oldno82

We need to draft a QB sometime to groom Joe's replacement for a few years. Now what round that is is up to people smarter than me. Perhaps we skip QB this year and begin shoring up the other weak spots and go for the QB in 2017. Either way it's time to start thinking about life after Joe. I'm hoping that Joe sees the light and reduces that cap number big time. I'm hoping, but wary of his agent.

If Shaub is the problem, start Clausen and use Renner as the backup. Sheesh! The damned season is over anyway, wtf are we trying to salvage?

So should we be looking to draft a QB to learn for a season or two behind Joe? And if so what round? We've got so many needs.

Great suggestions! The NFL needs to get off its collective ass adopt those options.

That's how I see it. I think Maxx is younger by a year than the rest of the group too.

Yup, there's no good choices. I'm sure Harbs will start Schaub. I would start either Claussen or Renner. Is Renner still on the practice squad? I lean towards Renner just to give the kid a chance to see what he can do. Then there's been some talk about bringing in Ryan Fitzpatrick. Sheeesh!

Yup. Forsett makes the list.

Alright. I keep hearing about building around a core of players so I thought I'd take a shot at listing who I think is the core: Marshal Yanda Rick Wagner (?) Buck Allen Terrence West (?) Joe Flacco (?) Crockett Gilmore Maxx Williams Nick Boyle The defensive line CJ Mosley (?) Jimmy Smith Will Hill And I'm sure I missed others but that's my first crack at it. Anybody else have a list of our core players? Oh and I'm assuming Steve Smith retires as does Daryl Smith.

That list is a few weeks old. I'd like to see it re-done now. Or better yet, at the end of the season.

Well, he hasn't exactly set the world on fire here. He hasn't had much to work with though. I don't think he's an essential cog in the Raven's wheels.

Any surprises we can generate during the rest of this season will be good ones. I don't think there's any more bad surprises left.

I think you're right. Allen and West could be a nice shot in the arm for the Offense. With Schaub,maybe he'll bounce back and be effective. With the state of our OL and WRs though, I think I'm drinking purple kool-aid there. And that leads me to say, maybe we should have seen this season coming after the lousy pre-season we had. It showed we had no depth and that our second stringers on down couldn't win a game or hold a lead. I'm not usually a believer in preseason performance, but maybe I should be.

There's a lot that has to go right for us before we get in the playoffs again. Cincy and Pburgh both have a lot more talent than we do and they seem to do it every year---lately. I know Ozzie loves to draft BPA but that sure hasn't worked with the Matt Elam and Arthur Brown picks. And the jury is out on Perriman. I'm pulling for him to be what we need but at the moment, I'm not even sure he'll get on the field for us ever. The biggest problem we've had is drafting way down the line every year since 2008. During that time the Bengals and Steelers have rebuilt. I just can't see us being in their class next year. It's going to take quite a while.

Preston's take: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bs-sp-preston-ravens-column-1124-20151123-column.html.

The last 6 games are going to be so bad, it doesn't matter a rat's ass who backs up Schaub.

Really bad news about Joe and I hope he's not out for a full year, but that is quite likely. If he was ever going to get injured, this was the season to do as someone else pointed out. That first round pick of ours just might be a QB if we draft high enough. Bad, since we needed so many other positions too. Sure has been a depressing year. All we need now is for Steve to sell the team!

I'm beginning to think Harbs and his staff make no impression on this team.

There's so many holes that they're caverns. And we don't have many core players: the O-line and the D-line is about it.

I don't have much faith in Linta, Joe's agent. We need a substantial cut from Joe's contract or else I'd say let him go. There's no player in the NFL that's worth 28 Million per year.

True, Crav. But if he won't restructure we're going to need all the cap space we get can get. We need WRs, a power RB, probably a new LG, at least one more CB, pass rushers (Suggs will be beyond his prime when he returns), and if Joe goes a new QB. I think that's going to take more than one year of rebuilding.

It's going to take more than one season. We have to be in this for the long haul. Whatever, I feel comfortable with Biscuit and just hope he doesn't decide to sell before the re-construction is done.

And way too many ******** penalties!

Don't know about a SB win, but I'd bet we would have beaten the Pats.

I don't think we've hit rock bottom yet but we're very close. The loss of Steve Smith is a killer. I haven't seen any other offensive playmakers to date. For that matter, there's been no defensive playmakers either. But that wouldn't stop me from going to the game. If I could afford the tickets.

That means opposing offenses have a lot of time to complete passes. We're not getting anywhere near the pressure on opposing quarterbacks that we used to get. If they can find a way to step up the pressure then there would be more INT's. More problematic is why we aren't causing any fumbles either. That one has me mystified.