Signings, Cuts, Trades

[JoeyFlex5]

I think the bolded is a big thing here, as well as what comes after it. If you can fill the holes at WR and OLB with at least passable play, you don't have to reach for any specific position in the draft. If OL, WR, OLB, FS, whatever are the BPA at the time, you can take really any of those positions and not feel like you've left a gaping hole elsewhere. You at least have NFL quality options everywhere if you secure those 2 spots.

This was always my preferred plan, I just didn’t know how the FO was gonna pursue it, but seeing that we did in fact make a more than competitive offer to juju that was still team friendly, and then seeing this, gives me a better idea of where the FOs head is right now. They know they have low draft capital right now and that they may need more to replace Orlando potentially, they can not afford to reach for need and whiff.

I feel like either creed Humphrey, terrace Marshall jr, or kwity paye is gonna be a raven at 27, but if a Christian barmore fell to 27 id love to feel content everywhere else and pair him with madubuike and make the edge rush a non factor and those 2 melt offensive game plans for 3 years together. Hard to make picks on falling talents like that when you have glaring holes on the roster

 

[rmcjacket23]

The Only way this would be a bad signing is if the Ravens fail to capitalize on a LOADED wr class back to back years. If they don’t take a guy in the 1st or 2nd, we might be in trouble. However, a healthy Watkins at just 27 years of age could be great value. I would take Watkins and a draft pick over Juju or Golladay, IMO

If the WR is loaded, then we shouldn't need to pigeon hole ourselves to just a round or two. A loaded draft class, if it really is, would have a lot of draft-able players later on in the draft as well.

 

[purplepittabread88]

The injuries aren’t the only concern game wise for Watkins. Checking his game logs shows he plays in about 75% of games including playoffs. That’s really terrible honestly, but it’s actually worse. I was on the chiefs forums and this guy will be active and only play a few snaps and then go back out. He has major major major injury problems and that can’t be stressed enough.

The Super Bowl chiefs Wrs were dropping everything right and left (vs Tampa) and Watkins only played 23 snaps after missing both playoff games.

again, I wouldn’t mind singing him because we really do need it. Just don’t get to hyped up. Not to mention I’ve never heard of a player getting healthier with age...

 

[Simba]

The injuries aren’t the only concern game wise for Watkins. Checking his game logs shows he plays in about 75% of games including playoffs. That’s really terrible honestly, but it’s actually worse. I was on the chiefs forums and this guy will be active and only play a few snaps and then go back out. He has major major major injury problems and that can’t be stressed enough.

The Super Bowl chiefs Wrs were dropping everything right and left (vs Tampa) and Watkins only played 23 snaps after missing both playoff games.

again, I wouldn’t mind singing him because we really do need it. Just don’t get to hyped up. Not to mention I’ve never heard of a player getting healthier with age...

Injuries are absolutely a concern, but that's part of the reason why he'll likely be extremely cheap.

I don't think anyone here is expecting Watkins to come in and solve our WR woes completely on his own. At the very least, he makes us a better team. I want Boykin to figure it out so badly but at this point, he's closer to being out of the league than he is to being a viable starter on a playoff team. Watkins is a definitive upgrade, even with the injury concerns. At a certain price, it's worth it.

 

[Tyler]

If the WR is loaded, then we shouldn't need to pigeon hole ourselves to just a round or two. A loaded draft class, if it really is, would have a lot of draft-able players later on in the draft as well.

You have to figure, The ravens don’t have their own 3rd round selection. The meat of this class is within the first 100 selections. Last year’s class was loaded, the ravens drafted Duvernay.... look at the long list of rookies that contributed more, albeit Duvernay didn’t really have the opportunities outside of occasional jet sweeps and screens. If Bateman is somehow still available around 27, you take him. If FA wr don’t want to sign with you, you have to get cheap guys with 4 or 5 years of team control.

 

[purplepittabread88]

Injuries are absolutely a concern, but that's part of the reason why he'll likely be extremely cheap.

I don't think anyone here is expecting Watkins to come in and solve our WR woes completely on his own. At the very least, he makes us a better team. I want Boykin to figure it out so badly but at this point, he's closer to being out of the league than he is to being a viable starter on a playoff team. Watkins is a definitive upgrade, even with the injury concerns. At a certain price, it's worth it.

Me thinks Sammy has a mid season injury before a big game and duv comes in an lights it up..
boykin will never be anything. He just doesn’t look or play to strengths and you can’t teach that

 

[rmcjacket23]

You have to figure, The ravens don’t have their own 3rd round selection. The meat of this class is within the first 100 selections. Last year’s class was loaded, the ravens drafted Duvernay.... look at the long list of rookies that contributed more, albeit Duvernay didn’t really have the opportunities outside of occasional jet sweeps and screens. If Bateman is somehow still available around 27, you take him. If FA wr don’t want to sign with you, you have to get cheap guys with 4 or 5 years of team control.

I mean OK, but like if your WR class only goes top 100 selections deep, then its not a very good class in my eyes. I see the 2020 class (with the caveat that its only been one year) as largely overvalued in my eyes.

I think Lamb, Jefferson, Higgins, and maybe Claypool have the potential to be very good. Literally everybody else gets "meh" grades for me, and beyond the 2nd round, there was really nobody that stood out.

And realistically... its all dependent on how you identify "production". Like the Ravens throw the ball about as little as anybody else in the league, and I can't see that changing for 2021. So if we're expecting any rookie, even at a Julio Jones level (which we likely won't get) to go out and put up like Justin Jefferson or Chase Claypool like production, Lamar's gonna have to stand back there and throw the ball 500+ times, which is what those teams did. Like the Vikings are considered a "run heavy" team, and they threw the ball like 140 more times than the Ravens did.

Production has just as much to do with the opportunity to produce as it does the skill level of the player.

 

[Simba]

 

[Simba]

That would seem to indicate that we saved $4M on Campbell this year. $8M signing bonus spread over his remaining 2 years. Could have also added void years and maybe got some more savings.

Not sure on Williams since he's only got 1 year left. Maybe they added a void year there too?

 

[rossihunter2]

RSR has effective cap space at pretty close to scratch.

$12.5M in space left.
Rookie draft class costs ~$2M
Rule of 51 ending costs - ~$1.3M
Practice Squad - ~$2M

So that would bring you down to about $7M in effective cap space. That doesn't include any in-season roster needs, i.e. guys going on IR, mid-season signings, etc. Many teams try to carry $3-5M for that.

So you effectively have close to $10M of cap space "earmarked" for needs that are not being realized now but will be utilized in the Fall.

That only leaves you with about $3M to spend, realistically.

However, note that there are several players that you could restructure (or even cut) to create cap space. The biggest being Ronnie Stanley, who you could easily create $4-5M in space with a restructure.

So if the Ravens needed, say, $10M in cap space to spend, they have ways of doing it that aren't unreasonable or require cuts.

for what it's worth this has just happened which would suggest we've added some voidable years onto these guy's contracts to create some additional room



only other alternative i see is if we've extended them but not announced it yet (which would be unlikely)

 

[JAAM]

Hmmm I wonder what’s going on

 

[rossihunter2]

If the WR is loaded, then we shouldn't need to pigeon hole ourselves to just a round or two. A loaded draft class, if it really is, would have a lot of draft-able players later on in the draft as well.

the mistake is to assume that just because it's deep, means that you can find starters ready to go later necessarily - the last 2 heralded "deep" drafts we've waited until late day 2 at the earliest to get 1 and missed out on early contributors - we got talented guys later than they'd go in other drafts but missed out on the top guys because we waited... duvernay in 2020 (and proche) and campanaro in 2014

the prime round for drafting WRs is the 2nd round - that's where typically in recent years value has met talent for lots of players

i see your logic, but it hasn't worked out for the ravens in the recent past waiting on guys

teams reach on WRs so waiting for them to fall likely means you're going to miss out on many of the super talented ones

 

[rossihunter2]

Injuries are absolutely a concern, but that's part of the reason why he'll likely be extremely cheap.

I don't think anyone here is expecting Watkins to come in and solve our WR woes completely on his own. At the very least, he makes us a better team. I want Boykin to figure it out so badly but at this point, he's closer to being out of the league than he is to being a viable starter on a playoff team. Watkins is a definitive upgrade, even with the injury concerns. At a certain price, it's worth it.

he's part of the solution... not the solution on his own

 

[rossihunter2]

Me thinks Sammy has a mid season injury before a big game and duv comes in an lights it up..
boykin will never be anything. He just doesn’t look or play to strengths and you can’t teach that

what about duvernay, in any way, has suggested he has the ability to light it up at this point in his career - if he can develop then great but he's shown absolutely nothing that would suggest he can win vs man coverage

 

[rossihunter2]

I mean OK, but like if your WR class only goes top 100 selections deep, then its not a very good class in my eyes. I see the 2020 class (with the caveat that its only been one year) as largely overvalued in my eyes.

I think Lamb, Jefferson, Higgins, and maybe Claypool have the potential to be very good. Literally everybody else gets "meh" grades for me, and beyond the 2nd round, there was really nobody that stood out.

And realistically... its all dependent on how you identify "production". Like the Ravens throw the ball about as little as anybody else in the league, and I can't see that changing for 2021. So if we're expecting any rookie, even at a Julio Jones level (which we likely won't get) to go out and put up like Justin Jefferson or Chase Claypool like production, Lamar's gonna have to stand back there and throw the ball 500+ times, which is what those teams did. Like the Vikings are considered a "run heavy" team, and they threw the ball like 140 more times than the Ravens did.

Production has just as much to do with the opportunity to produce as it does the skill level of the player.

Those 4 went off as rookies sure - but also aiyuk dealt with some injuries but was awesome in his 11 games and jeudy put up nearly 900 yds as a rookie

ruggs, pittman jr, shenault, mims, gabriel davis, darnell mooney all became major contributors for their teams in year 1 despite some of them missing games

that's pretty good year 1 contributions and doesn't include some of the other guys who showed some promise later in the year like Donovan Peoples-Jones, Tyler Johnson, Van Jefferson and others

and a class being deep doesn't mean that it necessarily only goes 100 picks deep or that it goes beyond 100 picks either - it can mean lots of different things - it can mean lots of day 2 grades (who could all be taken in the top 100) or it could mean the draft has a long tail of draftable guys all the way through to the end of the class...

this is a pretty deep class - that doesn't mean i'm expecting to get a major contributor in round 5... it just means that i'm expecting a good WR prospect to be available later than they would in other classes or for more guys to get drafted earlier in the draft...

 

[rossihunter2]

 

[Simba]

Also worth noting that these restructures were likely done days ago and not necessarily a precursor to anything. The NFLPA site takes time to update these types of moves.

 

[JAAM]

I mean, unless we hand Watkins 13 million, something is up lol

 

[Davesta]

We simply have to sign Watkins now. If we don't, there's a very real danger of signing Golden Tate.

or worst.. alshon Jeffery.

 

[rossihunter2]

Also worth noting that these restructures were likely done days ago and not necessarily a precursor to anything. The NFLPA site takes time to update these types of moves.

i guess the only thing that's odd is the timing - because we didn't need to do those restructures right now