[News] Eisenberg: Nothing Will Impact Ravens More Than Addressing One Position

[law215]

Nothing will positively impact the Ravens more than stacking a few good drafts together.

IMO the biggest failure of the Ravens has been the contract management and poor drafting.

Year after year, its the same story. They need secondary help, have key guys they can't afford to keep, and limited cap space to be aggressive in free agency.

To have a cap that large with the lack of talent and holes to fill is poor management.

If they draft better and grow while guys are under rookie contracts, then that's the biggest impact. There are no silver bullets to fix this team. It will be a process.

The slap in the face to fans is keeping the same bone-headed coaches and coordinators that have failed to develop guys to live up to expectations.

[Ugly Ball]

The one most positive impact that could be made on a team comes from the coaching staff ! Coaches affect everything. So when the Head Coach says we are good at coaching, we just need better players... He is throwing his players under the bus and playing the blame game. At the very least the O line coach should be gone. I guess Harbs is willing to bet that next season will be a complete turn around or he will be canned.

[TheConquerorWorm]

they had a chance to draft JALEN RAMSEY but blew it! he alone would of won a few games at the end of games.

You think a soft, cry on the sideline cause your losing, DB is better than Stanley?

[Crusader]

Either Malik Hooker or Solomon Thomas. in the 1st round.

Check out Hooker for secondary and Thomas as pass rusher. Trade what ever it takes with this year's draft picks to get them because I bet will be 8-8 in 2017.

[TheConquerorWorm]

  14 hours ago, Crusader said:

  On 1/7/2017 at 8:14 PM, BigUgly said:

  On 1/7/2017 at 8:05 PM, Crusader said:

  On 1/7/2017 at 6:31 PM, law215 said:

I don't care what the offense did or did not do. A defense can not give up 21 points in the 4th quarter. And if it only take one player to have the defense fall apart, then it really was not a good defense.

It not a good defense but no matter what you can't have the defense play most of the other quarters. The offense 3 and outs is un acceptable.

The Ravens had nearly a 10 minute time of possession advantage over the Stillers, so that excuse doesn't wash for that game. Same for the Raiders game and the Giants game, also situations where the defense crumbled in the end.

I still for the life on me can not understand why Webb and Wright did not even try to tackle the receiver in bounds. Webb actually pushes him out of bounds on the first pass I watches that series three times and one thing stuck out NO LEADERSHIP. Ray & Ed would have been all over it. i.e Super Bowl. There is so much wrong with this team its impossible to nail it down to a couple of things.

I know, I saw that too. Where Webby pushed the Steeler receiver out of bounds instead of tackling him in-bounds. That's a rookie mental mistake that Webby shouldn't be making at this point in his career. The receiver was fighting for extra yardage...maybe a yard or 2, but let him have it cause the clock is more important at that stage of the game.

It's a different mindset. The great Rod Woodson said that going from CB to Safety is the hardest position switch in football and was the hardest thing for him. This was basically Webb's first year at safety - should see significant improvement next year.

[#Nevermore]

7 hours ago, EdTheMythicalOne said:

Couple of things here and other posters have pointed some of what I have to say out already.

First of all, I should certainly hope this defense is better than it was in 2015 when almost every starter on the team was on IR. So I would attribute a lot of the defense's improvement to simply having the healthy bodies back. Before 2015 Pees' defenses have ranked no less than 12th and I think as high as 3rd in that Superbowl run.

Secondly, stats just show you numbers. They don't show the whole story. The Ravens defense was very stingy...until the game was on the line later in the 4th quarter. How many times did we see this defense nearly shut out a team for a half or three quarters only to blow the lead giving up chunks of big plays in the second half or fourth quarter?

Third, while getting a starting caliber and starting cornerback would be nice, what we really need to do is address the elephant in the room. That would be two 30 something edge rushers coming off of major injuries and an interior pass rush that's all but vanished from sight. Jernigan did what he always does, shows a flash for a couple games and then he disappears. The D-line wore down at the end of the season and late in games. You can have the best secondary in the game and they aren't going to be able to cover receivers for more than 5-6 seconds...unless you are playing against the Ravens receivers....but that's a different topic.

So this defense had some issues other than Jimmy Smith getting hurt, which is a recurring trend now mind you. We need disruptive edge rushers again and a beast up the middle. Brandon Williams is a very good player, but I think the emergence of a player like Pierce plus the chance to see a healthy Carl Davis and Willie Henry are what we need to improve up front.

I have to disagree to a certain point. We do need to address the aging pass rushers, but we have spent capital shoring up the front seven with players you mentioned and others and drafting linebackers Z. Smith, Judon, Correa. (I know neither have been in impact player, because of the way we draft different topic). The issue down the stretch was teams spreading the Ravens out and running the ball not necessarily wearing them down. During the first half of the season, teams were running their base offense and trying to power through the front seven which didn't work. Starting with New England and definitely with Philly, they used 4 wide sets and ran at the Ravens. During the same time when Jimmy went down, the Ravens wanted to keep the safety back to stop the big gains, allowing teams to run against a soft and spread 6 man box. If the Ravens brought a safety down, usually Weddle, the corners would play very soft and give up chunk plays.

The Ravens need better quality corners more than pass rushers IMO. Our corners can't cover for 2-3 seconds let alone 5-6 seconds. They play too far off and still get beat. They are not good which is why they play so far off. The pass rush is decent, but the receivers are open as soon as they get off the line of scrimmage. The Ravens have to spend real capital in the secondary instead of throwing money at cast-offs from other teams (Will Hill, Arrington, K. Lewis, Powers, Wright).

[BallsoHard622]

I've been saying we needed to improve our corner position for years but the front office doesn't like drafting corners in early rounds. Look at our teams that won the super bowl an you will see we had good corner play. Jimmy smith being hurt most of the year an having to play a rookie an back up corners is the reason we're not in the playoffs. Our offense sucked but our secondary lost games as usual.

[BallsoHard622]

We have been here several times before. But every time Ozzie chooses to save money and hope for miracle. He did that in 2013. He let Graham go for $4M/yr Back then Graham was really good. He had just helped us win the Super Bowl. It's likely that Graham could have signed for a little less than that instead of signing with his hometown Bills. We had the opportunity to sign Brandon Flowers. We chose cheap options like Rashan Melvin, Davis, etc. Then last year we were enamored with Shareece Wright; a player that was riding the bench in San Francisco. He was cheap.
As incongruent as their out look is on the CBs so also it is with the QB position. They have mortgaged the teams future on a bad QB. When I say this people always "Joe has talent" Well what do we mean by that? "He has strong arm, he is on the better side of 6'6" Well that's is called potential. The QB at his 9th yr is still processing the game at the level of a rookie. It doesn't appear that he puts in 1 more second than needs to be put in to get ready for a game. He relies on his instincts and adrenalin on Sundays.


It might be the time to deconstruct this team.

Good post. I thought when they let graham go that was a bad move an there's been a few free agent corners we could have picked up that wouldn't have broke the bank. They want to be cheap when it comes to the dbs an we got what we payed for. We can go on an on about flacco but the bottom line is every yeAr he plays like a rookie for the majority of the season an they make all kind of excuses for him.

[BallsoHard622]

You're right, Eisenberg, it's Not complicated. It is, also, frustrating. You mention that the team has known about this problem (weakness at cornerback for years. made worse by Jimmy Smith's fragility) yet the only moves Ozzie has made to try to correct it have been feeble at best. I think it's really worse than you imply, because I do Not think that the team should even count on Smith because of his inability to stay healthy. I think the team should consider him as a bonus only. So, I'm of the opinion of Tavon Young locking down the inside CB position and us needing to find Two, not one, true starting caliber CBs. And, again, when Jimmy is able to play, he's a bonus or luxury. It's sad, but I think we have to expect him to continue to miss games due to injuries. History is the best indication of his future. I realize how difficult a task this will be for Ozzie, but it Is the reality of our CB situation. And that's to say Nothing about our totally inferior pass rush. To me, that's just as big a problem. Doom Might have a better year just because it's a contract year for him, but I don't think he's even going to be here. Suggs will be a year older although, hopefully, he will be healthy. He's truly near the end though regardless. I don't expect much help at all from our 2nd and 3rd round draft choices for this last draft. They were whiffs for Ozzie. Too bad too because better pass rush prospects were available. But, of course, Ozzie has to take only choir boys. Bottom line, I think that our pass rush situation is just as important as the CB one is. These are the TWO Top areas of upgrade needed for our defense to get back to being good again. The running game defensive said and the inability to close out games have to be figured out as well. That's a Lot of work. Probably more than one off season's ability to correct. And don't forget, we're only talking defense here. Ozzie Really has a Lot of work to do. And, on top of All this, it looks like Mr. Bisciotti whiffed this year too when he decided to keep Harbs and both his coordinators. I still hold out the tiniest of hopes that he, like he did with Billick, will have a change of heart about that decision.

Excellent post!! I've been feeling the same way. You new every game this year that jimmy got hurt in or wasn't playing at all that we were going to lose because or corners ain't good. Every year I've been posting over an over again before the season starts that we need to bring in corners but nope.....it never happens. Smh

[DENNYK]

A lot of talk here on DB's and it is certainly justified. Our so-called best guy back there is Jimmy Smith and he seems to spend more time off of the filed injured than he does on it at any given time. Looking deeper, there is no depth. The D cannot protect any lead with these pickup DB's that have failed every where else they have been. To me they are the most frustrating element on the team. week in and week out thy let the game get away. Next year will more than likely be more of the same as I see it. Until some major changes are made in the front office and the coaching staff, we will continue to sign these bargain basement players that are just incapable of pro level play back there. Looking forward to see what occurs in FLA at Steve B's house this week.

[Purple Hazard]

Yes Smith getting hurt is a problem but I think the secondary looked pretty good with him playing. Sure we could use another good corner but that doesn't mean we need to priotitise just this position. To make our defense better we need to get our whole pass defense better and that includes our pass rush.

[billiejean]

  17 hours ago, Crusader said:

Either Malik Hooker or Solomon Thomas. in the 1st round.

Check out Hooker for secondary and Thomas as pass rusher. Trade what ever it takes with this year's draft picks to get them because I bet will be 8-8 in 2017.

trade whatever it takes? are those the only two players that are worth anything in this years draft?

[Raven1995]

and yet the Ravens made him the second highest player on the team next year.

Webb is counting more against the Cap then Smith

[Raven1995]

I completely agree with Eisenberg on this Defense must have improvements.

No.1 priority is Bonefied GameWrecker Pass Rush.
Last year they passed on studs like Noah Spence and Yannik Ngakwe for bums and high character Harbaugh guys like Correa and Koufusi.

Look how that turned out, 1 cant get on the field and other broke his foot.
Everyone knows a great rush helps a secondary. Combined sizzle,jernigan,Dum had 15 sacks this year. Mostly from sizzle 8 sacks.

So 1st round must be a Gamewrecker sizzle in his prime or Von Miller type edge rusher, whether its Barnett,Williams,Harris,McKinley etc
And I might take 2 in the 1st 2 rounds because lets be honest Dumervil is getting cut and sizzle has 1 maybe 2 years left probably

Its still to be seen what they can do. I'm sure Koufusi didn't mean to break his leg, Also, trading down got us Judon who I think might be the best of all.

[Raven1995]

The Defense got left hangin in several games so do not throw them under the bus! The position that is suspect and affecting this entire team is the "QB" position! Our Defense is missing that intensity that Ray Ray brought not saying Sizzle isn't getting it done but the MLB gotta be the heart and soul of the "D"! But like I said the Offense left the Defense hangin making Justin Tucker the MVP SMH! Offense had games within reach but choked every time!

The Defense got killed in the last 2 minutes of several games when the offense handed them a lead. The Giants game, come on, 2 players running into each other, they scored in 28 seconds. The Pittsburgh game 1:19 left. Also, the Philadelphia game, people forget they ran all over us, and if they kicked an extra point we might of lost in overtime. Also, the Raider game they ran the field in what do you know 1:19 for a score. The New England game easy touchdown in the 4th quarter. Blaming the Quarterback and saying we need Ray and Ed is nonsense. Saying we need a Good Offensive Coordinator that will commit to the run and keep passes under 35 a game would of been a great statement. The Defense had the Game within reach but choked several time's.

[griffrb]

The game is in the trenches. Blocking and tackling. If we want a better defense that will hold up over the season, we need a stronger defensive line that can stuff the run and get pressure on the QB at will. No secondary can hold up if a QB can have 4+ seconds to survey the defense. The pass rush simply did not exist the latter half of the defense. Fix the trenches and watch the chain reaction.

[merryjman]

The game is in the trenches. Blocking and tackling. If we want a better defense that will hold up over the season, we need a stronger defensive line that can stuff the run and get pressure on the QB at will. No secondary can hold up if a QB can have 4+ seconds to survey the defense. The pass rush simply did not exist the latter half of the defense. Fix the trenches and watch the chain reaction.

Agree totally. Pass rush is the issue here, no the defensive backs.

[merryjman]

I disagree. Just look at yesterday's Packers game - no secondary can hold up if the QB gets 10 seconds to throw the ball. Our true issue was the lack of outside pass rush. We had great pressure coming from the interior defensive line, until teams figured out that Suggs and Dumervil couldn't get the job done on the outside and started blocking heavy in the middle.

Forget CB unless there's a premier player we get lucky on. I say we focus on DE/OLB for the first couple rounds.

[zing21042]

The one most positive impact that could be made on a team comes from the coaching staff ! Coaches affect everything. So when the Head Coach says we are good at coaching, we just need better players... He is throwing his players under the bus and playing the blame game. At the very least the O line coach should be gone. I guess Harbs is willing to bet that next season will be a complete turn around or he will be canned.

When Harbaugh had better players he was indeed winning....year after year after year...in the playoffs. Now all of a sudden the coaching gets blamed for loosing and with substandard play? Granted, there were some questionable calls, but they did not cause our defense to melt in every 4th quarter loss. You can only make lemons into lemonade if you have some sugar.

Second, younger end rushers are clearly needed; however, even the best of them can be countered by double teaming...problem solved on the offense. A good CB can defend against anyone. In all our fourth quarter losses, end rushers would not have negated the result against good quarterbacks. They tore our secondary apart. The only way we could have won was by a turnover/interception...which we could not deliver. You can get to the quarterback once in a while...but he will through the ball on every down during a two minute offense.

Be that as it may, it is amazing that a team with the poor/mediocre record we have has so little salary cap space. Indeed, the Ravens have among the smallest of cap space in all of football. Until we can get out of the Flacco hangover (2020 at the earliest), we will be settling for substandard players and letting go of the good ones because we cannot afford them (Ngatta, Osemele, Bolden, Smith...). The list is long of what we sacrificed for a middle-of-the-road (at best) QB. I could see this if we had a Brady, Rothlesberger, or Prescott, but the Flackman has regressed and this has been over years. I get tired of hearing that this is all related to his injury over a year ago. Until Joe starts to understand the relationship between his salary and his team expectations, this fiasco will continue. And please spare me talking blame for poor play after each game. If he played better, he would have to beg forgiveness. And please someone do not blame his receivers. When Joe looked beyond the line of scrimmage this year all he looked for was "88". If the defense bumped Pita off the line, Joe got flustered and either threw a lousy pass or got sacked.

There are a lot of things wrong with this team; one can be solved by better CBs; the other we have to live with for years to come.

[Halshayeji]

On January 8, 2017 at 5:02 PM, GENE2407 said:

I feel like people are in a coma sometimes. It has been extremely obvious that our secondary has sucked for the past 3 or 4 years and worse when our top corner can only play about 9 games a year. Now, all of a sudden I'm reading articles about how we need to improve our secondary. We should have done that last year when we had the #6 pick in each round. It's going to be alot harder now that we're back at #15-20. Ozzie needs to stop drafting guards and tight ends in the top rounds and get us some playmakers at the skill positions!

I'm just as pissed off as anyone over the secondary issue wev had for 3 years in a row. Except I can't blame our FO for passing on VH3 at 6th overall because that would have been a reach and I was hoping we'd trade up in the second but the steelers, Bengals, and raiders took the 3 Dbs that were worth taking at that point. 

I do hope we learned from last year and not sit at 48 expecting an instant starting CB to fall to us. I think it's time Ozzie goes bold! Take the BPA with 16 then move back into the first and take whoever you think would start right away. CB and pass rush

then address the remaining needs in the remaining rounds and address the WR position in FA as this could be one of the deepest classes. Littered with WRs that will 

[TorryGundy]

I would say Center, DE, OLB would be the biggest. Pressure up the middle killed us on passing and running plays. We have not had a beast DE in a long time. WE can not win with sub par 3 and 5 techniques on a three man front. All of our OLB's except Sizz are situational. He is the only one that can play rush , pass and coverage. Each other one is a liability when the play to there side is not there strength, see doom against the run, or Judon crashing down instead of setting the edge, or McClellan covering anything, pathetic. Also depth at tackle and guard, Nickel corner, Nickel safety , and a better back up QB that can push average Joe.

[metalraven]

The 2017 draft is deep with CB talent. I say take one with the first pick and either get the other in free agency or trade for 1. We need 4 talented CBs for our defense to perform like it did. I think you're right. We focus endlessly on pass rush, but pass rush becomes so much more effective with good secondary play, it isn't even funny.

and visa versa

[metalraven]

The Defense got left hangin in several games so do not throw them under the bus! The position that is suspect and affecting this entire team is the "QB" position! Our Defense is missing that intensity that Ray Ray brought not saying Sizzle isn't getting it done but the MLB gotta be the heart and soul of the "D"! But like I said the Offense left the Defense hangin making Justin Tucker the MVP SMH! Offense had games within reach but choked every time!

Both sides of the ball choked. When one was doing well, the other blew it. Yes, Flacco sucked. But we're stuck with him.

[JD08]

I only see a few things that need to be addressed this offseason honestly:
1. We need a pass rusher and have to address the secondary with a good player also.
2. We need to have better playcalling and schemes on offense. Definitely a better pass/run ratio because that was terrible this yr.
3. West/Dixon are fine at the rb position, a draft pick for that position is not necessary. West/Dixon made plays when giving the opportunity.

[GENE2407]

Jees where the hell have people been? Our secondary is awful.........3 years running. Should have traded up and drafted Ramsey instead of the "safe" Stanley.

[ellicottraven]

10 hours ago, metalraven said:

and visa versa

Sure vice versa but I think we've good pass rusher that can be very effective if our secondary had a couple of really good man to man coverage guys...

[steelraven]

  On 1/7/2017 at 5:57 PM, steelraven said:

This Is an offensive league so I don't really blame the defense, at the end of the day the offense needs to score points and stay on the field to protect the defense. Why pay Flacco all that money if you want the defense to protect the offense? Tell Flacco to give half of that money he got and maybe they can build a defense. And I know people will start naming all these other QB's that got paid, well look at where there teams are, at home just like the Ravens and look at where they're ranked in QB ratings. Until that happens the Ravens will always be a 8-8 team or even worse. Only a hand full a QB's should get paid that amount of money because they can actually carry a team. Ravens shot themselves in the foot again when they extended Flacco's contract which set the team back again another 4 years. Ozzie has really been slipping lately.

I am sorry that you are unable to dictate the going rate for QBs in the league. There seems to be a misunderstanding of even basic Economic concepts here. And unfortunately, that is not surprising.

It's easy, pull a QB off the street and he can play just as well if not better than Flacco. Being Ranked at the bottom half of the league in QBR and no what's unfortunate is getting paid what he's getting paid without results, a kindergartner could understand that. Instead of resigning him which was definitely not economically viable, they should've let his contract run out, that was more logical than rational, because we've seen it for the past 4 years now. You can't get more logical than proof on paper.

[steelraven]

  On 1/7/2017 at 5:57 PM, steelraven said:

This Is an offensive league so I don't really blame the defense, at the end of the day the offense needs to score points and stay on the field to protect the defense. Why pay Flacco all that money if you want the defense to protect the offense? Tell Flacco to give half of that money he got and maybe they can build a defense. And I know people will start naming all these other QB's that got paid, well look at where there teams are, at home just like the Ravens and look at where they're ranked in QB ratings. Until that happens the Ravens will always be a 8-8 team or even worse. Only a hand full a QB's should get paid that amount of money because they can actually carry a team. Ravens shot themselves in the foot again when they extended Flacco's contract which set the team back again another 4 years. Ozzie has really been slipping lately.

It's not Joe's fault Webb is paid top corner money, and is now barely serviceable as a safety.  It's not his fault that the only consistently productive defensive players to be drafted since the Super Bowl are Brandon Williams, Timmy Jernigan, CJ Mosley and Tavon Young.  It's not his fault that the defensive coordinator has the corners play 10-15 yards off a receiver in 3rd and 5 situations, or that he can scheme a defense to play stout for 50 minutes before inexplicably disappearing for the final 10. 

You didn't read what I said, I don't blame the defense because at the end of the day it's an offensive league. Why do QB's get paid so much money? Answer that question first before you start running off at the mouth about a defense rank #7, where is the offense ranked? Webb was a 6mill cap hit, so what are you talking about. Flacco was a 20 mill cap hit. If you're getting paid more than Tom Brady you shouldn't need a defense to protect you. If the offense was more consistent, then a lot teams wouldn't attempt to have an all out assault on the #7 rank defense. The reason why they do is because they don't fear the Ravens offense especially when your QB turns the ball over 16 times in a season. One plays off the other if you know anything about football.

[billiejean]

3 hours ago, steelraven said:

It's easy, pull a QB off the street and he can play just as well if not better than Flacco. Being Ranked at the bottom half of the league in QBR and no what's unfortunate is getting paid what he's getting paid without results, a kindergartner could understand that. Instead of resigning him which was definitely not economically viable, they should've let his contract run out, that was more logical than rational, because we've seen it for the past 4 years now. You can't get more logical than proof on paper.

Well what a kindergartner would be able to understand, and clearly what you seem to be having difficulty grasping is that we resigned him after he won the Superbowl, and there aren't any kindergartners that would say that was a bad idea.  We RENEGOTIATED his contract before the season.  If we did not renegotiate his contract we would have had to pay him nearly 30 million dollars this season. Your misunderstanding of the terms resign and renegotiate clearly points to your lack of knowledge on this subject so I wouldn't be throwing out insults about others perceived intelligence levels. And the unintelligible argument which you have put forth you have backed up with QBR.  Vut it is clear from your ignorance of even simple football matters that you have absolutely no Idea what QBR is or how it is calculated, which further supports my conclusion that you think you KNOW, but you don't KNOW.  As it seems you may have only been following NFL football for the last year or so I will do you the favor of directing you to the infamous clip where that line was uttered. 

 

[RaRaRavens]

On 1/9/2017 at 7:29 AM, TheConquerorWorm said:

It's a different mindset. The great Rod Woodson said that going from CB to Safety is the hardest position switch in football and was the hardest thing for him. This was basically Webb's first year at safety - should see significant improvement next year.

How does a position switch effect a veteran like Webb's ability to understand the game situation and understand when he must tackle a player in-bounds to keep the clock running??  It's an awareness thing, not a position thing.