[News] Late For Work 1/3: Five Key Questions And Suggestions For Ravens Offseason

[BR News]

What's the biggest change needed on offense? Which free-agent starters will likely leave? Potential cap-casualties? How will the backfield look next season? Will the Ravens look to address their defensive weakness? An update on Gary Kubiak’s situation and Marshal Yanda’s potential surgery.

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[whobilly]

Dumervil GONE. Guy GONE. Lewis GONE. Arrington GONE. Webb, restructure or GONE. Brandon Williams will test FA and go to the team that pays him the most. GONE.

[whobilly]

Matt Elam is a "Key Player"? When do BUST #1 picks become key players?

[RaRaRavens]

State of the Ravens press conference ought to be fun. Can't wait for the plethora of cliche excuses and slogans. "We are close to being a really good team", "Only need couple of tweeks", "We'll be back better in 2017". What a load of hogwash it's gonna probably be. This is why I'm slowly starting to lose respect for Harbaugh. I would respect an honest, straight to the point HC way more.

I wish John would just say: "Hey, here's the deal. Offensive playcalling was garbage the entire season, defense failed miserably in December and needs to start receiving some serious value from its young players, especially pass rushers, and our most expensive "franchise" player performed far below average considering his salary, experience and pieces he had around him. Wouldn't hurt to have some WRs getting open once in a while and DBs who don't fall on their fat slow arses covering slant routes. These are our issues and we'll focus on them this offseason.".

I understand it might seem as if throwing someone under the bus and might rub some people the wrong way, but Harbaugh has been covering up the shortcomings of many of our players and staff members for many years now and it has not led to better results. This approach is obviously not working. By pinpointing the issues with straight forward attitude, Harbs would at least create some belief that we actually might fix these problems and maybe, just maybe deliver the message to his team as well. Instead, we're probably gonna be hearing a lot of big empty words for 9 months now, and hope everything will get better by doing the exact same things we've been doing for 5 years. That's the definition of insanity, I think.

[The Greek]

every player listed above as potential cap casualties will get cut imo. i can see them bringing doom, webb, wright back if they are willing to accept less. i personally want to see the younger players next season. we need to give the hungry youngsters the reps

[TheRavengers]

With the exception of Webb, none of those potential cap-casualties would bother me too much if they went elsewhere. Shareece Wright can go and Matt Elam......yeah.

[ryananth]

Something smells fishy on Dumervil's achilles injury story. He said he didn't have the same burst last season because of the injury, but played thru it for the team. Well done and thanks for that I guess. Then he decides surgery is needed in February, but keeps it a secret. The issue I have is that he played in the Pro Bowl on his supposed gimpy achilles instead of opting for the surgery earlier to get ready for his team. He then has the surgery in February but apparently spends much of the next few months (according to his twitter feed) working to help Haiti. Now he's decided to let everyone know he was unhealthy and gutted it out. Why now? I think it's simply to garner sympathy and get the Ravens to keep him for the last year of his deal. Time to move on from him and wish him well if he regains his previous form.

Also time to move on from Lardarius Webb He is simply just too slow now and not worth the money. Ben Watson is now 36 and coming off of a significant injury. Cutting Watson is a no brainer. Arrington probably gone too. The rest are a coin flip I think. Time to move on from these back-ended veteran deals and get younger.

I think we are at a real turning point this off season. We need to be honest and admit that since the Super Bowl we have been mediocre. Not sure what will happen at OC but I'm tired of us making them the scapegoat every season. We have a talent problem not a coaching problem. Ed and Ray were just that great that they could carry the entire team.

[b93333]

It's all well and good to consider saving a bit here and there on salary cap space but the real problem for the FO to deal with is Joe's cap hit. Per the Sun Papers it breaks down to 2017: 24.55 M cap hit with 47.3 M in dead money if cut after June 1, 2017. 2018: 24.75 M and 28.75 M, respectively, 2019: 26.5 M and 16 M. The cap hit continues to increase after 2019 but the dead money decreases. This for a QB rated 25th by PFF, (a little higher if you only consider the QBR).

[Purple Hazard]

Man how I wish Kubiak would come back to us... Still I think Flaccos inconsistent play was also a result of many lineman getting hurt and he getting hit and sacked too much. Sure we had problems from the get go but I don't think you can blame it all on the OC.

[Drew P]

I don't understand the OC's lacked confidence in Dixon and West? Dixon looks legit and most rookie RB's are challenged in pass protection besides being one dimensional didn't help. At this point they cannot realistically consider Suggs a "pass rusher". Come one he's been a stud forever but they need to address the OLB early in the draft since we know Z isn't anything other than a 3rd down player.

[The Mom Gene]

#5 DUMERVIL... While the analysts criticize Dumervil using his injury and stats as a reason, I think it's somewhat unfair as he did suffer an ACL tear, and didn't make it back until week 12 or 13? It's the first real injury he's suffered. And he, apparently, worked his butt off to get back sooner.

[eze17]

State of the Ravens press conference ought to be fun. Can't wait for the plethora of cliche excuses and slogans. "We are close to being a really good team", "Only need couple of tweeks", "We'll be back better in 2017". What a load of hogwash it's gonna probably be. This is why I'm slowly starting to lose respect for Harbaugh. I would respect an honest, straight to the point HC way more.

I wish John would just say: "Hey, here's the deal. Offensive playcalling was garbage the entire season, defense failed miserably in December and needs to start receiving some serious value from its young players, especially pass rushers, and our most expensive "franchise" player performed far below average considering his salary, experience and pieces he had around him. Wouldn't hurt to have some WRs getting open once in a while and DBs who don't fall on their fat slow arses covering slant routes. These are our issues and we'll focus on them this offseason.".

I understand it might seem as if throwing someone under the bus and might rub some people the wrong way, but Harbaugh has been covering up the shortcomings of many of our players and staff members for many years now and it has not led to better results. This approach is obviously not working. By pinpointing the issues with straight forward attitude, Harbs would at least create some belief that we actually might fix these problems and maybe, just maybe deliver the message to his team as well. Instead, we're probably gonna be hearing a lot of big empty words for 9 months now, and hope everything will get better by doing the exact same things we've been doing for 5 years. That's the definition of insanity, I think.

The only person Harbs needs to answer to is Steve Biscotti. No one else. So I don't expect him to dis anyone publicly, except if he's honest maybe himself for not having players fully motivated and losing to many close games that we could have won. Publicly blaming players and assistant coaches for the teams shortcomings would not only be unprofessional, but come across as cheap and petty. Which despite some other flaws, Harbs is not. Now, behind closed doors, I think the Ravens fully realize that there needs to be some accountability and more than a few underachiving players and staff are going to be looking for new homes. But don't expect public shaming for the fan's benefit.

[ryananth]

It's all well and good to consider saving a bit here and there on salary cap space but the real problem for the FO to deal with is Joe's cap hit. Per the Sun Papers it breaks down to 2017: 24.55 M cap hit with 47.3 M in dead money if cut after June 1, 2017. 2018: 24.75 M and 28.75 M, respectively, 2019: 26.5 M and 16 M. The cap hit continues to increase after 2019 but the dead money decreases. This for a QB rated 25th by PFF, (a little higher if you only consider the QBR).

Flacco's contract is not the problem. All teams have essentially the same money committed to their QBs (around $20 milliion). Flacco's deal averages $22mil a year. Even if there wasn't s a dead money issue we'd still pay Flacco what he's receiving. Would you rather have someone like Fitzpatrick for $14mil or Romo for $18mil? I don't think so. Who are you proposing would replace Joe anyway?

[The Mom Gene]

  52 minutes ago, RaRaRavens said:

State of the Ravens press conference ought to be fun. Can't wait for the plethora of cliche excuses and slogans. "We are close to being a really good team", "Only need couple of tweeks", "We'll be back better in 2017". What a load of hogwash it's gonna probably be. This is why I'm slowly starting to lose respect for Harbaugh. I would respect an honest, straight to the point HC way more.

I wish John would just say: "Hey, here's the deal. Offensive playcalling was garbage the entire season, defense failed miserably in December and needs to start receiving some serious value from its young players, especially pass rushers, and our most expensive "franchise" player performed far below average considering his salary, experience and pieces he had around him. Wouldn't hurt to have some WRs getting open once in a while and DBs who don't fall on their fat slow arses covering slant routes. These are our issues and we'll focus on them this offseason.".

I understand it might seem as if throwing someone under the bus and might rub some people the wrong way, but Harbaugh has been covering up the shortcomings of many of our players and staff members for many years now and it has not led to better results. This approach is obviously not working. By pinpointing the issues with straight forward attitude, Harbs would at least create some belief that we actually might fix these problems and maybe, just maybe deliver the message to his team as well. Instead, we're probably gonna be hearing a lot of big empty words for 9 months now, and hope everything will get better by doing the exact same things we've been doing for 5 years. That's the definition of insanity, I think.

The only person Harbs needs to answer to is Steve Biscotti. No one else. So I don't expect him to dis anyone publicly, except if he's honest maybe himself for not having players fully motivated and losing to many close games that we could have won. Publicly blaming players and assistant coaches for the teams shortcomings would not only be unprofessional, but come across as cheap and petty. Which despite some other flaws, Harbs is not. Now, behind closed doors, I think the Ravens fully realize that there needs to be some accountability and more than a few underachiving players and staff are going to be looking for new homes. But don't expect public shaming for the fan's benefit.

agree 100%

[The Mom Gene]

Man how I wish Kubiak would come back to us... Still I think Flaccos inconsistent play was also a result of many lineman getting hurt and he getting hit and sacked too much. Sure we had problems from the get go but I don't think you can blame it all on the OC.

Agreed also... everybody is quick to throw the QB and the OC under the bus, on every team. Go check out some of the other boards. Guys and Gals I see on here that are comparing others to ours aren't really seeing that even coordinators that are being mentioned as potential here are in the very same boat. It's really sad that people cannot see beyond that. Joe's lack of protection, and the ability to get time for the plays to develop is HUGE...

[merryjman]

2 minutes ago, ryananth said:

Flacco's contract is not the problem. All teams have essentially the same money committed to their QBs (around $20 milliion). Flacco's deal averages $22mil a year. Even if there wasn't s a dead money issue we'd still pay Flacco what he's receiving. Would you rather have someone like Fitzpatrick for $14mil or Romo for $18mil? I don't think so. Who are you proposing would replace Joe anyway?

I agree. In that sense, the true problem is that with a salary cap of about $150 million, almost all teams are being forced to spend 15% of it on one player! Add to that the fact that injuries usually destroy another 10-20% of the salary cap, and it's an almost impossible task to keep a team together.

[griffrb]

I'm not interested in all the speculation on Ravens Football. t's now golf season preparation! Uugggggh!

[ByTheBay]

2 minutes ago, The Mom Gene said:

Agreed also... everybody is quick to throw the QB and the OC under the bus, on every team. Go check out some of the other boards. Guys and Gals I see on here that are comparing others to ours aren't really seeing that even coordinators that are being mentioned as potential here are in the very same boat. It's really sad that people cannot see beyond that. Joe's lack of protection, and the ability to get time for the plays to develop is HUGE...

If the OL is the problem then what changes would be made? Stanley stays, Lewis stays, Yanda stays, Wagner could stay. Is Zuttah really the one to blame for all of Joe's issues? I read somewhere he actually graded out pretty well the second half if the season.

[eze17]

Dumervil GONE. Guy GONE. Lewis GONE. Arrington GONE. Webb, restructure or GONE. Brandon Williams will test FA and go to the team that pays him the most. GONE.

I agree with you except for Guy. He's a decent enough utility man and won't cost a lot of cash, so I could easily see him back. Definately agree with Webbie needing to restructure his deal, and could possibly see the Raven's even cutting ties completely. Wright will be interesting though, other than the first game where he looked like gang busters, he played WELL below his potential. Seeing how we just signed him to a new contract, interesting if the Raven's will retain him.

If they bring back K. Lewis I may have to consider the Raven's front office totally hopeless and doomed to failure.

[balfan23]

All the talk is about whether to stand pat with Marty, but I'm really concerned about the total collapse of the defense to finish the season. Injuries have been the excuse as to why the defense has let us down in recent years, but we continue to invest in that unit through the draft and in FA and we see this result. I don't want to hear that losing one player - Jimmy Smith - should cause the entire house of cards to come crashing down. 

Last year, Harbs gave Pees a pass because, despite the defense being terrible for the majority of the season, he cited that they were highly rated to finish the season. Please don't cite the defense's ranking for the overall season this year, when they finished out the season in such horrible fashion. I'm not just talking about the embarrassing performance in week 17. Despite the offense having its ups and downs, it is the defense that cost us a playoff berth this season. 

I just don't think we can ignore the fact that, when the game is on the line, this unit fails more often than it succeeds. Is it not fair to question that this is a failure of coaching? 

 

[hereweare]

9 minutes ago, merryjman said:

I agree. In that sense, the true problem is that with a salary cap of about $150 million, almost all teams are being forced to spend 15% of it on one player! Add to that the fact that injuries usually destroy another 10-20% of the salary cap, and it's an almost impossible task to keep a team together.

Yup. Suggesting this cap keeps parity in the league is just a talking point. It can easily be raised to 200 and maintain parity 

[The Mom Gene]

16 minutes ago, ByTheBay said:

22 minutes ago, The Mom Gene said:

Agreed also... everybody is quick to throw the QB and the OC under the bus, on every team. Go check out some of the other boards. Guys and Gals I see on here that are comparing others to ours aren't really seeing that even coordinators that are being mentioned as potential here are in the very same boat. It's really sad that people cannot see beyond that. Joe's lack of protection, and the ability to get time for the plays to develop is HUGE...

If the OL is the problem then what changes would be made? Stanley stays, Lewis stays, Yanda stays, Wagner could stay. Is Zuttah really the one to blame for all of Joe's issues? I read somewhere he actually graded out pretty well the second half if the season.

We had 7 different Offensive line configurations in 5 games due to injuries. Guys moved all over the place to fill in. Once Stanley came back the left side was fine.  Lewis never did make it back.  Zuttah had more penalties than anyone on the line also. And sacks allowed up the middle??? Those are missed blocks by the Center or RB. I'm just saying... Watch a Dallas game. Prescott has ALL DAY LONG. Br*dy does as well. Look at teams with good O-Lines, and you'll see better performance out of the running and passing game.

[BigUgly]

  27 minutes ago, ByTheBay said:

  33 minutes ago, The Mom Gene said:

Agreed also... everybody is quick to throw the QB and the OC under the bus, on every team. Go check out some of the other boards. Guys and Gals I see on here that are comparing others to ours aren't really seeing that even coordinators that are being mentioned as potential here are in the very same boat. It's really sad that people cannot see beyond that. Joe's lack of protection, and the ability to get time for the plays to develop is HUGE...

If the OL is the problem then what changes would be made? Stanley stays, Lewis stays, Yanda stays, Wagner could stay. Is Zuttah really the one to blame for all of Joe's issues? I read somewhere he actually graded out pretty well the second half if the season.

We had 7 different Offensive line configurations in 5 games due to injuries. Guys moved all over the place to fill in. Once Stanley came back the left side was fine. Zuttah had more penalties than anyone on the line also. And sacks allowed up the middle??? Those are missed blocks by the Center or RB. I'm just saying... Watch a Dallas game. Prescott has ALL DAY LONG. Br*dy does as well. Look at teams with good O-Lines, and you'll see better performance out of the running and passing game.

Agreed! Zuttah was quietly terrible in pass protection, as was Vlad. Both need to be replaced.

[The Mom Gene]

15 minutes ago, The Mom Gene said:

We had 7 different Offensive line configurations in 5 games due to injuries. Guys moved all over the place to fill in. Once Stanley came back the left side was fine.  Lewis never did make it back.  Zuttah had more penalties than anyone on the line also. And sacks allowed up the middle??? Those are missed blocks by the Center or RB. I'm just saying... Watch a Dallas game. Prescott has ALL DAY LONG. Br*dy does as well. Look at teams with good O-Lines, and you'll see better performance out of the running and passing game.

HARBS JUST SAID EXACTLY THIS........

[Crusader]

  18 minutes ago, ByTheBay said:

  23 minutes ago, The Mom Gene said:

Agreed also... everybody is quick to throw the QB and the OC under the bus, on every team. Go check out some of the other boards. Guys and Gals I see on here that are comparing others to ours aren't really seeing that even coordinators that are being mentioned as potential here are in the very same boat. It's really sad that people cannot see beyond that. Joe's lack of protection, and the ability to get time for the plays to develop is HUGE...

If the OL is the problem then what changes would be made? Stanley stays, Lewis stays, Yanda stays, Wagner could stay. Is Zuttah really the one to blame for all of Joe's issues? I read somewhere he actually graded out pretty well the second half if the season.

We had 7 different Offensive line configurations in 5 games due to injuries. Guys moved all over the place to fill in. Once Stanley came back the left side was fine. Zuttah had more penalties than anyone on the line also. And sacks allowed up the middle??? Those are missed blocks by the Center or RB. I'm just saying... Watch a Dallas game. Prescott has ALL DAY LONG. Br*dy does as well. Look at teams with good O-Lines, and you'll see better performance out of the running and passing game.

There is no depth on this team. Suggs goes out year is over,? Jimmy goes out year is over,? Its really sad how fragile this team has become.

[TheRavengers]

Seems like we'll be keeping Mornhinweg next year

[Drew P]

5 minutes ago, TheRavengers said:

Seems like we'll be keeping Mornhinweg next year

Sucks

[ravens4life86]

Im already checked out out. I expect a New Head Coach Next Year after another 8-8 year next yr.

This just proves they arent committed to Ravens Identity. Smashmouth Running and Defense

[TheRavengers]

20 minutes ago, Drew P said:

Sucks

I can only hope they get rid of this year's playbook and they actually make a new, better one than this year. That's my only hope.

[The Beak]

I am a diehard Ravens fan , but i don't know if i can stomach another year of harbaugh speak(such a wimp) morningwigs calls, or pees lack of guts, so what are we supposed to do , ug I feel like a browns fan, I hope i am wrong, feeling disgusted.....