Journey to Ring 3: Club Evaluation & Building Another Champion

[BareYourTeeth]

Hopefully Bozeman playing his natural position in a contract year balls out but Skura was in a contract year last season and bombed out as we all know.

I wouldn't mind @diamondbull424's boy Mekari getting the RT spot with Phillips as the backup swing tackle too but maybe that's just me.

[M.10.E]

This will be Ricard's last year with the team I think. Can't afford to pay him and Nick Boyle (his contract is ugly if he doesn't come back 100%) with Lamar making real money now. 

Hopefully we see AV or Kelly signed this week to start at RT. Hopefully Phillips develops but I don't have my hopes up.

[DreamKid]

35 minutes ago, M.10.E said:

his will be Ricard's last year with the team I think. Can't afford to pay him and Nick Boyle (his contract is ugly if he doesn't come back 100%) with Lamar making real money now. 

Ricard isn't going anywhere. Majority of the teams in the league don't even use a FB. There's not going to be some bidding war for him. He'll probably just sign an extension similar to the last one we gave him, which we can definitely afford. 

[M.10.E]

12 minutes ago, DreamKid said:

Ricard isn't going anywhere. Majority of the teams in the league don't even use a FB. There's not going to be some bidding war for him. He'll probably just sign an extension similar to the last one we gave him, which we can definitely afford. 

Rather not have a $11 million (Ricard 4, Boyle 7) allocated to two guys who's primary job is to block and provide almost zero in the passing game.

And since we can't get rid of Boyle, Ricard is the man that might have to go. We can adequately replace him with Mason or a vet min guy.

Edited May 3, 2021 by M.10.E

[DreamKid]

Just now, M.10.E said:

Rather not have a $11 million (Ricard 4, Boyle 7) allocated to two guys who's primary job is to block and provide almost zero in the passing game.

I was only talking about Ricard. I think Boyle will be cut after the 2022 season when it's tenable. 

[M.10.E]

Just now, DreamKid said:

I was only talking about Ricard. I think Boyle will be cut after the 2022 season when it's tenable. 

I think both will be gone after 2022. I'm just against investing any money into a FB/blocking TE now when Lamar is going to get $35-40M a year.

[DreamKid]

Just now, M.10.E said:

I think both will be gone after 2022. I'm just against investing any money into a FB/blocking TE now when Lamar is going to get $35-40M a year.

Yea, that could be a philosophy they go with. It's just hard to see them being so willing to let Ricard go. As he can perform both duties(Blocking TE & FB) at an incredibly high level for about 4 Mill per year. He's been a key cog in this dominant rushing attack of ours. Time will tell though. That Lamar contract is going to be a doozy.

[M.10.E]

Just now, DreamKid said:

Yea, that could be a philosophy they go with. It's just hard to see them being so willing to let Ricard go. As he can perform both duties(Blocking TE & FB) at an incredibly high level for about 4 Mill per year. He's been a key cog in this dominant rushing attack of ours. Time will tell though. That Lamar contract is going to be a doozy.

Yup, going to have pick places/positions where we have to sacrifice. Going to be a lot of penny pinching/pushing money out going forward.

[DreamKid]

17 minutes ago, M.10.E said:

Yup, going to have pick places/positions where we have to sacrifice. Going to be a lot of penny pinching/pushing money out going forward.

I think DeShon Elliot will play himself out of Baltimore this season. Which really sucks, cause he's such a throwback Raven. We won't be able to give him the massive deal he might earn though.

Could be why the FO went so hard at Safety. Resigning our draft pick from last year Geno Stone, Brandon Stephens in the 3rd, Shaun Wade in the 5th, possibly securing Ar'Darius Washington as a UDFA. We've attacked the position in an under the radar way. Lots of young pipeline options. 

[sp6488]

5 hours ago, DreamKid said:

I think DeShon Elliot will play himself out of Baltimore this season. Which really sucks, cause he's such a throwback Raven. We won't be able to give him the massive deal he might earn though.

Could be why the FO went so hard at Safety. Resigning our draft pick from last year Geno Stone, Brandon Stephens in the 3rd, Shaun Wade in the 5th, possibly securing Ar'Darius Washington as a UDFA. We've attacked the position in an under the radar way. Lots of young pipeline options. 

I still think they try to get an early signing done with him (and possibly Averett on a lower number) with the draft now in the rearview mirror - With his 6th round rookie deal and his injury history, it would have to be at least somewhat appealing to him to trade some monetary upside for some guarantees now.

[drd23]

8 hours ago, DreamKid said:

I think DeShon Elliot will play himself out of Baltimore this season. Which really sucks, cause he's such a throwback Raven. We won't be able to give him the massive deal he might earn though.

Could be why the FO went so hard at Safety. Resigning our draft pick from last year Geno Stone, Brandon Stephens in the 3rd, Shaun Wade in the 5th, possibly securing Ar'Darius Washington as a UDFA. We've attacked the position in an under the radar way. Lots of young pipeline options. 

If they were going to "go hard at Safety" I'd have hoped it would have involved more than picking 2 guys who haven't even played the position and still might not, a former 7th rounder who they didn't think was good enough to stay on the roster and an UDFA 

[DreamKid]

43 minutes ago, drd23 said:

If they were going to "go hard at Safety" I'd have hoped it would have involved more than picking 2 guys who haven't even played the position and still might not, a former 7th rounder who they didn't think was good enough to stay on the roster and an UDFA 

Well when your starting safety tandem is pair of 6th Round picks, perceptions can change 😆.

[diamondbull424]

29 minutes ago, drd23 said:

If they were going to "go hard at Safety" I'd have hoped it would have involved more than picking 2 guys who haven't even played the position and still might not, a former 7th rounder who they didn't think was good enough to stay on the roster and an UDFA 

I can see where you’re coming from here, but can’t truly agree. Ar’Darius Washington might’ve been undrafted due to his size, but his talent was undeniable enough that multiple services had him as a top safety option based on play/ability; granted my conclusions aren’t of those sites, but of my own personal opinions, just using those as backup. Shaun Wade is a known talent that also while a nickel, had many believing he could make for a nice FS option. I don’t know if he’ll see any FS usage though, so this might be moot option. Than adding Brandon Stephens is just icing, since I’m not sure anyone knows what to truly make of him.

I think its all relative. If one takes “go hard at safety” to mean its completely solved past the 2021 season, I wouldn’t be so bold as to claim that with this draft and therefore I think safety could still be a need for the 2022 draft, however if one is to take the meaning as the safety position looks solved for the 2021 NFL season, I think that looks to be a very fair assessment. Between Elliot, Washington, and Stephens there appears to be enough there where we shouldn’t panic in the event of injury while also having a quality 3 safety nickel setup.

[drd23]

4 hours ago, DreamKid said:

Well when your starting safety tandem is pair of 6th Round picks, perceptions can change 😆.

Expecting to keep doing that is kinda foolish though

Just look at all the mid round OL we've drafted in the last couple of years - they should have turned into Marshall Yandas and Ricky Wagners by now, right?

[DreamKid]

5 hours ago, drd23 said:

Expecting to keep doing that is kinda foolish though

Just look at all the mid round OL we've drafted in the last couple of years - they should have turned into Marshall Yandas and Ricky Wagners by now, right?

I only meant that when you have two 6th round picks starting for you, investments that would typically be seen as lesser or routine can grab more of your attention. Kind of like how for years we would all love to talk about the mid-late round WRs we selected despite the fact that we weren't adding highly regarded players.

Ar'Darius Washington and Geno Stone both were Top 100 players on a ton of draft boards but ended up falling(Similar to DeShon Elliot). We drafted Brandon Stephens in the 3rd who EDC specifically said will be a very good FS for us. And then you have Shaun Wade who possess a strong skill set for NCB or a possible projection to FS. Maybe I should've phrased it differently than "Going hard at Safety", but I do think it's an interesting influx of talent at one of our more shallow positions. I'm not seriously contending that because we hit on Chuck Clark or Deshon Elliot that all late round and UDFA additions should be viewed the same as adding early round picks or big money FAs to a position of need. Or that players with circumstances similar to past hits are then guaranteed to deliver the same outcome. Feel like that should've been somewhat obvious. We added some intrigue to the pipeline, that was my only point.