The Random Thought Thread

[UPennChem]

Only the Ravens could select Hollywood Brown, Miles Boykin, Rashod Bateman, Devin Duvernay, Tylan Wallace, and James Proche and miss on every one them.

I know Hollywood wasn't a bad player in fact he was good by he didn't even make it his rookie contract here.

Boykin, Proche, and Wallace are textbook busts.

Duv is a returner/gadget guy which is not a bust but far from what you'd want from a 3rd rounder.

Bateman looks like the real deal but he's getting the JK Dobbins treatment of you'll basically miss your whole rookie contract to injury.

 

[Ellicottraven]

Only the Ravens could select Hollywood Brown, Miles Boykin, Rashod Bateman, Devin Duvernay, Tylan Wallace, and James Proche and miss on every one them.

I know Hollywood wasn't a bad player in fact he was good by he didn't even make it his rookie contract here.

Boykin, Proche, and Wallace are textbook busts.

Duv is a returner/gadget guy which is not a bust but far from what you'd want from a 3rd rounder.

Bateman looks like the real deal but he's getting the JK Dobbins treatment of you'll basically miss your whole rookie contract to injury.

The jury is still out on Bateman and Hollywood. I think Duvernay isn't a bust considering he was a 3rd round pick and is a probowl returner of both kicks and punts. He is also a serviceable 3rd receiver. As for the rest, they are certified busts.

 

[cdp]

Only the Ravens could select Hollywood Brown, Miles Boykin, Rashod Bateman, Devin Duvernay, Tylan Wallace, and James Proche and miss on every one them.

I know Hollywood wasn't a bad player in fact he was good by he didn't even make it his rookie contract here.

Boykin, Proche, and Wallace are textbook busts.

Duv is a returner/gadget guy which is not a bust but far from what you'd want from a 3rd rounder.

Bateman looks like the real deal but he's getting the JK Dobbins treatment of you'll basically miss your whole rookie contract to injury.

Hollywood's a hit in my books. Sure, we could've drafted someone else in this particular draft - and would've landed probably an even better wr. But he made plays and opened up our offense.

Duv is as advertised. We might have overdrafted him though.

Wallace's game didn't translate to the NFL like many analysts said in the pre draft process.

Proche's a 6th rounder. You can't really expect much to begin with...

Boykin was trash and EDC spent too much draft capital which makes this pick even worse.

All in all EDC took more swings at the position than Ozzie did in the past. But imho he missed the right point in time to take those swings.

 

[Militant X 1]

I'm probably done now because it's just going to go in circles because he sees the logical route (and normally I'd agree), but it's ignoring the reality of the game.

And just so everyone is clear- no one is suggesting to run every single play and forego the pass, but we are suggesting running once with 14:54 left in the game was not conducive to a win with how Huntley played. And hey, it wasn't!

Let me jump into this mix. To me, there is no way you can or should expect Huntley (the backup QB....remember?) to go out there against the Browns last week and toss the rock 30x to this core of less talented and non-game-changing cadre of receivers and really believe or expect that he or they would all of a sudden unleash a lethal aerial attack to move the chains quickly down the field. There was nothing that they did earlier in the game that would remotely suggest that would happen. However, the data on the running game said otherwise. And to me, while running the ball was no guarantee that the Ravens would win the game, statistically (if you are into that type of stuff) it was the better option to attempt some form of a comeback to win the game. The Ravens were only down 10 pts. Manageable, not astronomical.

 

[Simba]

I know he was the preseason whipping boy, but this is a great story

 

[redrum52]

we

Thanks for taking over. You a real one bro.

Glad everyone else sees how asinine his thought process is on this one.

I can't count the amount of times I've wanted to respond to someone just to say fuck it and see him say EXACTLY what I was too lazy to type out. He's a goddam hero.

 

[RavensMania]

We should stop drafting from SMU, PSU, and Michigan

Why???? Because Ojabo didn't have a sack on his only play. Wormley has done pretty well, although not for us.

 

[RavensMania]

On the first drive, with 11 minutes left, yes, yes they are. If you're playing sideline coverage that early, you'll give up 15-20 yard plays down the middle.
On the second drive, after we've done our nice cute little 8 minute drive and gotten the ball back with 60 seconds left and no timeouts, then yeah, they'll play sideline coverage.
And then I'll get to listen to "archaic" fans suggest we should run the ball more in the 2 minute drill, trailing, too.

What a time to be alive.

with 11 minutes left, we had plenty of time to run the ball.

 

[QtR Nevermore]

lol wut? "an injured Lamar"? Don't think his injury was that serious, and they won't bring him back in unless he's ready.

The offense(Romanball as you call it) has been in place to take advantage of Lamar's strengths which all pretty much involve running the ball, or the threat to run the ball, that threat opening up the pass. At this point I don't think anyone would have any thoughts of Lamar and the offense thriving in a more progressive, pass first scheme no matter the WR personnel involved. While there have been fleeting signs of improvement at times over last 3 years, passing the ball consistently well never was, and probably never will be a strength of his.

I agree that it is time for a change, but thinking that's going to happen now is delusional. We have what we have and who we have and that is what we will roll with this season. Better to hope for success than to complain and cry. If they fail they'll be plenty of time in the off season to do that and ruminate over needed changes.

My point about an injured Lamar was that he's unlikely to be 100%. The RBs are back, so why call on Lamar in particular to run defenses into good passing looks?

There are options between Roman and a pass heavy system. The Eagles and Bears both have OCs with no experience of running QBs who transitioned mid-season. I never understood the notion that he was uniquely able to call QB runs.

Maybe Lamar can be a better and more consistent passer away from the very worst passing system in the NFL throwing to the worst WRs in the NFL? (I think the group has ranked between 29 and 32 every year.) Maybe not, but it's long past time we found out.

If hoping for the most successful season possible came without a cost, I'd be all for it, however, going into this season, my #2 hope (after a Lamar contract) was that it would be Roman's last. Now I'm hoping it's Harbaugh's last too. So on Wednesday, I don't want us to make the playoffs. On Saturday, once the game starts, then I'll start wanting a Ravens win.

 

[rossihunter2]

Only the Ravens could select Hollywood Brown, Miles Boykin, Rashod Bateman, Devin Duvernay, Tylan Wallace, and James Proche and miss on every one them.

I know Hollywood wasn't a bad player in fact he was good by he didn't even make it his rookie contract here.

Boykin, Proche, and Wallace are textbook busts.

Duv is a returner/gadget guy which is not a bust but far from what you'd want from a 3rd rounder.

Bateman looks like the real deal but he's getting the JK Dobbins treatment of you'll basically miss your whole rookie contract to injury.

gonna quibble with the term "miss" here
also with the word "bust"

hollywood wasn't a miss just because he's not still here
and day 3 picks don't "bust"

the general point is fine though - our luck at WR hasnt really changed despite expending more capital at the position than we had previously

we need to either pay for vets or we need to continue to draft WRs in day 1 and 2 basically every year (like the steelers did for years and still do) - we've been fine in R1 at WR with our 2 picks there but we've sucked in all rounds after that

some self-evaluation on why we're missing in day 2 on WR picks is probably a little bit important right about now

 

[UPennChem]

Why???? Because Ojabo didn't have a sack on his only play. Wormley has done pretty well, although not for us.

What do you mean? Ojabo we can't comment on at all because he hasn't played meaningfully yet. So putting him aside entirely, all of our Michigan picks have been awful recently.

In the last 7 drafts we've picked 5 Michigan players.

Ben Bredeson, Willie Henry, Chris Wormley, Ben Mason, and Ojabo. Again putting Ojabo aside, we got not a single full rookie contract out of any of those Michigan guys.

 

[Tank]

gonna quibble with the term "miss" here
also with the word "bust"

hollywood wasn't a miss just because he's not still here
and day 3 picks don't "bust"

the general point is fine though - our luck at WR hasnt really changed despite expending more capital at the position than we had previously

we need to either pay for vets or we need to continue to draft WRs in day 1 and 2 basically every year (like the steelers did for years and still do) - we've been fine in R1 at WR with our 2 picks there but we've sucked in all rounds after that

some self-evaluation on why we're missing in day 2 on WR picks is probably a little bit important right about now

Thinking about this, going back 25 years the Ravens have only had any sort of Day 1 wide receiver success with a couple of guys, Torrey Smith and Hollywood. Travis Taylor and Mark Clayton were briefly OK, but nothing spectacular. Kinda crazy when you think about it.

 

[rossihunter2]

Thinking about this, going back 25 years the Ravens have only had any sort of Day 1 wide receiver success with a couple of guys, Torrey Smith and Hollywood. Travis Taylor and Mark Clayton were briefly OK, but nothing spectacular. Kinda crazy when you think about it.

before the 2019 draft i did a bunch of data gatherings about how often we picked WRs with high picks, how often they panned out etc.

for the first nearly 25 years of our organisation's existence, we just didnt buy enough lottery tickets to get any chance of a return at that position - we finally took some swings and suddenly we got Hollywood and then Bateman - still no superstars per se and still not hits outside of R1 but certainly progress

before that Torrey Smith was easily the best WR we'd ever drafted - and is still easily the best WR we've ever drafted outside of R1 (and there's basically no other contenders)

the first (good) self-evaluation this organisation made at this position was that we didnt take enough swings at the position
the next self-evaluation it needs to take relates to figuring out why it's consistently failing outside of R1 at the position - is it solely luck or are they not focussing on the right traits or combination of traits in non-day 1 prospects

 

[RavensMania]

What do you mean? Ojabo we can't comment on at all because he hasn't played meaningfully yet. So putting him aside entirely, all of our Michigan picks have been awful recently.

In the last 7 drafts we've picked 5 Michigan players.

Ben Bredeson, Willie Henry, Chris Wormley, Ben Mason, and Ojabo. Again putting Ojabo aside, we got not a single full rookie contract out of any of those Michigan guys.

no we haven't done well with our Michigan guys, but it's not like we expected that out of Ojabo. Ojabo was all about potential, since he was a top 10 to 15 guy in this draft class. We were lucky he fell to us and I don't care he went to michigan or not.

 

[QtR Nevermore]

Torrey was a Day 2 player, wasn't he?

One reason why the Ravens struggle when drafting WRs is that they like to draft receivers with the running game in mind - fast guys who can clear out bodies from the box, or blockers like Boykin.

With later picks they often look to double up and get someone with return ability.

The passing game has never been the Ravens' friend and they often don't like to fully commit to it, even when drafting receivers. Maybe that's why they like TEs so much?

 

[Tank]

Torrey was a Day 2 player, wasn't he?

One reason why the Ravens struggle when drafting WRs is that they like to draft receivers with the running game in mind - fast guys who can clear out bodies from the box, or blockers like Boykin.

With later picks they often look to double up and get someone with return ability.

The passing game has never been the Ravens' friend and they often don't like to fully commit to it, even when drafting receivers. Maybe that's why they like TEs so much?

right, Torrey was a 2nd round pick.

Looking at Hollywood(has he ever thrown a block? lol) and Bateman I think the philosophy somewhat changed and they've made attempts to upgrade at WR, certainly the biggest effort they've ever made. I agree the TE love stems from the propensity to be a run first offense.

 

[Michael M.]

Only the Ravens could select Hollywood Brown, Miles Boykin, Rashod Bateman, Devin Duvernay, Tylan Wallace, and James Proche and miss on every one them.

I know Hollywood wasn't a bad player in fact he was good by he didn't even make it his rookie contract here.

Boykin, Proche, and Wallace are textbook busts.

Duv is a returner/gadget guy which is not a bust but far from what you'd want from a 3rd rounder.

Bateman looks like the real deal but he's getting the JK Dobbins treatment of you'll basically miss your whole rookie contract to injury.

Which is why if you're going to only rely on one guy, he can't be that guy-too many injuries

 

[JAAM]

Can we just stop drafting WRs and spend on them in free agency instead lol. I’m tired of being let down

 

[marklar]

Torrey was a Day 2 player, wasn't he?

One reason why the Ravens struggle when drafting WRs is that they like to draft receivers with the running game in mind - fast guys who can clear out bodies from the box, or blockers like Boykin.

With later picks they often look to double up and get someone with return ability.

The passing game has never been the Ravens' friend and they often don't like to fully commit to it, even when drafting receivers. Maybe that's why they like TEs so much?

I don't know if I agree that they draft a specific type. Looking at the list of recent WRs: Hollywood, Bateman, Boykin, Wallace, Duvernay, Proche - they all seem to be different types of receivers. I can't really say what the reason are that they miss so often; it either has to be that they are bad at developing them, or that they are incredibly unlucky.

 

[QtR Nevermore]

I don't know if I agree that they draft a specific type. Looking at the list of recent WRs: Hollywood, Bateman, Boykin, Wallace, Duvernay, Proche - they all seem to be different types of receivers. I can't really say what the reason are that they miss so often; it either has to be that they are bad at developing them, or that they are incredibly unlucky.

In my theory Hollywood is a clear out guy, there to run safeties out of the box, Boykin was a blocker, Proche and Duvernay were both used as returners (Duv was also intended to clear defenders out). Bateman and Wallace are exceptions, drafted for the passing game only.