Random Thoughts, Comments, and Opinions

I think Skura and Alex Lewis are C players. I agree you have something in Brown and I thought Hurst was solid at guard which begs the question why pay the guy and then put him at a position he has struggled at in the past? They hurt two positions with that move. Would have been better off starting Brown Day 1 and keeping Hurst where he played pretty well.

But that still doesn't address the center position which is the heart of the o-line and it doesn't address depth. They have none and everyone knows you are going to have injuries on the line. It's practically guaranteed. They went into the season without a single person on the roster capable of playing left tackle other than Stanley. That's poor roster management.

Agreed on Hurst. Don't agree on the coaching. Don't know much about the o-line coach but Roman and Morninwheg know how to put a running game together. They did it a year ago with a Seahawk cast off. The '17 team was a healthy Joe away from competing. He came into the season beat up and didn't get his legs under him until halfway through the year. If they re-sign Jensen alone they probably have two more wins. One personnel move.

Won't argue Joe's limitations but I think a lot of this goes back to the o-line. They were throwing deep early in the year but once the protection issues started surfacing they dialed it down - or Joe dialed it down.

Hard to quantify because it can obviously never happen but all I can say is I used to cringe when the Steelers would go 5 wide. Now it doesn't phase me. Our o-line is that good and that dialed in with each other even when they're down a guy. Finnie (6th) and Feiler (7th) have been really good when forced to play. Of course I'm sure a lot of this has to do with Munchak.

 

A Flacco hip injury and surgery is bad news for the Ravens.

Honestly the only way the whole Flacco situation could have gone well for the team is if the team won with no issues through the season. Sadly that is simply not reality in life or the NFL.

Now let's pretend Flacco ends his season with the hip injury, where does that leave the Ravens?

- The Ravens move on to Jackson making it extremely unlikely that they ever come back to Flacco. This means his release is assured in the offseason, and with that being the case, who could you get to offer anything in a trade? What could you even get in a trade to begin with now as his stats have fallen back to normal realms after these past 3 weeks. Add in that Flacco will now be coming off an injury and surgery, and the team is likely to recover nothing of value. That's a losing situation for the team.

Situation 2: Flacco plays through the hip injury but continues to play average to below average dealing with it.

- Flacco's stats get worse and he still has no trade value as questions in the offseason revolve around whether he will need surgery later and availability into the 2019 season.

The Ravens aren't the Patriots as they show a lot more loyalty to their long time players, but they had to make a cut throat decision here with Flacco. Waiting only served to make this an ugly situation and an unprofitable one as well. They pretty much should have attempted to unload him immediately upon drafting Jackson, or they do it sometime within the first few weeks of this season when he was doing great. The latter is said with a TON of hindsight though as how easy is it to predict the roller coaster ride of a season?

 

I believe that the decision to move on from Joe was made a couple of years ago when they restructured his deal the first time with 2019 in mind. They knew that they were not going to continue to pay Joe 24 mil plus a year for a QB that is mid tier at best in the league. Once I saw them move up and take Lamar Jackson on Draft night, I knew that my feelings about his contract were proven correct, Joe would be gone after 2018. Not one team in the league will trade for Flacco. They all have young up and coming starters or they already have an established one in place except for a couple of teams, and his cap number is prohibitive to a trade anyway. I fully expected him to be released this offseason regardless of how far this current team got as far as playoffs except if he pulled off another miracle and won the Super Bowl again (which isn't going to happen with this team).

This team is 4-5, 1-3 in division. They still have very tough games ahead in the schedule in the Bengals, Chargers, Chiefs and Falcons. Playoffs are likely a pipe-dream at this point. John Harbaugh knows his job is on the line right now, and personally, I think nothing he does will save it but who knows with our ownership at this point, but with the season pretty much over, why not see what the youngster can do. With this injury cover story in place, it saves Joe public face while allowing the team to move on quietly with their ongoing plans about the future of the Ravens going forward. The team will release Joe with possibly a June 1st designation but with the contract structured as it is, they can take the 8 mil dead money hit and be ok.

 

A lot of the stuff you say here may be a good opinion and turn out to be true. I just wanted to point out one important thing where even from the initial signing of Flacco's deal after the Super Bowl, even his agent mentioned then that it was essentially only a 3 year deal and they were going to go back to the table to restructure.

It's still so odd that they made a deal they weren't going to be able to commit to, but they also managed to get things right like the massive cap increases from a flat cap to the absurd QB salaries of today.

 

At this point I don't see Joe having any value in terms of a trade in any way, shape or form. They restructured his contract in 2016 to ease this cap hit, but as @Kyreal said the restructure gave them a specific time frame. This draft there were 5 - 6 QB prospects that potentially rival the 1983 draft class. The Ravens, unpredictably, hitched their wagon to NFL history by moving up to grab Jackson. It was unbelievable for most fans, but given how they likely could've been waiting for their next QB. I doubt they knew that the '18 draft class would be quite that heavy in potential super stars, so I have think that drafting Jackson wasn't a serious consideration at least until 2017, almost 2 years away.

At this point Joe looking like he's gone after the season, Harbaugh looking like a forced resignation, and a new GM, I see the team's motivation from the top down sinking every week. Harb's body language, Joe's passive aggressive attitude when lining up as a decoy receiver, the defense allowing offenses to push them around after such a strong start - all add up to a loss of leadership. We can forget the playoffs, staying out of last place in the division will be a chore.

At he rate they're going, if they get 4 more wins it'll be a miracle. Three is possible and 2 seems likely.

 

Hey first things first, sorry for the late ass response.

Lewis i think has played at a B when healthy at times but in the grand schemes of the NFL O lineman spectrum, i dont think its an unfair observation on your part so that's fine and i accept that premise. Your point regarding Brown is precisely why i dont think we get more than 1 more win with your O line because even if we had that much more talent, our coaching staff will be moronic and use them incorrectly. I like brown but they are stuck in their doghouse hubris ridden ways. I absolutely agree with your recommendation at the end but again, our coaches suck

100%, I wholeheartedly agree that the C is the most important part of an O lineman, and it seems like yanda is making most of those calls for us but its not the best position to be in for him to make those calls. Poor roster management to me falls on the coaches, and that doesn't go away with a superior PIT O line, so again, i agree but i think it lends itself to my argument.

Ok interesting point regarding past achievements. Flacco was a bit rough so lets say he played hurt and just wasn't there. This may take a lot more time but i think you may be the one person on here who breaks down tape like i do and as much as i do (well, other than the draft nuts in our 09-12 days over on see bs), what im getting at is this. Of the top of your head, if you can recall his play last year, mechanically and regarding decision making do you think that was a different joe we saw? If so, by how much? i buy that he was hurt but i dont think it changed his skill set, he still has no touch, still locks on to his target, gets easily flustered, has bad passing lanes and cant call an audible for shit.

The Jensen point, given what we have said above is something i do understand but i just think with the other pieces we have,and the blame ive distributed in prior posts, are far more detrimental issues than a move or two on the O line.

You see, there we have it. Why did we dial down deeper routes? I and many posters here have counted seconds with good protection, and you know as well as i do that getting 5s is HUGE in the NFL. Our o line is not great but joe has had opportunities to make plays but they either aren't being called- coaches, or he or they aren't confident in Joe- bit of both here. But this is in small part a protection issue but its bigger. Our scheme is forrest gump retarded. no box of chocolates

Very hard to quantify but as much as people say stats are everything, they really aren't- they are, and always will be, an Objective TOOL for subjective means. I like the eye test. PIT have more talent and threats on the field, and your wr's actually know how to catch. AB is not a god because he is Megatron remade but because he is fundamentally sound ( elite rather). Having 5 wide also means you likely arent getting more than a 4 man rush and if you do, there will be HUGE holes in coverage zone or nice match ups for a good receiver. The ravens cant do that because not only do we not have the skill positions to do so, but also because we dont have the protection which stems from poor personnel choices to fit our scheme and talent as well as poor players.

2k