[News] Late For Work 2/23: Hail Mary Time? Ravens Will Take Another Crack At Keeping Top Free Agents

[Bat-mite]

It was, indeed, painful to see how often Flacco threw to targets yards short of the yellow line on third downs. TRhis, and his apparent utter reluctance to speed up things in the 2-minute drill periods, casually jogging to the line like there were minutes left, when the clock showed 35 seconds, with one timeout - only to throw a pass short ofd the first down marker, to the middle of the field, leaving no chance for the target to step out of bounds stopping the clock... It genuinely seemed like he couldn't care less if he tried... And I'm not saying it was the case - but it certainly seemed so.

My major frustration the entire season.

[RavensDieHard21]

Linta is Juice's agent? We will see ya later little buddy. He will come to the table with the case that his client should have won the Christmas game but was failed by the team, therefore $5 million is where the annual salary will start😆😂😄

[RavensDieHard21]

Flacco's record comes to no surprise as the horrendous play calling had receivers consistently running "safe" routes well short of the first down marker. 

Flacco also had poor accuracy downfield all year too

[steelcityraven]

  20 minutes ago, steelcityraven said:

Unfortunately.... our FO and HC stated after the season that they thought Joe's injury hurt him this year. I think that survival does (just as you mentioned) to people. They don't make the decisions that are best for the team but the best for survival. Get the ball out of your hand ASAP and hope for the best. That is what Joes season looked like. I guess that I get that from Joe's end... the problem that I have with it... is that if the FO and HC knew that he was unable to perform at the necessary level and that he was simply making survival decisions... why was it allowed to continue.

Why not play Mallet a few games and give us a chance? That is in no way suggesting that Mallet is better then Joe -just say that Mallet is better then a 50% Joe- who cannot go through his progressions bc of the injury that he has or bc of the fear of exacerbating his injury.

Because Mallet doesn't give us much chance. He's on his 3rd team, got kicked off the Texans, has a bad TD-INT ratio overall and the very last time he took over for Joe his second throw was an INT in Cincy. He only got called upon for Baltimore because we had already lost other QBs back in 2015 after Flacco went down, so he was more of a desperation play and even in those 2 games he only played well in one of them.

I am not and was not saying that Mallet could be or should be our starter.... What I am saying is that it was painfully obvious that Joe wouldn't or couldn't go through his progressions and simply opted to unload the ball as quickly as possible. Regardless of if it gave us a chance or not.

Mallet (albeit is not Joe Flacco) was at least healthy enough and talented enough to go through his progressions. Adapt enough to stand in the pocket and allow a play to develop. Mobile enough to leave the pocket if necessary and confident enough to not become overly dependent on our TE and check downs.

Yes his 2nd pass was an INT in the Cincy game but how many practice reps did the guy have before that? He looked adequate vs that Sqeelers....leading us to a victory... and he did that with a very depleted and injury riddled offense.

I have to believe that he gave us as much of a chance as 50% Joe who was unable and /or unwilling to perform at the level that we needed to have a chance in most games. (At least until Joe got healthy enough to get his confidence back).

This is not and was not an endorsement for Mallet... this was and is a call to the FO and HC to put the best team on the field that we can. To commit to giving us a chance to win... and not coming out after season is over and saying well... Joe couldn't perform up to a higher level bc of his injury.

IF they knew that all a long then something should have been done to bridge the gap. I do believe that a 100% Mallet would have given us an equal or even a great chance to win then a 50% (or less) Joe Flacco.. who seemed to regress as the season progressed!

[steelcityraven]

  20 minutes ago, steelcityraven said:

  1 hour ago, bioLarzen said:

It was, indeed, painful to see how often Flacco threw to targets yards short of the yellow line on third downs. TRhis, and his apparent utter reluctance to speed up things in the 2-minute drill periods, casually jogging to the line like there were minutes left, when the clock showed 35 seconds, with one timeout - only to throw a pass short ofd the first down marker, to the middle of the field, leaving no chance for the target to step out of bounds stopping the clock... It genuinely seemed like he couldn't care less if he tried... And I'm not saying it was the case - but it certainly seemed so.

Unfortunately.... our FO and HC stated after the season that they thought Joe's injury hurt him this year. I think that survival does (just as you mentioned) to people. They don't make the decisions that are best for the team but the best for survival. Get the ball out of your hand ASAP and hope for the best. That is what Joes season looked like. I guess that I get that from Joe's end... the problem that I have with it... is that if the FO and HC knew that he was unable to perform at the necessary level and that he was simply making survival decisions... why was it allowed to continue.

Why not play Mallet a few games and give us a chance? That is in no way suggesting that Mallet is better then Joe -just say that Mallet is better then a 50% Joe- who cannot go through his progressions bc of the injury that he has or bc of the fear of exacerbating his injury.

because where do you draw the line? was he 50%? Was he 65%? I don't think they knew, I think the HC and FO were speaking in hindsight.

I don't know what % - I just know he wasn't 100% and couldn't go through his progressions. Wouldn't stand in the pocket and give plays the necessary time to develop and refused to manipulate the pocket enough to give a less then perfect play the chance to work.

Not sure how any OC of offense for that matter can be successful when the QB is holding the offense hostage. Like I stated before. I am a Joe Flacco fan and when confident and healthy.... I think we have a guys who has and can win us super bowls.

But when he is not healthy... why not give us a chance to win and at the same time allow him to get healthy and re-gain his confidence... not set him back!

[RaRaRavens]

1 hour ago, bioLarzen said:

It was, indeed, painful to see how often Flacco threw to targets yards short of the yellow line on third downs. TRhis, and his apparent utter reluctance to speed up things in the 2-minute drill periods, casually jogging to the line like there were minutes left, when the clock showed 35 seconds, with one timeout - only to throw a pass short ofd the first down marker, to the middle of the field, leaving no chance for the target to step out of bounds stopping the clock... It genuinely seemed like he couldn't care less if he tried... And I'm not saying it was the case - but it certainly seemed so.

You are 100% right, and it has looked like that for years on Flacco's part. It literally looks from his actions, demeanor, posture and everything else that he could care less if the team wins or not. On multiple occasions he has been casually conversing and laughing with some teammates on the sideline, while we were behind and the defense was grinding it out. 

Coaches want to force him into the team leader role. Well, leaders lead by example. So if Flacco's the team leader, I guess it pretty convincingly sums up why we have been average team at best with absolutely zero desire to win at times the past couple of years.

[nj_ravens]

  24 minutes ago, nj_ravens said:

  42 minutes ago, steelcityraven said:

  1 hour ago, bioLarzen said:

It was, indeed, painful to see how often Flacco threw to targets yards short of the yellow line on third downs. TRhis, and his apparent utter reluctance to speed up things in the 2-minute drill periods, casually jogging to the line like there were minutes left, when the clock showed 35 seconds, with one timeout - only to throw a pass short ofd the first down marker, to the middle of the field, leaving no chance for the target to step out of bounds stopping the clock... It genuinely seemed like he couldn't care less if he tried... And I'm not saying it was the case - but it certainly seemed so.

Unfortunately.... our FO and HC stated after the season that they thought Joe's injury hurt him this year. I think that survival does (just as you mentioned) to people. They don't make the decisions that are best for the team but the best for survival. Get the ball out of your hand ASAP and hope for the best. That is what Joes season looked like. I guess that I get that from Joe's end... the problem that I have with it... is that if the FO and HC knew that he was unable to perform at the necessary level and that he was simply making survival decisions... why was it allowed to continue.

Why not play Mallet a few games and give us a chance? That is in no way suggesting that Mallet is better then Joe -just say that Mallet is better then a 50% Joe- who cannot go through his progressions bc of the injury that he has or bc of the fear of exacerbating his injury.

because where do you draw the line? was he 50%? Was he 65%? I don't think they knew, I think the HC and FO were speaking in hindsight.

I don't know what % - I just know he wasn't 100% and couldn't go through his progressions. Wouldn't stand in the pocket and give plays the necessary time to develop and refused to manipulate the pocket enough to give a less then perfect play the chance to work.

Not sure how any OC of offense for that matter can be successful when the QB is holding the offense hostage. Like I stated before. I am a Joe Flacco fan and when confident and healthy.... I think we have a guys who has and can win us super bowls.

But when he is not healthy... why not give us a chance to win and at the same time allow him to get healthy and re-gain his confidence... not set him back!

Again, my opinion is that because there was no reinjury, they didn't really know he was still not healthy until they watched him play for an extended period (hindsight). And even Joe said he wouldn't really know how he would feel until he went out there.

If his problem was confidence, I STRONGLY disagree that BENCHING him would be beneficial for his confidence. If they had started Mallett week 1 and waited for Joe to feel better that would be a different story. But as soon as Joe decided he was ready for week 1, that option goes out the window.

[Chuckx999]

Joe Flacco set record for ‘failed completions.’ What else is new. He's not called "old 3 and out Flacco" for winning games. the owner and Ozzie have to start looking for his replacement NOW!!!!!

[Bohica5]

Joe is simply not worth the money he is getting paid and should be cut......we could fill soooooo many holes with all that money and it's joe's time to go....Now please....

[Bohica5]

Maybe if Joe would stop throwing the ball behind or at the feet of the receiver, he could improve upon those numbers. If he has another year like 2016, people will dismiss that great SB run altogether.

joe jus need's to stop throwing the ball for us...Trade him or cut him(if we can find a trade victim)is the only was we're going to be successful......and take harby with you please............need to get fresh for the future...this duo is Toast!

[bnyce52]

Wagner is set to be one of those free agents who excels in Baltimore but goes out and does not do very well with other teams. In adiition, he is just a right tackle, no one will pay him to play left tackle and if they do they are making a huge mistake. In 2015 Wagner was a dumpster fire and now he is the second rated tackle. I guess they are looking at just one year because Wagner was less than impressive quite consistently before last year. Same with Juszczyk. Where I feel we underutilized his talents here in Baltimore, blocking fullbacks can be a dime a dozen and since we failed to use him to his best abilities, we are only loosing a blocking back with a sometime catch. Williams is the only one worth fighting for but with PIerce, his loss is minimized somewhat.

Let me add my opinion on cuts as well. I would hold onto everyone we have except for Webb, Arrington and Lewis. Dumervil, Pitta and Wallace need to stay.

You pay for future performance, not past. A player who isn't all that great for his first couple seasons but then figures it out and comes on at a high production level, you KEEP those guys if you have no reason to believe it's a fluke (which isn't even a thing for offensive lineman). He played well even when Yanda moved to the left. Wagner's best days are ahead of him, as opposed to a guy that's been playing well for a while but is getting to an age or injury history that carries risk of drastic drop-off. Wagner is primed right now. Who cares about his first few seasons (which were still very decent other than the injured 2015). Terrell Owens wasn't good his first couple years in the league. Turned out to be quite a productive player.

[stuckonaboat13]

  4 hours ago, gregob56 said:

Maybe if Joe would stop throwing the ball behind or at the feet of the receiver, he could improve upon those numbers. If he has another year like 2016, people will dismiss that great SB run altogether.

joe jus need's to stop throwing the ball for us...Trade him or cut him(if we can find a trade victim)is the only was we're going to be successful......and take harby with you please............need to get fresh for the future...this duo is Toast!

a possible trade with the skins if cousins falls through ???

[stuckonaboat13]

Curious if we could make something work with the Skins as far as trading Flacco if their arrangement(or lack there of ) with Cousins falls through. Joe's contract is beyond absurd, cant wait until we are no longer held hostage by it and captain back foot lob pass.

[JimmysmithFan]

  57 minutes ago, Bohica5 said:

  4 hours ago, gregob56 said:

Maybe if Joe would stop throwing the ball behind or at the feet of the receiver, he could improve upon those numbers. If he has another year like 2016, people will dismiss that great SB run altogether.

joe jus need's to stop throwing the ball for us...Trade him or cut him(if we can find a trade victim)is the only was we're going to be successful......and take harby with you please............need to get fresh for the future...this duo is Toast!

a possible trade with the skins if cousins falls through ???

Blasphemy!!!!!!

[nj_ravens]

Joe Flacco set record for ‘failed completions.’ What else is new. He's not called "old 3 and out Flacco" for winning games. the owner and Ozzie have to start looking for his replacement NOW!!!!!

nobody calls him that.

[nj_ravens]

Joe is simply not worth the money he is getting paid and should be cut......we could fill soooooo many holes with all that money and it's joe's time to go....Now please....

We could fill absolutely no holes because of the dead money we would incur. Even if the front office agreed with you, they literally cannot do that this year the way the contract is. So suck it up and cheer for your team.

[nj_ravens]

Curious if we could make something work with the Skins as far as trading Flacco if their arrangement(or lack there of ) with Cousins falls through. Joe's contract is beyond absurd, cant wait until we are no longer held hostage by it and captain back foot lob pass.

There is exactly 0% chance this will happen. It's not even worth speculating.

[bigcatfrank1]

Romo had the biggest failure. Matt Ryan had the second biggest failure, and what happened to Aaron Rodgers and Alex Smith wow they really blew it.

So Joe had little available to throw to, this stat does not take out the "dropped passes" which if were added up I would not be surprised if the Ravens receivers didn't lead the NFL in that stat.

Stats mean nothing of your team doesn't win football games. The Ravens blew 4 games last year by penalties, poor running and poor defense. If you didn't see that you are turning a blind eye to the real problems.

Joe Flacco has had 2 bad years, we all know it. Its 2017 and he needs to come back strong. However someone better catch the ball!

[The Beak]

I'll give joe a pass for last year, because of his knee injury. He absolutely needs more playmakers for this year, seems unlikely we can sign any of the three FAs , the good news is we are fairly deep at BW's spot and Wagner can be replaced, Kyle , well maybe we can convert one of our TEs (we have like a hundred) to the hybrid slot.

[stuckonaboat13]

  59 minutes ago, stuckonaboat13 said:

Curious if we could make something work with the Skins as far as trading Flacco if their arrangement(or lack there of ) with Cousins falls through. Joe's contract is beyond absurd, cant wait until we are no longer held hostage by it and captain back foot lob pass.

There is exactly 0% chance this will happen. It's not even worth speculating.

I disagree , the Skins could be in series desperation mode and their only options will be to franchise Cousins which they clearly don't want to do or find someone in trade or the open market. Don't forget the skins are an organization dumb enough to let a 5000 yard passer go over a few million dollars. I don't want Cousins in return id rather start fresh with a rookie on a rookie contract. Would be interesting if it happened, unlikely of course but something fun to think about. I just don't think Joe Flacco is ever going to be the answer again. Imagine what kind of team we could build if we find a quality QB and they are on a rookie contract. Of course thats easier said then done

[steelcityraven]

  2 hours ago, steelcityraven said:

  2 hours ago, nj_ravens said:

  2 hours ago, steelcityraven said:

  3 hours ago, bioLarzen said:

It was, indeed, painful to see how often Flacco threw to targets yards short of the yellow line on third downs. TRhis, and his apparent utter reluctance to speed up things in the 2-minute drill periods, casually jogging to the line like there were minutes left, when the clock showed 35 seconds, with one timeout - only to throw a pass short ofd the first down marker, to the middle of the field, leaving no chance for the target to step out of bounds stopping the clock... It genuinely seemed like he couldn't care less if he tried... And I'm not saying it was the case - but it certainly seemed so.

Unfortunately.... our FO and HC stated after the season that they thought Joe's injury hurt him this year. I think that survival does (just as you mentioned) to people. They don't make the decisions that are best for the team but the best for survival. Get the ball out of your hand ASAP and hope for the best. That is what Joes season looked like. I guess that I get that from Joe's end... the problem that I have with it... is that if the FO and HC knew that he was unable to perform at the necessary level and that he was simply making survival decisions... why was it allowed to continue.

Why not play Mallet a few games and give us a chance? That is in no way suggesting that Mallet is better then Joe -just say that Mallet is better then a 50% Joe- who cannot go through his progressions bc of the injury that he has or bc of the fear of exacerbating his injury.

because where do you draw the line? was he 50%? Was he 65%? I don't think they knew, I think the HC and FO were speaking in hindsight.

I don't know what % - I just know he wasn't 100% and couldn't go through his progressions. Wouldn't stand in the pocket and give plays the necessary time to develop and refused to manipulate the pocket enough to give a less then perfect play the chance to work.

Not sure how any OC of offense for that matter can be successful when the QB is holding the offense hostage. Like I stated before. I am a Joe Flacco fan and when confident and healthy.... I think we have a guys who has and can win us super bowls.

But when he is not healthy... why not give us a chance to win and at the same time allow him to get healthy and re-gain his confidence... not set him back!

Again, my opinion is that because there was no reinjury, they didn't really know he was still not healthy until they watched him play for an extended period (hindsight). And even Joe said he wouldn't really know how he would feel until he went out there.

If his problem was confidence, I STRONGLY disagree that BENCHING him would be beneficial for his confidence. If they had started Mallett week 1 and waited for Joe to feel better that would be a different story. But as soon as Joe decided he was ready for week 1, that option goes out the window.

Agreed that benching him 1/2 way through the season would have been a disaster. I do think that he should have been evaluated more thoroughly in the pre-season. Allowed to play more to either get his rhythm back, to re-gain confidence and to give the coaching staff a better gauge on where Joe was at.

Since that didn't happen.... the only option would have been to announce that he aggravated the knee further, play him on the injury list -assuring him that when healthy the position is his but at the same time... allowing us a chance to win and Joe a chance to heal.

Confidence was an issue and that was evident in the way he would simply check down and not allow plays to develop (survival). But not confidence in his ability but in his health.

He clearly looked uneasy in the pocket and I think his lack of confidence in his knee caused him to quickly check everything down and make decisions that were out of survival.

I hear what you are saying and agree that just benching him would have been the wrong move... but I am also saying that knowing that Joe was coming off of a serious injury should have prompted us to do our homework more and we should have been more vigilant... not needing hindsight but honest evaluation based on preseason reps and game situations.

We also should had the foresight, once we knew where he really was to be able to handle this without causing a storm of controversy and further damaging the credibility of our franchise QB...(which is ironically what we ended up doing anyways).

Lets just hope that we can put the pieces around him this year to keep him upright and successful.

[nj_ravens]

  2 hours ago, nj_ravens said:

  2 hours ago, steelcityraven said:

  2 hours ago, nj_ravens said:

  3 hours ago, steelcityraven said:

  4 hours ago, bioLarzen said:

It was, indeed, painful to see how often Flacco threw to targets yards short of the yellow line on third downs. TRhis, and his apparent utter reluctance to speed up things in the 2-minute drill periods, casually jogging to the line like there were minutes left, when the clock showed 35 seconds, with one timeout - only to throw a pass short ofd the first down marker, to the middle of the field, leaving no chance for the target to step out of bounds stopping the clock... It genuinely seemed like he couldn't care less if he tried... And I'm not saying it was the case - but it certainly seemed so.

Unfortunately.... our FO and HC stated after the season that they thought Joe's injury hurt him this year. I think that survival does (just as you mentioned) to people. They don't make the decisions that are best for the team but the best for survival. Get the ball out of your hand ASAP and hope for the best. That is what Joes season looked like. I guess that I get that from Joe's end... the problem that I have with it... is that if the FO and HC knew that he was unable to perform at the necessary level and that he was simply making survival decisions... why was it allowed to continue.

Why not play Mallet a few games and give us a chance? That is in no way suggesting that Mallet is better then Joe -just say that Mallet is better then a 50% Joe- who cannot go through his progressions bc of the injury that he has or bc of the fear of exacerbating his injury.

because where do you draw the line? was he 50%? Was he 65%? I don't think they knew, I think the HC and FO were speaking in hindsight.

I don't know what % - I just know he wasn't 100% and couldn't go through his progressions. Wouldn't stand in the pocket and give plays the necessary time to develop and refused to manipulate the pocket enough to give a less then perfect play the chance to work.

Not sure how any OC of offense for that matter can be successful when the QB is holding the offense hostage. Like I stated before. I am a Joe Flacco fan and when confident and healthy.... I think we have a guys who has and can win us super bowls.

But when he is not healthy... why not give us a chance to win and at the same time allow him to get healthy and re-gain his confidence... not set him back!

Again, my opinion is that because there was no reinjury, they didn't really know he was still not healthy until they watched him play for an extended period (hindsight). And even Joe said he wouldn't really know how he would feel until he went out there.

If his problem was confidence, I STRONGLY disagree that BENCHING him would be beneficial for his confidence. If they had started Mallett week 1 and waited for Joe to feel better that would be a different story. But as soon as Joe decided he was ready for week 1, that option goes out the window.

Agreed that benching him 1/2 way through the season would have been a disaster. I do think that he should have been evaluated more thoroughly in the pre-season. Allowed to play more to either get his rhythm back, to re-gain confidence and to give the coaching staff a better gauge on where Joe was at.

Since that didn't happen.... the only option would have been to announce that he aggravated the knee further, play him on the injury list -assuring him that when healthy the position is his but at the same time... allowing us a chance to win and Joe a chance to heal.

Confidence was an issue and that was evident in the way he would simply check down and not allow plays to develop (survival). But not confidence in his ability but in his health.

He clearly looked uneasy in the pocket and I think his lack of confidence in his knee caused him to quickly check everything down and make decisions that were out of survival.

I hear what you are saying and agree that just benching him would have been the wrong move... but I am also saying that knowing that Joe was coming off of a serious injury should have prompted us to do our homework more and we should have been more vigilant... not needing hindsight but honest evaluation based on preseason reps and game situations.

We also should had the foresight, once we knew where he really was to be able to handle this without causing a storm of controversy and further damaging the credibility of our franchise QB...(which is ironically what we ended up doing anyways).

Lets just hope that we can put the pieces around him this year to keep him upright and successful.

"Since that didn't happen.... the only option would have been to announce that he aggravated the knee further, play him on the injury list -assuring him that when healthy the position is his but at the same time... allowing us a chance to win and Joe a chance to heal. "

This is exactly my point. That is not an option. He didn't reinjure himself. I know we do some IR magic with low level roster guys but you can't just say your QB is hurt if he's not. Plus, then you get all the questions about "is it a full tear? Are you going to see dr andrews? blah blah" What your suggesting is a benching based on performance even if you word it some other way.

Otherwise we agree.

[nj_ravens]

  1 hour ago, nj_ravens said:

  1 hour ago, stuckonaboat13 said:

Curious if we could make something work with the Skins as far as trading Flacco if their arrangement(or lack there of ) with Cousins falls through. Joe's contract is beyond absurd, cant wait until we are no longer held hostage by it and captain back foot lob pass.

There is exactly 0% chance this will happen. It's not even worth speculating.

I disagree , the Skins could be in series desperation mode and their only options will be to franchise Cousins which they clearly don't want to do or find someone in trade or the open market. Don't forget the skins are an organization dumb enough to let a 5000 yard passer go over a few million dollars. I don't want Cousins in return id rather start fresh with a rookie on a rookie contract. Would be interesting if it happened, unlikely of course but something fun to think about. I just don't think Joe Flacco is ever going to be the answer again. Imagine what kind of team we could build if we find a quality QB and they are on a rookie contract. Of course thats easier said then done

First of all, it takes 2 to tango. THE RAVENS WILL NOT TRADE FLACCO. No matter what the fans or the media thinks. They. Will. Not. 0% chance.

There's only one scenario I can think of, where somebody sends over at least 2 firsts and 2 seconds. And even then, I don't know if Ozzie would do it. It would need to be a ransom. A heist. Who gives up that much for someone that the team is shopping for being ineffective? Nobody will ever offer that. 0%

Now, let's say that it was an option. Paying Cousins the franchise tag would be less than playing Flacco's salary. Giving up resources to pay more money for an older QB who some people argue sucks, instead of franchising your QB who you are on the fence about, giving yourself another year to decide? I know the Rs are whacky but that's really dumb.

[Moderator 3]

5 hours ago, Chuckx999 said:

Joe Flacco set record for ‘failed completions.’ What else is new. He's not called "old 3 and out Flacco" for winning games. the owner and Ozzie have to start looking for his replacement NOW!!!!!

 

4 hours ago, nj_ravens said:

nobody calls him that.

And nobody sensible calls him that for a very good reason.  It simply isn't true.

 

The Ravens had a very good rate at avoiding 3-and-outs. Of their 192 drives, only 35 ended in a 3-and-out, which is an 18.23% rate and good for 6th best in the league (LINK). That's in front of teams like the Packers, Cowboys, Steelers, and even the Patriots who were bottom 6.

Also, the Ravens had a positive TOP on the year and were above-average (12th overall) for the league (LINK). 

[sizzlingdoom]

  13 hours ago, bioLarzen said:

It was, indeed, painful to see how often Flacco threw to targets yards short of the yellow line on third downs. TRhis, and his apparent utter reluctance to speed up things in the 2-minute drill periods, casually jogging to the line like there were minutes left, when the clock showed 35 seconds, with one timeout - only to throw a pass short ofd the first down marker, to the middle of the field, leaving no chance for the target to step out of bounds stopping the clock... It genuinely seemed like he couldn't care less if he tried... And I'm not saying it was the case - but it certainly seemed so.

You are 100% right, and it has looked like that for years on Flacco's part. It literally looks from his actions, demeanor, posture and everything else that he could care less if the team wins or not. On multiple occasions he has been casually conversing and laughing with some teammates on the sideline, while we were behind and the defense was grinding it out. 

Coaches want to force him into the team leader role. Well, leaders lead by example. So if Flacco's the team leader, I guess it pretty convincingly sums up why we have been average team at best with absolutely zero desire to win at times the past couple of years.

Seriously. It's disgusting. The entire team is fighting and scraping, the fans are screaming and sweating, yet Flacco is just adjusting his hair and giggling on the sidelines. After another putrid interception or 3 yard pass on 3rd & 9. Between Flacco, Harbaugh, and Wright, I have no idea how we made it to 8-8!!!!!!!!!! Probably cuz the rest of the team was pretty awesome....but those are 3 huge components!

[billiejean]

Wagner is set to be one of those free agents who excels in Baltimore but goes out and does not do very well with other teams. In adiition, he is just a right tackle, no one will pay him to play left tackle and if they do they are making a huge mistake. In 2015 Wagner was a dumpster fire and now he is the second rated tackle. I guess they are looking at just one year because Wagner was less than impressive quite consistently before last year. Same with Juszczyk. Where I feel we underutilized his talents here in Baltimore, blocking fullbacks can be a dime a dozen and since we failed to use him to his best abilities, we are only loosing a blocking back with a sometime catch. Williams is the only one worth fighting for but with PIerce, his loss is minimized somewhat.

Let me add my opinion on cuts as well. I would hold onto everyone we have except for Webb, Arrington and Lewis. Dumervil, Pitta and Wallace need to stay.

It seems as if your memory is deceiving you. There are a lot of falsehoods that you have perpetuated in this statement concerning Rick Wagner. Rick didn't get a lot of playing time his rookie year except for a few snaps in heavy packages. His second year in the league he was the starting RT since day 1 because of Michael Ohers departure. And how did he do? He played lights out. He graded out as the second best RT in the league in his first year as starter. You are right about his 2015 season where he played horribly. I think a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that he had a hard time staying healthy that year. And then of course as you stated he had another stand out performance in 2016. His pff grades for the last three years were as follows, 84.7 - 45.8 - 84.5. These numbers really highlight how terribly he played that 2015 season but that number is sandwiched between two pro bowl level numbers. There is a risk in taking him because of that 2015 season but there is nothing that would point to the fact that his high level of play is a result of the system he is in. He will do better if the team who signs him relies heavily on the pass because pass protection is his strong suit and I do agree that giving him LT money would be a mistake.

[Halshayeji]

14 hours ago, TheRavengers said:

To be fair, Torrey hasn't done much since he left. He's only had 7 TDs in 2 years, when he had that many in just his rookie year. In fact statistically 2016 was his worst year, he had less than 300 receiving yards, fewest receptions, lowest yds/catch avg and played in the fewest games.

One also must be fair to Torrey. If R.Moss player for SF the past 2 years he wouldn't look so good either lol. His skill set is the complete opposite to the Qbs they have there.

When Torrey was in Baltimore, he separated from Dbs better than anyone. Flacco literally threw it up his way whenever the pocket collapsed. 1- less sacks 2- some were complete 3- others were PI calls that were as good as completions.

heck even interceptions thrown deep to Torrey usually didn't hurt us as it would net just as much yards as a punt would.

i find it unfortunate that some Ravens fans around here blame Torrey for "one play" that's not even all his fault and forget about the 25-30 first downs he got us every year  that we had no business making either via great catch or PI witch he lead twice in his 4 years here. 

Last but not least, Torrey got paid at a time when the Ravens were really cap strapped. If that scenario happened this year, the Ravens would have gladly payed him that 6 mil per year. It was just wrong time wrong place. 

[sizzlingdoom]

"Flacco set record for failed completions" Aside from Harbaugh's "coaching", and Shareece Wright being on the team, that quote alone sums up the year. The stat was probably created this year after watching Flacco

[sizzlingdoom]

Maybe keep BWill but he's probably too expensive NOW. Not extending him before this is inexcusable. Simple as that. We might not resign any of our free agents. Plus there's a potential 25+ mil to free up in cuts.
The decision on Doom as his health are going to be something to watch imo.
I hope we cut Pitta. Not durable, we have plenty of tight ends, overated as a pass catcher, and can block as well as my sister. Not to mention it would force Mr. "fix my hair after a bonehead play", to look at the whole field

[sizzlingdoom]

I have a question for someone that knows a lot about how the comp. picks work. It's about Juice. I really hope he leaves, and really think he is going to. Staying doesn't make any sense at all for both sides.
If he leaves, we won't have the possibility of getting a comp. pick for him cuz he'll be under the rb category right?