Welcome to Baltimore Eric Weddle!

[DomMcRaven]

1 hour ago, Cillmatic said:

Dare I say it but I think our secondary might be elite now... Near shutdown cornerback in Jimmy, and beast safeties in Hill & Weddle; the only other thing we could do is draft another corner like VH3 however I think pass rush might be more needed at this point.

56 minutes ago, Cillmatic said:

I just realized we may potentially field a secondary consisting of Jimmy, Weddle, Hill and VH3...

Shhhhhhh........too early too early. 

[RayRave2]

1 hour ago, Cillmatic said:

Dare I say it but I think our secondary might be elite now... Near shutdown cornerback in Jimmy, and beast safeties in Hill & Weddle; the only other thing we could do is draft another corner like VH3 however I think pass rush might be more needed at this point.

Praying for Bosa round 1 and Cyrus Jones round 2... With Jones's athleticism and being given the lightest responsibility of the 4.. he'd be a solid pick. Plus his special teams impact #winning

[DrPuff]

People keep mentioning Brooks as if he has a chance to stay. He will be the first safety to go. Even Levine will get a shot over him. Brooks time here is done. Hate to break it to you. Safety depth will be
Weddle, Webb - Starters with Webb being the occasional slot player
Hill - Rotational
Lewis - Low snaps
Elam, Levine - Fighting for special teams time, other will be practice squad or picked up by someone else.
Brooks - cut

Edited March 15, 2016 by DrPuff

[rmcjacket23]

7 minutes ago, DrPuff said:

People keep mentioning Brooks as if he has a chance to stay. He will be the first safety to go. Even Levine will get a shot over him. Brooks time here is done. Hate to break it to you. Safey depth will be
Weddle, Webb - Starters
Hill - Rotational
Lewis - Low snaps
Elam, Levine - Fighting for special teams time, other will be practice squad or picked up by someone else.
Brooks - cut

Yeah I'd say either Brooks or Lewis gets cut. Hard to see both of them making it.

Probably only see 5 GameDay safeties active anyway, so even if Brooks makes the team, hard to see how he's active on Sundays.

[JO_75]

Quote from Weddle on why he chose Baltimore:

Quote

“You think of Baltimore, you think of winning, you think defense, you think blue collar, grinding, guys working together,” Weddle said. “When I went to bed (Sunday) night and I was trying to decide which team, Baltimore just kept popping in my head. When it comes down to it, my heart was there.”

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/03/14/weddle-ravens-offered-first-kept-selling/

Edit: I love how one comment on that article from a Steelers fan talks how they pulled a smoke screen and can't wait for Brown to smoke past him this year. Yeah Brown is going to smoke him when he barely got 100 yards combined against us even in our 5-11 year. 

Edited March 15, 2016 by JO_75

[Gtown Purple]

Ozzie is tired of 75 yard bombs for tds.

Edited March 15, 2016 by Gtown Purple

[Daft Classic]

Weddle and Hill COULD arguably be one of the best safety TANDEMS we've seen on this team in awhile. The amount of talent between the two is unreal

[DomMcRaven]

48 minutes ago, JO_75 said:

Quote from Weddle on why he chose Baltimore:

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/03/14/weddle-ravens-offered-first-kept-selling/

Edit: I love how one comment on that article from a Steelers fan talks how they pulled a smoke screen and can't wait for Brown to smoke past him this year. Yeah Brown is going to smoke him when he barely got 100 yards combined against us even in our 5-11 year. 

Yeah and one guy put him in his place with a similar comment. 

[spitfire418]

1 hour ago, DrPuff said:

People keep mentioning Brooks as if he has a chance to stay. He will be the first safety to go. Even Levine will get a shot over him. Brooks time here is done. Hate to break it to you. Safety depth will be
Weddle, Webb - Starters with Webb being the occasional slot player
Hill - Rotational
Lewis - Low snaps
Elam, Levine - Fighting for special teams time, other will be practice squad or picked up by someone else.
Brooks - cut

I can tell you right now that Terrence Brooks will not be cut. He would get traded before he got cut if he were to leave. Sorry that some of you strongly dislike the guy (which I don't understand), but he's still young/developing and is a solid piece of our special teams. Brooks will be an Anthony Levine type of player at the bare minimum and we can hope he reaches his potential one day... well some of us can.

[lgcs27288]

I'm still giddy over this signing!

[spitfire418]

30 minutes ago, Daft Classic said:

Weddle and Hill COULD arguably be one of the best safety TANDEMS we've seen on this team in awhile. The amount of talent between the two is unreal

I like how they're both hard hitters and good tacklers too. It should hopefully cause some fear for other offenses.

[thieverycorporation]

Welcome Mr. Weddle

Play like a Raven.

You already know.

 

 

Edited March 15, 2016 by thieverycorporation

[chunkywill25]

man.. Hill and Weddle... unreal lol. they're both extremely well rounded, with weddle being a bit better at FS, and hill better at SS. perfect combo. lets go!!!

[RavensDieHard21]

11 hours ago, 757RavensFan said:

Signing Weddle has to be an absolute gut punch to Elam and Brooks.  Oh well we're in win now mode.  

The best 11 defenders will earn their way on the field. 

Injuries, poor tackling, bonehead mistakes....if they want to be Ravens then they hopefully will be busting butt and getting ready to make this roster

[RavensDieHard21]

2 hours ago, Gtown Purple said:

Ozzie is tired of 75 yard bombs for tds.

I think we are all tired of biting our nails every time we see the ball bombed on TV or at the stadium. This year was really bad though and I think Ozzie has been scheming to land Weddle before Free agency started

[Davesta]

Everyone kept saying weddle and hill, but didn't will hill get bench in late games? So how well rounded is he? Would Webb at FS and weddle at SS be a better combo?

[Daft Classic]

9 minutes ago, Davesta said:

Everyone kept saying weddle and hill, but didn't will hill get bench in late games? So how well rounded is he? Would Webb at FS and weddle at SS be a better combo?

Where have you read that? Everything I've seen has graded Hill as our best defensive player let alone in the secondary

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

12 hours ago, spitfire418 said:

I don't like this signing and I don't care if you disagree with me. A 4-year, $26M contract for a 31-year old safety when we already have a logjam at safety?! What is Ozzie thinking? Plus we had to restructure other players deals and probably lose our comp pick because of this signing... Wow. Yeah Weddle is a good player, but I just don't understand why we would pay all that money, restructure deals, and lose a comp pick for him when we have 5 potential starting safeties already on the roster. Now we have 4 guys who have started a lot in their careers and 2 young guys that have started a little bit and have shown their potential. I guess we have given up on both Brooks and Elam as well as Webb and Lewis? Ozzie just spoke so highly of Webb at the press conference not too long ago saying he will be a great safety and then he completely contradicts that statement with this signing. Also, I guess we won't draft a safety either this year even though it's a great safety class and we could easily find another young potential starter instead of a 31-year old player for almost $7M a year. Go ahead and negative my post. I really don't care. I just wanted to let you all know how I feel about this. All I can say is... we have some moves to make with those 6 potential starting safeties on our roster. There is no way that we can keep them all.

Its a $3mill cap hit this year, $6mill next year and then he can be cut year 3 with a $2mill or more cap savings. All the guaranteed money is paid out in the 1st two years. Its not as expensive a deal as it looks.

[Maryland]

3 hours ago, spitfire418 said:

I can tell you right now that Terrence Brooks will not be cut. He would get traded before he got cut if he were to leave. Sorry that some of you strongly dislike the guy (which I don't understand), but he's still young/developing and is a solid piece of our special teams. Brooks will be an Anthony Levine type of player at the bare minimum and we can hope he reaches his potential one day... well some of us can.

I also doubt Brooks would get cut before Lewis. Brooks is on his rookie deal and entering his 3rd year (which is when players really start to acclimate to the pros). Plus he was dealing with injury the end of his rookie year and into his second. I think they give Brooks a chance to develop for sure and take the greater savings by cutting Lewis, who has been average in his best games and horrendous in his worst games.

You know what you're getting with Lewis. Brooks is still learning one of the more difficult positions on the field and has room to get better

Edited March 15, 2016 by Maryland

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

I think Lewis and Elam are the most likely to be cut. Combined theyre a little over $2mill in cap savings this year.

I'm a little torn to be honest though, my initial reaction was that obviously Weddle and Hill would be the starters... but the more i think about it im not so sure. I wouldnt be surprised if Webb and Weddle are the starters; but even if so I would expect a heavy rotation between the 3 depending on down, distance and the offensive personnel. 

It's going to be interesting to see it all play out with the depth we have at the position. Instead of getting more CB depth, maybe they view this as the solution. Play 3 safeties a lot more often and since both Webb and Weddle are good in coverage they can double as the nickle when offenses go 3 wide.... which will help us disguise our coverage since they wont know if we're in zone, man, whos covering if its man and who's dropping into a deep zone, etc..

No matter what, its our first legit FS since Ed Reed and will do wonders for our pass defense. No more AJ Green beating us deep with the game on the line. That alone is a game or 2 per season turn around.

[usmccharles]

Hilarious- we have sub-par talent at a position that we have struggled with since losing Reed, we go out and get the best safety available, yet people still complain.  I love it. 

Edited March 15, 2016 by usmccharles

[allblackraven]

55 minutes ago, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

Its a $3mill cap hit this year, $6mill next year and then he can be cut year 3 with a $2mill or more cap savings. All the guaranteed money is paid out in the 1st two years. Its not as expensive a deal as it looks.

I don't think your numbers for year 2 are quite right. 13 guaranteed in first 2 years, with 9 mil paid in year 1. That means 1mil base + 8 mil prorated. So:

y1) 3 mil cap hit
y2] 4 mil cap hit ( 6 mil dead money)
y3) and y4) - if equally spread - 6.5 mil hit (4 mil dead money in year 3 and 2 mil dead money year 4)

Edited March 15, 2016 by allblackraven

[Halshayeji]

11 hours ago, The Raven said:

Welp, I'm eating crow. I can't say I'm unhappy about this. He's probably gonna be the glue that holds the secondary together, but I'm confused about what it means for the rest of the secondary. Is Webb moving back to CB? I could see him getting cut, now, if I'm being honest. What about Hill? I like the signing - although it's a little pricey for a 31 year old - but it raises a lot of questions. Regardless, it's an improvement.

Don't let the 31 scare you. Reed was 34 when we won that super bowl. Weddle is still a bargain for this year and next year.

1- I believe that webb is worth keeping for another year. Even tho his cap hit is a bit on the high end, he still gives us great flexibility. He can play deep when we have 3 safties and he can play nickle. He's also great insurance in case injuries gobble up our secondary again. If webb really struggles then we can let him go next year and free up 7 mil in cap.

2- Hill is on his last year and there may be a chance we lose him after this year. Same with elam. Thus, having weddle for the next few years assures us that we don't have to build a secondary from scratch next year.

I personally don't like this move. I love it! I wish we straight up traded for him last year lol

[Davesta]

1 hour ago, Daft Classic said:

Where have you read that? Everything I've seen has graded Hill as our best defensive player let alone in the secondary

I think it was mentioned in the video about signing weddle in the homepage.

[Halshayeji]

9 hours ago, sflegend89 said:

 

Agreed. If we traded for Darrelle Revis somebody would complain about him being 30... you can't win. The educated fans know how valuable this signing is, Weddle is one of the best safeties in the NFL, bar none. You have 39 year old Charles Woodson flying around making plays and people are complaining about Weddle being almost a decade younger and already being considered "too old"... I'm not saying Weddle is in his absolute prime but he's still a damn good football player with plenty of juice left, Weddle slightly passed his absolute prime is still better than 95% of safeties in the entire NFL. 

Not every FA you sign can be a 25 year old perennial pro bowler, those are the guys like Malik Jackson signing 85 Million Dollar contracts. If you look at the entire FA class and eliminate the guys that are out of our price range (Jackon, Olivier, KO, ect.) Weddle is the #1 player we could've possibly landed. I don't know how anyone could complain about Ozzie making a blockbuster signing for one of the best players at his position in the NFL at a major position of need.

It's hillarious that some people complain about his age and price at the same time. Oh and a lot of times, those same people were the ones complaining about a underdeveloped group of safeties last year. When weddle was 26 he signed a 8mil dollar per year deal. that was 5 years ago before the Cap ballooned and before weddle made it to 3 pro bowls. If weddle was 28 today, he'd be making more than 10 a year. Great signing and great post bro

[Tank 92]

I was skeptical about signing Weddle only because it didn't seem to fit our plans that had been laid out.  What a great addition, seems like the perfect fit and should be the catalyst to make the secondary a force. 

This potentially makes Webb the highest paid utility guy in the NFL or a cut, not sure which.

[Ravens4Real]

My only other problem with this signing is why did we do the restructures to Jimmy, Yanda and whoever else if I missed one? I truly hate restructuring Jimmy because of his injury history. 

I figured we'd learn a lesson from the Steelers and stop kicking the dead money can down the road. 

We have, what it seems 25 Safeties and TE's on this team. Why couldn't we just release 3-4 of them and come up with the money to sign him?

I know someone will respond with, well, the cap is continuing to sky rocket so we will be fine. That doesn't matter. We will still have dead money that won't be able to be used while the rest of the league will have that money to spend. I figured we would have learned our lesson the past couple years with Pitta and Rice. The amount of dead money with them has put us in one of the worst cap situations in the league.

[atomicfront]

32 minutes ago, Ravens4Real said:

My only other problem with this signing is why did we do the restructures to Jimmy, Yanda and whoever else if I missed one? I truly hate restructuring Jimmy because of his injury history. 

I figured we'd learn a lesson from the Steelers and stop kicking the dead money can down the road. 

We have, what it seems 25 Safeties and TE's on this team. Why couldn't we just release 3-4 of them and come up with the money to sign him?

I know someone will respond with, well, the cap is continuing to sky rocket so we will be fine. That doesn't matter. We will still have dead money that won't be able to be used while the rest of the league will have that money to spend. I figured we would have learned our lesson the past couple years with Pitta and Rice. The amount of dead money with them has put us in one of the worst cap situations in the league.

Well I think Ozzie is putting us in a bad situation down the road.  I think he knows this is a big year for him. If the team makes the playoffs he is secure in his job. If the team self-destructs again it won't look good for Ozzie.  After the super bowl they didn't try to keep anyone. I think that would have been the time to kick the can down the road. Now they should be re-building.  But I am not the one who's job is on the line. 

[GrimCoconut]

32 minutes ago, Ravens4Real said:

My only other problem with this signing is why did we do the restructures to Jimmy, Yanda and whoever else if I missed one? I truly hate restructuring Jimmy because of his injury history. 

I figured we'd learn a lesson from the Steelers and stop kicking the dead money can down the road. 

We have, what it seems 25 Safeties and TE's on this team. Why couldn't we just release 3-4 of them and come up with the money to sign him?

I know someone will respond with, well, the cap is continuing to sky rocket so we will be fine. That doesn't matter. We will still have dead money that won't be able to be used while the rest of the league will have that money to spend. I figured we would have learned our lesson the past couple years with Pitta and Rice. The amount of dead money with them has put us in one of the worst cap situations in the league.

What hurt the Steelers is the cap didn't rise as they expected in those years and that's what cost them dearly. Their cap situation has since improved and I believe it's better than ours lately. I think our cap situation will be fine going forward. I'm not the biggest fan of it, either, but if we move on from Pitta like it's expected and possibly cut Monroe if we can get a better replacement in the Draft or even FA, then I believe we will be fine. 

As for your question about safeties and TEs, well, because of the rule of 51. Only the top 51 contracts count against the cap, so the contracts beyond those top 51 don't count against our cap right now. When the season starts, that changes, but for now, we only have 51 players counted against our cap.

[757RavensFan]

7 hours ago, Daft Classic said:

Where have you read that? Everything I've seen has graded Hill as our best defensive player let alone in the secondary

 

5 hours ago, Davesta said:

I think it was mentioned in the video about signing weddle in the homepage.

 

From Eisenberg's article yesterday.   It’s tough to handicap the race. Hill is a hard hitter who has made more plays than the others, but he was benched at times late in the 2015 season.