The future of the Ravens

santiagomn8 · Joined: 27 Dec 2010 Posts: 141

Ok after watching this game and this season as a whole i think its time to basically clean house to an extent. We are about to go through a huge transition with Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and a few other key verterans retiring/ leaving. What i love about the ravens is that we are almost always competitive no matter what and that says a lot about the Ravens as a whole. I think we should pretty much change the whole coaching staff but more importantly Harbaugh. I love the guy and i hate to say it but hes just not a a true head coach he is just benefiting from a team stacked with talent. which leads me to Flacco he also benefits from being on the team. Im not saying hes a bad quarterback but he will never lead us to a super bowl. I know there might not be something better out there but when a rookie might come out that looks amazing i think we should do whatever we can to get them. We have alot of good young talent and if we can add a few more pieces and find a true franchise quarterback we can become something special can anyone say dynasty =]. like i said earlier this is going to take a couple years but we should remain competitive thru this transition. The alternative is just keeping trying to add pieces and never win the superbowl for another decade. What do you guys think?

sp6488 · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 7957 Location: MD

santiagomn8 · Joined: 27 Dec 2010 Posts: 141

RavensfanRD · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:42 pm Post subject:

Flacco is fine. Coaching staff needs to go.
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gooselovechild · Joined: 29 Mar 2007 Posts: 2294

SnA ExclusiVe · Joined: 01 Jun 2011 Posts: 18042 Location: Spokane, WA

sp6488 · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 7957 Location: MD

GaTechRavens · Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 17145 Location: Knoxville, TN

coordinator0 · Joined: 18 Jan 2008 Posts: 6803

I'd really like to know where this supposed franchise QB is going to come from. Teams don't trade those kinds of players and they only let them hit free agency if they have/will have a younger guy in place like the situations with Brees and Manning. Don't even think about mentioning the draft this year either with the likes of Barkley, Smith, Wilson, Glennon, etc. It's not happening. I'd be very surprised if Flacco and the Ravens didn't work out a long-term deal after this season and even if they didn't he would get hit with the exclusive franchise tag. Then they would just agree to a long-term deal few months later like we've seen with basically every big-name free agent that Baltimore has tagged recently.

Harbaugh won't be going anywhere as long as the team is still winning. Whatever you may think about him that's about the only measure well-run teams seem to rate their coach on.

As for going through a huge transition without Lewis and Reed... how big of a deal will it be when neither guy has played well the last season or so? Obviously the "aura" will be different without them but honestly I don't think we see much of a, if any, drop-off in terms of on-field production. Let's be real here Lewis is 37 and it shows. Reed isn't too far behind him and he's not making the big plays his style of defense relies on anymore. I think he sticks around for another couple of seasons but I doubt the Ravens will be set back too far when he decides to retire.

gooselovechild · Joined: 29 Mar 2007 Posts: 2294

drd23 · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 3:12 am Post subject:

Mancunian Raven · Joined: 09 Oct 2012 Posts: 1759

Flacco will be in Baltimore next year, either on a franchise tag or on a contract that should be sub-$15million a year. Unless he plays his butt off in the last two games and the playoffs, and wins the Super Bowl, he doesn’t really have the body of work this season to ask for Romo/Roethlisburger money. Too inconsistent. But saying he can’t lead us to a Super Bowl is ridiculous, because he did. Lee Evans just dropped the ball.

The job of the coaching staff should be to ensure that he has everything in place to succeed. Running backs, receivers, O-line. A good OC and Caldwell as his QB coach working with him through the off-season and training camp. Draw up an offense that works with that personnel and work out how to get a lot of different guys involved.

If, with all that, Flacco still can’t produce on a consistent basis, then at least we’ll know for sure that he’s not going to be a top level QB. And the Ravens can go for a guy in next year’s draft, who they can try to fit into a team that’s already strong.

Harbaugh should absolutely be the HC for all of this, because he’s done a good job over the last five years of rebuilding and re-energizing a franchise that was starting to flag. He addressed the Special Teams problems very efficiently in this last off-season, and now he’s made the move to address the shortcomings of the Offense as well, by firing Cam Cameron. You can’t blame the Defense on him, because there’s no way you can maintain any sort of consistency if you’re losing your DC whenever he does well and then you’re piling up injury after injury on that side of the ball.

I think the team definitely needs to draft well this year, because things are getting a little precarious in terms of the salary cap and players getting older. They need to strengthen both lines and draft a successor to Ray Lewis, as well as looking at pass rushers and corner backs. They need to figure out what to do about Ed Reed, particularly, because he’s playing injured all the time, he’s getting paid a lot and will be wanting a lot more, and he’s coming to the end of his career. Draft a safety, sign a free agent or try to move a CB or SS across.
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Flaccomania · Joined: 12 Aug 2008 Posts: 19877 Location: Parkville, MD

Honestly, it makes me laugh when I see anyone suggesting that Alex Smith is any sort of viable option (no offense, drd23).

Do people not remember how awful the guy was for 6ish years?

Yes, for 1.5 years he's been able to be efficient for the 49ers -- but that's just it, he's only been efficient. He hasn't done anything noteworthy other than avoid deep passes and take care of the ball.

And the argument that Flacco is only riding the team's overall talent, and then somehow ignoring the fact that Smith would need to hitch his wagon even MORE than Flacco ever has -- it just doesn't make sense.

Alex Smith would literally kill this franchise, IMO. He'd come in for likely about $8m/year, and would be a better Matt Cassel -- a guy who isn't going to go deep, isn't going to win you anything, and will absolutely need an elite defense and run game in order to be even seen as above average. The problem? We don't have those right now -- if we did, Flacco would still take us further than Alex Smith ever could.
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drd23 · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 8:58 am Post subject:

I'd rather efficiency than the crap we're getting this year, and especially so if we're going to be paying $12-15m/yr for the privilege

*shrugs*
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Stone85 & mike23md on the sig!

santiagomn8 · Joined: 27 Dec 2010 Posts: 141

Like i said before im not saying get rid of Flacco rite now and just get the next guy and hope for the best if we sign flacco to something very resonable and for 3 to 4 years thats fine but we should always have our eye towards the draft for the next great prospect or someone ozzie might fall in love with cause i think flacco is a part time solution not the long term solution.

Not saying i would have done this but it really makes you think. What you have been willing to get peyton manning last year when he was a free agent and we could hae trade flacco for at least a first round pick if not more cause he has some good value especially to a qb hungry team imagine the possibiites of going down that road. again just a thought lol