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Ravens sign Kevin Zeitler


BareYourTeeth

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As expected.  He may not be as good as he was when he left the division, but he's certainly better than the cluster- we had at RG last season

Zeitler was always going to be the #1 choice.  Not only does he bolster the OL, he also won't affect any comp picks coming our way for Judon/Ngakoue 

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32 minutes ago, coordinator0 said:

Nice. That's a lower number than I expected. I'm guessing he plays RG so one of LG or C are still up for grabs (wherever Bozeman doesn't play). Brown Jr. will be traded at some point too so a new RT will be in the works.

I'd love to get Wagner back out here on a friendly deal as insurance for the RT position. I'm sure we're going to attack that position in the draft (if Brown is indeed moved). 

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Curious about how it's structured and how much of our cap space it took up. I had expected us to be hot and heavy in the Linsley and/or Thuney sweepstakes and this signing doesn't necessarily rule that out but does make it somewhat more unlikely. Should hear more about that later today in any case. 

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Just now, SalvadorsDeli said:

Curious about how it's structured and how much of our cap space it took up. I had expected us to be hot and heavy in the Linsley and/or Thuney sweepstakes and this signing doesn't necessarily rule that out but does make it somewhat more unlikely. Should hear more about that later today in any case. 

I'd say this all but puts us out of Linsley and Thuney as much as I wanted one of them. That market is going to be too rich for our taste. We have to really address our pass rush situation and will need money to do it. 

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This was an amazing notification for a rough Monday am! I mentioned his name last week due to the comp picks not being affected and still shoring up a big hole for our roster.

Still believe we see Orlando Brown stick around. Either our coaches and FO have been great at smoke screens or they really have had good talks with Orlando. Harbaugh didn’t make it sound as if this situation was as bad as speculation during his presser. Now that could be a ploy for teams to not low ball us. Also we haven’t see Orlando post anything further or speak out since last month. 

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6 hours ago, BareYourTeeth said:

 

Woooooo

My draft day crush from the 2012 NFL draft has finally been rewarded. Zeitler was arguably my highest graded IOL draft prospect ever. This has been a long time coming.

I love this move, Zeitler is a veteran that will provide a Matt Birk/Marshal Yanda type presence to the OL.

Also we can’t discount the fact that Rick Wagner played with Zeitler at Wisconsin, are probably college buddies, and is also a former Raven that was a cap casualty.
————

This all said Patrick Mekari should not be discounted. Outside of one serious snap implosion in the divisional round, he was arguably our best IOL all season long while playing multiple spots.

I think he should be a strong facet in the teams plans at IOL/RT. If Bozeman switched to center, Mekari should quite easily be the starting LG above Powers. He also displayed that he has legitimate NFL potential at RT as he was our best RT option there the past year... though perhaps that’s not saying much.

Lastly, if Mekari was who we had to roll with at center because the draft didn’t work out to allow us to get a strong center option, I wouldn’t be too mad. He had one terrible snapping game in 2020 within crazy conditions, he had more overall snapping issues in 2019... but was brand new to the position. Obviously his snapping improved year over year while not dedicated to the position exclusively. 

Mekari’s level of blocking at the position can’t be questioned IMO, just his snapping consistency... which outside of the Bills game was much improved from the year before. Given another year within the lab, I’d be less concerned with it moving forward if the team was forced to go in that direction, as long as the rest of the OL is strong it’d be a gamble I’d be comfortable with considering TCC as a capable backup option.
—————

I’ll predict a lineup of:

LT- Stanley/Mekari
LG- Bozeman/Bredeson
C- C.Humphrey*/TCC
RG- Zeitler/Powers
RT- Mekari/rookie*
6 man- Mekari

I think Mekari will either start at RT or be the first man up for every interior position as well as the main LT backup. His 5 position versatility along the OL I suspect will be greatly appreciated at some point.

Edited by diamondbull424
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