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Article Lost in Translation’s Pre-Pre-Season Outlook 2017(Knock on Wood)

Oldfaithful

Hall of Famer
I fully understand that the outlook currently looks bleak for some fans. So many injuries, to seemingly key players. I too have had my (well documented) concerns about the overall outlook for the organization. Well, here is what I think is going to happen this offseason.


Special Teams

Justin Tucker is Justin Tucker. Even if he has a down season, he will remain employed because he is a beast.

I think Tim White could potentially be a very good return man for this team. His highlights look very impressive.

Sam Koch is normally very good. So I’m not too worried about him.

Offense

Anyone who knows me personally understands that I have one belief about an NFL team. You need three minimum things to win a super bowl.

1. A franchise Quarterback

2. Strong play in the trenches

3. An identity.

Even with Flacco’s shoddy play from last season, he fits the bill as a franchise quarterback. Bearing his health (knock on all the wood). He’s won a super bowl before, and if we can give him a good situation, we will be a super bowl caliber team.

What has previously worried me about the offense is that recently we have lacked #2, and #3. If #2 changes, number three will come. Fortunately, the football gods answered my prayers about the offensive line. Austin Howard when healthy is an above average RT who is a road grader, and adequate in pass protection. With our scheme change, a better free agent could not have hit the open market. Marshall Yanda probably has another season or two before his decline, and Stanley is growing into a top left tackle in the NFL(barring a sophomore slump. Knock on wood). And honestly, if the offensive line is average, we have a top 20 offense in my opinion. If it turns out to be good, this could be a top 15 offense.


Firstly, the offensive line needs to improve in run blocking. The transition to a downhill scheme will hopefully assist with this problem. Howard is a road grader and has helped open up the right side of the line for West, Allen, and Woodhead. But Stanley is a good run blocker in his own right and knows how to get to the second level. Where our problem lies is with Ryan Jensen and Alex Lewis. Lewis is a very good pass protector, so on the left side, Flacco won’t feel too much heat(knock on wood). But he was a poor run blocker last season which worries me and makes me wish that Siragusa was readily available this season. Likewise, even though Jensen appears to be a better run blocker, PFF disagrees and states that he was better in pass protection. If both of them can improve to becoming average run blockers the offense will benefit as a whole, possibly becoming an above average unit. Some may disagree but here’s my case.


We have to assess the supporting cast this season. This supporting cast could be one of the best one’s Flacco has ever had (barring injury, knock on wood). Sure, we do not have a super star at Running Back, but West should be more than serviceable, with Allen as a quality backup option which is a nice halfway house between Woodhead and West. Woodhead is a great third down back, possibly second best in the league behind Darren Sproles. With Woodhead’s abilities alone, we might be able to convert an extra third down or two a game. While this sounds like a minimal contribution, this is a big impact in the long term. Likewise, West should be even more effective in a power scheme if the offensive line plays adequately. He was very good whenever we used him last season. Overall, even though there isn’t a star, I think we are set at running back.

Secondly, our wide receiving corps has the potential to be one of the best ones in the entire league. Jeremy Maclin is almost(I mean the Chiefs did release him) universally considered to be a quality number one option. He can effectively operate from the slot, or on the outside. He’s a great route runner, and has reliable hands, and is very good after the catch. He will likely add another third down conversion a game because of his abilities alone, which helps the team out more than most will give him credit for. Ozzie struck free agency gold when we got him. Wallace is also a threat. Besides having a rapport with Flacco, Wallace showed a willingness to go over the field last season on crossing routes where he was very effective. Teams also by default have to try to give safety help to Wallace because he still has elite speed. His presence alone combined with Flacco’s arm opens up the field. And then we come to our wild card, Breshad Perriman. If he stays healthy(knock on wood), he’s going to have a breakout year even if he drops a decent number of passes. Judging by reports from camp, and other players, he seems to have worked on his game a lot. With the strong possibility that the number one corner will not cover him on every down because of the threat the other two provide, Perriman will have plenty of mismatch opportunities that hopefully we use to our full advantage. Not to mention, all three of these wideouts are burners, and teams will have to be careful otherwise we will be able to kill teams with the deep bomb.

The wide receiving corps will especially help out the underneath passing game. In addition to Maclin being a good underneath option, Woodhead will have an open field on several check downs because of the sheer speed our Corps provided.

The offense has one more wild card: the Tight Ends. Our only proven option is coming off of a devastating knee injury. Then we have the two Tight Ends from the 2015 draft. Maxx Williams and Nick Boyle are going to have it easier, and ultimately I think both are going to get significant minutes. Both are good all around tight ends, as both are good blockers and have good hands. Both are big targets who could be monsters in the red zone. Boyle is the better route runner between the two, and Maxx is better on contested grabs and showed himself to be a better blocker last season. Truth be told: I hope Watson stays on the bench. Let these two grow. Boyle at worst is a solid player who could be a reliable threat for us. At best, he’s another Heath Miller. Whereas at worst Maxx is a better Crockett Gillmore, and at his best, he is a top ten tight end at the NFL level. Both have good floors, and good ceilings in my opinion.

Overall: I think that if the offensive line is average, the offense has the potential to be very good. However, a lot of things have to go our way, which is fine. For the most part, the offense is younger than we are used to. I have my hopes, as well as my doubts, but at the end of the day, I think we will play well enough to make the playoffs.

Defense

This is going to be the staple of the team. Ozzie has invested so much quality talented on the defense over the past three seasons, that even with the injuries I am not that worried. Let’s break it down by position group.

· Defensive line

o Here’s where we have the young guys. Williams is the only veteran here with a lot of starting experience. While this is a scary thought, Ozzie has low-key invested heavily in a plethora of young guys. Carl Davis, Bronson Kaufausi, and Chris Wormley were all third round picks from the past three drafts. Davis and Kaufusi both have very high ceilings, and Wormley has a very high floor. Likewise, we have also acquired Henry and Pierce, who has proven to be an impressive talent. Then we have solid but unspectacular role player Brett Urban, a classic jack of all trades, master of none. And we are likely to keep all of them. The scary thing about this defensive line is that several of these players are more likely to be good players than he is not. Davis and Henry are massive question marks, but I think if one of them proves themselves, then we are in really good shape on the defensive line. Ozzie, please do this more with the offensive line in the forthcoming years.

· Linebackers

o CJ Mosley is a high-level talent and has improved his game significantly since his rookie: when he was a second team all pro. Mosley is the type of player that makes the lives of everyone else around him much easier by doing both the flashy stuff and the dirty work(blowing up the offensive linemen for example to free blockers). Correa has an easy job and given that he played inside linebacker in college and is a very good athlete, I would not surprise to see him thrive in his role as the second inside linebacker. But our biggest problem last season was the pass rushing off the edge. Suggs is primed for a bounce back season given that he’s a year off of an Achilles injury and that a large part of his game is predicated around technique. Would not be surprised if he has one more season as a very good to great edge rusher. But now we get to our youth. Judon flashed as a rookie, and I fully expect him to excel off of the edge next season. With our unproven talent, we have an athletic freak in Tyus Bowser, and a mega talent in Tim Williams. Bowser is fantastic in coverage and will likely play everywhere along the linebacking corps. Sometimes at the edge, sometimes inside. I think he could be a poor man’s Jamie Collins, which would be valuable for us. Then we’ve got Tim Williams, a top 15 pick in the NFL draft if not for his off the field issues. I will maintain to this day: he was the best pure pass rusher in this draft class coming out of school. And that was in an impressive edge rushing class. Williams will receive significant playing time as a rookie(barring injury. knock on wood) where he will utterly annihilate some right tackles with his speed and ability to perfectly time the snap, and if the linemen do get their hands on him, he will use his pass rushing moves to get out of it. This is arguably our best unit on the team and the one with the most upside. Now, being deeper in the front seven has more advantages than just injuries. The defense could run a lot of rotation to prevent the defense from getting tired, which would help us close out games.

· The Secondary

o Cornerbacks- Jimmy Smith is a number one. No need to go further. Brandon Carr played well last season but is historically streaky. But this will helped out by the safeties. Marlon Humphrey is a rookie with a ton of upside, and I fully expect him to take the starting job next season at some point. He is tailor made for our defense as he excels when the ball is front of him when playing zone coverage. His training camp has also made it sound like he’s been working on his deep ball defense. If this is true, we’ve got another solid cornerback. Tavon going down was a massive blow to the team, but signing Boykin gives me a lot of hope. If Boykin returns to his pre-injury form(knock on wood), then Young’s injury isn’t as drastic short-term. Canady could also come back, and he was apparently also flash in camp. Webb will likely also rotate in at slot corner when not playing safety.

o Safeties- Weddle is elite, and acquiring Jefferson gives us another top 10 safety to pair with him. Jefferson is a tone setter and a raven at heart. Great in coverage, will knock you out if you dare to go near his zone. He helps us re-establish an identity in the secondary. But arguably our most underrated move in a very good offseason is retaining Webb, who’s a top 15 safety in his rate and capable of being a good slot corner if necessary. As a whole, the secondary is dangerous. If the pass rush performs as well as we think it is going too, we have a top 3 unit in the league.

Overall, the defense is going to be great in my opinion. With the arrival of Tim Williams, and the possible emergences of Davis/Kaufausi/Pierce/Henry/Wormley on the interior as pass rush, we should be able to generate pressure on a much more consistent basis than last season, which would, in turn, make a very good secondary’s job much easier next season.

This team still has a high ceiling this season, possibly a dark horse to win the division if everything goes according to plan. I still stand by my 9-7 prediction from earlier. Hopefully, everything goes well, and we can stay healthy.

*knock on wood*
 

Willbacker

Ravens Ring of Honor
It all depends on what type of wood. If its white oak or redwood then we good but if its soft pine then we fucked.
 

Oldfaithful

Hall of Famer
Can you post an executive summary please? lol
Executive Summary: Sign Kaepernick now. Steve is a racist.

Jk.

Executive Summary: There are a lot of unproven young members of the team but they have a lot of upside. If a decent portion of them pan out we should have a good season.
 

Tank

Hall of Famer
Executive Summary: Sign Kaepernick now. Steve is a racist.

Jk.

Executive Summary: There are a lot of unproven young members of the team but they have a lot of upside. If a decent portion of them pan out we should have a good season.

Thanks. Whole heartedly agree. There is a bunch of young talent this summer, more than I can remember the Ravens ever having in camp. For me it all hinges on the next man up at center, and of course, Flacco's health.
 
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