• Welcome to PurpleFlock! Be sure to sign up here so that you can chat with your fellow Ravens fans.

The 2022 Offseason Thread

rossihunter2

Staff Member
Moderator
I’m very worried about Edge. It could be why we haven’t had tons of turnovers and why the secondary was so bad.

i think more than anything we just need to find playmakers at any level of the defence
i absolutely think we need to add more edge talent but ill take anyone at any position on defence who creates positive plays for the defence be that sacks or picks or TFLs
 

Tank

Hall of Famer
I’ll say it again, peters is my 3rd favorite raven after Lamar and andrews
The negative impact of losing Peters wasn’t just the loss of a CB but also the loss of the on field DB coordinator.
Getting Marcus back will be huge, he’s a very intelligent player and will pull things together again.
 
Last edited:

RL52TheGreatest

Ravens Ring of Honor
Glad he was the player I wanted the Ravens to draft in 2015. Unfortunately KC took him a few picks before we were on the clock. Would have saved us the trouble the Perriman years, for sure.

I also wanted Peters in that draft especially after the disaster we had in 2014 with a bunch of our corners going down
 

rmcjacket23

Ravens Ring of Honor
Yeah, OL is holding the offense back--not WR now. Lots of ways you can improve the team, one is to just go all-in on fixing the OL. It would be an investment and could play huge dividends for us but would sacrifice the defense. OL is so tough too because it's hard to know the question marks:

LT: will Stanley return? Do we need to find a replacement?
LG: is Ben Cleveland the guy to take it? Do we need a true LG here?
C: will Bozeman return? Do we have anyone who can play here on this team besides Mekari who wasn't great last time?
RG: can Zeitler play well again? He's getting old.
RT: is James or Mekari good enough to play here? Do we need to invest here?

Lots of question marks here on the OL. Too bad defense is also a dumpster fire in its own ways. Crazy how it changed so much from year to year since in 2020 it was a very good defense.
Adding an offensive tackle fairly high in the draft, or some more significant investment in FA at the position, is probably the biggest priority of the offseason. I would be shocked if it doesn't happen. It's clear we like Mekari, and it's even possible he ends up as the starting RT, but there's no way this FO commits to him before training camp, and there's no way they'll not have a better contingency plan for Stanley.

People try to specifically say "RT is the biggest need" I think are missing the point. RT isn't the priority in my eyes. Just getting Tackles in general is. We could use a first round pick on the draft's best RT, and if Stanley doesn't come back, that guy is probably going to be playing the left-side as a rookie, or they'll need somebody better than Villanueva to do it. For me, Tackle isn't really a ?. We're going to add probably two bodies to that room, regardless of what happens. Villanueva almost certainly won't be back, meaning you basically have Mekari and Tyre being back that you can "count on". That means you need a starter on the left side and depth. If Stanley comes back, great.

Center is arguably a bigger ? for me. I'm getting the feeling Bozeman may not be back. I'm not sure why, but I've somehow convinced myself that if we were willing to commit to Bozeman, we may have already extended him during the season. And we didn't. My gut says we're going to let him hit the market and see what happens. Likely a situation similar to Mosley or KO, where we make our best offer and just see what the market bears.

If Bozeman doesn't return, I think Center becomes interesting. I don't know that TCC is the guy, and I can't imagine we go through the offseason without adding somebody.

My biggest issue is I would prefer if this draft was very defensive heavy. We identified this reality several years ago, but the reality is that a lot of the $ in the next 2-3 years (starting this past offseason) is going to go to offensive players. Stanley, Lamar, Hollywood, Andrews, perhaps Bozeman, etc. A lot of large contracts already given out or will be given out on the offensive side of the ball. On defense, it's basically Marlon and Peters making all the money, and everybody else is relatively cheap. From a defensive perspective, I'd prefer us to NOT sit there and try to fill gaps with cheap veterans everywhere. We'll need to in certain spots, like a Dline spot maybe, but I'll be really disappointed if we don't go defense-heavy. We need young, fast, playmakers on defense. We have that on offense already. And the more we discuss needing to add 2, 3, 4 offensive lineman to the group (which are harder to find in the draft in my opinion), the less confident I am that we can make that happen.

If I look back at this season and with all the injuries, the reality is that the offense got hit the hardest by the injuries, and they still outperformed the defense considerably in my eyes. You lose Dobbins, Edwards and Stanley for the whole season, and you lose Boyle for a great chunk of it, Mekari is in and out of the lineup all year, Bateman misses significant time, Lamar misses significant time. On defense, losing Marlon and Peters certainly hurts, and we lost depth in the secondary throughout the year, but your Front 7 was largely in-tact for a good chunk of the year, and our defense struggled mightily in a lot of spots.

I do NOT see a good defense with this roster by simply bringing Marlon and Peters back. I see an aging defense that will be, at best, average. An average defense with a great offense can win you Lombardi's, but nothing about this franchise suggests they're going to be happy with the defense.

I think the FO is going to look at this offseason and say "the offense had injury issues. We'll add a starter on the Oline and some depth and move on". But I think they'll identify that there's legitimate talent issues on defense, i.e., we don't have playmakers, and make that a priority.
 

UPennChem

Hall of Famer
Adding an offensive tackle fairly high in the draft, or some more significant investment in FA at the position, is probably the biggest priority of the offseason. I would be shocked if it doesn't happen. It's clear we like Mekari, and it's even possible he ends up as the starting RT, but there's no way this FO commits to him before training camp, and there's no way they'll not have a better contingency plan for Stanley.

People try to specifically say "RT is the biggest need" I think are missing the point. RT isn't the priority in my eyes. Just getting Tackles in general is. We could use a first round pick on the draft's best RT, and if Stanley doesn't come back, that guy is probably going to be playing the left-side as a rookie, or they'll need somebody better than Villanueva to do it. For me, Tackle isn't really a ?. We're going to add probably two bodies to that room, regardless of what happens. Villanueva almost certainly won't be back, meaning you basically have Mekari and Tyre being back that you can "count on". That means you need a starter on the left side and depth. If Stanley comes back, great.

Center is arguably a bigger ? for me. I'm getting the feeling Bozeman may not be back. I'm not sure why, but I've somehow convinced myself that if we were willing to commit to Bozeman, we may have already extended him during the season. And we didn't. My gut says we're going to let him hit the market and see what happens. Likely a situation similar to Mosley or KO, where we make our best offer and just see what the market bears.

If Bozeman doesn't return, I think Center becomes interesting. I don't know that TCC is the guy, and I can't imagine we go through the offseason without adding somebody.

My biggest issue is I would prefer if this draft was very defensive heavy. We identified this reality several years ago, but the reality is that a lot of the $ in the next 2-3 years (starting this past offseason) is going to go to offensive players. Stanley, Lamar, Hollywood, Andrews, perhaps Bozeman, etc. A lot of large contracts already given out or will be given out on the offensive side of the ball. On defense, it's basically Marlon and Peters making all the money, and everybody else is relatively cheap. From a defensive perspective, I'd prefer us to NOT sit there and try to fill gaps with cheap veterans everywhere. We'll need to in certain spots, like a Dline spot maybe, but I'll be really disappointed if we don't go defense-heavy. We need young, fast, playmakers on defense. We have that on offense already. And the more we discuss needing to add 2, 3, 4 offensive lineman to the group (which are harder to find in the draft in my opinion), the less confident I am that we can make that happen.

If I look back at this season and with all the injuries, the reality is that the offense got hit the hardest by the injuries, and they still outperformed the defense considerably in my eyes. You lose Dobbins, Edwards and Stanley for the whole season, and you lose Boyle for a great chunk of it, Mekari is in and out of the lineup all year, Bateman misses significant time, Lamar misses significant time. On defense, losing Marlon and Peters certainly hurts, and we lost depth in the secondary throughout the year, but your Front 7 was largely in-tact for a good chunk of the year, and our defense struggled mightily in a lot of spots.

I do NOT see a good defense with this roster by simply bringing Marlon and Peters back. I see an aging defense that will be, at best, average. An average defense with a great offense can win you Lombardi's, but nothing about this franchise suggests they're going to be happy with the defense.

I think the FO is going to look at this offseason and say "the offense had injury issues. We'll add a starter on the Oline and some depth and move on". But I think they'll identify that there's legitimate talent issues on defense, i.e., we don't have playmakers, and make that a priority.

I just thoroughly agree with this
 

RavensMania

Staff Member
Administrator
for sure 2013 was horrific lol - not saying it wasnt - 2021's (after all the injuries) was pretty horrifying too
just saying that we've had good OLs since then in that interim period

you're right that we've been missing consistent C play for much of that time but we've had competent play over those years at some points just not long-term consistency - Jensen as you say had 2017 where he was ascending, Skura anchored the OL well for 2018-2019 until he got injured and Bozeman gave us pretty decent play this year

and before that Zuttah gave us a couple of decent years (including a pro bowl year in 2016) - i know many disliked him but he was fine

that 2019 was probably the best unit we've had for a long while though - Stanley, Bozeman, Skura, Yanda, Orlando is pretty wall-like...
Skura sucked in 2018 and would say he ever could anchor well. I know that isn't what you were saying. He was much better in 2019 before going down with an injury during the Rams game. Mekari filled in admirably.
 

RavensMania

Staff Member
Administrator
Personally I would switch edge and LB. With Oweh and Bowser we at least have a pair of higher end starters. Could definitely use some depth and rotational pieces, but we have starters.

For ILB we have Queen and that's about it. Fort is in his thirties and coming off a season ending injury. Bynes is a higher end backup and has stepped up before, but he's also up there in age and shouldn't be a clear cut starter.
We definitely need to do something at Edge due to the Bowser injury. He may not be back until October, unless he can come back as fast as Suggs or Cam Akers. Linebacker, I'd be fine drafting one on day two or three and resigning Bynes and or Fort again.
 

Grim

Ravens Ring of Honor
Adding an offensive tackle fairly high in the draft, or some more significant investment in FA at the position, is probably the biggest priority of the offseason. I would be shocked if it doesn't happen. It's clear we like Mekari, and it's even possible he ends up as the starting RT, but there's no way this FO commits to him before training camp, and there's no way they'll not have a better contingency plan for Stanley.

People try to specifically say "RT is the biggest need" I think are missing the point. RT isn't the priority in my eyes. Just getting Tackles in general is. We could use a first round pick on the draft's best RT, and if Stanley doesn't come back, that guy is probably going to be playing the left-side as a rookie, or they'll need somebody better than Villanueva to do it. For me, Tackle isn't really a ?. We're going to add probably two bodies to that room, regardless of what happens. Villanueva almost certainly won't be back, meaning you basically have Mekari and Tyre being back that you can "count on". That means you need a starter on the left side and depth. If Stanley comes back, great.

Center is arguably a bigger ? for me. I'm getting the feeling Bozeman may not be back. I'm not sure why, but I've somehow convinced myself that if we were willing to commit to Bozeman, we may have already extended him during the season. And we didn't. My gut says we're going to let him hit the market and see what happens. Likely a situation similar to Mosley or KO, where we make our best offer and just see what the market bears.

If Bozeman doesn't return, I think Center becomes interesting. I don't know that TCC is the guy, and I can't imagine we go through the offseason without adding somebody.

My biggest issue is I would prefer if this draft was very defensive heavy. We identified this reality several years ago, but the reality is that a lot of the $ in the next 2-3 years (starting this past offseason) is going to go to offensive players. Stanley, Lamar, Hollywood, Andrews, perhaps Bozeman, etc. A lot of large contracts already given out or will be given out on the offensive side of the ball. On defense, it's basically Marlon and Peters making all the money, and everybody else is relatively cheap. From a defensive perspective, I'd prefer us to NOT sit there and try to fill gaps with cheap veterans everywhere. We'll need to in certain spots, like a Dline spot maybe, but I'll be really disappointed if we don't go defense-heavy. We need young, fast, playmakers on defense. We have that on offense already. And the more we discuss needing to add 2, 3, 4 offensive lineman to the group (which are harder to find in the draft in my opinion), the less confident I am that we can make that happen.

If I look back at this season and with all the injuries, the reality is that the offense got hit the hardest by the injuries, and they still outperformed the defense considerably in my eyes. You lose Dobbins, Edwards and Stanley for the whole season, and you lose Boyle for a great chunk of it, Mekari is in and out of the lineup all year, Bateman misses significant time, Lamar misses significant time. On defense, losing Marlon and Peters certainly hurts, and we lost depth in the secondary throughout the year, but your Front 7 was largely in-tact for a good chunk of the year, and our defense struggled mightily in a lot of spots.

I do NOT see a good defense with this roster by simply bringing Marlon and Peters back. I see an aging defense that will be, at best, average. An average defense with a great offense can win you Lombardi's, but nothing about this franchise suggests they're going to be happy with the defense.

I think the FO is going to look at this offseason and say "the offense had injury issues. We'll add a starter on the Oline and some depth and move on". But I think they'll identify that there's legitimate talent issues on defense, i.e., we don't have playmakers, and make that a priority.
Amen. The defense is a wreck man, and that's why for me defense is the big hole. I don't think our offense is far away; I think OL has a lot of question marks but it was just hit by major injury after injury. OT in general is a need, the question is if it's first round or not remains to be seen. It could most certainly be justified as Stanley insurance or move to RT, which would be a double need and allow Mekari to play swing. We need a C and I agree that I don't think Bozeman returns. Maybe we can get Jensen like some hope to do, maybe not. Outside of that, offense is set mostly. We can get by I think with our guards barring some injury, but we need to invest in depth there anyway.

This defense though was awful. Yeah, secondary was devastated by injury but LB and DL wasn't really. DL is really a major concern for me, both Edge and interior. All 3 guys who should've been our starters are either not under contract or coming off an injured year in Campbell, Williams, Wolfe.
 

Michael M.

Pro Bowler
Adding an offensive tackle fairly high in the draft, or some more significant investment in FA at the position, is probably the biggest priority of the offseason. I would be shocked if it doesn't happen. It's clear we like Mekari, and it's even possible he ends up as the starting RT, but there's no way this FO commits to him before training camp, and there's no way they'll not have a better contingency plan for Stanley.

People try to specifically say "RT is the biggest need" I think are missing the point. RT isn't the priority in my eyes. Just getting Tackles in general is. We could use a first round pick on the draft's best RT, and if Stanley doesn't come back, that guy is probably going to be playing the left-side as a rookie, or they'll need somebody better than Villanueva to do it. For me, Tackle isn't really a ?. We're going to add probably two bodies to that room, regardless of what happens. Villanueva almost certainly won't be back, meaning you basically have Mekari and Tyre being back that you can "count on". That means you need a starter on the left side and depth. If Stanley comes back, great.

Center is arguably a bigger ? for me. I'm getting the feeling Bozeman may not be back. I'm not sure why, but I've somehow convinced myself that if we were willing to commit to Bozeman, we may have already extended him during the season. And we didn't. My gut says we're going to let him hit the market and see what happens. Likely a situation similar to Mosley or KO, where we make our best offer and just see what the market bears.

If Bozeman doesn't return, I think Center becomes interesting. I don't know that TCC is the guy, and I can't imagine we go through the offseason without adding somebody.

My biggest issue is I would prefer if this draft was very defensive heavy. We identified this reality several years ago, but the reality is that a lot of the $ in the next 2-3 years (starting this past offseason) is going to go to offensive players. Stanley, Lamar, Hollywood, Andrews, perhaps Bozeman, etc. A lot of large contracts already given out or will be given out on the offensive side of the ball. On defense, it's basically Marlon and Peters making all the money, and everybody else is relatively cheap. From a defensive perspective, I'd prefer us to NOT sit there and try to fill gaps with cheap veterans everywhere. We'll need to in certain spots, like a Dline spot maybe, but I'll be really disappointed if we don't go defense-heavy. We need young, fast, playmakers on defense. We have that on offense already. And the more we discuss needing to add 2, 3, 4 offensive lineman to the group (which are harder to find in the draft in my opinion), the less confident I am that we can make that happen.

If I look back at this season and with all the injuries, the reality is that the offense got hit the hardest by the injuries, and they still outperformed the defense considerably in my eyes. You lose Dobbins, Edwards and Stanley for the whole season, and you lose Boyle for a great chunk of it, Mekari is in and out of the lineup all year, Bateman misses significant time, Lamar misses significant time. On defense, losing Marlon and Peters certainly hurts, and we lost depth in the secondary throughout the year, but your Front 7 was largely in-tact for a good chunk of the year, and our defense struggled mightily in a lot of spots.

I do NOT see a good defense with this roster by simply bringing Marlon and Peters back. I see an aging defense that will be, at best, average. An average defense with a great offense can win you Lombardi's, but nothing about this franchise suggests they're going to be happy with the defense.

I think the FO is going to look at this offseason and say "the offense had injury issues. We'll add a starter on the Oline and some depth and move on". But I think they'll identify that there's legitimate talent issues on defense, i.e., we don't have playmakers, and make that a priority.
I don't think Bozeman returns. I don't think he believes he will either. I see Bozeman going either to the Jets or Giants, and I think the same about Jensen.
 

rossihunter2

Staff Member
Moderator
That sucks! As that piece pointed out though, they could still award the ravens a 3rd rounder based on how they formulate the picks. Apparently how they formulate is top secret, which means if they tell you they would have to kill you. Lol

this article is based on a tweet by nick korte who's the overthecap guy who has worked out the vast majority of the formula over the years - so while yes it's possible we could still get a 3, judon not making all-pro and also missing a game for covid near the end of the season really have made it less likely
 

RavensMania

Staff Member
Administrator
That sucks! As that piece pointed out though, they could still award the ravens a 3rd rounder based on how they formulate the picks. Apparently how they formulate is top secret, which means if they tell you they would have to kill you. Lol
everything you said is correct, but as Rossi said, he's the overthecap guy that has done it for years and he's been very accurate.
 
this article is based on a tweet by nick korte who's the overthecap guy who has worked out the vast majority of the formula over the years - so while yes it's possible we could still get a 3, judon not making all-pro and also missing a game for covid near the end of the season really have made it less likely
Yeah it’s just shame though. He had career numbers this year. Hurts us and maybe him. I’m sure he had escalators in his contract for making pro bowl.
 

rossihunter2

Staff Member
Moderator
Yeah it’s just shame though. He had career numbers this year. Hurts us and maybe him. I’m sure he had escalators in his contract for making pro bowl.

i mean he made the pro bowl so if there are any in there then that's cool - i think it's rare that players have all-pro as an incentive... it's normally pro bowl (which he made) or production stats like sacks etc. (which it's possible he would have hit anyway too)

idk that he'll be that worried about it given he signed a pretty big contract in the offseason and is in the playoffs for the 4th straight year
 
i mean he made the pro bowl so if there are any in there then that's cool - i think it's rare that players have all-pro as an incentive... it's normally pro bowl (which he made) or production stats like sacks etc. (which it's possible he would have hit anyway too)

idk that he'll be that worried about it given he signed a pretty big contract in the offseason and is in the playoffs for the 4th straight year
Yeah that’s my bad. I should have said all pro, not make the pro bowl. It’s an age thing. You’ll understand someday. Lol
 

rossihunter2

Staff Member
Moderator
Yeah that’s my bad. I should have said all pro, not make the pro bowl. It’s an age thing. You’ll understand someday. Lol

haha no worries
for what it's worth he never really had a shot at all-pro - the sack numbers were gaudy but the superstars in the league on the edge this year were all on fire (as were some other less well known names and some older guys were resurgent too) - Watt, Garrett, Bosa, Bosa, Hendrickson, Quinn, Jones were all on fire this year
 
haha no worries
for what it's worth he never really had a shot at all-pro - the sack numbers were gaudy but the superstars in the league on the edge this year were all on fire (as were some other less well known names and some older guys were resurgent too) - Watt, Garrett, Bosa, Bosa, Hendrickson, Quinn, Jones were all on fire this year
No doubt he had allot of competition this year.
 

D1City55

Pro Bowler
This has been said by others plenty but I had the choice between paying Jensen or Bozeman then I'm easily paying Jensen. I feel like we need a mauler on this OL who brings some thump and anger back to this OL. That's an identity we've been missing since Yanda and Zeus left. Those two loved running the football and you can clearly see it on film. It's such a difficult decision because paying Bozeman or Jensen means less money for the defense and if you pay him and Lamar then you don't have much wiggle room at all.

That being said you have numerous guys coming back. Dobbins, Gus, Boyle, and Stanley should return and then you have Bateman who hopefully can put a healthy offseason.

Bobby Wagner could be a Free agent this year. I would absolutely go hard in pursuing him. A LB like that can help this defense dramatically. Of course, you need to shore up the DL too but getting him would present as a massive upgrade.
 

RavensMania

Staff Member
Administrator
This has been said by others plenty but I had the choice between paying Jensen or Bozeman then I'm easily paying Jensen. I feel like we need a mauler on this OL who brings some thump and anger back to this OL. That's an identity we've been missing since Yanda and Zeus left. Those two loved running the football and you can clearly see it on film. It's such a difficult decision because paying Bozeman or Jensen means less money for the defense and if you pay him and Lamar then you don't have much wiggle room at all.

That being said you have numerous guys coming back. Dobbins, Gus, Boyle, and Stanley should return and then you have Bateman who hopefully can put a healthy offseason.

Bobby Wagner could be a Free agent this year. I would absolutely go hard in pursuing him. A LB like that can help this defense dramatically. Of course, you need to shore up the DL too but getting him would present as a massive upgrade.
Wagner is still a good player and would be a massive upgrade, but he had a noticeable dropoff in play this season.
 
Top