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The 2022 Offseason Thread

rmcjacket23

rmcjacket23

Ravens Ring of Honor
jboy19 said:
I'm not convinced they have 4 RBs for Week 1. I wouldn't be surprised to see Dobbins and/or Edwards start the season on PUP.
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Well Davis is purely insurance at this point. I don't think his roster spot is anywhere close to being guaranteed.
PUP would be a possibility but in order for PUP to occur, they can't have practiced at all during the preseason. That's possible, but I would suspect they'd be far enough along by then to at least be practicing, being pretty much 12 months removed for both.
 
Simba

Simba

Staff Member
Moderator
rmcjacket23 said:
Right, and like I mentioned, I think Stanley's return is kind of the catalyst there. If Stanley participates in little or none of the offseason program, I'm assuming Mekari is the default backup LT, and therefore would take the bulk of the snaps there, with him taking some backup snaps at C. I just don't see him as a LG option unless he actually a) plays a lot of snaps in the preseason there and actually competes and b) Stanley is back taking practice reps as soon as like August.

I think, until I see otherwise, Mekari is at least a three position backup, and maybe a five position backup, but probably won't get the reps to actually compete to start at LG.

If I'm wrong, it'll be because like they want to try Moses at LT.

Plus, the competition at Guard is super deep. You've got like 3 other guys not named Mekari who I could easily see starting there and wouldn't be surprised by it.
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rossihunter2 said:
for what it's worth - it looks like jawuan james has been the 1st team LT in practices so far - mekari has been subbing in as the 2nd team C and 2nd team LT

even so - notably not at LG
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Just along with this, Mekari could be the "surprise" LG backup plan come week 1. We've seen time and time again that sometimes the reps don't matter as we get toward opening day. We've seen Phillips start there despite not practicing or playing there really at all. So while it's still probably a good sign that Mekari seems entrenched as C2 and backup everywhere else, I wouldn't necessarily count him out because we know they can surprise us.

For what it's worth, if it were up to me...

Stanley - Phillips - Linderbaum - Zeitler - Moses
James - Mekari - Cleveland - Faalele

Cut Colon and Powers and hope Colon can sneak through waivers.
 
rossihunter2

rossihunter2

Staff Member
Moderator
Simba said:
Just along with this, Mekari could be the "surprise" LG backup plan come week 1. We've seen time and time again that sometimes the reps don't matter as we get toward opening day. We've seen Phillips start there despite not practicing or playing there really at all. So while it's still probably a good sign that Mekari seems entrenched as C2 and backup everywhere else, I wouldn't necessarily count him out because we know they can surprise us.

For what it's worth, if it were up to me...

Stanley - Phillips - Linderbaum - Zeitler - Moses
James - Mekari - Cleveland - Faalele

Cut Colon and Powers and hope Colon can sneak through waivers.
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the other benefit to having confidence in Mekari at LG is that it means you can "pump and dump" powers like we did with eluemunor a few years ago - play him a load in preseason and let him beat up on some 2nd team DL and see if you can't get a pick back for him
 
RavensMania

RavensMania

Staff Member
Administrator
rmcjacket23 said:
Biggest "problem" per say with Mekari is that nobody seems to know when we'll see Stanely in pads and practicing. If that's not in July/August, which it might not be, I would suspect that Mekari is the current favorite to start at LT. Don't know for sure, but Moses starting at LT seems unlikely, and Faalele can't possibly be ready for that.

So if nothing else, Mekari would seem to default have to be the guy who "works" at LT the most in the offseason. As such, and possibly unfortunately for him, I can't see him getting enough reps at LG to be in that hunt for the starting job.
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Moses did pretty well playing LT in a pinch for the Skins. He played and did well in 2 games at LT in 2020, so I wouldn't count him out at LT and have Mekari at right tackle to start the season. That being said James has been practicing with the 1st team at LT so far.
 
RavensMania

RavensMania

Staff Member
Administrator
rmcjacket23 said:
Well Davis is purely insurance at this point. I don't think his roster spot is anywhere close to being guaranteed.
PUP would be a possibility but in order for PUP to occur, they can't have practiced at all during the preseason. That's possible, but I would suspect they'd be far enough along by then to at least be practicing, being pretty much 12 months removed for both.
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they cant practice during training camp either for PUP to occur. It's not just preseason, unless I missed a rule change.
 
Simba

Simba

Staff Member
Moderator
We're also all leaving out Jaryd Jones-Smith right now. Multiple reporters said he looked impressive in camp and Harbaugh went out of his way to mention him at some point as well. I've seen some of those early 53 man projections start to inch him more in the bubble. Still would be surprised if he's not on the outside looking in, but a younger option than James if we wanted to go that direction.
 
J

jboy19

Pro Bowler
Simba said:
We're also all leaving out Jaryd Jones-Smith right now. Multiple reporters said he looked impressive in camp and Harbaugh went out of his way to mention him at some point as well. I've seen some of those early 53 man projections start to inch him more in the bubble. Still would be surprised if he's not on the outside looking in, but a younger option than James if we wanted to go that direction.
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This gives off big Adrian Ealy energy
 
rossihunter2

rossihunter2

Staff Member
Moderator
Simba said:
We're also all leaving out Jaryd Jones-Smith right now. Multiple reporters said he looked impressive in camp and Harbaugh went out of his way to mention him at some point as well. I've seen some of those early 53 man projections start to inch him more in the bubble. Still would be surprised if he's not on the outside looking in, but a younger option than James if we wanted to go that direction.
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for sure worth noting that harbs name-checked him specifically - and definitely worth noting also that he was LT while Mekari was C with the 2nd team OL but... hard to figure he would make the roster without injuries or there being some sort of massive upset with the depth chart (which can happen for sure but seems unlikely given the investment we've put into tackle this offseason)
 
A

Adreme

Ravens Ring of Honor
Simba said:
We're also all leaving out Jaryd Jones-Smith right now. Multiple reporters said he looked impressive in camp and Harbaugh went out of his way to mention him at some point as well. I've seen some of those early 53 man projections start to inch him more in the bubble. Still would be surprised if he's not on the outside looking in, but a younger option than James if we wanted to go that direction.
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I mean that feels more like a "hey this guy is pretty good... other teams you wanna throw a 6th or a 7th to get our prospect... he is pretty good and would be good depth". Coaches do it so frequently I have largely become numb to listening to coaches talk about players before the games start.
 
JoeyFlex5

JoeyFlex5

Hall of Famer
Simba said:
We're also all leaving out Jaryd Jones-Smith right now. Multiple reporters said he looked impressive in camp and Harbaugh went out of his way to mention him at some point as well. I've seen some of those early 53 man projections start to inch him more in the bubble. Still would be surprised if he's not on the outside looking in, but a younger option than James if we wanted to go that direction.
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Was he the one that started at RT against the Steelers in week 18?
 
UPennChem

UPennChem

Hall of Famer
The more I think about it, the more I think we're going to start the year with 4 WRs. I think we'll go heavy at some other positions and see how things are going. If we need to make moves we will but we'll likely have a ton of guys on the PS for call ups or what not.

Obviously wouldn't be surprised in the slightest to see a vet added, but it's not inconceivable that we go 4 to start. Especially with 4 RBs and 4TEs
 
D

Deebo813

Hall of Famer
UPennChem said:
The more I think about it, the more I think we're going to start the year with 4 WRs. I think we'll go heavy at some other positions and see how things are going. If we need to make moves we will but we'll likely have a ton of guys on the PS for call ups or what not.

Obviously wouldn't be surprised in the slightest to see a vet added, but it's not inconceivable that we go 4 to start. Especially with 4 RBs and 4TEs
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i dnt wanna see these run heavy schemes with 1 wr and 10 tightends all game. Its not gonna work come playoff time
 
UPennChem

UPennChem

Hall of Famer
Deebo813 said:
i dnt wanna see these run heavy schemes with 1 wr and 10 tightends all game. Its not gonna work come playoff time
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But why hasn't it? We have what 3 examples.

Titans:
This game was a total mess. So many drops and bad decisions. Awful game. But we moved the ball for over 500 yards of offense. We just didn't play well when it mattered like red zone and 4th downs.

Titans rematch:
We won this ugly, low scoring game. I think this may be your best example that the offense doesn't do well in playoff games. We couldn't do much of anything and one drive where we threw it to Ricard like 5 times and got a TD was the difference maker. Really bad game.

Bills:
Horrible game for both sides. Just extremely bad for us because Mekari decided he couldn't snap well any more and got Lamar knocked out. Also Lamar made one critical error in the red zone. But that day was so cold and windy it effected both teams. Josh Allen was awful that day too and so were the entire Bill's team. Hollywood was dusting White left and right, Huntley just couldn't get him the ball.

So my thing is this offense has had:
One super productive loss
One total stinker with no excuses
One stinker when the weather was nuts and both sides were awful.

Does this mean the offense can't perform well in the playoffs? I'm not sure I'd say that. We found in all our loses the issue was the OL not the WRs. This year may be our first chance since 2019 to have a good OL again. And remember in 2019 we were productive in our playoff game, just inexperienced and not clutch.
 
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