The Ravens need a TE.

**The Excellector** · 11-05-2013, 04:53 AM

The have no way of taking advantage of mismatches over the middle. While they can send WRs across the middle, they aren't meant to do that for an entire game and get whacked. TEs are meant to take those hits and get those mismatches on the LBs and Ss. There are no easy throws to be had over the middle of the field.

Clark is no longer a mismatch for anybody. and Dickson is lucky to catch it if he's standing still and it hits him in the numbers. Honestly, that's about the only way he stands a chance of catching it, which means no good throws in stride.

It's clearly an issue.

**leachisabeast** · 11-05-2013, 05:16 AM

How is Dennis Pitta doing, we seriously need him back.

**RavNMadMan** · 11-05-2013, 06:25 AM

Originally Posted by leachisabeast

How is Dennis Pitta doing, we seriously need him back.

I agree the Pitta would have been a help up to this point. Considering where the team is however, I would not advocate rushing him back. Let's see if he can get 100% and plan to bring him back next year.

I also agree with Ex, we could use a TE with good hands and......yes good blocking skills. This team is not going anywhere this season IMHO.

**wickedsolo** · 11-05-2013, 07:03 AM

People don't understand how losing Pitta truly impacted this offense. I also think people didn't appreciate how good he really was.

**PGCountyRaven85** · 11-05-2013, 08:16 AM

This goes deeper than Dennis Pitta. Pitta is a very good receiving TE, but he's basically a big bodied slot WR, which is nice, but they need more.

They've needed a "total TE" since the day they cut Todd Heap. They need to draft a guy who has the potential to be our Jason Witten, runs good routes, is a dominant blocker and catches at least 75% of his targets. I think this year, they're gonna be in a (lower draft) position to the guy they need, if he's fits need + BPA (like Jimmy Smith, 2011). I don't know that much about these TEs in the draft this year.

**RavenScallywag** · 11-05-2013, 08:36 AM

I said after Week 1, I would advocate Furstenburg getting a shot if we haven't seen anything by Week 6.

It's Week 9 and I think he should get a shot. The hard part is, if we want him to keep his PSq eligibility for next year, he needs to be active less than 6 games. That'd put him coming onto roster at Week 12, precisely when Pitta is thought to be coming back.

I'd like to see both of them this year. I don't think Pitta will make a big enough impact to dramatically change his contract status for next year. And I'd like to see what Furstenburg can do against a starting NFL D. Obviously, Clark and Dickson do not figure into our plans next year. We need more than one TE.

**Loyola** · 11-05-2013, 08:45 AM

The Ravens were doomed the day Pitta went down. The unfortunate part of this is that the Ravens were TOTALLY NEGLIGENT in not having developed the necessary TE depth on their roster.

The Ravens have a long history of confusing atheletism with football ability. Dixon undoubtly is an exceptional athelete. Dixon is also a terrible football player and has no business being on a NFL roster. Gradkowski is another example of someone who shouldn't be on a NFL roster. They never seem to learn from their mistakes. The best example of this is they came out after the bye week doing the exact same thing they were doing before the by week - believing that their problems related to execution - and NOT THE ATHELETES they had on the field.

**GOTA** · 11-05-2013, 08:50 AM

Originally Posted by wickedsolo

People don't understand how losing Pitta truly impacted this offense. I also think people didn't appreciate how good he really was.

I see it the other way. People, and the team didn't realize just how bad Dickson is. Pitta is good player but he's not a Pro Bowl TE. He has 100 catches, 1000 yards and 10 TDs for his career, which is really 2 years in the offense. Those are good numbers but should be replaceable. The Giants lost a TE who put up those numbers 3 straight years and were able to find another guy from the scrap heap to produce similar numbers. As bad as they've been this year they might even do it for a 4th straight year with another TE. You can find guys like Pitta but because the team didn't realize just how bad Dickson was they never looked. By not evaluating Dickson properly they really screwed themselves.

**Rxdoxx** · 11-05-2013, 09:28 AM

My wife got real tired of me saying as we watched other games, "Sure is nice to have a TE who can catch"
There are balls that Clark/Dickson have no shot at getting and they are the Flacco fastballs..
Joe has to soften his throw, feather them in, which means that clarkson needs a bigger window, and when a TE needs a bigger window, he is useless for the congested crossing patterns.... might as well just throw the ball out of bounds and save the risk of an INT

Originally Posted by RavenScallywag

I said after Week 1, I would advocate Furstenburg getting a shot if we haven't seen anything by Week 6.

It's Week 9 and I think he should get a shot. The hard part is, if we want him to keep his PSq eligibility for next year, he needs to be active less than 6 games.

I'm no expert but only dig stuff and have read this

•If a player has one accrued season, they can still be practice squad eligible if they were on the 45-man active gameday roster for less than nine regular season games.

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2013/8/3...es-eligibility so if he is brought up can't get in 9 games this year.

I agree I'd like to see Fursty, but also would like to see Juice, why are we still playing Clarkson?

**ravenjoe** · 11-05-2013, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by ravnmadman

i agree the pitta would have been a help up to this point. Considering where the team is however, i would not advocate rushing him back. Let's see if he can get 100% and plan to bring him back next year.

ditto!

**Ravenswintitle** · 11-05-2013, 09:36 AM

Originally Posted by wickedsolo

People don't understand how losing Pitta truly impacted this offense. I also think people didn't appreciate how good he really was.

Agreed; and not to beat the proverbial dead horse but it was compounded by the lack of Boldin or a player of his skillset that can aggressively go after passes. Marlon is going to be great but right now he doesn't seem to elevate and I cringe when I see passes going right over his hands. IMO Boldin would catch those and Brown will learn to do it too in time.

Not sure why Furst isn't give a little playing time or even Juice. I suppose the coaches know better ...

**wickedsolo** · 11-05-2013, 09:48 AM

Originally Posted by GOTA

I see it the other way. People, and the team didn't realize just how bad Dickson is. Pitta is good player but he's not a Pro Bowl TE. He has 100 catches, 1000 yards and 10 TDs for his career, which is really 2 years in the offense. Those are good numbers but should be replaceable. The Giants lost a TE who put up those numbers 3 straight years and were able to find another guy from the scrap heap to produce similar numbers. As bad as they've been this year they might even do it for a 4th straight year with another TE. You can find guys like Pitta but because the team didn't realize just how bad Dickson was they never looked. By not evaluating Dickson properly they really screwed themselves.

I totally agree with you that they should have known how bad Dickson truly is.

However, I still think Pitta was a lot more important to this offense than many think. No, he isn't a Rob Gronkowski or a Jimmy Graham. However, he was Mr. Reliable for Flacco in the red zone and over the middle of the field.