RavenMad

But past performance is at least part of the formula for projecting future performance. The media is still trying to decide which Joe will showup. The one that sleep walks through some football games or the one that put up one of the greatest post season performances by a QB in the history of the NFL. Therefore, 22 is about right. Ray Lewis wasn't a top 100 player last season. He couldn't cover his shadow and was a shell of his former self. He was only out there for his knowledge of the D and his leadership. He knew he was done and retired before he forced the Ravens to make a decision. That said, he is still the greatest Raven of all time.

It's easy, the Ravens resigned Billy Bajema when they cut Leach. I expect that if they bring back Leach then poor Billy gets released again and Juice moonlights as the 3rd TE to go along with backup FB and H Back.

Joe at 22 seems about right. The Joe we saw in the playoffs and basically since Caldwell took over the O should be top 10. The Joe we saw earlier in the season with Cam would be lucky to be in the top 100. So 22 doesn't seem too far off when looking at the full body of work for the season. Now if Joe carries over his post season performance then he will me the league MVP and should be rated #1.

If you want to see how Ben's career is going then take a look at what happened to Steve McNair. No doubt these 2 guys are warriors and battle through injuries like no other QBs but all those hits every season took a toll on Steve's body and his arm just fell off at the end causing him to retire early. I just see the exact same characteristics in both guys and I expect Ben will be done in 2 or 3 seasons.

The last former Denver Broncos pass rusher we got resulted in the Ravens setting a team record for sacks with 60. Is that a good omen? We seem to do well with former Broncos - Shannon Sharpe, Trevor Pryce, and now hopefully Elvis can continue that trend.

I think the Jim Harbaugh/Pete Caroll rivalry is bigger than the rivalry between the 2 Harbaughs.

Exactly. And in the case of the Redskins and Rams both teams won in that trade (assuming RGIII doesn't get injured every year). The fact is, we have been picking too late to really have a chance to get a trade like this. Sure there are teams like the Saints (traded a futre 1st to get the Heisman RB from Bama) that ocassionally make these trades but they are now the exception rather than the rule. I expect to see Ozzie start to trade up more. It seems that every team wants to trade down nowadays that there is actually good value in trading up. Ozzie did it in the 2nd this year for next to nothing to get Arthur Brown. Bill Bellicheat has started trading up more and he has been the master of the trade down in recent years. That is what makes teams like us and the Patriots so good at draft time. We stay ahead of the curve when it comes to draft tactics and we never overpay or undervalue our picks.

But teams have wised up when it comes to the draft. Sure there are still some head scratchers now and again. But don't you think that Ozzie tries his hardest to get those deals every year? Even the Ravens Brass have admitted that most of the league has caught onto how to draft and we have had to dip into small school prospects more and more to find an edge over other teams.

The Patriots also signed a new long snapper: http://goo.gl/3DMXO Oh wait, I see what they did there

Thankfully the rings look awesome compared with the pic in the OP.

Dickson played well in the Superbowl. Hopefully the confidence he gained from that performance can help him improve this season. It would be nice for him to give Ozzie a headache in deciding to resign him or Pitta. That would bode well for the Raven's this season. I could see us running a lot more 2 TE packages this season especially if none of the young WRs can step up to give Joe confidence throwing in 3 WR sets. Dickson runs a pretty good seam route and that would allow Pitta to work the underneath middle and have Ray as the dump off option. With Torry and Jacoby on the outside, that will be a lot of field for a defense to cover.

We went with the Kindle Fire HD in the end and she loves it. That said, I still prefer the setup of the apple products and apps and my 2 year old can work my iphone with no problems (although he seems to like moving my apps all over the place). I will probably purchase an ipad in the future when my laptop needs replacing. Just need to make sure I get a cover straight away this time as I am one of the masses with the cracked iphone 5 screen.

After Jones caught that pass for a TD, I started to believe we were destined to win it all. I just got that vibe from this team that they were going to do whatever it took to win it all for Ray's retirement party.

Former Eagles Coaches with the Ravens: Juan Castillo - Run Game Coordinator (With the Eagles 1995-2012) Bob Rogucki - Strength & Conditioning Coach (With the Eagles 2006-2007) These are the only 2 from the Eagles. John seems to bring in more coaches he worked with in his college days at Cincinnati and Indiana.

At the time is the right move to walk away. Flacco hadn't proved he was worth $16m per year. Up until Cam was fired it was looking like a dumb move on Joe's part. After the end of season and post season that Joe had he deserved what he got in the end.

I liked the look of Thompson in preseason last year. My only concern is what does he offer that is different to Torrey and Jacoby. All 3 seem to be very similar style of receivers and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, it could be problematic if that style of receiver is being shut down by certain defenses. That said, all that speed on the field at once sure is going to be fun to watch.

What a knobhead McClain is. I actually thought this would be a good signing and that Ozzie could straighten him out but I guess that Rolando is unfixable. This was a great shot for him to prove to the NFL that he was better than what we saw with the Raiders. A shot to prove that it was a dysfunctional Raiders team and not all down to him. With this decision, he has slapped Ozzie in the face and flipped the bird at the NFL. However, there may be more to this than meets the eye. It could simply be that he had a chat with Ozzie and he decided he needed a year off to sort out his legal issues etc. and get himself ready physically and mentally again to play in the NFL. He really still wants to play for Ozzie and the Ravens and that is why he is on the retired list rather than get flat out cut. At the moment, I feel there is too much crap surrounding Rolando that I have to believe he is just an asshole that doesn't care about anyone but himself.

I guess he should be celebrated as no.3 but it's hard to accept that Irsay is a better owner. I could almost agree with the no.1 but not the no.2

Only on a small scale max. Caldwell said he was still running Cam's offense as there just wasn't enough time to install something different. He just called plays better and tweaked things here and there. With a full offseason to work on it, hopefully we will see even more of a jump forward. It also helps that Joe really seems to be on the same page with Caldwell whereas there always seemed to be some mistrust in Joe and Cam's relationship.

Hopefully we now have an OC that can run plays with route combinations that can get guys open. We never seemed to have any plays that put pressure on defenses to pick who they covered and leave someone open. That alone could help pick up some of the slack left by the departure of Boldin. How many times last season did we see opposing teams having receivers running across the field uncovered yet we never seemed to have that.

His nfl.com profile says he has 4.54 speed and he has been timed as good as 4.45 so certainly speed doesn't appear to be a problem.

I like it because Arthur Jones and Terrence Cody will be FAs in 2014. That means we have already filled a spot on the D-Line for next year with KLM. I think they put him on the PUP to start with and if they pick up an injury mid way through the season then he might make it to the active roster. If not, he goes to IR and will be 100% for 2014.

It sucks for me. I used to love spending a Saturday evening watching the early rounds (It used to kick off at 5pm my time). It now kicks off at 1am! With 10mins per pick and the Ravens picking 32 that could be 5 hours before the Ravens pick and that is assuming they don't trade out. That's 6am my time. That rules me out as I will have to work in 2 hours. I guess I'm going to have to watch it on rerun on NFL network and try and avoid all media while working on Friday.

I thought this had to be a "FBI investigates the Cleveland Browns for fraudulently impersonating an NFL calibre football team" story.