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Signings, Cuts, Trades

rmcjacket23 said:
True, but a couple things to consider...

1. I think Orlando Brown, unfortunately, is the type of player who plays 4 years here and then leaves, ala Ricky Wagner. He'll be up for a new deal in the general vicinity as Lamar will be (5th year option and tag looming around that timeframe), so I can't see the Ravens committing market value deals to two Tackles at the same time. I think the Ravens are well aware they'll be picking between the two, and Stanley is obviously going to win that choice.
Ravens have done very well at drafting and developing RTs in the mid to late rounds, and I think that'll be their strategy for as long as they're paying top dollar to a LT.
2. When guys like Andrews or Brown are up for extensions, there will be several high cap $ players who likely won't be on the team at that point.

So in a lot of ways, you can do one-for-one swaps on a lot of these guys and still come out in the same place from a cap perspective.

What we'll likely see is that within 3-4 years, the Ravens will have completely flipped their spending habits. They'll have a much bigger investment on the offensive side of the ball, and they won't have 4-5 defensive players all with $15-20M cap hits.

Who on the current defense is going to have a high price tag in even 3 years? Marlon and Peters probably? Maybe Judon if we extend him? We're not going to be paying Brandon Williams when he's 33-34. Campbell will be long since retired. Earl Thomas will likely be retired, or playing elsewhere in the twilights at that point.
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Tackles are extremely valuable in today's NFL, we're in a very fortunate situation to have both Stanley and Brown. It's not as easy to replace a Tackle as one might think. If you draft a OT and he doesn't work out you can still move him inside, you don't have that option with interior guys. There's a shortage of tackles around the league. There are only 1 to 2 decent guys coming into the league every year. That's why I think it makes sense to let Humphrey walk and extend Brown instead. Draft a CB in this or next years draft in the 1st. I can see us very well draft a CB in the 1st this year.
 
rmcjacket23 said:
Yes, they will need to be replaced. And as you give long term deals to Peters, Marlon, Stanley, Andrews and especially Lamar (or at least he starts costing a heck of a lot more), those replacements will largely come from the draft in most cases.

Its the opposite of what we're seeing now. We're paying top dollar for defense in a lot of cases, because you have the #1 offense in the league and most of your players are on rookie deals. I'm suggesting that in the next 3-4 years, the reverse will happen. A lot of your defense will be on rookie deals, and many of your offensive players will be getting big money market deals.

I'm not saying that will universally be true, but I'll guarantee one thing... in the next year or two, we're going to be overhauling our Dline and our linebackers through the draft. We won't be spending $10M+ per year for multiple defensive lineman when you start paying the kind of money we'll have to pay to guys like Stanley and Marlon. We MAY continue to pay good money for Safeties, because it seems we value that position in this league a lot higher than most teams, and it seems we've almost given up on trying to find the next #20 in the draft.
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I would not be surprised if most of the overhaul to the LBs happened this year with the DLine next year, but this year showed what happens when a team cannot stop the run. Fortunately, there are not a lot of contenders that it could be a problem against, but they do exist so I cannot imagine EDC not buying a DLine if the picks do not work out. Apparently you can find ILBs on the street and be the number 1 defense but the DLine needs to be taken care of.

For the offensive I would have expected the Ravens to pay 3 starters on the OLine which would be Brown, Stanley, and, I cannot believe I am saying this, but also possibly Skura if he looks anything like he did last year. Then you get 2 solid rookies on cheap deals and that is a top 10 or even top 5 OLine.
 
cdp said:
Tackles are extremely valuable in today's NFL, we're in a very fortunate situation to have both Stanley and Brown. It's not as easy to replace a Tackle as one might think. If you draft a OT and he doesn't work out you can still move him inside, you don't have that option with interior guys. There's a shortage of tackles around the league. There are only 1 to 2 decent guys coming into the league every year. That's why I think it makes sense to let Humphrey walk and extend Brown instead. Draft a CB in this or next years draft in the 1st. I can see us very well draft a CB in the 1st this year.
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1. I think that's true of Left Tackles, but I don't think that's true of Right Tackles. I think there's a long, long line of teams in this league that have average to below average RT play, and still win a lot of games.
I think the shift in the NFL has been towards putting more emphasis on interior blockers, because the pressure the QB wants the least is that from the inside. Especially as we see more mobile QBs, outside pass rush isn't nearly as critical as it used to be. Balls coming out quicker, and QBs can largely sense outside pass rush much quicker.
While I agree there's a shortage in quality Tackles coming out of College, that also gives the league an opportunity to adapt to that, and they largely have.
2. Barring some unforeseen injury before the draft, I see no possible scenario where the Ravens would use a first round pick on a Corner. I'm not even sure they'll consider it until at least the 3rd round.
There's a litany of reasons why, but here are main one's:
1. With the fifth year option available, which is a no-brainer for the Ravens, Marlon's under team control for two more seasons. Meaning you don't really even have to make a decision on whether to let him walk or not until 2022.
2. If you use a first round pick on a Corner, there aren't many avenues where he'll actually play football for you in 2020. Whoever it is would immediately slot in as your 3rd boundary Corner (at best) for the next two years, and even if they excel in the slot, they'd still need a rookie to beat out Tavon in the slot.
And again, that's likely true through 2021. There's not a first round corner I see in this draft that I think could beat out Marlon or Marcus for playing time in year 1 or maybe even year 2 at this point. So essentially, you'd be using a first round pick on a player that, ideally, won't contribute much for 2 years.
No chance in the World a team like the Ravens, who wants to win now, is going to do that. There's a wide range of positions that the Ravens could address early in the draft (first two rounds). I would rank Corner and Tackle immediately behind QB, Kicker, and Punter as the least likeliest of areas.
 
Adreme said:
I would not be surprised if most of the overhaul to the LBs happened this year with the DLine next year, but this year showed what happens when a team cannot stop the run. Fortunately, there are not a lot of contenders that it could be a problem against, but they do exist so I cannot imagine EDC not buying a DLine if the picks do not work out. Apparently you can find ILBs on the street and be the number 1 defense but the DLine needs to be taken care of.

For the offensive I would have expected the Ravens to pay 3 starters on the OLine which would be Brown, Stanley, and, I cannot believe I am saying this, but also possibly Skura if he looks anything like he did last year. Then you get 2 solid rookies on cheap deals and that is a top 10 or even top 5 OLine.
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I think they'd keep Skura at a mid-market type deal as basically a fringe starter. No way they'll pay like Jensen (with inflation) money for him.

In a lot of ways, you could make the argument that, outside of LT, the Ravens don't really have a ton of respect for paying top dollar to Olineman. The Ravens historically have done exceptionally well in the middle rounds finding Guards and RTs, and assuming we view Skura as a competent player, they've done well with Jensen and Skura recently as late round adds who have outperformed expectations. We paid Yanda, but we also let Grubbs, Wagner, Osemele, and Jensen walk in a relatively short period of time.

I think their approach to Oline during the Lamar era will be to pay top dollar to 1, maybe 2 guys, and constantly add depth and bodies to create competition on the Oline to consistently put out a decent product. I've long been the proponent of the idea that people that think you need to build a Cowboys Oline to win are insane and clueless. I would never pay that kind of money to one unit on my team.

Oline in a lot of ways is like a Kicker... you don't have to have the best to win a bunch of games, but you can't suck at it. That's my approach... don't suck on the Oline, but I don't need a top 5 unit with this QB or this scheme to be successful.
 
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True like the O.L. and kicker there. Can't win all the games but need to come down clutch. O.L. are the unsung heroes.
 
rmcjacket23 said:
I mean in your Dime packages, you'd move Clark to ILB and then you'd have 4 corners (Jimmy, Tavon, Marlon, Marcus) and Earl as your 6 DBs technically.

I don't think you bring in Adams just to be a rotational player, or to change your package. You'd bring him in because you think Clark isn't good enough to handle the job full-time. So far, it clearly appears the Ravens are very confident in him.

I mean in the grand scheme of things... Clark is cheap, and him being here wouldn't stop you from getting Adams. Clark's cap hit is less than $5M for the next four years, and he has minimal dead money beyond 2021. Adams price tag, long-term, is likely the reason why he wouldn't be here.

That and the fact that the Ravens would seem unlikely to be giving up a high draft pick to get him, which is what I think it would cost.

The only way I see Adams in a Ravens uniform in the near future is if Earl or Clark has like an in-season ACL tear, and the Ravens make a Peters-like move and think they can win now by trading for a Safety. Even then, I think the price point will be too high.
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Yeah that's why I was saying we'd have to change packages to have him and Clark on the field at the same time. Clark already fits the 80/20 rule that we have for the reasons you mentioned so it doesn't make much sense to go out and spend picks to get Adams.
 
Charm City said:
Yeah that's why I was saying we'd have to change packages to have him and Clark on the field at the same time. Clark already fits the 80/20 rule that we have for the reasons you mentioned so it doesn't make much sense to go out and spend picks to get Adams.
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Yeah I mean if you think about it... if you added Adams, assuming full health (which probably wouldn't happen), you easily have 7 high quality DBs you could put on the field. Rarely does that happen. So even in a 6 DB look, you're taking somebody like Jimmy off the field (which many fans wouldn't protest, but I think Nickel and Dime packages are where he adds real value), or you're taking Clark off the field.

Neither is a deal breaker, but I think these guys are too good to be on like 10 snap per game packages.

Realistically, if healthy, guys like Marlon, Marcus, Earl and Adams would essentially never come off the field in any package. They're going to have like 95%+ snap counts.

Last year alone, Marlon and Earl rarely came off the field, and Marcus was north of 95% in most games he played with the Ravens. If you added Adams, he would be in that group.
 
Really curious what kind of draft capital it would take to land Adams. Do the Jets need Judon? Lol
 
JAAM said:
Really curious what kind of draft capital it would take to land Adams. Do the Jets need Judon? Lol
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I mean I think it would be close to that, maybe with a sweetner from us.

My problem is... their price points aren't dramatically different. Is Adams like 5x the player that Clark is? Really tough argument to make...

Or better yet... how do you get pressure on the QB at that point? You expecting Calais Campbell and a couple not-highly-drafted rookies to get you like 30 sacks?
 
Simba said:
Bradham, Peanut, and Woodyard are really the only 3 left that I even have a little bit of interest in. If you do one of the first 2, you're still in need of a MIKE as both would likely play the WILL. At least with Bradham, you can trust him as the solo LBer on the field in nickel since he can actually cover. Woodyard is on the older side but could be a good insurance policy if you can get him close to the minimum.

You might be able to sell me on something like a Jake Ryan injury flyer, but that's much more of a camp body type of signing than anything substantial so I won't count that into the above.

With all of that, I'm not overly interested in any. Would like a vet for insurance but I have no doubts we're looking toward the draft to fix that spot.
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nailed it
 
JAAM said:
Really curious what kind of draft capital it would take to land Adams. Do the Jets need Judon? Lol
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Nets absolutely need an edge but I don’t want Adams, I don’t see the point what so ever in adding a strong safety and throwing off the chemistry with Clark as the starter and he’s gonna cost big capital and big cap space
 
Ellicottraven said:
Who's Jake Ryan?
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He was a pretty consistent starter with the Packers. Gives us a bit of depth prior to the draft and someone who has starting experience. He tore his ACL in 2018 and only played a couple games last season as well. 2017 he had a 75 overall grade on PFF and 68 in coverage. He's above average for a cheap deal and a good signing.
 
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JoeyFlex5 said:
Nets absolutely need an edge but I don’t want Adams, I don’t see the point what so ever in adding a strong safety and throwing off the chemistry with Clark as the starter and he’s gonna cost big capital and big cap space
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I can't see the Nets giving Judon many looks over Kevin Durant.
 
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