Let's get this out of the way

[vmax]

I don't see the Ravens moving up in the first round of this years draft. If you want them to move up to get a certain player that you really like, then you will be disappointed. Every year I see players go off the board before the Ravens pick who I think would be great in a Ravens uniform. I think "They have to get this guy!" but I forget to factor in the cost.

Vensel gives a few good examples of the cost....

 

 

What is the cost of moving up? Let’s take a look.

....... two years ago, the Atlanta Falcons, who were picking 26th, traded a second-round pick, a fourth-round pick and future first- and fourth-round picks to the Cleveland Browns for the sixth overall pick, which they used on wide receiver Julio Jones.

That may be what it would take today for the Ravens to move up to the point where they could get one of the top three tackles -- Luke Joeckel of Texas A&M, Eric Fisher of Central Michigan and Oklahoma’s Lane Johnson. They could all go in the top five of the draft and will most likely be gone by the 12th pick.

What about Austin, the Dunbar product who many draft analysts feel will be drafted by the 16th pick at the latest? According to this handy draft value chart from Ourlads, the Ravens would have to give up their top three picks this year -- or a comparable package -- just to get up to pick No. 16.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baltimore-sports-blog/bal-sports-blitz-ravens-trading-up-nfl-draft-20130411,0,1318989.story#ixzz2QI2UYWW1

 

Ozzie does not like giving up his draft picks. To him it's like trading 3 good football players, that he knows he can get, for one. That cost is too high...not the Cap cost. The amount of talent cost.

The Ravens need lot's of young talented bodies at camp this year to fill out the roster. Ozzie needs all 12 of his picks. He may move up and down in later rounds, but he'll end up with 11-12 players. He's got to find some solid, immediate starters and rebuild the depth.

And he will.

 

 

 

[cravnravn]

Aint a snowballs chance in hell we give up 3 picks just to get a 5'9" slot receiver.

 

 

Max, that Ozzie signature is fake

[vmax]

Aint a snowballs chance in hell we give up 3 picks just to get a 5'9" slot receiver.

 

 

Max, that Ozzie signature is fake

 

We should sue that website for letting me steal a fake photo.

 

Austin is not a #1 WR. Not a #1 RB. He should be a #1 return man somewhere, but he's a good example of teams stretching and wasting value if he goes in the top 16...because of outstanding times at the combine.

[papasmurfbell]

I see Ozzie backing up again.

[reddog271]

 

I see Ozzie backing up again.

 

 

I agree.. I think we move back 4 or 5 spots.... allowing someone to jump back into the first round

[oldno82]

The story so far seems to be that all the LT's will be gone early in the first round.

[papasmurfbell]

All the out of the box LT's will be gone but guys that need time to get ready will be available later.

 

This article I found interesting.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9114874/st-louis-rams-lt-jake-long-path-proves-demise-left-tackle-espn-magazine

 

Left behind

 

IN APRIL 2008, the Dolphins were so eager to make Michigan left tackle Jake Long the No. 1 pick overall and the cornerstone of their franchise that they signed him to a $57.5 million contract four days before the draft. Long more than lived up to that deal, becoming only the fourth tackle in 50 years to make the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons -- before a triceps injury sent him to injured reserve last December.

 

 

Yet almost five years after the '08 draft, the Dolphins let Long -- who at 27 is entering his prime -- hit the open market without even offering him his $15.4 million franchise tag salary. Long ultimately became the 11th free agent offensive tackle to sign this offseason, inking a four-year deal with the Rams that could be worth as much as $36 million. But the contract came after he lingered on the market for a week, with his old team as the only other real suitor.

 

 

So why the dramatic drop in urgency and currency for such a productive player? Actually, it's not Long who has lost so much value -- it's his position. The left tackle, once considered an essential building block for every franchise, has seen its importance erode in this era of read-option spread offenses. That's something NFL teams with high draft picks need to consider on April 25, when two left tackles, Texas A&M's Luke Joeckel and Central Michigan's Eric Fisher, are expected to be top-five picks.

 

Times have changed dramatically since 2006, when the Ravens' Michael Oher was the inspiration for The Blind Side. That best-selling book and eventual blockbuster movie helped mythologize the left tackle's role in protecting the quarterback's back. But in '06, the ideal QB still stood in the pocket and worked through his progressions before delivering the ball downfield. Today, QB drops are shorter, the ball comes out quicker, the passers are far more elusive and the pressure is coming from all over, not just the right defensive end. As a result, Oher doesn't even protect the blind side anymore. In Super Bowl XLVII, he started at right tackle.

 

 

Who would have ever predicted that when the Ravens made Oher their first-round pick in 2009? "If there's a great left tackle available, sure, people are still gonna take him," says Phil Savage, executive director of the Senior Bowl and former GM of the Browns. "But I absolutely think you're going to see more and more people rethink the idea of the left tackle as this top-notch, highest-paid, building block kind of player."

 

 

Savage's reversal on the position is telling. In 1996 he was the director of player personnel in Baltimore when the Ravens drafted left tackle Jonathan Ogden with the fourth pick overall. In 2007, while running the Browns' draft, Savage selected LT Joe Thomas third overall. It's hard to dispute the impact of either guy; Ogden, in fact, was just elected to the Hall of Fame. But there's no disputing this either: Of the 12 left tackles drafted in the top 10 since 2004 -- at a collective price of more than $500 million -- only three have a postseason victory, and not one has an NFL title to his credit (Ogden won a ring in 2000). And although Thomas and Long have been to 10 Pro Bowls between them, neither has won even a single playoff game.

 

 

Consider this also: In the first round of the 2007 draft, Savage bypassed Adrian Peterson, who last year had one of the greatest seasons by a running back in NFL history. To take Long in 2008, Miami passed over QB Matt Ryan, who has led the Falcons to the playoffs four times and took them to last season's NFC championship game. "I do not regret taking Jake Long," former Dolphins executive Bill Parcells told ESPN.com in April 2011. "But you always wonder if you should have taken a quarterback."

 

 

For decades, old-school thinkers like Parcells and former Colts president Bill Polian considered quarterback, left tackle and pass rusher to be the "holy trinity" of team building. Now the argument can be made that the correlation between victories and elite left tackles no longer exists. "When coaches talk about position hierarchy, left tackle isn't among the top few anymore," an AFC team exec says. "Now it's QB, pass rusher, cornerback, wide receiver. A guy like Joe Thomas shows that a great left tackle isn't nearly sufficient."

 

 

Nor is he necessary. After all, Eli Manning won two Super Bowl MVPs with former fifth-round pick and converted guard David Diehl protecting his backside. Aaron Rodgers sets up behind fifth-round pick Marshall Newhouse. And who can name Tom Brady's left tackle? How about Peyton Manning's? Considering that those two legendary QBs had the quickest releases in the league last season -- 3.03 and 3.04 seconds, compared with the league average of 3.46 -- do the names really matter? Linemen simply don't have to hold their blocks as long as they used to.

 

 

Meanwhile, to counter quick-strike passing attacks, defenses like the Giants' and Ravens' have started to take a shorter, more direct path to the quarterback by overloading pressure up the middle, which places more value on guards and centers. That's why Alabama's Chance Warmack could become just the seventh guard taken in the top 10 of the draft since 1988. And because running backs and especially tight ends are too valuable in the passing game to stay in and block -- catches by tight ends are up 16 percent since 2008 -- even the right tackle position is on the rise.

 

 

In the end, the importance of protecting the quarterback hasn't diminished; it's just that the responsibility and rewards are now more evenly distributed across all five O-linemen. "It used to be you found a great left tackle and built the rest of it from there," Savage says. "Now, because of defenses, you'd better be solid across the entire line. Instead of the super-elite left tackle, it's about five men who block well in a system. You could write a whole book about how the spread offense has impacted the NFL game."

 

 

In that book, the chapter about left tackles could be titled Blindsided.

 

[oldno82]

We'll need some guy who's an effective vet at LT...maybe McKinnie while we develop a kid to take over.

 

Good article,too!