Concerns for next year

[r_sayle]

Right first of all let me just say I still love u guys n this team. I got that excited last night when we won I dropped beer on my laptop n it's now fudged.

So my concerns are these:

Possibilities of losing and people who are gone

Ray Lewis - retiring
A fitting way for #52 to go out. A dominant player. It will be a while till we can truly replace him for everything he offers.

Ed Reed - FA
Although it won't cost us as much as this season to keep him around but he's 34. I just can't see the ravens doin it. Someone will overpay to have him. But at least he got a Ring with us. Boy deserved that.

Darnell Ellerbe - FA
Ellerbe's play this season has been a massive to this team. Personally I think we need to bring him back to soften the blow of Lewis leaving. Trying to fill one Linebacker spot will be tough doing both in the same year is just unfair. I just don't feel comfortable with McClain.

Paul Kruger - FA
Quickly became one of my favourite players over the last couple of years. I want him back badly. But someone will pay him big bucks this season just seemed like every time we needed someone to step up he was one of the players to do it.

Cary Williams - FA
I haven't been cary's biggest fan and while he's decent enough. Someone will pay him enough to the point were I don't think he will be back. Webb will be back hopefully to full strength and jimmy smith upped his game lately which is promising.

And these are all starting defensive players. There's not to mention the rotational guys and the offensive side of the ball.

So my big question is how do you guys think we will be next year?? And what can you see us doing in the offseason

[DontTazeMeBro]

Not worried about Kruger. Great player. But I think Upshaw is a beast and will be better. Sizzle/Upshaw with Ngata on the interior should leave us with no shortage of a pass rush.

I think we have a ton of great leaders on this team and can overcome any void created by Ray retiring. Really important to get Ellerbeast back.

Now the possibility of Reed leaving is scary.


How we will be next year. I love our chances to repeat as AFC champs. I think Peyton is too old and is only going to regress. Brady doesn't worry me. Roethlisberger is a monster but the Steelers are a mess. Houston has a lot of holes. I think they've given Foster too many carries the past couple years. Don't think too much of Kubiak. I like Schaub but he doesn't give much big play threat. If we keep this offense together and the pass pro continues to dominate like the last month, our offense is going to be damn near unstoppable.
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[Mancunian Raven]

We'll miss Kruger's pass rush, but hopefully if Suggs gets properly healthy again, and the Ravens can draft/develop new guys at OLB, there won't be much of a drop off. Especially if Ngata, Jones and McPhee are all healthy and ready to go.

I won't miss Cary Williams when he goes, as I think Webb. Graham, Smith and Brown are a good CB group. As long as they can all get healthy and stay that way.

Got to keep Ellerbe, in my view. Losing him and Ray at the same time, with McClain injured on the back of a poor season, would just take too much away from the ILB position.

Regarding Ed Reed, I find myself really hoping he decides to retire, because that would remove all the questions. Do the Ravens re-sign him? How much do they pay him? Do they let him walk and face the prospect of seeing him in a Pats uniform or something like that? I'd hate to see him play for another team, and I know how valuable he is to the Ravens' defense, but I just don't see how this organisation can find the money to pay him what he's going to want.
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[wwhickok]

I do think the Ravens will lose all but one guy on that list. Ellerbe has been a 'rising star' for the Ravens and I just can't see them letting him walk.

In regards to Kruger..I'm going to be honest, I think he works really well within the Ravens' defense, I'm not entirely convinced he'll work well elsewhere. There's a part of me that thinks Kruger might be a 'system player' rather than a truly high level talent who can just pick up and go elsewhere and have the same kind of success.

I also think the Ravens may lose Anquan Boldin.

[TheVillain112]

[DontTazeMeBro]

How did that even come up right after the Super Bowl?

Another under the radar free agent I think we really need to get back is McKinnie. When we started him at LT our pass pro went from an almost crippling weakness to one of the biggest reasons we won the Super Bowl. Free agents to pricy and no one good enough with pick 32.
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[SnA ExclusiVe]

I think Ellerbe and McKinnie comes back and that's about it. Cary and Kruger are gone, Ray is gone for sure and I honestly think Ed will follow him.

I think the biggest thing we NEED to get on defense next year is SPEED in the front 7. Kaepernick killed us with his legs and we just had no speed anywhere. We are great at stopping the run, but when teams spread us out, we don't stand a chance because we can't play in space the way we are built right now.
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[dcarey20]

Ellerbe and Reed are going to be the most interesting. Ellerbe will be a priority, and I think we want to bring Reed back as well. The thing with these guys is that they'll likely involved making tough decisions on guys like Anquan Boldin and Jacoby Jones - both of whom were maybe 2 of the top 5 factors for us in this Super Bowl run. It's hard for me to let those 2 go when you look at how much they did for us this season, and we're going to have to choose between guys who play positions that are of bigger need (Reed at S and Ellerbe at ILB) and guys who I feel were arguably bigger reasons for this great SB run (Boldin and Jones)

Cary Williams is as good as gone, and that's fine with me. He takes some heat from us at times, but he was a big part of our team this year. He took on the opposing team's best receiver week in and week out. And while he had struggles at times, he was fairly decent when you look at his overall body of work; really was the only constant we had at corner when you consider losing Webb and the inconsistency of Jimmy Smith (who conicidentally played a fairly large role in our SB win - I've still got high hopes for him next year).

I think we all agree that Kruger is gone as well, and while I HATE seeing him go, I do think Upshaw can replace him. He's just going to get way too much money.

Bryant McKinnie is an interesting case. I'd like to bring him back on a 1 or 2 year deal if he's cheap. He was really, really good for us once we finally stopped effing around and put him in at LT. I think he'd be perfect for 1 more season at LT and we can draft someone to groom and provide depth early on. But I think there could be an OL-needy team that may offer him a longer term deal than we are willing to; and we've got to consider that he likely isn't a big fan of our coach and how he handled his situation this year.

[coordinator0]

It seems like Baltimore's players and coaches are poached every year but it's going to be even more prevalent after this Super Bowl win. All of the prices for their free agents just went up. At this point I'm only expecting them to keep one of the big four (Ellerbe, Kruger, Reed, Williams) after re-signing Flacco. That's kind of how I felt before but now I'm almost certain. I wouldn't be surprised if the one they keep is Reed. His price tag will probably be lower than the others and he would leave the biggest hole if he wasn't brought back. I think both Boldin and Jones get extensions that also lower their cap numbers next season and some other moves that open up cap room will be made but that's about it. They have to leave some room for the rookie deals too.

For the coaches it seems like Ted Monachino is the most likely to get offers elsewhere. Teryl Austin is another candidate for one of defensive coordinator jobs not filled yet. Jim Caldwell's name might come up again for head coaching opportunities too but not until next year.

One interesting thing to watch is that there's a real chance the seven oldest players on the team won't be back next season. Ray Lewis (37), Bobbie Williams (36), Matt Birk (36), Ed Reed (34), Ma'ake Kemoeatu (33), Bryant McKinnie (33), and Chris Johnson (33). You might be able to stretch that into the top ten guys with Anquan Boldin (32), Brendan Ayanbadejo (32), and Vonta Leach (31).

[draftguru1234]

I've heard rumors that Boldin might be a cap casualty. Now that would be a colossal loss. Boldin is critical for Joe and the offense.

Flacco and Boldin are in a zone, and hopefully that continues in to next season.

[Mancunian Raven]

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[diamondbull424]