Signings, Cuts, Trades

[RavensMania]

That's nice, but was it $$ that led to his release? He only played last year if I'm not mistaken.

he sat out in 2020 due to the Covid year and yes he was a free agent and signed a 3 yr 27m contract with the Vikings. We didn't release him, he was a free agent. This year he was cut because of cap issues and I'm sure availability was part of the reason of his release as well.

 

[Davesta]

We getting stingley

Sign Z and Tyrann.

Stingley with the first.

Travis Jones with the 2nd.

(matt araiza with the 6th)

Sorry Lamar. This Baltimore.

 

[Davesta]

Wow I'm a fucking idiot

Looky here..

At least you’re not alone.

 

[BloodRaven]

getting a good right tackle and moving Mekari to swing tackle would be an improvement in two positions. Mekari can also play the other positions on the line, so everything gets better with a good right tackle.

Morgan Moses?

Shoring up the OL gives us some draft flexibility and teams looking for tackles won't be trying to jump ahead of us

 

[Davesta]

Is Marcus Williams out of our price range?

 

[rossihunter2]

I totally get what you’re saying, BUT I’m more of the mindset that we do something to shore up as many weak spots as we can and make a really strong signing at one of them, so we can spend the first 2 days just taking the most impactful players possible.

There’s a pretty strong chance that we have a lot of starters come out of rounds 2-5 in this class on the OL, if we have evaluated well then I think we got a good shot to find a starter at an OL spot on that range

certainly if we're happy to develop and maybe not play them year 1, there are some interesting developmental guys who could be ready week 1 but more likely will take some time and it's about whether we can be patient enough

 

[rossihunter2]

Is Marcus Williams out of our price range?

i dont think anyone's really out of our price range this year - but obviously the bigger we spend at one position on one player the less easy it is to finesse the cap to sign other guys

 

[rossihunter2]

Morgan Moses?

Shoring up the OL gives us some draft flexibility and teams looking for tackles won't be trying to jump ahead of us

moses would make a ton of sense

trent brown too

 

[JoeyFlex5]

FA is so damn frustrating as a Ravens fan smh.. time to take a million dabs so I stop refreshing Ravens sites and pass out lol

 

[rmcjacket23]

You're definitely right on talent evaluation. That is absolutely a problem. I can't fault the team for Ronnie Stanley getting hurt, Dennis Pitta blowing out a hip (unless you restructure the guy after he did, not an ideal restructure dude IMHO), Ray Rice punching his wife/fiancee/girlfriend/whatever, etc. I do think you have to wonder about missed draft picks for a few years, over-valuing your own guys because you failed to prepare for actual replacements, or other moves of those. I think DeCosta has done better in that area, extending guys earlier to get them cheaper.
The budget moves part is kind of like this. I know where you're going with your point, but if you have $20 and you decide to spend $15 on some budget stuff that will get you through the year but you know in a year you will need to replace it because it's a bandaid, and you COULD get something quality maybe at $25 but it would stretch you some but it is more quality, what do you do? I go for the quality. I don't like spending my money on junk that will break in a year because my ROI will be worse. I will end up buying higher because of inflation, etc. So give me the better quality stuff that lasts longer than cheap Walmart moves. Those cheap budget deals add up.
I don't care about the fanbase. I mean, they are important but the Ravens have a business to run and nothing gets fans to buy in to things they question like success.
Some weaknesses can be accepted, these are known as accepted risks. Some weaknesses must be addressed. For example, if I have a house with no windows, that is a weakness and a risk. Someone may go steal my shit. If I don't put windows on my house, that is a likely risk. Now, I may also have a roof that has a leak. Is that a risk? Yep, sure is, but maybe I live in some dry ass area and the likelihood of rain is low. Maybe I can make due with a bucket.
Bottom-line is there's not infinite money and there is a cap limit. Sometimes, you have to say you accept the risk and just build around it to mitigate it.

I think the problem with the $15 vs $25 comparison is you're not getting just one item for the $15... you're getting many. For $25, its usually getting you just one item.

That's how we've historically viewed FA. The quality items we view as things coming from the draft, and obviously at much cheaper prices. The things we buy for retail we're using coupons for, because we don't trust that the high quality items are going to be quality for very long here.

And for what its worth, there ain't much on the market right now, even in FA, where if we signed a "quality" player, everybody would be like "yeah, I know this guy's going to be good for awhile". That includes guys like Mathieu, LaEl Collins, and others we've been clamoring for. The no brainer studs either never hit the market, or they cost $40-50, not $25.

FA certainly isn't this place where everything is quality. A lot of it USED TO BE quality.

 

[rmcjacket23]

The 3 guys competing for LG are average, thats why I prefer they not be a starter at the position. I hope Stanley returns full strength but thats not a given. and based on the Mekari contract, that tells me they're not paying him to be a starting RT. I realize everyone is high on Stingley at 14, but if Jackson is your best player, maybe you want to keep him on the field as long as possible so you don't need to rely on a player like Stingley

You're not getting five studs on the Oline. Having one average Guard is completely fine.

 

[rmcjacket23]

All I know is that O-line was a nightmare and Stanley remains somewhat of a question. Can't have a repeat of last year.

I think everybody knows that, including the Ravens.

They also know we're completed about 18 hours of FA at this point. The pond isn't empty.

 

[Grim]

I think the problem with the $15 vs $25 comparison is you're not getting just one item for the $15... you're getting many. For $25, its usually getting you just one item.

That's how we've historically viewed FA. The quality items we view as things coming from the draft, and obviously at much cheaper prices. The things we buy for retail we're using coupons for, because we don't trust that the high quality items are going to be quality for very long here.

And for what its worth, there ain't much on the market right now, even in FA, where if we signed a "quality" player, everybody would be like "yeah, I know this guy's going to be good for awhile". That includes guys like Mathieu, LaEl Collins, and others we've been clamoring for. The no brainer studs either never hit the market, or they cost $40-50, not $25.

FA certainly isn't this place where everything is quality. A lot of it USED TO BE quality.

Yeah, I don’t disagree on free agency. My point is the same for trades and also for our own guys like Jensen or Smith/Judon. I actually didn’t want Judon back tbh but I did want Smith and especially Jensen back. Granted, you can’t bring everyone back that is true but the Ravens should know how to forecast their cap scenario better than us fans. I think with that they could have brought back Jensen without a doubt. They had to know Yanda wouldn’t play forever and it would only be Stanley and Yanda commanding big coin at that time. With how hard we’ve worked to replace Birk, it felt stupid to let Jensen go.

 

[Michael M.]

You're not getting five studs on the Oline. Having one average Guard is completely fine.

The Ravens never have 5 studs on the Oline. Say they get Moses in FA. Also say they have TCC or possibly Mekari at center, Philips at LG and Stanley reinjures. So now Mekari is probably back at RT, and Moses at LT, not even sure if he is a swing. I don't see that as a fixed Oline. That's a rearranging the chairs on the titanic style Oline and will net the same results. But in reality thats probably what they"ll do. I don't think you can blame last yrs bad Oline strictly on AV.

 

[Dom McRaven]

Looky here..

At least you’re not alone.

View attachment 3192

Disgraceful...

 

[RavensMania]

Morgan Moses?

Shoring up the OL gives us some draft flexibility and teams looking for tackles won't be trying to jump ahead of us

yes, I'd really like to see Morgan Moses as a Raven. I followed during the draft process and during his career with the Skins. Getting him would be great.

 

[JO_75]

Browns meeting with Deshaun Watson, he met with officials from the Saints & Panthers yesterday.

 

[rmcjacket23]

Yeah, I don’t disagree on free agency. My point is the same for trades and also for our own guys like Jensen or Smith/Judon. I actually didn’t want Judon back tbh but I did want Smith and especially Jensen back. Granted, you can’t bring everyone back that is true but the Ravens should know how to forecast their cap scenario better than us fans. I think with that they could have brought back Jensen without a doubt. They had to know Yanda wouldn’t play forever and it would only be Stanley and Yanda commanding big coin at that time. With how hard we’ve worked to replace Birk, it felt stupid to let Jensen go.

Well lets clear up two things:
1. This was back in 2018 when Jensen left. It wasn't like last year or anything. Stanley was only going into this 3rd year, so his contract wasn't a concern.
2. I referenced this article from back in 2018, which basically explained the Ravens cap situation. Long story short... it wasn't good... far worse than even this year or what we've seen in recent years.

Draft Grab Bag - Don't Expect Team to Move Up, Nor Draft QB of the Future

This Ravens 2018 salary cap preview describes a team that will once again be challenged by cap constraints that will force difficult roster decisions.

russellstreetreport.com

Flacco was counting a bunch still, we hadn't even drafted Lamar yet, and ironically, part of the reason we had cap problems was because we had restructured a bunch of contracts in prior years and they had obviously accumulated a significant amount of future cap impact, which was coming into play in 2018.
If you read the article, one of the key issues is that there really weren't any contracts that could have been restructured in order to afford to pay Jensen. The only guy who really had substantial cap $ to push down the line was Flacco, and I don't think anybody on this planet thought it was a good idea to defer more dead money into future years on his deal in 2018. Jensen wasn't anywhere close to worth that.

So mathematically, I have plenty of doubts of them keeping Jensen when they had the opportunity to do it.

 

[rossihunter2]

hopefully this affects their decision-making at 13...
we can only hope lol

im looking for any evidence that helps one of the top EDGE or CB prospects fall to us

 

[rmcjacket23]

The Ravens never have 5 studs on the Oline. Say they get Moses in FA. Also say they have TCC or possibly Mekari at center, Philips at LG and Stanley reinjures. So now Mekari is probably back at RT, and Moses at LT, not even sure if he is a swing. I don't see that as a fixed Oline. That's a rearranging the chairs on the titanic style Oline and will net the same results. But in reality thats probably what they"ll do. I don't think you can blame last yrs bad Oline strictly on AV.

1. TCC and Mekari aren't going to be the only options at Center. A FA or a drafted player will compete there. I'm not convinced Mekari is even an option at Center at the moment.
2. If I have a Tackle room of Moses, Mekari, Stanley, and JuWuan James, I'm feeling pretty good about it. Pretty much every team in the league would. Even if I take a first round tackle, there's no guarantee they'd be better or worse than literally any of those guys.
If I have a line that has Stanley, any of those other three tackles, Zeitler, and a new Center, I'm fine with anybody that plays LG. I don't know if you guys recall, but in 2019 and 2020, we were pretty good, and in neither of those years did we have stud Guard play at both spots.

I'm emphasizing Tackle and Center. We've drafted three guys in the last three years who can play Guard, and one of them is going to have to do it. We don't have the resources to add three new starters on the Oline, all in FA, and still rebuild an aging defense that needs playmakers at every level.

If the concern is we can't replace Stanley if we need to, then you're right, we can't. He's an All-Pro LT who was the 6th pick in the draft. We earned that pick, and we don't have it this year. We can't afford to spend LT money in FA for a guy who may never play LT, and there's no guarantee any Tackle we take in this draft can play LT at even an average level in year 1. I'd call it extremely unlikely, even with the 14th pick.

We need to improve the starter on the right side, and add depth there. That's the mission of the offseason on the Oline.