[News] Late For Work 12/30: Elvis Dumervil Finally Reveals His Mysterious Injury; Ravens-Bengals Picks

[BR News]

Analysts split on Ravens-Bengals game predictions. Which non-playoff teams will return to postseason in 2017? Ronnie Stanley graded as top NFL tackle over last four games. Local media vote Justin Tucker as Ravens’ MVP and Zachary Orr as ‘Media Good Guy.’ Marshal Yanda and Terrell Suggs proving their character by playing in meaningless game.

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[JacktheRaven]

9 wins is much better than 8. It's not meaningless! With all the off season babble, we'll feel much better about that 9th win.

[Black&purple#55]

Harbaugh so arrogant, just rest Flacco and the other starters. Who cares you finish 9-7 or 8-8, by loosing we get a better player.

[Crusader]

John seems to make injury status a very high priority and injuries a mystery. News Flash, Nobody is afraid of this Ravens team anymore and the Offense & Defense is predictable. Ravens lost by 8 points to a 4-11 Team. So who are you protecting the Fantasy Sports, Bookies? This is just strange because Brian B never did that.

[Black&purple#55]

John seems to make injury status a very high priority and injuries a mystery. News Flash, Nobody is afraid of this Ravens team anymore and the Offense & Defense is predictable. Ravens lost by 8 points to a 4-11 Team. So who are you protecting the Fantasy Sports, Bookies? This is just strange because Brian B never did that.

Agree, time to cut Dumerville and save 6mil in cap

[Steve32]

John seems to make injury status a very high priority and injuries a mystery. News Flash, Nobody is afraid of this Ravens team anymore and the Offense & Defense is predictable. Ravens lost by 8 points to a 4-11 Team. So who are you protecting the Fantasy Sports, Bookies? This is just strange because Brian B never did that.

Perhaps true; however, Dumervil's injury was kept secret by Dumervil, not Harbaugh.

[The Greek]

  23 minutes ago, Crusader said:

John seems to make injury status a very high priority and injuries a mystery. News Flash, Nobody is afraid of this Ravens team anymore and the Offense & Defense is predictable. Ravens lost by 8 points to a 4-11 Team. So who are you protecting the Fantasy Sports, Bookies? This is just strange because Brian B never did that.

Agree, time to cut Dumerville and save 6mil in cap

to try and keep b. williams they will have to cut him.

[DW714]

  13 minutes ago, Black&purple#55 said:

  26 minutes ago, Crusader said:

John seems to make injury status a very high priority and injuries a mystery. News Flash, Nobody is afraid of this Ravens team anymore and the Offense & Defense is predictable. Ravens lost by 8 points to a 4-11 Team. So who are you protecting the Fantasy Sports, Bookies? This is just strange because Brian B never did that.

Agree, time to cut Dumerville and save 6mil in cap

to try and keep b. williams they will have to cut him.

Where has Brandon Williams been the past few weeks, when our defense was being gashed by the run? It's easier to find a big D-lineman that can stop the run than it is to find a good pass rusher. Assuming Dumervil will be healthy next season, I say keep Doom.

[DW714]

Harbaugh's look at Clifton Brown in the video above is hilarious. Looks like he really doesn't want to be playing this meaningless game either.

[Godfather A]

If you intentionally lose all 16 games, you get the first pick in the draft.

[The Mom Gene]

Harbaugh so arrogant, just rest Flacco and the other starters. Who cares you finish 9-7 or 8-8, by loosing we get a better player.

I'm taking the win, and I am playing the starters. Every single one of them for Steve. He wants to win his last game. And this "better pick" thing. I would want the win against a division rival anyway.

[JD08]

Winning this game would be idiotic, there's 8 teams hovering around the same record right now, so we can get a draft pick as high as 12 or as low as 21, potentially picking 12 in the draft is more important than being 9-7, we didn't make the playoffs so it's still a losing season

[leziRav]

Winning this game would be idiotic, there's 8 teams hovering around the same record right now, so we can get a draft pick as high as 12 or as low as 21, potentially picking 12 in the draft is more important than being 9-7, we didn't make the playoffs so it's still a losing season

Ravens cannot pick at 21, the lowest will be 20. Also we won't be able to pick at 12. If Ravens lose and everyone else win, we will be at 8-8 and some of the 8-8 teams have a less strength of schedule than us. Tie breaker with draft order is opposite to tie breaker for playoffs. I think the best we can have is a pick around 14. I think Garrett Downing was wrong in yesterday Final Drive. Ravens cannot have 21pk nor 12 pk.

[Derrel]

9 wins is much better than 8. It's not meaningless! With all the off season babble, we'll feel much better about that 9th win.

9 wins 8 wins, it's a losing season.

[ryananth]

I'm not buying Dumervil's story about him losing a step because of this injury. He says he's healthy now but I'm not seeing anything that shows he's worth the money to bring him back next year. I usually don't talk negatively about our players but I think it's bs to bring this out now to garner some sort of sympathy for gutting it out. It seems more to me as a ploy to make people think he'll be that much better next year when he's supposedly 100%. Hopefully he shows up this week and at least gives the Ravens a reason to consider keeping him next year but at this point I say we move on. While I'm on my soapbox did anyone notice how poorly Sizz played against the Stoolers? He too often got caught cheating inside when he should've set the edge. I think it was more a factor of him trying to do too much than his ability suddenly declining. He's also been injured but makes no excuses. I'd much rather have Sizzle than Doom because I think Oz is going to have to move on from one of them.

[metalraven]

9 wins is much better than 8. It's not meaningless! With all the off season babble, we'll feel much better about that 9th win.

I agree. And if we beat the Bengals, that's ending on a relatively high note.

[AsianRice]

I don't care it's high or low draft pick, but sweeping the Bengals is good in my book.....perfect ending season game to start with great optimistic approach for next year....

[omar586]

bench flacco, what if the bengels ruin the ravens 2017 season by hurting flacco? then it would be 2 team race for the afcn .

Edited December 30, 2016 by omar586

[leziRav]

For those curious about how high or low we can pick, here are some stats I put together, Sunday games will change it.
As of week 16
Week 17 opponent Record:
12. Buffalo Bills: 7-8 SoS .493 Jets (4-11)
13. Indianapolis Colts: 7-8 SoS .510 Jags (3-12)
14. New Orleans Saints: 7-8 SoS .510 Falcons (10-5)
15. Philadelphia Eagles (via MIN): 7-8 SoS .514 Cowboys (13-2)
16. Tennessee Titans: 8-7 SoS .445 Texans (9-6)
17. Baltimore Ravens: 8-7 SoS .510 Bengals (5-9-1)
18. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 8-7 SoS .510 Panthers (6-9)
19. Denver Broncos: 8-7 SoS .540 Raiders (12-3)
20. Washington Redskins: 8-6-1 SoS .507 Giants (10-5)

Doing the math, no matter the outcome of our game vs Bengals, we will pick between 14-20. Redskins are fighting for a playoff spot so I see them winning, also I see a Tampa Bay and Detroit win. So if the ravens win, we will pick between 17 if Broncos win or 18 if Broncos lose.

[Crusader]

  2 hours ago, Crusader said:

John seems to make injury status a very high priority and injuries a mystery. News Flash, Nobody is afraid of this Ravens team anymore and the Offense & Defense is predictable. Ravens lost by 8 points to a 4-11 Team. So who are you protecting the Fantasy Sports, Bookies? This is just strange because Brian B never did that.

Perhaps true; however, Dumervil's injury was kept secret by Dumervil, not Harbaugh.

So what Elvis say to John. " Coach, I have an issue and will be back in week 12" Seriously, I think the Ravens PR people are up to this, but why.? My NFC team I get flooded with football News & Information but the Ravens act like fans are fourth string for lack of better terms.

[JD08]

  1 hour ago, JD08 said:

Winning this game would be idiotic, there's 8 teams hovering around the same record right now, so we can get a draft pick as high as 12 or as low as 21, potentially picking 12 in the draft is more important than being 9-7, we didn't make the playoffs so it's still a losing season

Ravens cannot pick at 21, the lowest will be 20. Also we won't be able to pick at 12. If Ravens lose and everyone else win, we will be at 8-8 and some of the 8-8 teams have a less strength of schedule than us. Tie breaker with draft order is opposite to tie breaker for playoffs. I think the best we can have is a pick around 14. I think Garrett Downing was wrong in yesterday Final Drive. Ravens cannot have 21pk nor 12 pk.

Oh ok, I went by what he said, breaking the whole thing down gets confusing. I love my team but a win wont change anything really, still gonna be watching the playoffs, even the 14th pick looks better than the 20th

[Black&purple#55]

  1 hour ago, Steve32 said:

  2 hours ago, Crusader said:

John seems to make injury status a very high priority and injuries a mystery. News Flash, Nobody is afraid of this Ravens team anymore and the Offense & Defense is predictable. Ravens lost by 8 points to a 4-11 Team. So who are you protecting the Fantasy Sports, Bookies? This is just strange because Brian B never did that.

Perhaps true; however, Dumervil's injury was kept secret by Dumervil, not Harbaugh.

So what Elvis say to John. " Coach, I have an issue and will be back in week 12" Seriously, I think the Ravens PR people are up to this, but why.? My NFC team I get flooded with football News & Information but the Ravens act like fans are fourth string for lack of better terms.

LOL, cant stop laughing

[sami]

1 hour ago, The Mom Gene said:

2 hours ago, Black&purple#55 said:

Harbaugh so arrogant, just rest Flacco and the other starters. Who cares you finish 9-7 or 8-8, by loosing we get a better player.

I'm taking the win, and I am playing the starters. Every single one of them for Steve. He wants to win his last game. And this "better pick" thing. I would want the win against a division rival anyway.

if we win against the Bengals, that means we were a foot away from being 10-6 and the AFC North Champs and so many of you are crying cuz were no good and have lousy drafts and our coaches stink. Maybe you need to find another team to criticize cuz its really hard to find a lot of fault with the Ravens....

Sorry Mom Gene, This was meant for someone else.  I agree with you about taking the win.  Don't know how it got to a reply to your post.

Edited December 30, 2016 by sami

[balfan23]

1 hour ago, ryananth said:

I'm not buying Dumervil's story about him losing a step because of this injury. He says he's healthy now but I'm not seeing anything that shows he's worth the money to bring him back next year. I usually don't talk negatively about our players but I think it's bs to bring this out now to garner some sort of sympathy for gutting it out. It seems more to me as a ploy to make people think he'll be that much better next year when he's supposedly 100%. Hopefully he shows up this week and at least gives the Ravens a reason to consider keeping him next year but at this point I say we move on. While I'm on my soapbox did anyone notice how poorly Sizz played against the Stoolers? He too often got caught cheating inside when he should've set the edge. I think it was more a factor of him trying to do too much than his ability suddenly declining. He's also been injured but makes no excuses. I'd much rather have Sizzle than Doom because I think Oz is going to have to move on from one of them.

Many have looked at his performance this year, looked at his cap savings for 2017 ($6M = highest on the team) and felt it was a no brainer that he will be cut. Does this news change that view? I don't know. It is hard not to feel like this is bit of campaigning on Dooms part on how he'll actually be worth his contract next year. I still don't think we'll be willing to risk trying to count on him and not use that money elsewhere ... for example, to keep guys on the roster that have future here. 

Sizzle is a different story. We're beholden to him from a cap standpoint through next year. For him, we have no choice but to hope that he recovers from his current injuries, doesn't get any new ones and can be that vocal leader that is otherwise absent from this team. 

[The Mom Gene]

16 minutes ago, sami said:

if we win against the Bengals, that means we were a foot away from being 10-6 and the AFC North Champs and so many of you are crying cuz were no good and have lousy drafts and our coaches stink. Maybe you need to find another team to criticize cuz its really hard to find a lot of fault with the Ravens....

Sorry Mom Gene, This was meant for someone else.  I agree with you about taking the win.  Don't know how it got to a reply to your post.

The new quote system shows the "string" of the conversation.  It's no problem.  I agree with you too.  There is a lady here in Florida, right up the street, who is a Steelers fan.  Her family is calling it "The Immaculate Extension".  They know they never would have won otherwise.  We had a very respectful conversation after the game.  I WANT THE WIN.  AND I HOPE WE KICK THEIR BUTTS.

[FloridalovesRavens]

  3 hours ago, JacktheRaven said:

9 wins is much better than 8. It's not meaningless! With all the off season babble, we'll feel much better about that 9th win.

9 wins 8 wins, it's a losing season.

You need a math lesson.

[FloridalovesRavens]

Harbaugh so arrogant, just rest Flacco and the other starters. Who cares you finish 9-7 or 8-8, by loosing we get a better player.

You are the arrogant one. No team should want to lose and their fans shouldn't either.

[FloridalovesRavens]

9 wins is much better than 8. It's not meaningless! With all the off season babble, we'll feel much better about that 9th win.

Yes sir.

[fusuymada]

I have to question releasing Dumervil and keeping Jimmy Smith. Dumervil had one injury that hurt him this season, since the very first game Smith played in he has been injured to some extent. That needs to stop. We all love Smith when he plays, he just doesnt play enough to justify that cap hit.

Hurst is a bum. Why he would start at right tackle instead of putting Alex Lewis in there to see what he could do is just insane. I am still trying to figure how Hurst is on the team after causing Flaccos injury last year and basically being a turnstile, it makes no sense to put him out there. It has made no sense for him to even be on this team.

There has to be a serious look at Castillo as our Offensive line has been in a downward spiral since Andy Moller left. Regardless of why Moller left, or was terminated, we need to clear the ranks of Harbaughs buddies who were at the eagles with him. Ozzie and Steve need to sit him down and tell him we really need skilled people at these positions, especially since Harbaugh is only a special teams coach. It is time to clear the Ravens of the nepotism that gets Harbaughs buddies hired and actually hire coordinators based on their skill and abilities, not just that they used to work with the Eagles.

Ozzie and Steve need to take a tighter control of the reins in this next year and not allow Harbaugh to make the decisions he makes regarding coaches, personnel and in game decisions. Let us not forget there was a run of three straight games that we barely lost and had Harbaugh not made poor decisions like going for it on fourth when a FG was money in the bank. Had we just not decided to be outrageously aggressive, we could have won the division and still lost to the Steelers and the Bengals had Harbaugh just been a little smarter about his decisions. There would have really been no need to even sweat this as the Raiders, Redskins and Jets games could have and should have been victories and the loss was directly because of Harbuagh's aggressiveness.

[Ravenous_Ravens]

I have to question releasing Dumervil and keeping Jimmy Smith. Dumervil had one injury that hurt him this season, since the very first game Smith played in he has been injured to some extent. That needs to stop. We all love Smith when he plays, he just doesnt play enough to justify that cap hit.

Hurst is a bum. Why he would start at right tackle instead of putting Alex Lewis in there to see what he could do is just insane. I am still trying to figure how Hurst is on the team after causing Flaccos injury last year and basically being a turnstile, it makes no sense to put him out there. It has made no sense for him to even be on this team.

There has to be a serious look at Castillo as our Offensive line has been in a downward spiral since Andy Moller left. Regardless of why Moller left, or was terminated, we need to clear the ranks of Harbaughs buddies who were at the eagles with him. Ozzie and Steve need to sit him down and tell him we really need skilled people at these positions, especially since Harbaugh is only a special teams coach. It is time to clear the Ravens of the nepotism that gets Harbaughs buddies hired and actually hire coordinators based on their skill and abilities, not just that they used to work with the Eagles.

Ozzie and Steve need to take a tighter control of the reins in this next year and not allow Harbaugh to make the decisions he makes regarding coaches, personnel and in game decisions. Let us not forget there was a run of three straight games that we barely lost and had Harbaugh not made poor decisions like going for it on fourth when a FG was money in the bank. Had we just not decided to be outrageously aggressive, we could have won the division and still lost to the Steelers and the Bengals had Harbaugh just been a little smarter about his decisions. There would have really been no need to even sweat this as the Raiders, Redskins and Jets games could have and should have been victories and the loss was directly because of Harbuagh's aggressiveness.

Harbaugh's aggressiveness comes from his belief in his team to get the job done. I would be much more concerned if he never showed faith in his team to get the task accomplished. Trying and failing is a part of being successful. No one is perfect in all matters, and it stands to reason you will miss at some point.

I will agree the running game strategy needs addressing, but it has little do with Andy Moller. The fact is since Juan Castillo took over, they left the Zone Run Scheme which was very successful. Seriously!? Why would anyone stop doing what is working and working well. A few years or run game regression should be proof enough that was a horrible decision. Waiting for Harbaugh to step up and say the current run game strategy just is not good enough and we had great success before making this change. Changing what works is the all time most boneheaded move you can make as a coach or manager, on par with purposely derailing your future success.

Dummervil is not going anywhere. Jimmy Smith is not going anywhere.
They are too valuable to this team and face it, it is difficult to find good pass rushers and corners. Don't be surprised to see several CB/S drafted this off season in a deep CB class. Pretty much impossible to not draft another pass rusher as well. Also hopeful that KC can be more of a factor next season, but that depends on the coaching staff putting him in a position to succeed. It did him no favors by changing his position while making the adjustment from college to pro ball. He rarely saw much game time at all, which only makes this off season even more critical for his development.