thundercleetz

At first I thought an uncapped year would screw us, but look at it this way. An uncapped year could be an opportunity for Bisciotti to open up his checkbook and sign Gaither, Grubbs, Ngata, Edwards, and anyone other of our deserving guys to long-term deals without having to worry about the CAP. If that is the case, we can then trade for a receiver and sign him to a long-term deal not worrying about the cap. It all comes down to how much Bisciotti wants to spend, and the impression we have received this far is that he trusts Ozzie to do whatever he wants to put the best team on the field. Even if there was a new CBA, guys like Vincent Jackson, Brandon Marshall, and Miles Austin would surely be franchise by their respective teams, making them essentially restrictive free agents anyways. So while we may not be able to sign free agents in an uncapped year, the bottom line is that there will be a very weak free agent class anyways. Ozzie is going to be able to do his work no matter what the situation is.

Why can't we just look at this situation as a win-win for both teams?

Unless Tate blazes a sub-4.3 40 (and he is not know as a fast guy, he is more "quick than fast"), I'll pass. Mark Clayton looked a lot like that in college as well, a do-it-all versitility guy who was a YAC threat in college and was considered a smart guy who knew how to get open. I am done with sub-6' receivers. Benn is an interesting prospect (he went to HS in DC), but is a very big risk. I am not sure how fast he is either. If Mays is there, you take him, but I doubt he is. Patrick Robinson is a CB from FSU that could be a guy to watch. It is still very early though, guys are going to move around the board a lot.

All very good points, and I completely agree. I never said Flacco was a great QB, just that he is much better than Sanchez. All of the things you mentioned are things that I hope Flacco is able to do in his third year. I want to see more audibles at the line, more no huddle offense, and more rolled out pocket protections. I think Flacco will do these things, but year three is going to be very important in whether Flacco makes that step into the elite or pretty much tops out as a very good QB, but not great. As much as we rag on Cam Cameron, we had the 13th offense this season. Last year we were 18th, and the year before we were 22. Cam has brought immediate improvement, and there is no reason to believe as Flacco continues to develop and we give him more weapons that we won't improve on that ranking. Most important of all, Flacco will be entering in his third full season in Cam's offense. He should know that playbook like the back of his hand, and that is when we will start to see the things you mention. I do agree with your talent assessment on Collie and Garcon being no better than Clayton and Williams. Clayton would probably put up big numbers in Indy. The difference is that these guys have Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne to work off of. Both of these guys can beat you on any point on the field. We do not have guys like that. Nevertheless, I am not sure why our receivers do not do the little things like young guys on other teams do, such as come back to the QB when he is in trouble. When Flacco buys time, our receivers never get open. When Ben buys time, his guys ALWAYS get open, even a rookie like Mike Wallace understood this. I am not sure if this is Cam's fault, or the WR coach Hostler's, but this need to change. Joe cannot be running for his life and have his receivers either standing there watching or struggling to get off the jam. On the encouraging side, Flacco's numbers compare very favorably to guys llike Peyton, Brady, Cutler, and Ben in their second years starting, and his numbers are better than guys like McNabb, Eli, and Brees in their second years. Year three should be a good one for Joe.

That is unfair to say because Flacco only has three receivers in a route most of the time. Two of them run that same old eight-yard out and Ray Rice is the third receiver for a dump off. So I agree with your last point on Schottenheimer over Cam. But at the same time, it is hard to judge Cam when he has nothing to work with at WR.

Sanchez has improved my ass. He ended the season with three games of QB ratings of 49.7, 78, and 60.2. Improvement? He runs the same old play action waggle that gets most of his yards. It is easy to play QB when you have the #1 defense in the league and the #1 run offense as well. And if 12/23 for 100 TD, INT is one of Sanchez's best games then I am not impressed. Especially against a weak Chargers defense. The guy had a 63 QB rating in the regular season with the #1 rush offense! It was INTs galore with Sanchez. No comparison, I'll take Flacco. And lets not forget how badly Flacco was injured during the playoffs and the fact that Cam babied him. It also does not help when your midget receivers cannot get off of the line of scrimage. Flacco is already heads and shoulders better than Sanchez, and Sanchez does not have anywhere near the potential Flacco has.

I guess this is there response to the declining since 2004. I don't anticipate going to any O's games this year unless I get a good deal on tixs.

No comparison between Sanchez and Flacco. Sanchez has had a nice run over the past three weeks, but do not forget the guy threw 20 INTs this season. Flacco his rookie year made nowhere near the amount of dumb decisions that Sanchez made this season. BTW, I would take Cotchery, Edwards, and Keller over Mason, Clayton, and Heap any day of the week.

If there is one advantage to an uncapped year, let Bisciotti open the check book and sign Ngata, Gaithers, Grubbs, McClain, Edwards, Flacco and Rice all to long-term deals without having to worry about the CAP. As far as I know, there are not any restrictions against re-signing your own guys. Ozzie should have a little more leeway when it comes to re-signing his own players under an uncapped year and should take advantage of the opportunity for when the cap returns.

I would be willing to say that getting a pass rusher is just as important as getting CB help. Tight-end is also another position we need help at.

Clayton, Williams, and Washington all saw field time, none of these guys could get open (Washington did, he caught a first down and dropped another potential first down). Washington is a fine #3 receiver, but get rid of Clayton and Williams.

This should have been the mindset last season, or even the season before. With where this team is at with back-to-back playoff appearances, we need guys who can come in right away and contribute. We better hope for this CBA thing to work out, because rookies are not going to fill the hole. Believe me, Ozzie and Harbaugh will stick with Clayton and Williams.

Our defense was not the best in the league last year either, the Steelers were. Carter is merely stating the stats, I doubt this is some kind of passing the torch. I expect both the Ravens and the Jets to be up near the top of the league in defense again next season. All we need to do is add to our secondary and pass rush and we should be fine, this should not be hard for Ozzie to do.

Since I'm in New Orleans, I'm pulling for the Saints to win it all now that the Ravens are out.

But that would negatively affect Manning's completion percentage... put the stats on the offensive line.

I agree, but the pass defense has to do more with the pass rush than what we have in the secondary. As we saw in the Pats game, if you have a pass rush then your secondary looks a lot better. Obviously we need some more secondary depth, but I think the easier way to improve the pass defense is by improving the pass rush. You can have the best secondary in the league, but if there is no pass rush, guys will get open (unless you are playing our receivers).

Smart play in my book. If you know you cannot avoid the guy who has a free shot, no need to take any unneccessary hits.

That is what scares me about Gaither. He is only 22, but he is ALWAYS dinged up. Guys that young with as little football experience as him should not be as injury-prone as he is.

I completely agree. Even if the run was not working on first down, we left it way too early. There were too many 3rd & 2/3's where last week we ran the ball and this week we passed it. I do not understand why we were so scared of the Colts defense.

If this is the case, then why don't we have Suggs and Barnes line up like that on obvious passing downs? I understand that Suggs is more of a linebacker than a rush-end, but on obvious passing downs where we let him loose we need to get some better rush. To me, Suggs jump off the ball is not very good.

That is true, Joe did miss some open receivers, but you have to admit that 7 dropped passes out of 35 attempts does a lot of damage. Joe is probably scared to throw the ball to any receiver outside of Mason, Heap, and Rice. Route planning deserves it share of the blame too. It is pretty pathetic when Joe gets 5 seconds to throw or buy himself some extra time by rolling out and our receivers CANNOT GET OFF OF THE JAM! That is the difference between us and Pittsburgh, when Ben rolls out his receivers come back to the QB (even a rookie like Mike Wallace understood this right away) and get hit for big gains, our receivers are still covered.

Sounds about right. Look at it this way though, it really would not matter if we were not allowed to sign a free agent in an uncapped year because all of the good free agents will be RFAs anyways. Thus, we will have to trade to get that big name receiver. If there is an uncapped year, Miles Austin, Malcolm Floyd, Vincent Jackson, Braylon Edwards, Antonio Bryant, and Brandon Marshall are all UFAs. If there is a capped year, all of these guys with the exception of Bryant is a RFA. If that is the case, the Chargers are sure to keep Jackson and Floyd under their tenders, and the Cowboys and Jets will definitely keeps Austin and Edwards. Marshall will most likely be shopped, but will cost us a first rounder, I assume. Anquan Boldin and Dwayne Bowe are also other guys who may be available through trade. We will have our options, but lets hope there is a new CBA. Here is a good article summing up the situation: http://www.profootball24x7.com/column_view.php?cid=46

I didn't even know the Rams had fans until this guy came along.

We will just agree to disagree then, because I have seen a million times Fitz, Johnson, Moss come back for balls like that and catch it. I am not by any means saying that throw is not Flacco's throw, it was a bad one like you say. My point is that elite QBs like Ben, Warner, Brady, Rivers, and Schaub make BAD passes like that all the time and their receivers bail them out just like Rice does on the dumpoffs from Flacco. I do not expect Mason to make that catch, but it helps to have receivers like Fitz, Johson, and Moss who do make those catches. That will add a good amount of padding to a QB's stats. As for 9 out of Flacco's 20 completions, is that more of the receivers' fault for not getting open or Flacco's fault? Probably a little bit of both, like you said Flacco did miss a couple of receivers. But it is pathetic when Flacco has five seconds to throw and our receivers cannot get open. It is also pathetic when your receivers have seven drops.