Seriously, Do The Ravens Need Vonta Leach?

[wickedsolo]

The problem is that Cam's offense is centered around the run, so having arguably the best run-blocking FB in the NFL is something that would be very enticing for the Ravens.

That said, I don't think Cam's offense has really adapted to the new NFL and to be perfectly honest, I don't think Ray Rice is a great fit for Cam's version of the Coryell anyway. Rice is a hell of a back. Arguably the best RB in the NFL right now when all things are considered, but I think he'd be so much more effective in an offense similar to what the Giants run. Again, the success of this team is going to come through Joe and the passing game. That's just the way it is and the Ravens have the talent to become that kind of an offense, but they just don't have the person at the top putting all the pieces together properly.

They paid a lot for Leach because their offensive identity (or at least their attempted offensive identity) is to be a run-first offense. When you think about all of that it makes sense to go out and get the best run blocker that you can. Situationally, they had the opportunity to get arguably the best run blocking FB in the league, they needed a FB, he was coming from a zone-blocking system similar to the Ravens, and he brings a lot of leadership to the locker room.

To the OP - I think you could probably take Vonta Leach's name out of this entire thread and just argue that the importance of a run-blocking FB isn't really of significant value anymore in the NFL. That's why you see a lot of teams operating out of a 1-back set with multiple TE's OR you have an offense that uses an actual TE/H-Back as the FB.