The offseason is going slow and the draft is weeks away. Unless you're feeling excited or negative about the signing of Seth Roberts, there isn't much going on in Ravens land. So let's have a somewhat fun thread, open to anybody. Who is your "dark horse" Ravens player for this upcoming season. Please give a reason even though it's not required. You can give one overall or one on each unit. I'll start Jordan Lasley. At this point, the Ravens will be walking into the season with rookies and unprovem WRs unless they make a surprise trade. Many want to see Chris Moore get a fair shake, but I think he'll lose an open competition to Lasley. Lasley has drop issue, no doubt, but he's probably already a better route runner than Moore and more dynamic. Willie Snead is pretty much locked into the slot, so unless a trade occurs, I see the outside WRs being Lasley and the 1st round drafted rookie. And no, I'm not saying this will be a good thing to go into week 1 like that. But I think Lasley has a good season though. On defense, I'm torn between between pass rushers. With Suggs and Zadarius moving on to other teams, it puts a huge hole at OLB. Judon has become a fairly complete player but he can only play one side. I almost went with my hopeful pick of Tyus Bowser at the defensive dark horse spot, but I think the true answer is Tim Williams. He will not be the most complete OLB on the roster, but I think he proves himself the best pass rusher on the season and ends with 9 or more sacks and a lot more pressures. Obviously all of this is under the expectation that these players stay healthy
Maurice Canady, if he can just stay healthy... He was higher in my cornerback rankings than anywhere else online. The day after I tweeted that list, Canady's father liked that post so I thought it was kind of cool that his dad was looking at what people were saying about his son's chances in the NFL and he happened to read what was likely one of the most positive posts about Maurice when it came to rankings. He's looked pretty sharp when he's available, but man is he having a tough start to his career. If he can stay off the injury report for a full season I think Baltimore would be hard pressed to just let him walk at the end of his rookie deal. So basically, my dark horse prediction on defense is that Canady stays healthy and Baltimore resigns him. On offense, I'm going to go with Bradley Bozeman to win a starting spot on the line. If I had to choose between Skura or Lewis, I'm going to say he takes Lewis' job.
Tim, I like both of those pics. As a big Jimmy Smith fan, I think he might have been traded/cut this offseason for the cap savings if Canady didn't such a bad injury history. Bozeman I won't be surprised about either actually. Alex Lewis was complete trash
I really wish I could be optimistic about Lasley, but I simply cannot. It's been too many years of the same old same old where we have these late round picks and expect them to do anything in the NFL in the coming season. I'm sure he and Scott have a good chance at making the roster because the cupboard is absolutely barren, but I expect nothing from either. I don't even have the blind faith some have in Moore. If Moore was really up to all the hype, he would have forced himself into more snaps last season. It's not like any other WR was making waves outside of Brown with Flacco. I kind of laughed at the Seth Roberts signing/article. It's a fine signing, but in the article, they mentioned that WR wouldn't be as pressing of a need with Roberts now on the team which is hilarious. If the Ravens WR corp was a zombie laying on the ground, the group with Roberts is a zombie laying on the ground with one hair slightly raised. I do like that DeCosta admitted the Ravens are terrible at finding receivers because they never address the position adequately in the draft. Without a 2nd rounder, I don't know what to expect this year, but maybe the future will be brighter. For my dark horses, I think on offense it's going to be some rookie that we don't yet know much like how Edwards came out of nowhere last season. If not, then I'll probably go with one of our TEs. Andrews got noticed around here, but he's far from a household name. With a full season and field opportunities, he may become that. On defense, my hope is that Kenny Young comes up big. This would benefit the team immensely for sure.
Kid, I completely understand your thoughts about Lasley. I'm only putting my faith in him because he already had some chemistry with Lamar, and there was a video out there with Lamar doing his practice on mechanics and Lasley was with him. Just feels like they are adding more chemistry. Admittedly, I'm being very hopeful
Just in thinking more about it, you would be hard pressed to find a team with a worse group of WRs than we have right now. With so much riding on Jackson developing a competent passing game, that is far from the look you want to have. I only hope the Ravens do better for Jackson than they ever did for Flacco.
DeCosta will not be selecting in the first round this year, my gut feeling tells me that he will absolutely trade back into the 2nd round and pick up the 2nd and probably a 4th or 5th for that 22nd pick. What i expect the Ravens to do WR wise is snag anyone that is cut early on in training camp, that has experience so they don't lose any more compensatory picks for the coming off-season. As for my Dark Horse of the 2019 season, that would have to be Tyrus Bowser... with Suggs going to Arizona, a huge opportunity has opened up at the Rush LB position. I believe he has a leg up on Tim Williams and if he can put together some good work in Training camp, he can win that slot on the defense.
Why wouldn't the Ravens be going after the top AAF (or whatever the acronym) WRs now? Granted those guys are castoffs of the NFL, but at least they got some live football action under them and produced. This team can't afford to not kick the tires on anyone.
