Ravens 2021 OTAs & TC

[baltimoreRebel]

1 hour ago, DreamKid said:

 

 

I absolutely love it. I want a crazy FB out there. 

[diamondbull424]

1 hour ago, Ray Reed said:

Been saying it all offseason but the OL is going to be an issue all year. Everyone brace yourselves for that. 

The OL is filled with young guys playing newish positions plus some vets playing at new positions; OL work is one that really is dependent upon cohesion.

You’ve got a LT moved to RT, a LG moved to C, an IOL playing LT (I know he was a college LT a few years ago), etc.

That and the defense is typically ahead of the offense early within training camp on a consistent basis. I certainly wouldn’t use one padded practice as the evidence to justify any takes at this point in time.

If the OL is still looking bad come preseason game #2, then that would be something far more worrisome. As it stands however, there’s still plenty of time for the OL to gel with a great OL coach and an OC who consistently seems to get the most out of his OL (even if he hasn’t shown he knows how to build a lethal passing attack to this point).

[Ray Reed]

1 hour ago, baltimoreRebel said:

Day one of pads 🤣

I’ve said it all offseason haha it really doesn’t have a ton to do with today, it just kindve reminded me. When you look at the state of the Oline this year objectively, you have

A LT coming off of a serious ankle injury who had previously shown a propensity to constantly get nicked up. You have to hope that guy stays healthy. 

A RG and a RT who are on the back 9 of their careers who both had the worst years of their career last year. You have to hope both of them stay healthy at their age and that they can both play above their performance from last year. 

You have a LG who (despite whoever wins the job) come September 13th will have less than 5 career starts at that position in the NFL. You have to hope that from day 1 they can play at an NFL starting level. 

Not to mention the lack of OT depth.

You have to hope for all of those things to go in your favor simultaneously all year in order to field a better line than we did last year, and i’m just not sold that’s the most likely outcome. 

 

edit: response to @diamondbull424 as well.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Ray Reed

[DreamKid]

1 hour ago, diamondbull424 said:

The OL is filled with young guys playing newish positions plus some vets playing at new positions; OL work is one that really is dependent upon cohesion.

You’ve got a LT moved to RT, a LG moved to C, an IOL playing LT (I know he was a college LT a few years ago), etc.

That and the defense is typically ahead of the offense early within training camp on a consistent basis. I certainly wouldn’t use one padded practice as the evidence to justify any takes at this point in time.

If the OL is still looking bad come preseason game #2, then that would be something far more worrisome. As it stands however, there’s still plenty of time for the OL to gel with a great OL coach and an OC who consistently seems to get the most out of his OL (even if he hasn’t shown he knows how to build a lethal passing attack to this point).

 

1 hour ago, Ray Reed said:

I’ve said it all offseason haha it really doesn’t have a ton to do with today, it just kindve reminded me. When you look at the state of the Oline this year objectively, you have

A LT coming off of a serious ankle injury who had previously shown a propensity to constantly get nicked up. You have to hope that guy stays healthy. 

A RG and a RT who are on the back 9 of their careers who both had the worst years of their career last year. You have to hope both of them stay healthy at their age and that they can both play above their performance from last year. 

You have a LG who (despite whoever wins the job) come September 13th will have less than 5 career starts at that position in the NFL. You have to hope that from day 1 they can play at an NFL starting level. 

Not to mention the lack of OT depth.

You have to hope for all of those things to go in your favor simultaneously all year in order to field a better line than we did last year, and i’m just not sold that’s the most likely outcome. 

 

edit: response to @diamondbull424 as well.

Both of these takes can coexist imo. It's smart to have apprehension about the state of our OL. We knew it was an issue going into the draft and FA, and that it's woes played a large part in our few losses. We brought in a 3rd Round Rookie and a journeyman Vet to help patch the issues. It's not like we threw a whole lot at the situation. To DB's point I think we can expect the OL to come together and look better than what it does right now on paper. And to RR's point I think we should have realistic views on where the OL will ultimately be in 2021. 

[diamondbull424]

3 hours ago, Ray Reed said:

I’ve said it all offseason haha it really doesn’t have a ton to do with today, it just kindve reminded me. When you look at the state of the Oline this year objectively, you have

A LT coming off of a serious ankle injury who had previously shown a propensity to constantly get nicked up. You have to hope that guy stays healthy. 

A RG and a RT who are on the back 9 of their careers who both had the worst years of their career last year. You have to hope both of them stay healthy at their age and that they can both play above their performance from last year. 

You have a LG who (despite whoever wins the job) come September 13th will have less than 5 career starts at that position in the NFL. You have to hope that from day 1 they can play at an NFL starting level. 

Not to mention the lack of OT depth.

You have to hope for all of those things to go in your favor simultaneously all year in order to field a better line than we did last year, and i’m just not sold that’s the most likely outcome. 

 

edit: response to @diamondbull424 as well.

I expect the OL to be superior to last years fielded unit. First of all Zeus Jr was out of shape and looked pretty terribad for like the first 4-6 weeks, then looked good/great the rest of the way. His ascension back to PB level was however swiftly followed/concurrent with Stanley going down.

We fielded the worst IOL play I’ve ever seen from a Ravens OL with Tyre Phillips, who must’ve thought he was paid by the sack.

Our center play was average to below average with Skura… and that’s not considering when his hand imploded the offense multiple times until he was replaced. Then Pat Mekari while an improvement over Skura still bombed in the biggest game of the season against the Bills.

Beyond that our RT play was below average to average dependent upon if Philips played there and/or an injured DJ Fluker lined up there vs a healthy Fluker and/or Mekari played there.
————

Whereas conversely this season with the amount of IOL depth, Mekari can focus a bit more on OT duties where he looked average to above average with minimal focus there. One would expect average play from him there at minimum.

Zeitler had his worst season of his career while the entire NYG OL imploded under Marc Colombo who was swiftly fired from his job. That OL immediately improved once Judge took over full time. 

AV can’t be as bad as Philips was last season, regardless of if he had a down season last year and has a similar season this year, he’s better than the RT play was saw last year, specifically as a pass blocker- from both an experience standpoint and length standpoint.

Bozeman is unlikely to be any worst at center than what we’ve had fielded there the last few years, so for all intents and purposes let’s consider him a push. LG is a spot that should have either a more experienced Powers, a Cleveland that would have won a true training camp competition (unlike Phillips last season), or the host of other IOL competition playing for the spot.

Our OL pieces are in a much better place than where it was last season overall. The depth is stronger and while the LT/RT talent isn’t as good (if Stanley isn’t healthy), the IOL looks better and has much more depth.

1 hour ago, DreamKid said:

 

Both of these takes can coexist imo. It's smart to have apprehension about the state of our OL. We knew it was an issue going into the draft and FA, and that it's woes played a large part in our few losses. We brought in a 3rd Round Rookie and a journeyman Vet to help patch the issues. It's not like we threw a whole lot at the situation. To DB's point I think we can expect the OL to come together and look better than what it does right now on paper. And to RR's point I think we should have realistic views on where the OL will ultimately be in 2021. 

Zeitler and AV both tbf; both are superior journeyman options to what we brought in last season with DJ Fluker at least.

Our OL 3rd round pick is more competent than Philips as he’s not thought to be a project convert and is the real deal as a run blocker already.

I agree that I’m not exactly expecting the OL to be top 5 or anything but overall the components are there to be on a higher level than last season.

So I’m not exactly sure why there would be such fear and apprehension. The depth is all more experienced, the journeyman are all better and more experienced options with superior playing careers, and lastly the OL has more time to prepare for the things that imploded it last season (stunts and blitzes).

[Ray Reed]

^ That is - imo - an unrealistically optimistic look at things this year. Time will tell though, obviously hoping you’re right. 

Apparently Villanueva is getting absolutely abused by Oweh today though, so there’s that. 

 

Edited August 4, 2021 by Ray Reed

[Letsch80]

21 minutes ago, Ray Reed said:

^ That is - imo - an unrealistically optimistic look at things this year. Time will tell though, obviously hoping you’re right. 

Apparently Villanueva is getting absolutely abused by Oweh today though, so there’s that. 

 

Well I am hoping that this means that Oweh is just a massive problem for everyone not just AV. Probably not though 

[diamondbull424]

On 8/4/2021 at 10:21 AM, Ray Reed said:

^ That is - imo - an unrealistically optimistic look at things this year. Time will tell though, obviously hoping you’re right. 

Apparently Villanueva is getting absolutely abused by Oweh today though, so there’s that. 

Maybe though two things that I don’t think can be disputed are 1) Our IOL starting talent and depth is far better than last season and 2) Lamar Jackson is much more impacted by interior pressure than exterior pressure.

So while the OT talent is likely going to see a potential decline, that impact to the overall quality of the OL in protecting Lamar should still result in a net gain considering teams can’t be as aggressive along the outside or risk giving Lamar the kind of green that can lead to a momentous contract extension for Lamar- midgame.

So all things considered if healthy our OL looks better than last year, if healthy IMO and if injuries occur, it should still look about as good or better considering the strength of our OL is the weakness of our QBs pocket presence and the weakness of our OL is our QBs strength. Whereas last year that was not the case.

[M.10.E]

 

Flat circle.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

Losing Jimmy before preseason even starts when we all know Tavon is going to get injured at some point too is just devastating.

[NYCRavensFlock]

Someone (ideally a team leader like Calais or Marlon) really needs to tell Lamar to get vaccinated.  What if he gets reinfected and has to miss a playoff game? Completely unacceptable. 

[ravens5520]

This is awful. Jimmy was the guy we used in the box vs TE and it really showed last season. We will miss that element if Queen doesn’t step up his pass coverage this season

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

2 minutes ago, ravens5520 said:

This is awful. Jimmy was the guy we used in the box vs TE and it really showed last season. We will miss that element if Queen doesn’t step up his pass coverage this season

Here's to hoping that maybe Iman Marshall can fill that role. He has the size and athletic profile to do it. Just not the coverage talent.

[ravens5520]

6 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Here's to hoping that maybe Iman Marshall can fill that role. He has the size and athletic profile to do it. Just not the coverage talent.

We average 11 games a year out of Jimmy. Hopefully it isn’t season ending. He could truly miss 8 weeks and we would only be heading into week 4

[berlin calling]

1st - can we wait for an official report on the severity of his injury before sending him into retirement puhlease.

2nd - he got a 1 year contract to be the vet guy to spell minutes for the starters so i would not call doom on the season outlook already.