sp6488

"We are actually THE most tortured fanbase. Fanbases whose teams don't win all of the time do not realize how disappointing it is for your teams to not win every single year."

Personally I'm in no rush to get rid of the holder Tucker has had his entire career in the NFL.

Also, the difference we can expect/hope for from a DC who doesn't completely shut down the pressure late in games.

I'm pretty sure I've heard a good amount of positive things about the two of them from various sources. He also made it clear how excited he was to play with an ELITE quarterback, so how could the relationship not be great?

They allowed 36 points in that game. They would only allow 129 across the other 15 games.

Personally I think the series jumped the shark a few years ago. I used to love Magary, but he's changed for the worse IMO (just not fun to read anymore).

I would think deep threat receivers would lead this list consistently due to the type of throws going their way. I realize QB accuracy/ability is a major component, but I'm still very surprised to see Aiken on the list.

That's a sort of tricky position to support. The only times we lost by more than one score (thus "***** handed to us") were the games against Jax and Pitt in weeks 3 and 4 (not-so-coincidentally the first two games we were without Williams). All five other losses were by one score. We were 9th in the league in scoring and 6th in scoring defense (8th best point differential; teams 1-7 all made the playoffs). The team was certainly flawed, and there are reasons to say they got lucky, but this notion that they achieved a 9-7 record by the skin of their teeth and that they're clearly bound for some massive regression is a bit of an exaggeration.

That's certainly possible. I agree with your overall point, but I will say that such an exercise is only really valuable if you acknowledge that (1) other teams get the benefit of playing injured teams as well (the Ravens have had worse-than-average injury luck as a team at that) and (2) rosters will get injured this year too. The Ravens certainly played more than their share of 2nd string QBs, but they also had some "bad luck" in other manners as well. Overall I think our schedule does look more difficult this year, but I think some of the "dinging" of last year's performance for various reasons is a bit overblown.

It's almost like they are trying to stir the pot for headlines.

I believe so. It may be referring specifically to run defenses, or defenses for that matter, rather than teams overall (albeit not super clear on that point).

Interesting....

I was going to say the same, but was too lazy to type anything out.

5x5 H2H league (offensive categories OBP, R, RBI, HR, SB) Would you rather have Gregory Polanco, OF, Pirates or Adam Jones, OF, Orioles for the remainder of the season?

Well said, Wackywabbit. Also, with respect to the bolded, that's fine, as long as you are willing to go through every other team's season and do the same. For example, the Steelers looked way worse against that backup-led Packers team that everyone loves to claim as a game we got lucky with. I realize that if you make that a loss, they still win the division, but my larger point is that you could say the same for a bunch of teams and it doesn't really work if you only "penalize" the Ravens (and fail to include the other things WW mentions). Basically, wins are wins in the NFL.

Anthony MacFarland from Maryland will be draft-eligible in 2020. Good chance (at this point) that he doesn't declare, but he is the highest-ranked recruit (pretty high 4*) in a fairly talented backfield. He redshirted last year due to injury concerns from HS, but looks to be used in the RB rotation this year and get a fair number of looks as a slot/WB. I don't think he necessarily should be on the short list for 2020 prospects at this point, but he's a guy to keep an eye on.

I disagree, @diamondbull424, I think this team is more likely to be in the playoffs than a top-10 pick. That said, I think middle-of-the-pack (like pick 16-ish) is well-within the realm of possibilities considering how we finished the last two seasons. I think we have gotten better (granted, who doesn't think that about their team?) and we have had a terrible rash of injury luck (and other freaky things, like the end of that one Jax game) the last two seasons that just isn't sustainable. Further, we've had one top-10 pick in the last decade and like two in the past 15 years. Ultimately, I think 11-5 is far more likely than 5-11. Again, not saying a top-10 pick is impossible, but I think the seeming consensus that we'll finish significantly worse next season is a bit odd. If I had to weight where we end up between bottom-third/middle-third/top-third of the league, it would be something like 15%/55%/30%.

This is what happens when one company has exclusive rights to a whole league/sport. No incentive to innovate since people will buy it anyway with no real competition.

I find it interesting that so much of the forum community (at least those putting together mocks at this point) is convinced that the Ravens will be picking top-10 in 2019.

I think we also saw a lot of balls get out quicker than normal, often to a spot where it was either going to be a short catch or incompletion, whether that was Flacco doing it because he didn't trust his line or by design (or a combination of the two). There were certainly some good players along the line last year (Jensen, for example), but the early injuries threw off the cohesion of the unit.

The Ravens OTA Penalty thread in News

Just caught up on that thread. That has to be performance art, right? RIGHT? Please tell me it is.

Not sure what you're talking about. On my way over to check it out.

I doubt it (cautiously, of course). This is exactly the verbiage used by Harbaugh when he announced that Martindale would be taking over for Pees. Also, he's been our LB coach, so I'm sure many of the players do know his style/personality.

I'm more concerned about direction than magnitude in this case. And re: @DreamKid I'm fine with that, honestly. A pass rusher who can play screens is more than valuable enough IMO. Lamenting him not being awesome at running man-to-man with TEs and being a complete stud in the run game would be somewhat letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.