[News] Reports: Ravens Decline Fifth-Year Option On Matt Elam

[Zeus]

Great news, so long bust

[law215]

Elam may get traded or cut before the start of the season. Ravens secondary is a mess cause 1st round Jimmy Smith, 1st round Matt Elam , and highly paid Webb are either often injured or under achieving. If Ravens are lucky , a quality CB becomes available after cuts to add more depth and one of the young guys Canaday, Young, Wilson, Davis stay healthy and show promise. A healthy pass rush can also go a long way.

[RavenzOz]

Always wanting the best for Matt, and while he's still part of the squad, the opportunity is there. Go get it Matt.

On our secondary as a whole, I don't think we've played more than three straight games with the same starters in the last two years due to injuries, if we can get the same four guys on the field for more than just a couple of games, maybe they can start to gel. Here's hoping.

[sivled]

i DO AGREE WITH THEIR MOVE. hE DOES THE RAVENS NO GOOD NOW AND WHO KNOWS WHEN HE COULD BE IN TOP SHAPE. They have lots of top players thanks to the draft . It is a shame but it is a business

[RavensDieHard21]

Easy call to make, but I hope he recovers well and is a contributor this year.

[Fastynart]

Finally some sense. This guy has sucked the entire time he has been here. What a bonehead blunder taking him in the first round. "Best player available"? Seriously? Whomever thought this guy was worth a first round pick should be fired. I screamed when they drafted him and have screamed about how lousy he is every year since. All the Ravens did was make excuses for his poor performances.

[RavenzOz]

Ok for all the talk of First Round busts, an article on nfl.com shows the teams who are and aren't picking up fifth year options on their 1st rounders from 2013. Interesting to note that 14 of the 32 teams aren't exercising the fifth year option on their first rounders, and this includes six of the top ten picks from that year.

[Halshayeji]

6 hours ago, Ravensfansince03 said:

Obviously a move we had to make, but on another note, my gosh are we in a hole far as our defensive secondary. Outside of Jim Smith, Webb, and Eric Weddle (?), we really have no reliability. Kyle Arrington was a real slump last year but lets hope it was a new team transitional thing, he could come out this season. But if not we are looking at a fragile secondary if anyone gets injured.

You may be forgetting that Shareece Wright played great down the stretch last year earning himself a new contract. He's no J.Smith but he's capeable of handling most #2 WRs. Will Davis is also a former 3rd rounder if I'm not mistaken and he will be back next season. I think he's also ahead of Artington on the depth chart. Brooks is also a guy I really liked when we drafted him and still believe he's the third best safety on this squad.

Does this secondary give me a bit more to desire? Of course..... Are we as bad as we were the beginning of last season? Not even close  

[Drinkmore Beer]

At least Elam wasn't drafted #1, like Eric Fisher. Still, it's hard to do worse with your first two picks than Elam and Arthur Brown. Somebody was asleep at the switch that year.

[whobilly]

At least Elam wasn't drafted #1, like Eric Fisher. Still, it's hard to do worse with your first two picks than Elam and Arthur Brown. Somebody was asleep at the switch that year.

Take a look at our drafts the last 10 years. The pundits are always quick to always give the Ravens an A or B grade. The previous ten drafts have not given us much in return. And yes, there were several asleep at the switch with Elam and Brown and we traded up to get Brown.

[stixfix69]

Our fan base is pretty harsh, there were 12 first round picks from the 2013 draft that didn't get their 5th year option picked up, and lets not forget we usually pick in the bottom half of the 1st round, not like we pick in the top 10 every year.....we have hit some solid picks in the mid rounds over the years, so things tend to balance out........Look at the Browns, they rebuild every 3 years, hire coaches every two to three years, and have been picking in the top 10 for a decade, so thank god we don't have a team like that.....

[griffrb]

We need a D-line and LBs that can control the line of scrimmage and get to the QB on call.

[cobrajet]

At this point in time, this is a smart decision.

[ravenmaniac4life]

How would they be able to pick up an option for 2017 when he probably wont
be on the team at the end of 2016!! (or possibly the start)

[Crusader]

Have they picked up A Brown 5 year? Zachary Orr is faster from side line to side line than Brown and I'll bet ends up taking the job this year..... If he plays it smart.

[OLD SCHOOL SMASH BALL]

In a way, I don't blame Elam for this. This one is on the F.O. and whoever talked them into taking him. Drafting Elam, imho, is the result of getting away from our NORMAL procedure, of drafting the BPA. In this case, as you may recall, Reed was out, and we were desparate for a Safety, and man we had tunnel vision on we gotta draft the best safety for need we can to fill this hole, which was a mistake. I am convinced a coach was involved here, not the GM. However if the GM signed off on it, then he owns it too, and its a shame. I dont want us to draft this way again. If we have 4 good tight ends, and the BPA at this spot is a TE, then you draft BPA TE, period. Stay true to the board. I hope we stayed true to the board this year, because we walked away from some serious talent, to draft "WHO?", and another WHO ina later round.

[Guest]

On ‎5‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 5:44 PM, Crusader said:

That's what really ticked me off. Ed Reed could have taught this guy but we all know why so basically they threw away a first rounder.

The failure to keep Ed Reed one more  year as a mentor was inexcusable.  Oz has literally melted down before our eyes these last few years. 

However, this kid just couldn't play, but that is on Oz too.

13 minutes ago, OLD SCHOOL SMASH BALL said:

In a way, I don't blame Elam for this. This one is on the F.O. and whoever talked them into taking him. Drafting Elam, imho, is the result of getting away from our NORMAL procedure, of drafting the BPA. In this case, as you may recall, Reed was out, and we were desparate for a Safety, and man we had tunnel vision on we gotta draft the best safety for need we can to fill this hole, which was a mistake. I am convinced a coach was involved here, not the GM. However if the GM signed off on it, then he owns it too, and its a shame. I dont want us to draft this way again. If we have 4 good tight ends, and the BPA at this spot is a TE, then you draft BPA TE, period. Stay true to the board. I hope we stayed true to the board this year, because we walked away from some serious talent, to draft "WHO?", and another WHO ina later round.

Best Player Available will kill a team when it has needs, but for the record Oz said Elam was "at the very top of his board."  Oz needs to take that board, axe it apart, and then burn and bury it.  Oz's board has been killing us. 

[Halshayeji]

18 hours ago, Crusader said:

Have they picked up A Brown 5 year? Zachary Orr is faster from side line to side line than Brown and I'll bet ends up taking the job this year..... If he plays it smart.

5th year team options only apply to first rounders. That's part of the reason why we took LT because we can have a quality LT for a fraction of his market value for 5 years  

[usmccharles]

On ‎5‎/‎3‎/‎2016 at 7:31 PM, Ravensfansince03 said:

Obviously a move we had to make, but on another note, my gosh are we in a hole far as our defensive secondary. Outside of Jim Smith, Webb, and Eric Weddle (?), we really have no reliability. Kyle Arrington was a real slump last year but lets hope it was a new team transitional thing, he could come out this season. But if not we are looking at a fragile secondary if anyone gets injured.

Don't forget Wright who improved big time during the second half of the season.  Actually, our entire pass defense improved to I think the 2nd best on the final 8 weeks.  With Webb moving to safety, signing Weddle, Jimmy being more healthy, Wright more time in the system, I think our defense is going to be much better than people give it credit for.