oldno82

Yes and I hope that carries over to free agents as well, including our own.

Yeah, I'm so sick of us drafting players like this that never pan out. I feel like we keep bashing our heads against the wall and don't really consider a different approach.

Sadiq just might become our pick according to some mocks i've seen. While I really want to improve the offensive and defensive lines, Sadiq may be just tempting enough for me to draft him first. Risky but potentially big reward.

That is why Lamar has to help out with his contract. I'd really like to see us try and keep: Linderbaum, Gilman, Awuzie, Washington, and Stout. Henry is under contract for one more season. Don't know what Mitchell's status is but I'd like to have him on an incentive laden deal if he's really healthy. Likely is a bit of a puzzle. They seem to want to go with Andrews. After Likely came back from injury, neither he or Andrews stood out.

And they have to get Lamar to go along and do an extension in order to reduce his $70 million cap hit.

I think this is the key: our players will be better coached and better prepared than before. The coaching talent coming in has a high ceiling. Some of these coaches have been very effective without having many stars on their teams. They can take average players and have them playing above their talent levels. Just hoping it all comes together without too long a period of adjustment.

Plus they hired Ledford to coach the O-line...formerly Falcons' line coach. According to Minter, Ledford is among the best offensive line coaches in the league. Anybody know of him? Apparently, he has been also thought highly of by Vikings fans who wanted him to go there.

I'm not so sure he's coming to the Ravens. I don't think he's on the interview list. Now it was asked of Harbaugh if he would be interested in teaming up again with Ryan in NY. Harbaugh didn't rule that out but it's hard to tell how serious either Ryan or Harbaugh is about it.

Well, Leonhard sounds like he would have been ideal. It's a shame we lost out on him to the Bills. Rex has been out of coaching for a long time. I'll be surprised if he was willing to come back.

I don't see Rex or Marvin being willing to do that. What is the source of this report? I haven't seen it anywhere.

Yes...that's what I heard Minter say.

Right. So you’re saying he could still coach defensive players but shouldn’t call plays.

Did you mean to say’whole team’ or ‘whole d’?

Well, I agree it is risky hiring an OC with no experience calling plays. But, they say he's a Wunderkind so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until I hear from him how he's gonna coach a bunch of the veteran players. I do know it's gotten good marks from pretty much everybody in the sports media. Rex back in B'more seems a stretch to me at this point. He's got some good points but plenty of bad ones regarding his personality. He wasn't exactly a success after he became a head coach and didn't have Ray Lewis, Tony S., Ed Reed, et. al., to carry the D. I'm not sure I'd be happy with that hire.

Anybody got any thoughts on the Doyle hiring?

Read this on The Sun website today: "Minter’s offensive staff is expected to include Dwayne Ledford, who is reportedly being hired away from Atlanta. Ledford, 49, is widely regarded as one of the league’s top offensive line coaches and run game coordinators." I really like where we're heading there.

Wow! The youth movement is really on!

Various thoughts: He was impressive and I'm glad he's going to be calling the plays because that is one of his major strengths. I think he'll turnaround the D. Now he has to hire an offensive coordinator who can do the same for that side of the ball. If he can turn around the Ravens' defense as fast as he did the Chargers, we should be able to compete with anybody next season. And, I like how he plans to use Kyle Hamilton. I'm really anxious to see who he picks as OC.

Thanks, tsyl!

Could be.

good news: Warhop's going to Cleveland to be Monken's O-line coach.

They would probably have to do that if they want Cleveland to give their permission for us to interview him since that would be a promotion instead of a lateral move for Schwartz.

I just found out that WBAL-TV is streaming this on their website tomorrow rather than broadcasting it like I thought. So, if you're interested in seeing it, fire up your internet tomorrow at 11:30am and go to their website. I'm guessing that maybe the Ravens website might have it too.

C'mon, Cleveland, give us Schwartz!

Well, we could always bring back Matt Cavanugh.