-
Welcome to PurpleFlock! Be sure to sign up here so that you can chat with your fellow Ravens fans.
Signings, Cuts, Trades
- Thread starter RavensMania
- Start date
Dom McRaven
Hall of Famer
It'd be one of my biggest #SIIEs ever. I'd prolly have a meltdown if we passed up on him.
definitely - if any of those top 3 WRs are there, i'd take them
drjohnnyfever
Pro Bowler
I don't disagree, but moving into the top 15 nets us as near a stud as is likely possible whatever we pick and there is a lot of opportunity there, even to move back and pick up more picks if who we covet is off the board. I think a better deal would have been keeping the 4th and just swapping our spot for theirs in the1st and 3rd... if this is even a real rumor.
The Villanueva rumor sort of put my flags up for me that there might be some draft day drama.
Taking a higher 1st round pick from anyone in the top 20 and parlaying that into additional picks in the 1st or higher in the 2nd is a WIN. Getting something for OBj knowing he wants the LT job is beneficial for the team and doing him a solid at the same time. He might be back someday with how we treated him. Of course whoever he is traded to is going to have to agree to a handsome deal for him. That's the wrench in the mix.
The Villanueva rumor sort of put my flags up for me that there might be some draft day drama.
Taking a higher 1st round pick from anyone in the top 20 and parlaying that into additional picks in the 1st or higher in the 2nd is a WIN. Getting something for OBj knowing he wants the LT job is beneficial for the team and doing him a solid at the same time. He might be back someday with how we treated him. Of course whoever he is traded to is going to have to agree to a handsome deal for him. That's the wrench in the mix.
I mean yeah - if they’re offering 33 and 65 straight up with no pick swaps then sure
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
If we traded Zeus to move from 27 to 14 and then, say, a round 3, and we landed devonta smith, ggwp, decosta just flipped a third round pick in 2018 for Devonta mf smith in 2021
I'd agree, having multiple picks for next years draft would be awesome, but I'd prefer not giving up our 27 or not having a picks swap in the first round at all. I do think there will be a trade but I don't think this is what it will be. However, in the end, it would really depend on who is available at that pick.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Agree. I think its general the season for overreactions to what are typically pretty routine offseason transactions.
I don't think for one second that Villanueva coming in for a visit is a sign that a Brown trade is imminent. I think the Ravens have been and will likely continue to be in the market for a veteran Tackle this offseason, and I fully expect them to draft one and sign one shortly after the draft. Villanueva is a slightly "sexier" name than I was expecting, but the Tackle market has also been very soft to this point, and I think we're going to see league-wide post draft that a lot of decent Tackles and players of really many positions are going to be signing short term deals with teams at very favorable prices for teams.
Over the cap has a new tool for "effective cap space", which is similar to what RSR puts out every year. There's only 12 teams in the league who have > $10M in effective cap space right now, and there's 13 that have < $5M. There isn't going to be this wild spending spree post draft. I'm sure a lot of veterans will be signed, but they're not going to be getting these $10M+ per year deals.
For Villanueva specifically... he'll be 33, his last deal wasn't even that lucrative ($6M per), he's made $5M the last two years. He was being paid as a fringe starting LT. I doubt anybody is going to pay him starting LT money in this market, and I think he'd do well to get $5M a year on the open market from anybody on a short term deal. The only "good thing" for him is he's a "young" 33, since he's only been in the league 7 years.
Tyler
Practice Squad
This guy hit the nail on the head. I re watched the playoff game against the bills a few times, It was CLEAR as day, the issues with this team in that game stemmed from the OL(center especially, not being able to snap the ball) And MORE of wide receivers not being able to catch the ball. A repeat of the divisional round against Tennessee.
Dom McRaven
Hall of Famer
Now imagine us being on the clock at 14, Smith is still on the board, you see the sign that says THE PICK IS IN and Goodell does NOT say DeVonta Smith....
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
I'd say he's half on the right track, but his examples aren't particularly good...
1. In terms of the front seven, there were no young players to offend. If I look at the 2019 front seven, there were basically no young players returning for 2020. Wormley and Pierce would have been the "young guys", and both were free agents who weren't expected to return anyway.
At linebacker, we were quite old at ILB (which everybody knew) and we obviously were making that position a priority, and OLB basically had Bowser, Judon, and Ferguson, all of which were retained and the former two played a pivotal role in our success last season.
Upgrading the defensive line was born out of both lack of major contributions from certain players, like Wormley (he got a full rookie contract essentially to prove his value) and the lack of actual bodies. Going into the 2020 offseason, our defensive line basically consisted of Brandon Williams, Justin Ellis and Daylon Mack, a fifth rounder from the prior year. So yeah, I guess we offended Mack, who didn't make the team last year anyway. Hence why we added like 5 guys between the draft and FA.
2. I could argue either side of the Oline argument. OLine was an issue because a) we lost an All-World guard to retirement, and the young guys on the roster generally didn't step up to take his place, b) Matt Skura had a devastating injury in 2019, and we weren't prepared to replace him either.
So yeah, I guess you are kind of shitting on guys like Powers and Mekari a little bit, so maybe that's fair. But that's also the reality of the NFL.
I don't think DeCosta would have said what he said if WR wasn't a constant question in every offseason since, well, basically 1996. And look, from his perspective... he'll tell you we've got a WR room that has two first round picks and two third round picks, all acquired in the last 3 years, on the roster. So I can see why he doesn't think overhauling the room is appropriate.
it's not really about what they think though - it's about the way they're going to bat for a lacklustre WR group but have no issues acknowledging and discussing getting better at OLB and OL (especially IOL) - they're not defending Pat Mekari and Tyre Phillips tooth and nail because people suggested we might want to improve the position... nor are they defending jaylon ferguson or pernell mcphee or tyus bowser because of the suggestion we might want/need reinforcements on the edge
i did find it odd that that was the tack they took at that point in the presser
the only time i remember them ever saying something similar was much more jovial but was when owen daniels was constantly being talked about as a poor blocker when we brought him in and they sort of took umbrage with that
the problem is not who they actually pick, it's just how they defended different position groups from questioning differently - not really a problem tbh - it's lying season and that clip is now being discussed and dissected on multiple networks already...
Pretty much entirely agree. A little bit of a correction, but no big deal, is that Wormley would have returned in 2020 had he not been traded to the Steelers. He would have been a free agent this offseason.
I thought Powers did a decent job but nothing to keep him from being replaced. I still feel that OL was the biggest impediment to the team last year. Give Lamar more time in the pocket to go through his reads and we see we see a better passing offense. Maybe not great, but more like 2019.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Right, and I think its because DeCosta is tired of being questioned about when this team will "invest" in WR. I think the investment in the draft is about as much as anybody could ask for in the last few years, but its not paying off yet.
I don't think he has an issue with people asking "why aren't you addressing X position" this year, because its not like the Ravens, historically, deemphasize the Oline or the Dline/Linebacker groups. Some would argue there is too much emphasis on the latter historically, and as a result, positions like WR have suffered.
Tyler
Practice Squad
You’re not wrong and make a lot of solid points, but No one is really saying the Ravens need to “overhaul” the WR room, but an upgrade is definitely needed, or there will be more of the same. Hollywood is a LEGIT weapon. He has proven that he belongs. Can Watkins stay healthy? Can he produce a season like he did in Buffalo? Remains to be seen. If the ravens were so confident in their pass catchers, EDC wouldn’t have been so aggressive in trying to trade for Nuk last year, while trying to sign guys like Juju this year. We also need to factor in that it is smokescreen season until the draft is over. I’m sure the ravens are very high on some wide receivers and don’t want to show their hand.
or sign Villanueva as a WR after the draft. i mean he did play some WR in college.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Well, couple things the way I see it...
1. Its an overhaul essentially any way you look at it. From the media (and most fans) perspective, coming into this offseason, it was Hollywood + a bunch of back end roster guys, essentially. Dez and Snead obviously aren't guys you want catching a lot of balls and were never going to be back, nobody has confidence in Boykin as anything but a back-end roster player, and Duvernay, while perhaps liked by a lot of fans, seems pretty raw and may only carve out a ST role long term, though I think we'd all like to see them get more opportunities.
If your offseason basically revolves around a) signing a veteran FA WR of somewhat significance (many fans wanted us to go "all out" on this one) AND b) drafting a WR early in the draft, then pretty much by any standard, you're overhauling the room. You're adding 2 or 3, minimum heads, to the room, and you'd expect all of them to play over the guys already on the roster, with the exception of Brown.
2. I agree they tried to trade for Hopkins... last year. That's because last years WR room was almost unarguably worse than this one, especially going into the offseason. There was no Duvernay, there was no Dez, there was no Proche. It was Hollywood, coming off a rookie season where he missed a good bit of time and was clearly injured, Boykin, and Snead. And when they didn't land Hopkins, they drafted two players.
Whether they tried to sign JuJu or not really doesn't do much for me, because he's not that much of an upgrade over Watkins in my eyes, and he wouldn't have been the "alpha" WR in the group anyway. I think signing JuJu still would have made a lot of people desire to draft a WR early, especially if it was a short-term deal (which it almost certainly would have been).
Without knowing for certain what's going on in Eric's head (pretty much nobody does), I think that he doesn't view WR as nearly as big of a need as the fanbase does. I think the fact that he did go after guys like JuJu, Hilton and Watkins shows that it's a "need", but its not a dire situation in his mind. I think Eric would have zero reservations whatsoever entering the season with the WR group we currently have + maybe a mid-round selection. I don't think he views it as critical we take a WR in the first, second, or even third round. If he thought we were in that dire of a position, I think he would have done more than land Watkins and I think he would have tried a lot harder to land other players.
If they take a WR in the first, it won't surprise me at all. If they don't take one until day 3, that wouldn't surprise me either. I could see the logic behind both choices.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Wouldn't surprise me. Its hard to justify throwing in the towel on one third rounder after just one season, and another after just two years. If we're just going to throw in the towel on these guys after 2 years, then there's no point in drafting another one this year either. No guarantee any first round pick we take will be worth a shit (see Perriman), and if we're only going to give them like 12 months to shine, its a wasted pick.