thundercleetz

I could care less about the Terps.

@RavensInsider: John Wooten said Jim Caldwell interview with Lions was 'exceptional, outstanding,' will hear back in a few days @RavensInsider: Jim Caldwell met with ownership and quarterback Matthew Stafford during his interview with the Lions

The most important thing for me is the offensive coaching staff. Right now there are too many voices in a small room. Getting rid of Castillo is a start. Bringing in Norv Turner and I'm real excited.

Listen to the interview. He details how he has spared no expenses with his scouting department. The guy has set up a first class organization. He knows exactly what he's doing.

If they get Al Golden that is a big time hire.

I will admit you guys did a good job of drafting to fill holes on offense. The offensive line is still a concern but the no huddle was the perfect remedy. Your cap is bad in the sense you have no breathing room from all your restructuring. You're going to have to shed some veterans on defense with big numbers. With taking on that dead money you might lose some of your younger guys coming up on free agency. Us Ravens fans learned this past season not to underestimate veteran leadership.

Suggs is as good as gone. That will free up another $7M. Leach is probably cut too. I wonder if Iheadigbo and Koch are let go too?

I think it is a little unfair to judge the team's leadership on one 8-8 season. The fact the team stayed together and fought the whole year says a lot to me. Remember last year all the rumors of locker-room unrest? Same thing with Harbaugh's 9-7 season in 2009. Billick would have a bad season every other year and we'd hear rumors of a locker-room revolt. Watch any of Harbaugh's post game speeches, he has the locker-room's respect. Flacco is not a rah-rah guy, but he has the respect of the team. Leadership is easy: if a team wins everything is rosy. Leadership shows its true head when all is not well. Not even Ray Lewis would have gotten this team into the playoffs. We've all been spoiled by Ray Lewis who was a once-in-a-lifetime leader in any sport. I couldn't disagree with you more here. Listen to Bisciotti's interview with Pat Kirwan and Jim Miller during training camp. After that, I dare you to find more than five owners in the league that "get it" more than Bisciotti. Believe me the guy knows exactly what he is doing.

I misinterpreted your post then. You said bad in your first post which gave me the implication this team needed three years to clear up contracts to compete. You said big in your second post. I apologize for missing the subtle change there.

Maybe this all doesn't matter? http://www.chatsports.com/michigan-wolverines/a/Insider-John-Harbaugh-would-accept-Michigan-job-if-offered-10-2-4680

Hey hey no need for insults. I was responding to your first post. Nonetheless I could very well have reading comprehension issues as most of the time I'm responding from my iPhone. Anyways I think you're misinterpreting the Suggs and Ngata deals. Suggs has a number of $12.4M. $4.6M of that is a bonus that has already been paid and the remaining $7.8M is base. The $4.6M is a sunk cost whether Ozzie trades, cuts, or keeps Suggs. Ozzie is going to go to Suggs and say you reduce that $7.8M base or we're cutting you (or I guess try and trade with little leverage like we did with Boldin). The end result is probably going to be cutting Suggs and cap savings of $7.8M. Hence the flexibility. We are stuck with Ngata for 2014, as you mentioned, but the same concept applies to him and his $8.5M base salary for 2015. I am not saying we should restructure or extend either of these guys. Sure they are both Pro Bowlers but they are not worth the backend of their deals. We'll have to take a wait and see on the Rice deal. He's only 26-years old so he could very well come back as an elite running back next year. Then again Jamal Lewis started his rapid decline at 26. Ray is a hard worker and hasn't had any major injuries so I am giving him the benefit of the doubt before writing him off.

You said bad. Bad and big are independent and relative. A contract is bad if the player is washed up and isn't producing, regardless the size of the contract. There is nothing wrong with big contracts as long as the player is producing at a comparatively high level. Webb, Yanda, and Flacco have big contracts but I consider these guys playing at a high enough level to justify their contracts in relative to the market. Is Ray Rice a core player? Sure his contract looks bad after this season but I'm willing to give him one more year before I classify the contract as bad. I hardly think Rice is washed up at 26-years old. Suggs has a big number but because he's in the last year of his deal we have some flexibility to free up space regardless of the dead money (i.e. nothing to accelerate and that dead money is essentially a sunk cost against this year's cap. Look at the base salary we'd free up). Sure if we keep him at his current status it would be a bad deal, but I see that as highly unlikely. We have flexibility here. Ngata is subjective. The number is huge and his play has declined. However I feel he played very strong down the stretch and has a lot of value to give us still. At this point in his career he is probably overpaid, but he still produces at an above average level. Call it a bad contract if you want, but it is essentially for only one more season before we force him into a paycut or release situation like we will with Suggs this offseason.

I don't consider Yanda, Webb, Flacco, or Rice bad contracts. Those are core players who we can win with. Ngata and Suggs will be easy to get rid of after next season. Suggs and Leach hit isn't bad even for 2014. My point hardly three years to clear up bad contracts IMO. Now if we want to debate the skill and value of the core players above, then I understand that. But with the core we have I think we will be able to compete right away next season shoring up the line.

We need to draft some badass maulers. I am comfortable with Moneoe at LT. He played better down the stretch. Yanda and KO are great guards as long as they are healthy. What we need is a mauler at RT or LG (depending on where KO plays). Then of course we need a center. Center is maybe where we need to go in the first round. Are there any stud centers this draft? I honestly think we are ok at WR. We do not need a star receiver, just more variety at WR and TE. We NEED a small, quick, slot receiver. When Stokely was healthy Joe threw to him a lot. We need our own Wes Welker or Andrew Hawkins. We need one more receiving tight end to compliment Pitta.

I don't think the contract situation is bad at all. The Suggs and Ngata deals are easy to get out of. Unless you consider the Flacco and Rice deals bad, we are in good shape. Fix the line and Flacco and Rice will perform a lot better. I also think Webb will return stronger next year. The Steelers are in much worse shape. We've never had to push contract forward by restructuring like a lot of teams have. This was our rebuilding year, maybe one more year max and we'll be right back in it.

I do too. Real shame as he looked like a legitimate defensive player of the year candidate the first half of the season or so.

I will probably get an Xbox One soon. The One Guide TV integration looks amazing.

I think as long as we fix the offensive line we'll be right back in the hunt. It is really amazing we went 8-8 with the terrible line play we had. I thought Ngata played really well down the stretch. Suggs really worried me. He completely disappeared after a hot start. Suggs' number is huge this season, I think Ozzie presents him with a pay cut or lets him go.

I completely agree with you here. I hate to throw Caldwell under the bus but Norv would be perfect for Joe and our offense. Norv is a master of situational play calling and using multiple route combinations to get receivers free for "easy throws" for the QB. Sure he can get pass happy, but at least he has a good play call ready for every situation. We have been too predictable the past few years and Norv can shake it up. I really hope Norv is the guy we go after.

Just as concerning as the offensive line is the fade of the pass rush down the stretch. We started the year awesome harassing opposing QBs. Since the second Pittsburgh game our pass rush never returned. Our pass defense played well but they were getting no help from the pass rush.

@mzenitz: CB Terence Newman has been ruled out for Cincinnati.TE Tyler Eifert is doubtful. LB Vontaze Burfict and TE Jermaine Gresham are questionable

Signing Tejada has to be up there. Sure we never won with him, but it was an impact move for the best player at his position at the time. He gave us a few really good seasons. We just never surrounded him with talent. Real shame. That offseason we had a chance to bring in Vlad and Ivan Rodriguez and could have made some noise.

I think a lot of Ravens fans are forgetting this is a rebuilding year. For years we had talked about the window closing, then we won the Super Bowl. It is irrelevant we won the Super Bowl last year, rebuilding this season was inevitable. As far as I'm concerned we were lucky to win the Super Bowl in that group's last viable year of contention. I do not think you could find another team in the salary cap era that won a Super Bowl at the end of their run and went out on top as the window closed and had to completely rebuild the next season (maybe the '98 Broncos?). That is why last year was so special, and that is why our expectations as Ravens fans this season were unrealistic. Being a Raven fan is like nothing else. As bad as this team is at times, we have had so many incredible comeback wins Ravens fans ALWAYS think their team is in the game. How many people thought we were going to comeback and win the Patriot game when we were driving down 20-7 in the fourth quarter? I know I did. So I am going with that same mindset this weekend. Making the playoffs is against the odds, but I firmly believe we will until the fat lady sings. The Ravens give us a heart attack each week, but we could be Browns fans. Better yet, we could be Bengals fans. Sure they won the division, but they do not know what winning in the playoffs feels like. Until they do, they expect to be one-and-done.

That article is scary. To me it sounds like there are too many voices in the room. Castillo handling the run game and Hostler and Caldwell coming up with the game-plan and calling the offense. There is not any consistency on offense because there is not any chemistry within the coaching staff. Sounds like we just need to go back to the basics, review a lot of our own keys, and fix them. There is no excuse for not changing things up at halftime when you hear Patriots players barking out our plays. There is no excuse for Oher or Monroe to be giving away passing plays like they do in non-obvious passing situations. These are simple fixes that have not been made which is disheartening.

Absolutely we have a chance. Imagine how different the Pats game would have been if Flacco hadn't under thrown Torrey on the second play of the game. Even going down 20-0, we were still in the game in the fourth quarter driving in Pats territory down 20-7. We'll be in this game, it will all come down to offensive line play and the play of our defense in the fourth quarter (both of which have been terrible this season).