Will Hill released

[rmcjacket23]

Just now, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

 

Dont think he was rated one of the best safeties last year. Weeks 1-8 he was rated 4th, weeks 9-17 he was rated 70th. Not sure where he wound up overall, but i imagine somewhere in the middle.

I believe it was #1 based on coverage skills.

[hn68wb4]

1 minute ago, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

 

Dont think he was rated one of the best safeties last year. Weeks 1-8 he was rated 4th, weeks 9-17 he was rated 70th. Not sure where he wound up overall, but i imagine somewhere in the middle.

I'm not talking about this past year, I talked about that in the next sentence. I mean the season before the one that just ended.

[Tank 92]

1 minute ago, The Raven said:

Hill lacked leadership skills and the smarts to be relied on at safety. He could make plays but really he's not a fit in a Pees defense. He doesn't get nearly enough turnovers and he's frequently late in coverage. I'm fine with this. I have a gut feeling that he was 100 percent responsible for the constant miscommunications Harbaugh and Pees always talked about in the secondary.

 

Again, our pass defense got significantly better when he was off the field. I don't think that's coincidental, and I don't think it's a factor of playing mediocre offenses.

This makes sense.  Add to that the ubiquitous flags for unnecessary roughness and Will loses his shine.  The days of the intimidating enforcer on the back end have pretty much ended.

[spitfire418]

Even if Hill is now gone, Lewis still needs to go. I don't understand how that guy has started so many years, I just don't get it. Lewis is so bad I don't even want him as a backup. He's way to slow to play safety, not even a good tackler, and is average at best in coverage. I would 100% rather have Anthony Levine come in over Lewis as a backup. Ugh... This move to cut Hill has me furious. Why didn't we at least trade him? I know for a fact that teams would've gave some draft picks at the minimum for him. Wow...

Edited March 16, 2016 by spitfire418

[GrimCoconut]

17 minutes ago, JoeyFlex5 said:

Weddle, watson, wright, wallace, webb, an off-season of Ws means a season of Ws

Wait, don't those Ws equal all the Ws we had last year? As in, 5?

[Ravens4Real]

Some of you guys are hilarious. Sign Weddle: holy crap! We got an elite secondary now and probably the best set of safeties in the league.

Drop Hill: He wasn't very good anyways and we are better off without him. 

 

[Tank 92]

1 minute ago, GrimCoconut said:

Wait, don't those Ws equal all the Ws we had last year? As in, 5?

Keep adding Ws!  cmon Man!   lol

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

Just now, hn68wb4 said:

I'm not talking about this past year, I talked about that in the next sentence. I mean the season before the one that just ended.

Gotcha. 2014 he wasnt ranked in the top 10... but i dont have the rankings beyond that. Obviously you dont have to be top 10 to be good; but Weddle was rated top 4 both years... so the trade off is a positive overall.

[rmcjacket23]

I don't buy the notion of "we may resign him at a cheaper rate" because frankly, I don't see how much cheaper he can get.

Cap savings isn't nothing, but his salary for this year was less than $3M. So cutting him and then resigning him for less would save maybe like $1M at most?

I don't see it. He could get a one year deal from practically any team for $2-3M a year I think, so I can't see this being the case.

Clearly the FO/coaching staff didn't like him as much as we do, and found him to be the odd man out in the starting safety discussion.

[Purple_City39]

Wow, the overreactions are crazy.  I'm not a fan of this move either but if you remove the rose colored, "I personally like this player" glasses, it was easy to see this possibility coming.  It was either going to be Webb or Hill due to cap savings.  Webb played well the second half of the season at FS and is a homegrown talent.  Hill played poorly to end the year and is another team's draft pick.  

[ALPHA]

2 minutes ago, The Raven said:

Yep, bingo. Hill screwed over DBs way too much when he was in deep zones. He had a tendency to freelance too much.

Exactly how many open receivers is a SS supposed to cover? 

[hn68wb4]

2 minutes ago, GrimCoconut said:

Wait, don't those Ws equal all the Ws we had last year? As in, 5?

On the roster or just signings? because we've got quite a few more Ws on the roster with Brandon Williams and Maxx and Wallace too

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

1 minute ago, ALPHA said:

Exactly how many open receivers is a SS supposed to cover? 

There really isnt a SS and FS in our defense. If you're in a deep zone, you cover any receiver that comes into your zone.

[rmcjacket23]

12 hours ago, Ravens4Real said:

Some of you guys are hilarious. Sign Weddle: holy crap! We got an elite secondary now and probably the best set of safeties in the league.

Drop Hill: He wasn't very good anyways and we are better off without him. 

 

Could be, hard to tell at this point.

I do agree with some of the hypocrisy observations though. All year we said how our secondary needs to be rebuilt, and so we move Webb to safety, add Weddle, and cut Hill and all of the sudden our secondary is worse? I don't see that either.

I always thought safety was a bigger issue than corner, and so far it looks like the FO and coaching staff agree. So, you're very likely to see two new starters at safety next season. 

I personally wouldn't have cut Hill, but then again I've spent days trying to figure out how you successfully play all three at the same time often enough to make in worth it, and I couldn't come up with anything. So the Ravens solved that problem for me.

[DrPuff]

Not to toot my own horn but I said dont be surprised if Hill was cut in the Weddle thread. Made the most financial sense. Especially since Hill was the one sidelined for Webb at the tail end of the season.

[GrimCoconut]

18 minutes ago, 52520Andrew said:

No clue why we are still keeping Lewis

I'm with you here. Free back rubs?

18 minutes ago, pep_meister said:

if he pans out he will be cut.

No, he won't.

8 minutes ago, The Raven said:

Hill lacked leadership skills and the smarts to be relied on at safety. He could make plays but really he's not a fit in a Pees defense. He doesn't get nearly enough turnovers and he's frequently late in coverage. I'm fine with this. I have a gut feeling that he was 100 percent responsible for the constant miscommunications Harbaugh and Pees always talked about in the secondary.

Again, our pass defense got significantly better when he was off the field. I don't think that's coincidental, and I don't think it's a factor of playing mediocre offenses.

Moreover, we currently have one of the best DB coaches in the NFL, maybe even the best. If Hill was that good, Frazier might have fought to keep him here. I guess they just didn't see the talent.

Makes sense to me. I'm not upset with us cutting him. It doesn't bother me because he had issues and all but I thought he was a good player. That said, I think he probably was a reason for the miscommunication on the back-end. I did always see him back there trying to make calls if memory serves. Our secondary improved when he was 'benched', so there may be credence to this. It was my first thought as well. 

I'm just pissed Lewis is still here. 

1 minute ago, rmcjacket23 said:

I don't buy the notion of "we may resign him at a cheaper rate" because frankly, I don't see how much cheaper he can get.

Cap savings isn't nothing, but his salary for this year was less than $3M. So cutting him and then resigning him for less would save maybe like $1M at most?

I don't see it. He could get a one year deal from practically any team for $2-3M a year I think, so I can't see this being the case.

Clearly the FO/coaching staff didn't like him as much as we do, and found him to be the odd man out in the starting safety discussion.

He's not coming back. We clearly didn't cut him because he saved money off the cap. There were other reasons involved. 

[JoeyFlex5]

2 minutes ago, ALPHA said:

Exactly how many open receivers is a SS supposed to cover? 

None specifically, he's supposed to stick to his assigned zone, which he often failed to do. 

 

He tried to play like polamalu with the IQ of an average safety.

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

4 minutes ago, Ravens4Real said:

Some of you guys are hilarious. Sign Weddle: holy crap! We got an elite secondary now and probably the best set of safeties in the league.

Drop Hill: He wasn't very good anyways and we are better off without him. 

Homer much?!

Some anticipated that Weddle-Webb would be the starting duo, just FYI. 

Seeing the rationale in a move isnt homerism. Very educated men, who are very good at their jobs made this move. So, you dont have to dive much beyond the surface to find the thinking behind it.

[GrimCoconut]

1 minute ago, DrPuff said:

Not to toot my own horn but I said dont be surprised if Hill was cut in the Weddle thread. Made the most financial sense. Especially since Hill was the one sidelined for Webb at the tail end of the season.

I recall reading this rumor some time ago from some legitimate source, but I didn't give it a lot of credence. Makes more sense now. 

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

1 minute ago, GrimCoconut said:

I recall reading this rumor some time ago from some legitimate source, but I didn't give it a lot of credence. Makes more sense now. 

Think it was Hensley or La Canfora. One of them said immediately after the Weddle signing that Weddle-Webb would be the starting safeties and Hill was likely the odd man out.

[PolishRifle]

I don't agree with this decision at all. He was a good player, imho and he managed to stay out of trouble, when he played for us. Unless we can land Ramsey, I highly doubt that, or expect much from Elam or Webb (which is a gamble), this move doesn't make sense to me at all.

Edited March 16, 2016 by PolishRifle

[spitfire418]

27 minutes ago, GrimCoconut said:

I think we still hope for Elam to become the player we drafted him to be. Ravens are notoriously patient with their draft picks, sometimes to a fault. It has worked in the past at times, but sometimes it has come back to bite us by not moving on early enough. 

That said, I believe in Brooks to be the SS, actually. I really like him in that role. We may also want to give Elam a chance there to show what he has in his contract year, and he'd have no shot with Hill. That doesn't mean I like the rationale, only rationalizing what seems like a strange move.

I wish they would give Brooks a shot at SS. He's such a great fit there. He won't have as much coverage responsibilities and won't have to be as much of a quarterback of the defense as if he was at FS. He's a great tackler and good blitzer at the very least, and he has great athleticism to go along with those traits. If he could just stay healthy and get a chance there I think he would be a good player and show what he's capable of.

[ravens rule]

With all the money tied up at safety, they better be some difference makers or imma be mad as hell. Like average is not acceptable.

[rmcjacket23]

1 minute ago, GrimCoconut said:

I'm with you here. Free back rubs?

No, he won't.

Makes sense to me. I'm not upset with us cutting him. It doesn't bother me because he had issues and all but I thought he was a good player. That said, I think he probably was a reason for the miscommunication on the back-end. I did always see him back there trying to make calls if memory serves. Our secondary improved when he was 'benched', so there may be credence to this. It was my first thought as well. 

I'm just pissed Lewis is still here. 

He's not coming back. We clearly didn't cut him because he saved money off the cap. There were other reasons involved. 

Well, maybe. I wouldn't say we cut him ONLY for cap reasons, but its certainly a factor. $2M+ doesn't seem like much, and generally I'd agree with that, except then we go and sign Weddle for a cap number of less than $4M.

I wouldn't have made this decision, but I can't say I'm surprised by it.

[GrimCoconut]

Just now, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

Think it was Hensley or La Canfora. One of them said immediately after the Weddle signing that Weddle-Webb would be the starting safeties and Hill was likely the odd man out.

It was before that as well. I recall it being like a week or two ago. It wasn't extremely recent. Maybe my memory is off, though. Could be.

[hn68wb4]

7 minutes ago, rmcjacket23 said:

I don't buy the notion of "we may resign him at a cheaper rate" because frankly, I don't see how much cheaper he can get.

Cap savings isn't nothing, but his salary for this year was less than $3M. So cutting him and then resigning him for less would save maybe like $1M at most?

I don't see it. He could get a one year deal from practically any team for $2-3M a year I think, so I can't see this being the case.

Clearly the FO/coaching staff didn't like him as much as we do, and found him to be the odd man out in the starting safety discussion.

oh I seriously doubt this was to re-sign him for less, that's not going to happen and, as you've pointed out, wouldn't make much sense from his point of view. He can easily choose a safety needy team and get a solid deal.

[Ravens4Real]

Just don't like the move at all. Now our secondary is a complete question mark again. 

Webb has almost no experience as a safety. Wright is a question mark also. So 50% is a ?? Add to that Jimmy could get knocked out by a gust of strong wind.

Will would have at the least made for great depth. Don't understand keeping Lewis and some of the others when Hill is certainly better than them.

[The Raven]

8 minutes ago, ALPHA said:

Exactly how many open receivers is a SS supposed to cover? 

Have you ever heard of a weird thing called zone coverage? Or giving help to a CB? Go google that real quick and get back to me champ.

[ravefan52]

3 minutes ago, rmcjacket23 said:

I think its safe to say the FO is all-in on Webb as a safety long term...

Ah yes, nice job front office. Because a 30-year old player who's made of glass, never played the position for more than a few games and wasn't even good to begin with is such a great long-term solution to go all in on. And let's cut the young, cheap, durable and extremely talented guy.

 

I get Hill wasn't great at the end of the season and he's not Harb's ideal locker room guy, but all Hill has done since coming here is turn his life around staying clean and consistently produce for this team.

[rmcjacket23]

2 minutes ago, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

Think it was Hensley or La Canfora. One of them said immediately after the Weddle signing that Weddle-Webb would be the starting safeties and Hill was likely the odd man out.

Jeff Zrebiec from the Baltimore Sun wrote it earlier this week.