I was just reading the LFW article on the draft WRs and happened to check out the clips of Harmon and then Harry. The biggest thing I noticed was that Harmon appears to be a body catcher which scares the crap out of me. For anyone that has looked into more plays and tape of his, is this true? Does he ever consistently attempt to use his hands to catch the ball away from his body or does he Jacoby Jones everything?
He's a 'hands-to-body' which is different from a 'body catcher, but it's one of those things that you don't immediately notice until you start to watch a lot of his film. Basically, the difference between this and a 'body catcher' is that the latter uses the body to break the momentum of the ball while wrapping arms around it, kind of like a clam shell closing (lot of forearm involved). The former uses his hands to bring the ball to his body. He's catching it with his hands and reeling it in for protection rather than trapping it with his hands/arms. My personal take on why Harmon does this is that he uses his frame to box out DBs and when you watch his positioning through body control (something he excels at) he snatches and protects in one motion to immediately remove the DB from the receiving process. There's a clip of him against East Carolina where he is diving to make the catch in the corner of the endzone and you can see him with outstretched arms catching the pass with soft hands and there is an immediate attempt to reel it in (most likely muscle memory). He's the #2 wide receiver on my board this year.
1 A.J. Brown Ole Miss 731 2 Kelvin Harmon NC State 717 3 Parris Campbell Ohio State 710 https://live4sportnetwork.com/nfl-draft-2019-wide-receivers/
There’s a chance he swaps places with Metcalf when I put the final rankings in. This last round of scoring will see some point changes for a few players, but this current list for WRs will be very close to the final one.
That's good to hear. It's tough being a Ravens fan though and not being skeptical as we've seen these body catchers come through the system and dealt with so many sets of poor hands. It was just funny because again in limited highlights, I immediately thought "Does he catch anything with his hands?", then Harry's clips show off him being a definite hands catcher.
so this is a different topic but i saw an article/report that stated the Jags tried to trade for Griffin several times last year. Given the fact that the trade deadline is about halfway through the season (?) that means that the front office had this plan in place and were working to get it implemented likely at the beginning of last season. They must have declined the trade offers early on in order to keep Griffin on the roster (even though he was inactive for most games) just to keep the continuity in the new offense that they were looking to implement. Seems like the FO has this transition plan worked out likely since they drafted Jackson. Clearly they had a plan or else they would have likely taken the trade to receive the draft capital the so love to hoard. I just find it interesting that this has been bubbling for longer than I had imagined.
Yeah, a lot of fans thought Flacco had a chance of playing in Baltimore in 2019. It was largely written on the wall that 2018 was his last season. I don't think they wanted Jackson to start how he did though
as the plan is now executed (QB wise) I find it fascinating it worked as they hoped (for the most part, not the Flacco injury) but the trade, the backup and the implementation of the running offense and having the new OC as well as the resigning of Griffin to keep the continuity of style.
There's a report out there that the Skins were ready to trade a 3rd and another pick to the Ravens but Flacco refused it outright and the Ravens decided to do what would make Joe happiest. Kinda sucks to think we missed out on another 3rd round pick if this is true
Not to knock down RR1's darkhorse thread, but as a separate conversation, what would you grade the opening to this offseason? I'm thinking maybe overall a C+? It's hard to say that we're overall better than we were at the end of last season at this moment. QB - worse. Ignoring semantics of whether he was really a backup, we lost Flacco for RG3 which is a downgrade especially when it was Flacco and RG3. Now it's RG3 and nobody. We did get cap space though. RB - improved. We lost nothing of value and added a body. WR - worse. Crabtree might have stunk and Brown might have no connection with Jackson, but they are a hell of a lot better than what's left. TE - push. We lost Williams and signed Boyle. I might have gone the other way around. Yeah this is a net loss in players, but we were already overflowing at the position. OL - push. Nothing notable here. DL - worse. This one isn't by much and may simply be a push at the end, but we did lose Urban so far, and he accounted for some decent snaps. LB - worse. No question here. We lost Suggs, Mosley, and Smith. No one currently is able to match those contributions. CB - push. We're good here. S - improved. Thomas should be an upgrade to Weddle if healthy. Oof, maybe I was generous with a C+? Oh, and 1 more - we lost Rosburg, and that could be huge for ST.
I know a lot of people were holding out some hope, but Ziggy Ansah is signing a 1 year deal with the Seahawks.
I don't know, was he a player we wanted? Is he a better fit or would Jamie Collins be a better option for us signing a veteran? I think that our FO can find DLine and LB gems, as they have proven time and time again. I think the draft addressed a few of the positions outlined above as worse, so I think we are in a much better spot now, after the draft, and only have a few select areas to address with depth or veteran leadership. Also, on a separate note, I saw that the projection for comp picks for next year has the Ravens receiving a 3rd,4th and 5th rounder for our net losses in FA. Not that it replaces the departed players, but I am happy we got something back. I like we we have multiple picks in each round and our projected draft capital for next year looks like 1,2,3,3,4,4,5,5,6. I like the repeats in the 3-5 rounds. I find we often do a lot with those selections.
I think a lot of it had to do with the Ravens actually bringing him in to do their due diligence on Ansah. That being said 9M for one year was going to be too tough for them. There's just no way to spread out the cap hit on a 1 year deal. For the comp picks, do we know if the Maxx Williams deal has been made public yet? I know our potential 3rd selection revolves around that being around 1M plus. If not, then we should get 2 picks next year.
This always makes me wonder. Why do certain teams always seem to find really good players at a specific postion in the middle to late rounds? The Ravens always seem to find really good D-linemen and LB's. The Steelers - Wide Receivers. The Bengals - Running Backs.
Personally, I think scouts just can't be good scouting all positions. Baltimore is great with d-line and LBs, but they are also good with CBs, TEs, RBs, and partially with o-lineman. Yet complete trash with WRs and sketchy at QB also
Joe Horn Jr just signed with the team today. Here are some of his highlights including his JR College which is in the town i live 30 minutes away from. If he is half as good as his dad was, who is coaching for said Jr College here in Northeast Mississippi, then he has a real shot at making this team.
The Ravens have some interesting undrafted WRs with Joe Horn Jr, Jaylen Smith, and Antoine Wesley. Hollywood and Boykin are pretty much guaranteed a roster spot. Snead has one locked down, and you have to assume Moore continues to hold a spotx but that may not be a lock. So let's say we have 3 locked spots and the Ravens likely only keep 3 more. That's a 3 spot battle between Horn, Smith, Wesley, Moore, Lasley, and Scott. I feel like I'm missing some people also
You left Seth Roberts off the list, but it's understandable because even though he was signed this year, I don't feel like he's a lock at all. I'd probably give him an edge though since he does have NFL production. My way too early wr roster is Snead Hollywood Boykin Moore Lasley Roberts They may be able to keep one more if they consider that Moore will basically be ST. Smith, Wesley, Scott, and Horn imho at this supremely early stage are battling for 1 or 2 PS spots. This also completely ignores everyone's old favorite undrafted in Quincy Adeboyejo.
