The Baltimore Ravens, on paper, are moving in the right direction. A new head coach is in town; a strong staff of assistants has been hired and/or retained to support him; and now we have plenty to time to turn our attention to the upcoming offseason. We still have a tremendous amount of talent on the roster, but there are several places where we need to get better, younger, or both.

Unfortunately, several recent decisions in free agency, coupled with the pressure to retain our best homegrown players, has put us up against the cap. This is going to limit our ability to improve our team, but it will not cripple our offseason entirely. I am not a cap expert, though I have a decent understanding of how it works, and I do not have any cap impact figures for the moves I'm expecting to take place, so I don't know how much the Ravens' cap situation will be helped or hurt by them. But I'm starting with the following assumptions:

Jonathan Ogden retires
Steve McNair is released and/or retires
Mike Flynn is released and/or retires

A couple of notes about assumptions I'm NOT making. First, I don't expect us to cut Samari Rolle, but I am curious whether he will decide to retire. I do think the team will continue to try to get younger CBs into the lineup. Second, I don't expect us to release Ray Lewis, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of an extension, which would be a good way to free up some cap space. While the team as a whole had a poor year, Lewis was still playing very well for us. He may never again be the force of nature we saw in 2000, but he is definitely capable of starting on almost any team in the league right now. Finally, I don't expect us to franchise Terrell Suggs, unless it is a prelude to a sign and trade. We may be able to make the cap room to franchise him, but not to keep him that way all season. I do think the Ravens will try to re-sign him, but the cost will be high; his off year this year works in our favor, but only a little, as he's a young, talented pass rusher who can move between DE and LB and has never missed a game due to injury. Those don't come along every day! Because of this, he's also our MOST VALUABLE ASSET when discussing trades this offseason, even more valuable than our #8 pick (in what looks to be a weak draft). I would be happy to see Suggs remain a Raven, but I do think that his departure in a trade could be the catalyst for striking a better balance between offense and defense on this team. I don't for a second believe the Ravens will let him walk with no compensation, regardless of our stance on the franchise tag.

So with that out of the way, what do we need? Well, QB is obviously our top issue. Some of you may believe Troy Smith is the answer, and maybe he is, but there's no chance of knowing that for certain and I wouldn't want to bank another year on whether a 5th-round pick can light up the league in his second season. Another big need is CB, as the league moves more to pass-oriented offenses, good teams need a strong pass rush and at least three capable CBs, even if none of them are superstars. Our young guys were challenged this past year and across the board they failed pretty badly, which is perhaps the biggest disappointment of a terrible year. Perhaps Pittman and Martin and the rest will continue developing and become salvageable, or perhaps they will be a waste and we'll have to keep working on the position through the draft. We could also use help at DE and OL; our pass rush took a huge hit without Trevor Pryce, who isn't getting younger, and our offensive line has a lot of youth but would probably benefit from bringing in a talented young center to anchor the middle and allow us to keep Jason Brown and Ben Grubbs at guard while Terry, Gaither, and Yanda compete at tackle.

The need I want to talk about here is at WR. Do we have a need at WR? YES. I really like the group we have in Mason, Clayton, and Williams, but if this year has proven ANYTHING, it's that you can never have too many great WRs. The New England Patriots go five deep easily at WR; the Colts have Harrison and Wayne but drafted another talented WR in the first this past season to go with a TE who's basically a WR; almost every team that succeeded this past year could point to at least three great or better receivers. And the universal constant in every top passing attack was having a strong, fast receiver to open up the defense and draw the attention of the coverage. Randy Moss. Reggie Wayne. Terrell Owens. Braylon Edwards. This is the sort of player our team is missing. Demetrius Williams is the closest thing we have and the jury is still out on him.

Fortunately, this may be the offseason to change that.

The draft doesn't offer any pass-catchers worthy of the #8 pick this year, but free agency and the trading block may be able to deliver. Keep in mind, we do possess a valuable chip in Terrell Suggs, and any money we were expecting to use to sign him to a long-term deal could be used on one of the following receivers instead:

1. Randy Moss: Okay, this is pretty unlikely. After all, we were close to getting him a few years back, and it fell through. And why would he leave the Patriots? He's got more than enough money, and he could stay with Brady and compete for more championships. But you never know.

2. Chad Johnson: Word is he wants out of Cincinnati. We've all witnessed his talent; unfortunately, we've all witnessed his insanity. I think he would be an incredible addition on the field but might be too much of a problem off of it. Still, I wouldn't complain if we found a way to get him from Cincinnati, and his price in trade would be cheaper than some of the other options.

3. Roy Williams: With Calvin Johnson aboard, Roy knows he is losing his alpha dog status in Detroit, and let's be honest, who wouldn't want out of Detroit? The Lions would desperately love to improve their defense and may be persuaded to spare Williams, who has fantastic talent. On the other hand, with Mike Martz gone, Williams might be content to let his next OC have a chance at keeping him involved in a new offense.

4. Larry Fitzgerald: His name was brought up recently in another thread, and of all the names here, this one makes the most sense. Fitzgerald is young and supremely talented; he plays for a team that can't get over the hump in a place where most players don't want to be; he's on an offense that has two other top picks at WR and may be content to spare him in exchange for defensive help; and he's got an astronomical cap number. The most logical trade chip, Terrell Suggs, played college ball in Arizona and recently expressed a willingness to return and play pro ball there. Both teams would get an immediate upgrade at a position of need for roughly the same amount of money spent; a top WR and a top pass rusher command similar contracts, and both players are young and healthy. Best of all, unlike many other top WRs, there's no indication of Fitzgerald being a headcase or a primadonna; swapping Suggs for him would be a move in the right direction for the team's character.

While the Ravens do have a bunch of needs this offseason, not all of them are easily filled through free agency or trade, but this one can be. Hopefully the front office will decide that adding a top WR would be a big step towards cranking up our offense, and we'll see them take decisive action to make it happen.