diamondbull424 Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 Notable Offseason happenings: Defensive coordinator- Vic Fangio Special assistant- Chuck Pagano Mike Wallace- resigned Notable FA additions/losses Jeremy Maclin- released Ryan Jensen- Signs elsewhere for more $ Jordan Matthews- FA pickup 6’3” 212 lbs, Matthews has the size to aid as a red zone threat. He is a great route running option as a third down presence. What’s more every season he’s had in the league he’s had a catch rate at around 65-69%, which means he can be a reliable option for Flacco. Matthews is also coming off a down year and surgery, so he will likely see his market value decreased enough to be affordable to a Ravens front office that will likely be shopping on a budget. 2018 NFL Mock Draft Round 1- Pick 16 Taven Bryan, 6’5” 293 lbs- DE/DT, Florida We’re picking 16th in the draft, which has to be reserved for a playmaking talent that falls vs reaching on a player. I really wanted to go offense but I don’t think there is a wide receiver in this class that is going to be the best available player at this slot. With that in mind, I went with Bryan. He’s drawing comparisons to JJ Watt and for good reason. This guy just plays like a Raven. On a single play he beat his double team block, got into the backfield, hit the running back, then seeing that the quarterback was dropping back for the pass shifted and attacked the quarterback causing him to rush his pass nearly forcing an interception. It’s rare that you see a player play with his kind of work ethic and hustle on every down. And he’s not just a pass rusher, his run stuffing ability is at a high level as well. Our pass rush has been hot and cold. One thing that should help out our secondary and linebackers during pass coverage is more pressure up front. We invested heavily in pass rushing outside linebackers last draft. We can finalize our defense with one more elite selection of a dominant 5-tech. Enter Taven Bryan. Player comparison: JJ Watt/Jared Crick Round 2- Pick 20 Brian Oniel, 6’6” 305 lbs, OT, Pitt I can imagine their being a run on wide receivers in the second round. Either way, Oniel is a fluid prospect that possesses a very athletic skill set and fluidity for pass blocking. But he can also hold his own in run blocking as well. Can cut block well for when those occasions are needed. And has position flexibility to switch from the right side to the left side if needed. Flacco has proven that when the line produces a strong running game and they give him time to pass, he generally can make things happen even with scrub receivers. Oniel with Yanda, Skura, Lewis, and Stanley along with our OL coaches could instantly upgrade our oline to one of the best in the league. Round 3- Regular pick Nick Chubb, 5’10” 225 lbs, RB, Georgia No wide receiver yet? No tight end yet? We have Alex Collins bro! I know, I know, we’re all probably pretty pissed at this point, right? Well our team needs playmakers. And I’ve made my feelings known about Collins. He’s athletic and has average vision, he isn’t a particularly physical runner, and even though he hasn’t had as much issue with fumbles later in the season, he still carries the ball very loosely when finishing off runs. What’s more he has below average hands and thus we can’t really throw defenses off balance with his skill set. When he’s in the game he’s running the ball and if not, you don’t have to worry about him being a true receiving threat. Chubb on the other hand is an AFC North type player. Very physical. Has elite straight line speed if he gets an opening. He’s not particularly shifty, but he doesn’t need to be as he’ll carry a pile. He’s an all around threat that would allow us to open up the playbook for him and he would combine well with Collins and Allen in the first season before taking over as the premier back after that. Lastly, the Ravens were at their best this past season when they could impose their will as a run oriented offense and set up the play action. This selection provides the Ravens with a player that can do most things at a high level. Only reason Chubb falls is because of durability, his position, the talent level of that position in this draft, and the fact it took him until later in 2017 to finally get back to his freshman form where he looked like he’d be better than Todd Gurley. Player comparison: Jamal Lewis Round 3- Compensatory pick Jaleel Scott, 6’6” 215 lbs, WR, NMS Many have reported that we have a strong case at getting a 3rd round compensatory pick. And thus I’ll be relying on it as a crutch here. Sure we wanted a wide receiver earlier in the draft. But best player available meant we had to wait a little. Jaleel Scott has been under the radar a large part of this college season. Mainly because he was a JUCO transfer and had lackluster numbers in his junior season before exploding as a senior, largely making him only a one hit wonder. But that being said, as the Ravens missed out on some of the other talent at receiver with the waves that went in this scenario. Scott reminds me a lot of AJ Green. Fluid in and out of cuts, but also explosive with great speed and vertical ability. Scott might take some time to develop, but from the jump would provide us with a red zone threat and some reliable hands. Player comparison: AJ Green/Chris Henry Round 4 Hayden Hurst- 6’5” 250 lbs, TE, SC Hurst is going to be a little older of a prospect just like Dennis Pitta was coming out of BYU. He spent two years playing in the MLB pipeline developing before walking on with the Game *****. This past season the Ravens had three very similar TEs along the roster. Same size profile, same speed, and athleticism. Solid blockers, average athletes. Enter Hurst. Outside of Dallas Goedert there might not be anyone with a prototypical TE profile more athletic in this class than Hurst. Hayden looks like he will require some development to have him reach his potential as an athlete, but the tools are in place. He was also a team captain and has had solid production throughout his collegiate career. Round 5 Bradley Bozeman- 6’5” 322 lbs, OC, UA At 6’5 and at such size Bozeman really does a great job to play with a lower pad level. He’s obviously a very good run blocker, but he has enough sand in his pants to handle bigger defenders in pass protection. What’s more Bozeman seemed to do a good job in being able to diagnose stunts and not whiff on blocks leaving his teammates exposed. Overall just a very solid player. Not a dominating brute, but would definitely be able to get the job done. Round 6 Austin Proehl- 5’10” 185 lbs, WR, UNC Proehl has an nfl pedigree. His dad, Ricky, played with the St. Louis Rams during the greatest show on turf days. Austin shows nice route running, especially on those Derrick Mason-esq comeback and out routes. He has nice hands and plays with some grit to his game. In addition he can handle punt return duties. He should replace what we had in Michael Campanaro... only hopefully display more durability. Round 7- Comp Pick Jack Cichy- 6’2” 233 lbs, ILB, Wisconsin Cichy had the talent to be a day 2 Pick before he tore his acl. As of right now there’s doubt as to whether he would be ready for the combine or pro-day, but either way the Ravens have always been an organization that has prioritized the tape and the production over the measurable anyway. Cichy should be ready for training camp and based off his play over the years at Wisconsin could come in and potentially compete for our second ILB position. He is good in pass coverage with solid instincts, also good against the run. Immediately though as he continues to rehab he could make a name for himself on the special teams units. Thats it! How pissed would you be if we wait until the 3rd round to address the receiver position? How about the 4th round for the tight end position? Do you think these players will fall this far? As always feedback is much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paraven Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 If the draft panned out like that, I would hope the ravens go after a more explosive FA WR then Matthews, who to me is Maclin 2.0. He has never played a full 16 games in his career. Id be pretty PO'd if our starting WR's were Wallace and Matthews next year after having to watch this years pathetic wr group all season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DontTazeMeBro Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 I won’t be pissed at all if we don’t draft a WR early. I don’t think after 20 years Ozzie is finally going to draft a good one. We need to ditch this Ravens player Ravens price BS and throw money at it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diamondbull424 Posted January 4, 2018 Author Share Posted January 4, 2018 15 minutes ago, paraven said: If the draft panned out like that, I would hope the ravens go after a more explosive FA WR then Matthews, who to me is Maclin 2.0. He has never played a full 16 games in his career. Id be pretty PO'd if our starting WR's were Wallace and Matthews next year after having to watch this years pathetic wr group all season He’s actually played a full 16 game season twice, so I have no idea where you’re getting that information from. He’s been plagued for the past two seasons with a knee injury, which is true, but that’s hardly an entire career like Maclin. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MattJo00.htm Maclin was three years older and prior to playing with the Ravens hadn’t completed a full 16 game season in 5/7 seasons. When judging skill set Maclin had a median career catch rate of 60.9% before playing for the Ravens, whereas Matthews has a career average of 67.4%. What’s more they have a different build. Maclin’s biggest weaknesses coming into the league were his slight frame which might not handle the wear and tear of the league. Whereas Matthews has the prototypical receiver build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreamKid Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 Oh Diamond you magnificent bastard are you ready to ride this Taven train with me? The regulars(Raven fans who couldn't even tell you our punter's name) will want to rip their faces off if we don't take a WR in the 1st regardless of value but let them complain. We cannot overlook transformative pass rush and disruption players. Taven is a monster, and a Raven on and off the field from everything I've read. He kinda reminds me of Yanda with his aura. He's the kind of interior disruptor that makes all other players on the line more effective and coupled with Henry would give us a true force. He would absolutely transform the team, we must build the pass rush in tandem with our young corners and an interior piece like him doesn't come around often. Sadly though I fear post combine he might be a top 10 lock Great work man I like it. I have a first round grade on Jaleel so ICGAF about snagging him in the third. I agree with you about the second round WR run too, I'm having flashes of ping,ping,ping,ping. Carrington, Miller, Burnett, Wilson, Sutton going one after another in that meat before our 2nd pick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diamondbull424 Posted January 4, 2018 Author Share Posted January 4, 2018 Yeah, after seeing the hype video entitled “the next JJ Watt” I laughed. I remember how many times any solid college linebacker would have on his hype video, “the next Ray Lewis”. But Bryan quickly made me look like a fool for laughing. Granted JJ Watt could go down as one of the most dominating players to play the game, and you can’t compare a college player to that, there definitely are a lot of similarities in how their impact for the rest of the defense can be transformative. I’m hoping the quarterback train pushes down the talents of the draft. There are enough declared quarterbacks... and enough teams with bad QB situations, that Bryan falling to 16th isn’t inconceivable even after a great combine. Unless we don’t see as many QBs taken. And I was seriously considering giving you a shoutout on the write up for Jaleel Scott. But you’re right, it might be difficult to see Scott falling to the end of Day 2, but it’ll be interesting to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RavensTillIDie Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 I'm okay with forgoing WR early this year, especially in the first. Not too familiar with Bryan, but I can understand the rationale; operating under the assumption that he is a significant improvement over the guys we currently have along our defensive line, i.e. guys who I'd characterize as pretty good players in their own right. I like O'Niel, but I think there might be better value to be had in the second round. Obviously it's way too early to say where anyone is going at this point, but if a guy like Anthony Miller is there, I'm taking him over just about anybody else that might available in the second. Not a huge fan of Chubb, but I'm really just not a fan in general of taking another runningback early this year. I disagree with your assessment of Collins and think he is more than capable of being a lead back in this league. He's got great vision and tremendous agility. He hits the hole hard when asked to do so, but obviously he's utilized alongside a more bruising complimentary back. And he's shown significant improvement over the course of the season as a receiver, when utilized in that role. He certainly deserves a full season to both improve and prove that he can be a featured back in the NFL, especially with what SHOULD be an improved offensive line going into next year with the return of our starters. I like Scott, but as @DreamKid alluded to, I think he'll end up going higher than the back end of the third. However, if he's there, I like the pick. As for the rest of the guys, you're looking at potential with those later picks and I have no complaints there. All those guys have okay floors with fairly high ceilings. In regards to the offseason, only thing I don't like is not re-signing Jensen. From the rumblings I've heard, it does indeed seem like he will be a hot commodity on the free agent market, but I think it would be in the best interest of the Ravens to retain a guy like that after his play this year. And more so than his play (which was great), just having that consistency for Flacco and a guy with his demeanor does wonders for the identity of an offensive line. Sorry, didn't mean to be so overly critical there, just ended up coming out that way as I typed it. I tend to agree with your overall thought process in regards to how to attack the draft, and I certainly give you an A for effort (as I haven't seen too many mock drafts on this forum recently). Just a few things I disagree with you on and a few things we really can't properly assess at this point before the combine. But man, reading that mock has me thinking about doing one too. Would probably be my first one since like 2012 or so lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreamKid Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 Hey we had a "Next Ray Lewis", Tavares Gooden. Yea everyone's the best 'something' or the next 'someone' in those HL videos. Best hands in the nation etc etc. What helps us is he's still a little raw, I have searched like crazy to find his age but can't and neither can Calhoun FF's draft guru over there in Draft General. He's a four year guy, but he looks so young I think he might be a 96 maybe 97. A couple more pass rush moves and who knows how high he goes. The Senior Bowl will determine a lot. Admittedly I seem to be in the minority as of now but if Jaleel blows it up I can't see him lasting that long. We seem to be in a great position to get the kind of receiver we need, not a lot of developmental deep threats whom we have had enough of round here. I was surprised you didn't have your boy Ateman in there, I think he'll be a frequent and welcomed mocked pick to us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danand Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 Will comment once I have the time, but for all the highlights on the scott guy, the play around the 2.00 minute mark looks bad for a guy who is 6'6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RavensTillIDie Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 1 hour ago, Danand said: Will comment once I have the time, but for all the highlights on the scott guy, the play around the 2.00 minute mark looks bad for a guy who is 6'6 How do you figure? It was underthrown by the quarterback and Scott had to turnaround to try and make a play on the ball. Not really a ball you can high point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diamondbull424 Posted January 5, 2018 Author Share Posted January 5, 2018 4 hours ago, RavensTillIDie said: I'm okay with forgoing WR early this year, especially in the first. Not too familiar with Bryan, but I can understand the rationale; operating under the assumption that he is a significant improvement over the guys we currently have along our defensive line, i.e. guys who I'd characterize as pretty good players in their own right. I like O'Niel, but I think there might be better value to be had in the second round. Obviously it's way too early to say where anyone is going at this point, but if a guy like Anthony Miller is there, I'm taking him over just about anybody else that might available in the second. Not a huge fan of Chubb, but I'm really just not a fan in general of taking another runningback early this year. I disagree with your assessment of Collins and think he is more than capable of being a lead back in this league. He's got great vision and tremendous agility. He hits the hole hard when asked to do so, but obviously he's utilized alongside a more bruising complimentary back. And he's shown significant improvement over the course of the season as a receiver, when utilized in that role. He certainly deserves a full season to both improve and prove that he can be a featured back in the NFL, especially with what SHOULD be an improved offensive line going into next year with the return of our starters. I like Scott, but as @DreamKid alluded to, I think he'll end up going higher than the back end of the third. However, if he's there, I like the pick. As for the rest of the guys, you're looking at potential with those later picks and I have no complaints there. All those guys have okay floors with fairly high ceilings. In regards to the offseason, only thing I don't like is not re-signing Jensen. From the rumblings I've heard, it does indeed seem like he will be a hot commodity on the free agent market, but I think it would be in the best interest of the Ravens to retain a guy like that after his play this year. And more so than his play (which was great), just having that consistency for Flacco and a guy with his demeanor does wonders for the identity of an offensive line. Sorry, didn't mean to be so overly critical there, just ended up coming out that way as I typed it. I tend to agree with your overall thought process in regards to how to attack the draft, and I certainly give you an A for effort (as I haven't seen too many mock drafts on this forum recently). Just a few things I disagree with you on and a few things we really can't properly assess at this point before the combine. But man, reading that mock has me thinking about doing one too. Would probably be my first one since like 2012 or so lol. Yeah, it’s one of the things that drew me to this forum to begin with back in the day and drew me to watching these prospects. I wanted to be one of the guys that had coherent opinions about what was going on in college football and with the team enough to be able to put together a legit mock. But it seems we haven’t seen too much of that lately. In terms of some of the rest, I agree the combine will offer a lot more answers. It seems half of these prospects aren’t even listed on the big boards of some of the draft sites, while they’re listed on the big boards of another. But I agree that if Miller is available in the second round, I would take him. The only hope I believe we have with Scott is maybe teams see a guy like Stephen Hill with similar h/w/s and his lack of success in league and hesitate to pull the trigger early. But yeah, his selection felt like my biggest reach. And with the loss of Jensen, I was going to assume we will add him, but that was part of the fun. After hearing his exit interview he sure sounded like he wasn’t going to give any kind of discounts (understandable) and with the lack of cap space, I’m thinking we might not have the money to retain him. And so I just wanted to see what we might be forced to come out of the draft with to replace him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diamondbull424 Posted January 5, 2018 Author Share Posted January 5, 2018 4 hours ago, DreamKid said: Hey we had a "Next Ray Lewis", Tavares Gooden. Yea everyone's the best 'something' or the next 'someone' in those HL videos. Best hands in the nation etc etc. What helps us is he's still a little raw, I have searched like crazy to find his age but can't and neither can Calhoun FF's draft guru over there in Draft General. He's a four year guy, but he looks so young I think he might be a 96 maybe 97. A couple more pass rush moves and who knows how high he goes. The Senior Bowl will determine a lot. Admittedly I seem to be in the minority as of now but if Jaleel blows it up I can't see him lasting that long. We seem to be in a great position to get the kind of receiver we need, not a lot of developmental deep threats whom we have had enough of round here. I was surprised you didn't have your boy Ateman in there, I think he'll be a frequent and welcomed mocked pick to us. Yeah if he blows up the senior bowl then you’re right he probably would elevate to a second rounder. And with a great combine perhaps even rise to the top of the second. I’d probably say that I wouldn’t take him anything beyond our second round pick though. It’s funny, I was half thinking that perhaps I should flip the selections of Jaleel Scott and Brian Oniel. I could see either player being still on the board in the late 3rd or being long gone by that point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drd23 Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 Great work DB. I haven't done any work on the draft prospects yet so can't really critique the mock itself. 5 minutes ago, diamondbull424 said: And with the loss of Jensen, I was going to assume we will add him, but that was part of the fun. After hearing his exit interview he sure sounded like he wasn’t going to give any kind of discounts (understandable) and with the lack of cap space, I’m thinking we might not have the money to retain him. And so I just wanted to see what we might be forced to come out of the draft with to replace him. I figure Skura gets first crack at the starting C job if Jensen leaves. He's shown that he can be a decent blocker at least this season, and he was a C at Duke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diamondbull424 Posted January 5, 2018 Author Share Posted January 5, 2018 36 minutes ago, drd23 said: Great work DB. I haven't done any work on the draft prospects yet so can't really critique the mock itself. I figure Skura gets first crack at the starting C job if Jensen leaves. He's shown that he can be a decent blocker at least this season, and he was a C at Duke That’s actually a great point. I really like his build. 35 1/4 arm length for a center is pretty ridiculous. I think during one of the games (Steelers maybe) they also mentioned that he hadn’t allowed a sack all season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danand Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 8 hours ago, RavensTillIDie said: How do you figure? It was underthrown by the quarterback and Scott had to turnaround to try and make a play on the ball. Not really a ball you can high point. The receiver with the position and size advantage didn't adjust to the underthrown ball, the safety did. Same issue we have with Perriman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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