[News] Late For Work 5/12: Ravens' Bargain Shopping Begins Today With Plenty Of Options

[BR News]

Details of the rookie contracts and why three remain unsigned. Brian Billick, John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin will attend 'A Night of Heroes.' Ravens are improved, but the road to the playoffs is still difficult.

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[PurplenBlackFan2392]

Honestly I'd be ecstatic if we signed Cortland or Tillman they would bring toughness experience and real game to a thin CB position! Not to mention Ball hawking skills. We need all the ball-hawks we can find. Lattimore I think would be a good pick up at Lb. Also Clifton Brown doesn't really have confidence in our team IMO, I mean we are going to be a really good team overall with all these players coming back from injuries. Imagine if Flacco, Suggs, Smith and CO. all come back 100% and playing at the level the left off at, We Are going to be a Dangerous Team. We are always being seen as the underdogs/outcast so I'm used to as a Ravens Fan.

[Bruce_Almty]

I think Cliff Brown nailed it, “If the Ravens make the playoffs, nobody should say they didn’t deserve it. The road to the postseason looks anything but easy.”

[757RavensFan]

Heck, bring Cary Williams back. 

[PurplenBlackFan2392]

I truly believe this is OUR YEAR! I'm not saying we win the SB but I really think that we Will surprise The Football world and I say we Win Our Division! If We Sweep Pitt again This Year (No reason we cant, we've own 7 of the last 11 meetings. Also Proved We can win In Pittsburgh) And Win at least one against Cinchy, I see use winning the division! I say we Go 12-4 or 11-5. I really see Cincinnati taking a step back this year and losing their grip on the AFC North.

[PurplenBlackFan2392]

I think Cliff Brown nailed it, “If the Ravens make the playoffs, nobody should say they didn’t deserve it. The road to the postseason looks anything but easy.”

true! at the same time he to me doesn't sound to confident in our abilities to do so.

[ellicottraven]

Nothing is easy, especially making the playoffs with so much parity in the NFL. The other important thing that people seem to discount, is that games are won through some consistent play makers on both offense and defense. Unfortunately, the Ravens over the past 7=8 yrs haven't drafted such elite play makers for two reasons.

One they typically picked in the low first rounds and two they haven't been lucky finding players like Antonio Brown, AJ Green, LeVeon Bell, etc. But, hopefully, with the selection of Mosley, Williams, Jernigan on defense and Dixon, Chris Moore and Stanley this year, the tide will turn in our favor again.

When we made the playoffs 6-8 years, most were accomplished by seasoned super stars like Ed Reed and Ray Lewis. We need a few of those caliber players to sustain our historic excellence as a playoff contender.

[757RavensFan]

Quote

“Go shopping for bargains,” wrote ESPN’s Bill Barnwell. “Just like your friend who buys all the half-price candy [the] day after Halloween, the Ravens love a good bargain when they find one.”

After reading Barnwell's AFC North off-season report card, I would never take ANYTHING he says serious.  

[100CrystalClear]

Heck, bring Cary Williams back. 

NO to that.

[GENE2407]

Hope there's a #1 and #3 cornerback sitting on the market. We didn't bother to draft any.

[PurplenBlackFan2392]

Hope there's a #1 and #3 cornerback sitting on the market. We didn't bother to draft any.

Tillman or Finnegan could be a number 3 corner, J.smith is Our #1 Corner already.

[GENE2407]

This whole article is about our dire need at CB and ILB. Could have solved that for years with Ramsey and Myles Jack. We blew it.

[berad]

1 minute ago, GENE2407 said:

This whole article is about our dire need at CB and ILB. Could have solved that for years with Ramsey and Myles Jack. We blew it.

Then the articles would be about LT/LG and pass rusher. Let's see how it shakes out.

[PurplenBlackFan2392]

This whole article is about our dire need at CB and ILB. Could have solved that for years with Ramsey and Myles Jack. We blew it.

Ransey is too raw and a work in progress and Jack himself said he might not last past two season. We couldn't risk that. He is more Risk than Reward.

[budman]

25 minutes ago, 757RavensFan said:

After reading Barnwell's AFC North off-season report card, I would never take ANYTHING he says serious.

He did get our cap situation right. So there's that.

[BmoreB]

Funny, people just can't let this Ramsey thing go. He is not the second coming of Deion Sanders.

#3careerpickslol
#letitgo

[rmcjacket23]

8 minutes ago, budman said:

He did get our cap situation right. So there's that.

Did he? Pretty sure that was the biggest knock on his article... completely misunderstanding of our cap situation.

[budman]

Just now, rmcjacket23 said:

Did he? Pretty sure that was the biggest knock on his article... completely misunderstanding of our cap situation.

The why we did's and what we had to do's seemed about right.

[rmcjacket23]

8 minutes ago, budman said:

The why we did's and what we had to do's seemed about right.

And thats fine, but the problem people have with the article is his "what went wrong" section just factually isn't accurate. 

His implication that our cap situation is a mess is a complete joke and isn't supported by any factual information whatsoever. For starters, he claims we only have like $1.6M in cap space, which I literally have no idea where he got that number from. Even after signing all of our draft picks (we've signed most, except for the costliest one in Stanley), we will have probably 6 times that amount to spend. We've been north of $5-6M I believe ever since Joe's extension, so its not like this is some sort of new revelation.

People would take his article more seriously if he actually pointed out some of the more "questionable" areas on this team, such as the fact that it doesn't appear we upgraded our Cornerback position much outside of adding a 4th round rookie, and that, while we did add Weddle who's a proven player, we are also shifting Webb to safety full time and there are obvious concerns there.

Or point out that we haven't replaced Daryl Smith and have question marks at linebacker, and that our receiving core is largely depending on an aging veteran and a rookie recovering from significant injuries.

There's plenty of "questions" this team still has. Just seems to me that making up salary cap problems that don't really exist isn't the best way to go there.

Edited May 12, 2016 by rmcjacket23

[stixfix69]

Could haves and should haves should be looked at the end of the year, no one knows which rookies will be as advertised.....Yeah, i liked Jack a lot and would have liked to have drafted him, but i have a lot of faith in our scouts and FO as well as the medical staff in making the decisions they made on the players we drafted........Way to early to say if we made a mistake on not picking a player, or the ones we picked....

[bioLarzen]

I do think the Bengals will once again be tough to beat - either in the Bank or on the road. And, of course, I never count a steelers-game as an easy one either - but the steelers, however good their O potentially is (because it is), there is one flaw to it that might be fatal for them: they are too dependent on 3 guys. Any one of the Roethlisberger-Brown-Bell trio goes down and misses games, it's a drastically reduced strength O we're talking about. And Bell seems to be a bit more injury-prone than what the steelers fans would like to see. Ben is tough, but seldom finishes a season with no missed games - and strangely, the Ravens D seems to have Antonio Brown's number... While AJ Green comes up with one or two circus catches and TD's out of nowhere (see the hail mary TD 3 seasons ago...) against us, Brown seems strangely numb abainst us - at least compared to how well and effectively he plays in the games before and after the Ravnes-outings...

So, I don't think much is gonna change in the division: the Bengals are going to be the team to beat, and the steelers are gonna be the team to match - and hopefully sweep. If all goes according to one of the better scenarios, the last game, our usual outing in Cincinatti, won't really matter: we1ll already be in the playoffs.

[bioLarzen]

Funny, people just can't let this Ramsey thing go. He is not the second coming of Deion Sanders.

#3careerpickslol
#letitgo

Well, we can't know that now, can we?

That said, I don't thnik we should have traded up for him, either.

And time will tell who's right.

[bioLarzen]

  31 minutes ago, GENE2407 said:

Hope there's a #1 and #3 cornerback sitting on the market. We didn't bother to draft any.

Tillman or Finnegan could be a number 3 corner, J.smith is Our #1 Corner already.

I would hate to see Finnegan in Baltimore. The guy's been proud to be an annoyance on the field - and not in the good way...

[bioLarzen]

  1 hour ago, 757RavensFan said:

Heck, bring Cary Williams back. 

NO to that.

Absolutely. He's been serviceable back then... but nothing really since. Maybe, if there's no competition for him, so he could be hauled in on the cheap...

[budman]

4 minutes ago, rmcjacket23 said:

And thats fine, but the problem people have with the article is his "what went wrong" section just factually isn't accurate.

His implication that our cap situation is a mess is a complete joke and isn't supported by any factual information whatsoever. For starters, he claims we only have like $1.6M in cap space, which I literally have no idea where he got that number from. Even after signing all of our draft picks (we've signed most, except for the costliest one in Stanley), we will have probably 6 times that amount to spend. We've been north of $5-6M I believe ever since Joe's extension, so its not like this is some sort of new revelation.

People would take his article more seriously if he actually pointed out some of the more "questionable" areas on this team, such as the fact that it doesn't appear we upgraded our Cornerback position much outside of adding a 4th round rookie, and that, while we did add Weddle who's a proven player, we are also shifting Webb to safety full time and there are obvious concerns there.

Or point out that we haven't replaced Daryl Smith and have question marks at linebacker, and that our receiving core is largely depending on an aging veteran and a rookie recovering from significant injuries.

There's plenty of "questions" this team still has. Just seems to me that making up salary cap problems that don't really exist isn't the best way to go there.

I get ya. The only parts that rang true were the situations we were in when we extended Flacco , Yanda, Pitta and even Monroe. Our cap is o.k now but what happens later? Didn't Pittsburgh have that problem too?

Edited May 12, 2016 by budman

[bioLarzen]

1 hour ago, PurplenBlackFan2392 said:

Honestly I'd be ecstatic if we signed Cortland or Tillman they would bring toughness experience and real game to a thin CB position!

Finnegan wouldn't bring back toughness - he'd bring in cheapness and dirty moves.
Also, he's been on the wrong side of the hill for at least two seasons now. He's had his last INT in 2013, and accounts for a whopping 18 in his 10-year career - that's less than 2 per season, with 4 INT's the last 4 seasons... (Yep, I know INT's are by far not the only stat thats important for CB's - but they are usually a good indicator...)

Edited May 12, 2016 by bioLarzen

[bioLarzen]

1 hour ago, PurplenBlackFan2392 said:

Imagine if Flacco, Suggs, Smith and CO. all come back 100% and playing at the level the left off at, We Are going to be a Dangerous Team.

Yep, we can imagine that - but we'd be fooling ourselves if we hoped for a season without injuries - or even without some key injuries... Something will happen... because something bad always happens, there's no full strength roster in the NFL during a season.

Edited May 12, 2016 by bioLarzen

[rmcjacket23]

1 minute ago, budman said:

I get ya. The only parts that rang true were the situations we were in when we extended Flacco , Yanda, Pitta and even Monroe. Our cap is o.k now but what happens later? Didn't Pittsburgh have that problem too?

Well, with guys like Pitta and Monroe... we already know the answer. They'll likely be gone soon and the cap problems will go away. Joe's cap situations isn't going to dramatically increase any longer... it will go up, but the cap will rise annually by significantly more than Joe's deal will increase.

The cap problems were bigger issues in the last 2-3 years than they will be going forward. We only gave out one significant long term extension between the 2011 and 2012 draft classes.

[budman]

Just now, rmcjacket23 said:

Well, with guys like Pitta and Monroe... we already know the answer. They'll likely be gone soon and the cap problems will go away. Joe's cap situations isn't going to dramatically increase any longer... it will go up, but the cap will rise annually by significantly more than Joe's deal will increase.

The cap problems were bigger issues in the last 2-3 years than they will be going forward. We only gave out one significant long term extension between the 2011 and 2012 draft classes.

Agree. I guess to have 20,30million or more in Cap space like some teams came in with this year, means that your team must stink for a few years and do nothing major about it.

[bioLarzen]

  8 minutes ago, rmcjacket23 said:

Well, with guys like Pitta and Monroe... we already know the answer. They'll likely be gone soon and the cap problems will go away. Joe's cap situations isn't going to dramatically increase any longer... it will go up, but the cap will rise annually by significantly more than Joe's deal will increase.

The cap problems were bigger issues in the last 2-3 years than they will be going forward. We only gave out one significant long term extension between the 2011 and 2012 draft classes.

Agree. I guess to have 20,30million or more in Cap space like some teams came in with this year, means that your team must stink for a few years and do nothing major about it.

Sometimes FO's do it on purpose, to stash free cap space for a future period. The Raiders seem to have done just this, the Panthers, the Jags... So, it's not always a bad strategy... although not an automatic winner, either :)