thundercleetz

Believe me, I am not doubting the pain of the older fans at all. I am sure it sucked times infinity. But with what happened, the situation could not have turned out better for Baltimore fans. Colts leaving gives us Camden Yards (a consensus top three ballpark in all of baseball) and we also get the Ravens, who have given us two Super Bowls and are among the best run organizations in football. Things could have ended up terrible for us, say like the Browns. You lose a franchise who ends up being great. Sure you get a new franchise, but ownership and front office personnel is terrible while the guys you let go (Ozzie, Belicheck and company) combine for five Super Bowls over the next fifteen years. So here's my question: would you trade the Ravens, everything they have accomplished, AND Camden Yards for the Colts and the thirteen years of lost football (lets say with Marino as the QB)? No right or wrong answer here, just want to get the perspective from the older fans.

The preview looked interesting, the tag line is: "The '83 NFL draft and how it changed the NFL forever." In the preview it showed Elway talking about Baltimore and how the Colts were considering taking Marino number one overall. So this got me thinking, what if the Colts had taken Marino? IMO, that would have set off a chain reaction: 1. The Colts would have never left Baltimore as Marino was a stud and would have definitely packed Memorial to watch him sling the ball around. 2. Baltimore at the time was considering a "Baltodome" for both the Orioles and the Colts as multi-purpose domes were the popular stadium choice at the time (Indy, Toronto, New Orleans, Houston, Minnesota, Atlanta, and Detroit among others built domes around that time that quickly became obsolet and required replacement or extensive rennovations). That would have been TERRIBLE as there would be NO CAMDEN YARDS! Both the O's and Ravens would probably be looking for new stadiums by now. As Baltimore today is pretty much maxed out with public debentures and taxes, who knows if we would be able to keep the teams? 3. No Ravens, no '01 and '13 Super Bowls, no Bisciotti, no Ozze/DeCosta/Cass, and we would be stuck with an Irsay as our owner. Sure maybe Marino would have won us a Super Bowl... or maybe not as he couldn't in Miami. Peyton to the Colts never happens, Ray Lewis is probably a Patriot or Brown (depending on where Belicheck is in '96). I do not know about you guys, but I am perfectly happy with the F*** YOU we sent to Elway thirty years later with the Mile High Miracle! In a perfect world, IMO, we would have the Ravens (logo, colors and all) with the Baltimore Colts history (Indy keeps the team, history stays with Baltimore as part of the Ravens franchise). I wasn't alive when the Colts were here, but fun to think about how drastically different history could have been with one pick. I know the documentary might be tough for some of you older guys but it really couldn't have come at a better time: of course this past playoffs we beat the Colts and Elway's Broncos on the way to our Super Bowl championship. All demons have been exercised and cast away for Baltimore!

This will never get old! I do not know if there will be a season in my lifetime that will ever beat this last season which is why I bought the Ravens Super Bowl Blu Ray! Really awesome watch! Josh Charles actually does the narration. Great job by NFL Films.

Not quite unheard of, the Colts took a similar cap hit with Manning. My only point here is if Flacco was terrible and we wanted to completely blow the thing up like the Colts did, his contract offers flexibility where we could still get some sort of cap savings, even if it is very little. Otherwise, we will restructure this deal after three years. Here's the deal with Suggs. Yes a lot of it is dependent upon his performance this coming year. But lets just take a look at Elvis Dumervil's situation with the Broncos. Elvis had a great year but had an upcoming Cap number of $13.2 million CAP hit. Dumervil signed a 5-year, $26 million contract with us, average base salary is $3 million a year. At 32-years old, I do not see Suggs getting even that kind of long-term deal. It will be pay-cut or release for Suggs after this year, no way we take a $12 million cap hit.

What I meant with Flacco is after year three if worst came to worse we could release him and still get cap savings. A lot of dead money, but it would not be a loss if he was absolutely terrible for some reason. For a franchise QB, that is as good as you can get. In all likelihood, yes we are restructuring after three years but this contract gives us good flexibility. You are right, not much leverage, but no one ever has leverage with franchise QBs. All I was saying was I like the flexibility of the contract. As far as Suggs is concerned, I see that savings as definite leverage. The market is gong to be flooded with older pass rushers, no one is going to pay him near his base salary of $7.8M.

Yes we can. You front load the contracts with guarantees and give a low signing bonus. Ozzie is ahead of the curve, he did this with Suggs contract. Flacco's deal is essentially a three year deal, after that there are not many guarantees. The only player that Ozzie didn't do this with is Ngata's deal. Ngata got a big bonus which will make it hard to release him before his deal ends. I am confident Ngata will return to his All Pro form this season however. Everyone needs to chill out. Ozzie has a plan and knows exactly what he is doing.

That is not true we have all the leverage in Suggs contract situation after this year. His contract was extremely front loaded with guarantees and had a low signing bonus. So what that means is while he has a high cap number next year most of it is not guaranteed. With only one seasom left I can almost guarantee that Suggs will be in Boldin's situation next season: pay cut or gone. And if Suggs leaves that is why we have Upshaw and Dumervil.

Yanda is money well spent. Ngata and Suggs will get their chance to earn their worth this season. People forget Suggs and Ngata are All Pro players. If healthy I have no doubt they will.

We are super lucky to have such an excellent run franchise to root for. All we have to do is look 40 miles south of us or at some of the other teams in the league to realize how fortunate we are! Ravens for life!

With the loss of Anquan, WR is a position we could be looking at early depending on how confident Ozzie is in the guy we have behind Jacoby and Torrie. There are a lot of fringe-first-to-second round talents in this draft. Here is a guy who has caught my eye: Quinton Patton, WR, LA Tech, 6' 204 pounds, 4.53 40, 4.01 SS http://www.nfl.com/draft/2013/profiles/quinton-patton?id=2539250 Might not be the fastest or biggest guy, but that 4.01 SS is OUTSTANDING. Shows he can get in-and-out of his cuts. http://espn.go.com/college-football/player/_/id/512774/quinton-patton Look at his game log, there are some insane state lines here. Do not dismiss his level of competition either. The two games that stand out: 6 receptions, 124 yards, 2 TD vs Illinois (B1G) 21 receptions, 223 yards, 4 TD vs Texas A&M (SEC) Patton went to JUCO and put up two great years at LA Tech. 2012 Highlights Vs Texas A&M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUVYuKAjDIo If anyone saw the A&M game you'll know Tech was down 34-7 at one point and came storming back. Looks like Patton has great body control. I heard an interview with Patton, seems like a solid guy. I wonder how high he goes?

I would much rather have Minter.

All we need now is a middle backer and our defense is solid. Minter from LSU!!!

Rare for an Ozzie deal too. He usually does not give high signing bonuses, just front loads the contracts with guarantees giving him flexibility later in the contract. I am not worried about Ngata. A full offseason to rest (no surgery this year hopefully) and returning to the nose tackle with a better surrounding cast and he should be an All-Pro again. With Suggs, we are in a good position with him financially. No way we take his full cap hit next offseason. Ozzie is a pro at this.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2013/03/13/on-the-market-huff-and-heyward-bey/ PFF had Huff rated as the #2 safety in all of football in 2011. In 2012 the Raiders played him at corner.

I think Suggs is going to be in an Anquan Boldin situation next offseason. With a big cap hit in the last year of his deal, Ozzie will probably offer a pay-cut or release him. This offseason there is an abundance pass rushers in their early-to-mid thirties. Next year is sure to be similar. I do not think Ngata will be restructured or cut next offseason, the savings would not justify the move. But after 2014, Ngata will be in a paycut-or-release situation as well.

There is going to be a lot of flexibility along the front five. Offensive lines will see a lot of different guys and a lot of different looks. Maybe the addition of Canty and Spears allows Ngata to go back to the nose tackle where he can be more dominant.

Right and that's the whole reason there is a RFA tender system, yet you do not see teams throwing long-term deals and draft picks for very good players. Now that Al Davis isn't running the Raiders, unless you are trading a QB or a disgruntled players, these trades do happen. Especially with the CBA restricting rookie contracts, a widening the FA pool, and limiting CAP growth, these trades are going to be increasingly more rare. I hardly need to defend my position on your Madden trades proposed over the years, but I'll hear you out: on our current roster who would you trade for more draft picks?

Because most of your proposed trades to get more picks are trades that wouldn't even work in Madden; do not take into account the CAP and bonus acceleration. Every team wants more picks. Nonetheless good article and Ozzie has a lot of opportunity this year.

Good points and nice remark on the MD gas tax. I am actually a proponent of taxes that raise funds for transportation projects. I think these projects are money well spent, and I believe the Red Line through Baltimore and the Purple Line through Montgomery and PG Counties are great projects. (Side note: Anyone see the recent report that had the commute from Baltimore County to Baltimore City as the 16th WORST in the nation? That is unacceptable!) Like you said, the politicians say the revenue is going toward transportation but with O'Malley that trust is not safe. This bill needs to make sure the transportation trust fund is locked air tight.

That might be the root of the problem there, identifying what is really discressionary spending, tackling the "mandatory spending", and trying to create an environment where we can increase GDP . Here is a quick hitter from Gary Johnson (who got my vote for president):

That is very dangerous thinking DC. I never said the debt is the cause of unemployment, I simply said it should be the primary concern. It is fiscally irresponsible as there is nothing of physical worth that backs our economy. Yes the stock market looks great now, but a few short positions by some big wigs on Wall Street acompannied by some bad news in Europe and things could get terrible real quickly. Remember the Dow Jones was sitting at $13.4K or so in early May 2012 and there was simply bad news out of Europe and it dropped to $12K in less than a month. People thought the sky was falling and everyone put there money into safe investments and as a result probably lost 10-15% of their retirement savings that they never made back. Now people are starting to gain confidence to put there money back into the market and I am scared to death the same thing is going to happen because there is absolutely nothing backing the market now. The most common problem for the average person is they lag behind the market and have there money in stocks when the market is failing and have their money out of stocks when the market is rising. There is a market theory based on trade volumes where the trading professions sell when they start seeing the average person buying again. We have an easily manipulated market and if you look at the key numbers (such as earnings per share) on a lot of large stocks, they are wildly inflated. So yes the market looks good now but it could easily be some bad news out of Europe away from a 1-2K swing downward. Note I am not taking sides here. Either cut spending or raise taxes to get the debt under control. We have seen the reports from the CBO where if it wasn't for the Bush tax cuts we wouldn't have nearly the debt problem we have now. In that sense, yes the cuts were egregious because they were not accompanied by lower spending levels. Yet I do not see people volunteering to mail in checks to the IRS for the difference in taxes paid the past decade between the Clinton and Bush tax levels. God knows the IRS would happily accept your money. Until we get the debt under control we will have a wildly cyclical market that is easily manipulated. Employers react just as irrationally: hiring and firing workers based upon these unpredictable, extremely volatile cycles. I just think Washington is diving in head first into the shallow end and have no idea how to efficiently fix this thing. Before any spending cuts are enacted we should really be doing a cost-benefit analysis of the current budget. DC you mention foreign aid is only 1% of the budget. I argue $40B is $40B. President Obama speaks about the sequester effects over a 10 year period, so 10 years of cut foreign aid, $400B. Heck imagine the good SRB could do if Baltimore got $1B. How about vacant government properties that take up billions each year? Excess budgets for government agencies? The average worker doesn't get a pension but government workers do? Do they work harder than the average person? Companies abandoned pensions over 20 years ago because it is not economically efficient. Legalize marijuana and that creates billions in tax revenues and saves billions in prison costs due to ridiculous sentences. Yes these are all low percentages of our overall budget but they are easy fixes that add up. Audit the fed, cut the fat and make easy fixes, then we will have a much better idea of what needs to be done to achieve the goals our society needs.

I think the term "creates jobs" is thrown around too loosely by both parties. Get the deficit worked out one way or another to regain confidence in our economy and the unemployment numbers will take care of themselves. Both parties IMO are approaching the problem backwards.

The only reason people were saying we are cap strapped is because if we had non-exclusive tagged Flacco that $21.1 million turns into only a little over $1 million in space. People were anticipating that immediate hit.

The Bengals are the cute younger brother we let into the playoffs once and awhile, the Browns are the red headed step child of the division haha.

Restructuring only effects the franchise number: whether that is $19 million or $20 million or whatever the Ravens cannot afford it and Linta knows that. The bottom line is Drew Bree's signed a deal worth $20 million annually last year, that is the contract Linta is going to work off of regardless of the franchise number or anyone else restructuring.