2018 Draft Thread -- because the "off-season" is when you get better!!!

[Laxdad24]

The reason we don't have more stars is that we have for quite some time been picking in the middle to the end of the round (exception 2016). JAX now has stars, but they picked in the top ten for ten straight years to finally get it right.

We are still drafting talent, especially 2016. If you look at the garbage players who started for the Ravens in 2013 versus 2017, you can see the improvement. We have talent on the bench now that we did not have then and we are not starting Gradkowski, Marcus Huff, Spears, Elam, Asa/Chykie, Dallas Clark, old Stokeley, Jah Reid, AQ Shipley, Tandon Doss - and there was nobody behind those dreadfuls.

We are short on real playmakers. That is going to change by the end of April when we get a new RB from a rich class, and new WRs from a deep enough class. The FO knows what we still need.

Let’s hope. 🤞


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[GirlsKickButt]

I still wouldn’t rule out Mark Andrews at 16. Not the sexiest pick in the world, but he’s worth it IMO. I see a lot of WR’s between rounds 2-5. I don’t see a lot of top-end WR’s. However, I think the TE market is really small. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'd much rather trade a 3rd Round pick for Cameron Brate to fill our TE need. That would conserve a draft pick for a C, another WR or RB.

[usmccharles]

I'd much rather trade a 3rd Round pick for Cameron Brate to fill our TE need. That would conserve a draft pick for a C, another WR or RB.

I'm still holding out hope on signing Graham and resigning Jensen. Since those are two things I really want, might as well bet that they do the exact opposite

[wickedsolo]

I'd much rather trade a 3rd Round pick for Cameron Brate to fill our TE need. That would conserve a draft pick for a C, another WR or RB.

If he’s available, I’d like that too. Not a 3rd though...lol. I’m kind of stingy.


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[GirlsKickButt]

I'm still holding out hope on signing Graham and resigning Jensen. Since those are two things I really want, might as well bet that they do the exact opposite

With our lack of cap space, I can't see us signing either one. We'll do the standard 30+ year old WR that's been cut and that's it.

[GirlsKickButt]

If he’s available, I’d like that too. Not a 3rd though...lol. I’m kind of stingy.


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I figure a 3rd (since we should have two) should get it done.

[usmccharles]

With our lack of cap space, I can't see us signing either one. We'll do the standard 30+ year old WR that's been cut and that's it.

That puts my boy Jordy Nelson on the list lol. I think we could sign Graham ans Jensen with the right cuts. Don't expect either tho

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[BcRaven]

The reason we don't have more stars is that we have for quite some time been picking in the middle to the end of the round (exception 2016).

rhap, it ain't necessarily so. Where have the Patriots been drafting? My personal most disliked examples are in 2010 when we could have moved up one spot to take Dez Bryant, but Ozzie decided to trade down. He drafted Sergio Kindle one spot after Bill B. moved up to snatch Gronk. In 2013 we took Elam and A. Brown (#1 and #2) and although they are later picks... enough said. I don't want to belabor the point, but in past draft history we got Heap (#31) and Reed (#24), so there are later 1st round jewels to be mined. It just seems like our miners aren't as good at finding them as they used to be... Bc

[Ravens20002012]

Reports are that Denver may be releasing Demaryius Thomas and or Emmanuel Sanders. Thomas would be nice

[tnsmith90]

With our lack of cap space, I can't see us signing either one. We'll do the standard 30+ year old WR that's been cut and that's it.

This is a common misconception due to having been in cap hell for the past few seasons. Our dead cap issues have finally cleared up, and now we have plenty of space to make 1 big move or possibly 2 pretty big moves.

Per spotrac we currently have $13.66m in cap space. We will free up $5m more by cutting Maclin. So, we have about $18.66m free. Not to mention there are further potential savings they could capture if they really wanted to in Max Williams for $.9m, Webb for $1.75m, Perriman for $1.6m, Woodhead for $1.8m, Howard for $3m, Carr for $4m, Weddle for $4.75m, or even just extending Mosley. Out of those possibilities I only see them extending Mosley for a few mil in savings this year, but the other options are open to them depending on how things shake out. So, bottom line is we will have AT LEAST $18.66m in cap space, but likely closer to around $21m or $22m, and possibly as high as $38m or $39m.

Moving forward, we will have Flacco, Smith, Yanda, Suggs, Weddle, & Jefferson all coming off of the books in the next 2 seasons. So, we also have a lot of flexibility in terms of structuring deals with backloaded contracts if we need to in order to get a guy in here.

So, we are actually in pretty decent shape cap-wise for once! Link here: http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/baltimore-ravens/cap/

I could see them making a move for Graham who will likely get around $8m AAV for 3 or 4 years, Jensen if he's in the $8m AAV range, Watkins in the $10m AAV range, Pryor in the $3m to $4m AAV range, Robinson if he isn't tagged in the $13m to $14m AAV range, or even a few other possibilities, and then structuring them as backloaded contracts. Obviously, I'm not talking about getting all of these players signed, but 1 or 2 might be possible.

[WNCRavensFan]

It's been posted elsewhere on the board that we are not in as good a cap situation as spotrac makes it out to be. But things do start to clear up after this upcoming season, like you indicate.

[JonAB]

It's been posted elsewhere on the board that we are not in as good a cap situation as spotrac makes it out to be. But things do start to clear up after this upcoming season, like you indicate.

Brian is great but you also gotta remember that he takes the worst case scenarios when he does his analysis, which is the right way to take as a writer/analyst, but as fans we can do whatever the hell we want!

So here’s what I could see happening, with pretty deep cuts.

We start with about 7m at a 178m cap in space after carry over cap minus last years incentives (not revealed yet but looks like theyre gonna pretty well match the carryover).

Cuts- Maclin (5M), Carr (4M), Howard Post June (4m), Webb (1.75m), Woodhead (1.8m), McCllelan (1.25m), Perriman (1.6m). 19.4 million cut leaving us at 26.4m with 50 players under contract.

We’ll likely have to carry 65 players (7 ERFAs and 8 draft picks) after injuries, hopefully more injuries occur later than sooner like this year so that the replacements dont count for so much cap. So using 500k per roster spot, that takes up 7.5m in space leaving us at 18.9m. Mosley extension gets us probably 3m. Account 500k for practice squad and another 500k for ERFAs.

Add in our rookie cap addition of roughly 3m leaves us at 17.9m to spend. Gotta leave a cushion of probably around 5m to account for bad injury luck. So roughly we have about 12.9m to spend. Not great but allows to back load deals for probably 2 free agents. In my dream scenario (NOTE THE DREAM SCENARIO! I know one of these guys probably doesnt hit FA) we could conceivable retain Jensen at a 5m number and ALLEN FREAKIN ROBINSON at a 9 (gotta add back 500k to each as I already accounted for there roster spots with the 65 player number).



Gonna keep dreaming until its dead, which it will eventually.