[News] Late For Work 3/11: Did Kelechi Osemele Question Ravens' Appreciation Of Offensive Line?

[bioLarzen]

Bad choice of words from Osemele. Baltimore made him a great offer but knew other teams with mega bucks would likely nab him out from under us. Ravens certainly do value the offensive line but can't and won't over pay.

He's a veteran long years in the league. He must know that whatever he says or writes will be quoted, retweeted and analyzed. If it was "bad choice of words", it's on him.

Also, he doesn't seem to be in haste to correct it or clear it up... makes one wonder if it's really only unfortunate phrasing...

But really - hes no longer a Raven, so it's not our problem now.

[bioLarzen]

1 hour ago, billiejean said:

1 hour ago, WNC-Raven said:

Sounds like sour grapes to me. I think he felt offended that we didint offer him what he wanted. After we signed Yanda last year he should have seen the writing on the wall. Most players are only in it to make as much money as they can while they can. A few select players around the league find a home and love their teams. We broke NGata's heart by trading him away while people like Kruger or KO could really care less where they play. Good luck to KO while he kills time in OAK before moving on to the next place in a few years. Money is great but time and memories are more valuable.

broke Ngatas heart? Where did you read that. If it broke his heart so much, he would have restructured his contract to stay with the team. The reason we traded him was because he was not willing to negotiate.

http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl-news/4634976-report-haloti-ngata-could-be-cut-if-he-doesnt-restructure-his-contract-ravens-oregon

Yeah... broke poor Haloti's heart... LOL.

In retrospect, trading Ngata's huge cap figure was one of Ozzie's best moves the past couple of years. Brandon Williams makes him a pleasant memory and nothing more.

Edited March 11, 2016 by bioLarzen

[January J]

So are the comp picks tradeable this year or not? I thought it was confirmed this would be implemented NEXT year. That comment was either misleading or I read it wrong.

[ALI624]

3 minutes ago, January J said:

So are the comp picks tradeable this year or not? I thought it was confirmed this would be implemented NEXT year. That comment was either misleading or I read it wrong.

Next year.

[January J]

1 minute ago, ALI624 said:

Next year.

So he mis- spoke Or do you Think it was implied?

[ALI624]

3 minutes ago, January J said:

So he mis- spoke Or do you Think it was implied?

Maybe or they changed their minds and will have them tradable this year that would be awesome.

[ravens4life86]

KO...probably upset because Yanda got paid, so he couldnt. Then Ravens reportedly offer him a contract in 8mil per range and he goes and takes 11mil per from Raiders.

So KO just popping off falsehoods..to make himself feel good

[steelcityraven]

Whatever... KO had a chance to stay here for less money and be part of a top notch organization who always competes, or chase the money and go to an organization that has been a bottom dweller in recent years. He chased the money (and who can blame him?) and will get just that... money... KO will not be rewarded with another super bowl ring (not in Oakland) and they do have a lot of young talent... but time and again have shown that they do not know how to win out there. The choice for KO really was go for the money or go for the championships... He will get his money!

[b93333]

Sounds like KO already fits in well with this a bad Oakland organization.

[WNC-Raven]

  3 hours ago, WNC-Raven said:

Sounds like sour grapes to me. I think he felt offended that we didint offer him what he wanted. After we signed Yanda last year he should have seen the writing on the wall. Most players are only in it to make as much money as they can while they can. A few select players around the league find a home and love their teams. We broke NGata's heart by trading him away while people like Kruger or KO could really care less where they play. Good luck to KO while he kills time in OAK before moving on to the next place in a few years. Money is great but time and memories are more valuable.

broke Ngatas heart? Where did you read that. If it broke his heart so much, he would have restructured his contract to stay with the team. The reason we traded him was because he was not willing to negotiate.

http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl-news/4634976-report-haloti-ngata-could-be-cut-if-he-doesnt-restructure-his-contract-ravens-oregon

Take a breath. It was just a comment. I have always thought Ngata loved being in Baltimore selling chicken, hanging with Suggs, being comfortable at castle and M&T like owning the school your senior year. He was a big part of our team and community and even though he was being stubborn with his contracts I dont think he saw the trade coming. I guess I should have said that I dont think he or his teammates thought he would be sent packing because I thought he felt like this was home. I DO think we made the right move by trading him. I just think some players care and some dont. So my looong winded point is that I dont think KO cared about the Ravens so we should just let it go.

[bioLarzen]

With only 3 comp picks awarded (as expected), but no 3rd rounder amongst them, so only 3 picks in the first 3 rounds, I think the chances of Ozzie trading down in the 1st round has just became bigger...

[hen826957]

@bioLarzen then it will be a big mistake. Everytime we trade down we usually have a Sergio Kindle type of draft. Ozzie needs to pick at #6 trading back is cursing us.

[hen826957]

K.O. will be cut in 2-3 years because his cap number will increase and will waste K.O. time thinking he will get that full 60M and stay for 5 years. Should stayed with the Ravens pal big mistake. You would've got the full amount of the contract here with the Ravens.

[Ravenous_Ravens]

IMHO I'm fairly certain K.O. was just mentioning the "not appreciated" in terms of The Ravens not willing to pay what the Raiders were. K.O.has been and will continue to be a solid above average player, but outside of a team having excessive amounts of cap space, it was never realistic to get that kind of contract otherwise. I doubt there is really much more to it than that. He also needs to now adjust to being apart of a different organization. No love lost. Can still appreciate his contributions as a Raven.

Three comp draft picks is great. I really can't see trading back in the first round. Second round yes, to maybe accrue a 3rd round pick. They also could use their 4th rounder (not comp) and some later pick(s) to try and get into the 3rd round. It's more to do with who is on the board when they are up. I would not be so quick to assume they do not trade up and secure their "guy". Moving up within 5 spots would not cost the farm.

So far this is shaping up to be one of the more unique drafts for Ravens in a while. There are many more practical routes they could go based on current roster than most years.

[billiejean]

  4 hours ago, billiejean said:

  4 hours ago, WNC-Raven said:

Sounds like sour grapes to me. I think he felt offended that we didint offer him what he wanted. After we signed Yanda last year he should have seen the writing on the wall. Most players are only in it to make as much money as they can while they can. A few select players around the league find a home and love their teams. We broke NGata's heart by trading him away while people like Kruger or KO could really care less where they play. Good luck to KO while he kills time in OAK before moving on to the next place in a few years. Money is great but time and memories are more valuable.

broke Ngatas heart? Where did you read that. If it broke his heart so much, he would have restructured his contract to stay with the team. The reason we traded him was because he was not willing to negotiate.

http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl-news/4634976-report-haloti-ngata-could-be-cut-if-he-doesnt-restructure-his-contract-ravens-oregon

Take a breath. It was just a comment. I have always thought Ngata loved being in Baltimore selling chicken, hanging with Suggs, being comfortable at castle and M&T like owning the school your senior year. He was a big part of our team and community and even though he was being stubborn with his contracts I dont think he saw the trade coming. I guess I should have said that I dont think he or his teammates thought he would be sent packing because I thought he felt like this was home. I DO think we made the right move by trading him. I just think some players care and some dont. So my looong winded point is that I dont think KO cared about the Ravens so we should just let it go.

All of the sudden KO is such a terrible person, he's not a team player, he's greedy, and he doesn't care about the Ravens.  All this because he did what was best for himself.  There are no facts to support what you say. You and everyone else just have sour grapes.

[rmcjacket23]

2 hours ago, hen826957 said:

K.O. will be cut in 2-3 years because his cap number will increase and will waste K.O. time thinking he will get that full 60M and stay for 5 years. Should stayed with the Ravens pal big mistake. You would've got the full amount of the contract here with the Ravens.

Not really.

If we offered KO $8.5M a year, and it was say the same length as the Raiders deal, that's a 5 year, $42.5M deal at the max. The Raiders gave him 5 years at $60M max deal, a full $17.5M more. You're right, he won't see all of that, but he also doesn't have to.

Given that the only thing that matters is what the players gets in the first three years (because he can't really be cut in the first three years due to the dead money), KO is scheduled to make $36.5M in his first three years in Oakland. That's only $6M less than the TOTAL amount he could have made in Baltimore for FIVE years.

There's a zero percent chance he would have made that much money in the first three years in Baltimore, and he probably wouldn't even make that much money in four years in Baltimore.

I'd also point out that there's plenty of current and former Ravens who signed long term deals and never saw the full contract amount here, so not like its a given that would happen. I guarantee guys like Suggs, Yanda, etc. who currently have long term deals don't stay here until the end of it. They will be cut or retire before its done.

[hen826957]

@rmcjacket23 True, most of the players won't see the full amount but just me its a waste of time just to travel to another team and it they won't get the full amount anyway. They should just stay with the current team then do all of that plus it's a better chance he could finish the contract here but it is what is jacket. I'm mostly talking about players that sign big contracts for 5 years or more. This is just my opinion statement. :-)

[WNC-Raven]

2 hours ago, billiejean said:

All of the sudden KO is such a terrible person, he's not a team player, he's greedy, and he doesn't care about the Ravens.  All this because he did what was best for himself.  There are no facts to support what you say. You and everyone else just have sour grapes.

That's right. He is dead to me now.

[billiejean]

@rmcjacket23 True, most of the players won't see the full amount but just me its a waste of time just to travel to another team and it they won't get the full amount anyway. They should just stay with the current team then do all of that plus it's a better chance he could finish the contract here but it is what is jacket. I'm mostly talking about players that sign big contracts for 5 years or more. This is just my opinion statement. :-)

hen my friend where are you from

[Purple Dawg 96]

Man I really liked K.O. SMH oh well he bounced like that linemen that was here I forgot his name went to the Saints SMH but I kinda understand what he saying about people not appreciating the O Line because you can read the posts on here finger pointing up and down when Joe wants to stand in the pocket but you can't these days you gotta extend the play and that's all on the QB! And when he gets sacked nothing but sniveling about such h and such is no good etc etc when all you gotta do is move the pocket more rollouts and pump fakes are a must it throws the cameraman off!

[rmcjacket23]

1 hour ago, hen826957 said:

@rmcjacket23 True, most of the players won't see the full amount but just me its a waste of time just to travel to another team and it they won't get the full amount anyway. They should just stay with the current team then do all of that plus it's a better chance he could finish the contract here but it is what is jacket. I'm mostly talking about players that sign big contracts for 5 years or more. This is just my opinion statement. :-)

He's just as likely to finish his contract in Oakland as it is in Baltimore.

For him, go to whoever pays you the most.

[Grapple Raven]

7 hours ago, fusuymada said:

KO's comments makes me continue to wonder about our offensive line and our offensive line coach. We have always had a highly productive O-line but other than when Kubiak was here holding Castillo's hand, our offensive line has grossly underproduced under Castillo's tutelage. Now we get these comments from KO and it makes me wonder if there isn't some issues on the O-Line the average fan wouldn't know about but is common knowledge amongst the players. Where there is smoke there is fire and it makes me wonder about the comments, productivity and retention. Who is to say that Monroe's lack of motivation has to do with the issues that seem to be circulating around the O-Line coach. Don't know, just speculating based on the tidbits of information we can get as fans.

Your comments made me think back to the issue with the O-line a few yrs earlier after the Super Bowl run when several members of the O-line met with Ozzie during the season when the blocking system was changed by Castillo and the run game was suffering, and after that meeting to some degree the scheme changed and Castillo was no longer the "run game coordinator".  It could be that there are some issues that the fans aren't fully aware of but that could be locker room issues because I remember McKinney making similar comments after he left that referenced that same issue.  Often times players can say stuff upon exit they wouldn't say when still with the organization.

Also, I know KO wasn't happy when he was asked to play through his back injury when he wanted to get surgery for it immediately ( there was even and article on here discussing it)  and there still could be some hard feeling from that, especially since he, Yanda, Wagner, Hurst and others played through their injuries and Monroe didn't. Perhaps KO was a little salty, and that is certainly his prerogative.

I found KO's comments intriguing because of the situation I described above and after reading further on this I found this article referencing this:   http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2016/03/11/holmes-ravens-offensive-line-needs-new-focus/  fusuymada, you might be on to something.

[rmcjacket23]

3 minutes ago, Grapple Raven said:

Your comments made me think back to the issue with the O-line a few yrs earlier after the Super Bowl run when several members of the O-line met with Ozzie during the season when the blocking system was changed by Castillo and the run game was suffering, and after that meeting to some degree the scheme changed and Castillo was no longer the "run game coordinator".  It could be that there are some issues that the fans aren't fully aware of but that could be locker room issues because I remember McKinney making similar comments after he left that referenced the same thing.

Also, I know KO wasn't happy when he was asked to play through his back injury when he wanted to get surgery for it immediately ( there was even and article on here discussing it)  and there still could be some hard feeling from that, especially since he, Yanda, Wagner, Hurst and others played through their injuries and Monroe didn't.

I found KO's comments intriguing because of the situation I described above and after reading further on this I found this article referencing this:   http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2016/03/11/holmes-ravens-offensive-line-needs-new-focus/  fusuymada, you might be on to something.

Yeah, never bought into the "it's Castillo fault" that fans conjure up, because I never thought it had much merit. Similarly, certainly don't buy the "Kubiak owns the run game" argument either, because I didn't see anything of the sort in 2015.

I had no issues with the production of our offensive line or running game last year when healthy, so kind of hard to blame Castillo for that. If Monroe isn't motivated because of Castillo, then so be it. But if that's the case, Monroe will be gone and struggling to find work long before Castillo is.

[riseNConquer81]

He's not wrong. Pointing out how we spent a bunch of money on an amalgamation of 4th and 5th round after thoughts hoping they would be good, doesn't really do much to dispel the point either.

 

Yeah they spent bunch on Yanda, but that's only because they're not dumb enough to let the only good lineman they've lucked up on in a while, get away.

 

The offense is an aftethought in general around here. That's why we have 40 RBs and no clear starter, kamar aiken as a number 1 receiver, and a part time LT that a struggling jags squad was all too happy to get rid of.

[mearzunkies]

IMO K.O you are overpaid. Good player but still not the best, Yanda is!

[rmcjacket23]

1 hour ago, riseNConquer81 said:

He's not wrong. Pointing out how we spent a bunch of money on an amalgamation of 4th and 5th round after thoughts hoping they would be good, doesn't really do much to dispel the point either.

 

Yeah they spent bunch on Yanda, but that's only because they're not dumb enough to let the only good lineman they've lucked up on in a while, get away.

 

The offense is an aftethought in general around here. That's why we have 40 RBs and no clear starter, kamar aiken as a number 1 receiver, and a part time LT that a struggling jags squad was all too happy to get rid of.

And yet, ironically, the offense has been the better unit than the defense for probably 4 of the last 5 years.

[JamesA119]

He's not wrong. Pointing out how we spent a bunch of money on an amalgamation of 4th and 5th round after thoughts hoping they would be good, doesn't really do much to dispel the point either.

 

Yeah they spent bunch on Yanda, but that's only because they're not dumb enough to let the only good lineman they've lucked up on in a while, get away.

 

The offense is an aftethought in general around here. That's why we have 40 RBs and no clear starter, kamar aiken as a number 1 receiver, and a part time LT that a struggling jags squad was all too happy to get rid of.

Agree! I think this website has detoriarated into a propaganda machine. I'm tired of all the praises about comp picks this comp picks that. What good is a pick when you let him walk after he has been developed?

I want wins. I don't care how many comp picks you get or how much under the salary cap you are. When you draft players and develop them, it should behoove you to keep them. Next season these same writers will come up with excuses why Flacco can't complete a pass. "The O-line" can block for Flacco blah blah blah.

[balfan23]

There is a difference between not valuing the O line and deciding not to pay a guy top 5 money to play at a position where he's had all of 4 NFL starts. C'mon KO, just be happy about your new deal and the fact that a team drafted you that helped put you in position to be a part of a championship team.

[rmcjacket23]

5 minutes ago, JamesA119 said:

Agree! I think this website has detoriarated into a propaganda machine. I'm tired of all the praises about comp picks this comp picks that. What good is a pick when you let him walk after he has been developed?

I want wins. I don't care how many comp picks you get or how much under the salary cap you are. When you draft players and develop them, it should behoove you to keep them. Next season these same writers will come up with excuses why Flacco can't complete a pass. "The O-line" can block for Flacco blah blah blah.

Well, yes and no.

The single most beneficial aspect of a quality draft pick happens on their rookie deal...the first four years. When you get a player that produces at a high level for multiple seasons on a rookie deal, it's pretty much the greatest asset for any team. Once that deals done and they go for market value, they become less valuable. Why? Because they cost significantly more and they practically never produce significantly more.

We hit a wall during the Championship years and right after where you can't retain everybody. It's a good problem to have, because as you've noticed, 100% of quality teams year after year have trouble retaining their own players consistently. When you don't have trouble retaining your own players, it generally means you don't have any good ones to retain.

Quality cheap labor at key positions. That's the name of the game.

 

[JamesA119]

IMO K.O you are overpaid. Good player but still not the best, Yanda is!

Yanda is significantly older though. Yanda is 31 KO is 25 or 26. In sports players age over night. Yanda may not be great anymore in a few short years. KO on the other hand hasn't even reached his prime.