[News] Late For Work 12/28: Offseason Changes Are Needed, But Not At Head Coach

[BR News]

Four Ravens offseason changes that should be made. Buffalo Bills fire Rex Ryan and bench Tyrod Taylor. Could Kyle Juszczyk help the fullback position make a comeback?

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[ellicottraven]

I really don't know what ails our Ravens and what needs fixing. I do know one thing though. Harbaugh hasn't been a winning coach since winning the SB and something needs to give. His loyalty to his coaches may be one of the reasons why we are not very good. Harbaugh isn't known for his football acumen with Xs and Os, but is a strong leader and motivator of people. Those are the top qualities needed in a HC and Harbs excels in them. However, he needs to hire the best football coaches available regardless of his knowledge of or closeness to them. The hiring of Trestman over Adam Gase comes to mind as telling of his decision making. Gase is taking the Dolphins into the playoffs and Trestman is fired.
We need a creative offensive mind and I'm all for hiring Rex Ryan as a defensive consultant much like Al Saunders was on offense a few years ago.

[PurpleRainBlackVeins]

I'm not gonna lie. I am one that would love to see Harbaugh go. Never was a fan of him even when we were winning. But if we keep him then ok, my question is will he pull the trigger and really shore up his coaching staff? He's shown me time and time again that he will pass up talented coaches like Shannahan for the opportunity to hire one of his buddies. Time and time again he makes excuses for Joe when he plays poorly, but will call out players like Jernigan and Judon for messing up. I just want to see him hold everyone accountable, coaches and players, and get us back to the team that we once were.

[Warren]

According too coach, four game loosing streak, due to injuries- not any bad in game decisions by Coach.

[OzzieBisciotti]

I don't know what the hype is about Juszczyk - he made one decent run. So what? He can't block that well, and he made the Pro Bowl because there are no full backs in the league.

Also, I don't see Harbs going anywhere, and I don't see him making changes to his staff unless he's forced to. Like I've always said, I think he's been dealt a bad hand with all the bad draft picks Ozzie / DaCosta has made over the past 5-6 years. We can say they had a decent draft last year, but you should hope they would when they had like 50 picks last year.

[Ravensfansince03]

Honestly, it was only a matter of time before Tyrod Taylor would lose that momentum. It's not hard to tell which QB's will last a long time and which QB's will fall off after a few good seasons.

[Ravensfansince03]

I don't know what the hype is about Juszczyk - he made one decent run. So what? He can't block that well, and he made the Pro Bowl because there are no full backs in the league.

Also, I don't see Harbs going anywhere, and I don't see him making changes to his staff unless he's forced to. Like I've always said, I think he's been dealt a bad hand with all the bad draft picks Ozzie / DaCosta has made over the past 5-6 years. We can say they had a decent draft last year, but you should hope they would when they had like 50 picks last year.

Kyle has made the catches, and fought for the yards. In between making those plays, he also BLOCKS for our RB's. He's not the biggest guy, but he plays with the heart of a lion. At first I was not sold on Juice, but now I really like the kid. Make no mistake, he is no Vonta Leach, or Lorenzo Neal, but in a league where the FB position is becoming a thing of the past, he is a refreshing dose.

Although I would like to see Marshal Yanda or Nick Boyle at FB!

[TheRavengers]

I always like to listen to the "Get rid of Harbaugh" arguments just to see where they go, because tons of people scream that he needs to be fired but when asked who's a great reliable candidate to replace him, I can count on one hand the number of people who actually answered that. That same argument goes for Flacco, too.

[sami]

We were a foot away from winning the AFC north after playing a team on a 5 game winning streak, in their place, with the top RB and top WR and one of the top QBs in the league. And you guys want to fire everyone and start over. I think you'd be happier in Cleveland, they start over every two years.

[PurpleRainBlackVeins]

We were a foot away from winning the AFC north after playing a team on a 5 game winning streak, in their place, with the top RB and top WR and one of the top QBs in the league. And you guys want to fire everyone and start over. I think you'd be happier in Cleveland, they start over every two years.

So 1 trip to the playoffs in 4 years is something to be happy about? It's not about how close we were in that game, it's about how far apart we've been from the playoffs since winning the SB

[JD08]

I would like to see Harbaugh go, but there's not many good candidates that can replace him. He got rid of players that bumped heads with him and it has hurt the team, I think that's why we see players leave us to go play for Pagano or Rex. He never calls out Flacco for the many mistakes he makes but any mistake made by anyone else they get called out for it

[balfan23]

The article really appeared to put the majority of the blame on our inability to reach the playoffs for the 3rd time in 4 years on the front office, more than Harbaugh and his staff. While the article does appear to question what direction we'll ultimately go in terms of who will lead the offense, nothing at all hinted at a change at DC.  

[potomacpitbulls]

Let me first say I love Joe, but business is business.

The Ravens are projected to be $14,239,178 UNDER the cap and have to find a way to resign top priority guys like unrestricted free agents Brandon Williams, and Kyle Jusczyk. Plus, restricted free agents like Terrence West, Ricky Wagner, Ryan Jensen, Zachary Orr. Joe Flacco’s cap number for 2017 is $24.55M.

The Denver Broncos are projected to be $30,225,385 UNDER the cap for 2017 and have 38 players under contract. All of their main guys are locked up.
I wonder what type of trade could be made. Denver is in desperate need of a QB, and Joe knows their offense. Baltimore would get the cap relief it needs to retool the team.

[TheRavengers]

11 minutes ago, JD08 said:

I would like to see Harbaugh go, but there's not many good candidates that can replace him. He got rid of players that bumped heads with him and it has hurt the team, I think that's why we see players leave us to go play for Pagano or Rex. He never calls out Flacco for the many mistakes he makes but any mistake made by anyone else they get called out for it

And how well are Pagano and Rex doing right now?

[balfan23]

Just now, JD08 said:

I would like to see Harbaugh go, but there's not many good candidates that can replace him. He got rid of players that bumped heads with him and it has hurt the team, I think that's why we see players leave us to go play for Pagano or Rex. He never calls out Flacco for the many mistakes he makes but any mistake made by anyone else they get called out for it

First off, the FO gets rid of players. Perhaps Harbaugh will have his say, but I'm not sure who it is that we got rid of solely because they bumped heads with Harbaugh, who would have otherwise been a great service to the team. Please don't say Boldin, because there was no indication that he and Harbaugh didn't get along. That IMO was purely an Ozzie move. Who else are you thinking of? 

[leziRav]

Let me first say I love Joe, but business is business.

The Ravens are projected to be $14,239,178 UNDER the cap and have to find a way to resign top priority guys like unrestricted free agents Brandon Williams, and Kyle Jusczyk. Plus, restricted free agents like Terrence West, Ricky Wagner, Ryan Jensen, Zachary Orr. Joe Flacco’s cap number for 2017 is $24.55M.

The Denver Broncos are projected to be $30,225,385 UNDER the cap for 2017 and have 38 players under contract. All of their main guys are locked up.
I wonder what type of trade could be made. Denver is in desperate need of a QB, and Joe knows their offense. Baltimore would get the cap relief it needs to retool the team.

no sense, you let Joe goes who is going to be your QB. Please don't tell me Mallet, cause I will refer you to his time with the Houston Texans.

[TheRavengers]

15 minutes ago, potomacpitbulls said:

Let me first say I love Joe, but business is business.

The Ravens are projected to be $14,239,178 UNDER the cap and have to find a way to resign top priority guys like unrestricted free agents Brandon Williams, and Kyle Jusczyk. Plus, restricted free agents like Terrence West, Ricky Wagner, Ryan Jensen, Zachary Orr. Joe Flacco’s cap number for 2017 is $24.55M.

The Denver Broncos are projected to be $30,225,385 UNDER the cap for 2017 and have 38 players under contract. All of their main guys are locked up.
I wonder what type of trade could be made. Denver is in desperate need of a QB, and Joe knows their offense. Baltimore would get the cap relief it needs to retool the team.

And you think Ozzie will cut his QB just like that? With no replacement at the ready, either?

[balfan23]

9 minutes ago, PurpleRainBlackVeins said:

So 1 trip to the playoffs in 4 years is something to be happy about? It's not about how close we were in that game, it's about how far apart we've been from the playoffs since winning the SB

Of course it isn't. But looking at the situation, does it warrant blowing the entire team to bits and starting over? The article argues that PIT missed 3 or 5 and didn't take the scorched earth approach to the situation. Not sure what you're advocating to fix this, but if it involves the dismissal of the HC, what was also pointed out in this article is that PIT is in because they have drafted top notch playmakers over the past few years and we have not. 

[potomacpitbulls]

If SB sees Pees as the problem and let's him go they have two candidates in house in Cullen and Frasier that could do the job well. The only candidate from the outside I would want hasn't been fired yet, Marvin Lewis. Rex is NOT the answer.

[leziRav]

I really don't know what ails our Ravens and what needs fixing. I do know one thing though. Harbaugh hasn't been a winning coach since winning the SB and something needs to give. His loyalty to his coaches may be one of the reasons why we are not very good. Harbaugh isn't known for his football acumen with Xs and Os, but is a strong leader and motivator of people. Those are the top qualities needed in a HC and Harbs excels in them. However, he needs to hire the best football coaches available regardless of his knowledge of or closeness to them. The hiring of Trestman over Adam Gase comes to mind as telling of his decision making. Gase is taking the Dolphins into the playoffs and Trestman is fired.
We need a creative offensive mind and I'm all for hiring Rex Ryan as a defensive consultant much like Al Saunders was on offense a few years ago.

if you follow the Ravens closely, the hiring of Trestman over Gase made sense, the Ravens knew Gase was going to be a head coach so they wanted consistency but it did not work with Trestman. I agree with your point that we need a creative OC but who now? We have to bear in mind that we want someone who will stay for at least 3 to 4 yrs. We cannot hire a HC candidate to be our OC.

[gregob56]

Instead of Harbaugh going, maybe it's time to look at the Front Office and Asst. Coaches on Offense. The drafts leading up to 2016 have not paid off. We have aging veterans and injury prone stars. Is it time for Ozzie to step aside and let Eric take the reigns? Is there a young up and coming offensive minded coach who won't leave to become a Head Coach anytime soon? Or, whose ideas aren't stale and predictable. I think Biscotti needs to look into his heart of hearts on the FO side and Harbs and scouts need to discover the next Adam Gase or Josh McDaniel.

[PurpleRainBlackVeins]

I would like to see Harbaugh go, but there's not many good candidates that can replace him. He got rid of players that bumped heads with him and it has hurt the team, I think that's why we see players leave us to go play for Pagano or Rex. He never calls out Flacco for the many mistakes he makes but any mistake made by anyone else they get called out for it

It really grinds my gears to hear him defend Flacco every time a reporter asks him about a boneheaded play or decision made by Flacco or what's up with Flacco's mechanics. He always says things like Joe is a great QB, I'm a Joe Flacco fan, Joe will be the first to tell you he needs to play better, Joe this Joe that. But will rip Timmy to shreds for a bad play, or put players like West and Judon in the doghouse for a special teams mistake. He does the same thing with his awful coordinators. IDC what anyone says, the days of a winning culture are far behind us and it's not a coincidence that is dwindled after the SB team was dismantled.

[Shaky End of the Quarter]

I completely disagree that a change at HC is not needed. Harbs lost this team half way thru the 2012 season. They won the SB thanks to Ray, Ed and the gang. Since Ray and Ed's departure the Ravens have only made the playoffs once and nobody seems to remember that we had to mount a 4th Qrt comeback in Cleveland in week 17 that year and we still needed the help of a botched 25 yard field goal by KC vs SD. If the kick was good Pitt moved on to the playoffs but since KC missed we moved on. Look it up if you dont remember. And since then we missed the last 2 playoffs and have a combined losing record.

I do believe a change at DC is more urgent than a change in HC. Our Def has not been good for 4-5 years now. Regardless of what PFF or whomever says our defense was NEVER ranked #1 in the NFL this year. Its easy to pad your stats when you play Buff (OC fired 2 weeks later), Browns x2, Jags, Jets, Redskins, Cincy without AJ Green, Pitt with Big Ben 9 days removed from a meniscal cleanup and a bunch of other putrid offenses. The moment we played a decent team we got manhandled. If ya'll cant see that then you are blind.

Unfortunately nothing will happen with Harbs, Pees and company because we are still living in the past and not looking at the tendencies. This team's arrow is pointing downwards and needs a new injection of life, accountability and passion for winning. I thought this was a league of "what have you done for me LATELY?". Because I know what this team, especially Harbs with his poor clock management and overall clueless attitude, has done lately. Harbs has made way too many piss poor decisions in games and to top it off he couldn't seem prouder of his ineptitude when asked about it in post game pressers.

For these and many more reasons Harbs and Pees are no good for the Ravens moving forward.

[PurpleRainBlackVeins]

  19 minutes ago, PurpleRainBlackVeins said:

So 1 trip to the playoffs in 4 years is something to be happy about? It's not about how close we were in that game, it's about how far apart we've been from the playoffs since winning the SB

Of course it isn't. But looking at the situation, does it warrant blowing the entire team to bits and starting over? The article argues that PIT missed 3 or 5 and didn't take the scorched earth approach to the situation. Not sure what you're advocating to fix this, but if it involves the dismissal of the HC, what was also pointed out in this article is that PIT is in because they have drafted top notch playmakers over the past few years and we have not. 

The HC cannot be w/o fault. He has decision making capabilities as to who stays and who goes when it comes to roster cuts. Even if the players are not quite pro bowl players. And he has decided to cut players that deserved to stay to keep or bring in players like Hester which will forever be one of the worst calls he's ever made. He's made so many in game clock management blunders that have cost us at least 3 games this season alone. He has made poor decisions with coordinator hires that has left us with a 9 yr QB who is heavily reliant on a coordinator to help him play well. Our nasty streak has left the building and its what has kept us a dominant organization for years even with years of having an inept offense. This is Harbaugh's team now and I barely recognize it. I'm not saying dismantle or blow up the team, but staying the exact same would constitute insanity. Something has to change, and if keeping HB is what's done, then the coordinators and assistant coaches needs to be revamped, along with the scouting department.

[PurpleRainBlackVeins]

I completely disagree that a change at HC is not needed. Harbs lost this team half way thru the 2012 season. They won the SB thanks to Ray, Ed and the gang. Since Ray and Ed's departure the Ravens have only made the playoffs once and nobody seems to remember that we had to mount a 4th Qrt comeback in Cleveland in week 17 that year and we still needed the help of a botched 25 yard field goal by KC vs SD. If the kick was good Pitt moved on to the playoffs but since KC missed we moved on. Look it up if you dont remember. And since then we missed the last 2 playoffs and have a combined losing record.

I do believe a change at DC is more urgent than a change in HC. Our Def has not been good for 4-5 years now. Regardless of what PFF or whomever says our defense was NEVER ranked #1 in the NFL this year. Its easy to pad your stats when you play Buff (OC fired 2 weeks later), Browns x2, Jags, Jets, Redskins, Cincy without AJ Green, Pitt with Big Ben 9 days removed from a meniscal cleanup and a bunch of other putrid offenses. The moment we played a decent team we got manhandled. If ya'll cant see that then you are blind.

Unfortunately nothing will happen with Harbs, Pees and company because we are still living in the past and not looking at the tendencies. This team's arrow is pointing downwards and needs a new injection of life, accountability and passion for winning. I thought this was a league of "what have you done for me LATELY?". Because I know what this team, especially Harbs with his poor clock management and overall clueless attitude, has done lately. Harbs has made way too many piss poor decisions in games and to top it off he couldn't seem prouder of his ineptitude when asked about it in post game pressers.

For these and many more reasons Harbs and Pees are no good for the Ravens moving forward.

Guess we're the only 2 who feels that way. People seem to hang on to a SB win that was 4 years ago with a different swag on defense and offense. Harbs has ruined this team, along with his inept coordinators. But hey, what do we know??

[RavensBaltimore]

  36 minutes ago, sami said:

We were a foot away from winning the AFC north after playing a team on a 5 game winning streak, in their place, with the top RB and top WR and one of the top QBs in the league. And you guys want to fire everyone and start over. I think you'd be happier in Cleveland, they start over every two years.

So 1 trip to the playoffs in 4 years is something to be happy about? It's not about how close we were in that game, it's about how far apart we've been from the playoffs since winning the SB

We haven't been far from the playoffs. Except for last year, when most of our key players were injured, we haven't missed the playoffs by more than one game, and most of the games we lost have been very close.

[PurpleRainBlackVeins]

  37 minutes ago, PurpleRainBlackVeins said:

  45 minutes ago, sami said:

We were a foot away from winning the AFC north after playing a team on a 5 game winning streak, in their place, with the top RB and top WR and one of the top QBs in the league. And you guys want to fire everyone and start over. I think you'd be happier in Cleveland, they start over every two years.

So 1 trip to the playoffs in 4 years is something to be happy about? It's not about how close we were in that game, it's about how far apart we've been from the playoffs since winning the SB

We haven't been far from the playoffs. Except for last year, when most of our key players were injured, we haven't missed the playoffs by more than one game, and most of the games we lost have been very close.

The one year we went in 2014 we needed a lot of help in the end, people seem to forget that. That is nothing to hang a hat on. Missing by a game or two or three is still missing. Almost doesn't get you SB rings.

[fusuymada]

Clearly the fire everyone crowd is out today. I think that we need to step back and look at what other teams are doing and how successful they are with a revolving door at HC. Clearly, it just shows how little these people know about NFL football.

If this team hadn't improved since 5-11 then maybe we would look at Harbaugh but we were one game out of winning the division. If you listen to what other experts say about the Ravens and their coaching staff then maybe you would be a little more enlightened. Right now there is a lot of ticked off and not a lot of common sense being thrown about here. PFT said that short a couple losses as a result of Trestman earlier in the year, the Ravens were a legitimate super bowl team. Shame it had to come down to that game but short the Pees bend, bend, break philosophy, this team would have a lot more success.

Fact is, the OC has to go, isn't qualified and we need to go out and court a real OC and DC and not one of John's buddies from the Eagles. The bend, bend, bend, break defensive mentallity, doesn't cut it any more in this NFL. For the longest time I thought we could get by with Pees, but his inability to make adjustments in a timely manner always costs us.

No we do need to make some changes and I would maybe throw Castillo in that mix as well. When we had legitimate candidates like Kubiak, we could see what we could do, the same is true both offense and defense, we need to get people who really excel in coordinating. We didn't get to the last game of the season and barely miss going into the playoffs because we have a lousy head coach. Harbaugh needs strong coordinators due to his lack of experience in those areas and when we had those quality coordinators, we always did well.

[whobilly]

  20 minutes ago, Shaky End of the Quarter said:

I completely disagree that a change at HC is not needed. Harbs lost this team half way thru the 2012 season. They won the SB thanks to Ray, Ed and the gang. Since Ray and Ed's departure the Ravens have only made the playoffs once and nobody seems to remember that we had to mount a 4th Qrt comeback in Cleveland in week 17 that year and we still needed the help of a botched 25 yard field goal by KC vs SD. If the kick was good Pitt moved on to the playoffs but since KC missed we moved on. Look it up if you dont remember. And since then we missed the last 2 playoffs and have a combined losing record.

I do believe a change at DC is more urgent than a change in HC. Our Def has not been good for 4-5 years now. Regardless of what PFF or whomever says our defense was NEVER ranked #1 in the NFL this year. Its easy to pad your stats when you play Buff (OC fired 2 weeks later), Browns x2, Jags, Jets, Redskins, Cincy without AJ Green, Pitt with Big Ben 9 days removed from a meniscal cleanup and a bunch of other putrid offenses. The moment we played a decent team we got manhandled. If ya'll cant see that then you are blind.

Unfortunately nothing will happen with Harbs, Pees and company because we are still living in the past and not looking at the tendencies. This team's arrow is pointing downwards and needs a new injection of life, accountability and passion for winning. I thought this was a league of "what have you done for me LATELY?". Because I know what this team, especially Harbs with his poor clock management and overall clueless attitude, has done lately. Harbs has made way too many piss poor decisions in games and to top it off he couldn't seem prouder of his ineptitude when asked about it in post game pressers.

For these and many more reasons Harbs and Pees are no good for the Ravens moving forward.

Guess we're the only 2 who feels that way. People seem to hang on to a SB win that was 4 years ago with a different swag on defense and offense. Harbs has ruined this team, along with his inept coordinators. But hey, what do we know??

Not much.

[whobilly]

If the Ravens part ways with Harbaugh it will take him under ten seconds to be a Head Coach again.