Explain This to Me

[s.r.genovese]

You guys said the exact same thing in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. Every single off season when the Ravens have lost players from Jason Brown, Bart Scott, Jim Leonhard, Mason, Heap, Grubbs, Johnson, Thomas, etc. people have lost their minds and started complaining. The same thing that is happening now will happen next year and the year after that when the Ravens let go of players and people will go crazy.

Beside, for all the love you give Pollard, the majority of the people here didn't want the guy when the Ravens first signed him. People were talking about he sucked in coverage, drew too many personal penalties, was reckless, etc. There was a reason why the Chiefs and Texans got rid of him quickly. So, he come here, fit in the system and has his weaknesses covered up by Ed Reed. Well, Ed Reed is going to be gone and Pollard isn't the type of guy you want anchoring and giving order in the secondary. So, the Ravens will look for a guy just like how they found Pollard and have him fit into the system.

Also, the Ravens didn't have great ILB in 2009 and 2010 beside an aging Ray Lewis, an underachiever Dannell Ellerbe who got overweight, Tavares Gooden, Jameel Mclain and Jason Philips and yet the Ravens still made the playoffs. This is nothing new.

I wish the groaning could at least wait until the offseason is over and we actually know who is on the team.

[Crabcake]

No, no. Ozzie has a PLAN, remember? We won't do it through FAs, (even thought that leads to why we 'had' to clear more cap space) but we will do it through the draft! That's how the Patriots keep winning Superbowls....well, errr well they've gotten to one at least! Christian Thompson will be MORE than fine I mean, that Reed with his hurt shoulder and his stingers and his weirdo gray patch of hair wasn't good anyhow. I'm actually sitting here wondering why we kept him for so long I mean he in no way contributed last year. Terrence Cody just needs to go on the Atkins diet and plus we just got 30 year old Chris Canty to help because ya know all these cuts happened so we could get YOUNGER, and 30 is somehow younger than 28 year old Pollard, who couldn't cover a couch with an airplane tarp anyway. He also didn't contribute. So what if we don't have any real ILBs?! We'll get one somehow. Ozzie doesn't really get any BIG names but who needs competent linebackers when Joe Flacco is going to be playing QB, WR AND ILB? Eh, don't worry about it. Nothing really to discuss anyway. By this time next year, we'll be hoisting yet another Lombardi, guaranteed and all you Ozzie nay-sayers will be eatin' some crow, ya hear?!

I disagree. The Ozzie nay-sayers know best. They always do. It's clear that our front office doesn't know what it takes to build a winner. If we ever want to be a perennial playoff contender we need to make moves more like the Dolphins, Eagles, and Browns have recently.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the Ravens have been extremely successful by any standard of measurement under Mr. Newsome. I watched the Ravens games last year and I've determined that I understand what it takes to build a successful football team better than Ozzie Newsome does.

Just look at our linebacking corps! We've got nothing! To remedy this situation, we should have signed that formerly undrafted rookie to big money because we'll never be able to find another guy like him. And kept Boldin too. Who cares if that puts us over the salary cap? I'll just turn it off in the settings.

Satire is fun.

[Maelstrom]

Continually pointing out when the season actually starts means nothing and just detracts from the overall conversation.

Baloney. If you want to analyze individual moves and non-moves and dissect the minutiae, be my guest. I find the angst and hysteria highly entertaining, and I also enjoy the occasion trinkets of insight along the way, although they are few and far between.

But the inevitable conclusion is that you cannot evaluate an NFL team move by move, and especially not on day 2 of free agency. You can only evaluate the whole, and we won't know the whole until after training camp cuts start and Ozzie fills in the holes as best he can to make a whole. So that is why many of us continually make that observation at this point of the season.

This is not a conclusion that gets in the way of any discussion, so stop telling us not to bring it up and suggesting that it detracts from the conversation. I could very easily make a case that your shortsightedness gets in the way of meaningful discussion about the long term prospects for the roster - but I am not so conceited to suggest that the points and arguments you wish to make "just detracts from the overall conversation." That truly would be conceited. No, actually, that would be flat out rude, wouldn't it? That is something that someone who lacks developed social skills would write, isn't it?

:hammer:

Now back to my Bloody Mary...

[GaTechRavens]

No, no. Ozzie has a PLAN, remember? We won't do it through FAs, (even thought that leads to why we 'had' to clear more cap space) but we will do it through the draft! That's how the Patriots keep winning Superbowls....well, errr well they've gotten to one at least! Christian Thompson will be MORE than fine I mean, that Reed with his hurt shoulder and his stingers and his weirdo gray patch of hair wasn't good anyhow. I'm actually sitting here wondering why we kept him for so long I mean he in no way contributed last year. Terrence Cody just needs to go on the Atkins diet and plus we just got 30 year old Chris Canty to help because ya know all these cuts happened so we could get YOUNGER, and 30 is somehow younger than 28 year old Pollard, who couldn't cover a couch with an airplane tarp anyway. He also didn't contribute. So what if we don't have any real ILBs?! We'll get one somehow. Ozzie doesn't really get any BIG names but who needs competent linebackers when Joe Flacco is going to be playing QB, WR AND ILB? Eh, don't worry about it. Nothing really to discuss anyway. By this time next year, we'll be hoisting yet another Lombardi, guaranteed and all you Ozzie nay-sayers will be eatin' some crow, ya hear?!

I love how people can sarcastically mock a guy who literally just won the Super Bowl. This isn't even about whatever opinion everyone might have about his moves, to act like he's suddenly an incompetent hack - which this post certainly implies, even if you don't truly feel that way - is a bit odd.

[Shas]

"According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no title-winning team has lost more than five Super Bowl starters before the following season. In short order, the Ravens already have matched that number and that doesn't include Kruger, a pass-rushing specialist who parlayed a team-leading nine-sack season into a five-year, $40 million deal with the rival Browns." -Baltimore Sun

As I stated, Kruger wasn't a starter...didn't start in the Super Bowl and played just 1/3 of the snaps. Ellerbe had 14 starts in the last 32 regular season games. The starters at ILB were Lewis and McClain. Both were hurt at times and Ellerbe was given starts. Lewis and Birk retired. And they traded Boldin. Pollard was a true starter. Other than Boldin, how does any of that add up to Massive Rebuilding under a front office plan? Pollard was still on the team when you made the OP.

Sorry to say, but we've all learned that quoting the Sun doesn't do much to bolster an argument.