AngusMcFife

What complicates things is that Garrett actually did not go public with the accusation. He discussed what happened with NFL investigators, and they leaked it to the media. It appears he wanted to keep what happened private, and not give any excuses for what he did publicly. That is way different than Smollet who went out of his way to stage an incident and then publicize it.

If I were a racist who called people the n-word, I would be sure to never do that in front of my black co-workers who protect me from getting pummeled! If you remember Riley Cooper had no qualms about dropping n-bombs at a country music concert but nobody ever thought he was racist before that incident.

I don't think it is possible for Rudolph to prove his innocence, since not everything said on the football field is recorded or even heard by other players. I think that Rudolph's career is over anyways. The Steelers played better and more inspired under Duck. I don't think the Steeler players have any respect for Rudolph after how he acted in the whole incident with Garrett.

I think the Ravens are in a win-now mode, so getting comp picks is less of a priority. The Ravens have 2020 and 2021 when Lamar will be on his cheap rookie deal, I think we will load up our team both years and make a run. Those comp picks wouldn't really help us that much until 2022, since mid-round draft picks take time to develop.

The difference is Gilmore is a veteran, Clark has not even started a full year yet. Gilmore's game is established, whereas Clark's weakness might not be evident yet. Those two false steps he took on the Titans play is textbook bad safety play. To my eye the Ravens increased the amount of time Earl Thomas was in near the line of scrimmage towards the end of the season, maybe they have to rethink that if Clark's play on the back end is not as reliable as once thought.

Yes, I clearly remember when the Ravens gave him the responsibility of covering the deep middle vs the Titans in the playoffs and gave up a 45 yard TD. The problem with anointing a guy too early is that teams maybe pick up on tendencies and exploit them. Hopefully Clark can improve on playing deep because the Ravens like to mix up which safety is covering a given zone of the field.

It depends on how he develops. For instance if we gave this extension to Peanut before the past season, many would probably think it would have been a steal. But it would have been buying high because his play cratered when given more responsibilities.

Ok but his overall grade from 2018 is pretty bad, in limited snaps. Agree that he will likely have the same secondary surrounding him for at least 2 years (J. Smith might leave but Tavon Young will be back). It looks like DeCosta wants to stabilize a core of players that can win a championship in the next couple years, before the Lamar contract is coming. I just hope we can add enough talent to the front 7 to make a championship level defense.

I was a little skeptical of extended Clark because we've only ever seen him play well alongside a loaded secondary including a HOF free safety and 2 all-pro CBs (Humphrey and Peters) and Jimmy Smith to boot. But hopefully we are not buying high, and he continues to improve after getting paid. He's a good ST player too.

Interesting thanks for the feedback. Not sure if the Ravens will dip into the ILB pool early in the draft so I'm curious who is out there. Based on what I hear, I'm not sure if I would trust Kwiatkoswki to switch systems and be effective, but maybe a vet like Trevarthen could. Also KPL sounds promising but there's too little a sample size to assume he could step into a starting ILB role on a different team.

Ravens fan here. We don't have a starting quality ILB, I noticed you guys have Trevarthen, Kwiatkoski, and Pierre-Louis all hitting FA. How would you rate each of those players? Are you looking to resign one or more of them?

How about starting caliber player? I think to assume a mid round ILB can come in and start is not being very realistic given the success rate of LBs drafted in those rounds.

I would break down the free agent ILBs the following way: Top 1: Corey Littleton Younger ILBs: Joe Schobert, Blake Martinez, Nick Kwiatkowsi (good in coverage, questionable run defense) Veterans: Danny Trevarthen, Josh Bynes (good run defense, questionable in coverage) Jamie Collins (inconsistent) Swiss army knife: Kyle van Noy (can play inside and outside)

I agree with you there. But my point is that having the ball at your own 5 yard line with 1:35 left in the second quarter, with 2 timeouts, when the defense has all 3 timeouts, when the score is tied, is actually advantageous to the defense. That's the point I'm getting at. Whereas having the ball at your own 20, with 1:00 left in the second quarter, with 3 timeouts, when the defense has all 3 timeouts, when the score is tied, is slightly advantageous to the offense. BUT, Kyle Shanahan could not know prior to the punt, if it would be a touchback or not. I think people calling him out are not really thinking through the scenarios accurately, from a probabilities standpoint.

Well the Ravens are all in on analytics, which are based on win probabilities. I guess Harbaugh is the dumbest coach of all time.