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2026 Offseason Thread

It'll get you a Joey Bosa type. We need at least 3 guys. Where are they coming from? If we're not willing to make cap moves to upgrade the roster via any other mechanism than the draft, I don't even really see the point in Lamar being here at that point.

I'd take Dre'Mont at half the cash of Roquan a thousand times over.

the narrative on roquan has gone far too far the other way
unfortunate that he's being paid fred warner money

but he's still grading out pretty well even in a down year with no sacks and no turnovers and he was hamstrung by the poor coverage play around him early in the season too

if his replacement was clearly on the roster already, then maybe you look at that 7m saving and move on, but 7m is not enough for me to move on from roquan with the only other (healthy) LB being Trenton Simpson... and with Buchanan clearly not being ready to run the defence yet even if he had a very impressive rookie season
^ I'll let this suffice as the bulk of my reply

Recency bias is real though. No one thought Roquan had to go 2 weeks ago, but he has a bad game and...

My last point is that I don't think Roquan's $7M is going to prevent us from adding pass rush as we need it
 
the narrative on roquan has gone far too far the other way
unfortunate that he's being paid fred warner money

but he's still grading out pretty well even in a down year with no sacks and no turnovers and he was hamstrung by the poor coverage play around him early in the season too

if his replacement was clearly on the roster already, then maybe you look at that 7m saving and move on, but 7m is not enough for me to move on from roquan with the only other (healthy) LB being Trenton Simpson... and with Buchanan clearly not being ready to run the defence yet even if he had a very impressive rookie season
I just feel like you replace the DC before you try to cut Roquan. We all know the DC sucks.
 
While we're talking too much about Roquan in my opinion, I don't think we're talking enough about Marlon. I struggle to see him back. CB is a much bigger need than most want to admit. Those INTs don't make up for the long speed being gone. I know it was the joke back in the day, but feels like his transition to SS is sooner rather than later. Still think he's got some years left but not convinced it's going to be here.
 
^ I'll let this suffice as the bulk of my reply

Recency bias is real though. No one thought Roquan had to go 2 weeks ago, but he has a bad game and...

My last point is that I don't think Roquan's $7M is going to prevent us from adding pass rush as we need it
Don't think the two weeks thing is accurate. People have been saying he needed to go from Sept when it was clear he was out of shape. Amplified when he got injured. Has outstanding games that get mixed in with poor appearances.

I'm not saying it's dire straights out there from a cap perspective, but I think fans are going to find out the hard way that, absent a Lamar extension, which you don't control, FA is going to a look a lot like last year's FA looked, which is keeping players you already have on the roster (that wasn't a great roster to begin with) and shopping in the low end for veteran fillers.

That means the draft has to be literally among the best ever. AND that's assuming that Madubuike plays.
 
While we're talking too much about Roquan in my opinion, I don't think we're talking enough about Marlon. I struggle to see him back. CB is a much bigger need than most want to admit. Those INTs don't make up for the long speed being gone. I know it was the joke back in the day, but feels like his transition to SS is sooner rather than later. Still think he's got some years left but not convinced it's going to be here.
They should both be discussed. Almost simultaneously. The only reason I think Roquan is easier to move off of is because you have competent players on the roster that can fill his spot. You don't need to add anything more than a super cheap veteran filler.
If Marlon is gone, you legit only have two corners on the roster basically... Wiggins and Tampa. So either you use the Marlon $ to pay Awuzie (which I'm fine with), or you have to shop in the veteran Corner market AND likely use a day 1 or day 2 draft pick on a Corner. You just don't even have bodies there.

If it were me, I'd either cut both, or at very minimum make them both take decent paycuts, probably keep either Awuzie or Jones (or both depending on the extent of cap savings), or I'd keep one and go sign a veteran edge rusher.

My issue is I think a lot of this pushback against cutting players is rooted in the idea that, once again, we're just going to run it back. I think we're fucked if we keep Orr regardless, but if we keep him AND we just basically churn out the same group of players with some new draft picks, I don't think that'll come close to getting it done.
 
Don't think the two weeks thing is accurate. People have been saying he needed to go from Sept when it was clear he was out of shape. Amplified when he got injured. Has outstanding games that get mixed in with poor appearances.

I'm not saying it's dire straights out there from a cap perspective, but I think fans are going to find out the hard way that, absent a Lamar extension, which you don't control, FA is going to a look a lot like last year's FA looked, which is keeping players you already have on the roster (that wasn't a great roster to begin with) and shopping in the low end for veteran fillers.

That means the draft has to be literally among the best ever. AND that's assuming that Madubuike plays.
And that quieted down once the defense settled in and you realized that he wasn't the problem. He had a solid year. Not as many impactful plays as you want from a guy that is being paid as much as he is, but he's still a good player.

I agree that FA isn't going to be as open as some want, but I just don't see $7M and losing Roquan to add a mid-level pass rusher as being the difference between a SB or not.
 
And that quieted down once the defense settled in and you realized that he wasn't the problem. He had a solid year. Not as many impactful plays as you want from a guy that is being paid as much as he is, but he's still a good player.

I agree that FA isn't going to be as open as some want, but I just don't see $7M and losing Roquan to add a mid-level pass rusher as being the difference between a SB or not.

as soon as they made the trade for gilman and had kyle shift down into the box more, suddenly roquan didnt look bad anymore...

almost like there were more issues than just roquan
 
They should both be discussed. Almost simultaneously. The only reason I think Roquan is easier to move off of is because you have competent players on the roster that can fill his spot. You don't need to add anything more than a super cheap veteran filler.
If Marlon is gone, you legit only have two corners on the roster basically... Wiggins and Tampa. So either you use the Marlon $ to pay Awuzie (which I'm fine with), or you have to shop in the veteran Corner market AND likely use a day 1 or day 2 draft pick on a Corner. You just don't even have bodies there.

If it were me, I'd either cut both, or at very minimum make them both take decent paycuts, probably keep either Awuzie or Jones (or both depending on the extent of cap savings), or I'd keep one and go sign a veteran edge rusher.

My issue is I think a lot of this pushback against cutting players is rooted in the idea that, once again, we're just going to run it back. I think we're fucked if we keep Orr regardless, but if we keep him AND we just basically churn out the same group of players with some new draft picks, I don't think that'll come close to getting it done.
But... you don't have competent players to backfill. That's the whole argument here. Buchanan could be a guy that could take the next step but there's a good chance he misses the bulk of training camp and may not even be ready for the start of the season. So that leaves you with Trenton Simpson and Jay Higgins. If someone is worried about Roquan's coverage skills, they probably shouldn't watch those 2 guys.

And my thought on Marlon is that you need to add a CB anyways. It doesn't matter whether he's on or off the roster. That's a hole either way with how he performed over the totality of the season.

Neither guy is likely to take a pay cut either unless they really love being in Baltimore. They'll make what they'd be losing back in FA easily.
 
While we're talking too much about Roquan in my opinion, I don't think we're talking enough about Marlon. I struggle to see him back. CB is a much bigger need than most want to admit. Those INTs don't make up for the long speed being gone. I know it was the joke back in the day, but feels like his transition to SS is sooner rather than later. Still think he's got some years left but not convinced it's going to be here.
I was going to joke about it, but he doesn't tackle well enough to be a SS.
 
But... you don't have competent players to backfill. That's the whole argument here. Buchanan could be a guy that could take the next step but there's a good chance he misses the bulk of training camp and may not even be ready for the start of the season. So that leaves you with Trenton Simpson and Jay Higgins. If someone is worried about Roquan's coverage skills, they probably shouldn't watch those 2 guys.

And my thought on Marlon is that you need to add a CB anyways. It doesn't matter whether he's on or off the roster. That's a hole either way with how he performed over the totality of the season.

Neither guy is likely to take a pay cut either unless they really love being in Baltimore. They'll make what they'd be losing back in FA easily.

the other thing with buchanan is that last time we saw the LB crew without ro, he had the green dot and it was an absolute shitshow
his improvements were very much as the WLB
 
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But... you don't have competent players to backfill. That's the whole argument here. Buchanan could be a guy that could take the next step but there's a good chance he misses the bulk of training camp and may not even be ready for the start of the season. So that leaves you with Trenton Simpson and Jay Higgins. If someone is worried about Roquan's coverage skills, they probably shouldn't watch those 2 guys.

And my thought on Marlon is that you need to add a CB anyways. It doesn't matter whether he's on or off the roster. That's a hole either way with how he performed over the totality of the season.

Neither guy is likely to take a pay cut either unless they really love being in Baltimore. They'll make what they'd be losing back in FA easily.
So a) I don't agree that we don't have competent players to backfill. You'll take a step back at the position, but that's perfectly acceptable. No possible offseason where you improve at every position. Have to prioritize some over others.
And b) I would be highly surprised if either of those guys got $19-20M in total cash next year to play for anybody. In AAV they have a 0% chance of getting that much, and I don't think they'd get that in 1 year total comp either.
 
Is Marlo playing out of position? I think that is his biggest issue
 
I mean there's only two or three low-level cuts that add up to $7M, which is Washington + Hill, and I think those are happening regardless of Roquan's status. Outside of that, the only two restructure candidates would be Lamar and Madubuike, with the former being up in the air due to his injury.

So from my perspective, outside of a Lamar extension or restructure, I don't see any other avenues to create cap space beyond the low-level cuts that are already coming. And if that's the case, your path to roster improvement largely comes through the draft, and there's way too many holes to fill there in my opinion.
Cutting Marlon Humphrey is very possible.
 
While we're talking too much about Roquan in my opinion, I don't think we're talking enough about Marlon. I struggle to see him back. CB is a much bigger need than most want to admit. Those INTs don't make up for the long speed being gone. I know it was the joke back in the day, but feels like his transition to SS is sooner rather than later. Still think he's got some years left but not convinced it's going to be here.
If hump gets moved to SS… you all owe him an apology lol
 
I just feel like you replace the DC before you try to cut Roquan. We all know the DC sucks.
I thought Roquan was better this year than last, when he really did look slow (probably carrying an injury) even though last years defense eventually reached a level they never got close to this season.
 
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