Baltimore Ravens Thread

Pudsy33

mikemac1 wrote: »

Noooooooooo :mad:

I'd rather see Jacoby Jones cut then lose Boldin

Actually a very strong chance Jacoby Jones (never JJ, there's only Raven who was JJ :cool:) will be let go too

They could both potentially go? Smith is good and all, but Doss and Streeter wouldn't fill me with confidence.

Paully D

Aaron Wilson ‏@RavensInsider

One source on Boldin:

'Unless something dramatic happens, it's an absolute done deal that Anquan will be released.' We'll see. Still time

Fuck :mad:

Been reading up on this the last day or two and it's ridiculous that Flacco gets a huge pay rise when his no.1 receiving target is about to get cut.
Could they not have reached some compromise with Flacco that'd see his contract at maybe 100mil for 6 years rather than 120 but with the added incentive that they'd get to keep Boldin who is easily our best reciever in years.

I think without Boldin or in the absence of a good WR in the draft Joe will suffer next year and the contract will look stupid.
Like I said about Ozzie the other day though, he's a good GM and I'm sure he'll get something sorted.

Paully D

Deleted User wrote: »

Been reading up on this the last day or two and it's ridiculous that Flacco gets a huge pay rise when his no.1 receiving target is about to get cut.
Could they not have reached some compromise with Flacco that'd see his contract at maybe 100mil for 6 years rather than 120 but with the added incentive that they'd get to keep Boldin who is easily our best reciever in years.

I think without Boldin or in the absence of a good WR in the draft Joe will suffer next year and the contract will look stupid.
Like I said about Ozzie the other day though, he's a good GM and I'm sure he'll get something sorted.

That's a good point you raise about Joe and something I was discussing with people last night. Although the cap hit for Joe's contract is small in the first couple of years, with a deal that big he gets paid but inevitably at the expense of sacrificing other players and hurts the chances of winning another ring during the length of his new contract.

As things stand it looks like Anquain and Jacoby may both be cut, so we basically have Smith who is proven. Doss got some opportunities last year and I think the organisation like him, but at the minute he's not someone you can hang your hat on.

That leads me to think of our draft. Does anyone reckon we might be tempted to take Tavon Austin with our 1st rounder if he falls that far? That said there's some intriguing WR options on day 2 that could do a job so I think we'll look at other areas in round 1.

Some tough decisions to be made all round, but I don't think we can really expect Boldin to take a pay cut after his postseason.

That said we've been in this position before, when Mason and Heap were released, but they were replaced by Smith and Pitta so things worked out fine.

Thankfully we have the best in the game to make these decisions.

mikemac1

By time we hit year 3 & 4 of Flaccos deal and the cap hit is over 15 million, Suggs will be gone.
Suggs & Ngata are the highest cap hits on the team.
So room will be made.

I hope they extend Boldin on a 3 year deal and let him play out the contract, no thanks to Tavon Austin

But even more important then the receivers are the linemen
Flacco's 11 TD - 0 INT in the playoffs was a lot to do with superior play from the offensive line.
If McKinnie isn't resigned then a solution is still needed, Michael Oher is not it and they can't go reshuffling again.

Looks like Ellerbe want's to test FA so I think we should just keep Boldin now, and see what we can do in the draft to find an ILB.

Paully D

Boldin's gone lads. 49ers for a sixth round pick.

Pudsy33

Paully D wrote: »

Boldin's gone lads. 49ers for a sixth round pick.

I predict he will come back to bite us in the ass this postseason.

helimachoptor

Wow.. Cheap deal

Paully D

Pudsy33 wrote: »

I predict he will come back to bite us in the ass this postseason.

Wouldn't be surprised at all.

At least we got something and the cap relief rather than just cutting him which the front office had decided to do on Friday after he declined the pay cut anyway, but he should have just been paid.

The NFL really is cut throat.

SantryRed

So overpay for the QB which then causes his biggest post season weapon to be traded for nothing. I know the Ravens GM is good but he has got this one wrong.

Paully D

SantryRed wrote: »

So overpay for the QB which then causes his biggest post season weapon to be traded for nothing. I know the Ravens GM is good but he has got this one wrong.

In fairness though mate Boldin looked like a 70 year old for large parts of the regular season. I certainly would have kept him myself but I guess the front office aren't as clouded by a superb postseason spell as we as fans are.

Gutted seeing him go

matthew8

SantryRed wrote: »

So overpay for the QB which then causes his biggest post season weapon to be traded for nothing. I know the Ravens GM is good but he has got this one wrong.

Alright Joe Flacco may have been overpaid, but his cap hit was only 6.8 million this year. His deal did nothing to impede Boldin.

Keeping Boldin was impractical. And until the postseason, he was not playing particularly well for us. The cap space for Ellerbe and maybe Reed had to come from somewhere.

And if Boldin comes back to bite us in the postseason so be it, it means we'll have made the superbowl without him.

Well Ellerbe, Kruger and Boldin are gone. Ellerbe to Dolphins. Kruger to Browns :mad: and Boldin to 49ers.

robluvshandegg

Deleted User wrote: »

Well Ellerbe, Kruger and Boldin are gone. Ellerbe to Dolphins. Kruger to Browns :mad: and Boldin to 49ers.

Ed Reed hasn't resigned yet either.........:D

Paully D

Deleted User wrote: »

Well Ellerbe, Kruger and Boldin are gone. Ellerbe to Dolphins. Kruger to Browns :mad: and Boldin to 49ers.

Disappointing but Upshaw will slot in for Kruger, I don't see an unmanageable amount of difference there especially with a fully fit T-Sizzle playing to draw most of the heat. Suggs really will be like a new signing.

Don't forget Jamal McClain also has to come back in too after his injury this season. He was the 3rd leading tackler on the team in 2011 despite missing 3 full games.

I wouldn't be surprised to see us maybe have some interest in Rey Maualaga. While he makes Ray Lewis look like Revis in pass coverage he might be a lot more successful in our 3-4 system than the 4-3 the Bengals use? He wouldn't get any fans hearts racing but he'd do a job and wouldn't break the bank. I see Dansby has been released from the Dolphins just now too, also an option I'd consider.

Conjecture on my part, but I think Te'o will fall to us and we'll take him in the draft to give us decent depth at the position, despite Harbaugh being noticeably unhappy with his speed at the combine.

As for WR, it's something I'm sure Ozzie will target in the early rounds. There's some very interesting speedy WR prospects that will probably be available at the end of round 2 (Woods or Bailey for example).

I'm as disappointed as anyone that the likes of Ellerbe (especially), Kruger and Boldin have gone but that's the business side of things unfortunately. Ozzie will have a plan and he's not often wrong. He took lots of heat when Mason and Heap were allowed to go and things turned out fine so I'm not going to get too worried about it.

I think the best thing we can do is sit back, relax and see where we're at over the next few months.

JaMarcus Hustle

Bernard Pollard released. With Lewis and him gone, I might even start to like Baltimore now :P

matthew8

So now we're left looking for 2 safeties and 1/2 inside linebackers and a starting WR in FA/draft. Still think our defense will be better than last year. Canty upgrades the D-Line. Still got a great OLB situation with Upshaw/Suggs. Webb back and Williams out at CB, While Ray was fairly useless last year at ILB so we just need a half-decent player. Pollard and Ellerbe are losses but I think we can do without them, and especially Ellerbe for the money he commanded.

Pollard was one of my favourite players, he only got an extension too :O

Paully D

JaMarcus Hustle wrote: »

Bernard Pollard released. With Lewis and him gone, I might even start to like Baltimore now :P

You'd want to hope the Patriots don't sign Pollard mate, there'd be no players left after OTA's! :pac:

Paully D

Interesting read on the Pollard release:

The house cleaning continued in Owings Mills on Wednesday, as Bernard Pollard was handed his walking papers after two seasons in purple.

This departure, unlike that of Paul Kruger and Dannell Ellerbe, was clearly and comfortably the choice of John Harbaugh and the Ravens organization. In simple terms, Pollard’s constant complaining and locker room blow-ups finally caught up to him.

That Pollard leaves a champion is a testament to his intensity and competitive fire. He was an important part of the team that captured the Super Bowl in New Orleans on February 3. Few players in the league hit with more tenacity. The term “play like a Raven” was seemingly created with players like Bernard Pollard in mind.

With the good, though, came a lot of bad. Pollard was a troublesome figure in the clubhouse, which is why he won’t be around in Baltimore next season.

“This wasn’t all about quality of play,” a source said on Wednesday after the news about Pollard’s termination went public. ”It was about locker room tranquility and chemistry.”

While there wasn’t one single incident that doomed Pollard, a series of friction-filled events contributed to the club finally saying “enough is enough”. The most notable of those was a post-game blow-up in Washington where the hard-hitting safety openly bashed linebacker Josh Bynes in front of the entire team and within earshot of several media members who were in the vicinity of the locker room setting up for post-game interviews.

“It was completely uncalled for,” said a 2012 teammate. ”From a team standpoint, the last thing we needed that day was to have one guy pitting himself against someone else. And to pick on Josh like that? It was wrong.”

Pollard’s role in the bye-week practice fiasco is well known by now. When Harbaugh suggested the team practice in pads on Wednesday before letting the team have off for the rest of the week, Pollard reacted angrily and rallied several teammates to demand a lighter, easier practice session. To his credit, Harbaugh took the high road and gave in, deciding, apparently, that the battle wasn’t worth winning when the season was still very much in the balance.

“He was always complaining about something,” the teammate remembered. ”Nothing was ever right in Bernard’s eyes. After a while it got kind of old. And a lot of guys in the locker are John Harbaugh fans. Bernard was very anti-John and open about it. He didn’t really hide it.”

It’s one thing for a player to butt heads with the coach. That happens all the time. But, in this case, players – lots of them – were worn out by Pollard’s locker room antics and in-game reckless play that appeared to be more about the safety just doing things “his way” and not fitting in with the rest of the team.

Penalties and unnecessary roughness flags also plagued the hard-hitting safety. The former teammate cited one penalty in particular that unsettled the locker room. “Before the Indianapolis game, Harbs made a point of reminding us all about the late hits and the fact that we couldn’t afford any crucial penalties in a playoff game. With six or seven minutes left (editor’s note: It was actually with 3:46 to play) in the game, Pollard cracked Reggie Wayne for no reason at all. Right there, in front of the official, he just cracked him. We looked at each other like, ‘Is this guy serious or what?’”

The penalties and lack of discipline didn’t go unnoticed by Harbaugh and his staff.

On the field, Pollard was a solid run stopper who was suspect in pass coverage. That, alone, wouldn’t have been enough for the Ravens to part company with him, but it made their decision a lot easier on Wednesday.

As I often say on The D&L Window Tinting Morning Reaction, what we see, as fans and members of the media, is about 5% of what REALLY happens within an organization. We just see the games. Those of us with press passes do get a closer look at things, but it’s limited at best. In Pollard’s case, what we didn’t see was the consistent complaining and locker room lawyering that created more friction than his production provided.

If nothing else, the decision to cut ties with Pollard shows once again that Harbaugh puts chemistry and team unity high on his wish list of important items.

“As a player, when you see another guy in the locker room trying to undermine the coach on a regular basis, you sort of wonder when the coach is going to take control,” said Pollard’s now-former teammate. ”It does become the coach vs. the player, ultimately. And we all wait around to see who’s going to win. It’s an unnecessary distraction if it builds up, which this did.”

The distraction is moving on to his fourth team in eight seasons.

And the Ravens will move on as well.

Pudsy33

Apparently we're in talk with James Harrison Could you imagine!

mikemac1

Well he was a Raven a long, long time ago

spiralism

Just thought id chip in here to say that i think Brandon Lloyd would be an excellent signing if yee were interested. He's still an elite deep threat that puts up a huge average per catch and we all know how much Flacco would love another WR like that!

Jolly Red Giant

spiralism wrote: »

Just thought id chip in here to say that i think Brandon Lloyd would be an excellent signing if yee were interested. He's still an elite deep threat that puts up a huge average per catch and we all know how much Flacco would love another WR like that!

Brandon Lloyd has only ever been any good in a scheme designed by Josh McDaniels - he had a good year and a half in Denver when McDaniels was running the show and was useless when McDaniels got sacked. He was decent with the Rams, again with McDaniels and the Pats brought him in because McDaniels thought he would produce again in his scheme. Lloyd was not anything approaching the deep threat last season that he was in Denver or St Louis. The rest of the Pats players complained about his 'erratic' behaviour. Lloyd even offered to take a pay cut and Belichick still cut him. If Lloyd was worth keeping then the Pats would have done it. I cant' see him doing anything with the Ravens except whinging, whining and complaining.

TO.

Kraft mentioned today he wouldn't be surprised to see the Pats play the Ravens in the season opener. Only problem is for the Ravens is the Orioles play the same night and the NFL have asked the Orioles to move their game forward a few hours. Would be an epic first game.

HigginsJ

TO. wrote: »

Kraft mentioned today he wouldn't be surprised to see the Pats play the Ravens in the season opener. Only problem is for the Ravens is the Orioles play the same night and the NFL have asked the Orioles to move their game forward a few hours. Would be an epic first game.

Why don't they just play it on the Wednesday or Friday night? (Wednesday opener last season)

TO.

HigginsJ wrote: »

Why don't they just play it on the Wednesday or Friday night? (Wednesday opener last season)

No idea to be honest. Schefter or one of them gave an explanation about why the owners want to do it on the Thursday but I never really read anymore into it.

Edit: Looking at the Orioles schedule they play on the Friday and Saturday also. So Wednesday would be the logical choice alright.

mikemac1

Orioles won't move to midday as they play a night game in Cleveland on the Wednesday. Would be after midnight before the team gets back to Baltimore.
Also the ballpark & the stadium share carparks so this affects fans tailgating and the NFL will likely want to setup concert stages outside the stadium for the opening game.

Orioles won't do a double header Friday or Saturday as they lose money in ticket sales.
And the owner is as stubborn as they come

The NFL won't move to Wednesday as they are pushing very hard to establish Thursday Night Football.
They show this themselves on NFL Network and they want to make it a success as a bargaining tool with the big networks.

Solution?
Give the Orioles one or two million dollars and they'll do the double header I suppose

SantryRed

mikemac1 wrote: »

Orioles won't move to midday as they play a night game in Cleveland on the Wednesday. Would be after midnight before the team gets back to Baltimore.
Also the ballpark & the stadium share carparks so this affects fans tailgating and the NFL will likely want to setup concert stages outside the stadium for the opening game.

Orioles won't do a double header Friday or Saturday as they lose money in ticket sales.
And the owner is as stubborn as they come

The NFL won't move to Wednesday as they are pushing very hard to establish Thursday Night Football.
They show this themselves on NFL Network and they want to make it a success as a bargaining tool with the big networks.

Solution?
Give the Orioles one or two million dollars and they'll do the double header I suppose

They don't show this first game on NFL Network. It was NBC last year.