Draft / FA / Offseason Roster Moves (Merged)

**bmorecareful** · 01-25-2013, 11:59 AM

Originally Posted by jonboy79

The Ravens have shown the propensity to "get by" with lower rated talent at Safety, see Will Demps, Dawan Landry...

I think if given that situation that they would take Johnson, but I'm pretty sure they will have to trade upo to have that opportunity.

Quesenberry looks like a reasonable Jared Veldheer type of fallback option. Hopefully he he works out as well if we draft him.

I agree that I'd think hard about Johnson over a FS prospect like Elam purely because the positional value of LT is so high, but the whole reason the Ravens got by with lesser talent at one of the safety spots is because they had a future first-ballot HOFer at the other spot. Ed Reed was so dominant in past years that we didn't need much out of his running mate.

Without Ed Reed on the roster next year, you're not going to be able to get by with Pollard and some scrub. Bernard is a good player but more of a run-stuffer and hitter, we need a lockdown coverage safety very badly, and that means a prospect like Elam is VERY tempting in the first round. I think they'll go out and get a safety this offseason preferably in the first 2 rounds of the draft. If it's not Elam or Vaccaro in the 1st, then let's hope it's Phillip Thomas or DJ Swearinger in the 2nd.

Originally Posted by leachisabeast

I wouldn't trade up for Lane Johnson, but would probably take him over Matt Elam.

Now lets think of this for a minute. If we re-sign McKinnie on a 1/2 year deal, and draft Johnson, you could make this Oline very very good but moving Oher inside to RG and move Yanda to C, and play Johnson at RT. Johnson can play on both sides too btw.

McKinnie-KO-Yanda-Oher-Johnson

Food for thought.

0% chance that OL ever sees a snap of real-game action. They're not moving Yanda to center, stop getting your hopes up because they had him snap the ball a couple times in minicamp last year. They're keeping Yanda at RG where he belongs. If Oher continues to play at RT as he has during the postseason thus far he needs to stay there and get extended, he's been exceptional at RT and he actually looks like he cares and is trying out there which he didn't at LT. I think Oher's morale was completely shot being forced into playing LT where he was clearly not comfortable.

They have their bookend guards of the future and the probable RT of the future. I think they'll give Gradkowski every chance to succeed at C although they'll add depth in the mid to late rounds at C/G. The key is finding the LT but they won't blow up their big board to make it happen. I'd honestly be much happier with Quessenberry, Terron Armstead, or David Bakhtiari in the mid-late rounds rather than wasting a bunch of picks trading up 15 spots for Lane Johnson.

**wickedsolo** · 01-25-2013, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by leachisabeast

And I don't understand peoples obsession over 4th round picks being starters straight away, but that was a big negative on Gino at TC, just reading the reports this site written up on him during TC. 6'2 and probably under 300 lbs IMO is a big down side unless you are very very athletic. IMO you move people around to have your 5 best players starting, not start a player just because he was drafted a year before in the 4th round, for all we know every pick past the 3rd round last year were depth picks. After all, Eric him self said that the 2012 draft was a "depth draft".

He's 6'3" and after a full season of working out with the team and being able to eat properly (because he can afford to now), I would bet that he is at least 300-305lbs.

Again, we don't need a massive center. Chris Myers is 6'2"/6'3" and 290lbs. Kelce with the Eagles is 285lbs and he's not too bad. It's all about technique.

They wouldn't have the guy over Ben Jones and Phillip Blake if they didn't believe that he could develop into a decent starting caliber center and/or guard.

He didn't look too bad against the Bengals and it isn't like he was going up against scrubs either.

**BigPlayReceiver** · 01-25-2013, 12:05 PM

Nipping a bud here...NO, we aren't going to trade for Titus Young. We don't want Titus Young. :T2:

**wickedsolo** · 01-25-2013, 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by bmorecareful

0% chance that OL ever sees a snap of real-game action. They're not moving Yanda to center, stop getting your hopes up because they had him snap the ball a couple times in minicamp last year. They're keeping Yanda at RG where he belongs. If Oher continues to play at RT as he has during the postseason thus far he needs to stay there and get extended, he's been exceptional at RT and he actually looks like he cares and is trying out there which he didn't at LT. I think Oher's morale was completely shot being forced into playing LT where he was clearly not comfortable.

They have their bookend guards of the future and the probable RT of the future. I think they'll give Gradkowski every chance to succeed at C although they'll add depth in the mid to late rounds at C/G. The key is finding the LT but they won't blow up their big board to make it happen. I'd honestly be much happier with Quessenberry, Terron Armstead, or David Bakhtiari in the mid-late rounds rather than wasting a bunch of picks trading up 15 spots for Lane Johnson.

:word

**wickedsolo** · 01-25-2013, 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by BigPlayReceiver

Nipping a bud here...NO, we aren't going to trade for Titus Young. We don't want Titus Young. :T2:

Yea, I don't know what that guy's problem is.

The only thing I can think of is he REALLY just does not want to be in Detroit.

**bmorecareful** · 01-25-2013, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by leachisabeast

And I don't understand peoples obsession over 4th round picks being starters straight away, but that was a big negative on Gino at TC, just reading the reports this site written up on him during TC. 6'2 and probably under 300 lbs IMO is a big down side unless you are very very athletic. IMO you move people around to have your 5 best players starting, not start a player just because he was drafted a year before in the 4th round, for all we know every pick past the 3rd round last year were depth picks. After all, Eric him self said that the 2012 draft was a "depth draft".

6'3 300 is prototype size for a center. We keep telling you this, but you won't listen... size and functional strength are not issues for Gino, period, end of story. I don't get why people just keep repeating over and over again "oh he's too small and needs to hit the weight room before he can play in the NFL." It's just not true. Physically Gino could probably start right now, the reason why he's not is because Matt Birk is more than good enough right now and is far ahead mentally. I put odds at 90-10 that Gino is the starting C next year if Birk retires/is cut.

It doesn't mean they won't add depth in the mid to late rounds, the depth on the interior OL is a major issue as outside of Birk and Gino they have no natural centers on the roster. But every time Gino has taken the field this year he's been fine, he did a fine job for a rookie vs. Cincinnati's 1st team defense which features an All-Pro DT in Atkins and a very good NT in Peko. Filmstudy would have graded him a B- but for a holding penalty. That's impressive.

**Paintballguy** · 01-25-2013, 12:12 PM

Cody is massive but he gets pushed around like he's on roller skates. Size isn't everything with linemen.

**wickedsolo** · 01-25-2013, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by bmorecareful

6'3 300 is prototype size for a center. We keep telling you this, but you won't listen... size and functional strength are not issues for Gino, period, end of story. I don't get why people just keep repeating over and over again "oh he's too small and needs to hit the weight room before he can play in the NFL." It's just not true. Physically Gino could probably start right now, the reason why he's not is because Matt Birk is more than good enough right now and is far ahead mentally. I put odds at 90-10 that Gino is the starting C next year if Birk retires/is cut.

It doesn't mean they won't add depth in the mid to late rounds, the depth on the interior OL is a major issue as outside of Birk and Gino they have no natural centers on the roster. But every time Gino has taken the field this year he's been fine, he did a fine job for a rookie vs. Cincinnati's 1st team defense which features an All-Pro DT in Atkins and a very good NT in Peko. Filmstudy would have graded him a B- but for a holding penalty. That's impressive.

I think we should sticky this post.

**GOTA** · 01-25-2013, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by BigPlayReceiver

Nipping a bud here...NO, we aren't going to trade for Titus Young. We don't want Titus Young. :T2:

:word

He was trouble coming out of college and I still wanted to draft him. I learned my lesson. Young is bad news. We don't want that kind of attitude here.

**GOTA** · 01-25-2013, 12:21 PM

Walter Football has a list of which prospects teams met with at the recent post season bowl games. Here's ours. # means the player was met with outside of the game event.

http://walterfootball.com/draft2013meetingsteams.php

Baltimore Ravens:
Kenjon Barner, RB, Oregon (SR)
Steve Beauharnais, LB, Rutgers (SR)
Tommy Bohanon, FB, Wake Forest (SR)
Michael Buchanan, DL, Illinois (SR)
Braxston Cave, OL, Notre Dame (SR)
Jordan Devey, OL, Memphis (EW)
Lavar Edwards, DL, LSU (SR)
Dwayne Gratz#, DB, Connecticut (SR)
Dustin Hopkins, PK, Florida State (SR)
Wes Horton, DL, USC (EW)
Tavarres King, WR, Georgia (SR)
Alex Okafor, DL, Texas (SR)
Ryan Otten, TE, San Jose State (SR)
Justin Pugh#, OL, Syracuse (SR)
David Quessenberry, OL, San Jose State (SR)
Brian Schwenke, OL, California (SR)
Ryan Swope, WR, Texas A&M (SR)
Stepfan Taylor, RB, Stanford (SR)
Conner Vernon, WR, Duke (SR)
Markus Wheaton, WR, Oregon State (SR)
Earl Wolff, S, N.C. State (EW)

**jonboy79** · 01-25-2013, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by bmorecareful

6'3 300 is prototype size for a center. We keep telling you this, but you won't listen... size and functional strength are not issues for Gino, period, end of story. I don't get why people just keep repeating over and over again "oh he's too small and needs to hit the weight room before he can play in the NFL." It's just not true. Physically Gino could probably start right now, the reason why he's not is because Matt Birk is more than good enough right now and is far ahead mentally. I put odds at 90-10 that Gino is the starting C next year if Birk retires/is cut.

It doesn't mean they won't add depth in the mid to late rounds, the depth on the interior OL is a major issue as outside of Birk and Gino they have no natural centers on the roster. But every time Gino has taken the field this year he's been fine, he did a fine job for a rookie vs. Cincinnati's 1st team defense which features an All-Pro DT in Atkins and a very good NT in Peko. Filmstudy would have graded him a B- but for a holding penalty. That's impressive.

BIngo, besides Myers and Kelce, both Pouncey's are in that size range, so that is pretty much the elite centers, with basically ONLY Nick Mangold being significantly over 300 pounds.

BUt I have to disagree with an earlier post of yours, I'd rather trade up for Lane Johnson then wait around for a mid round talent. As long as, as you put it, we only have to "waste a bunch of mid round picks". We will have 11 picks, and LT S and perhaps MLB are our only real weaknesses going into the draft. If we can move up to get the "right guy' and still have a half dozen picks to fill out some depth areas, it's the right move. Particularly if we somewhow manage to keep Ellerbe and Reed, maning afte rLT the whole draft is for depth.

**Raveninwoodlawn** · 01-25-2013, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by wickedsolo

He's 6'3" and after a full season of working out with the team and being able to eat properly (because he can afford to now), I would bet that he is at least 300-305lbs.

Again, we don't need a massive center. Chris Myers is 6'2"/6'3" and 290lbs. Kelce with the Eagles is 285lbs and he's not too bad. It's all about technique.

They wouldn't have the guy over Ben Jones and Phillip Blake if they didn't believe that he could develop into a decent starting caliber center and/or guard.

He didn't look too bad against the Bengals and it isn't like he was going up against scrubs either.

His obsession with size is a little overboard IMHO.

Chris Meyers is the best center in the NFL IMHO, and not only is there the size thing that you brought up, but he was a 6th round pick.

I've seen enough of Gino to see that he looks like he belongs out there. I'd be concerned if he never played, or if he looked overwhelmed when he did play, but from what I've seen when he's played, he's surpassed my expectations and I can't imagine a scenario where the team isn't happy with him.

He will get every single opportunity to be the starter this offseason.