I think this just feels different because these are usually the guys that get to FA and re-sign a month or two after the market opens. It's just weird having a GM that is much more aggressive and knows what he wants. Even at the minimum, the Andre Smith and Jordan Richards signings were a bit out of the ordinary for us. If they keep that rolling with more back end of the roster depth... it's just interesting.
andre smith to me seemed like a normal camp body type signing - we grabbed an OL with some experience just as James Hurst's suspension came out but we paid him vet minimum etc. i fully expect smith not to make the roster
jordan richards on the other hand is a special teamer who came in and was pretty effective - we're currently down anthony levine, chris moore, brynden trawick from that special teams unit and deshon elliott is coming back from injury and chuck clark is now a starter on the defence
its absolutely a trend though that EDC is aggressive and to be fair to him he's been completely honest about his desire to be aggressive and take care of our own guys and keep them in the building - if we have a guy on our roster and we like him, then EDC's going to get out in front of it and retain him
i think its pretty telling that we havent supposedly been in negotiations with pierce (or peanut since last offseason) and even no reports of contract negotiations with judon - i mean i assume we've made him some sort of offer...
it definitely helps the 'next man up' type idea if the next man up has had time with the coaching staff and scheme across multiple years
i love what EDC has done so far - my hope is that he's got 1 more miracle trade (hopefully tag and trade) before we get to the draft but either way he's had an outstanding first season as ravens GM (officially)