[News] Eric DeCosta, Pundits Weigh In On Best Way To Help Joe Flacco

[TheConquerorWorm]

3 hours ago, JamesA119 said:

Imagine that! 9th ranked Oline and all the "apologists" did was blame the Oline for Flacco's ineptitude. Many a QB could take a 9th ranked Oline deep into the playoffs
I just get tired of hearing"Joe needs this, Joe needs that" I guess we need 10 starting first team pro bowl players on offense around Flacco to make the playoff.

Stanley - Lewis - Zuttah - Yanda - Wagner

They only played together for 4 games last year - the first 3 games of the season (3-0) and the 1st Squealer game (win). The other 12 games was a patchwork of 8 different o-line combinations including Hurst starting (we know how that ends). Joe doesn't need a Top 5 o-line just one that is consistent.

[#Nevermore]

I like beefing up the line. I think we should let Wagner walk, move Lewis to RT and I think Chance Warmack will be released by the Titans. He would be a great pick up for us at LG. We can then draft a C.

[sizzlingdoom]

  4 hours ago, JamesA119 said:

Imagine that! 9th ranked Oline and all the "apologists" did was blame the Oline for Flacco's ineptitude. Many a QB could take a 9th ranked Oline deep into the playoffs
I just get tired of hearing"Joe needs this, Joe needs that" I guess we need 10 starting first team pro bowl players on offense around Flacco to make the playoff.

Church!

 

That's what I've been saying for years. When will everyone stop making excuses for Flacco. Luckily for the first time this year we heard someone from the FO put at least some blame on Flacco.

 

It's ridiculous how impossibly perfect the rest of the team needs to be for Flacco. If we had all the prerequisites that Flacco requires to play on an above average level, we could have literally almost any player under the center. We could have Keenan Reynolds slinging us to SB if we had everything that Flacco needs.

 

The fact that we have a QB who is the 4th highest paid QB in the league, but needs a TOP 5 O-line, league leading rushing attack, All-pro WRs, perfect playbook and playcalling, etc. to play adequately makes me laugh...and then cry.

 

And then people are wondering why we can't afford real play makers and game changers. 

Cheers! You are Correct. SIr. Or Mam.

[sizzlingdoom]

Finally getting Joe a true #1wr would go a long ways. SSS is my favorite athlete of all time, but he was 34 when we brought him over. Past his prime. And that's the best we've ever given Joe from a wr standpoint

[Asmodeus1971]

Just a post before I read the article that will probably be like a lot of the fluff pieces on here that never take the gloves off and hit the problems.

Inside the box (conventional thoughts)
1)improve the right side of the line

You have Yanda and Lewis who are both able to move pretty much anywhere on the line and except for Stanley at LT, where ever they are, honestly they are an upgrade. We need a RT like Stanley, that we can say he is the best at his position on the team. We don't need backups at tackle, we already have them in our guards. We need to find two guards that would be starters for most other teams. Someone gets injured we bring them in to play guard, if it was a tackle injured Yanda takes the right, Lewis takes the left. We need a better RT, very few of the sacks or QB rushes came from the left side. There were many games Wagner got beat bad. I don't care what grades he got or what some site says I watched the games. Wagner and Zuttah were consistently the weak spots on our o-line. The only time that wasn't true is when Hurst(bye) played.

On those two guards get the best you can get from the draft if possible. The o-line is the most important players on the offense, so don't be cheap get two players who will challenge for the starting spot and start them if they are best. If it turns out your starters become backups, so what that just means your starters are on rookie contracts so you can afford to have the best reserves in league.

Make Urschel the center and try to find someone to challenge him that if we have the room is on the roster but hopefully we can keep on the practice squad which should be kept stocked with o-line and DBs

2) Find receivers who can get open. If they run the route and Flacco still has the ball work back to him. Pay attention to what he is doing as often as possible so if he is under pressure you can turn and work toward him giving him a better chance when under pressure.

OUTSIDE THE BOX

1) draft your future QB

In the next two years draft a QB worthy of being a starter and make Flacco earn his job from that point on

2)Get a coach who can coach scrambling and make drills where Flacco needs to get out of the pocket. Emphasize getting rid of the ball and make it second nature, either pass it to your receiver, run if there is an opening or throw it to someone or no one out of bounds or ground it.

[sizzlingdoom]

I don't understand why all the fans are praising Lewis and are automatically assuming he can guard or tackle when he hasn't played either at a high level yet. I'm hopeful, don't get me wrong. Just seems like people are jumping the gun. Not to mention relying on him for a starting spot while we're trying to improve the line

[RavenLunatic]

How can a team with the 21st ranked running game have the 9th ranked O-Line? It's like last year when everyone was praising the defense when they never really played against a top tier offense. And when they did, they failed to close out games. Us fans of Baltimore don't need to stats to tell us what our eyes can clearly see. Weak running game, weak pocket for Joe to let plays develop, weak secondary, no returner, weak pass rush.

[Wildwest Raven]

Smh at yet another "What Does Joe Need?" article..

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

  13 hours ago, ellicottraven said:

With a 9th ranked O-line we had Joe Flacco of 2016? We better have the betterO-line for the coming year for us to even sniff the playoffs. We need to give Flacco a running game that he can use consistently and to get out of blitzes where he's prone to the worst mistakes and turnovers. A top O-line and having a beastly run game will win us time of possession against the opposition. This will also tremendously help the defense knowing before they can catch their breath there was a real chance in 2016 that our offense would go 3 and out and get off the field. I really want our offense to be led by our running backs moving forward, like it used to be when Jamal Lewis was the face of our offense. Personally I wouldn't mind going RB if eiher Fournette or Cook are available when we pick, but we may have to trade up to get one of them.

Imagine that! 9th ranked Oline and all the "apologists" did was blame the Oline for Flacco's ineptitude. Many a QB could take a 9th ranked Oline deep into the playoffs
I just get tired of hearing"Joe needs this, Joe needs that" I guess we need 10 starting first team pro bowl players on offense around Flacco to make the playoff.

Its 9th ranked by PFF... who, while are very valuable for individual player ratings, seem to vary wildly on the OL ratings as a whole. Yes, #9 ranked, but we never ran the ball so their terrible run blocking didnt bring their grade down as much as it should have.

And, i believe the #9 ranking is the rating of the 5 starters together - so Stanley, Lewis, Zuttah, Yanda, Wagner.... who played a sum total of 4 games together. 4 wins by the way.

So, actually, yes. thanks for pointing it out - with a #9 ranked OL Flacco does win. It's when you have to put out 8 different starting OL combos in the other 12 games with guys like Hurst at tackle, they struggle. And not just Joe, the run game as well.

[sizzlingdoom]

Smh at yet another "What Does Joe Need?" article..

lol

[Chuckx999]

What we need is a QB who wants to fight for every yard, not "3 and out Flacco" who just goes back to the bench and counts his money.
O Line very important. With our O line at present it would be really hard for any QB to do well. A new center should be first. Our center gets killed on almost every play. Then 2 "FAST" DB's, a BIG "RB" and linebacker, Zizzle is getting old.
A WR would be good but Ozzie just can't pick that kind of player.

[Derrel]

Should have kept Osemele

[fusuymada]

Zuttah is a joke in the pro bowl and needs to be the first to be replaced.

[Raven1995]

  11 hours ago, JamesA119 said:

  14 hours ago, ellicottraven said:

With a 9th ranked O-line we had Joe Flacco of 2016? We better have the betterO-line for the coming year for us to even sniff the playoffs. We need to give Flacco a running game that he can use consistently and to get out of blitzes where he's prone to the worst mistakes and turnovers. A top O-line and having a beastly run game will win us time of possession against the opposition. This will also tremendously help the defense knowing before they can catch their breath there was a real chance in 2016 that our offense would go 3 and out and get off the field. I really want our offense to be led by our running backs moving forward, like it used to be when Jamal Lewis was the face of our offense. Personally I wouldn't mind going RB if eiher Fournette or Cook are available when we pick, but we may have to trade up to get one of them.

Imagine that! 9th ranked Oline and all the "apologists" did was blame the Oline for Flacco's ineptitude. Many a QB could take a 9th ranked Oline deep into the playoffs
I just get tired of hearing"Joe needs this, Joe needs that" I guess we need 10 starting first team pro bowl players on offense around Flacco to make the playoff.

Its 9th ranked by PFF... who, while are very valuable for individual player ratings, seem to vary wildly on the OL ratings as a whole. Yes, #9 ranked, but we never ran the ball so their terrible run blocking didnt bring their grade down as much as it should have.

And, i believe the #9 ranking is the rating of the 5 starters together - so Stanley, Lewis, Zuttah, Yanda, Wagner.... who played a sum total of 4 games together. 4 wins by the way.

So, actually, yes. thanks for pointing it out - with a #9 ranked OL Flacco does win. It's when you have to put out 8 different starting OL combos in the other 12 games with guys like Hurst at tackle, they struggle. And not just Joe, the run game as well.

New York Jets game was our Waterloo. The Jets were in the backfield on every play. We need to keep Wagner and Draft a center and another guard or Backup tackle. If Wagner or Stanley gets hurt, do we move Lewis around or bring in Hurst?

[Raven1995]

  16 hours ago, jazz1988 said:

  17 hours ago, Filmstudy said:

It's fairly obvious the State of the Ravens comments were directed at Zuttah. I don't think the Ravens can start 2017 with him starting at center with the interior DL size in the division with Shelton, Atkins, Hargrave.

It would be nice to have some depth as well, but that's the spot that needs to be improved.

The free agent market concerning  the center position isn't really all that attractive. The best free agent center that will be available is JC Tretter who only has one season where he was healthy out of fours year he's been in The NFl and then there's Stefen Wisniewski who i'm not sure fit's what The Ravens are looking for since they said they want to get bigger on the offensive line. Overall it seems like they going to be stuck with finding a future starting center in the draft  and even the draft isn't all that appealing at the center position to my understanding. 

 

 In my opinion The Ravens are going to  have to hope Jeremy Zuttah improves and maybe even get stronger by hitting the weight room. A rookie or maybe someone already on the roster maybe  the answer to what they looking for but it's just not clear right now that will find a  immediate upgrade over Zuttah.

A smaller Center might be a fit for the Ravens, they had a great Center for 12 years by the name of Burke who was about the same size. Its about talent and maneuverability as a Center. Keeping Wagner and Jenson, adding Wisnieski if he can make the grade at center, and drafting a young G/C is actually a great move. The Team has already experienced what Zuttah can/cannot do for 2 years and its not worth exposing this O-line to a poor start to a possible Play-off season.

Matt "Birk" played 10 years for Minnesota and 4 years for the Ravens. He was at the tail end of his career but his strength was in calling blocking schemes. When Gradkowski started in 2013 their was a big dropoff. Zuttah has been with the Ravens for 3 years. Zuttah will be in his 10th year, I don't think the weight room will Help.

[Crusader]

Just think. Many of these issues today is because the organization waited to get a deal done with Joe before the Superbowl. If they could have gotten a deal done so much would be so different.

[bigcatfrank1]

  17 hours ago, bigcatfrank1 said:

  20 hours ago, jazz1988 said:

  22 hours ago, Filmstudy said:

It's fairly obvious the State of the Ravens comments were directed at Zuttah. I don't think the Ravens can start 2017 with him starting at center with the interior DL size in the division with Shelton, Atkins, Hargrave.

It would be nice to have some depth as well, but that's the spot that needs to be improved.

The free agent market concerning  the center position isn't really all that attractive. The best free agent center that will be available is JC Tretter who only has one season where he was healthy out of fours year he's been in The NFl and then there's Stefen Wisniewski who i'm not sure fit's what The Ravens are looking for since they said they want to get bigger on the offensive line. Overall it seems like they going to be stuck with finding a future starting center in the draft  and even the draft isn't all that appealing at the center position to my understanding. 

 

 In my opinion The Ravens are going to  have to hope Jeremy Zuttah improves and maybe even get stronger by hitting the weight room. A rookie or maybe someone already on the roster maybe  the answer to what they looking for but it's just not clear right now that will find a  immediate upgrade over Zuttah.

A smaller Center might be a fit for the Ravens, they had a great Center for 12 years by the name of Burke who was about the same size. Its about talent and maneuverability as a Center. Keeping Wagner and Jenson, adding Wisnieski if he can make the grade at center, and drafting a young G/C is actually a great move. The Team has already experienced what Zuttah can/cannot do for 2 years and its not worth exposing this O-line to a poor start to a possible Play-off season.

Matt "Birk" played 10 years for Minnesota and 4 years for the Ravens. He was at the tail end of his career but his strength was in calling blocking schemes. When Gradkowski started in 2013 their was a big dropoff. Zuttah has been with the Ravens for 3 years. Zuttah will be in his 10th year, I don't think the weight room will Help.

Thanks, for clarifying, Yeah i meant who played Center for-what you have clarified as 14 years.- not all for the Ravens, sorry. Burke was a small Center but a great one. I agree Zutta, I don't think he is going to get any better. He is, who he is and he gave it his all. Sometimes its time to move on.

[billiejean]

Zuttah is a joke in the pro bowl and needs to be the first to be replaced.

Pro bowl nod was a joke, most certainly. He was the 13th best center last year. Do you recall a career journeyman named Ducasse playing next to Zuttah for the last portion of the season? Pressure up the middle isn't always on the center. In fact in some cases it doesnt fall on any of the OL. If we do replace him we better be sure that we bring someone in either in FA or the draft that will at least be comparable to him. If we are going to use the zone blocking scheme for the majority of the time, we should keep him. That is where he excels. He will come in the top 10 next year if that is the case. But if we plan to use the power blocking scheme it would be nice to have an upgrade. But as of now there isn't anyone on our team that could fill that void.

[billiejean]

15 hours ago, Asmodeus1971 said:

Just a post before I read the article that will probably be like a lot of the fluff pieces on here that never take the gloves off and hit the problems.

Inside the box (conventional thoughts)
1)improve the right side of the line

You have Yanda and Lewis who are both able to move pretty much anywhere on the line and except for Stanley at LT, where ever they are, honestly they are an upgrade. We need a RT like Stanley, that we can say he is the best at his position on the team. We don't need backups at tackle, we already have them in our guards. We need to find two guards that would be starters for most other teams. Someone gets injured we bring them in to play guard, if it was a tackle injured Yanda takes the right, Lewis takes the left. We need a better RT, very few of the sacks or QB rushes came from the left side. There were many games Wagner got beat bad. I don't care what grades he got or what some site says I watched the games. Wagner and Zuttah were consistently the weak spots on our o-line. The only time that wasn't true is when Hurst(bye) played.

On those two guards get the best you can get from the draft if possible. The o-line is the most important players on the offense, so don't be cheap get two players who will challenge for the starting spot and start them if they are best. If it turns out your starters become backups, so what that just means your starters are on rookie contracts so you can afford to have the best reserves in league.

Make Urschel the center and try to find someone to challenge him that if we have the room is on the roster but hopefully we can keep on the practice squad which should be kept stocked with o-line and DBs

2) Find receivers who can get open. If they run the route and Flacco still has the ball work back to him. Pay attention to what he is doing as often as possible so if he is under pressure you can turn and work toward him giving him a better chance when under pressure.

OUTSIDE THE BOX

1) draft your future QB

In the next two years draft a QB worthy of being a starter and make Flacco earn his job from that point on

2)Get a coach who can coach scrambling and make drills where Flacco needs to get out of the pocket. Emphasize getting rid of the ball and make it second nature, either pass it to your receiver, run if there is an opening or throw it to someone or no one out of bounds or ground it.

Are you sure that you were watching the Ravens this season? Ricky
Wagner was one of the op 5 RTs in the league. Zuttah was a middle of the road guy and didn't play nearly as bad as people think. He was the 13th best center in the league and was rated as the 5th best offensive player on our team this year. I certainly wouldn't be apposed to an upgrade there, but we better be sure that whoever that upgrade is, can play as well, or better than JZ. One thing I know for sure is that, that guy is not Urcshel. Unfortunately his IQ and all of the publicity he gets has not made him stronger or more athletic. Whenever he was in this year he got beat like a drum, which continued his streak of poor play from last season (odd thing is that during his rookie year he started a game or two at the end of the season along with both of our playoff games, and he did well. He wasn't outstanding but he was better than average. Im not sure what happened after that). He was constantly blown off the ball and that fact was represented in his final grade for the year. He was rated the 55th best guard in the league. The last time he got in on offense was in the Philly game. Zuttah had an injury late in the second quarter and came out for a play. Urschel came in the game and proceeded to get blown back five yards into Terrance West who was running the ball. Needless to say it was a 5 yard loss. There isn't any doubt in my mind that we wouldn have lost that game if Zuttah didn't come back in. Gino Gradkowski would look like an all star compared to Usrchel. If we loose Ricky Wagner this season you will be able to see what a bad RT looks like. Wagner has been one of the FO biggest success stories in the last 5 years. He came in for heavy sets in his Rookie year. The next year he started at RT and came in as the SECOND best RT in the league. The next year he dealt with injuries and came in as the 15 best RT. And this year he was in the top 5 again. And its not like Rick was a high draft pick. We got him in the 5th round. The reason that we wouldn't be able to keep him is because he has played so well and will most likely get an offer we can't match. Google his name, the guy is on about 15 different teams free agent wish lists.  Clearly the lists are made by the local media and have no bearing on FO desisions, but the guy is going to be in high demand.  I think Ricks production is going to be much more difficult to replace than B Wills. Good tackles, right or left, are scarce in this league. It would be nice to have those positions accounted for, for the foreseeable future. I also wouldn't be so quick to say that Lewis can play any where but LT. We really don't know. I would feel more comfortable with him playing at a guard spot though.  Drafting a QB to start is easier said than done

Edited February 2 by billiejean

[Tank 92]

LMAO #9 ranked O line.

I continue to maintain that many that post here do not watch the Ravens play. 

[JamesA119]

  19 hours ago, JamesA119 said:

  22 hours ago, ellicottraven said:

With a 9th ranked O-line we had Joe Flacco of 2016? We better have the betterO-line for the coming year for us to even sniff the playoffs. We need to give Flacco a running game that he can use consistently and to get out of blitzes where he's prone to the worst mistakes and turnovers. A top O-line and having a beastly run game will win us time of possession against the opposition. This will also tremendously help the defense knowing before they can catch their breath there was a real chance in 2016 that our offense would go 3 and out and get off the field. I really want our offense to be led by our running backs moving forward, like it used to be when Jamal Lewis was the face of our offense. Personally I wouldn't mind going RB if eiher Fournette or Cook are available when we pick, but we may have to trade up to get one of them.

Imagine that! 9th ranked Oline and all the "apologists" did was blame the Oline for Flacco's ineptitude. Many a QB could take a 9th ranked Oline deep into the playoffs
I just get tired of hearing"Joe needs this, Joe needs that" I guess we need 10 starting first team pro bowl players on offense around Flacco to make the playoff.

Its 9th ranked by PFF... who, while are very valuable for individual player ratings, seem to vary wildly on the OL ratings as a whole. Yes, #9 ranked, but we never ran the ball so their terrible run blocking didnt bring their grade down as much as it should have.

And, i believe the #9 ranking is the rating of the 5 starters together - so Stanley, Lewis, Zuttah, Yanda, Wagner.... who played a sum total of 4 games together. 4 wins by the way.

So, actually, yes. thanks for pointing it out - with a #9 ranked OL Flacco does win. It's when you have to put out 8 different starting OL combos in the other 12 games with guys like Hurst at tackle, they struggle. And not just Joe, the run game as well.

The 9th ranking is for the season. It ranks in game performance as a unit over 16 games. This was not a ranking based on potential of the "starting 5" Oline men as you erroneously stated. Flacco can't win without superstars around him. There's no doubt about this. It's already been established.

[Wisdom]

21 hours ago, JamesA119 said:

Imagine that! 9th ranked Oline and all the "apologists" did was blame the Oline for Flacco's ineptitude. Many a QB could take a 9th ranked Oline deep into the playoffs
I just get tired of hearing"Joe needs this, Joe needs that" I guess we need 10 starting first team pro bowl players on offense around Flacco to make the playoff.

Excellent point.  This is old so pathetic.  Bottom line slow intercept Flacco needs to get off his lazy behind and put in the time and effort it takes for him to be effective or at best average!  He does little to nothing but take up needy cap space and wine & dine w/ Pitta and family during the off seasons.  I'm so sick and tired of his lame duck excuses of why after more than 9 yrs in the league, his foot work still sucks.  Coupled with the fact, he still can't read defenses and his so called strong arm is.....inaccurate.  He's awful!  Please Ravens draft a QB.  No doubt, If  he continued to do the same in 2017 then we fans can expect more of the same. What's has change.  Absolutely nothing!!!

[mrc724]

Flacco needs hard nosed coaching. He's friends with Ron Jaworski, he's seems so knowledgeable on ESPN. Instead of those two looking at golf courses to buy in the off season. Jaworski could help Flacco as a quarterback. Otherwise, bring in a strong QB coach, that will help read defense and whatever Flacco needs to be successful. Maybe Gary Kubiak can be hired to be Flacco's mentor. If not Kubiak, there has to be another quarterback that can help Flacco.

[mrc724]

I've read so many times, that Flacco can't read defenses. After 9 years, why hasn't he learned to read defenses. My opinion Flacco is uncoachable, or doesn't understand the concept. Why haven't the Ravens hired a cerebral ex-quarterback to teach him, the techniques. I still feel very strongly Flacco is coachable.

[flynismo]

  On 1/31/2017 at 8:15 PM, ellicottraven said:

With a 9th ranked O-line we had Joe Flacco of 2016? We better have the betterO-line for the coming year for us to even sniff the playoffs. We need to give Flacco a running game that he can use consistently and to get out of blitzes where he's prone to the worst mistakes and turnovers. A top O-line and having a beastly run game will win us time of possession against the opposition. This will also tremendously help the defense knowing before they can catch their breath there was a real chance in 2016 that our offense would go 3 and out and get off the field. I really want our offense to be led by our running backs moving forward, like it used to be when Jamal Lewis was the face of our offense. Personally I wouldn't mind going RB if eiher Fournette or Cook are available when we pick, but we may have to trade up to get one of them.

Imagine that! 9th ranked Oline and all the "apologists" did was blame the Oline for Flacco's ineptitude. Many a QB could take a 9th ranked Oline deep into the playoffs
I just get tired of hearing"Joe needs this, Joe needs that" I guess we need 10 starting first team pro bowl players on offense around Flacco to make the playoff.

PFF, you say? You mean the same PFF who ranks people like this?
http://boards.baltimoreravens.com/topic/70161-pff/