State of the Ravens going into 2017

[LosT_in_TranSlatioN]

In a lot better position than last year. Granted we need to find a replacement for Steve and another edge rusher, but if we can find a new OC we should be very good next season. We need to sharpen up on the interior, find an OLB, and another corner(I'd go find two. One slot guy and some insurance for if/when Jimmy goes down). Honestly, WR is the least of my worries. 

 

While the rest of y'all overreact we're not too far off. 

[ravefan52]

For like the third year in a row we still need another good OLB, CB and WR. Please do not fork over a bunch of money for Williams, resign Wagner and add another good interior OL too.

Theres a lot of pieces in places and a lot of impact players on rookie deals for the next couple years. We're in great shape if Ozzie produces a good offseason.

[52520Andrew]

7 minutes ago, LosT_in_TranSlatioN said:

In a lot better position than last year. Granted we need to find a replacement for Steve and another edge rusher, but if we can find a new OC we should be very good next season. We need to sharpen up on the interior, find an OLB, and another corner(I'd go find two. One slot guy and some insurance for if/when Jimmy goes down). Honestly, WR is the least of my worries. 

 

While the rest of y'all overreact we're not too far off. 

I miss your Ravens fan flow chart. So accurate

[Purple_ICE 81]

Try and resign Brandon Williams and continue to beef up this defense. If we add the right pieces to it, we could develop a Seahawks/Broncos type of reliable defense that we could ride to the playoffs. We had a solid D this year but were typically a bend but don't break unit even though a few times we got broke for sure including tonight.  DB depth and pass rush are areas that definitely need improvement. I would hope the number 1 priority heading into the offseason would be to get our hands on another solid CB, given how often Jimmy is hurt and how terrible our CBs are who try and take over for him. Scrap Webb, scrap Shareece Wright and Powers and add some better guys....Sure easier said than done but our secondary needs depth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DeQuawn]

This Whole Season Up To Now... Ive Been Seeing The Same Thing Game In Game Out... Weak Wrs And No Freaking Pass Rush.. We're Not Clucth At All.. And Ozzie Needs To Realize This And Make The Proper Adjustments... Call Up Wes Weller.. Call Up Megatron.. "What Would  Belichick Do?? " Is What John Should Be Asking Himself.. Championship Teams Make Championship Moves.. On And Off The Field.. And On Defense We Definitely Need Some  Young True Pass Rushers 

And One More CB Because Wright Can Not Cover NOTHING... We Just Gota Make These Moves To Completely Build The Team I Know We Can Be.. Lets Work 

[Deflated Football]

I'll take a crack at this since I was right about us signing Weddle and Wallace when a lot of members said there was no way in hell.

1.) Sign Brandon Marshall. He's having a down year, but he has had abysmal QB play. He's that guy that can go over the middle or physically manhandle any DB on any route. The Jets want to clean house and rebuild, and he could be a cut candidate. Perfect target for Flacco.

2.) Trade for Kyle Fuller. Cut Shareece and PLEASE don't re-sign Powers. Have Jimmy and Tavon on the outsides with Fuller in the slot. Address the rest of the position in the draft or free agency (cap casualties, UFA's, etc). 

3.) Cut Pitta. His time here is done. Maxx, Waller and Boyle needs more reps. I cannot emphasize this enough. I'm not sold on Crockett.

4.) Cut Doom. He's ineffective, slow and oft-injured. Unleash the beast that is Judon. I think Sizz still has one more season left and we can find his replacement in next years draft, or have Correa put in a lot of work in the offseason because his first step is insane and we need him to realize his potential.

5.) End Jabrill Peppers' slide and select the versatile monster who can also be a force in the return game. If he's not there, take Mike Williams. Him, Brandon Marshall, Mike Wallace, Breshad, Campanaro and Moore. Not bad. 

6.) Cut Zuttah. He gets pushed back into Flacco way too often and draws too many drive killing penalties. Draft Ethan Pocic in the second and beef him up. Look how he helped Fournette. 

7.) Fire Pees and go hard after Gus Bradley, Chuck Pagano (if he's fired), Rex Ryan (if he's fired), or literally anyone else. I'm sick of his crap. 

8.) I'm willing to give Marty one more season unless Hue Jackson or Mike McCoy become available. 

I'm sure I can think of more, but I'm absolutely drained from tonights heartbreaking loss. Onto 2017! 

[I AM LEGEND]

It's gut check time. We have been a historically good team during our 20 year existence and more specifically the harbaugh/ flacco era...but missing the playoffs 3 of the last 4 years is not good. Period. There's no way you can look at the product that was put out on the field this year and look at it with a "glass half full" mind state.

 

1. Our highly compensated QB looked very bad for a majority of the season. 

2. The team remains highly penalized and poorly coached at the worse moments.

3. The front office has continued to fail to add QUALITY depth to this team following the mass exodus of the Superbowl squad.

 

And lastly...there's not 1 area or one unit of this team outside of Justin Tucker that can provide the organization and fans with a sense of ease and satisfaction if things stayed the same for the 17-18 season. Every area needs remodeling.

Here's just a couple things out of the 100 things I want the front office to do.

1. Handle Joe Flacco completely different then whatever they have been doing. If they've been babying him,stop. If they've been tough on him, stop. Whatever they're doing. Do the exact opposite. And draft a QB sometime before the 4th. Flacco has to know there's a potential successor coming. He needs competition.

2. Doom. Webb. Bye.

3. Fix this CB situation. When Jimmy was out we had no chance. One person should not mean that much to a corp. I get it. He's good. But depending on one person shows how little work the F.O. has actually done.

 4. FIX THIS OFFENSIVE LINE. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of seeing Hurst. Tired of seeing 

Zuttah. Tired of not getting any push. Tired of Flacco supporters using it as an excuse. 

5. Make a splash somewhere. If u don't see or like a complete stud in the draft at any of these positions....OL, OLB, CB or WR...go TAKE one. Make a team an offer they can't refuse. Do something!!! Be aggressive in the draft instead of trading out. Offer some picks, something !

This year was kinda disappointing because there was only 2 good teams. The others were right there with us. We prayed for days when Peyton would retire and Brady would get older and we're playing worst then ever.

Ugh! 

[terrynjulia03]

49 minutes ago, Deflated Football said:

I'll take a crack at this since I was right about us signing Weddle and Wallace when a lot of members said there was no way in hell.

1.) Sign Brandon Marshall. He's having a down year, but he has had abysmal QB play. He's that guy that can go over the middle or physically manhandle any DB on any route. The Jets want to clean house and rebuild, and he could be a cut candidate. Perfect target for Flacco.

2.) Trade for Kyle Fuller. Cut Shareece and PLEASE don't re-sign Powers. Have Jimmy and Tavon on the outsides with Fuller in the slot. Address the rest of the position in the draft or free agency (cap casualties, UFA's, etc). 

3.) Cut Pitta. His time here is done. Maxx, Waller and Boyle needs more reps. I cannot emphasize this enough. I'm not sold on Crockett.

4.) Cut Doom. He's ineffective, slow and oft-injured. Unleash the beast that is Judon. I think Sizz still has one more season left and we can find his replacement in next years draft, or have Correa put in a lot of work in the offseason because his first step is insane and we need him to realize his potential.

5.) End Jabrill Peppers' slide and select the versatile monster who can also be a force in the return game. If he's not there, take Mike Williams. Him, Brandon Marshall, Mike Wallace, Breshad, Campanaro and Moore. Not bad. 

6.) Cut Zuttah. He gets pushed back into Flacco way too often and draws too many drive killing penalties. Draft Ethan Pocic in the second and beef him up. Look how he helped Fournette. 

7.) Fire Pees and go hard after Gus Bradley, Chuck Pagano (if he's fired), Rex Ryan (if he's fired), or literally anyone else. I'm sick of his crap. 

8.) I'm willing to give Marty one more season unless Hue Jackson or Mike McCoy become available. 

I'm sure I can think of more, but I'm absolutely drained from tonights heartbreaking loss. Onto 2017! 

You can forget BM. He has a dead cap of 9.5M next year. No way in hell they release him or trade him even, that's a pretty large cap hit. Even for a team wanting to rebuild. Now going into the 2018 season that's a different story, but he'll be 34. We should've made the deal and beat out the Jets before. Prob one of the few guys in the league that actually plays like what we want. VERY few left that play like Mason, Boldin, SSS. 

As for your suggested DCs, pretty sure the odds of Rex coming back here are the same as you winning the powerball. I agree Pees needs to go, but zero chance Rex comes back, or Pagano. I'd rather them pilfer someone from NE, a certain line coach comes to mind, because that D has been amazing this year with a severe lack of talent. Hell they traded their best pass rusher, and they're still swamping teams, including us. 

[JonnyBaltimore]

1) CB via draft. We need 3 good CB's that can play inside and out.

2) O-line

We don't have many holes to fill but we can use a playmaker on either side of the ball. I think the 2015 draft will prove to be one of our better draft years. We have 2 really good backs and we also have Buck Allen who can play as well. 

[JO_75]

Just looking at 2017 from a schedule stand point, we've gotta get the coaching improved. Whether it's a house cleaning(Harbaugh and the entire coaching staff) or just new Coordinators(McCoy, Rex, Norv, Bradley, etc) we can not play the way we did this season. Besides the tough AFC North as I expect the Bengals to bounce back next year. Also play the NFC North where we play the Packers in Green Bay, Vikings in Minnesota.

Sure the AFC South is terrible but we lost to the Jets, we already struggle against the Jags. The Titans were more improved than most thought and almost won their division. Sure the Colts may be the same with Pagano/Grigson but we'll probably struggle against them. We had 2 games undecided until tonight, an AFC East opponent at home, which is the Dolphins. Then play a AFC West team on the road, which will either be Oakland or Kansas City depending on how the AFC West plays out next week. 

We need to improve the DB and Pass Rush with the quarterbacks we play. Andrew Luck, Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Teddy Bridgewater, Mariota, Carr/Alex Smith, Tannehill, and that's on top of Big Ben and Andy Dalton twice a year. Something needs to be done from a coaching standpoint otherwise we'll struggle once again next year. 

Edited December 26, 2016 by JO_75

[terrynjulia03]

Well with coaching obviously Pees needs to go. I think both Harbs and Marty stay, despite some posters wanting them gone. We obviously need a new conditioning coach. Maybe it's the new agreed upon system with the players union but flat out these guys aren't conditioned for 4 quarters. Honestly none of them. Juan needs to be gone also, his best days are long behind him and if you can't get better performance out of a left side with a 1st Rd draft pick and a AllPro, not to mention a Center and RG that used to be halfway respectable, than you need to hang it up. 

Offensively we need to give Zuttah the boot, nice cap savings and he's really done. Honestly I think he retires. I'm giving it a 80/20 that we resign Wagner. Keeping Lewis at LG. See what Urschel can do against the Bengals would be a nice test but they won't do it. Draft another C in the middle rounds.  RB, WR and TE were fine on. Release Pitta. He's done. It would be nice to get another WR, but I'm more on the idea of forcing Joe to get comfortable with who we have, especially getting more consistent with Perriman and Moore. Who both need to take a step forward and not back. 

Defensively. We obviously need either another top corner or pass rusher. Jimmy needs a restructured contract because as good as he is on the field cannot be relied upon. Young is pretty good but he's a 2 and we have squat behind that. So our first 2 picks need to go that direction. Along with S. Pending who's on the board and what direction the new DC wants to take. I honestly think BWill gets a payday somewhere else. Pierce has shown he can handle that spot and I think they'll want to save the money to resign Jerrigan the following year. 

Overall needs: CB(a solid starting corner), Center(possibly filled by Urschel), pass rushing DE, cover OLB, WR, in that order. 

[LosT_in_TranSlatioN]

Ravens Report Card 2016. 
All in all the worst we can do this season is an 8-8 record which is a big improvement over an abysmal 2015 season. Best case scenario is we end the season missing the playoffs with a winning record, which all in all might be enough to save Harbaugh for another season. So here is where we stand. 

1. Marty must be replaced immediately. Face it, our rushing attack sucks. A big part of it is the offensive line(which we'll get to later), but when it is working Marty tends to abandon it entirely. We have an entire thread dedicated to this, but those saying that "Pees is on the same level as Marty" are dead wrong. Pees can be infuriating at times, but all in all he's servicable. Marty isn't, he's horrible. He needs to go. And to the Flacco haters who go "it's not his fault. Flacco is an OC killer". How can he be an OC killer when they never run the damn ball?
2. We need to draft multiple interior offensive linemen/James Hurst must be released immediately. James Hurst sucks. Anyway, we need a new center, and a new guard. Those clamoring for Castillo to be fired: no. Castillo isn't the issue. Ryan Jensen and John Urschel are both very good backups. We actually have very good depth on the oline. Our starters just suck. Stanley is a good player who's going to be very good. Yanda is a borderline hall of famer. Wagner is a solid RT. We need to replace Zuttah, and we need to find a starting caliber LG. They don't have to be world beaters. They just have to be good. This is easier said than done, but in a draft class where the interior is the highlight, this is needed. Make no mistake, this is our biggest need by far. 
3. We need to draft multiple pass rushers. Make no mistakes, Matt Judon is a very good player and a future starter who can get 6-8 sacks a season if made the full time starter. Not a superstar, but a potential above average player. He's another mid round Ozzie jem. Timmy Jernigan has dissapeared in recent weeks pass rushing wise, but when he's on, you can't stop him. But we need another edge rusher. People will (once again) be quick to blame Pees. This isn't on him. We lack a great edge rushing presence and it was evident this season. I wouldn't be surprised if we addressed it in the first round as this is a very good edge rushing class. If you solve the pass rushing, it makes it easier on the defense. 
4. We need to address the cornerback position- If Ozzie reads the forum... OZZIE STOP NEGELCTING THE SECONDARY. He ignores it constantly and it's freaking infuriating. We need a nickel corner. Powers sucks. He's a big reason we lost today. Jimmy and Tavon are both good, but given Jimmy's injury history it would be wise to invest in a more than capable backup. Doesn't have to be a stud, but better than Wright. I'd go pay top dollar for Captain Munnerlyn and draft an outside guy like Chidobe Awuzie in the third round. 
5. We need to find an underneath option for Flacco-He might already be on the roster for all we know, but I'm a fan of Perriman and Williams. I think they're going to be good players. I like Boyle as well. I'm thinking a reliable route runner that can get open over the middle and get the third downs. Most likely a veteran, so a Pierre Garcon type. I think Wallace can be a big play threat and the more Perriman is integrated, the better he gets. 
6. Dennis Pitta and Dumervil need to be released/restructured. Both are old and provide next to nothing anymore. 
7. Another Middle Linebacker must be added. Here me out. I love the passion and fire Zach Orr plays with, and he's a solid coverage backer, but he's gone the way of Crockett Gillmore and John Urschel last season: He's overrated by the fanbase. He's a good football player, but not as good as everyone here thinks. He takes very poor angels in the run game(go back and watch the film, it's there), likewise he drifts too far back on hook and curl zones. Those who are misled by the statlie:  CJ IS FAR AND AWAY BETTER. If there's a guy there that Ozzie thinks can be a good ILB, he's going to take him. Sorry guys.

[ALPHA]

My take is theres 4 changes that need to happen.

1 We need a coaching overhaul with focus on an offensive and defensive mindset, whether that includes Harbaugh depends on who is available. We need people who know what they are doing. 

2 Rebuild the oline starting with the interior, even when Joe had protection this year he rarely played well. Give Flacco a monster ground game and he will play the way we know he can. Next years FA class is terrible.

3 More pass rushers, that means disruptive interior linemen and power edge rushers. Z Smith is not the answer and Kaufusi/KC are way behind the curve. It's time to move on from Doom and maybe even Suggs. This will help our DB situation until we can find the right players.

4 Add some speed to skill positions, if we can clear enough dead weight we can bring in a marquee free agent WR  in the future because we sure don't know how to develop one. Other skills positions can be addressed in the draft and free agency.

Main draft focus: Offensive line, pass rush

Edited December 26, 2016 by ALPHA

[ravensdfan]

10 hours ago, ravens rule said:

Going into flacco's 10th season why is WR still a huge question mark ? 

Partly we ignored it for a long time & secondly, we honestly just aren't good at scouting WR talent. Maybe we need to bring in someone who is.

10 hours ago, Ravens419 said:

I don't think we need a change at OC I think Marty deserves a full offseason to do what's he really wants with this team 

I'm okay sorta with giving Marty another year to institute his own brand of offense.

8 hours ago, LosT_in_TranSlatioN said:

In a lot better position than last year. Granted we need to find a replacement for Steve and another edge rusher, but if we can find a new OC we should be very good next season. We need to sharpen up on the interior, find an OLB, and another corner(I'd go find two. One slot guy and some insurance for if/when Jimmy goes down). Honestly, WR is the least of my worries. 

 

While the rest of y'all overreact we're not too far off. 

You meant if we can find a new DC right?

[Static]

2 years removed from the playoffs.

 

 

sigh

[Gruntled Ravens Fan]

44 minutes ago, Static said:

2 years removed from the playoffs.

 

 

sigh

At the current rate we're going, it'll probably be another 2-3 years before we are serious contenders.

[ALPHA]

1 hour ago, Static said:

2 years removed from the playoffs.

 

 

sigh

You make it sound like we played like the Browns or 49ers, we weren't great but we were competitive, 5 of our 7 losses were close and we never got blown out. If we had coaches who knew what they were doing some of those boneheaded games could have gone our way.

[Militant X 1]

27 minutes ago, Gruntled Ravens Fan said:

At the current rate we're going, it'll probably be another 2-3 years before we are serious contenders.

And that's the reality if things don't change fast.

[Deflated Football]

Pees needs to go. I'm so damn sick of seeing his Corner's playing 10-15 yards off of a WR and they march down the field in little chunks. 

[January J]

12 hours ago, Purple Punishment said:

I haven't posted in a long time. I felt this was a good time to come back. I watched an abysmal offensive game plan ( calling a 5 yard stop route for ALL 3 receivers on a 3rd and 15 ) and a real failure to execute. Flacco cannot hit a receiver in stride. I counted on two hands how many times a receiver had to turn around and or stop his route for the ball. Unacceptable. 

 

On defense, failure to generate any kind of real pass rush. Our corners were meh. If our one strength (stopping the run) held true, we would be looking at being in playoff contention next week. Bell assaulted us when he was needed to pull off a run.

 

We do have some bright spots on offense and defense but we are not a polished product capable of making a playoff run. Especially a deep run.

 

We need a good draft. We had a wonderful opportunity to get a solid pass rusher in the draft and we traded back for Correa who has done what? 2nd rounders should be difference makers. I could go on forever. This team isn't ready to hoist that Lombardi for another 2 years

 

12 hours ago, Gruntled Ravens Fan said:

First off I'd like to say thank you for your service.

While Flacco did suck this game, half of the time he had defenders closing in on him so that could have effected his throwing. Dumervil has probably played his last down for the Ravens, and even if we had Smith, I'm not sure if he would have helped that much because of the lack of pass rush. After the NE game, I think our defense started to question itself after allowing Blount to run over them. I agree we need depth more than anything right now, and theres another topic around here where I questioned our pick of KC over Noah Spence and Myles Jack. Lastly for as bad as we were today at least we're not Denver.

The offense? Flacco sucked this game? Are y'all sure we are taking about the same game? 12/25/16 ? 

[ravensnj]

14 hours ago, jboy19 said:

I feel good about the team at this point. Yeah injuries kinda bit them at the worst times this year, but I dont think the FAs are that significant this year. No disrespect to Williams or Wagner, but I feel decent about their potential replacements- Pierce and Lewis. Juice coming back probably depends on who the next OC is. The biggest needs are probably at OLB, WR, and CB (like always), but I don't think we need any unnecessary draft reaches or overpays.

I feel better than I did 2 hours ago and I'm already excited for the draft and offseason. 

We need a mauler at Center, too.

[ravensnj]

2 hours ago, Gruntled Ravens Fan said:

At the current rate we're going, it'll probably be another 2-3 years before we are serious contenders.

We were a Wr or Cb away this year. Every loss came from either lack of Wr play or lack of Cb depth.

[AsianRice]

we need another corner like Jimmy Smith since one single CB is the cornerstone of the defense....

[jboy19]

20 minutes ago, ravensnj said:

We need a mauler at Center, too.

Wouldn't complain about an upgrade at center obviously. But, Zuttah isn't bad enough to make that a top need. 

[polynesian15]

14 hours ago, Ravens419 said:

I really just want a WR if we get a big ticket WR and another CB I'll content with us going into next season 

Dude, we NEED outside pass rush... really bad! Better O-line and give Breshad more time to develop, I think he'll be good.

Top draft needs imo: edge rush, O-line, secondary... after that another WR wouldn't hurt.

Just as important, coaching (duties) needs to improve/change.

[Purple Punishment]

1 hour ago, January J said:

 

The offense? Flacco sucked this game? Are y'all sure we are taking about the same game? 12/25/16 ? 

I think he performed at an average level. I don't think he sucked but he's clearly not worth his salary with the throws he's attempting

[JonnyBaltimore]

13 hours ago, Purple_ICE 81 said:

Try and resign Brandon Williams and continue to beef up this defense. If we add the right pieces to it, we could develop a Seahawks/Broncos type of reliable defense that we could ride to the playoffs. We had a solid D this year but were typically a bend but don't break unit even though a few times we got broke for sure including tonight.  DB depth and pass rush are areas that definitely need improvement. I would hope the number 1 priority heading into the offseason would be to get our hands on another solid CB, given how often Jimmy is hurt and how terrible our CBs are who try and take over for him. Scrap Webb, scrap Shareece Wright and Powers and add some better guys....Sure easier said than done but our secondary needs depth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Powers is a UFA, so likely he will be gone for 2017. Webb will be entering his last year, but if we can restructure him to reduce his cap hit, it would be ok. For a 1st year transition, I think he played pretty good. Wright won't be cut as he is signed for a few more years, and the dead money is not worth it. 

I expect Dumervil, Arrington, Kendrick Lewis to be cut for cap reasons. We have too many TE's on the roster (Watson, Pitta, Boyle, Gillmore, Waller, Williams). From a cap point of view, Watson is likely the odd man out.

We have 2 really good RB's so I expect us to shore up the O-line. If we can get a Centre in the draft and if we can resign Wagner for a reasonable price, I think it would be good. I would not rule out cutting Wallace as well from a cap point of view, especially if we re-sign Wagner at RT. A move like this will mean, we will go back to our predominantly run heavy offence.

[JonnyBaltimore]

We are also missing our 2nd and 3rd round draft picks from this year that theoretically should help our pass rush and we have Z Smith.

[donkeyking64]

I think it's CENTER, Corner, Pass Rusher.

I don't know what kind of playmaker you need for Joe. This season Ravens had a plethora of options.

• I love Crocket but I'm not sure what needs to happen if he's never healthy.
• Camp same thing - we get to see what he's capable of but he's never healthy.
• ZoBot (Taliaferro)has been around for 3 seasons and every year ends up either on IR or not suiting up.

I don't know if Joe had too many options and therefore didn't know who his go-to-guy is. One day it's all Wallace. Another it's all SSS. Another it's all Pitta. I think there are pass catching options and Dixon is going to breakout just like RR broke out in his 2nd season. Waller showed us what he can do and John Boyle showed us he can block and make plays. Max Williams will be there as well so someone can even be used as trade bait if necessary. Man - Benjamin Watson may even be there.

The issue is one of efficiency and balance. And as you stated, if we get an INTERIOR LINEMAN - specifically CENTER, we may be able to run the ball and control games the way the Cowgir....boys are doing right now.

But to be 100% honest, the pieces are there on offense. They need to be utilized in the most effective way. The Cowboys have an explosive RB and Dez Bryant gets double teamed all day long. If you play your offense right, you don't really need "an explosive" whatever whatever. Certainly is a nice to have, but not required.  

Playmakers are needed on DEFENSE. Judon is a baaad baaad man in the making.We need our version of Khalil Mack or Von Miller opposite him. And we need another version of Tavon.

And I would not be salty if the entire draft class was interior lineman, corner, pass rusher. Maybe I'd take when running back since ZoBot is probably not going to be around again

[Ravens419]

We need to act on Alshon Jeffery or Garçon IMO we need someone to replace SSR period