2016 Training Camp post/Updates

[trevorsteadman]

I love how fierce these inside linebackers are playing with. Keep it up bring back the hard hitting Raven ways!

[Guest]

Mmmmmmm the coffee is good this morning.

Coffee is proof that God loves us.

Kinda hard to make this post, because on its face it appears to go against a pledge, but I'll do this one because I think its a very  "Rookie Signifcant" play. Besides, I love film. It doesn't lie.  It may not depict what one think it does, but it never attempts to distort the truth within it.  In the linked video pay close attention @ 25 seconds in.  There's a play where our two  top picks are in it on opposite sides of the line.  They don't shine, but there's a silver lining because both ZaDarius and Wagner look excellent.  Of course that was against rookies.

Hand slap Free Pass and Ride him out

 

Edited August 2, 2016 by Danny D

[JoeyFlex5]

45 minutes ago, KBoum said:

yeah he doenst have the body to play the edge in the NFL at 240-250. Thats why the move to ILB in 3-4 is a good move and would be even better SAM in a 4-3 Under imo. But he's still very versatile, fiercy agressive player and looks like he's a baller. Lots of people said it during the draft but Boise State couldnt not use him worst than they did. Boise never are able to use good defensive player to their strenghts

I think most of us knew that, but also remember that if he's playing edge, he has no business on the right side, he belongs on the left where I still think he could be alright, he's just not a strong side guy in a 34 to me, too heavy a position and weak side is more finesse and explosion.

[trevorsteadman]

2 minutes ago, JoeyFlex5 said:

I think most of us knew that, but also remember that if he's playing edge, he has no business on the right side, he belongs on the left where I still think he could be alright, he's just not a strong side guy in a 34 to me, too heavy a position and weak side is more finesse and explosion.

Yep just like what many compared him to in the pre-draft process.... Clay Matthews... Versatile and explosive and can play outside but he will have to be mainly used on th weak side to get around the tackle or will be used in the middle like we have been. With Suggs and Dumervil on the outside there is no reason to have him there in the first place. Get as many pass rushers on the field at once that you can. 

[JoeyFlex5]

3 minutes ago, trevorsteadman said:

Yep just like what many compared him to in the pre-draft process.... Clay Matthews... Versatile and explosive and can play outside but he will have to be mainly used on th weak side to get around the tackle or will be used in the middle like we have been. With Suggs and Dumervil on the outside there is no reason to have him there in the first place. Get as many pass rushers on the field at once that you can. 

I really strongly agree with the Matthews comparison too. Its spot on. 

[trevorsteadman]

3 minutes ago, JoeyFlex5 said:

I really strongly agree with the Matthews comparison too. Its spot on. 

While Correa already sounds like an upgrade from last season already just think of how many turnovers he may add because of his versatility and the fact teams cannot count on him being in a certain position every play. I wouldn't be surprised if he adds 3-4 turnovers himself next season. That is even without talking about Weddle who probably adds a few himself.

[bravensfan52]

Should I be concerned that no one is talking about Stanley ?

[Jacquouille]

3 minutes ago, bravensfan52 said:

Should I be concerned that no one is talking about Stanley ?

The less you hear about him, the better. 

[trevorsteadman]

5 minutes ago, bravensfan52 said:

Should I be concerned that no one is talking about Stanley ?

You will never hear a peep about offensive linemen unless they totally suck or throw everyone across M&T Bank Stadium

[JoeyFlex5]

9 minutes ago, bravensfan52 said:

Should I be concerned that no one is talking about Stanley ?

The sweet sound of silence. That tends to be the ultimate sign of a good performance by a OT.

[rmw10]

10 minutes ago, bravensfan52 said:

Should I be concerned that no one is talking about Stanley ?

Zrebiec said during practice last night that he's held up well overall.  Overpowered a couple of times but nothing glaringly bad.

[January J]

15 hours ago, Tiznut said:

And again it's you using the link to back up your opinion then when pointed out that it doesn't say what you claim it did you now have another excuse. I get it you don't like the guys you haven't heard of but until you post video or coaches expressing concern you have no leg to stand on.  

Not an excuse- just stating the facts. I have heard of the guy and I pull for all of our players.  Coaches wouldn't come out public with anything like that anyway , it would he handled in-house off camera, you know that. As far as anything else - see my last post. Nobody  is saying off with his head or anything of the sort. Just that when 3 veterans all get into a scuffle with the same guy and one of our top prospects gets injured - it COULD be a potential issue and usually where there's smoke there's fire. 

Anyway now that we've beat this topic to death let's move on and talk about something else of actual importance. 

[trevorsteadman]

1 minute ago, rmw10 said:

Zrebiec said during practice last night that he's held up well overall.  Overpowered a couple of times but nothing glaringly bad.

I guess we need to wait and see when Za'Darius Smith isn't our best pass rusher... When Dumervil and Suggs get back then we will see Stanley truly tested.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, trevorsteadman said:

You will never hear a peep about offensive linemen unless they totally suck or throw everyone across M&T Bank Stadium

Maybe

There's a huge organizational investment here. We are talking about the "Key Man".   The guys that you'd expect to report accurately upon this matter are going to give the organization some time before reporting accurately.  One is going to have to review film to draw any conclusions. I've been looking at film regarding our Left Tackle needs for a long time.  Though ultimately, only game 1 of the regular season will begin to define where we are.

[Tiznut]

22 minutes ago, January J said:

Not an excuse- just stating the facts. I have heard of the guy and I pull for all of our players.  Coaches wouldn't come out public with anything like that anyway , it would he handled in-house off camera, you know that. As far as anything else - see my last post. Nobody  is saying off with his head or anything of the sort. Just that when 3 veterans all get into a scuffle with the same guy and one of our top prospects gets injured - it COULD be a potential issue and usually where there's smoke there's fire. 

Anyway now that we've beat this topic to death let's move on and talk about something else of actual importance. 

Again you were asked for proof. You provided a link that only one player tried to fight him and claimed it to show three. After it was pointed out you made up a other excuse and here another one.  

 

Its simple. Come with proof that he's playing dirty which will include video or coaches talking about it or stop trying to address it.   

 

of course I can use your logic and say Correa is playing dirty because of the flacco and pitta getting mad at him..

[757RavensFan]

45 minutes ago, bravensfan52 said:

Should I be concerned that no one is talking about Stanley ?

Observation on Stanley from last night's practice. 

http://russellstreetreport.com/2016/08/02/camp-notes/ronnie-stanley-stands-out/

 

Quote

Of greatest interest were the 11-on-11 drills when my focus was on LT Ronnie Stanley. I’ll simply list out my notes by play:

• Set up well versus Albert McClellan on a long pass to Terrance West.
• Maneuvered Matt Judon around back side of run right
• Combination on Brent Urban then Arthur Brown
• Maintained space vs. Za’Darius Smith’s spin
• Patrolled left without a block until he picked up Victor Ochi (delayed)
• Held off Lawrence Guy effectively
• Needed help from John Urschel as he was beaten inside by Z. Smith. Flacco had an encouraging run right for 10 yards.
• Blocked Carl Davis on stretch right
• Blocked Guy with late (and unnecessary) help from Urschel
• Squared up vs. Guy who rushed delayed after jamming TE
• Conceded space (to Z. Smith?) but reacted well vs spin. As he left the field, Castillo had words with him.
• Held up Guy on 2nd down of 2-minute drill
• Held off Z. Smith on 3rd down
• Backed into pocket by Z. Smith. Pressure, but no hit.
• Pushed Kamalei Correa around pocket effectively. He left the field to more instruction by Castillo.

I don’t see any reason to believe Stanley should not be the starting LT from day 1. His feet are outstanding, his arm length will give some of the bigger physical rushers some problems, and he isn’tJared Gaither big, such that smaller and powerful edge rushers (like Harrison) will be able to take advantage of his high shoulders.

Stanley is an active run blocker who seems to understand wide zone concepts and based on a single rep above (dangerous as hell), I see a player who will make a back-side contribution on run plays, something I like to see from a tackle on either side. I am sure Castillo sees technique issues he’d like to correct, but he’s got to be excited to have a talented, intelligent kid like Ronnie on his line.

Aside from his first performance against live fire next Thursday, we’ll see if he gets an extended audition. If he does not, I would take it as a tremendous show of confidence.

 

[757RavensFan]

Really starting to get concerned about Jimmy Smith.  I know it's early but....

Quote

Duds of the Day

s

Unfortunately cornerback Jimmy Smith has landed in this category far too many times despite Monday night being just the team’s 5th training camp practice. While he may still be taking it easy following offseason surgery, the veteran cornerback hasn’t turned in a solid practice yet. At times he looks lost in the defensive scheme or appears to be disinterested in practice. On several occasions Smith was beaten on short and intermediate routes by Kamar Aiken. As the Ravens enter week two of camp they need Smith to flip the switch and become the shutdown corner they’ve paid for.

Dennis Pitta has been having an outstanding camp since returning to action this offseason following his hip injuries. The tight end appeared to pick up where he left off prior to his injury however the veteran tight end found himself injured once again during Monday’s practice. Pitta, who is naturally calm went after rookie OLB Kamalei Correa following a play and ended up punching the rookie and sprained his thumb in the process. John Harbaugh stated Pitta is likely to miss a few practices.

Arthur Brown continues to drop further and further down the Ravens depth chart at the linebacker position. He is still running with the third team defense and although he has been a solid contributor on special teams he still finds himself making little progress on defense. Brown was beaten in coverage multiple times by tight ends Maxx Williams and Daniel Brown.

 

[trevorsteadman]

12 minutes ago, 757RavensFan said:

Really starting to get concerned about Jimmy Smith.  I know it's early but....

 

I wouldn't get too worried about it. Jimmy is always one of the best players on the defense. He is probably just taking it easy from his surgery. I'm actually surprised he started training camp when his recovery timed lined up about the same day as the start of camp.

[Tiznut]

So Arthur brown part of first cuts?

[rmw10]

1 minute ago, Tiznut said:

So Arthur brown part of first cuts?

Probably.  I think he's just too far gone at this point.  Too many people elevating above him year after year.

[rmcjacket23]

12 hours ago, Danny D said:

 

Kj, I'm a member of the "Bill Parcells" school of evaluation.  I don't believe the W's and L's lie.  I don't believe they deceive and I don't believe they misrepresent.  In Bill Parcell's words, "You are what your record says you are".  Now you can search around in those games for "stats" that support your argument, but NFL Football is very much a Bottom Line endeavor. The Cheatriots are a great example. They scored a lot of points and let in a lot of yards late. But the yards given up in garbage time don't amount to much.  The same is almost always true of other statistics.

If I were going to give advice about analyzing the second half of our past season. I would start by asking who we played in weeks 9-12. I'd note Big Has Ben had a terrible game in week 15 and a rookie beat us in week 16.  Then I'd look at weeks 13 and 14. I'd think that would dispel any notion we are going to be a top Defense this year, but dreams die hard.

LOL, another horrendous example.

1. The "Bill Parcells" school of evaluation is not a good school of evaluation. Not a great coach by any stretch of the imagination, and very, very, very much is NOT considered a strong talent evaluator by anybody. I don't think I have to go back and revisit the extremely pedestrian job he did running the Dolphins for three years, but needless to say, neither I nor anybody else was impressed. 

Couldn't shine Ozzie's shoes in terms of track record of success as a talent evaluator. You just made everybody elses argument for them.

2. The Patriots example you provided also proves why your weak argument earlier (the argument YOU literally said) about points allowed in the 2nd half of the season is irrelevant. The fact that we gave up a lot of points in garbage time (which we did) and we gave up points that had nothing to do with the defense (I get that you don't care, but people who are educated and are paid to care very much do care) are not an accurate representation of a teams performance. You literally just agreed with my entire premise, even though I doubt you realized that.

The whole "you are what you record is" is nice and cute and all, but we weren't even discussing team performance. We were discussing an individual unit's performance. Attempting to determine how positively or negatively a specific unit plays over a period of time by looking at the W/L column is obviously a horrifically lazy approach to analysis (much like the approach people take when evaluating QBs), and I can guarantee Bill Parcells himself (who I also found to be a very lazy, stubborn coach) doesn't share that view with you. Its easy to take a quote from somebody out of context and try to pass it off as universal, but educated people don't fall into that trap, so I'm afraid that didn't work this time for you.

But I guess in the end, the fact that you are an advocate of the Bill Parcells school of evaluation tells me all I ever needed to know. Thank God there aren't many talent evaluators left in the business who think this way. Certainly not a valid approach in today's NFL.

Edited August 2, 2016 by rmcjacket23

[757RavensFan]

32 minutes ago, rmw10 said:

Probably.  I think he's just too far gone at this point.  Too many people elevating above him year after year.

I think he's cut early to give him time to make another team's roster. 

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

Hopefully the skirmishes and rough play by guys like Pitta, Joe, Correa, Jensen, and Z puts to bed any talk that Onwuasor did anything wrong. 

Love to see that kind of fire from everyone. And Joe scrambling to get a first down in TC - awesome. Looked like nothing ever happened to his knee.

After seeing last night, theres something in the air with this team. They're ready. They're hungry. They're fired up. And they know they dont have forever. REALLY getting excited for the season.

[Sami84]

1 minute ago, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

Hopefully the skirmishes and rough play by guys like Pitta, Joe, Correa, Jensen, and Z puts to bed any talk that Onwuasor did anything wrong. 

Love to see that kind of fire from everyone. And Joe scrambling to get a first down in TC - awesome. Looked like nothing ever happened to his knee.

After seeing last night, theres something in the air with this team. They're ready. They're hungry. They're fired up. And they know they dont have forever. REALLY getting excited for the season.

5

lets just hope that half the team isnt injured before the first game..so far a lot of guys seem to be out for 3 weeks based on the injuries that have occured so far.

[trevorsteadman]

3 minutes ago, Sami84 said:

lets just hope that half the team isnt injured before the first game..so far a lot of guys seem to be out for 3 weeks based on the injuries that have occured so far.

Injuries happen, unfortunately, in the game of football. If you practice without hitting people you are going to struggle week 1 trying to hit people. 

[rmcjacket23]

The Baltimore Sun's Jeff Zrebiec reports RB Terrance West has "been the Ravens’ most explosive offensive player."

He added West has also "been the most impressive back so far." It is high praise for West, but it does not come out of the blue. West reportedly shined all spring, and coach John Harbaugh said he did a "great job" during the offseason program. He still faces a tough climb to carries in a loaded backfield, but it sounds like he is well on his way to a roster spot.

 

 

Source: Baltimore Sun

Aug 2 - 11:16 AM

[rmw10]

Just now, rmcjacket23 said:

The Baltimore Sun's Jeff Zrebiec reports RB Terrance West has "been the Ravens’ most explosive offensive player."

He added West has also "been the most impressive back so far." It is high praise for West, but it does not come out of the blue. West reportedly shined all spring, and coach John Harbaugh said he did a "great job" during the offseason program. He still faces a tough climb to carries in a loaded backfield, but it sounds like he is well on his way to a roster spot.

 

 

Source: Baltimore Sun

Aug 2 - 11:16 AM

Glad to see it.  It was probably back in May at this point, but I saw West around Towson and he was in terrific shape.  I'm glad that has seemingly carried over to the field.

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

1 minute ago, rmcjacket23 said:

The Baltimore Sun's Jeff Zrebiec reports RB Terrance West has "been the Ravens’ most explosive offensive player."

He added West has also "been the most impressive back so far." It is high praise for West, but it does not come out of the blue. West reportedly shined all spring, and coach John Harbaugh said he did a "great job" during the offseason program. He still faces a tough climb to carries in a loaded backfield, but it sounds like he is well on his way to a roster spot.

 

 

Source: Baltimore Sun

Aug 2 - 11:16 AM

He was explosive... consistently hit the open hole, was patient and always got positive yards and opened more big ones than anyone else. He looked darn good.

[berad]

Glad for West. Bouncing around the league for 'immaturity' issues was troubling and I'm happy he seems to have righted that ship.

[rmw10]

Unless an injury pops up (and assuming West keeps it up), I see no way that we don't carry 4 RBs this year.  Definitely an oddity under Harbaugh, but that seems to be where the talent is.