The 2022 Offseason Thread

[UPennChem]

i think long-term, drafting Ojabo might help us because it meant we still had to bring in Houston but also opens up opportunities that may otherwise not exist for someone like Hayes

and also because we get a top 15 prospect in the 2nd round if we're able to stomach some delayed gratification... that doesn't hurt either

Totally! Another really exciting thing about Oweh is he performed similarly to Houston in the same system. So if with a more talented and healthier defense(and offense for that matter), we could see big improvements from the both outright, but Oweh can still get better because of experience.

Like think about if Houston naturally puts up 7 sacks and more pressures because of a better team and system. Oweh's lower bar should be 7 then.

Side note, super excited for Daelin in the preseason. The guys I'm most excited to see there are Proche, Hayes, Linderbaum, and Badie.

 

[rossihunter2]

Totally! Another really exciting thing about Oweh is he performed similarly to Houston in the same system. So if with a more talented and healthier defense(and offense for that matter), we could see big improvements from the both outright, but Oweh can still get better because of experience.

Like think about if Houston naturally puts up 7 sacks and more pressures because of a better team and system. Oweh's lower bar should be 7 then.

Side note, super excited for Daelin in the preseason. The guys I'm most excited to see there are Proche, Hayes, Linderbaum, and Badie.

maybe - not gonna get too into the stats of it - houston led the team in pressures by a long way... if we're assuming that part of the natural statistical improvement is about being able to turn those pressures into sacks because of slight schematic changes then we should probably expect a bigger increase in houston's production vs oweh's by that logic

pressures are a much more reliable year-on-year indicator of pass rush success vs sacks

that said i think, as you say, the exciting thing about oweh is both the scheme change AND the expected year 2 improvements especially given he finished the stretch with an injured shoulder last year

in preseason, i think im most excited about the guys in the trenches just because we don't get access to all-22 in preseason lol - specifically can't wait to see Linderbaum, Jones, Faalele out of the rookies and then obviously you know im gonna be watching Hayes lol...

but ill be playing close attention to the LG competition and the WR snaps to see what indications we have about the depth chart going into the year

but we've got to get into camp first - but at least it's less than 10 days now until the rookies report for training camp

 

[UPennChem]

maybe - not gonna get too into the stats of it - houston led the team in pressures by a long way... if we're assuming that part of the natural statistical improvement is about being able to turn those pressures into sacks because of slight schematic changes then we should probably expect a bigger increase in houston's production vs oweh's by that logic

pressures are a much more reliable year-on-year indicator of pass rush success vs sacks

that said i think, as you say, the exciting thing about oweh is both the scheme change AND the expected year 2 improvements especially given he finished the stretch with an injured shoulder last year

in preseason, i think im most excited about the guys in the trenches just because we don't get access to all-22 in preseason lol - specifically can't wait to see Linderbaum, Jones, Faalele out of the rookies and then obviously you know im gonna be watching Hayes lol...

but ill be playing close attention to the LG competition and the WR snaps to see what indications we have about the depth chart going into the year

but we've got to get into camp first - but at least it's less than 10 days now until the rookies report for training camp

Agreed entirely. Expecting a jump from Houston because his pressures were really high and we should field a better defense. Expecting a jump from Oweh for the same reasons plus his natural progression that obviously doesn't apply to Houston.

10 more days!

 

[RavensMania]

Agreed entirely. Expecting a jump from Houston because his pressures were really high and we should field a better defense. Expecting a jump from Oweh for the same reasons plus his natural progression that obviously doesn't apply to Houston.

10 more days!

wow, didn't even realize we were 10 days out until you typed it. can't wait

 

[rossihunter2]

wow, didn't even realize we were 10 days out until you typed it. can't wait

only rookie report day lol
still 16 days until vets turn up

 

[UPennChem]

Here's a list of people I think could realistically make the team. We'll see how we're doing for cutdown day.

2 QBs
Lamar
Huntley

5 RBs
Dobbins
Edwards
Badie
Davis
Hill

1 FB
Ricard

4 TEs
Andrews
Boyle
Likely
Kolar

5 WRs
Bateman
Proche
Duvernay
Wallace
Vet/UDFA

11 OL
Stanley
Mekari
Powers
Phillips
Linderbaum
Colon
Zeitler
Cleveland
Moses
James
Faalele

That's 28 for offense.

6 DL
Calais
Pierce
Madabuike
Urban
Washington
Jones

4 plus 1 PUP OLB
Bowser
Houston
Oweh
Hayes
Ojabo

5 ILB
Bynes
Queen
Harrison
Welch
Biegel giving inside outside flexibility

6 CBs
Marlon
Peters
Fuller
Stephens
JAD
Pepe

6 S
Williams
Hamilton
Clark
Stone
Jefferson
Washington

27 for defense

3 for the new wolfpack

Thats only 58 total players with a WR vet added in there already. That means you need to make 5 cuts.

Obvious candidates are
Justice Hill
Colon
Welch

I dont know who that 4th guy and 5th are.

 

[UPennChem]

It's pretty clear if the rookie class is impressive, we're going to be a really really good team

 

[UPennChem]

@Simba time to come out of hibernation

 

[Simba]

Here's a list of people I think could realistically make the team. We'll see how we're doing for cutdown day.

2 QBs
Lamar
Huntley

5 RBs
Dobbins
Edwards
Badie
Davis
Hill

1 FB
Ricard

4 TEs
Andrews
Boyle
Likely
Kolar

5 WRs
Bateman
Proche
Duvernay
Wallace
Vet/UDFA

11 OL
Stanley
Mekari
Powers
Phillips
Linderbaum
Colon
Zeitler
Cleveland
Moses
James
Faalele

That's 28 for offense.

6 DL
Calais
Pierce
Madabuike
Urban
Washington
Jones

4 plus 1 PUP OLB
Bowser
Houston
Oweh
Hayes
Ojabo

5 ILB
Bynes
Queen
Harrison
Welch
Biegel giving inside outside flexibility

6 CBs
Marlon
Peters
Fuller
Stephens
JAD
Pepe

6 S
Williams
Hamilton
Clark
Stone
Jefferson
Washington

27 for defense

3 for the new wolfpack

Thats only 58 total players with a WR vet added in there already. That means you need to make 5 cuts.

Obvious candidates are
Justice Hill
Colon
Welch

I dont know who that 4th guy and 5th are.

I'm very curious about the OL in particular right now.

Let's just say you have Stanley - Phillips/Mekari - Linderbaum - Zeitler - Moses as the starting 5. As you mentioned, the backups in that case are Phillips/Mekari, James, Faalele, Cleveland, Powers, and Colon. A weird group in the sense that the only one with real positional versatility out of the backups is the loser of Phillips/Mekari. James and Faalele pure Ts. Cleveland and Powers pure Gs. Colon pretty much a pure C in this scheme although he can play G in a pinch. Just doesn't have the same vibe as previous OL depth and I can't decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Leaning good but who knows.

Other thoughts:
- Not sure Davis makes any sense IF Dobbins and Edwards are healthy. Think them being not ready is his only saving grace because he doesn't play ST.
- I'd add Means and Moon at OLB. There's an opening there even if it's just temporary.
- Welch is more of a lock than a bubble guy to me. We lost a lot on ST and he has been a core piece there.

 

[UPennChem]

Your cutable positions seem like

RB
OL
S

 

[rmcjacket23]

i dont think we've seen nearly enough to make any concrete judgements

what i think is clear is that ben powers is very much still in the conversation at worst and more likely he's the guy who gets first crack this offseason

with mekari, it's tough to know what's going to happen - we'll get more clarity in training camp if/when we see what his role is - but he seemed to be repping at both C and LT in the limited things we saw during OTAs and minicamp and both with the 2nd team - but he's had so many starts at so many different positions it's possible that they dont necessarily think they need to see him at LG all the time for him to be in that competition - my guess is that they want one of Phillips or Cleveland to take the job and if they don't they'll probably be defaulting to either Powers again or Mekari and feel ok

worth noting there's been no contact practices or any training in pads - much more clarity to come from training camp especially with fans being allowed at practices

Biggest "problem" per say with Mekari is that nobody seems to know when we'll see Stanely in pads and practicing. If that's not in July/August, which it might not be, I would suspect that Mekari is the current favorite to start at LT. Don't know for sure, but Moses starting at LT seems unlikely, and Faalele can't possibly be ready for that.

So if nothing else, Mekari would seem to default have to be the guy who "works" at LT the most in the offseason. As such, and possibly unfortunately for him, I can't see him getting enough reps at LG to be in that hunt for the starting job.

 

[rmcjacket23]

I'm very curious about the OL in particular right now.

Let's just say you have Stanley - Phillips/Mekari - Linderbaum - Zeitler - Moses as the starting 5. As you mentioned, the backups in that case are Phillips/Mekari, James, Faalele, Cleveland, Powers, and Colon. A weird group in the sense that the only one with real positional versatility out of the backups is the loser of Phillips/Mekari. James and Faalele pure Ts. Cleveland and Powers pure Gs. Colon pretty much a pure C in this scheme although he can play G in a pinch. Just doesn't have the same vibe as previous OL depth and I can't decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Leaning good but who knows.

Other thoughts:
- Not sure Davis makes any sense IF Dobbins and Edwards are healthy. Think them being not ready is his only saving grace because he doesn't play ST.
- I'd add Means and Moon at OLB. There's an opening there even if it's just temporary.
- Welch is more of a lock than a bubble guy to me. We lost a lot on ST and he has been a core piece there.

TCC has a very difficult challenge of making the 53 man, unless Stanley isn't ready.

 

[Simba]

TCC has a very difficult challenge of making the 53 man, unless Stanley isn't ready.

I'll still say he has a shot IF Mekari is truly a LG option. Just can't imagine they'd be comfortable with Mekari being the backup while getting 0 C reps in practice.

 

[rmcjacket23]

I'll still say he has a shot IF Mekari is truly a LG option. Just can't imagine they'd be comfortable with Mekari being the backup while getting 0 C reps in practice.

Right, and like I mentioned, I think Stanley's return is kind of the catalyst there. If Stanley participates in little or none of the offseason program, I'm assuming Mekari is the default backup LT, and therefore would take the bulk of the snaps there, with him taking some backup snaps at C. I just don't see him as a LG option unless he actually a) plays a lot of snaps in the preseason there and actually competes and b) Stanley is back taking practice reps as soon as like August.

I think, until I see otherwise, Mekari is at least a three position backup, and maybe a five position backup, but probably won't get the reps to actually compete to start at LG.

If I'm wrong, it'll be because like they want to try Moses at LT.

Plus, the competition at Guard is super deep. You've got like 3 other guys not named Mekari who I could easily see starting there and wouldn't be surprised by it.

 

[rossihunter2]

Here's a list of people I think could realistically make the team. We'll see how we're doing for cutdown day.

2 QBs
Lamar
Huntley

5 RBs
Dobbins
Edwards
Badie
Davis
Hill

1 FB
Ricard

4 TEs
Andrews
Boyle
Likely
Kolar

5 WRs
Bateman
Proche
Duvernay
Wallace
Vet/UDFA

11 OL
Stanley
Mekari
Powers
Phillips
Linderbaum
Colon
Zeitler
Cleveland
Moses
James
Faalele

That's 28 for offense.

6 DL
Calais
Pierce
Madabuike
Urban
Washington
Jones

4 plus 1 PUP OLB
Bowser
Houston
Oweh
Hayes
Ojabo

5 ILB
Bynes
Queen
Harrison
Welch
Biegel giving inside outside flexibility

6 CBs
Marlon
Peters
Fuller
Stephens
JAD
Pepe

6 S
Williams
Hamilton
Clark
Stone
Jefferson
Washington

27 for defense

3 for the new wolfpack

Thats only 58 total players with a WR vet added in there already. That means you need to make 5 cuts.

Obvious candidates are
Justice Hill
Colon
Welch

I dont know who that 4th guy and 5th are.

if this is a list of everyone who's in the conversation for a 53 man spot then id throw in jeremiah moon and some of the udfa LBs into that LB/OLB bubble group - not sure any of them actually make it but there's a realistic chance one of them could make it

and while i do think it's unlikely i think it might be worth throwing in kevon seymour and imam marshall into the DB mix

in terms of the cuts you need to make - im not sure i agree
1) i think welch is basically a lock... i think he's probably above harrison in the depth chart at this point and if not it doesnt matter because he's a 1st team special teams guy on a unit that's lost a ton of special teams experience the last couple of years
2) I think Justice Hill is in a straight up fight with Mike Davis for RB 4 and which one of them makes it may well be more related to the health of JK and Gus - but especially JK... if JK's nowhere near ready then Mike Davis may well come in and get RB2 reps as a change of pace to Gus with his experience as a 3rd down back but if JK and Gus are both ready to go, I'm not sure there's much point to retaining Davis unless he's miles ahead of Badie and Hill (which based on his 2021 film I'm not convinced is the case)
3) Colon i think is the only obvious OL cut

right now i think we're definitely keeping:

Offence (25)
2 QBs
4 RBs
1 FB
4 TEs
5 WRs (one not on the roster)
9 OL (this is where the first tough decision comes - Colon and who?)
which makes 25 on offence - i guess it's possible that we only keep 4 WRs and take that risk but we would have the worst WR corps in the league if that was the case - but it would also make it easier to carry 10 OL if we like them all

Defence (25)
6 DL
4 OLB (+1 on PUP)
4 LB
11 DBs
which makes 25 on defence - my guess is the roster massaging required to fit the extra WR on offence comes from this side of the ball and we cut someone like Biegel and hope he sticks on the PS and can call him up for the first few weeks if needed - i could certainly see us doing that same type of manoeuvre with someone like TJ the first few weeks too and maybe carry 9 LBs and 10 DBs rather than 8 LBs and 11 DBs

right now though, for me the only difficult cut comes if we add a WR to the roster (which i think we're all assuming we will) - if we don't then I think the only real questions in terms of the 53 right now are:
1) who misses out on the 9 OL spots?
2) who misses out on the 4 RB spots?

 

[rossihunter2]

I'm very curious about the OL in particular right now.

Let's just say you have Stanley - Phillips/Mekari - Linderbaum - Zeitler - Moses as the starting 5. As you mentioned, the backups in that case are Phillips/Mekari, James, Faalele, Cleveland, Powers, and Colon. A weird group in the sense that the only one with real positional versatility out of the backups is the loser of Phillips/Mekari. James and Faalele pure Ts. Cleveland and Powers pure Gs. Colon pretty much a pure C in this scheme although he can play G in a pinch. Just doesn't have the same vibe as previous OL depth and I can't decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Leaning good but who knows.

Other thoughts:
- Not sure Davis makes any sense IF Dobbins and Edwards are healthy. Think them being not ready is his only saving grace because he doesn't play ST.
- I'd add Means and Moon at OLB. There's an opening there even if it's just temporary.
- Welch is more of a lock than a bubble guy to me. We lost a lot on ST and he has been a core piece there.

i think it makes powers position more treacherous if he can't win the starting job - his lack of versatility, his cap number and his years of control make him a somewhat easy cut/trade if he's surplus to requirements

he's one of the few guys on the roster who's range of outcomes seems to be that wide - could be a starter, could miss out on the 53 entirely

 

[rossihunter2]

Biggest "problem" per say with Mekari is that nobody seems to know when we'll see Stanely in pads and practicing. If that's not in July/August, which it might not be, I would suspect that Mekari is the current favorite to start at LT. Don't know for sure, but Moses starting at LT seems unlikely, and Faalele can't possibly be ready for that.

So if nothing else, Mekari would seem to default have to be the guy who "works" at LT the most in the offseason. As such, and possibly unfortunately for him, I can't see him getting enough reps at LG to be in that hunt for the starting job.

for what it's worth - it looks like jawuan james has been the 1st team LT in practices so far - mekari has been subbing in as the 2nd team C and 2nd team LT

even so - notably not at LG

 

[rmcjacket23]

for what it's worth - it looks like jawuan james has been the 1st team LT in practices so far - mekari has been subbing in as the 2nd team C and 2nd team LT

even so - notably not at LG

And I had forgotten about him entirely and/or assumed he wouldn't make the roster. But he'd be an option there I guess too.

 

[UPennChem]

if this is a list of everyone who's in the conversation for a 53 man spot then id throw in jeremiah moon and some of the udfa LBs into that LB/OLB bubble group - not sure any of them actually make it but there's a realistic chance one of them could make it

and while i do think it's unlikely i think it might be worth throwing in kevon seymour and imam marshall into the DB mix

in terms of the cuts you need to make - im not sure i agree
1) i think welch is basically a lock... i think he's probably above harrison in the depth chart at this point and if not it doesnt matter because he's a 1st team special teams guy on a unit that's lost a ton of special teams experience the last couple of years
2) I think Justice Hill is in a straight up fight with Mike Davis for RB 4 and which one of them makes it may well be more related to the health of JK and Gus - but especially JK... if JK's nowhere near ready then Mike Davis may well come in and get RB2 reps as a change of pace to Gus with his experience as a 3rd down back but if JK and Gus are both ready to go, I'm not sure there's much point to retaining Davis unless he's miles ahead of Badie and Hill (which based on his 2021 film I'm not convinced is the case)
3) Colon i think is the only obvious OL cut

right now i think we're definitely keeping:

Offence (25)
2 QBs
4 RBs
1 FB
4 TEs
5 WRs (one not on the roster)
9 OL (this is where the first tough decision comes - Colon and who?)
which makes 25 on offence - i guess it's possible that we only keep 4 WRs and take that risk but we would have the worst WR corps in the league if that was the case - but it would also make it easier to carry 10 OL if we like them all

Defence (25)
6 DL
4 OLB (+1 on PUP)
4 LB
11 DBs
which makes 25 on defence - my guess is the roster massaging required to fit the extra WR on offence comes from this side of the ball and we cut someone like Biegel and hope he sticks on the PS and can call him up for the first few weeks if needed - i could certainly see us doing that same type of manoeuvre with someone like TJ the first few weeks too and maybe carry 9 LBs and 10 DBs rather than 8 LBs and 11 DBs

right now though, for me the only difficult cut comes if we add a WR to the roster (which i think we're all assuming we will) - if we don't then I think the only real questions in terms of the 53 right now are:
1) who misses out on the 9 OL spots?
2) who misses out on the 4 RB spots?

It would be so nice to not need 4 RBs. Especially when you're carrying 4 TEs and a FB!!!

 

[rossihunter2]

And I had forgotten about him entirely and/or assumed he wouldn't make the roster. But he'd be an option there I guess too.

i'd assumed he wouldnt be involved but he's been practicing with the 1st team so far - and i think the fact that he's getting those reps is somewhat indicative of the ravens at least trying to see if he can be an option at LT if Stanley can't go or whether he can be the backup swing if Stanley can go