Defense Rules! Is Ozzie Wrong?

[GOTA]

And I really wonder how much the Ravens are getting like the Orioles in assigning importance to the injury factor - at least in the draft projections. I am not going to criticize a team for hesitating to draft/sign a player when there is a question about their injury possibilities, but you have to have a really good medical staff to give that element the appropriate weight - or be willing to take a chance even with question marks.

Hey Dolphins, Drew Brees was an option ....

What was so frustrating about Jack is that he was completely healthy at the time. Jaylon Smith I understood. He had been through a surgery and you never know. There was no issue with Jack and the Ravens end up taking a player at the same position in the same round! I can understand the risk of a high 1st round pick and being cautious but this was round 2. The risk wasn't nearly that great and we saw what the rewards would have been yesterday

[The Fanatic]

I don't want to see our front office waste time/money on WR prospects when for the past 20 years they have shown they really are not adept at that part of the draft. Use the draft to your strengths and free agency to get those targets for Flacco. That will give you the balance everyone keeps chirping about.

Which is why you don't spend 50 million on a defensive tackle when viable options can be drafted (including mid to late rounds)
This is why so many of us are frustrated!!

[Ravenswintitle]

Yup when the weather turns cold you need a strong run game and D.

[The Excellector]

Hindsight is 20/20. Many of us thought Correa would work out. What we need is better development of the defensive players that we DO have.

Most of the people on this board wanted Spence or Jack, not Correa.

[Raveninwoodlawn]

According the the draft gurus Jack was like a can of soup with an expiration date. He's got 2 more years left and he won't be able to play anymore because of the knee. It will be interesting to see how the reality ends up playing out.

I got that at the time which is why I understood why no teams were ponying up a first for him, but just my opinion, if all he has is 2 more good years left, he's still totally worth a second round pick.

Especially considering what we've been getting out of our 2nd and 3rd rounders lately.

[The Excellector]

Ozzie doesn't want some shit defense. It can take a long time to build a truly elite and dominant defense especially if there aren't any good DCs available. Minnesota has been at it for about 7 years now trying to build a defense that can stop Rodgers and might finally have it but guess what? They played a great first half, then got gassed and gave up what could have, maybe should have been the GW field goal. It happens to theirs just as it happens to ours and Jacksonvilles. Defenses get gassed but when they're boiling hot and forcing turnovers, the offense absolutely NEEDS to capitalize and not put them into bad situations late in games. We luckily had hall of famers and all pros for many years that pretty much prevented that no matter what.. but that's a once in a lifetime gift to have.

He may not have wanted "some shit" defense, but he ended up with "some shit" offense. What is lost in all of this is that Jacksonville had to score 40+ points to win. New England scored 30+. Minnesota scored on a miraculous game winning TD. The only defense that actually did what it's ranking said it would do is Philadelphia, if we're going to use rankings and statistics. Now, Minnesota's defense played a good game, but got gassed.

[The Excellector]

Maclin was supposed to be our fringe #1 WR.... he has beeb a huge disappointment. Wallace is a capable #2... and Perrimen is a bust. A least some effort has been made, but Maclin not panning out has hurt us a lot.

Putting ourselves in a position where the disparity is so lopside in how they invest in both sides of the ball that they HAD to rely on Maclin is what put them in an even worse spot.

[Raveninwoodlawn]

The reality of the Correa pick...

They thought they were getting a swiss army knife guy who could play well anywhere and that appealed more to them than simply drafting the guys available who were the better ILB and OLB/pass rushing prospects.

[The Excellector]

Draft Jack, let him play out his rookie deal and move on, like Raveninwoodlawn said. They got cute and it cost them.

[shana]

Tf? Defense rules? Jags needed 45 to win, Vikings needed nearly 30. Most of the teams in the championship games have defenses in the top 5... and offenses in at least the top 15. And they have weapons. Several of them.

All this shows is that BALANCE rules...

[srobert96]

I am a huge proponent of having a great defense. That being said I think the defensive resources should be spent on corners,FS, edge rushers and interior guys who can penetrate. The Ravens wasted a ton of resources on a NT that is ineffective vs the pass and they are about to waste a ton of dough on an ILB.

The three teams you are referencing also all have dynamic WRs and Jax has Fournette. The Ravens do not have any weapons that are even close to the caliber these three teams put on the field. The other thing these three teams have is an aggressive DC with an attack mind set.

[ERey]

(1) How can the young talent on the "D" improve when our coaching staff (a) can't seem to develop the skills they were drafted for (b) don't let them actually play to get experience (c) sometimes play them out of position (d) keep running out older veterans, who still are solid, but could use a breather now and then (?)

(2) Yes, Ozzie needs to find Flacco targets, both @ WR and TE, and we could use to bolster the Oline, plus perhaps a 1st rate RB too. That's a tall offensive order because he's ignored it by drafting the likes of Elam, Arthur Brown, K L-M, T. Brooks, Simon, Urban, Kaufusi, Correa, Wormley, etc... Bc

For your first point that seemed to be the plan early on. Tim Williams and Bowser were rotating with Suggs and Judon in the 1st Cleveland game. That's when Z. Smith was injured. Some how they seemed to get away from that. I thought Bowser looked really good in the preseason games, then he just disappeared during regular season. I think that's why the JuJu pass has some of upset.

No doubt in Ozzie's attempt to build a top 5 D he's had some major misses which left the D ranked around the middle of the pack and an offense ranked almost last. So as to my OP point, I don't think he's necessarily wrong concentrating on D, but his misses in the draft and the coaches not developing these defensive players has hurt the team. The D can't get the stops it needs and the offense is void of playmakers.