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Signings, Cuts, Trades
- Thread starter RavensMania
- Start date
JAAM
Hall of Famer
It’s a lot better than 2007 and 2008 lol
It's been a while and I don't expect him to make it in Baltimore. I just believe he will be much better and on par with OBJ. I don't see him going to the pro bowl.
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
Thank you, that’s the point. For as much flack AV gets in some circles, he’s graded pretty dang even with the overrated OBJ
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
Just going off of some reps I saw from him last season, I joined in on this topic less than 24 hours after watching a long montage of Steelers poor pass blocking reps, and AV had some really piss poor snaps in there, it was fresh in my mind so I gave my input lol. He was just so overmatched athletically, I never saw OBJ look as inferior athletically, at least in the past 2 years, as what I saw in some of AV’s more ugly reps. When talking grades, you have to keep in mind that the Steelers OL was pass blocking for 3 step drops and quick releases all year, they weren’t asked to hold up much in the passing game.
barring some kind of big comeback season due to new coaching/environment/playbook, I’d say we took a pretty steep downgrade.
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
You at least can’t tell me he’s a steep downgrade from what we had at RT after Brown moved over. Also remember that our system usually makes OL look better than they really are, or might be in a standard passing offense
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
Fair point, I do imagine he’s better than fluker and phillips
RL52TheGreatest
Ravens Ring of Honor
Yeah, no one should expect AV to be great here, but as long as he's better than the revolving door that we had at RT last year then we should be fine. After this year, we can switch to James and/or try to draft a replacement.
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
I do keep forgetting that we didn’t have Orlando at RT most of last year
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
That entire right side (well really C-RT) was like a toll booth last year, the kind where we have now on the Bay Bridge. As long as we have have consistent rock solid play on that side and a healthy Stanley I feel like we’re in much better shape than last year. It’s honestly a wonder how Lamar did any good at all last year with a piss poor line and mediocre receivers
redrum52
Hall of Famer
You're comparing him to OBJ. How does he compare to whoever we had lining up at RT last year?
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
To be fair, I was the dumbarse to start the comparison… my bad my dudes
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
Yeah that’s been addressed lol
i think there are 2 distinct statements you can make - AV is significantly worse than OBJ but the OL is likely to look a lot better as a whole than it did towards the end of last year when the RT spot was a literal week-to-week turnstile with Orlando playing LT
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
Absolutely not significantly worse, but aight we’ll go with it
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
“Significantly” is a strong word but tbh I’m not sure it’s the wrong word either. AV is nowhere near the player Orlando is, right now at least. He’s not consistently a liability, but man AV has ugly plays on film that you just would never see from Orlando.
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
Again, different systems and different blocking types. Steelers passed a LOT last year. Who’s to say Orlando won’t do worse in a standard offense, especially one that emphasizes the pass like the Chiefs do. And Lamar made that line look much better than it actually was
steelers also got the ball out quicker than any other team in the league last year - they weren't pass protecting for long
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
Cool
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
Steelers get rid of the ball faster than any team in nfl history. No double clutching, no moving around or scrambling, just snap - step - throw. Lamar can and will consistently extend the play, so it may not result in an increase in sacks given up, but it will almost certainly cause an increase in pressures given up compared to AV in 2020, when Lamar is flushed or forced to scramble, that’s a pressure, and where Ben was already releasing before the pressure arrived, Lamar would be rolling out, one because Lamar is able and Ben wasn’t, and two because the nature of the Steelers offense compared to ours.
again, it’s gonna be a net upgrade compared to fluker, but AV straight up didn’t look very good last year, and yeah some nick Boyle and joe D and Roman magic is likely gonna make him look better than he did in 2020, but I wouldn’t count on those factors making him look substantially better, it’s just not realistic.
things that don’t show up on even the advanced metrics are plays where AV got obliterated by his man but ultimately it had no effect on the play because it was a screen or a 1.5 second release, there’s no pressure given up to knock his grade, and that’s by design of the offense, a design VERY different to ours.
that said, I’m talking pass pro, I have not watched his run game reps, so I can’t speak on that, my biggest hope is that the pause that our scheme gives pass rushers really eases things for him and allows him to look like 20% better than last year, I could live with that, but if he just goes out there and plays like he’s a year older and the scheme doesn’t benefit him greatly then it’s not gonna be a great looking signing. We are really banking on our scheme and the fact that our RT situation was rock bottom and couldn’t get worse.