tsylvester

Yeah, remember he who shall not be named who agreed, in principle, to be defensive end for the Ravens this past summer, only to renig on the deal and sign with a crappy team for slightly more money? I doubt Smith is that type of person and unless we over rate the honor of the leaders of the Ravens, that this would happen with this deal. Great idea though, i forgot about rhe post June 1 possibility

He fell on his knee, it is not as if he was cutting, or if someone hit him on the side of the knee while it was planted. It is a simple injury if it is just a sprain. Since they did do the MRI and did not find a tear, it is just as simple as healing, boom done.

No, Smith will be a free agent at seasons end. Now they might be able to designate him a June 1, but he has to sign before season end. Not sure, haven't been into the cap nor CBA in years

Or a disgruntled former player, who knows. Preston has done it, remember Stanley was soft, and done, how did that work out? Then Lamar was skipping rehab, wait, no he has been to ever one on the schedule, oops. You get my point papa, people see and hear, write what ever they want just to get hits & clicks.

Yep, a team conquest. Eric gets the glory but Mr Brown has to make the money work

See how easy it is Max, let the fans run around like chicken little, reading things into situations like a man dying of thirst in a desert, staring at a mirage.. The local "media" in a quest to fill voids in news stories play the fans cries for news, using their, the fan's, own words as inside scoops, as news... Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we beg to be deceived.

Sure he does, it was why they hired him, a so called cap expert

So it has been 38 days, as of today, that is just under 6 weeks, (5.4) since Lamar was injured. Jack Youngblood (my favorite all time NFL player) once played in the Super Bowl with a Crack in his fibula, a broken leg. Over the years, players have played important games with broken ribs, broken arms, hands, high ankle sprains, etc. A playoff game is an important game, yes? So if Lamar does not play, most sprains of his nature take a max of 6 weeks for the most severe sprains, one might assume, you know what happens when we do that, that it is more than the injury, yes? That him sitting out this game is his dissatisfaction with the 1)offense 2) contract situation. Do you think the Smith contract might have a negative affect on Lamar? The team would give Smith what he wanted, but not their most important offensive player? We might even look further and say, him missing this game, he can't do any more harm to the injury if he plays, that it spells, officially, the end of his time here? I mean, if he had players on his side before the injury, that now, most who are playing less than 100% in health, he might have lost most of them?

What, you mean a person can negotiate a contract while you play? Shocking

Not likely, MCL's are pretty simple if there was no tear. Rest & rehab + time. Depending in the sprain they can be 1-3 weeks to 4-6. Frankly, many, most players will play on the sprain if the game is important enough, especially if they are at their "window". Why it is taking so long for Lamar to be ready is a mystery. Frankly without a healthy Lamar, the Ravens are going to be blown out. But hey, two other teams are starting rookie quarterbacks in the playoffs. The Phins are a completely different team without Tua, who is still have concussion symptoms this far out, now that is a real problem, long term. Purdy in San Fran is the shocker, but the playoffs are a different animal, we shall see. In the big games for Iowa State he did not play very well... We got out post season present, Smith signed

That was an awesome read and helped pull the joy of that game from the desert that is my memory, what a game, what a playoff run

Gonna bump this in light of another thread about an article on this... I'll bump with this add. Did you watch my Dawgs last night? A master class of not playing down to your opponent, of playing up to your potential. Todd Monkton, the offensive coordinator for Georgia, called a perfect game. Yes, having the players to execute it helps, but there it is. One route combination I want to highlight is the touchdown pass to a wide open Ladd McConkey for gobs of yards. On the play, matching slots, with a runningback in an offset formation. They use heavy play action, then send the slot receiver on a deep cross in front of the safety to draw the safety. They then have Ladd go deep to the post with a slight fake to flag. At the same time they bring the back, off of play action to hold the backers, go straight out, Full speed up the sideline at, key, at the corner on the boundary side. This put the corner to that side in conflict, cover the back he sees streaking at him, or stay, as he should have, with McConkey. That hesitation allowed Ladd to sprint into the endzone, some 20 yards uncovered to make the easy catch. What we see mostly, is a back flaring on a wheel route, to the same side as a wide out, split out, on a comeback route to the same side. No body to run off the safety, no one to out the corner in conflict, no play action to hold the backers inside. In essence, no imagination, no help for the receivers to get open, the backs to exploit open yards, for the qb to take advantage.

Lots of very good corners coming out in the draft. The Ravens have a number of very good players who will or should turn out to be good safeties. Good depth on the defensive line, but also a few very good ones coming in the draft. Smith is a very cerebral linebacker, if you watch closely, you can see him point out the plays. More than that though, you can see other players start to do the same. We haven't seen that since Ray & Ed. He just makes the entire defense better. I would rather have seen them lock him up for 7 or even 10, but maybe he didn't want that long. Either way, no matter what happens with Lamar, Smith is here..

Well done Mr Brown, well done,

He wanted 25 per settled for 20, now that is how a team player helps both him and his team

Woo Hoo! A late or early Christmas present which way you look at the world!

There are ways to pay a player large sums of money that are easy on the cap. Yes, the money still counts, but it can be done in a way to help the organization.

No surprise, it is everything that we have talked about, including much of the same wording, hmmm

Yes, while the purple world of Ravens fans are wondering if Lamar will play this week end, the real name lurking in the backs of their minds is that of team president, Sashi Brown. He was brought in because of his ability to massage the salary cap, get deals done that won't adversely hurt the team down the road. However, two major players currently on the Ravens roster who we have seen transform this offense and defense into something to be feared, will test Mr Brown's whits, his cunningness. Smith and Jackson both want and deserve to be paid amongst the highest at their respective positions, but how those numbers are worked is as vital to keeping the Ravens in the playoffs for years to come just as much as those two players. Both players combined could eat up as much as 50% or higher of the cap. Front loaded, back loaded, easy outs, how much is guaranteed for these relatively young players is what Mr Brown has to work his magic on.

I'm gonn be lazy and copy/paste what I said in the Sunday's game thread Overall, very good pressure on Burrow from the front four, they should have had five maybe six sacks. They just have to contain and relax when they get to him. If they can do that, stop the turnovers, the Ravens have a chance to beat the Bengals next week. They played a simple defense, I expect something more this week. They also did not use a lot complex route combinations on offense, that too, I expect to change. Will the defense be able to keep the pressure up? Provide the same coverage, break up those passes? Will the Bengals drop those touchdown passes? Burrow over throw one? As much as we like to credit the defense, and we should, the Bengals also missed on a wide open touchdown & dropped two others that were in their hands, granted with tight coverage.

What rest? All of the defense played, played hard, worked their butts off, they will be tired from pushing to get to Burrow, then chasing him. The only players who rested was a guard and JK, Gus got a buttcusion, Lamar if he plays will be rusty. So Mike, have another donut and take a break from writing drivel, the rest will do you good buddy.

No way of knowing right now. Too many questions at qb not just for us, but for many of the teams on the schedule. We should have a better idea after the draft. With this defense, which should remain mostly in tack and healthy, same for the running game, I expect a good year pending who is at qb. I could see as many as 11 wins and as few as 6

I tell ya, Worley really impressed me with his speed & ball skills. May be his best game to date. With his speed and size, if Queen leaves in the off season, I would love to see Worley take that linebacker spot. He struggles covering speedy, shifty wide outs, but he has the size, speed and ball skills to cover tight ends, certainly better than our highly touted rookie safety. His size and speed make him ideal to roam side line to sideline and to get to the qb quickly on blitzes. Overall, very good pressure on Burrow from the front four, they should have had five maybe siz sacks. They just have to contain and relax when they get to him. If they can do that, the Ravens have a chance to beat the Bengals next week.

The Bengals played a simple defense today, zone mostly, especially in the first half, man later. They rarely blitzed until the game got "close", even then, the line had trouble holding up to 4 rushers. Brown had trouble KNOWING, who to throw to based on the coverage. In the 2nd half, the Bengals left the middle wide open, going with a single high safety or split safeties, leaning more on covering the underneath routes. It is why Sammy was able to take advantage of single coverage down the sidelines with those stop/back shoulder throws we have been waiting for, for years. Because of the coversge, a look to either side left the tightend wide open down/over the middle, Brown never saw it. He should have, if he knew the routes and saw the single high safety; big plays. With all of that said, next week I expect more complicated coverage, & blitzes. Huntely can't throw deep because of his shoulder, and perhaps that is why he never took advantage down the sidelines like Brown had. For that matter, Lamar has only tried that throw a few times over the years, only hit 1 or two. Usually his pass sails out of bounds. Speaking of Lamar, yes, I said Huntely or Brown, I don't expect Lamar to play, I would be pleasantly surprised if he did, but what can we expect after 6,7 weeks off? Maybe this game taught Brown something, his arm is stronger, he had a lot of drops, 2 picks, one his fault, the other not. His fumble, while a stupid decision to have him throw down there, was his fault, 7 big points before half. You have to get rid of the ball quickly down there, a holding call in the endzone is a safety, linemen can only hold up for so long, feel the pressure. Me, I would go with Brown, he has the better arm and is willing to stretch the field.

Well not sure Burrow over throws a wide open receiver for a touchdown, nor two receivers drop sure tds. But one things is for sure, the Ravens were hitting harder today than I've seen in a while. Hope they keep it up next week