The Defence, the Offence, and the Tucker

[OURavensFan]

If you think Faalele is bad, he is. And that's with flagrant holding nearly constantly.

Yea I’ve seen eagle fans crying relentlessly but that bottom right one was not a hold, the play is behind them at that point. So if they’re using that one I wonder how many others weren’t really holds either. But that doesn’t change the fact that him and Mekari could be the downfall of this team.

 

[purplepittabread88]

I don't know why anyone picks a "side" to any of this stuff. It's not one thing. It's literally so many things all at once that make us a team who's quality is accurately reflected by their record.

EDC straight up fucked us on the OL and thank God Roger has exceeded expectations. If he was even at expectation (in year 1) it would be that much worse. EDCs other drafting after RD1 has not been good enough (although better than middle of the pack) to support an elite roster with a Lamar sized cap hit.

Harbs has been situationally pretty bad, TOs pretty bad, challenges pretty bad, refused to give Ben Cleveland a look, has the worst STs in the league and has done nothing but pretend Tucker is normal, asking him to just kick his way out of it.

Monken has never really demonstrated the ability to help us get back on track if there's any deviation from perfection. He does cook though when we stay on schedule. That is when he doesn't get cute, which is at least once or twice a game.

Lamar needs to learn how to consistently throw a 2 yard swing pass. He also needs to use his legs when it's there. He also needs to know that unfortunately, relatively often, even if he makes a Brady caliber throw, his guys will let him down. Agholor with drops. Bateman not being able to bring in contested stuff. Likely misjudgements. Etc. Lamar needs to consider the conservative option sometimes. And he needs to consider Tucker. Take something that gets him 5 yards closer, its a big deal rn, you can't take stupid sacks.

Orr is and was certainly inexperienced, but who would've known that Marcus Williams would legitimately just fuck off completely and mentally check out, crippling our defense for weeks? Maybe we did because Eddie Jackson was a late addition when we already had a lot of guys who could play a S3 role. Turned out. Eddie Jackson while trying was putting out checked out Marcus Williams level play. Crazy.

Throw all that together with us being the most penalized team in the league, incompetent KR/PR, and a kicker who's missed 22 points of offense and you've got the 2024 Ravens. Our record is only as good as it is because we have Lamar. Not much else to it. This is just not that good of a team.

With Rodger let's also not forget that stannley
Magically stopped sucking and being injured for literally 50% of games AND snaps. We were rotating left tackles per series like a college team but lord behold Stanley's randomly elite again. We lucked out with our tackles or else Lamar wouldn't be back there right now it'd be Josh Johnson. Totally unacceptable fuck up running it back without zeitler for 6 mil

 

[OURavensFan]

With Rodger let's also not forget that stannley
Magically stopped sucking and being injured for literally 50% of games AND snaps. We were rotating left tackles per series like a college team but lord behold Stanley's randomly elite again. We lucked out with our tackles or else Lamar wouldn't be back there right now it'd be Josh Johnson. Totally unacceptable fuck up running it back without zeitler for 6 mil

I know, what if Rosengarten was a bust? Playing with fire

 

[UPennChem]

With Rodger let's also not forget that stannley
Magically stopped sucking and being injured for literally 50% of games AND snaps. We were rotating left tackles per series like a college team but lord behold Stanley's randomly elite again. We lucked out with our tackles or else Lamar wouldn't be back there right now it'd be Josh Johnson. Totally unacceptable fuck up running it back without zeitler for 6 mil

Simbas inside scoop is they didn't trust his health. But he's probably OG1 in the league this year. If not 1 obviously top 5. An enormous miss by us. Furthermore, we were so stubborn and arrogant we didn't even rotate Ben Cleveland. No one even asked for him to just take the job. But by not even seeing him, now we sit here with a sunk cost fallacy on our hands

 

[rossihunter2]

The offensive line isn't terrible, but isn't great. Lamar's ability to move certainly helps.

Stanley and Linderbaum are both having good years. Rosengarten started rough but has improved week after week. Mekari and Faalele are both middle of the pack or slightly below average, and that's where they attacked. That's a very good Eagles front.

i think you can survive with faalele at RG if the other guard isn't playing like a liability and that's what mekari is right now

 

[rossihunter2]

If you think Faalele is bad, he is. And that's with flagrant holding nearly constantly.

still images don't tell the story of a play or whether something is a hold

 

[rossihunter2]

I know, what if Rosengarten was a bust? Playing with fire

mekari would be back at RT and vorhees would be back at LG
not ideal but we'd have survived

josh johnson would be ok at LT if stanley somehow got injured or randomly sucked

EDC did stock this OL with a bunch of depth so that 1 or even 2 tackles underperforming or being unavailable doesnt sink this team

 

[Simba]

i think you can survive with faalele at RG if the other guard isn't playing like a liability and that's what mekari is right now

That's kind of where I'm at with the interior. I think you can survive with one below average to average player, but 2 makes it difficult. John Simpson was the clear weak link last year and that didn't rear its head that often.

 

[rossihunter2]

Simbas inside scoop is they didn't trust his health. But he's probably OG1 in the league this year. If not 1 obviously top 5. An enormous miss by us. Furthermore, we were so stubborn and arrogant we didn't even rotate Ben Cleveland. No one even asked for him to just take the job. But by not even seeing him, now we sit here with a sunk cost fallacy on our hands

it is definitely frustrating watching Zeit play as well, or better, than anyone else in the league at that position - he'd certainly be my all-pro RG right now

 

[UPennChem]

still images don't tell the story of a play or whether something is a hold

Sure but it looks like he's holding live lol

 

[rossihunter2]

That's kind of where I'm at with the interior. I think you can survive with one below average to average player, but 2 makes it difficult. John Simpson was the clear weak link last year and that didn't rear its head that often.

the big difference there was that while simpson was below average in the passing game, he was a punishing, nasty, finisher in the run game
we don't have any finishers (outside of Linderbaum) on the OL right now - there's no positive trait to really lean on with Mekari at guard - with Faalele, you've got his length to fall back on in pass pro and he's definitely shown improvement in the running game as the season's gone on

if we were looking to draft an interior guy in 2025 to come in and be the LG with an otherwise unchanged OL lineup, the traits i'd be looking for would be leverage, play-strength and finish in the run game

and the downside to having both guards be unconvincing is that it makes Linderbaum less effective too

 

[Simba]

Simbas inside scoop is they didn't trust his health. But he's probably OG1 in the league this year. If not 1 obviously top 5. An enormous miss by us. Furthermore, we were so stubborn and arrogant we didn't even rotate Ben Cleveland. No one even asked for him to just take the job. But by not even seeing him, now we sit here with a sunk cost fallacy on our hands

I wouldn't even call that inside scoop to be fair. EDC has been fairly candid about the idea of getting younger on the OL. They hold the belief that guys rotating in and out of the group is detrimental to the chemistry. For as well as Zeitler and Moses started last year, they were both running on fumes at the end last season and they shaped the offense (aka chip help) accordingly. You can never prevent injuries from happening, but you can anticipate based on history. They seemingly made the wrong call there, but if Zeitler is banged up again come January, maybe the tune changes.

I still think it was a miss to not re-sign him, but I at least understand and respect the thought process.

 

[Simba]

the big difference there was that while simpson was below average in the passing game, he was a punishing, nasty, finisher in the run game
we don't have any finishers (outside of Linderbaum) on the OL right now - there's no positive trait to really lean on with Mekari at guard - with Faalele, you've got his length to fall back on in pass pro and he's definitely shown improvement in the running game as the season's gone on

if we were looking to draft an interior guy in 2025 to come in and be the LG with an otherwise unchanged OL lineup, the traits i'd be looking for would be leverage, play-strength and finish in the run game

and the downside to having both guards be unconvincing is that it makes Linderbaum less effective too

Oh yeah I don't disagree. I find it interesting that we're running so many power concepts with guys that don't play with power, but I digress.

Even the backups are guys that just don't fit the bill. Think Vorhees could have been but he struggled to start and it was hard to insert him back in. Think Samac could be in time, but they believe Cleveland is soft as it can get.

 

[OURavensFan]

I’ll say it again, every Eagles TD had a blatant uncalled penalty

 

[Baltimorican]

Oh yeah I don't disagree. I find it interesting that we're running so many power concepts with guys that don't play with power, but I digress.

Even the backups are guys that just don't fit the bill. Think Vorhees could have been but he struggled to start and it was hard to insert him back in. Think Samac could be in time, but they believe Cleveland is soft as it can get.

I think they just didn't want to break in 3 new guys at the same time, when Vorhees went down and Rosengarten stepped in and played ok, they just plugged Mekari in for stability's sake. Now that the left side has settled in they might go back to breaking in Vorhees.

 

[D1City55]

it is definitely frustrating watching Zeit play as well, or better, than anyone else in the league at that position - he'd certainly be my all-pro RG right now

I really wanted him back here. I was pretty surprised we didn't bring him back, especially at a 1yr contract...

 

[D1City55]

Oh yeah I don't disagree. I find it interesting that we're running so many power concepts with guys that don't play with power, but I digress.

Even the backups are guys that just don't fit the bill. Think Vorhees could have been but he struggled to start and it was hard to insert him back in. Think Samac could be in time, but they believe Cleveland is soft as it can get.

Faalele isn't that good as a pulling guard. I think he's the one we need to move on from after this year because he's just not physical enough for the position. As a pass blocker he's been okay but as a run blocker he's been pretty mid. Just not someone I really want to see us roll out there next year with.

 

[Baltimorican]

i think you can survive with faalele at RG if the other guard isn't playing like a liability and that's what mekari is right now

Faalale has shown growth imo, it's just constantly a two steps forward , one step back sort of thing. Roger's been more the steady riser you prefer to see.

 

[Baltimorican]

With Rodger let's also not forget that stannley
Magically stopped sucking and being injured for literally 50% of games AND snaps. We were rotating left tackles per series like a college team but lord behold Stanley's randomly elite again. We lucked out with our tackles or else Lamar wouldn't be back there right now it'd be Josh Johnson. Totally unacceptable fuck up running it back without zeitler for 6 mil

I think everybody is kinda gawking at the Eagles right now for the way they overhauled the O-Line and never missed a beat as an elite unit. That's really, really hard to do, especially when Lamar didn't help us much with cap flexibility. If we get it right in 2 years without dropping out of the top 10-ish that's a bang up job.

 

[RavensMania]

I really wanted him back here. I was pretty surprised we didn't bring him back, especially at a 1yr contract...

he didn't want a one year contract when we were trying to sign him. He wanted a 2 year deal and after the talks fell through we went a different direction and ended up using the money on Henry in the offseason. In the end, he didn't get a two year deal anywhere.