Random Ravens Thoughts: New Forum Edition

[DreamKid]

18 minutes ago, wackywabbit said:

Are we already worrying about contracts for that 2018 class after 1.5 years? 

A strong FO like ours will. Unless the Wheels on the Bus Fall Off, Gus and his agent(Drew Rosenhaus) will be seeking a major pay day. Which no competent GM would accommodate for any HB not headed to the Hall. So he's likely a one and done Raven.

You continuously add to the talent pipeline, especially at running back.

[DreamKid]

How funny is it that Baby Zeus is leading all AFC Tackles in Pro Bowl votes?

Clearly his historically bad combine gave him some major visibility with NFL fans. And now that he's a solid starting Tackle on a big time offense, he's a magnet on those ballots. Good for him. Zeus Sr. would be so proud.

 

[Danand]

2 hours ago, diamondbull424 said:

Perhaps I’ll eat crow on this, but just not in the Justice Hill ball club. I see a lot of Alex Collins in him. No great RB vision IMO. With him being such a high pick I’m not sure if the team would move on from him and they’re definitely not moving on from Ingram and Gus, but I agree a homerun threat would be great. Hill is very explosive and fast, he’s just too much of an athlete for my liking. Probably should’ve played DB like his brother.

In college a great athlete can get away with not having great vision, but in the NFL it’s much more difficult. Plus his hands aren’t all that great to be a legit receiving RB that you put on a LB to expose him, like a Reggie Bush. Maybe he’ll prove me wrong next year, but I would love to draft another RB, that guy Clyde Edwards-Helair is who I really want. He’s the perfect fit within our offense with Edwards and Ingram.

I don't know how much "crow" we will eat. If he suddenly turns it around it will be because he learns something we can't see on the field yet. That runningback down in Tampa improved a lot from year 1 to year 2. Hopefully Hill can do the same, but so far we have gotten very little return from him. I don't know which system would suit him better, but I have my doubts so far that the blocking with him in the game suddenly goes so much downhill, that he can't find room to run with his speed, while Gus and Ingram often can find 6-7 yards.

[Danand]

I can't remember how we as Ravens fans went about the Zeus combine. I was very high on him and still picked him mid to late first round in mock drafts. What he was in pads was obviously not what he was in shorts, and I am still surprised how much emphasis people put in that combine. We got a steal and it showed almost immediately. The guy worked hard and went from being laughed at and ridiculed to lead the voting in 1,5 years. Impressive.

[DreamKid]

3 minutes ago, Danand said:

I can't remember how we as Ravens fans went about the Zeus combine. I was very high on him and still picked him mid to late first round in mock drafts. What he was in pads was obviously not what he was in shorts, and I am still surprised how much emphasis people put in that combine. We got a steal and it showed almost immediately. The guy worked hard and went from being laughed at and ridiculed to lead the voting in 1,5 years. Impressive.

I never had any doubt about his pure ability. His sheer length and size negates the need for plus athletic traits in many ways. My issue was with him showing up so unprepared for the biggest interview of his life. It threw his work ethic into question. And sure enough he improved upon his numbers greatly at his Pro Day, which I'm guessing he took a lot more serious after destroying his 1st Round stock at the combine.

He did fail his conditioning test with us to start camp this year too. So while his talent and upside shouldn't be maligned, he's not exactly Ray Lewis when it comes to his approach. Much different than the player his biggest detractors were trying to frame him as though. They took some poor testing results and tried to change the reality of him as an on field entity. 

I remember you definitely stood by him Dan, you were even fine with us taking him over Derwin James in the 1st. That's pretty concrete as far as support goes.

[Danand]

1 hour ago, DreamKid said:

I never had any doubt about his pure ability. His sheer length and size negates the need for plus athletic traits in many ways. My issue was with him showing up so unprepared for the biggest interview of his life. It threw his work ethic into question. And sure enough he improved upon his numbers greatly at his Pro Day, which I'm guessing he took a lot more serious after destroying his 1st Round stock at the combine.

He did fail his conditioning test with us to start camp this year too. So while his talent and upside shouldn't be maligned, he's not exactly Ray Lewis when it comes to his approach. Much different than the player his biggest detractors were trying to frame him as though. They took some poor testing results and tried to change the reality of him as an on field entity. 

I remember you definitely stood by him Dan, you were even fine with us taking him over Derwin James in the 1st. That's pretty concrete as far as support goes.

I saw more than one interview with him, where he seemed very sincere and honest about his body transformation. Basically saying he got into football in a very bad shape and was still in a process of getting his strength, nutrition and conditioning right after being a 400 lbs high school kid. I doubt we will ever see a chisseled Orlando Brown with abs, but that is just not his body type. I have seen him making several second level blocks this year, so he can move well enough to be a factor.

[drd23]

I think I was somewhat worried about the historically bad combine but thought that the interviews he gave afterwards alleviated some of my concerns (plus there was a lot of good video of him performing in game)

[wackywabbit]

After the combine, I was like, no way he should go in the first round because it was a red flag about his work ethic.

When we took him in the 3rd though, I was fully on board and thought it was a steal. He had first round tape and an extremely rare body type. The combine shouldn't have dropped him that much. I would have scooped him up high 2nd, which in hindsight is still too low.

[diamondbull424]

On 11/23/2019 at 2:40 PM, wackywabbit said:

After the combine, I was like, no way he should go in the first round because it was a red flag about his work ethic.

When we took him in the 3rd though, I was fully on board and thought it was a steal. He had first round tape and an extremely rare body type. The combine shouldn't have dropped him that much. I would have scooped him up high 2nd, which in hindsight is still too low.

Very similar to my perspective. I didn’t think he was an elite LT prospect to begin with so I didn’t think he was a top 10 pick. Plus it’s hard to project the transition from LT to RT as some guys feet are a lot worse when switching sides. So I was concerned by his workout for the fact of his work ethic as well as potentially his work ethic in transitioning sides. That said, even then I thought he was a late 2nd round value along with the Oregon LT that I really liked that year. Still think he would’ve been a good system fit with his run blocking.

In hindsight though, I still wouldn’t have gone with Brown in the first. There were enough guys like Minkah, James, Edmonds, etc. not to mention Lamar. Then a guy like Chubb I was high on who I think with Lamar would be averaging like 6+ ypc, as he’s basically Gus Edwards with breakaway speed.

That said, I love Zeus Jr. That was an awesome 3rd round and we all knew it at the time.

[RavensfanRD]

On 11/23/2019 at 1:01 AM, wackywabbit said:

Are we already worrying about contracts for that 2018 class after 1.5 years?  None of them hit real free agency until 2022 when they have 4 accrued seasons. Lamar and Hurst can both get the 5th year option, so that's a 2023 problem. Andrews, Zeus Jr, Gus, Bozeman, Deshon Elliot, and Marlon Humphrey hitting FA all at once will be a big year, but they'll start working through that early, I'm sure.

If Lamar wins a championship this year and continues his amazing career clip, you're nuts if you think that's 2023 problem, haha. And yeah, they'll work through some of those other contracts early. Good thing we've moved in the right direction with signing people early and not getting cap hell like during the Ozzie administration. I wonder who does the Pat Moriaty work now?

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

Part of me wants our Niners game not to get flexed so they're forced to play the 10am time zone game against an east coast opponent. Every advantage we can get.

The other part of me wants us to smoke them on National TV because they need to get humbled.

[Danand]

3 hours ago, RavensfanRD said:

If Lamar wins a championship this year and continues his amazing career clip, you're nuts if you think that's 2023 problem, haha. And yeah, they'll work through some of those other contracts early. Good thing we've moved in the right direction with signing people early and not getting cap hell like during the Ozzie administration. I wonder who does the Pat Moriaty work now?

Lamars play isn't sustainable, remember. So there won't be a contract problem in 2023, but rather a "find a new QB" problem.

If Lamar can continue to perform the next 3 games, he will lock down that MVP trophee after this week where both Wilson and Dak Prescott didn't put in a good performance.

[diamondbull424]

57 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Part of me wants our Niners game not to get flexed so they're forced to play the 10am time zone game against an east coast opponent. Every advantage we can get.

The other part of me wants us to smoke them on National TV because they need to get humbled.

Too late for the game to get flexed, would’ve needed to happen I believe 10 (maybe it was 12) days before according to the rules.

So yeah, we’ll be playing them at 1pm EST/10am PST.

edit: Though I’m sure it will be considered the primary game in other markets that don’t have a local game going. So half the fans will likely get a chance to see it at least.

Edited November 25, 2019 by diamondbull424

[drd23]

57 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Part of me wants our Niners game not to get flexed so they're forced to play the 10am time zone game against an east coast opponent. Every advantage we can get.

The other part of me wants us to smoke them on National TV because they need to get humbled.

It already can't - there's a 12 day minimum to flex a game

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

6 hours ago, diamondbull424 said:

Too late for the game to get flexed, would’ve needed to happen I believe 10 (maybe it was 12) days before according to the rules.

So yeah, we’ll be playing them at 1pm EST/10am PST.

edit: Though I’m sure it will be considered the primary game in other markets that don’t have a local game going. So half the fans will likely get a chance to see it at least.

 

6 hours ago, drd23 said:

It already can't - there's a 12 day minimum to flex a game

Wow the NFL really messed up not flexing that game. How are you going to have the 2 best teams in the NFL play at 10am est 3/4 of the way through the season?! I'm guessing that the SNF game that day is probably an NFCE game.