The Running Game, The Mess and The Greg Roman

[Dom McRaven]

And on another note, Dobbins once again needs to claim the Browns defense as his sons on his tax returns.

 

[rossihunter2]

Now the silver lining (and piggybacking off @rossihunter2 's post above yours) is how he was able to turn a very questionable OL last season to a strong unit this season. I refuse to believe that EDC hasn't looked at this WR group and said "yeah we straight."

EDC has been good at completely transforming units in short periods of time

 

[rossihunter2]

And on another note, Dobbins once again needs to claim the Browns defense as his sons on his tax returns.

might as well claim the whole AFC North while he's at it

 

[Tank]

that's a direct byproduct of being the only weapon in the passing game
the lack of vertical threat in the offence condenses space and reduces the space he can work in
the lack of WRs or other passing game weapons to relieve pressure also allows defences to double him and focus on him in the passing game especially in key situations

Mark is a favorite of mine, but have to say he hasn’t been very good at just basic things. Yesterday was a perfect example, where lost concentration looking for the defender and failed to put the ball away allowing it to be swatted from his hands.

 

[QtR Nevermore]

yeah there's no issue with the roster construction beyond the lack of attention to WR depth and lack of contingency planning for a bateman injury

There have been issues with the balance of the roster. Too much emphasis at some positions, too little at others.

WR has been a problem throughout EDC's tenure but so was ILB every year, until he overpaid for Roquan.

On the other hand, he's used almost as much draft capital at Safety as at WR even though he has also made a Safety his big Free Agent acquisition in 2 of his 4 years. That looks even worse when you consider he inherited 1 starting Safety (of 2 typical starters) Vs. a WR room consisting of Willie Snead (of 3 typical starters).

They've gone into seasons painfully thin at pass rusher too.

That said, the roster is pretty strong overall.

 

[JAAM]

 

[rossihunter2]

WR has been a problem throughout EDC's tenure but so was ILB every year, until he overpaid for Roquan.

WR was not an issue in 2021... easily the best receiving corps since the superbowl run last year, and maybe the best in the franchise history - just a shame they only got 1 year together as a group

but i digress - in what way was it an overpay for Roquan?

 

[OURavensFan]

Trade Lamar Jackson when we have a 3 point offense without him?

And Kliff Kingsbury as OC?

It doesn't seem like it's your day for making football points on the internet.

All I see cardinal fans do is blame Kingsbury the way we blame Roman

 

[BoredMarine13]

Here’s the worst thing about . We traded Hollywood so the potential problem was staring him right in the face !! He did nothing.

Now the silver lining (and piggybacking off @rossihunter2 's post above yours) is how he was able to turn a very questionable OL last season to a strong unit this season. I refuse to believe that EDC hasn't looked at this WR group and said "yeah we straight."

To some extent he clearly said “yea we straight” when he made that Hollywood trade. I loved the trade then and I still do now, but clearly he thought the options in house we’re pretty good. Otherwise you don’t trade away your most productive member of the group. Huge miss by EDC to assume our depth at the position would cover down on the loss of Hollywood.

 

[QtR Nevermore]

our way has kept us competitive forever.. dnt wanna end up like browns, bengals and all those other teams relies on a qb for about 5yrs then the franchise disappear for 20 yrs again

Our way, of collecting draft picks definitely means we're never awful, but for the past decade, that's all it has done. Since the Super Bowl there are only 8 bottom feeder teams who have fewer playoff wins. (Plus 5 teams with the same number, to be fair). That's really bad, considering we've had the holy grail of a top QB for 4 of those years.

The Ravens way makes us a borderline playoff team every year. We just miss out or we make it but aren't a genuine threat. That looks great in cumulative wins over the decade stats, but that's based on choosing consistency over competitiveness.

In the past, a lot of the success of the Ravens way was based on the fact that about 60% of GMs were morons. These days, the standards of decision-making across the NFL has risen. Idiot teams aren't leaving good players on the board for the smart teams to pick up the way they used to.

I'm not saying change everything. Just that the Ravens way doesn't really have such a track record of success, in today's NFL, that makes it worth sticking with unquestioningly.

 

[Tank]

To some extent he clearly said “yea we straight” when he made that Hollywood trade. I loved the trade then and I still do now, but clearly he thought the options in house we’re pretty good. Otherwise you don’t trade away your most productive member of the group. Huge miss by EDC to assume our depth at the position would cover down on the loss of Hollywood.

Not sure you could call it a huge miss, impossible to know that Bateman would go down for the season. Maybe assuming Proche would be productive was a miscalculation, but you can’t predict injuries.

 

[QtR Nevermore]

in what way was it an overpay for Roquan?

A 2nd for a few weeks of ILB play, however great, is a lot in my opinion. If we want any more of that great ILB play we're going to have to pay around $20M per year on the open market.

If the Roquan move was the last piece needed for a Super Bowl run, I'd be all for it, but most of us knew Greg Roman wasn't running a Super Bowl offense. If EDC thought he was, that's a failed evalution on his part.

 

[BoredMarine13]

Our way, of collecting draft picks definitely means we're never awful, but for the past decade, that's all it has done. Since the Super Bowl there are only 8 bottom feeder teams who have fewer playoff wins. (Plus 5 teams with the same number, to be fair). That's really bad, considering we've had the holy grail of a top QB for 4 of those years.

The Ravens way makes us a borderline playoff team every year. We just miss out or we make it but aren't a genuine threat. That looks great in cumulative wins over the decade stats, but that's based on choosing consistency over competitiveness.

In the past, a lot of the success of the Ravens way was based on the fact that about 60% of GMs were morons. These days, the standards of decision-making across the NFL has risen. Idiot teams aren't leaving good players on the board for the smart teams to pick up the way they used to.

I'm not saying change everything. Just that the Ravens way doesn't really have such a track record of success, in today's NFL, that makes it worth sticking with unquestioningly.

GMs have caught up. Only ones making big mistakes are the ones desperate for QBs. All the more reason we have to tread lightly with the Lamar situation. Which ever way we decided, they better believe in it 100%

 

[rossihunter2]

To some extent he clearly said “yea we straight” when he made that Hollywood trade. I loved the trade then and I still do now, but clearly he thought the options in house we’re pretty good. Otherwise you don’t trade away your most productive member of the group. Huge miss by EDC to assume our depth at the position would cover down on the loss of Hollywood.

it's odd - because they wanted to keep the trade quiet so that they could potentially draft a WR at 14 but they all went ahead of us and we got Hamilton instead (who we never thought would be available there)

the problem was that he didnt pivot after that to aggressively replace Hollywood after none of the 4 guys we wanted were available - either to go after a vet or use some picks to go up and make sure you get a guy you like

 

[rossihunter2]

A 2nd for a few weeks of ILB play, however great, is a lot in my opinion. If we want any more of that great ILB play we're going to have to pay around $20M per year on the open market.

If the Roquan move was the last piece needed for a Super Bowl run, I'd be all for it, but most of us knew Greg Roman wasn't running a Super Bowl offense. If EDC thought he was, that's a failed evalution on his part.

we traded a 2nd for an all-pro who's only 25... that's a pretty good deal to me as long as we re-sign him

 

[BoredMarine13]

Not sure you could call it a huge miss, impossible to know that Bateman would go down for the season. Maybe assuming Proche would be productive was a miscalculation, but you can’t predict injuries.

You can’t predict injuries but no one survive the season unscathed. That being said he either thought:
A) Batemen, Andrews, and the run game were enough for this offense to be succesful and the depth issues weren’t significant enough to attack.
B) The depth at WR was quality enough to compliment the above and fill in when called upon.

Both are completely unacceptable for EDC/Harbs

 

[QtR Nevermore]

we traded a 2nd for an all-pro who's only 25... that's a pretty good deal to me as long as we re-sign him

If we re-sign him, we'll be paying full price. We could have done that in the off-season and kept our 2nd. Chasing after anything this season was always an illusion.

 

[rossihunter2]

If we re-sign him, we'll be paying full price. We could have done that in the off-season and kept our 2nd. Chasing after anything this season was always an illusion.

we couldnt have done that this offseason and kept our 2nd - well we could but it would have cost our 1st instead...

players like Roquan aren't available often - plus we get right of first refusal to negotiate, plus it sounds like they want to sign him before the end of the season too

 

[QtR Nevermore]

we couldnt have done that this offseason and kept our 2nd - well we could but it would have cost our 1st instead...

players like Roquan aren't available often - plus we get right of first refusal to negotiate, plus it sounds like they want to sign him before the end of the season too

I meant we could have signed him in the coming off-season.

Chicago weren't looking to re-sign him so he was going to hit the market anyway and first refusal won't mean much unless we're willing to meet his asking price, which will be to reset the ILB market. Spending all that money would look more sustainable if we still had a valuable draft pick in hand.

 

[Dom McRaven]

To some extent he clearly said “yea we straight” when he made that Hollywood trade. I loved the trade then and I still do now, but clearly he thought the options in house we’re pretty good. Otherwise you don’t trade away your most productive member of the group. Huge miss by EDC to assume our depth at the position would cover down on the loss of Hollywood.

I always know very little about prospects other from what I read in the draft threads. Other from swapping Ojabo with Pickens, I thought he did a great job addressing center and safety in the first. Both of which were question marks going into the offseason.

I also was on the record to see what guys like Duvernay and Proche would do with larger roles. Neither of which have sold me as long-term solutions. I'm absolutely done with Proche. Duvernay has a confidence issue that HE needs to deal with rather quickly.