How did we do?

[RavingMad]

http://blogs.baltimoreravens.com/201...0%98wiped-out/

[wickedsolo]

http://blogs.baltimoreravens.com/201...0%98wiped-out/

What I find interesting is the amount of teams that were obviously targeting the same players.

[TheJoeFlaccoShow]

I just want to clarify my opinion and statement that the Ravens panicked and reached for 2 picks. From multiple reports (I know its a bad term here) the Ravens had 3 main targets and they believed one would fall to them and that is the guard from Wisconsin, the guard from Stanford, and ILB from Alabama. I 'm not saying they didn't have a back up plan in case the guys were gone, what I am saying is they changed their philosophy or got creative as Decosta said. Fearing that more targets would be taken they panicked and reached for guys/talent that could have been acquired later in the draft. I'm not saying that the Ravens didn't have Pierce and Gradkowski high on their board by position, I'm saying these guys and/or their comparable skill set were available later in the draft.
My point when it comes to small school players is you have to take into consideration their competition when you are scouting, analyzing and evaluating their skill set and talent. Seeing a player get push against lesser competition or seeing a RB run over less competition can cause them to shoot up your board.
When it comes to reasons why other teams didn't draft or target certain players/positions, there are so many nuances to take into consideration, for example--needs, roster and strategy (if too general I can be more specific in another post).

Here is some clarification for you on how many players the Ravens were looking at in the first round, straight from the horses mouth BEFORE the draft. But go ahead and believe your "reports".

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/News/...1st_Round.aspx

“We’ve identified nine players we believe could be there at 29. We’ve taken those nine players and did some extra study on each,” Newsome continued. “We had each of our scouts look extensively at these players. We then matched up all of these against the others and played the game of: ‘If this player and that player are there, who do we select and why. That’s a real good discussion and takes some time. We get the coaches involved. We get matchups of this offensive player versus this defensive player. We go through as many possibilities that we can think of.”

What If The Nine Are Gone?

When I asked Oz if all nine are gone, what do we do, he said: “Not going to happen. I’d be surprised if there aren’t four or five of these players still there at 29. We have a lot of information about the players and the leanings of the teams in front of us. We’ve done our homework,” the Wizard added.

And, will the Ravens be tempted to move up to draft a player they covet or move down and gain an extra pick or more, because there will be a group of players with similar draft grades from the Ravens’ personnel experts? “We’ll listen. I’ve already heard from three teams ahead of us and two teams behind us who have some interest in moving. We’ll see,” Newsome said.

What will Newsome focus on once the draft starts? “Trends. I’ve seen a lot of drafts that have runs at certain positions. It happened last year in the first round with the quarterbacks. Four went in a hurry, and that helped get Jimmy [Smith] to us at the 27th spot.

“Will there be a run at a position this year? Maybe. It usually happens. When you pick late in the first round like we have done recently, runs help. It usually means a good player at another position will drop to us.”

I love trying to grade a draft within 24 hours of it happening and bitching about things you are not and will never be privy to.

The track record of Ozzie just in the last 3 years is almost unbelievable and easily the best in the league, I will go with him and the front office until he shows me something to believe otherwise.

[RavingMad]

http://blogs.baltimoreravens.com/201...0%98wiped-out/

[bensmotorcyclehelmt]

Seems to me the ravens need to grade 175 players next year instead of the 150 they normally do.
I think the uncomfortableness I have is that a lot of the guys we picked were from smaller schools.
As long as we got guys that eat, sleep and breath football, that's a start.
Now we'll see how the ravens coach em up.

[AirFlacco]

I posted last night that a guy on radio said the brass wasn't
as excited this year as they were last year over Jimmy and Torrey.

Here's a link from the Ravens own site saying the same thing. It
quotes DeCosta saying last year we hit a home run. This year
the mood is different.

The article goes on to say the players they really wanted in each
round was taken. It looks like they rated Hightower the highest and it
looked like we were gonna get him but didn't. It was like
the Joe Staley draft when Mike NOlan jumped in front to get him
and we haven't settled the LT position yet.

The Ravens presser was like a morgue that year and not filled
with excitement yesterday. So you can't fault the fans for not
being excited either. Like I posted Sat, all the guys I hung out
with Frid night were upset.

Ozzie didn't even want Upshaw on the first round and could have had. Then
he trades out and said there were several players we liked but we wanted more
picks. We will get 1 of those players we passed on in the first, so Upshaw might
not have been one of them.

The poster who said teams are catching up with Ravens is on
to something cause Ozzie says the same thing in this article.
He says teams now know what it takes to win as their targeted
player kept going off the board in each round. That's why Decosta said
the mood is different this year - with him and many of the fans.

Finally, DeCosta says we had to manufacture our own runs.

We're just gonna have to wait 2 yrs to see how Upshaw and
the guard and Center pans out but Ravens brass were not
excited at their presser like last year.

BTW, Piss is getting high grades for their draft while Ozzie goes to a B+
mainly for the Center from Delaware but as pointed out, Piss and NE had
him rated as a top Center in the draft and Piss wanted the RB from Temple
and had him in for a visit.


Just my humble freaking opinion.

__________________________________________________
Last year, the beaming Ravens director of player personnel said the Ravens “had good pitching, hit the ball well and won the game.”

This year, DeCosta and General Manager Ozzie Newsome – the team’s two draft leaders – were in a different mood.
________________________________________________

So are many of the fans.





http://blogs.baltimoreravens.com/201...216;wiped-out/

[houstonravensfan]

How did we do? NONE of knows, and we will NOT know for quite a while. But, hey, it's fun to speculate, guess, and vent. One thing I DO know: I'm glad ravingmad is on my ignore list!

IMVHO: we might have been a little too passive, thus letting Pitt and NE steal our lunch.
I know nada about KO, but I taught at ISU and I DO know they produce some big, strong, mean mothas. Just the kind we need.
I think Upshaw will be just OK, but not a super star. The player who moves into Ray's locker is still in college somewhere.
Pierce is perplexing. Lots of pretty extravagant praise for him on this board, but lots of us were a bit over the top on Anthony Allen, too, right? Let's remember that Pierce is not without flaws: too upright, little exper as a pass catcher or pass blocker, low level of comp, etc.
Christian Thompson sounds like a guy with a future, and I'm glad we got a potentially good PR/KR -- Asa Jackson. But, another CB? Yes, I know, "You can't have too many CBs," but don't we have about 17 now?
Gino Gradkowski? He WILL be HoF. Bank on it: he sounds like me -- half Pole, half Italian. And that is about as realistic as the rest of our speculation. In Oz I trust (but not with my wife)

[RavingMad]

Looks like some people need to ignore the wine bottle. #drunkposting

[GreatWhiteNorthRaven]

I could go into an explanation about how each pick they made helps the team, but I'm not going to waste my time when you guys are saying "panicking and reaching". Seriously guys (and I might be bad for this too, so I realize practice what you preach), contrary to what you believe you do not know more than Ozzie and the Ravens staff. Experts don't either, who gives a shit if they give us a bad grade, no one can give an accurate grade after a draft because how you play in college isn't the same as the NFL. It's a different type of game. You guys can criticize this all you want, but whoever is saying we did bad, don't make that judgement now because your opinion has no logical background to it. You're making an assumption based off nothing. Think about it

[rharris1986]

I believe that three years from now the guy who's going to be sitting at the top of the Ravens 2012 draft class heap is going to be Tommy Streeter. Flacco, Smith and Streeter are going to be a deadly combo in this league for a long, long time. The only one who can prove me wrong on this is Streeter - and only time will tell

[alien bird]

Ozzie didn't even want Upshaw on the first round and could have had. Then he trades out and said there were several players we liked but we wanted more picks. We will get 1 of those players we passed on in the first, so Upshaw might not have been one of them.

http://blogs.baltimoreravens.com/201...ot-‘wiped-out/

Acording to the link you posted, Upshaw was probably one them:

DeCosta was thrilled with the first-round trade, which enabled Baltimore to get an extra fourth-round pick (used on guard/center Gino Gradkowski) and still snag outside linebacker Courtney Upshaw.

[alien bird]

http://blogs.baltimoreravens.com/201...0%98wiped-out/

According to your link:

[DeCosta] said Baltimore was prepared for it and handled it well with Newsome and Vice President of Football Administration Pat Moriarty doing the negotiating. DeCosta said the Ravens were probably the most organized they’ve ever been this year in terms of the different scenarios that could play out.

I dunno, but that doesn't sound like panic to me.

The thing about the rankings by scouts and websites is that the Ravens do not subscribe to the scouting service most the rest of the league does. They use their own scouts and create their own rankings. I am sure they made adjustments on the fly when a player they coveted was selected earlier in a round, but that is not the same as panicking, and it isn't the same as reaching.