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Ravens Roster Offseason Plans


AngusMcFife

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The loss is still bitter, but I feel like reviewing the position groups and planning out roster moves. 

 

QB: Jackson, RGIII, McSorely

- RGIII could be cut, I think we can bring in a younger backup.

 

RB: Ingram, G. Edwards, Hill, Ricard

- Not much work needs to be done here, but we could add a late round back. 

 

WR: M. Brown, Snead, Boykin, Scott

- FA Roberts, C. Moore, D. Thomas

- Seems like a decent core but adding a big weapon could be huge. 

 

TE: Hurst, Boyle, Andrews

- A solid group, not much area for improvement

 

OL: Bozeman, Mekari, Skura, Yanda, Powers, Brown, Stanley, Hurst

- Second year in a row our C/LG really struggled in our playoff loss. Signing Stanley is a priority. Gotta wait on Yanda, but brining in a stud LG would definitely improve offense. It would be necessary to upgrade G if Yanda retires. 

 

DL: Williams, Wormley, Mack, Ricard

FA: Pierce, Ellis, Peko, Ward

- Yikes, this unit needs another player. 

 

ILB: Fort, Board, Alaka

FA: Bynes, Peanut

- Incredibly weak group

 

OLB: Bowser, Ferguson, 

FA: Judon, McPhee

- Very weak as well, although Bowser and Ferguson could be starter quality. 

 

S: Thomas, Clark, Elliot, Jefferson

FA: Levine, Trawick, Richards

- Jefferson will be cut. Thomas and Clark are good starters. Carr could move here. 

 

CB: Humphrey, Peters, T. Young, Carr, Marshall, Averett

FA: J. Smith

- Stacked group. Signing Humphrey would be great. If Young can't stay health that could be a problem. 

 

Area of serious need (talent and depth): ILB, OLB, DL

Area where major upgrade would be good (talent): WR, G (depending on Yanda)

Solid units/positions (could add depth): QB, RB, OT, C, S, CB 

 

I feel like the offseason we could use a vintage Ozzie Newsome plan, building defensive front 7 through draft and shopping for a FA WR. 

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Agree with all of that except I'd be tempted to move WR up in terms of need

The article by Jeff Zrebiec during the week about Jimmy Smith and wanting to stay gives me hope that a deal can be done, although I think only one of Carr and Jimmy will be on the roster next season

Any DL that is brought in needs to bring more pass rushing presence

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7 minutes ago, drd23 said:

Agree with all of that except I'd be tempted to move WR up in terms of need

Fair enough, I anticipate Brown and Boykin (to a lesser extent Scott) will be improved next year, at least be starter caliber. That's why I think WR is a position that we could talent to (1 great player), but don't need much depth. Whereas we need depth and talent in the defensive front 7 across the board. 

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Lamar and our corners masked our deficiencies for most of the season, but tonight made clear that those weaknesses were still weaknesses. We still need to get more athletic at WR and in the front 7. Guys who can emerge as reliable weapons for Lamar, and guys who can win their one on one matchups to penetrate the backfield. We are lacking on both ends right now and it at a very basic level we need to address that if we want to win in the playoffs. 

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2 minutes ago, drd23 said:

Agree with all of that except I'd be tempted to move WR up in terms of need

The article by Jeff Zrebiec during the week about Jimmy Smith and wanting to stay gives me hope that a deal can be done, although I think only one of Carr and Jimmy will be on the roster next season

Any DL that is brought in needs to bring more pass rushing presence

I wonder how Marcus Peters might look playing deep safety. Could use him as the cover one safety with Smith/Humphrey covering the boundary and Young covering the slot. Especially with Peters not having a preference as being a tackler, I wonder if he has any experience in that type of role. Could solve the quandary of what to do with all of these DBs and how to best get them all on the field. Marlon could also play safety, but I’m not sure you move him from corner this early in his career when he has all the makings of developing into a shutdown corner with a bit more experience.

19 minutes ago, AngusMcFife said:

Area of serious need (talent and depth): ILB, OLB, DL

Area where major upgrade would be good (talent): WR, G (depending on Yanda)

Solid units/positions (could add depth): QB, RB, OT, C, S, CB 

I think OLB is an obvious position where going for a veteran would make a lot of sense, whether its a Von Miller or a Yannick Ngagouke I think a trade makes sense for the comp formula and it’s something that we have young guys, but we need someone that can come in immediately and make an impact.

But like @drd23 stated, I’m definitely moving WR up as Hollywood has shown to be the only dude. These other guys have just shown to be good compared to what we’ve had in the past. Good compared to the Devard Darling and Chris Moore’s of the world. Since we can’t improve the TE position much, improving the WR position would go a long way into upgrading our offensive weapons... preferable a WR with plenty of experience making plays in big moments that thrives in pressure situations.

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Quite honestly this is the first thoughts I had once the game ended. Where did we falter? What holes were exploited? 

**only listing the holes at each position*

Offensively

WR: Need a #1.. brown showed up in the playoffs but it’s been since week 1 that we really saw his talent. Is it time to explore veterans? We’ve done wonders with Boldin & Steve Smith.

Inside O-Line: I believe we begin to plan on not having Yanda. Sadly. We need to upgrade Guard & Center. Mekari was a pleasant surprise and could take a big leap with an off-season. LG needs to be addressed 

 

Defensively:

DT: Let Pierce walk... Williams took a step back last season,  but came back around this year. I know he’s older, but Pierce just looked really large and out of shape this season. Need to add middle round talent to add depth 

Pass Rush: Let Judon walk... shocked I’m typing this but he went mia late in the season and playoffs. Doesn’t beat good talent at tackle position. Ferg + Bowser fight for the jobs and add pass rush. 1 vet and 1 highly drafted rookie. 

Linebacker: Losing Mosley did hurt. We never replaced him and got lucky with rotating no names all season at the position. 

Corner: BRING JIMMY BACK! Yes i love my man! But he played amazing this year. Young's health is a risk and Carr is beyond his years of corner. Maybe release him to bring Jimmy back. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, ravens5520 said:

WR: Need a #1.. brown showed up in the playoffs but it’s been since week 1 that we really saw his talent. Is it time to explore veterans? We’ve done wonders with Boldin & Steve Smith.

I see AJ Green, Amari Cooper, Emmanuel Sanders, and Robby Anderson are potentially available as free agents, though I'm not sure all of them will make it to free agency.

Also, there's a former no. 1 pick who's still young and really turned it on at the end of last season... Breshad Perriman xD

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1 hour ago, ravens5520 said:

Inside O-Line: I believe we begin to plan on not having Yanda. Sadly. We need to upgrade Guard & Center. Mekari was a pleasant surprise and could take a big leap with an off-season. LG needs to be addressed 

In theory Skura at C with Mekari as backup is quite solid, but that is assuming Skura will be back at full strength. I read he is planning to be ready for training camp. 

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1 minute ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Change #1: Cut Tony Jefferson and extend Chuck Clark

That really doesn't change anything. That's your offseason priority? 

I'd rather put future money towards Humphrey and Stanley. Would you extend Clark if that money would prevent us from signing either one of those elite guys? 

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49 minutes ago, AngusMcFife said:

That really doesn't change anything. That's your offseason priority? 

I'd rather put future money towards Humphrey and Stanley. Would you extend Clark if that money would prevent us from signing either one of those elite guys? 

 

53 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Change #1: Cut Tony Jefferson and extend Chuck Clark

 

So why cut Tony? TJ is a box safety. In our nickel we can have him play in the box. We actually missed TJ out there vs the run. He isn’t afraid to hit a rb and has always been solid verse the run. We could still roll Clark and Elliott out there  

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11 minutes ago, ravens5520 said:

 

 

So why cut Tony? TJ is a box safety. In our nickel we can have him play in the box. We actually missed TJ out there vs the run. He isn’t afraid to hit a rb and has always been solid verse the run. We could still roll Clark and Elliott out there  

Issue is contract. He won't be in Baltimore under his deal. Unless he takes a serious pay cut, he won't be on the team. He's also been abysmal since signing. Chuck Clark has been amazing in his place. I'd say cutting ties with Jefferson is a good thing. 

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3 hours ago, ravens5520 said:

So why cut Tony? TJ is a box safety. In our nickel we can have him play in the box. We actually missed TJ out there vs the run. He isn’t afraid to hit a rb and has always been solid verse the run. We could still roll Clark and Elliott out there  

TJ is a arm tackler that has consistently bounced off his tackles in the past, Clark wasn’t afraid to hit Derrick Henry either... but a 250 lbs back is hard to get down regardless. TJ makes way too much considering we could address his position in the draft. I would much rather have Jimmy Smith than Tony Jefferson... and that’s a realistic exchange of what it might come down to.

Though it’s going to be difficult to see how we can feature all of these corners. Do we rotate corners on the outside? Young is the nickel, so Humphrey move to safety? Does Peters? Will be interesting to see.

 

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3 hours ago, ravens5520 said:

 

 

So why cut Tony? TJ is a box safety. In our nickel we can have him play in the box. We actually missed TJ out there vs the run. He isn’t afraid to hit a rb and has always been solid verse the run. We could still roll Clark and Elliott out there  

Well, that was the idea behind our hope for Jefferson after his signing. That's not how the team actually uses him though. Maybe if both he and Clark are back that changes with how well Chuck is playing... but I'm not holding my breathe. Just cut him.

I'm fine with center. Between Mekari and Skura that's pretty solid. Both guard spots should be looked at though. Replacing Yanda at the same level is nigh on impossible but adding a competent guy and getting better play out of the left side at the same time would help. I mean Bozeman isn't bad (like Hurst most of the time), he's just there. And also another option at center. Tackles are set. 

Defensive line needs some help. Pierce is likely gone and Williams needs some guy that can penetrate to complement him. Wormley is a fine rotation piece to come in and take snaps when needed and not play way out of line, nothing more. 

Linebackers... yeah. Definitely need at least one good all-around off-ball guy. And another edge rusher if Judon isn't kept. That's the biggest question mark right now. Who knows what the team is thinking on that front. 

A good, reliable veteran at wide receiver would be great. Not some value, going downhill fast type like the team has gravitated towards in the past. I don't think a high draft pick is in play here unless some insane value rolls along. 

I think another corner would be nice, even if Jimmy is brought back. Between him and Young there isn't much reason to expect durability. I'm assuming Carr gets cut. Humphrey and Peters are great, but the team is leaning heavily on the secondary and they need to make sure all the depth there is legit. 

Nothing else stands out too much to me at the moment. But there isn't much left either lol. QB, RB, FB, TE, K, P, and LS are good. Unless Koch decides to hang up the cleats too. 

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I think Domata Peko playing for this squad could seriously boost our ability to land AJ Green. I think he’s got to be the #1 target. He would replace Seth Roberts for an insane upgrade piece. He’s a humble dude and thus won’t complain about targets and such, he would be cool with a 70 rec 1100 yds type season, he could help mentor and open things up for Hollywood Brown as he would no longer see as much bracket coverage. If they do see that Lamar would have so much more space underneath. With Green in tow, we could also look to trade Hurst for additional draft capital used to target the defense.

But we need some additional veteran assistance on the offense to get over the hump. We have enough veterans on the defense at this point, though I’m sure we would be active in going after high cap DL that get cut. I’m thinking a guy who could help this team that likely could be had on a “prove it deal” or perhaps for a quality veteran price that can collapse the pocket would be Marcel Dareus. Then I would expect a double dip in attack the position by virtue of the team targeting an IDL in the draft with pass rushing skills, such as Neville Gallimore on day 2.

Also we saw the limitations of not having an impact ILB this season, combine an impact DL with an improved DL and it could really pay dividends, lately we’ve seen a lot of the top ILBs in college have a seamless transition to the pro game FTMP. A guy like Dylan Mosses with his athleticism could make a lot of sense, for sure. Has similar ability to a Lavonte David.

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