League-Wide Sleepers on the Ravens

[rossihunter2]

Michael pierce is now my front runner to break out, yes even more than Urban, I think his performance was every bit as good as urban just he didn't hit home as often. He was incredibly disruptive, I mean tossing guys aside like rag dolls on every single snap, he made brandon williams look like a JAG. Michael pierce could become the best NT in the league this year and I think he's the designated interior rusher now as well, if he has the stamina then coaches will never be able to rotate him out.

While it would be awesome, it would also be somewhat demoralizing of sorts to know we would then have the best NT in the NFL when it wasn't the NT we just made the highest paid in the league. I am not a hater on the contract we gave Williams and it'd be a great problem to have, but makes me wonder where those funds could've been allocated elsewhere.

You could also argue that the signing of Brandon Williams allows Michael pierce to do what he does - it's a chess piece situation where with Brandon Williams at 3t, Michael piece becomes a handful - it's why I didn't entirely agree with filmstudy when he said Brandon Williams wasn't useful at 3tech because it's a jigsaw where the pieces fit together on that defensive front

But I'm just hypothesising here

 

[Jacquouille]

Michael pierce is now my front runner to break out, yes even more than Urban, I think his performance was every bit as good as urban just he didn't hit home as often. He was incredibly disruptive, I mean tossing guys aside like rag dolls on every single snap, he made brandon williams look like a JAG. Michael pierce could become the best NT in the league this year and I think he's the designated interior rusher now as well, if he has the stamina then coaches will never be able to rotate him out.

I thought this right after the game and still do. But one thing that we have to account for is that he wasn't double teamed. That was probably a result of the blitzes and the danger coming from everywher, but the fact of the matter is that Pierce was in 1 on 1 situation a lot. Nobody wanted to have to deal with him 1on1 last year, imagine now...

 

[JoeyFlex5]

While it would be awesome, it would also be somewhat demoralizing of sorts to know we would then have the best NT in the NFL when it wasn't the NT we just made the highest paid in the league. I am not a hater on the contract we gave Williams and it'd be a great problem to have, but makes me wonder where those funds could've been allocated elsewhere.

I like to look at it this way... since we get pierce for next to nothing for another 3 years, and bwill long term as well, that contract is a package deal of sorts, those 2 combined for the next 3 years is gonna make teams want to scrap the run entirely when facing us, and pierce can actually rush the passer. They're a legit duo regardless of bwills figures

 

[JoeyFlex5]

I thought this right after the game and still do. But one thing that we have to account for is that he wasn't double teamed. That was probably a result of the blitzes and the danger coming from everywher, but the fact of the matter is that Pierce was in 1 on 1 situation a lot. Nobody wanted to have to deal with him 1on1 last year, imagine now...

So imagine when they DO double team pierce, who's the beneficiary?

 

[Jacquouille]

So imagine when they DO double team pierce, who's the beneficiary?

Which they should (we saw the results Thursday and honestly we all knew single teaming Pierce is beyond stupid). I would say the first beneficiaries are the LB. All of them. OLB will get some favorable matchups to exploit, but most of all our blitzers (actually our ILB And our DBs) will come unblocked the majority of the time.

People complain about Correa not getting off blocks, but is that a worry when you have Pierce and BWill before to obliterate single teams in the running game? Which team will worry about blocking Correa when they can't even get past the DL (that's not factoring Urban/Davis/Henry penetrating and blowing up the play before it started).

Or on passing downs, every player must be accounted for by the OL except there is one who will need to be greated by 2/5 of the OL, leaving the other 3+the RB dealing with 4+ rushers (given how much man coverage we ran, 5rushers looks like a minimum).

People who say we have no superstar on our defense just need to watch Pierce.