tsylvester

HMH, I'll take Bill Polian's word over a reporter's, albeit a well informed reporter. Monroe is a C grade from Bill. Grub you are correct, he would be or could be better with a better guard next to him, sometimes that is all it takes is the right match next to a player on the line. Time will tell....

There is almost always a chance, depends a lot on when some one is born,not just on skills.... Take the 80's, size mattered, very few under 6 foot players, especially on defense. Even then, those who were had to be lightening fast. Fast forward to today, size not so much a concern, speed & instincts are the key. Instincts are what made Lewis so great, his quickness helped as well. Take Ulracher, he was so good because of his size & instincts, no speed, no quickness. Oh if I only had size or speed way back when, or was born in the 40's, when size nor speed were so much important as instincts were in the 60's.......

Because Albert is the better, all around player. He can zone block well, power run, and pass blocks extremely well. Unlike Monroe who is strictly a zone blocker and struggles against bull rushers in pass set.

Lest we forget McAllister, Lewis (Ray & Jamal) having their "offseason troubles" almost every season......Corinthian Lounge anyone........ shhhhhh what was the name of the strip club CMac ended up buying in Woodlawn?

yeah, I'm ssure they will cut ties with him, he was a project that never panned out.

In the Ravens system, they have to be able to play both positions, thus my mentioning the lbs/de's.... He would not be a good fit here, what, only come in on 3rd down or obvious passing situations? a waste.... but as I siad, I doubt they go after him knowing they have a lot of need and few draft picks + his red flags.

MHM, many teams plug & play with little to no issues. How many times has the vaunted Ravens defense gone up against a fill tackle, left, and gotten no sacks, no pressures, run over...... many.....

Hehehe, Becs has incredible hands, quick feet, he has a great stutter off the line, getting off press coverage really well. Not lightening fast, but plays fast. He might be there at 17, with Pita signed that might take first round te off the board, maybe not. I would be happy with Becs, he and Landry put on quite a show the past couple of years at LSU.

With Suggs & Dummervil plus a few younger players, cough, cough, Bama players, still to prove if they can play at this level, I don't see the need to even take that risk. They would have to give up draft choices, something this team needs badly.

True, but the supposed extra cap space will help. Side note, Bill Polian, a man who knows talent, has Albert and, what's his name, the other OT, rated at no more than $6 mil per season with 3 years of guarenteed money. Interesting. He did not have Monroe on his top or even second teir list, atleast not on the show, maybe in print he does....

even if they were true, he has red flags all over him, work ethic and injury type flags; never good.

I am sure they expected some adjustments, as we talked about earlier this year, it had to go up to carry the salaries of these star quarterbacks. Even so, you can't build a contract based on what you think the cap might be, that gets you into major trouble. These latest numbers could be correct or they could be off by a few million, they are just speculative right now. With Joe's, Sugg's, Dummervil all taking up serious cap space in the next few years, I hope it does go up that high. One thing it will do if it does, is help teams like Seattle who have very good young players do for contracts in the next two seasons.

Aside from this year, the otehr years are expected cap numbers. Even then, you don't count on the cap growing when you make the deal, you fbase the deals on the current cap number. Other wise, you end up like the Skins, Raiders, even Cowboys. Though, some of them tried to pull a fast one by pushing the money into the uncapped year, quite the no-no.... Why over pay for a tackle when you can have the same, if not better player cheaper from free agency or, with good coaching and scouting in the draft. Ozzy has never put much stock in the line, aside from JO and Mule. He over paid for Flynn letting a better center walk down to Carolina. People think Gino is bad right now, no power, Flynn was just as bad. Oz kept JO, shoot, who wouldn't keep a HOF player? Aside from him, Ozzie thinks, based on how he signs players, a line is plug & play. It gets over looked by most people because now we have 2 Super Bowl wins and Ozzie has drafted 3, maybe 4 HOF players. However, we are seeing now, more & more that either the scouts are bad or Ozzie is losing it as more drafted players just are not panning out. I have never beena big fan of the Dick Cass, they money team of the Ravens, they are usually up against the cap and almost in panic mode this time of year, forced to extend contracts of againg players just to make cap room. They were bailed out once, during the purge when the two new teams were brought in..... The Suggs deal may come back to bite the team, time will tell...

Too true, they were very fortunate so far. However, the cap will catch up with them too, all those good young players wanting the money now that they have a ring. Once players get a ring, it is all about the money...... Then we will see just how good they are at drafting and free agent signings. Harvin will cost them, he can't finish a season. They may be lucky or good, time will tell the true tale.

Spen, no, it would be like the man raping her, then the woman not reporting it, and every women he rapes never reports it, so the man thinks rape is fine. That would more closely resemble this situation

Well run, yes, for the most part of the Steelers. However, all they are currently doing is pushing the money further down the road. In a few years, it will catch up with them to where they have no cap room and have to rely on cheap players exclusively. Using the tag as protection is not always a good idea, especially on an average player such as Monroe. If a deal was close, something happened to change some one's mind, and Monroe is no Jake Long. He does have the leverage since the Ravens traded two picks for him and the organization has said since the trade, they plan to keep him, that he would be their future starter. So he has all the leverage and that, is not good for the Ravens. They came across this before with Bobo, over paid for him and the quarterbacks paid dearly. I hope the team learns from thier past mistakes and takes the line seriously, even if that means, going a season developing a good line through young players.

exactly. if anyone is to blame it is the trainer & or lowerling coach who failed to report their troubles with the treatment they received and of that Martin told them about.....

can be day to day. most times after a "melt down" the person spends the next day or two in bed from sheer exhaustion. Medication works to some extent, but the disease gets them to think; hey i don't need the meds any longer so they skip a day. Then, when you skip a day these mediactions carry a huge rebound affect, making the person far worse. And Papa, no, bipolar has always been bipolar, it is usually accompanied with manic depression. One can have both or either, but they are two different medical conditions. Yes, for the record, I know very well, this condition. My late wife suffered with it for years. DC, again, look past the texts, that is not just what I am basing my opinio on. These players thought what they were saying was fine, acceptable. Then Martin came into the picture, joined the team and for what, two years he went along with them, never telling them he thought it was wrong or bothered him. If they always thought it fine and no one ever told them differently, how is it soley their fault? If you do something for years thinking it is right and no one ever tells you it is wrong, is it your fault when some one new comes in and gets "hurt"?

Here is the rub. He is the best of the weak, but not by much. You can find tackles like him, poor against power ruhers, only good for zone blocking, not good at anticipation and prone to giving up a sack once every 15 drop backs because he tires easy and gets lazy with his foot work.

Yes DC, he has an issue with people, with not being able/wanting to risk upsetting them, facing the loss of their friendship. You keep overlooking the fact, the fact, that the players involved thought the language was fine, normal ways of having fun. They spoke to each other that way, so when Martin came into the fold, they spoke to him like that and were never told that it was unacceptable. Look, I don't like that type of language. So much so, I won't watch a tv show or a movie with such language; even when my friends want to get together to see a certain movie or show. That is my "issue" not theirs for wanting to watch those types of movies. In this case, Martin let them think they could talk to him that way, even participated in it, confirming to them, it was all right. So yes, everyone is to blame here at the same time, no one is to blame for all of this. The media had a great opportunity to talk about introverts and bipolar and how to deal with coworkers, friends who are this way. But they chose the most popular; flat out bullying which is clear, was not the case here. Martin might have felt bullied, but the intent by the players was not to bully.

He is not worth the tag. He is not muh better than what is on the market, the left tackle position is at an all time low for talent. So you don't over pay for what is essentially an average player.

I see your point DC, but they are not necessarily exclusive. One can toughen up and speak up at the same time. As you read from papa, Martin had this issues since middle school. Now, I am no psychologist, but this tells me what happened in Miami was just the straw. He blames his teachers from middle school, high school, now, his coaches & teammates for why he is an introvert and unable to deal with criticism and or insults. He refers to dealing with insults by fighting, rather than walking away or saying something to some one who can help. He said himself, fighting was not his thing, but clearly walking away was not his thing either because he bottld it up and finally exploded from all the years of not knowing how to deal with HIS ISSUE. Thankfully, he just turned over a table and walked out. Now, I am sure, as a big kid, his teachers likely would have said "man up" you are bigger than them. At the same time, I bet his father would have said the same thing; defend your self. It has long been the mantra- you fight a bully to get them to stop. Even if you lose, you win; respect. Today, that does not apply simply because said bully may have a knife or gun, it was not like that when I was a kid. Even so, he is an introvert plain & simple and his parents, not their fault, did not see it and did not get him help when he was younger. I agree with him, don't get me wrong, if he was offended, they were wrong. But I stand by what I said, if that was the normal talk between the teammates, how do we blame Incognito and the other players for keeping it up if no one told them they were essentailly hurting Martin?

Yes, told to him by an underling coach. As I said, head coaches have an open door policy. He, being an educated man (as we keep hearing) and his parents, being very well educated as we keep hearing, should have known to just go up the food chain; problem solved. To a person outside, yes it looks like bullying, hostile work place. To those inside, it is normal or just above. There is a reason most if not all the players spoken to on the Phins and in the NFl have takne Richie's side. To this day, most when asked say they would rather have Incognito than Martin on thier team.

Maybe I am "special" but I was being harrassed, sexually, by a coworker, I had no issue asking her to stop, nor my friends, also coworkers, to stop egging her on and pushing my buttons. When neither happened, I had no issue going to my supervisor. When he refused to do anything about it other than tell me to just ignore her, I went to his supervisor. She, his supervisor, told me the same thing. This, even after a mandatory day long seminar on work place harrassment. After a week more of it, (it went on for over a month) I went to human resources. My sup and his sup were both suspended the woman in question, fired. Let me say this, it is much easier to speak up when you are making six fugures, than when you are making 40,000 per with a wife & two kids to feed. In Martin's case, he never went to the head coach, even he is smart enough to go up the food chain if you have issues. Every head coach has an open door policy....

Richie has a diagnosed and well now mental issue, bi-polar with manic depression; something the media keeps leaving out when talking about his antics. I say that not to excuse him, but to shed light on his issues; violent mood swings. Now, most of us do things every day that offend someone, we just do not now it nor do we do those things on purpose. In this instance, locker oom talk can be and is vile, vulgar to most in the public. However, since several africaqn american players were also engaged in the same talk and encouraged Richie to continue in that language and, since Martin never said a word to any of the players involved, it is easy for most to see why and how this continued for so long. All Martin had to do was say the language was offensive and most of it would have stopped. Sure, he went to a trainer or small status coach, but if not help was given at that point, he should have gone to the head coach. Being a smart man as he is, having parents who knew what was going on and as intellegent as they are, they all should have known to go to the head coach. Instead, they concost a lame tantrum and run to the Er for a few minutes. A very short time there mind you. If he was serious about needing help he would have stayed longer, over night even. In the tme he spent at the hospital there is no way the staff there could have done anything but record his vitals, his mental state and then release him. No counsiling, no medications could have been given in the time he spent there. Thus my stance, that move was simply done for legal reasons. The media could have ha d areally good chance to talk about mental diseases such as bi-polar disorder and how it affects people, Instead, they focussed on the racial and bully angle. As soon as the full texts came out from everyone involved, they didn't just back peddle on the recial issue, they ran full steam in the opposite direction because they knew they were wrong. This was not about race, this was not even truly about bullying, no matter what the report states. This was about a group of guys having fun in their way and one guy who just did not like the language but was too affraid to speak up. A perfect storm if you will..... Martin is likely never going to play in the NFL again. Oh he might get signed short term, a camp body, maybe, but he is not very good to start with and clearly is not mentally strong enough to play in the NFL.