[News] Ravens Help Lead AFC Team To 20-13 Victory In 2017 Pro Bowl

[BR News]

Fullback Kyle Juszczyk was heavily involved in the offense, and kicker Justin Tucker was perfect on the night.

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[BigUgly]

I didn't watch because I thought this would be another two-hand touch game. I guess I should've known that, with Ray coaching, there would be some hitting and some fire in the game.

[Chuckx999]

OK, so what does that do to make the Ravens TEAM better???

[bluehen]

Could those uniforms be any uglier!

[Tenacious Faulker]

How does the NFL select "Mr. Consistent" for AFC kicker and "Mr. Inconsistent" for Center?  Zuttah was the worst linemen by far for the Ravens on a line that was average.  He had costly penalties, inconsistent blocking, and the biggest liability for Flacco.  In addition, the accuracy on his snaps was too consistent for an NFL starter.  He is going to cost the team $4.6 million in 2017, but if cut would save us $2.4M in space to use (in part) to can find a better option.  I think nearly all Ravens fans want him gone, but now with his Pro Bowl selection you know Ozzie & Co. will be less likely to part ways with him.  Best option is to trade him, but I doubt there'd be any interest. 

Edited January 30 by Tenacious Faulker

[Ravensfansince03]

Ray Lewis belongs here. Either as DC,HC, or GM

[Ravensfansince03]

How does the NFL select "Mr. Consistent" for AFC kicker and "Mr. Inconsistent" for Center?  Zuttah was the worst linemen by far for the Ravens on a line that was average.  He had costly penalties, inconsistent blocking, and the biggest liability for Flacco.  In addition, the accuracy on his snaps was too consistent for an NFL starter.  He is going to cost the team $4.6 million in 2017, but if cut would save us $2.4M in space to use (in part) to can find a better option.  I think nearly all Ravens fans want him gone, but now with his Pro Bowl selection you know Ozzie & Co. will be less likely to part ways with him.  Best option is to trade him, but I doubt there'd be any interest. 

I kind of agree with you. Over the season I did notice things with Zuttah that were disappointing, like being injured a lot. He seems like a very good guy, but I'd rather us protect Flacco and our running game by any means necessary, even if it means having an entirely mean offensive line.

[Ravensfansince03]

Could those uniforms be any uglier!

Yeah, they could have had steelers colors on them!

[Ravensfansince03]

I didn't watch because I thought this would be another two-hand touch game. I guess I should've known that, with Ray coaching, there would be some hitting and some fire in the game.

It was actually a pretty good game. Players were amped up, but at the same time they knew it was for fun, and did not tackle players as violently as during the regular/post season. That was good to see. It showed ethics.

[Ravensfansince03]

I watched that AFC locker room video speech from Ray Lewis. Ray Lewis is just a true once in a lifetime character. Similar to Maximus off the movie Gladiator, played by Russell Crowe.

[billiejean]

How does the NFL select "Mr. Consistent" for AFC kicker and "Mr. Inconsistent" for Center?  Zuttah was the worst linemen by far for the Ravens on a line that was average.  He had costly penalties, inconsistent blocking, and the biggest liability for Flacco.  In addition, the accuracy on his snaps was too consistent for an NFL starter.  He is going to cost the team $4.6 million in 2017, but if cut would save us $2.4M in space to use (in part) to can find a better option.  I think nearly all Ravens fans want him gone, but now with his Pro Bowl selection you know Ozzie & Co. will be less likely to part ways with him.  Best option is to trade him, but I doubt there'd be any interest. 

It is clear that you are basing the majority of your opinion on the first 4 games of the season. During those games he had 2 mis-snaps and backed up on Joe twice. After those games he never did either. So the claim that his accuracy on his snaps was inconsistent is complete nonsense. But even if you were to take the entire season in to account you would be basing your opinion on about 1 percent of his plays because there is absolutely no way that your eyes were fixed on Zuttah for every single play during the year. So unless you do this....

https://www.profootballfocus.com/about/how-we-grade/

You have no way of gauging the entirety of his performance. Most of his troubles during those games occurred with second string guards beside him. How you projected his performance in the first four games on the rest of the season is beyond me, but it seems to be a common mistake. He was the 5th best player on our offense for the entire year. You are right about the penalties. The Dallas game and second Steelers game were when the most costly penalties occurred but during those games he blocked well. The other assumption that I think you may have made is that when pressure comes up the middle it is automatically the centers fault. Which is not the case at all. An example of this could be seen in the philly game. In that game Flacco was sacked twice by blitzers up the middle that were supposed to be picked up by the RB. But even if you didn't make that assumption, it would be hard for anyone to know who was to blame for pressure up the middle. There are just too many things that obstruct your view. The only reason I know about those Philly pressures is because they did a replay. Now lets get down to brass tacks. There is no way that he should have gone to the pro bowl. It was a huge reach, but he didn't play as inconsistently or poorly has you have stated. The guy was the 13 best center in the game last year which is really just the middle of the pack. But he was far from inconsistent and he had good accuracy on his snaps. He was also far from the worst player on the line. Ducasse was the worst player by a huge margin. It wasn't even close. I am not sure how you failed to see Ducasses shortcomings, which were prominent in every game. But with that I will say that I am not opposed to cutting him. I am not sure that his salary matches his middle of the road play. But before we let him go we would have to bring some guys in to fill the void either through FA or the draft. As of now there aren't any guys on the team that could perform even close to the level of the 13th best center in the game, which is a bit disheartening. I also don't think that Ozzy would let the fact that he made the pro bowl effect his decision on whether he stays or goes next year. If anything the PB increases the chances that another team would be willing to make a trade, although I don't think that is a likely scenario.