Ravens offseason and draft thread

Really like the Devron Davis signing. Like Chuck Clark last season I'm a little bit higher on both Deshon Elliott and Devron Davis than most.

I think both of them end up making the Ravens roster and become eventual contributors.

 

I rather like the Boseman pickup late in the 6th. the Center from Alabama. Project Lineman for sure but since Jensen departed, the Center position will be the one up for grabs in training camp.


And we can be reasonably sure that Zeus Jr. will win the RT job and push Hurst to the bench which is where he belongs

 

I really liked seeing Ozzie's final pick of the draft and ever. If I'm that kid, I'm working my tail off. When all is said and done, you can do nothing but tip the cap to Ozzie for all he has done and meant to the franchise.

 

Jaelon Acklin, WR, Western Illinois
Chris Board, S, North Dakota State
James Crawford, OLB, Illinois
Randin Crecelius, OL, Portland State
Devron Davis, CB, UTSA
Gus Edwards, RB, Rutgers
Alvin Jones, LB, UTEP
Christian LaCouture, DT, LSU
Du’Vonta Lampkin, DT, Oklahoma
Andre Levrone, WR, Virginia
Mason McKenrick, LB, John Carroll
Trent Sieg, LS, Colorado State
Alex Thompson, C, Monmouth
Kaare Vedvik, K/P, Marshall

 

Five years from now it’ll be interesting to look at the QBs and compare where they stack up against each other. They should all be returning starters by then.

 

I can totally see Flacco staying another 2-3 years, under a restructured deal. You really have to ask yourself if the problem was Joe, or the personnel around him. It's a pretty fair question. We had a horrific O line, and his receiving weapons? OMG, tragically bad. Is Joe going to be like Brady, and make even crap receivers serviceable? No, but how many QBs in the league can do that? Now, another fair question is how long does Joe *want* to play, and does he have the fire for the sport? That I think is a legit question, especially with yet another child?

And back to Jackson, beyond the wildcat I can see HB options as well. I can't believe a player with his talent is just going to ride the bench all season.

 

So now that the dust has settled, I think my view is this:

I applaud the Ravens for taking a chance and laying out a new plan. Right, wrong or otherwise, at least they have a plan which is something we can't definitively say they have had in the last few years. I get it on Jackson. Flacco had the team over a barrel when he won the Super Bowl and set records. I would trade that scenario any time if we get a SB trophy and the QB gets paid. The thing I saw coming was that if we did not get our QB of the future now, Flacco would have once again had us over a barrel when the next year came and we could not get anyone in the draft and free agents would cost as much as we are paying him now. I think they pulled pre-emptive strike and made the flip while the flippin' was good.

My best case scenario is that Flacco has a career year, we get great play from him and go deep into the playoffs and then we see about trading him to a QB needy team . Pipe dreams, but as I said, best case scenario.

I wish they would have had this kind of draft 3 years ago and we would not have wasted the better part of Joe's last few seasons. You can't tell me they stuck to the BPA strategy in this draft by nabbing the TE's and WR they did. I will not believe that hose guys were the BPA when we were picking. They were the BPA at those position we were reaching for (and that is even debatable)

Bottom line, as Gidion said, 5 years from now we will see what the verdict is on these 3 (Mayfield, Jackson and Rudolph) guys (and hopefully the Bengals will either be languishing with Dalton still or searching for some other bum to replace him)

Time will tell here, but if we can get some innovation from the offensive side of the ball and a gambler/aggressive go for it guy on the defensive side we just might be able to transition into the newer age of the NFL.

 

This will be interesting indeed. In fact 6 QBs will be compared I think - Mayfield, Darnold, Rosen, Allen, Jackson, and Rudolph.
Mayfield - Competition: Tyrod Taylor, Drew Stanton. Prediction: Day 1 starter
Darnold - Comp: Teddy Bridgewater, Hackenberg, Josh McCown. Prediction: Darnold unseats all 3 (Teddy being the stiffest comp) and is Day 1 starter.
Rosen - Comp: Sam Bradford, Mike Glennon. Prediction: Allen competes for b/u role. Likely starter in 2019 or 2020.
Allen - Comp: AJ McCarron. Prediction: McCarron starts and Allen is #2 possibly taking over as early as mid season. Possible he beats out AJ.
Jackson: Comp: Flacco, RG3. RG3 is a mentor only and gone before Sept. Jackson starts behind Joe for up to 2 seasons, maybe more if he finds success.
Rudolph - Comp: Big Ben, Landry Jones. When BB decides to retire is when Mason will get his shot. Not sure if they keep Jones on in 2018 or not.

So it's possible that all can be starting by 2020 and at least 2 starting day 1. Jackson to me will be the big question mark as Joe can turn it around AND still has years of football left in him. However, that might matter beyond 2019.

 

Jones will beat out Dobbs. Steelers keep 3 QBs... as per usual.

 

I like the projection/prediction thing.

Mind if I take a stab at this?
Browns: Tyrod Taylor, Baker Mayfield, Drew Stanton
Prediction: Mayfield doesn't see the field unless there is an injury to Tyrod or the Browns start the season 0-6. Mayfield and Taylor will have an open competition in 2019.

Jets: Josh McCown, Teddy Bridgewater, Sam Darnold
Prediction: McCown starts, Bridgewater is the immediate backup in case of injury and both would have to go down before Sam sees the field (other than a mop up role) in 2018. Darnold and Bridgewater will have an open competition in 2019.

Cardinals: Sam Bradford, Mike Glennon, Josh Rosen
Prediction: Bradford starts when healthy, Glennon is the immediate backup but Rosen forces himself into the #2 role and will see at least one start when the Cardinals are eliminated from playoff contention. Rosen is the starter in 2019.

Bills: AJ McCarron, Josh Allen, Nathan Peterman
Prediction: McCarron and Allen will not have much of an open competition but I believe A.J. will struggle enough that Allen ends up getting some starts down the stretch. It won't be pretty at times, but he will continue to flash superior arm talent and with an off-season under his belt he will be the clear starter in 2019. Peterman may end up off the roster before the trade deadline if more than one team suffers multiple injuries at QB.

Ravens: Flacco, Robert Griffin, Lamar Jackson
Prediction: Flacco is the clear starter but Jackson will get opportunities with certain packages and these will increase as the season goes on. Depending on Joe's play in 2018, Flacco may not be on the roster in 2019 making Lamar Jackson the starter.

Steelers: Ben Roethlisberger, Landry Jones, Mason Rudolph
Prediction: Ben Roethlisberger remains the starter in 2018 and 2019 with Rudolph only seeing the field when the Steelers are either locked into a playoff seed or out of playoff contention. In the regular season if Ben goes down it will be Jones who is the immediate backup in 2018, Rudolph in 2019 and when Ben retires prior to 2020 Rudolph becomes the starter.

 

Sounds about right.

 

So it appears that both Ravens and Steelers got the respective QBs they targeted. Looks like both are getting prepared to move on from their franchise QBs at some point soon.
nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000930369/article/steelers-ranked-mason-rudolph-among-drafts-top-qbs
@Tim - seems at least Pittsburgh ranked Rudolph's talent as high as you. Amazing they were patient and savvy enough to get him so late.

 

Wrong

Rudolph will play good enough this preseason that the Steelers cut Jones and declaring Rudolph the number two. Dobbs will be the backups backup. This will also give the Steelers a couple of million in cap room. Jones can’t help us so why keep him? Rudolph’s floor is higher than Jones’ ceiling.

 

Well that's the most awkward draft write-up I've seen.

*Edit* Since the post was removed, it looks like I'm talking to Gidion, but I definitely was not directing my joke there.

 

Well, it appears that Big Ben has other ideas. He says envisions playing another 3-5 yrs if all goes well. Since it never goes "all well" in the NFL I think that 3 years is the outside of estimation for him given his history of injuries.
nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000930884/article/big-ben-rudolph-era-wont-begin-for-3-to-5-years

 

So it looks like Goddy, @Tim and I are all somewhat correct.

 

Here's an interesting read on Jackson. A "Louisville expert" was interviewed about his opinion

https://ebonybird.com/2018/05/02/louisville-expert-jacob-lane-answers-questions-lamar-jackson/

 

I do find it very interesting that Jackson ran form more yards and TDs than Saquon Barkley in the same 38 game span. Granted that's the system they're in, but Barkley succeeded because of his system where as Jackson did despite it. Mediocre receivers and bad OL play for most of his 3 seasons made him improvise to win or move the chains.

However, good as that may sound, he'll be coming to a functional franchise and not a "2nd choice" college. We know what Mornhinweg was able to do with Michael Vick in Philly. That still didn't make him a SB winner. If the Ravens have a plan for LJ I can see that bc of his elusiveness they might be able to skimp on a superior OL to save cap space later. Right now they have the semblance of a good one in place for a few more seasons and time will tell.

LJ may not need to be a long ball QB. He has good mechanics, even if some of his passes are wobbly ducks. He's proven he can hit tight windows for receivers even if inconsistently. Not much different from Joe on that, but Joe does have the long ball and won a SB with that ability.

I can see Mornhinweg eventually scheming for wildcat and pistol formations if/when LJ starts under center. The offense could be really dynamic, if LJ can stick to a plan. So much of his success has been on the fly which can't be taught. But if Belichick proved anything in the NFL is that a solid plan is superior to a talented team. Not that it matters too much, but LJ's Wonderlic was a paltry 12. Joe's is at 28 as is Russell Wilson's. Brady's is at 33, Rodgers is at 35 and Colin Kaepernick's 38. Then we have multi-title winning Terry Bradshaw's was 15. The average SB winning QB Wonderlic score for those currently playing is 30.7. I mention this because it seems that most tend to think that Wonderlic is an indicator of success. However, even "dumb" people can achieve success by doing one thing well even if they don't fully comprehend it, they simply execute and to the best of their ability.

I'm not saying anything on LJ's score other than if Bradshaw can win 4 SBs and two MVPs with his score then it was likely more due to his ability to execute and NOT overthink a situation or second guess his coaches. The ability to improvise is clearly a sign of intelligence. Lamar has shown me that he can improvise, but can he stick to a game plan? Can he force himself to stay in the pocket to make the throw when called on rather that breaking an running prematurely like VIck and RG3? If he can player on the fly like Wilson, Rodgers and Roethlisberger then I think he can make the best use of his instincts.

But first we'll have to see what Joe can do in 2018 and beyond before that is a concern.

 

I think Dan Marino's wonderlic score was 16 while Ryan Fitzpatrick was like 48. Who would most NFL teams rather have at their prime? Donovan McNabb scored a 14 and he almost won a superbowl. You mentioned Bradshaw, but McNair scored a 15 also. There's another superbowl contending QB. I can also list a bunch of QBs who scored 35+ and never even sniffed a superbowl (Drew Henson scored a 42).

Either you're good at your position, or you're not. I'd assume the wonderlic test would show how quickly a QB can grasp the playbook at best. Other than that, it's up to them to perform on the field

 

Off topic, but Tim Jernigan will be out 4-6 months after having surgery for a herniated disc. Funny who his b/u is. Haloti Ngata.