Impact of loss of Pita and Boldin

[vmax]

Here's my first 'knee jerk' thoughts. I want to hear yours.

 

This is a huge amount of production to replace. Chain moving, clutch catching production. "Take over the game" production. Redzone dagger production. "Damage in the Playoffs" production.

 

In a sense the Ravens are heading back to 2008 on offense as far as overall personnel. That's what I see but there certainly will be some differences. Joe has elevated his game and Caldwell, not Cameron is the OC.

 

Joe will think it's 2008 when he had Clayton and Mason as receiving options. Baltimore had the 28th ranked passing offense...but the 4th ranked rushing attack in the NFL. Remember: That team made it to the AFC Championship game.

The 2013 offense has the same great weapons in place with Rice and Pierce to run the ball. Jones and Smith did serious damage in the playoffs so Joe still has a better base of receivers than he had in 2008. Don't forget how much Joe uses Rice in the passing game when his receivers were struggling. He can fall back on that this year.

 

Another huge help for the 2008 team was they had the #2 defense in the NFL surrendering only 15.3 points per game.

The 2012 unit was ranked 17th and surrendered 21.5 points per game. They have a long road to climb to get back to 2008 numbers. To have any shot at making the playoffs, the defense must do a complete turn around....now.

 

Adversity has struck the 2013 Ravens. It's up to them to respond.

 

I'm going to close on a positive note here.

This team has a great coaching staff in place and a ton of talented, impact playmakers. My expectations haven't changed as far as this being a playoff caliber team. I think they can still make the playoffs.

How well the 'Next Man Up' develops over the season and how well the defensive unit grows will determine if they can get on another great playoff run.

Few of us thought the 2012 unit could go far in the playoffs. Hell...we were beginning to doubt if they could make the playoffs. What mattered is that team believed in themselves and never lost faith. They never lost their swagger.

At the end of the Super Bowl Harbaugh said to Ray, "It's never easy is it?" Ray said, "No. and it's never pretty."

Then Harbaugh said, "Yea...but it's us!"

 

Get ready for another "never easy, never pretty" Ravens season.

 

They have another weapon... us. The 12th man....

[cravnravn]

Disagree about it being 2008, joe has confidence with Caldwell and vice versa, 2008 cam dummies down the game for Joe,2013 Caldwell will keep the play book open,

 

We lost a 1/53 rd contributor to this club, pitta will be replaced, it Dickson hides the stickum we won't miss a beat,

 

Just go back to 2010 we lost heap and mason. We were a lee Evans drop away from kicking the Giants ass in SB 46.

[varaven45]

Max,

 

I thought the same stuff. Harbaughs trip to Gettysburg was pretty timely . The team will surely be in for a battle, grind it our season .

 

With the absence of the sure handed receivers, we may well watch a smash mouth style offense with Rice and Pierce leading the way. Maybe Ozzie will work his magic and pick up some late summer addition- although I'm not holding my breath.

 

Still, this team has talent and solid coaching. It's a new season and they"ll figure it out.

 

[papasmurfbell]

It could be bad but at least this happened now and not later. They could get past this.

[oldno82]

Won't be like 2008. Caldwell won't allow that to happen and Joe is 5 years more experienced. It hurts yes, a lot, but this is still a very good team.

 

Should we sign Vonta and Brandon Marshall now after all this? I read in the Sun where Jusyckshdyk got pushed all over the field at practice yesterday, even by guys he outweighed by 35 pounds!

[varaven45]

Juice got pushed all around huh ? What did you expect he's from Harvard ! Just kiddin

[cravnravn]

Juice got pushed all around huh ? What did you expect he's from Harvard ! Just kiddin

 

No kidding here, They cant play in the NFL

[thesteelhurtin]

I don't think the ravens have a choice but to bring leach back. They better hurry up and do it before more power in negotiations goes to his side. I'm sure he is loving reading that this kid is struggling.

[Robjr83]

Pitta's loss is huge. Maybe Caldwell will have to look at our running game more now. If we get Leach back then we'll still have the best 3RB combo in the league.

[Geronimo]

I'll take the mentality that alot of my fellow ravens fans took when we traded Boldin, and apply it to the Pitta loss, "we really don't need him" i'm paraphrasing but that's been the mentality in a nutshell. Boldin's contributions to our superbowl run have been minimized so i'll do the same for Pitta. Pitta really isn't that important just as long as we have Joe. If Boldin wasn't going to be missed then neither is Pitta.

[cravnravn]

I'll take the mentality that alot of my fellow ravens fans took when we traded Boldin, and apply it to the Pitta loss, "we really don't need him" i'm paraphrasing but that's been the mentality in a nutshell. Boldin's contributions to our superbowl run have been minimized so i'll do the same for Pitta. Pitta really isn't that important just as long as we have Joe. If Boldin wasn't going to be missed then neither is Pitta.

 

Thats where you are wrong, we didnt need Boldin AT 6 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR

[colincac]

We also didn't need Boldin BECAUSE we had Pitta on the roster. Both guys were good at finding the soft spots and Joe could trust them to make an important 3rd down or TD grab when they were guarded. Unfortunately we now have no one on the roster with that ability unless Dickson finally steps up. I absolutely agree that bringing Leach back is now almost a necessity.

[Geronimo]

 

Thats where you are wrong, we didnt need Boldin AT 6 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR

So you wouldn't want Boldin back at 6 million now?

[Money]

So you wouldn't want Boldin back at 6 million now?

 

Do you just not understand the concept of a salary cap?

[Geronimo]

we were 5.5 million under before we signed Shiancoe, trim a little here a little there , and in theory we could have kept Boldin, hindsight is 20/20 , but we could have kept Boldin.

[Money]

If we had kept Boldin, Dumervil would not be a Raven right now and there would be no talk of bringing back Leach.

[Geronimo]

If we were 5.5 million under the cap why would that effect Dooms , the money could have been cut from somewhere else. The goal line debacle in practice is way over blown if you ask me, Juice is a very good receiver and you can scheme to your strengths down on the goal line(anywhere on the field as a matter of fact). So while the power running game may not be what it once was with Leach , you play to your strengths and spread the defense out and run with deception or play action or just pass. Leach would be less of a need if we still had Boldin.

[Geronimo]

If we had kept Boldin, Dumervil would not be a Raven right now and there would be no talk of bringing back Leach.

Everyone is raven about this kid John Simon, so to your incorrect analysis about Dooms not being here, just to humor you, Simon would then take Dooms role. Simon is a workout warrior with a high motor, he could fill the role just fine and may even be better than Dooms , time will tell, but we'd have Boldin and i would feel alot better about the offense.

[Money]

"The money would have been cut from somewhere else". Really? From where??? If you want to disagree with how Ozzie does things, that's fine, but you are going to need to be a little more detailed in what you would do if you want people to take you seriously.

[Robjr83]

I bet Pitta is regretting not getting a deal done B4 camp.

[papasmurfbell]

I bet Pitta is regretting not getting a deal done B4 camp.

Yep. It could be career ending.

[Geronimo]

"The money would have been cut from somewhere else". Really? From where??? If you want to disagree with how Ozzie does things, that's fine, but you are going to need to be a little more detailed in what you would do if you want people to take you seriously.

Laquan Williams makes 555,000 , there you go, not that hard to look up salaries. I'm disagreeing with you Money, you're the one saying Dooms wouldn't be here and Leach couldn't come back. and i just showed you that Dooms wouldn't have been effected by us keeping Boldin. Everyone is talking about how big this Pitta loss is , well if Boldin was here it wouldn't be that big of a loss. My overall point is still the same if the Boldin loss is not a big deal , then neither is us losing Pitta.

[thesteelhurtin]

Laquan Williams makes 555,000 , there you go, not that hard to look up salaries. I'm disagreeing with you Money, you're the one saying Dooms wouldn't be here and Leach couldn't come back. and i just showed you that Dooms wouldn't have been effected by us keeping Boldin. Everyone is talking about how big this Pitta loss is , well if Boldin was here it wouldn't be that big of a loss. My overall point is still the same if the Boldin loss is not a big deal , then neither is us losing Pitta.

I'm sorry but that makes no sense. When you lost boldin you lost your number 1 guy in redzone targets, redzone catches, catches in traffic, and I believe third down catches but it was alright because you had the number 2 in those categories in Pitta.

[papasmurfbell]

I'm sorry but that makes no sense. When you lost boldin you lost your number 1 guy in redzone targets, redzone catches, catches in traffic, and I believe third down catches but it was alright because you had the number 2 in those categories in Pitta.

Throw out the old and go young.

[Money]

Geronimo...

 

Are you actually suggesting that the Ravens go with only 52 players this year? $555,000 is the league minimum salary for a 3rd year player. Even if you sign a rookie free agent to replace Williams, the Ravens would have play him the league minimum of $405,000.

 

I'm not sure about you, but I prefer the Ravens actually go with a 53-man roster.