The Most Disappointing Players in Ravens History

[AirFlacco]

I don't agree with anything here.

McNair started all 16 games on a 13-3 team, the best regular season record in our history. He wasn't the Hall of Fame caliber player as he was earlier in his career, but he provided us EXACTLY what we wanted during his first year here.

I've been telling T that for years. He didn't like him from day 1 and thought Ozzie over paid
for him.

[The Excellector]

Evans is more of a disappointment to me, than Cundiff. Cundiff was already shaky. Evans was a proven deep threat from his time in Buffalo. He gets hurt (albeit, on a horse collar tackle), and misses the majority of the season. That's not even why he's a disappointment in my eyes.

He had the chance to make it all worth it, with one catch, which he had wrapped in his arms. For one split second, and let it get ripped away by a third string guy who didn't even last on that suck assed defensive roster (I don't think).

An eight year vet is supposed to catch that pass 10 times out of 10 without breaking a sweat.

[wickedsolo]

Evans was definitely a huge disappointment.

[RavensNTerps]

Hard to argue with that list.

Boller at 1 is appropriate. His bad play alone warrants his placement at the top spot but, as Tony points out, his cost of TWO first round picks and a second cements his spot.

I've never been more frustrated with any single player than Boller.

I find this interesting and I don't know that I'd include Boller that high, though I guess I get why.

Going into the 2003 season we had no choice at QB. Jeff Blake (lol) spurned us, Chris Redman (while one of my favorite people) was useless, Anthony Wright was Anthony Wright and there were no other QBs out there. So we targeted Leftwich and missed out due to whatever it was due to but you will NEVER convince me that overall we aren't better with Suggs + Boller than we would have been with Leftwich + whoever we took in the 2nd round in 2003 + whoever we would have taken in the first round in 2004 (including probable pick Vince Wilfork).

[RavensNTerps]

I can see why some would be disappointed in McNair, given some plays of his.

But *most* disappointing as stated in the thread title? Not even close.

McNair definitely belongs high on the list. He was awful. Our 13-3 season he was simply along for the ride. He had nothing left in the tank. And worse is we gave up a pick for him rather than just chase after Drew Brees.


Of course the flipside of that is that we could have easily also have chased after Daunte Culpepper.

[LukeDaniel]

I can cut Clayton some slack...becase we just didn't have anyone to get him the ball and he was a Mason clone. Patrick Johnson was also frustrating...blazing speed, but eventually the league discovered he couldn't catch very well.

Dwan Ewards was also frustrating - he only broke the starting lineup in a contract year and bailed, but at least we got something out of him. The same might be said of Paul Kruger (even though Kruger was "better" than Edwards....at least during the playoffs)

Chris Chester also didn't quite pan out as expected.

We might also complain about LeRon Jenkins (traded a 3rd, 4th and 7th to Denver in 96 to draft him 55th).

Ok, here are three good names for discussion. I think these guys serve as a good litmus test for how certain minds look at "disappointment" differently.

In my mind, all three are disappointments, but to varying degrees.

Clayton IMO belongs nowhere near the top 5. He played 76 of a possible 80 games, starting 59 of them. His career stat line with the Ravens was 234-3116-12. When you take a WR 22nd overall, I guess you should hope they give you more than 3111 receiving yards in 5 years. Yet, this guy was at least fairly productive for us for a half-decade. Had he been the 42nd pick, instead of 22nd, I think we would have viewed him a lot differently.

Also, let's consider that had he had consistent QB play during his five years in Baltimore, I think Clayton would also be reviewed a lot more favorably. His rookie year, the QB situation was a mess. His 2nd year, when McNair was decent, Clayton had over 900 receiving yards. His 3rd year, McNair's arm strength went into hiding (problematic for a deep threat) and Clayton's yardage total dipped almost 400 yards. His 4th year was Flacco's rookie season, and while Flacco had the arm strength to accentuate Clayton's talents, the Ravens ran a highly conservative attack.

Lastly, I think Clayton's score on the disappointment scale needs to be tempered by a comparative analysis versus other WRs in general, and specifically that draft class. Clayton wasn't even one of the top five disappointments in the 2005 draft class.

Consider these were the WRs taken in the 2005 draft class:

#3 CLE- Braylon Edwards- Michigan (359-5522-40). Had one enormous season. Other than that, a disappointment.
#7 MIN-Troy Williamson- S. Carolina (87-1131-4). Colossal bust.
#10 DET-Mike Williams-USC (127-1526-5). Enormous bust.
#21 JAX- Matt Jones- Arkansas (166-2153-15) Bust city.
#22 BAL- Mark Clayton-Oklahoma (260-3448-14). You decide
#27 ATL-Roddy White- UAB (622-8725-52). Great pro. Developing a HOF resume. Ideal circumstances.
#35 PHI- Reggie Brown-Georgia (177-2574-17). Similar production to Clayton when you adjust for pick differential.
#39 CHI- Mark Bradley-Oklahoma (92-1283-9). Bust
#55 BUF- Roscoe Parrish- Miami (134-1502-7) Bust

Chester was a late 2nd rounder. He started at least 4 games in each of his five seasons in Baltimore, finishing with 47 starts. Chester was never a particularly good OG or C, but he was far from awful too. In an ideal world, when you draft an interior O-lineman, you get a day one starter. That wasn't a terribly reasonable expectation for Chester though, given he was a converted college TE. I think, by the time he left Baltimore, he had developed into a decent LG, but his development curve in getting there probably does leave him as a slight disappointment in relation to his draft position. I'm not sure how much of that can be placed on Chester though. He did provide a dependable reserve in situations when the Ravens needed him and eventually morphed into an acceptable starting OG.

That moves us to the case of DeRon Jenkins. In my mind, I think that Jenkins and David Pittman were the two biggest busts in our history. As much as I want to put Kindle at the top of the list, I do have to factor that injuries, not lack of ability, led to his demise as a Raven. That wasn't the case with Jenkins and Pittman.

Jenkins, as mentioned before, was a 2nd round pick that cost us an assortment of picks to obtain. He was flat out awful. We've liked to complain about some bad games that Cary Williams has had over the last two seasons, but at least Cary balanced them out with some timely plays and some genuinely good games along the way. DeRon Jenkins was basically the Mr. Hyde version of Cary Williams his entire career with Baltimore. That included instances in his first 3 seasons (96-98) where he only played the nickel, yet surrendered so many plays that you thought he was on the field every down. As bad as Kyle Boller was at times, his good-play-to-bad-play ratio was still ten times better than Jenkins. Had DeRon Jenkins been some guy that we drafted late with no expectation of seeing critical snaps, I wouldn't pick on him so badly. If he was a Frank Walker type that we brought in for depth and special teams, who happened to get pushed into a role for which he wasn't expected, I'd back off. We traded up to get this guy in the 2nd round though, and his performance level never showed any merits to being that type of player for us. Clayton and Chester belong nowhere near Jenkins in the bust hierarchy.

As bad as Jenkins was, I'm not sure Pittman isn't the bigger bust. At least Jenkins saw the field. Pittman was a 3rd round pick who couldn't make the team as a rookie in 06 (there was some good talent at CB that year, but still pretty sad). As a 2nd year pro, he saw action in 7 games, including one start (the Colts game where Manning abused the secondary). I believe the only reason he saw action in 2007 was because McAlister and Rolle were both hurt simultaneously and the Ravens had nobody left on the depth chart. Regardless, he was so awful that there wasn't a roster spot for him as a rookie 3rd rounder (unprecedented in the Ozzie regime) and he was cut before the start of his 3rd NFL season (equally unprecedented for a pick that high).

[LukeDaniel]

My top 5:

5- Dan Cody
4- Kyle Boller
3- Sergio Kindle
2- David Pittman
1-DeRon Jenkins

[JohnBKistler]

My top 5:
5- Dan Cody
4- Kyle Boller
3- Sergio Kindle
2- David Pittman
1-DeRon Jenkins

A first round QB bust is like no other disappointment. As Billick said (and he would know), it sets you back 5 years...you can overcome just about any other disappointing player within a year or two.

[Jsmoove]

Boller poor soul its was more of the Ravens fuckin up than Boller dude did the best he could with what he had talent wise on his part and the rest of that offense dude took a whoppin behind a terrible Oline for years and never complained or threw anyone under the bus. He played his best game in his career against the "flawless" pats, good character guy just didnt have it and the team knew it but they stuck with it because they had no choice.

[JohnBKistler]

Boller poor soul its was more of the Ravens fuckin up than Boller dude did the best he could with what he had talent wise on his part and the rest of that offense dude took a whoppin behind a terrible Oline for years and never complained or threw anyone under the bus.

While I will admit there were mitigating factors in terms of the talent (or lack therof) around him...that only goes so far. He sucked. And this is from someone who supported him a lot longer than most. And yes, he did seem like a good guy and didn't blame anybody else....but he still sucked.

He played his best game in his career against the "flawless" pats.

Which included a key pick mid-way through the 4th quarter with the team in FG range. In many ways, that was typical of Boller: "Just good enough to lose."

[LukeDaniel]

A first round QB bust is like no other disappointment. As Billick said (and he would know), it sets you back 5 years...you can overcome just about any other disappointing player within a year or two.

Billick was the master of hyperbole. It carries more of a damage than other positions, but there is no certain danger to your franchise if you miss on your first round QB.

[Jsmoove]

While I will admit there were mitigating factors in terms of the talent (or lack therof) around him...that only goes so far. He sucked. And this is from someone who supported him a lot longer than most. And yes, he did seem like a good guy and didn't blame anybody else....but he still sucked.

Which included a key pick mid-way through the 4th quarter with the team in FG range. In many ways, that was typical of Boller: "Just good enough to lose."

I agree he was disappointment nonetheless, but the FO set him up failure too, i won't put it solely on Boller. Billick and Ozz need to share some of that as well.