Baltimore Ravens Thread

Pudsy33

The Dumervil rumours are still swirling around. What do people think? He's a fine player and would give us more pass rushing options. He's play OLB as opposed to DE

Pudsy33

Pudsy33 wrote: »

The Dumervil rumours are still swirling around. What do people think? He's a fine player and would give us more pass rushing options. He's play OLB as opposed to DE

He's a big upgrade on Kruger anyway. He got 17 sacks one year playing 3-4 defense. Hopefully he can replicate that if we get a hold of him.
Him and Suggs combined will be hard to shut down.

Jolly Red Giant

Pudsy33 wrote: »

The Dumervil rumours are still swirling around. What do people think? He's a fine player and would give us more pass rushing options. He's play OLB as opposed to DE

Dumervil is probably better as a OLB in the 3-4 than he is as DE in the 4-3. His best season was playing as an OLB in Mike Nolan's 3-4 in Denver in 2009.

It looks like its between Denver and Baltimore for Dumervil's signature. The Broncos have offered him a revised contract that is considerably lower than the 3-year $30million deal with $11million up front that didn't go through on Friday. The deal is more the lines of the $5-$6million range that is the going rate for situational pass rushers. If the Ravens offer a better deal then I would expect Dumervil to jump at it - the debacle on Friday has cost him an awful lot of money.

Alfred Borden

Confirmed that Ravens will start on the road.

Paully D

Raf32 wrote: »

Confirmed that Ravens will start on the road.

Fucking disgrace.

Son Of A Vidic

Raf32 wrote: »

Confirmed that Ravens will start on the road.

I think having to travel for their first game is an insult to all Ravens fans.

SantryRed

It has got to be against Denver. Any other game, unless divisional, does not look any way appealing.

Paully D

SantryRed wrote: »

It has got to be against Denver. Any other game, unless divisional, does not look any way appealing.

Steelers hopefully.

Phoenix Park

Paully D wrote: »

Steelers hopefully.

I really hope it isn't to be honest. Steelers v Ravens is usually a really ugly game and from a neutrals point of view tends to be bad TV. I know its a big rivalry but usually i find the games boring. I'd much rather Ravens playing Denver myself, would be much more exciting especially after Ravens putting them on in the playoffs. Manning would probably ensure a decent beating, it being the regular season and all!

Paully D

Ed Reed thank you note in the Baltimore Sun:



http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2013/3/24/4141394/ed-reed-texans-ravens

Ravens Nation, My eleven seasons in Baltimore were more than I would have ever imagined, which is why I have such deep love for you all. I will forever cherish my time with the Ravens and the chills that ran down my spine when I finally kissed the Lombardi Trophy.

Special thanks to the City, Team, Organization and all the Fans! I'm going to miss being a part of this tremendous team and organization, but I'll always be Baltimore and my Foundation will remain in this community, this is not a goodbye, but a See You Soon.

Thank you for everything Baltimore, God Bless you.

ED REED #20

Sad to see such an iconic Raven go, but being honest it was the right time to move on. His shoulder is goosed and he can't tackle, and there must have been three or four times this season when he got jumped over like a horse going over a fence :pac: which was painful viewing.

Anyway I'm just glad his last game with us was a Super Bowl win, a perfect way for him to go out!

Does anyone else think Harbs is happy to let all the experienced leaders go so he can now say ''this is now my team'' and ''we're doing things my way now''? For example the likes of Lewis, Reed, Pollard etc were all very loud voices in the dressing room. I'm not saying it wasn't his team before but now he'll take more of a leadership role himself IMO.

Interesting times ahead, we're certainly going to get faster and younger on defense.

Paully D

Dumervile's on board:

http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_22861666/elvis-dumervil-agrees-contract-baltimore-ravens?source=rss

Once again, the Baltimore Ravens have defeated the Broncos.
Elvis Dumervil, one of the best defensive ends in Broncos history, has agreed in principle to a multiyear contract with the Ravens, according to two NFL sources.

Dumervil's departure occurs 10 weeks after Baltimore stunned the Broncos, 38-35 in double-overtime of a second-round AFC playoff game on a below-zero windchill Saturday afternoon.

A blustery snowstorm greeted Denver on Saturday when the Broncos learned Dumervil and his 63½ sacks were moving on.

The Broncos are expected to focus on signing defensive end John Abraham, who had 10 sacks and six forced fumbles for the Atlanta Falcons last season — or just one less sack than Dumervil. Former Indianapolis Colt Dwight Freeney is also a possibility if the Broncos can't reach an agreement with Abraham.

Abraham and Freeney visited the Broncos on Thursday.

Dumvervil's departure brings an end to one of the most bizarre transaction debacles in NFL history. It started when the Broncos asked Dumervil to take a pay cut. He made $14 million in 2011, $14 million in 2012 and the Broncos didn't want to pay him another $12 million in 2013, not when a free-agent market correction gave the likes of Cliff Avril, who like Dumervil had 20½ sacks the past two years, a two-year, $13 million contract with Seattle.

Avril's contract set Dumervil's market value as the Broncos and Ravens were each working off the guideline of paying approximately $13 million through the first two seasons.

It was the story behind Dumervil's free-agent eligibility, though, that had people around the country chatting around office coffee machines. After nearly two weeks of protracted negotiations regarding the Broncos' proposed pay cut, Dumervil and his agent Marty Magid finally agreed to take a first-year 33 percent salary reduction to $8 million.

The agreement was communicated 35 minutes before the signature page to Dumervil's revised contract needed to be at the NFL offices in New York by 2 p.m. March 15.

But the exchange of faxes between Broncos' contract negotiator Mike Sullivan in Englewood to Magid in Philadelphia to Dumervil in Miami and back to the Broncos' headquarters took too long. The signature page did not reach the Broncos' office, much less the league's fax machine, by the 2 p.m. deadline.
The missed deadline forced the Broncos to terminate Dumervil's original contract if the team was to avoid guaranteeing his $12 million salary.

With his contract terminated, Dumervil became a free agent. Several teams expressed interest but only the Broncos and Ravens made offers.

Dumervil chose to move on in large part because of the personal pitches he received from his former linebacker's coach Don "Wink" Martindale, new pass-rushing partner Terrell Suggs and head coach John Harbaugh.

Martindale was the Broncos' linebackers coach in 2009 when Dumervil recorded a career-best 17 sacks that led the NFL. Dumervil played outside linebacker in what was a new 3-4 defensive system for the Broncos that year. He will play outside linebacker again, with Suggs on the other side, in Baltimore's 3-4 defense.

Our D is going to be better than last year. Sizzle and Dumervile chasing QB's - scary!

Pudsy33

Some welcome good news after all the departures

Paully D

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Some welcome good news after all the departures

12 picks in the draft for Ozzie to work his magic too.

mikemac1

Welcome, welcome to the AFC North

The QB's already know you!

Plenty of this please :pac:

Paully D

My favourite Mike (although not AFC North):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z71qrrSFa5c

Paully D

Also lads, Huff has the same agent as Dumervil and is expected in for a visit, according to Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun.

Paully D

Peter King's latest column:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130325/elvis-dumervil-baltimore-ravens-peter-king-monday-morning-quarterback/index.html

Revenge is best served cold, but this is ridiculous. It took 30 years for Baltimore to finally get revenge on John Elway.
Thirty years next month, the Baltimore Colts drafted Elway with the first pick in the NFL Draft. Elway didn't want to play for taskmaster head coach Frank Kush, and so his agent, Marvin Demoff, went about the work of trying to create an alternate market for Elway, both in baseball and in the NFL. Elway was a great baseball prospect too, having played a minor-league season with the Yankees' Rookie League team in 1982. Owner George Steinbrenner loved Elway and projected him to be a starting outfielder for the Yankees by 1985. The Colts got the message and felt the leverage. Baltimore traded Elway to Denver a week after the draft, but the eventual compensation (Mark Herrmann, Chris Hinton and Ron Solt) wasn't close to the dividends Elway paid Denver.
It's tough to equate -- no, not tough; impossible -- Baltimore losing Elway to, 30 years later, Baltimore stealing one of Denver president Elway's 10 most important players. But in 2013, to Ravens fans, it'll do. In Baltimore, Elvis is about to enter the building.
***
See? Never judge an offseason before, you know, the season.
In the seven weeks since Baltimore won the Super Bowl, that's the lesson we've learned about the defending champs. First the Ravens had the Ray Lewis retirement, then the Anquan Boldin debacle, then the loss of Paul Kruger and Dannell Ellerbe in free agency, then the staredown with -- and loss of -- Ed Reed (which they really didn't mind), then the Thursday night opener mess ... and then late Sunday afternoon, pilfering pass rusher Elvis Dumervil from Denver.
It's really been a wacky time. But let's work in reverse here.
Let's go back 10 days, to Faxgate, when Dumervil's contract with Denver was annulled because he got the reworked deal faxed back to Denver 15 minutes after the deadline for the deal. OK, if he got the deal in on time, it would have been approved. But I've thought since that day -- and it's certainly something Dumervil believed -- that if the Broncos really wanted Dumervil back, they'd have been aggressively pursuing him to get the paperwork back before the deadline, particularly when they saw the minutes ticking down to the wire. Dumervil exited that process feeling like the Broncos didn't want him, and feeling unhappy anyway because the team was cutting his 2012 pay from $12 million to $8 million.
So Dumervil switched agents from the relatively unknown Marty Magid to the power agents of the league, Creative Artists Agency, with Tom Condon, Ben Dogra and Jimmy Sexton leading the way. Dogra has an apt name. He's dogged. Condon doesn't leave money on the table. When they took over, I believe they went all out to find a team that would pay Dumervil more money in year one than Denver would. Denver, I'm told, offered Dumervil the same in total cash in 2013 as it had before the fax foulup, $8 million. So CAA went off to do better. I am also told Dumervil did not want to go back to Denver if he could find some team that would pay him more in 2013 ... even one dime more. Baltimore did it. With some of the cap savings from letting Kruger, Ellerbe and Reed walk, here's the breakdown of the deal the Ravens reached to sign Dumervil:
The deal: five years, $26 million, with a max value with incentives of $35 million.
Signing bonus: $7.5 million.
2013 salary: $1 million.
2013 total money: $8.5 million.
There you have it. Dumervil will make $500,000 more in Baltimore this year than he would have in Denver.
One more side note here: In 2009, Dumervil, under new linebacker coach Wink Martindale in Denver, played outside linebacker and had his best season as a pro, winning the NFL sack title with 17.
Dumervil's sure to play outside 'backer in Baltimore. One of the linebacker coaches with the Ravens is Wink Martindale.
Coffee tastes a little better this morning, doesn't it, Raven Nation?
BURKE: Dumervil signing another Ozzie Newsome masterstroke
***
By mid-afternoon Sunday, it wasn't looking like such a hot week for Baltimore.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no Super Bowl winner lost more than five starting players from its championship team the next season -- until this year. Reed leaving for Houston on Friday marked the eighth player defection, trade or retirement since the Ravens won the Lombardi Trophy. Reed didn't play like a $5 million player last season, which is what the Texans are paying him, and he'll be 35 in September. It was time to move on from Ray Lewis. The expected return of Lardarius Webb from injury negates the loss of Cary Williams at corner. And paying $9 million a year for Kruger, a good but not great pass rusher, or $8 million for Ellerbe (lifetime starts: 14) would have created potentially untenable salary problems in the future. (Don't ask me to defend not paying Boldin $6 million for one year. I can't.) I believe most of GM Ozzie Newsome's decisions, eventually, will be proven correct. Teams that don't spend in the first two weeks of free agency are never applauded.
And now the Ravens won't open the season at home, the first time in a decade the Super Bowl champ hasn't opened in its home stadium, because of a conflict with an Orioles-White Sox game at 7 p.m. that day in Oriole Park at Camden Yards, a few Joe Flacco spirals from M&T Bank Stadium, where the Ravens play. Looking at the issues involved:
The logistics don't work to play both baseball and football games in downtown Baltimore close together. I'm hearing that there was some sentiment to play the baseball game at 4 p.m. and the football game at 9, but because of shared parking lots and the amount of space needed to hold the downtown concert, the conflict would have been difficult. The city's not big enough to handle a baseball crowd exiting the area at, say, 7:15, with much of a football crowd already there, or trying to wedge in there. And a long game, rain delay or extra innings ... a nightmare.
Don't blame the Orioles. The Orioles and White Sox are scheduled to play their only series of the season in Baltimore beginning on Thursday, Sept. 5. Each team is on the road the previous night, Baltimore at Cleveland and Chicago at the Yankees. It sounds easy to say, "Make the baseball game start at noon." That's unfair to teams getting into town at 1 a.m. (or later), particularly with both teams in the midst of a six-month grind. The opening of the series falls in the middle of a 20-games-in-20-days stretch for each team. Now, the NFL proposed to the Orioles and to Major League Baseball that the Orioles and White Sox play a Saturday day-night doubleheader on Sept. 7. But what if it rained Friday or Saturday, causing a rainout, and what if either team, or both, was in a pennant race? Playing back-to-back doubleheaders then, or the White Sox having to return to Baltimore to play one or two games, was a non-starter.
Sunday night or Monday night was never an option. I'm told the league would have been amenable to the Ravens opening Sunday night or Monday night at home, but many of the same problems would have existed. The Orioles are home Sunday afternoon, and a rainout might have necessitated a doubleheader on Sunday. And the Orioles are home Monday night to the Yankees, and you can bet the Yankees would have howled about the moving of a Monday night game, for their TV audience in New York, to early Monday afternoon.
One final point that too few people don't understand when it comes to the scheduling of this game. Super Bowl champs like playing the Thursday game. It's a scheduling advantage -- a big one. Teams treat the fourth preseason game as a garbage game anyway, so after the third preseason, they're prepping for the first real game of the year. If that game happens on Thursday of Week 1, it gives teams a mini-bye before Week 2, 10 days to prepare for the second game and extra time for minor injuries to heal. The Ravens coaches clearly wanted the Thursday game on the road over a home game on Sunday or Monday of Week 1. And they're not the only ones. It was an open secret at the league meetings that New England would have favored being the Thursday night foe for Baltimore to open the season, giving the Patriots an edge headed into Week 2.
That won't happen now. So what will? Too early to call, but in order of likelihood (in no one's eyes but mine), it seems like this would be the toteboard for the Thursday night opener:
Most possible: Baltimore at Denver (rematch of the Rahim Moore Bowl, with the Dumervil drama an added twist).
Possible: Baltimore at Chicago (great city for the NFL to have the game), Baltimore at Pittsburgh (though I can tell you the Steelers would be shocked if the league sent the arch-rival Ravens to Heinz Field for the opener).
Less possible: Baltimore at Detroit (though a Flacco-Stafford matchup would be fun), Baltimore at Cincinnati (meh).
If I were Baltimore owner Steve Bisciotti, the one game I wouldn't want is the Denver rematch. Playing Peyton Manning at home in early September, in a week the weather has the best chance to be lovely and fit for a prolific passing game, and in a game the locals will be out for revenge, is not my idea of a good way to get off to a 1-0 start.
I had this thought when trying to figure out a way to solve this problem: Let the Ravens play away on the first Thursday on NBC, and let them play home on NFL Network in Week 2 on Thursday, to celebrate the Super Bowl in style at home. (It wouldn't be so unlike 2012, when the Giants played the first game at home, on a Wednesday because of the Democratic Convention, and then played in Week 3 on Thursday at Carolina.) Baltimore at Denver Week 1, Cleveland at Baltimore Week 2. Genius move! The Kissinger olive branch! Then I looked at the baseball schedule: Yankees at Orioles, Thursday, Sept. 12, 7 p.m. Curses. But I will say this: Is there any reason the fourth game of a four-game series, on getaway day for both teams, cannot be played at 1 p.m.? Other than local TV revenue lost from turning a midweek night game to day, it's a point worth considering, particularly if the NFL would reimburse the two teams for whatever loss of local TV revenue there'd be. And the Ravens wouldn't lose the edge of the mini-bye; it'd just come between Weeks 2 and 3 instead of Weeks 1 and 2.
The Ravens are upset, to put it mildly, about losing the chance to open on that Thursday at home. Any team would be. But it was apparent in reading the statements of both the Orioles and Ravens Friday that neither side wanted to start a firefight with the other. It's not deserving of a brawl, or for the fans of Baltimore to be bitter at the Orioles for not doing everything to make it happen. And if you're a Ravens fan, look on the bright side. The last time a Super Bowl champ didn't open at home was opening weekend 2003, when Tampa Bay traveled to Philadelphia on a Monday night to kick off the season -- and to play the first regular-season game in Lincoln Financial Field history. The final: Tampa Bay 17, Philadelphia 0.

Jolly Red Giant

Paully D wrote: »

Peter King's latest column:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130325/elvis-dumervil-baltimore-ravens-peter-king-monday-morning-quarterback/index.html

Not surprisingly Peter King got several of the facts wrong in this case -

1. Dumervil was not offered $8million in the initial Denver Broncos contract offer - he was due to get $8million plus a $3million signing bonus. So the Ravens did not pay Dumervil $500K more than Denver initially offered - they paid Dumervil $2.5million less than he was due to receive from the Broncos if he had sent the fax to Denver on time last Friday.
2. King states that if the Broncos really wanted Dumervil they would have "that if the Broncos really wanted Dumervil back, they'd have been aggressively pursuing him to get the paperwork back before the deadline, particularly when they saw the minutes ticking down to the wire."
Denver make contact with Dumervil's agent four hours before the deadline with the agreed contract offer following negotiations - three hours later - .i.e. one hour before they were due to pay Dumervil $12million - Dumervil's agent contacted the Broncos and told them that Dumervil had rejected the negotiated contract offer. At this point the Broncos began processing Dumervil's wavier papers. 25 minutes later Magid phones the Broncos back and told Elway that Dumervil had changed his mind and would sign the contract offer. Straight away Elway pointed out that it would be difficult for the contract to be faxed and registered with the NFL in 35minutes. Magid assured Elway that the contract would be signed and returned to the Broncos within the 35 minutes. This did not happen. If Denver had not issued the wavier papers for Dumervil at 1 minute to the deadline as they did - then the new contract offer (signed or not) would have been null and void and Denver would have been legally obligated to pay Dumervil $12million for 2013.
3. Denver did not offer the same cash total in its revised offer after Friday's debacle - the original offer was a 3 year $33million deal with $11million guaranteed - the revised offer was a 3 year $24million deal with $8million guaranteed. The Ravens signed him for a 5 year $35million deal with $8.5million (possibly $10.5million) guaranteed. By the way - Dumervil still has to pass a medical tomorrow and that have been consistent rumours that he does have ongoing issues with his triceps that he injured two years ago.
4. Baltimore used very little cap space ($2.5million this year) compared to what Denver was going to cover - however, dead money against the cap next year (if Dumervil was cut) for Denver was $2million - for Baltimore it will be $8-$10million. Denver has a whole host of top ranked players emerging as free agents next year - it could not and would not hang dead money of this scale around the teams salary cap for 2014.
5. In 2009 Denver used Mike Nolan's 3-4 defensive scheme. Denver now uses a 4-3. Dumervil will be better in the 3-4 of Baltimore than the Broncos 4-3 - however, Dumervil is not nearly as effective a player as he was three years ago and he is now a major liability against the run. He is a situational pass rusher and both Denver and Baltimore were both willing to pay over the rate for such a player.
6. Dumervil is not one of Denver's ten most important players - at this point the following would be ranked higher than him -
Miller, Manning, Clady, Thomas, Welker, Bailey, DRC, Vasquez, Franklin, Prater, Colquitt, Kuper (if he recovers from injury) and Beadles. In fact, analysis of the 2012 season showed that Dumervil was the least productive player of the entire Broncos roster when his cost was taken into account.

It is surprising that a magazine of the standing of Sports Illustrated would print a story without checking the facts properly. Then again it is rare these days for the facts to get in the way of a good story.

I wish Doom well in Baltimore - he has been a good player for Denver for a number of years now and he will be productive in Baltimore. It will be interesting to see how the Denver defence works without Dumervil - my hunch is that he actually won't be missed an awful lot. However - to compare Baltimore's signing Dumervil to the Broncos taking Elway in 1983 is cloud-cuckoo-land stuff

Jolly Red Giant

Further to this - the contract details have emerged that demonstrate King was talking bullsh*t -

This is a comparison of Dumervil's contract with the Ravens as compared to the revised (not the pre - fax debacle) contract from the Broncos.

First the Ravens:
2013: $1 million salary; $7.5 million signing bonus = $8.5 million (fully guaranteed)
2014: $1 million salary; $3.5 million option bonus (injury-only guarantee) = $4.5 million
2015: $4 million salary
2016: $4 million salary
2017: 5 million salary

TOTALS
1 year: $8.5 million
2 years: $13 million
3 years: $17 million
5 years: $26 million ($5.2 million/yr average)
Full guarantee: $8.5 million
Escalators: $7 million; incentives: $2 million

BRONCOS
2013: $5 million salary; $3 million signing bonus = $8 million (fully guaranteed)
2014: $5 million ($2 million fully guaranteed)
2015: $5 million

TOTALS
1 year: $8 million
2 years: $13 million
3 years: $18 million ($6 million/yr average)
Full guarantee; $10 million.
Escalators: At least $2 million; $1 million each of first two years with 12 sacks.

CONCLUSION:
The Broncos offered a slightly better deal because they had more unconditional guaranteed money and a better three-year average. The escalators for both the Ravens and Broncos were built around a 12-sack season.

Rolando McClain has been released by the Raiders, anyone else think he'd be great in Baltimore?

matthew8

Very talented certainly so he's worth a go if cheap.

Paully D

Some nice games there. Thanksgiving night at home to the Steelers the pick of the bunch

HigginsJ

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000162232/article/ravens-rolando-mcclain-arrested-for-disorderly-conduct

Some players really are their own worst enemies

Pudsy33

That didn't take long. What a Muppet

mikemac1

Luckily for him the team is very light at MLB

He's on a very low 1 year 700k, it's easy to cut a player on that money

Happened in his hometown too, I suppose he needs to move on and leave those friends behind

Paully D

Elam our pick in the 1st round last night. I'd probably have gone for Cyprien if given the choice myself but obviously our front office know better than me thankfully!

Ozzie said that he was the best player on their draft board at the time and that all the main four guys (him, Harbaugh, Biscotti and De Costa) were in consensus on the pick.

A very speedy, versatile safety who doesn't miss tackles and plays with passion. If he gets a hand on you you're going to the ground. I'm sure he'll fit in just fine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gic39ASBQDE

Those hits at 25 seconds and 50 seconds

Paully D

ESPN article on Elam from 2009 when he was being recruited by colleges, wow he's had a tough life off the field:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/football/news/story?id=4761284

Matt Elam has always been able to run hard and fast, but only upon slowing down did he become a truly fabulous high school football player, and a more promising person.

Blessed with golden DNA, the same mix of genes that has landed brother Abram Elam with the NFL's Browns, ESPNU's No. 13-ranked senior in the nation has otherwise been doubly cursed.

If your 12-year-old sister had been murdered when you were 8 and your oldest brother murdered last year in the very same park of your neighborhood, chances are you'd be a flight risk, too.

But the running back-safety is not running now unless he's playing. Dwyer High (Palm Beach Gardens) won its first Florida state title Saturday in the Class 4A championship game against Niceville, 42-14, in large measure because Matt Elam has carried the Panthers.

A young man who could have slithered into the margins of the hard-knocks suburbs north of Palm Beach, Fla., where crime and dropout rates are high, and chances for success are disproportionately low -- he was on the way down, in fact -- instead has been driven by watching his mother go twice to hell and back.

He was a bad kid. Mean. A fighter. Addie Lewis helped change some of that, a mother mandating that her son change schools several years ago. Most of the rest of the rehab credit goes to Elam, a high-B/low-A student ready to graduate early, and -- presumably -- enroll next month at the University of Florida.

Changes have been made.

Elam still has an edge and remains a skeptic. He's tuned in, though; he seems to get it.

"I'm more mature, and I handle situations better," he said. "I felt like I had to make a difference with my mom because she was losing her kids. It wouldn't make her feel good [if he continued on a crooked path]."

ESPNU ranks the 6-foot-1, 205-pound senior as the No. 2 athlete in the nation, and Elam's athleticism has always been bountiful. Before transferring from Palm Beach Gardens High before his junior year, he was (and remains) a starter on the basketball and football teams. He has run track, and he played on a state championship lacrosse team last season at Dwyer.

For a long time, however, he was a mess off the field.

He was just 8 when his sister Christina, then 12, was shot and killed on a playground. "She was fighting a girl [earlier that day], and her [fellow combatant's] brother came back," Matt said. "I wear her number; 22 was her favorite number."

Abram Elam rushed from home to hold his fallen sister, but it was too late. Christina's killer is now in prison.

A couple of years after his sister was murdered, Elam's mother moved him to another school to help him avoid the trouble he was routinely finding.

But this is not a story about an angry youth turning soft. It's about a recalibration.

"I wouldn't say it helped me a lot, but it slowed me down, got me out of a crowd," Elam said. "I would lose my temper a lot, fighting and stuff like that."

There was anger-management counseling, too.

"I don't think it helped at all," Elam said. "All you did was sit down and talk about things you did, things you should have done."

The tough skin is still there. Over time, though, messages began sinking in that previously did not.

Several suburbs north of Palm Beach are tough -- and are talent hotbeds. Kansas City Chiefs safety DaJuan Morgan and Bears return ace/wide receiver Devin Hester are from the area, and so are former NFL players Anthony Carter and Barrett Green and high-profile basketball players Richard Rellford and Anthony Goldwire, among others.

Soon after older brother Donald Elam was killed in a still unsolved murder in the spring of 2008, Matt transferred from Palm Beach Lakes High to Dwyer via No Child Left Behind guidelines that allow students to change schools if theirs are underperforming academically.

He arrived with a reputation that wasn't perfect.

"Since he's been here, I definitely haven't seen that side," said Reggie Stanley, the running backs coach at Dwyer. "He was in the weight room every day in the summer, been at every practice. It's amazing how this kid picks up things. He wants to get better and make people around him better."

Matt speaks with his big brother every day. Abram, a safety who has registered 77 combined tackles and assists for the Browns, has hit a bump or two himself on his path to Notre Dame and then Kent State. He was undrafted and has done stints with the Cowboys and Jets. He tells Matt, "Be better than me."

Abram said: "His work ethic from sophomore to junior and senior year has been great. Matt's one you don't have to hit over the head to get him to do his homework or anything. He's a top scholar. He helps my family with my nieces and nephews, and he's becoming more responsible.

"I think he's still maturing, but it's been more evident the last year or two. Since his transfer, he hasn't had any negative attention drawn to him. He's been honorable. I commend him."

Elam's also chosen a more deliberate pace on the field.

"When he came in, he was a defensive player that played offense," Stanley said. "I've been here 14 years, and the biggest thing I've noticed that you can do to help them in high school is slow them down. [Running backs] run full speed, run past holes. He was running full speed. If it wasn't there, he'd just slam into somebody.

"But it's amazing how fast he picked things up. And all the things I'd been hearing about this kid … I saw none of that. In the first few games [in '08], he wasn't getting a lot of carries like he had been. I saw a play where he went down sideline for a pass and we threw to another receiver, and the kid scored. Matt kind of starting jumping up and down looking frustrated, and I grabbed him when he came to the sideline. He said, 'I can't believe I missed that block.'"

The murder last year of Donald, who had been in and out of prison multiple times -- at 14, he was the youngest person in Palm Beach County ever charged with murder before being acquitted -- may have turned Matt once and for all. Donald was 33 when he died.

"We were getting close; that's all I can tell you," Matt said. "Nobody knows who killed him, or why."

There is no debate about Matt's impact.

The Panthers lost their first game and have won 14 straight since. Elam's rushed 193 times for 1,897 yards (a 9.8-yard average) for 29 touchdowns, and he's relentless on defense.

In last week's state semifinal win over Armwood, he rushed for 182 yards and two touchdowns, returned an interception 55 yards for a score, recovered a fumble to set up a touchdown, and set up another score with another interception. He followed that up with a 188-yard, three-touchdown performance in the championship game.

His abilities -- and his improved countenance -- afford him opportunities.

Elam committed to Florida in the fall of 2008, embracing Gators coach Urban Meyer, who as an assistant had helped recruit Abram to Notre Dame.

"Since that day [Meyer] came to my house, we've have had a good relationship," Elam said. "He looks outside of football, and he feels like his job is to make a person better."

There are other windows of opportunity, though, and they can be found on Internet rumor mills.

Elam has said he's intrigued by the possibility of playing with Jeff Luc, ESPNU's No. 1-rated middle linebacker. The Port St. Lucie star recently committed to Florida State.

Lane Kiffin has been around on behalf of Tennessee. Georgia and West Virginia remain under consideration. There have even been suggestions that Elam is considering Ohio State so that he might be closer to Abram.

If Elam is going to change his mind, he'll have to do it soon.

He and Abram visited Florida last weekend (the Browns played Pittsburgh on a Thursday), and Stanley and Dwyer head coach Jack Daniels were Gators teammates in the late 1980s. Elam's Dwyer teammates Gerald Christian (TE) and Robert Clark (WR-CB) also have committed to Florida.

So Matt Elam is standing in the Gators' doorway, but with options, as his mother and a younger sister may move wherever he goes.

"Urban Meyer is a genuine person," Abram said. "But I was one of the ones that told Matt even though he committed to take his other visits and see what's out there. He's not obligated to anyone yet, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

"I think location doesn't matter. Matt wants to go to a place where he's comfortable, and he can win. He's competitive, and wherever he ends up he's going to fight to play."

Paully D

Arthur Brown in the 2nd round. What great value we've got there. Ozzie doing work!

taidghbaby

Smell of smugness in here :-)

kevohmsford

Brandon Williams is the 3rd Round Pick. This guy looks like a beast.

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2013/profiles/brandon-williams?id=2539645