2018 Ravens Season Reflections, Observations, Hopes and Predictions

Well, we've previously had a run game coordinator. Maybe Marty will be the pass game coordinator.

Overall and in hindsight, I don't think his plays were bad in design. It was his situational play calling that left a lot to be desired.

 

After looking at it, it seems like Roman was there with Jim Harbaugh in San Fran when Kaepernick was the QB. I guess they are potentially developing an offense that is a hybrid of what Marty did in Philly with Vick and what Roman did in San Fran with Kaepernick. I am ok with it as long as they hire a good QB coach to help Lamar develop the passing aspect of his game. I would really love to see the passing side get worked on HARD over the off season. Offensive heavy draft along with hard teaching and learning over the off season will be interesting.

 

Ok, so Marty officially said "no" to the other position whatever it was. This is exactly to a T what I said would happen with the Browns and Williams. No coach is going to go from being in charge of someone to then having to report to them. I haven't looked much into the whole new Roman hiring, but I'm super curious about how this all came to be. Remember, one of the things I said immediately after the game was I wanted Harbaugh and DeCosta to get concrete answers from Marty on where he wanted to take the offense and what he needed. Maybe he didn't have those answers but Roman knows exactly what players he needs to succeed.

 

I think Marty does well in designing plays. I don't think Marty does well with actual play calling in certain situations. If Roman can just improve upon situational play calling and making adjustments to play calling, things will be fine even if he keeps a similar playbook.

 

I honestly dont know enough about Roman. I was not overly impressed by the niners offense with kap but i guess i sort of get the idea?

Our TE's are solid but they arent as impactful on O as say an Offensive line would be or a coach with a good pedigree with developing QB's

2k

 

Speaking of TEs, Bobby Engram moved to TE coach. No clue on who the WR coach is. Some speculate Urban, who has a history of doing well with WRs

 

So what happens in the draft? I want a WR but I'm scared of taking one and having him end up like the others. I'm also worried about how they put together the offense around Lamar. Hopefully they just go all in on him being the franchise quarterback and draft guys that fit his style. Maybe lots of speed on offense?

 

How can you not? With what the league saw last year from the Ravens offense...without all the pieces in place...they are bound to build on that and see where it takes you. I do think he will have a much higher emphasis on developing his passing game in the off season, but the weapon that his legs provide cannot be put on the shelf. If you could get, yet another RB it could continue to be dangerous...What I don't think can happen is Lamar Jackson leading the team in rushes every year...even if that's only 140-150 rushes.. Too many for 16 games, let alone only the 7 starts in 2018 and "gimmick" relief with Flacco starting. If the emphasis remains to be a 70% rushing game plan, then another set of legs is in order.

 

Former Chiefs assistant head coach David Culley has been hired as Assistant Head Coach and WR coach/"passing-game coordinator" for the Ravens.


https://www.arrowheadpride.com/2019...avens-hire-former-chiefs-assistant-head-coach

 

As for the Draft, with the 22nd overall pick, my bet is that Eric DeCosta will trade down and accumulate more picks if none of his Top 3 guys available is not there at that time. If he determines that 1 of those Top 3 can be had a bit later in the draft? He will still trade down.

I hope he gets a really good WR, or definitely a Guard or a beast Pass rusher in that order.

 

Give me the guard early. I'll take a receiver later.

I'm good with the rushers we have so if we get one I hope they're patient about it.

 

I just want to put this out there for everyone to think about a little.

If the Ravens would have done the smart thing last year and drafted Calvin Ridley, this year they could draft one of Tim's suggestions of Butler, Metcalf, or Harry, and we wouldn't be worrying about the WR position (at least as much) for years. You'd essentially have Ridley, new rookie, Snead, and Moore plus Andrews and the TEs.

They were gift-wrapped the #1 rated receiver last year but because of their fears, they didn't pull the trigger. We'd essentially be on our way to completing the offense this season, but instead we are going to go through another rebuild of the receiving corps. At some point, they actually have to legitimately try at the position, but it doesn't help when things fall in your lap and you still end up messing it up because you're afraid.

 

I don't think that scenario is/was realistic. You'd have to go back to the 90s to see the last time the Ravens have drafted the same position with their first pick in consecutive drafts. And even then, it was defense (of course). And, to be fair, after signing Snead, Crabtree, and Brown we all knew WR wouldn't be a first round pick

 

That is a fair point that with the signing of those three that the first round wr was not a necessity. I would like to counter the thought just a little though.

While signing Crabtree, Brown, and Snead to deals, they were still only potential short-term Band-Aids. Yes we signed everyone to multi-year deals except for Brown, but the talk all off-season was how these WRs were coming off bad stretches of their careers and we'd need to see if they could rejuvenate their careers with the Ravens. They were not locks for success evidenced by the contracts not being difficult to get away from even after 1 season. I would say that a draft pick would show and be more of a long-term investment and looking for the future.

We also can't account for the unpredictability of the draft. Yes at 16, Ridley had a chance to be there, but if the 2017 draft was any indication when there were three top WR targets, I wouldn't have bet on it. When he lasted from not only the teens but to the 20s, if your philosophy is BPA, he has to be better than Hurst who also is older.

Finally, with talking about need, we also drafted Jackson last year. Regardless of how that turned out in 2018 or whatever may happen in the future, we were pretty dang financially committed to Flacco, and they traded away assets to aggressively get Jackson while Ridley fell into their laps (multiple times) and required nothing more than a card to turn in.

I think I'm just sick and tired of this position being a need every year on the team. Also with the selection of Jackson, he seems to have a great personal relationship with Ridley which we see benefit a lot of tandems out on the field.

 

I am not sure I agree with that train of thought. I think the front office had a clear plan in place once they decided that they were going to go all in on Jackson/. They had already drafted Hurst and perhaps their next pick was going to be a receiver but when the snagged Jackson, they shifted their philosophy to a strong running game., They drafted TE and then doubled up on THAT position which would bolster the O Line as well as infuse fresh athletic talent as pass catchers. Just because they did not draft the WR does not mean they shied away from the offense. I think they had a really clear plan in mind and it only became accelerated when Flacco got hurt and Jackson became a viable option for an extended period of time.

It is widely known that TE is one of the harder positions to develop as it takes time and effort to teach both the receiving aspect as well as the blocking aspect. I think the people we drafter in Hurst and Andrews are very critical to the development of a young QB, and were only pressed into service when Jackson was pressed into service. I don't believe the front office's plan A was to insert Jackson as the starter at all last season, but they had to pivot to it once the circumstances presented themselves.

The point of this is, once they packaged the capital to go get Jackson, the philosophy and focus shifted to running the ball and line control.

I really do not believe the Ravens thought he would be available beyond their first choice and when they could grab him at 32, they went all in on that scenario.

I do not know what they thought of Ridley or Moore for that matter, but I think Jackson was the lynch pin in determining their future direction. I can see the double up on TE as it takes longer for that position to develop and with several strong options in the mix from last draft, this current crop of receivers this year is far better than what was available last year (in terms of volume as well as upper end quality).

I would like to think they had an in depth plan laid out once Jackson was on board.

 

One of the biggest issues with this is how a lot of kids coming out simply haven't had to develop a full game. That's why combination players (block and receive) typically score a little higher for me.

What was interesting about last year was everyone really liked Hayden Hurst and had him ranked over Andrews. I wasn't nearly as high on Hurst and felt that Andrews was the better prospect. It's very rare that I get to see a couple guys that I have ranked differently than the consensus end up on the same team. It's an interesting look into whether or not I'm hitting with any accuracy in my projections.

 

They need to pull the trigger earlier with more repetitiveness until they get at least one guy they can tab as the #1 for Jackson.

 

This might actually be a really good scenario for the Ravens to end up with a high quality guard and a high quality receiver if they went offense in the first two rounds.

There is quite a bit of solid receiver talent that will be available throughout day two and the positioning for an interior lineman in the first round is actually pretty favorable for Baltimore.

 

I think there are 2 schools of thought here. It is similar to the old baseball adage of "develop pitchers and buy your bats" I think the Ravens are talented at developing many other positions but have a real blind spot when it comes to WR. It is a hard position to hit on and I would say, to me, we would be better off trying to trade for a #1, or sign a free agent #1 than draft and develop one. I get it, they are expensive and somewhat rare, but wouldn't it prudent to buy a developed talent rather than the crapshoot of the draft (with out evaluators it seems to be a crap shoot. The Steelers can draft WR like none other but the Ravens seem to fail every time)

I would almost rather buy a sure thing proven commodity in their prime #1 than try to use 1st round picks on them. It does make you feel better knowing the guy is proven and has already done it on the highest level.

I know the scenario does not happen all that often, but wouldn't now be the time while Jackson in on a rookie deal to pay a proven guy a large contract to step into the role?

I don't know if the AB thing would ever pan out, but would that not solve our WR issue?

 

In all honesty, I'm not sure it would. He provides an in space match-up nightmare but I think Jackson is going to need a bigger primary target with a huge catch radius.

They rarely get on the market and when they do, the only way they won't break the bank is if they land in a spot with a really good chance at winning a championship, which usually means high level quarterback play.

Lamar needs to develop a lot of his game before the Ravens fit that profile. Getting the receiver now to help him down that path makes more sense, IMO, but whether or not they can do that in free agency or through the draft is a tough call right now.