Devin Hester is trying out...Hester Signed!!!

[bosso_fataka]

Can´t believe this is true. I thought the cuts were hard enough anyway, a slightly injured 33 y/o that can only return over guys like Campanaro, Ochi etc? Can´t be true, surely?

[Sami84]

we really overrate the KO returner job..i think it actually puts ridiculous pressure on anyone trying out.

Edited September 3, 2016 by Sami84

[rmw10]

 

[K-Dog]

Not sure how I feel about this.

[BmoreBird22]

4 minutes ago, K-Dog said:

Not sure how I feel about this.

I feel pretty good. It must mean his toe is about as healthy as it was in 2014 and given the new kickoff rules, kickoff returns are going to be more important than ever.

[BSHU_Miami]

I love it, 10 years too late. Hester is the GOAT

[rmw10]

I like it solely for the fact that I trust Hester back there to make smart decisions and actually catch the ball.  Ever since Jacoby left, we've cycled through returners.  I'm sure everyone here can attest to being worried every single time on whether a guy was actually going to field the ball cleanly and hold on to it through the return.  We've been missing that for a long time, and Hester should help ease those nerves.  He's not what he once was, but he should be a steady option back there for us.

[ALPHA]

If this were 2008 I would be super excited.

[bosso_fataka]

I honestly can´t belive this. Not at the same scale as we don´t give up anything, except a roster spot for Butler or Brooks, which is bad enough, but it feels like the same panic move as the Bradford trade and similar.

[GrimCoconut]

This could be a good move. We need a returner with the new rule change and Campanaro just doesn't cut it.  Hopefully it works out.  There's no bad signing this time of year.  

[Sami84]

15 minutes ago, rmw10 said:

I like it solely for the fact that I trust Hester back there to make smart decisions and actually catch the ball.  Ever since Jacoby left, we've cycled through returners.  I'm sure everyone here can attest to being worried every single time on whether a guy was actually going to field the ball cleanly and hold on to it through the return.  We've been missing that for a long time, and Hester should help ease those nerves.  He's not what he once was, but he should be a steady option back there for us.

 

btw..jacoby was not sure handed and it was more about the ST blocking that allowed him to make those returns. Our ST was elite. Its more about the ST unit than the kick returner..hester WAS more of a natural and being elusive but he is so past it now it's ridiculous..31 other teams said No to a guy that was once the best of all time in his positon. It's not because every other team has a good kick returner..its because hester is DONE/

[rmw10]

Just now, Sami84 said:

btw..jacoby was not sure handed and it was more about the ST blocking that allowed him to make those returns. Our ST was elite. Its more about the ST unit than the kick returner..hester WAS more of a natural and being elusive but he is so past it now it's ridiculous..31 other teams said No to a guy that was once the best of all time in his positon. It's not because every other team has a good kick returner..its because hester is DONE/

Yet you've been complaining about making roster decisions with ST being a determining factor...?

[Tank 92]

lol.....How could someone be so wrong so much of the time.  smh

Anyway, If Hester is healthy this is great. He is an immediate upgrade and I'm guessing we are getting him on the cheap. 

[Sami84]

6 minutes ago, rmw10 said:

Yet you've been complaining about making roster decisions with ST being a determining factor...?

yeah my point is that this ST unit looks pretty weak. So hester..esp at this age will probably be an abomination. Why waste a spot when it could be used on promising young player? We are already old as it is!

Edited September 4, 2016 by Sami84

[baltimorefan328]

The average age of the Ravens is 26.4 years old. Players older than that include Flacco and Yanda, who I am sure most would argue have at least a few more good years ahead of them. Steve Smith will be gone next year. If Boyle and Waller come back to the team after their suspensions both are younger than 26. If you want to argue that Ravens don't have a ton of the huge impact players under 26 we are used to, that argument can be made. But I think it's a stretch to say the Ravens are old. Bringing on Hester doesn't suddenly make the Ravens old.

[Sami84]

8 minutes ago, baltimorefan328 said:

The average age of the Ravens is 26.4 years old. Players older than that include Flacco and Yanda, who I am sure most would argue have at least a few more good years ahead of them. Steve Smith will be gone next year. If Boyle and Waller come back to the team after their suspensions both are younger than 26. If you want to argue that Ravens don't have a ton of the huge impact players under 26 we are used to, that argument can be made. But I think it's a stretch to say the Ravens are old. Bringing on Hester doesn't suddenly make the Ravens old.

 

It's also about how important the older players are. If you look at the starting lineups the average age goes considerably up.

[terps85]

58 minutes ago, BmoreBird22 said:

I feel pretty good. It must mean his toe is about as healthy as it was in 2014 and given the new kickoff rules, kickoff returns are going to be more important than ever.

If by this you mean he looks really good taking a knee, then I agree.

[BmoreBird22]

Just now, terps85 said:

If by this you mean he looks really good taking a knee, then I agree.

They won't be kicking that far into the end zone anymore. I don't know if you noticed, by Tucker routinely kicked to the one to one yard deep in the end zone to ensure a return.

The new kickoff rules aren't going to encourage kickers to kick a touchback.

[CTFan]

Hester isn't that much older than Usain Bolt. Just sayin'. 

[Sami84]

3 minutes ago, CTFan said:

Hester isn't that much older than Usain Bolt. Just sayin'. 

lmao

[terps85]

Just now, BmoreBird22 said:

They won't be kicking that far into the end zone anymore. I don't know if you noticed, by Tucker routinely kicked to the one to one yard deep in the end zone to ensure a return.

The new kickoff rules aren't going to encourage kickers to kick a touchback.

Yeah, that's on way of looking at it.  Warren Sharp (guy on Twitter who puts out a book every year with tons of advanced stats, metrics, etc) wrote an article on how every team should kickoff this way now.  But, the NFL is full of stubborn and conservative coaches who most likely will just kick in the endzone.  Also, the Ravens kick coverage was atrocious in the preseason so I'm skeptical they'll even do that in the regular season.

[Ravensuperfan1]

Great signing. We haven't had a good returner since Jacoby left

[ERey]

On 9/2/2016 at 11:33 AM, January J said:

Very interesting. One play could have potentially sealed camps fate. I doubt it- but its now questionable.

It's possible. Given Campanaro's injury history my guess is he really had to be perfect on kick returns. Watching a guy who gets injured often fumble twice on one play was painful.

[codizzle]

Just catch the ball and you're okay with me Hester 

[BmoreBird22]

7 minutes ago, terps85 said:

Yeah, that's on way of looking at it.  Warren Sharp (guy on Twitter who puts out a book every year with tons of advanced stats, metrics, etc) wrote an article on how every team should kickoff this way now.  But, the NFL is full of stubborn and conservative coaches who most likely will just kick in the endzone.  Also, the Ravens kick coverage was atrocious in the preseason so I'm skeptical they'll even do that in the regular season.

They're rotating a bunch of units and we didn't consistently see aces like McClellan, Levine, or Juice out there, so the coverage doesn't worry me.

[GrimCoconut]

1 minute ago, BmoreBird22 said:

They're rotating a bunch of units and we didn't consistently see aces like McClellan, Levine, or Juice out there, so the coverage doesn't worry me.

Do you think McClellan, Levine, and Juszczyk will see ST this year? I know I personally think we just held them out of ST work since we know what we have in them already and wanted to give other guys a chance to impress and make the team by showing what they can do on ST. Despite the fact that McClellan should be a starter at OLB in run defense, and that Levine will be our dime, I think both will be used a lot on ST and primarily still on ST. The same goes for Juszczyk. 

[BmoreBird22]

14 minutes ago, GrimCoconut said:

Do you think McClellan, Levine, and Juszczyk will see ST this year? I know I personally think we just held them out of ST work since we know what we have in them already and wanted to give other guys a chance to impress and make the team by showing what they can do on ST. Despite the fact that McClellan should be a starter at OLB in run defense, and that Levine will be our dime, I think both will be used a lot on ST and primarily still on ST. The same goes for Juszczyk. 

I would be pretty upset if they weren't out there. I'm just giving a rough guess, but they might play 10-15 ST's snaps at most and those plays last no more than 10 seconds. 

I don't see any reason for them not to play ST's. The Ravens have consistently fielded one of the best ST's units in the NFL and I wouldn't want that to change.

[GrimCoconut]

2 minutes ago, BmoreBird22 said:

I would be pretty upset if they weren't out there. I'm just giving a rough guess, but they might play 10-15 ST's snaps at most and those plays last no more than 10 seconds. 

I don't see any reason for them not to play ST's. The Ravens have consistently fielded one of the best ST's units in the NFL and I wouldn't want that to change.

Yeah, sounds like you and I are of like mind on that. You play your best guys, and none of those guys are in a role that would see their snaps decrease. We've seen Webb field punts for years because nobody was better and he was a starting CB with injury issues. Same goes for Antonio Brown. 

[Ravensfan23]

6 minutes ago, GrimCoconut said:

Do you think McClellan, Levine, and Juszczyk will see ST this year? I know I personally think we just held them out of ST work since we know what we have in them already and wanted to give other guys a chance to impress and make the team by showing what they can do on ST. Despite the fact that McClellan should be a starter at OLB in run defense, and that Levine will be our dime, I think both will be used a lot on ST and primarily still on ST. The same goes for Juszczyk. 

I think they'll see plenty of snaps on ST. With Levine he won't see many snaps on defense as the Dime guy unless the Ravens plan to make that an major defensive package which I don't see. So you may see him about 5-10 times a game in Dime imo. He'll still see plenty of ST snaps. 

McClellan will still see ST snaps as well, maybe not as much as he's used to but he'll still see snaps imo. Upshaw saw about 80 ST snaps in both 14' and `15' playing in the same role McClellan will fill. Also I don't think McClellan handles that role exclusively, I think both Correa and Carter, depending on who's active, will add to that position as well on defense. So he won't play as many defensive snaps as Upshaw. 

As for Juice, no reason why his role would and should change, so I agree all those guys will continue to be key ST guys. If anything CJ probably won't see as much time on ST as he has before, meaning guys like Correa and Carter will have to play more on ST. 

[rmw10]

23 minutes ago, GrimCoconut said:

Do you think McClellan, Levine, and Juszczyk will see ST this year? I know I personally think we just held them out of ST work since we know what we have in them already and wanted to give other guys a chance to impress and make the team by showing what they can do on ST. Despite the fact that McClellan should be a starter at OLB in run defense, and that Levine will be our dime, I think both will be used a lot on ST and primarily still on ST. The same goes for Juszczyk. 

Think they're all out there most of the time, but might not see every single snap.  I think that applies more to someone like McClellan since he actually has somewhat of a starting role.