Baltimore Ravens Thread

Eric De Costa: "This draft ended up being about substance"

Ozzie said he didn't want to reach for an OT the way their board was stacked.

Ravens loved Campanaro's pro day.

We only considered a CB in round one.

Notes

• Ray Rice’s decline from a premier player to a roster question mark has been precipitous and somewhat accentuated by our view that he was never much more than an average pure runner on his best day. That said, he was, until recently, the NFL’s best pass-catching halfback and, while his skill has waned in that area too, we decided what’s left (together with the atrocious performance of his O-line last year) should just save him from being labelled “below average”.

• As left tackles go, Eugene Monroe is a very well-rounded player. He majors in pass protection, but is no mug in the running game either and is still improving. In the end he was a hair away from a “high quality” grade but a slightly improved 2014 should see him move into that category.

• Why, when if anything he played worse than Gino Gradkowski, have we got A.Q. Shipley rated higher? Because he’s a pure center and when forced to play guard, as he was last year, he was obviously overmatched. He did well at C for Indianapolis in 2012 and should only be viewed in that capacity.

• Both Haloti Ngata and Terrell Suggs have shown signs of age for two seasons running now. Last year we gave Suggs a pass because of his injury and Ngata due to his playing out of favorite position (he played more 5-technique in 2012). While they are still good players, Ngata’s highlight plays have become further apart and Suggs’ Pass Rushing Productivity, although still good for such a dominant run defender, is merely average when judged independently.

Roster Battles

1. Left Inside Linebacker

Most Ravens fans were happy when their team was able to select Arthur Brown in the second round of 2012, if not as a replacement to Ray Lewis, then more as logical progression. However, almost from his mistake in punt protection in Week 1 that allowed the Broncos to open the lead they would not relinquish, things never quite went to plan. He could never beat out (initially) Josh Bynes and then Jameel McClain, despite the latter playing very poorly. When C.J. Mosley was chosen with the 17th overall selection this year it left no one in doubt to the front office view. However, as we have just seen, not everything runs to a script so maybe Brown (and Bynes) will get another shot.

2. Free Safety

When used in the Ravens’ single-high defense, more often than not Matt Elam appeared out of place, but that’s what happens when you effectively have two strong safeties on the field together (as they did last year due to the pairing with James Ihedigbo). This year Elam will be used much closer to the line of scrimmage, where he looked far more comfortable, and Baltimore will need to find the man to play behind him. Draftee Terrence Brooks seems a logical choice, but that’s still a projection and maybe Anthony Levine or Omar Brown will state a case. Let’s just hope they don’t have to pair Elam with UFA, Darian Stewart or we may be in for a rerun of 2013.

Pudsy33 wrote: »

He has done a huge diservice to Flacco there, no way is he average.

NFL front offices and their lead scouts spend up to 9 months creating their draft boards. Yet despite the massive amounts of hours preparing, sometimes the best-laid plans never unfold.

As Ravens Assistant General Manager Eric DeCosta said prior to this year’s draft, “We try to make the draft a science but maybe it’s more of an art.”
The Ravens have been among the NFL’s most accomplished artists when it comes to the NFL Draft. But even the best artists are guilty of clunkers.

Just ask Paul McCartney.

Sometimes teams get lucky on draft day. A desired player slips because other teams don’t value him as highly or said teams opt for need over the best player available.

Back during the 2004 NFL Draft, arguably the Ravens worst ever, their first selection was the 51st overall, having traded away their first round pick the year before to choose Kyle Boller with 2003’s 19th overall pick.

As the Ravens waited to make their first pick (Dwan Edwards), a name on the board that fell towards them piqued the collective attention of the Ravens war room. That name – Bob Sanders, safety from Iowa.

Sanders tumbled further than the Ravens expected. They looked at the teams before them and tried to anticipate who might take the Hawkeye. Hopes swelled. The consensus was that the teams just before the Ravens had needs other than safety.

However those hopes were shattered when 7 picks before them the Indianapolis Colts turned in the card for Sanders.

“Sometimes in drafts you have a guy that you really want”, explained DeCosta last night during a Q&A hosted by PressBox at Mother’s Grille in Federal Hill.

“And he starts falling down the board to you and you get close and then you don’t get him for whatever the reason. That stinks, that’s the worst part.”
This year with the 17th overall pick the Ravens drafted higher than they have since 2006 when they chose Haloti Ngata with the 12th overall pick. As the 2014 draft unfolded the Ravens had their eye on a coveted player who started to drop.

Unfortunately déjà vu would soon kick in.

DeCosta explains.

“I think that this year maybe the one guy that I was excited about getting that we didn’t get was Eric Ebron from North Carolina the tight end. I thought he was a premier talent.

“I really thought if he had gotten out of the top ten he would have fallen to us. Looking at the other teams and this time there was a really good chance we were going to get him, and didn’t really think Detroit would take him.”

Detroit had just re-signed Brandon Pettigrew and their big, promising undrafted free agent tight end from UCLA, Joseph Fauria. The Lions’ and head coach Jim Caldwell’s call for Ebron was an upset.

“I thought we had a chance to really get him that was kind of frustrating for us. I thought he was an elite player. I think he has a chance to be a difference maker, Pro Bowl type guy.”

One of the positions the Ravens targeted in the draft was free safety. The Ravens had a target in Round 2 with the 48th pick but the plan was undercut by Jim Harbaugh and the San Francisco 49ers.

“I really liked safety Jimmy Ward probably a little undersized but reminded me somewhat of Ed Reed in terms of style. He’s a great player and one that I thought would be there in the second round.”

Woulda, shoulda, coulda…

Those unexpected twists and turns of fate during an NFL Draft that can change lives, careers and even a city’s football heritage.
Just ask the sports fans in Boston.

Rookie running back Lorenzo Taliaferro became the fourth Baltimore Ravens player to get arrested this year when he was charged with being drunk in public and destruction of property early Saturday morning in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Police told the Virginia Gazette that Taliaferro was charged with breaking a window in a taxi cab that was located a block away from the incident after leaving the scene. Both charges are misdemeanors.

A team source said Taliaferro has admitted to breaking the window accidentally and paid to repair it.

This incident occurred two weeks after the Ravens selected Taliaferro in the fourth round of the NFL draft. He is expected to be the team's No. 3 running back this season and was drafted as insurance in case Ray Rice was suspended for his off-the-field issue.

Taliaferro produced 1,729 yards and 27 touchdowns last season at Coastal Carolina. The Ravens haven't commented publicly on Taliaferro's arrest.

He becomes the latest Ravens player to be arrested, joining Rice, wide receiver Deonte Thompson and offensive lineman Jah Reid. Only Reid's legal issue remains unresolved. His misdemeanor battery case is set for June 4.

mikemac1 wrote: »

Gob****e ^^^

The team have Justin Forsett so that young draftee is not even guranteed to make the team. That would be an almighty waste of a 4th rounder though and there was lots of talent still there in the 4th.

As for Jah Reid he battered a man in a bar fight and hit him while he was on the ground. The guy is 6'7" and 335lbs and would win most any bar fight. His lawyer is good if he got that to a misdemeanour. It looked like jail time when I read the article on what he did.

The Ravens spent most of Week 2 of OTA’s installing new offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak’s system. Joe Flacco seems excited and optimistic about the new system.

If you are wondering what makes Kubiak’s offense so unique, yet also wondering how it failed in Houston last year, you are not alone.

I went to an NFL.com/NFL Films source, the TV and blog analyst Greg Cosell, to try to pin down the basic features of Kubiak’s system which make it unique. I also looked up a resource called Zone Reads to find out what went horribly wrong with it at Houston last year.

First up is Greg Cosell:

“What he’s been going back to his Denver days and his Houston days, it’s a zone -run game and a play-action pass game that works off the zone-run game,” said NFL Films’ analyst Greg Cosell. “When he was in Houston, I remember we researched it, his teams were among the best teams in the league at first-down passing because of their zone running game. It was run-action, as opposed to play-action. They were a very good run-action team on first-and-10. That’s what he’s been.”

That means basically a lot of play-action passes and bootlegs, stretch runs, and a zone-blocking scheme.

Kubiak has said everything will start with the Ravens being “physical” at every position, acknowledged that running the football will “make the rest of it go” and talked about making sure that Flacco is comfortable within the revamped offense.

As local Sunpapers’ beat writers Jeff Zrebec and Aaron Wilson have also pointed out, Kubiak, whose first coaching job in the NFL was as the quarterbacks coach of the San Francisco 49ers in 1994, “has historically employed concepts from the West Coast passing game, relying heavily on the run to set up the pass, frequently using play-action and bootlegs while getting tight ends involved.”

“There’s a lot of deception with the offense,” former Texans offensive guard Eric Winston said. “There’s so many different ways of doing the same thing so the defense can’t get a bead on it. There’s screens off of every run. There are so many choices. It’s a system where you can be successful.”

So what went wrong in Houston last season? What is the flip side of a Kubiak offense when it goes south?

We take a time-travel journey back to some dark times in Houston with Zone Reads to find the dark side of Kubiak’s offense:

“A 23-20 overtime loss to Seattle was a microcosm of Gary Kubiak’s tenure in Houston: a mostly-well-executed bread-and-butter game combined with a failure to turn opportunities into points and a fatal predictability on offense that sabotaged the team in the most important moments of the game. It’s a pattern that’s been with Kubiak’s teams since he arrived in Houston in 2006. Through good times and bad times, you can always count on a solid zone-running game paired with an undermanned passing offense and passive decision-making that combines poor clock management, predictable play-calling, and the famed “two-yard pass on third-and-five” to create a team that scores far fewer points than it should and never really competes with the best teams.”

Hmmmm… run that by me again? Haven’t we heard similar-sounding complaints about Cam Cameron and Brian Billick in the past.

Zone Reads continues:
“Gary Kubiak’s weaknesses are holding this team back. This is what I see those weaknesses as being:
“An extremely uncreative, vanilla offensive gameplan, with no new wrinkles or matchup-specific designs. If you’re a Texans fan, it must be infuriating watching teams like Jim Harbaugh’s 49ers installing a read-option package for Colin Kaepernick, then holding back on unleashing it until the playoffs, or watching Bill Belichick’s staff make chicken salad out of chicken crap every year with whatever receiving talent they find hanging around the facility. Good coaches make the most out of their talent and find ways to exploit matchups. Kubiak does neither. He has his zone run and his small package of play-action passes, and he doesn’t have a plan B. That’s what he runs against every single team, and if it isn’t working, he’s a deer in the headlights. He’s not helped by the team’s apparent refusal to bring in weapons in the passing game, seemingly depending on Andre Johnson and Owen Daniels exclusively since 2006. The NFL is an offensive, passing league nowadays; you can’t be a top team with one quality wide receiver. Drafting DeAndre Hopkins was a huge step in the right direction, but this team is still woefully undermanned in the passing game.”

“An inability to close out games. This ties into the first point. I’m convinced that if Gary Kubiak gets a lead– any lead– in the second half, his offensive game plan reverts to “shut down and run out the clock”. Doesn’t matter if it’s 13-10 with 12 minutes left in the third quarter. Kubiak plays to hang on, not to win. Even if this were a viable strategy, it’s hampered by that vanilla offense, because defenses always know what’s coming, and they know how to stop it and get the ball back. (Granted, they’re helped by the fact that Kubiak calls plays with a seeming indifference as to whether or not those plays have a chance to extend the current drive.) Witness yesterday: The Texans didn’t score a single point after halftime.”

“A seeming failure to understand that points win games, and that giving up opportunities to score points is giving up opportunities to win. The Texans are consistently one of the most under-performing red-zone teams in the league, particularly when compared to how the offense performs the rest of the time. Part of that is the same predictability that haunts the offensive play-calling. Part of that is occasional play-calling that makes no sense. (Why has Kubiak refused to use Andre Johnson in the red zone for so long, but is now doing things like throwing short crossing routes to Keshawn Martin?) In addition to the play-calling, Kubiak routinely mismanages the clock in the end-of-half/end-of-game situations, always taking the “safer” play. I’m convinced his optimal two-minute drill is “three kneels and take it into the locker room”. You combine these factors and it’s no wonder the Texans always seem to score fewer points than their talent and performance in between the 20s should indicate. Even yesterday is another great example: They ran 88 plays to Seattle’ 58, outgained the Seahawks 476-270, and still managed to lose.”

Well, I didn’t say the dark side would be pretty. But Ravens fans need to know there is the good, the bad and the ugly in every new offensive system. Kubiak’s biggest obstacle in Baltimore will be to overcome some of his own past tendencies and make the Ravens experience a fresh and less predictable version of his previous body of work.