Why didn’t the Ravens sign Clowney or Kerrigan?

[turtle28]

You know, I was just checking out you all’s depth chart at 3-4 OLB and I continued to be shocked that you didn’t sign Clowney or Kerrigan.

Pernell McPhee is one of your starting OLBs and while he’s good vs the run he’s not the pass rusher he used to be years ago before his knee injury in Chicago. No one can tell me that if they had signed Clowney or Kerrigan that they wouldn’t start as the Ravens main rush OLB in their 3-4 scheme.

Do you all think that was a missed opportunity by the Ravens?

Or, are you all comfortable w/ McPhee, Ferguson, Bowser and the rookie Oweh who has potential bc of his athletic ability but needs a lot of work on his technique as a pass rusher before he can be a reliable starter.

I bet if Kerrigan had signed with the Ravens that he’d have 7 to 10 sacks this year for you all. Really a head scratcher to me that they didn’t sign him.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

I don't think either of those guys are a missed opportunity. Kerrigan is washed and Clowney is too injury prone. Apparently we have our eyes on Justin Houston, so we'll see if we go through with that.

[ThatJaxxenGuy]

Clowney is injury prone and washed up, and I feel like Kerrigan had his sights set on Philly with the speed at which he signed. 

[turtle28]

1 hour ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

I don't think either of those guys are a missed opportunity. Kerrigan is washed and Clowney is too injury prone. Apparently we have our eyes on Justin Houston, so we'll see if we go through with that.

Kerrigan isn’t exactly washed, he’s not what he once was but he had 5.5 sacks in each of the last two seasons. In 2019 he had 5.5 sacks despite missing the final month of the season with his first real injury which kept him out that long in his career.

This last year his snap count was cut in half as he was the 3rd pass rusher behind Young & Sweat. If his snap count went back to being near a starter then it has to be assumed that he’d get a few more sacks on the season which leads me to believe if you guys had signed him he would get you 7 to 10 sacks.

I realize Clowney is injury prone but, he makes an impact in ways that don’t always show up in the stat sheet. I think not having a pass rusher like Ngaukoue or Judon is going to hurt you all this year.

I hope Owey does something for you all this year but I just don’t know if he’s ready to start.

Edited May 24, 2021 by turtle28

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

11 hours ago, turtle28 said:

Kerrigan isn’t exactly washed, he’s not what he once was but he had 5.5 sacks in each of the last two seasons. In 2019 he had 5.5 sacks despite missing the final month of the season with his first real injury which kept him out that long in his career.

This last year his snap count was cut in half as he was the 3rd pass rusher behind Young & Sweat. If his snap count went back to being near a starter then it has to be assumed that he’d get a few more sacks on the season which leads me to believe if you guys had signed him he would get you 7 to 10 sacks.

I realize Clowney is injury prone but, he makes an impact in ways that don’t always show up in the stat sheet. I think not having a pass rusher like Ngaukoue or Judon is going to hurt you all this year.

I hope Owey does something for you all this year but I just don’t know if he’s ready to start.

I'm not the right person to ask about Judon because I don't think he was anything above an average pass rusher where most of his production was schemed up or came as a result of him getting free rushes to the QB or matched against TE's. I think anyone can replicate that.

Yannick was basically invisible for us and had to be subbed in on pass situations because he couldn't play the run. Oweh will play all 3 downs for us. Whether he will produce or not, remains to be seen. I'm still hopeful we'll sign a veteran like Houston who can come in and "coach" the young guys while still producing a little bit but it seems the Ravens are pretty set on getting younger at OLB and relying on Bowser/Oweh to carry the load.

[turtle28]

1 hour ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

I'm not the right person to ask about Judon because I don't think he was anything above an average pass rusher where most of his production was schemed up or came as a result of him getting free rushes to the QB or matched against TE's. I think anyone can replicate that.

Yannick was basically invisible for us and had to be subbed in on pass situations because he couldn't play the run. Oweh will play all 3 downs for us. Whether he will produce or not, remains to be seen. I'm still hopeful we'll sign a veteran like Houston who can come in and "coach" the young guys while still producing a little bit but it seems the Ravens are pretty set on getting younger at OLB and relying on Bowser/Oweh to carry the load.

Yeah, that would be a good move & I agree about Judon most of his sacks were schemed up.

Kerrigan could’ve done what you want Justin Houston or someone else to do for you all. Kerrigan helped Montez Sweat and Chase Young a lot. Ah well, can’t change that now.

[DontTazeMeBro]

Clowney is a lazy slob and if it wasn’t for his hype coming out of high school he probably wouldn’t make $4 million a year.

The guy we should’ve signed was Matt Judon.

[AngusMcFife]

23 hours ago, turtle28 said:

You know, I was just checking out you all’s depth chart at 3-4 OLB and I continued to be shocked that you didn’t sign Clowney or Kerrigan.

Pernell McPhee is one of your starting OLBs and while he’s good vs the run he’s not the pass rusher he used to be years ago before his knee injury in Chicago. No one can tell me that if they had signed Clowney or Kerrigan that they wouldn’t start as the Ravens main rush OLB in their 3-4 scheme.

Do you all think that was a missed opportunity by the Ravens?

Or, are you all comfortable w/ McPhee, Ferguson, Bowser and the rookie Oweh who has potential bc of his athletic ability but needs a lot of work on his technique as a pass rusher before he can be a reliable starter.

I bet if Kerrigan had signed with the Ravens that he’d have 7 to 10 sacks this year for you all. Really a head scratcher to me that they didn’t sign him.

My opinion is that the Ravens play a "complex" defense and the OLBs are expected to be versatile. Just plugging in a pass rusher doesn't really help them, as the Yannick trade demonstrated. 

Ferguson has been coached up for 2 years so he should be ready to be a solid contributor with Bowser and McPhee. 

Sometimes have smart, versatile players who know the scheme is more valuable than a pass rush specialist. For example, the 2019 Patriots had an excellent defense without a good pass rusher on the edge. 

[turtle28]

12 minutes ago, AngusMcFife said:

My opinion is that the Ravens play a "complex" defense and the OLBs are expected to be versatile. Just plugging in a pass rusher doesn't really help them, as the Yannick trade demonstrated. 

Ferguson has been coached up for 2 years so he should be ready to be a solid contributor with Bowser and McPhee. 

Sometimes have smart, versatile players who know the scheme is more valuable than a pass rush specialist. For example, the 2019 Patriots had an excellent defense without a good pass rusher on the edge. 

Yeah and Kerrigan played in a complex 3-4 scheme from 2011-2019. The only year he played in a 4-3 was last year.

When Kerrigan was drafted Hasslet was our defensive coordinator and we ran a 2-gap 3-4 scheme. When Jay Gruden fired Haslet and hired Joe Barry then we switched to a 1-gap 3-4 scheme, so it’s not like Kerrigan didn’t have experience in the scheme.

There’s also ways to use a guy like Kerrigan but not have him have to be in coverage much. For example, on run downs McPhee could be in and on passing downs Kerrigan would go in and mostly just be a pass rush specialist so to say.

Edited May 25, 2021 by turtle28

[wackywabbit]

The Ravens defense doesn't NEED the type of individual pass rusher you are envisioning to have a top defense. They just need their secondary to stay reasonably in tact, health-wise.

[DreamKid]

On 5/23/2021 at 7:04 PM, turtle28 said:

Pernell McPhee is one of your starting OLBs and while he’s good vs the run he’s not the pass rusher he used to be years ago before his knee injury in Chicago. No one can tell me that if they had signed Clowney or Kerrigan that they wouldn’t start as the Ravens main rush OLB in their 3-4 scheme.

The Ravens traded an early round pick for Yannick Ngakoue last year and didn't play him for significant stretches during the season. As other posters have mentioned, this defense isn't dependent on 'name' pass rushers at EDGE to sustain high level success. No outside pass rusher is so dominant that they can significantly affect the game when the QB is getting the ball out in 2-2.5 seconds or less, which is a generous estimation of what every offense is trying to do when going up against our defense. 

On 5/23/2021 at 7:04 PM, turtle28 said:

Or, are you all comfortable w/ McPhee, Ferguson, Bowser and the rookie Oweh who has potential bc of his athletic ability but needs a lot of work on his technique as a pass rusher before he can be a reliable starter.

We don't really need these guys to live up to the "Starter" billing in a traditional sense. We utilize a platoon approach at the position. Everyone just needs to excel within their role and we'll see great results. I'm confident in the group being able to accomplish that if everyone stays healthy. 

Oweh doesn't need any major evolution to be a pass rush asset for us in Year 1 either. This scheme affords plenty of favorable looks to pass rushers. Unblocked, vs TEs, overload, stunts, etc. Judon earned his FA bag on the back of them(With straight line burst as his calling card). So Odafe and his sub 4.4 speed/all around juice, will fit right in- immediately.

[diamondbull424]

In addition to everything listed here, I think Daelin Hayes can’t be discounted within our edge rotation. He’s a high upside late round addition that has a lot of versatility. So the edge spot looks like:
Bowser
McPhee
Oweh
Ferguson
Hayes

That’s 5 deep of options that can provide a diversity of speed and power. Adding a veteran could take away from some of the youth movement there. There’s a bit of a gamble with having so much youth, but adding a veteran and paying him $5m per that wants a significant role- could hinder the defense, if he’s not the player that his ego might still believe he is. The risk/reward for adding a player that might only marginally improve the unit, like Kerrigan simply isn’t worth it. If he were a great edge option that we could obtain for awesome value because some agent forgot to fax in the proper paperwork... then I’d likely have a different perspective. As it stands however, I don’t view Kerrigan to be a true difference maker that would push the needle of our defense up to another level.

[turtle28]

16 hours ago, DontTazeMeBro said:

Clowney is a lazy slob and if it wasn’t for his hype coming out of high school he probably wouldn’t make $4 million a year.

The guy we should’ve signed was Matt Judon.

I wouldn’t call Clowney lazy, being injury prone is not lazy. I think Clowney & Judon are similar actually. What hurts Clowney is he doesn’t have a quick first step, but he’s good against the run - maybe even great - and is a good but not great pass rusher. He’s a knack for making a few splash plays or almost splash plays a game that lead to turnovers for others on the back 7 that don’t show up in the stat sheet.

Edited May 25, 2021 by turtle28

[turtle28]

8 hours ago, wackywabbit said:

The Ravens defense doesn't NEED the type of individual pass rusher you are envisioning to have a top defense. They just need their secondary to stay reasonably in tact, health-wise.

Well that’s true, but I think it’s obvious that in Kerrigan’s case and I think Clowney as well that they’d be upgrades over what you have. 
 

Kerrigan signed with the Eagles for $2.5 million, isn’t that worth 7-10 sacks as a rotational OLB for you all?

Edited May 25, 2021 by turtle28

[SalvadorsDeli]

I think there's clearly room for another EDGE player at the right price and I still think there's a better than 50% chance we end up signing Justin Houston. But harping on Clowney in particular at this point just seems weird. How many years in a row does he have to do absolutely nothing after being touted as the 'final piece' for some contender before we admit who he actually is as a player? If we're bringing another EDGE player in then the emphasis will be on bringing in someone who we feel is reliable from a production/availability standpoint, and Clowney is the furthest thing from that.