space freed up by cutting Monroe would substantially improve our chances to retain KO. He'll easily out of our price range even then...

[stixfix69]

D.Smith will stay as he has been reliable, and will need to groom his replacement....Plus Harbs likes and respects his leadership....He is a warrior...

[rmcjacket23]

What I don't see is how the +2M cap space freed up by cutting Monroe would substantially improve our chances to retain KO. He'll easily out of our price range even then...

Well, in theory, you can easily structure a deal so that KO's 2016 cap hit is maybe $4-5M, so that $2.1M in cap savings would represent a significant portion of that. Monroe's deal alone in the first year was a $3.2M cap hit, and I'd suspect KO's deal wouldn't be significantly more than his, and may even be less.

 

I don't think you cut Monroe until AFTER you sign KO, but if we do sign KO, I see no possible scenario where they are both retained. I highly doubt the franchise resigns KO to keep him at Guard long term. If they resign him... he's the franchise LT.

[stixfix69]

They can back load KO's deal like they did Flacco, and restructure down the road for him...

[ravensdfan]

They can back load KO's deal like they did Flacco, and restructure down the road for him...

As we saw with Ngata, that doesn't always come to fruition.

[rmcjacket23]

They can back load KO's deal like they did Flacco, and restructure down the road for him...

Not something you want to make a habit out of... he's not the kind of player you make a special contract for.

[salamander]

Hope that every one of our players with a major injury and a long road of intensive rehab ahead of them are able to come back healthy, strong and ready to do their part (along with new additions to the team), to reclaim our position as a top tier team who can compete and win against any opponent. Need injured guys back healthy and ready to roll.

Edited January 4, 2016 by salamander

[bioLarzen]

Also, I seriously hope the prelimoinary talks between Ozzie (or Pat Moriarty) and Joe Linta have already begun in some form or other. The Flacco restructure doesn't only need to be done - it must be done ASAP, as most other moves depend on the cap space freed up... What makes it complicated is assessing NOW or in the near future if the injury has any lasting effects that would affect Flacco's play. Joe got injured the worst possible time... It may be eantirely too early to assess the extent of his healing when free agency opens - but the deal should be hammered out by then...

 

Also, while just about everybody takes it kind of granted that the deal gets done eventually - and they are probably/hopefully right - I don't think it's a foregone conclusion at all. What if the decide to stay pat? You know, the dreaded "business side" of football. He's not a feree agent, so he can't be tagged, therefoire, if they decide to stand pat - or aren't satisfied with the offer, the Ravens will have two options: 1.) cut him; 2.) swallow the 28M cap figure. I don't see a scebario in this universe where the Ravens would let Flacco walk, so it would probably be the second option. That would not be completely logical for Flacco either - as he knows damn well that putting the finger press on the Ravens cap-situation-wise would also hurt his own case, as there would be much less cap space left to improve his range of targets - but I don't think this scenario can be swept aside entirely...

[bioLarzen]

They can back load KO's deal like they did Flacco, and restructure down the road for him...

 

Which would work remarkably - until a team with much more free cap space offered him a much better, and front-loaded deal... Which will be about 5 minutes into free agency I guess...

[surfdude]

My 2 cents: Joe's deal should be 17 annually. Do whatever it takes to re sign KO and Upshaw. Find a durable FAST offensive play maker with an NFL resume. Like an Tevon Austin. Draft the kid from Florida Hargreavess. The kid is legit and will be a star. 2nd round a WR.

[ellicottraven]

I would try to move on from K.O and lower expectations. Not because K.O isn't a great fit and awesome player, but simply because we can't afford a bidding war for his services. I believe our best option for next year is to hope that Monroe is motivated and healthy to play a full 16 games. Add a serviceable LT through free agency and a franchise DE or DB in the first round. That would be the optimal solution when you factor in cap space availability and personnel.

[baltimore1975]

I'm not sure what moves will be made this offseason, but one thing for sure is Joe Flacco is more valuable to this team a lot more than what I thought. After watching how we played without him this year I'm so much more appreciative of his skills now. I'm sure the Cowboys fans would say the same about Romo.

[stixfix69]

The key for any player is the guaranteed money, if KO is offered a nice guarantee, my feeling he would sign, plus he would be assured the LT spot which he wants to play....Teams know him as a LG...We will know in March when the FA period opens up....Until then everyone will be playing GM...

[utalkingtome123]

I agree with a lot of things everybody is saying on here. Ravens need playmakers,ball hawks and youth. Another corner, receiver, pass rusher that compliments zadarius and adding to our o-line. Another reach for me though that we don't have to do this yr but I would like is to see us get a speedback

[757RavensFan]

 

 

With 5,749 total yards in 2015, #Ravens finished just 90 yards shy of breaking the single-season team record (5,838 in 2014).

 

To put up these numbers with FOUR different starting QB's, Trestman definitely WASN'T the problem this year. 

He did a GREAT job w/ what he had to work with.  

[Winchester]

Cap Casualties - I don't think letting Daryl Smith go is a wise move.

He will be like 34!! So do you prefer to just keep playing him til he proves he is not NFL caliber. That is not wise because you created a liability. He is to slow and useless in coverage. Next year he will be even slower.

[bioLarzen]

Well, in theory, you can easily structure a deal so that KO's 2016 cap hit is maybe $4-5M, so that $2.1M in cap savings would represent a significant portion of that. Monroe's deal alone in the first year was a $3.2M cap hit, and I'd suspect KO's deal wouldn't be significantly more than his, and may even be less.

 

I don't think you cut Monroe until AFTER you sign KO, but if we do sign KO, I see no possible scenario where they are both retained. I highly doubt the franchise resigns KO to keep him at Guard long term. If they resign him... he's the franchise LT.

 

Well, I see the theoretical possibility there - but, as I've said a couple of comments ago, this would probably work until another organization offers him a deal that contains more money in a player-freindlier distribution - which won't take long to arrive.

[sami]

as far as how many yards we put up goes, yards matters not, points matter. I'm not saying this as a knock against Trestman. He did pretty good. Hopefully we can set a record for points next year.

[rmcjacket23]

Well, I see the theoretical possibility there - but, as I've said a couple of comments ago, this would probably work until another organization offers him a deal that contains more money in a player-freindlier distribution - which won't take long to arrive.

Right, but the scenario I presented is about as beneficial for the PLAYER as it gets. The only way you structure a deal like that effectively is with a large signing bonus.

 

Recognize that, although his cap hit was only $3.2M in 2014, Monroe himself made $12M that year. He got paid an $11M signing bonus and a small base salary, which is exactly what other teams would do. Same thing with Joe's original deal... had like a $7M cap hit in year 1 (2013), though he actually pocketed $30M that season.

 

If we were to be outbid by another team in this regard, it would be because another is offering more guaranteed money over the life of the deal and/or they offered more money up front, in the form of a signing bonus. If our objective is to lower the cap hit in the initial year, we can pretty much compete with anybody from a signing bonus perspective. Its just a matter of how much guaranteed money we will give him.

[cobrajet]

Yeah, Ozzie has some work to do, but we have to trust that he can get it done!

[BallSoHard808]

This is kind of weird ESPN says that the Ravens had the second best defense he second half of the season, wow that is surprising there is still a lot more work that needs to be done and for sure this team is going to be a contender next season go Ravens!

[RavensBaltimore]

Which would work remarkably - until a team with much more free cap space offered him a much better, and front-loaded deal... Which will be about 5 minutes into free agency I guess...

That's not how it works. Players usually don't care if a deal is backloaded or frontloaded, as long as they get guaranteed money.  As far as I know, the most common way to backload a deal is to give a signing bonus and spread the cap hit out, so the player still gets his money upfront. It's the cap hit that's backloaded, not the actual payout to the player. The real issue with that is that you could be creating future cap issues by backloading too many deals.