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  1. #1

    Ravens what if's

    Off season discussion:

    If you've followed this team for all 22 seasons then you've had countless highs on a ride that has included 2 superbowls. You've also felt the pain small events or decisions that have kept us from more. What are your top Ravens "what if's"? Mine are:

    What if Kelly Gregg doesn't take Jamal Lewis out in training camp in 2001? Do the Ravens repeat as champs? Does Jamal Lewis with another ring and more career yards become a HOF player?

    What if we didn't go pass heavy in the 2006 play-off game against the Colts? Does our rested 13-3 team put another trophy in the case?

    What if we don't trade back into the first round in 2003. Does Ozzie go after Anquan Boldin in round 2? Does he find a way to get one of the 3 likely HOF QB's in 2004?





  2. #2

    Re: Ravens what if's

    In my entire Ravens fan life, I've only ever had one "what if" situation that still haunts me a little.

    What if the Ravens draft Aaron Rodgers in 2005, who was sitting there, instead of Mark Clayton? How many years do we win the superbowl? 2006? 2008? 2010? 2011? (I firmly believe we wouldn't have won in 2012 with anybody except Joe that year. The team very likely contends better the last 2-3 years also





  3. #3
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    Re: Ravens what if's

    The three big what if's for me will always be: what if Darren Stone doesn't commit the late personal foul in the 2008 AFCCG, what if Lee Evans holds on to the ball, and what if Jimmy Smith didn't get hurt in 2014.

    In all three scenarios if those things don't happen, they could have potentially (and in 2011, IMO almost certainly would have, as for my money that 2011 team is the best top to bottom we've had) gone on to win the SB.

    What if T.O. hadn't thrown a fit about coming here? Is Boller any better with a receiver like that?

    What if Jason Garrett had taken our job when offered?

    What if we had traded up for Matt Ryan? How are the last 10 years different?
    back on twitter

    "Well that was an appropriate last ride for Pees. A Bengals WR streaking in for a game winning touchdown in the closing minutes is the man’s preferred medium to express his art." - GreenWave52





  4. #4

    Re: Ravens what if's

    What if Kubiak stayed around?

    What if we didn't get decimated by injuries those 2 years?

    What if we put in one offensive system while Flacco was young and stuck with it until now, with minor tweaks for personnel?

    What if this team knew how to run a 2-minute drill?





  5. #5
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    Re: Ravens what if's

    There is another side to the "what if" coin :

    What if (#1) Ozzie didn't draft Ogden, Ray, Boulware, Sharper, Starks, McAlister, and J. Lewis?
    Would we have won the 2000/01 Super Bowl XXXV?

    What if (#2) Ozzie didn't draft Yanda, Flacco and Rice, Oher and Kruger, Pitta, J. Smith, and KO? Would we have won the 2012/13 Super Bowl XLVII?

    I didn't even mention the FAs (Siragusa and Sam Adams, Boldin, etc.) signed.
    So, perhaps we could have won less Championships (?)
    I know it's all speculation, but I'm with what we Ravens fans have gotten... Bc





  6. #6
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    Re: Ravens what if's

    Quote Originally Posted by purple_city39 View Post
    In my entire Ravens fan life, I've only ever had one "what if" situation that still haunts me a little.

    What if the Ravens draft Aaron Rodgers in 2005, who was sitting there, instead of Mark Clayton? How many years do we win the superbowl? 2006? 2008? 2010? 2011?
    Fuck yeah. That one's the worst.

    Otherwise I agree with Smackums list: Jamal, '06 playoff game, trading up for Boller. Ugh.





  7. #7
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    Re: Ravens what if's

    What if Dallas hadn't traded in front of us for Dez Bryant, or what if New England hadn't traded in front of us for Rob Gronkowski?





  8. #8
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    Re: Ravens what if's

    edit: wrong thread





  9. #9

    Re: Ravens what if's

    Quote Originally Posted by Gabrosin View Post
    What if Dallas hadn't traded in front of us for Dez Bryant, or what if New England hadn't traded in front of us for Rob Gronkowski?
    Its tough with that one because if we take Dez we don't take Torrey Smith the next year and Dennis Pitta that year. So is one all star better then two above average players and at their specific role top 5-10. Also with Gronk for all we know he probably would have gotten hurt and we couldn't have used him for our 2012 run.



    A big what if for me is what if we cut Peas in 2013 and grabbed Wade Phillips for a DC. He was sitting home for the 2014 season. Him and Kubiak creates an all time great coordinator duo.





  10. #10
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    Re: Ravens what if's

    What if the Vikings fail to make their 1st round pick in 2003 and there isn't a mad rush by all the teams after them to get their cards in?

    That was one of most bizarre events in the history of the draft. The Vikings were trying to trade down and couldn't get it done in time so they just didn't make their pick. The rules stated that the teams after could submit their picks but the Vikings didn't lose theirs. They were able to submit their pick at any time. What happened what the Jags got their card for Byron Leftwich in the second the clock expired on the Vikings. The Panthers then ran up there and took OT Jordan Gross. The Ravens were next but the Vikings managed to shoe horn in their pick right before and take DT Kevin Willians.

    Instead of the usual 45 minutes it took for 3 1st round picks to be selected the Ravens just saw the 3 picks before them go in about 2 minutes. It was complete chaos but Ozzie stuck to his board and took.......Terrell Suggs. I always wondered if the Vikings had traded down and hadn't pulled that stunt would Suggs have been off the board? Suggs set the college record for sacks in a season and was expected to be a top 5 pick so it was rumored that the team trading up with the Vikings was targeting Suggs. Thankfully that was one screwup that worked in the Ravens favor and one that we are still benefiting from 16 seasons later.





  11. #11

    Re: Ravens what if's

    If you look at ProFootballFocus, they actually have most of our top seasons mapped out where we actually have typically overperformed based on what our player's talents and analytics would suggest. So really, most of our "what if" arguments would probably go the other way. Don't forget, we've rarely ever been highly seeded. Most of our deep play-off runs come from us knocking off higher seeded teams, which is pretty rare in the NFL. To put things in perspective, since we (a #4 seed) beat the 49ers (a #2 seed) in the 2012 season, only 1 team has sniffed the Super Bowl since (the #1 Cowboys were knocked off by the #2 Falcons in the 2016 season). 9 out of 10 representatives of the Super Bowl from 2013-2017 have been #1 seeds... of the six possible seeds. No sub #1 seed has won the Super Bowl since us.

    Over the past 20 years, there really hasn't been many Cinderella stories at all post December outside of the Ravens. Sure, there are Cinderellas in the sense that they were mediocre the year before, but had a great regular season, but we haven't seen an franchises with a strong improvement from the regular season to the post season as the Ravens (the true "all we need is a chip and a seat" type of team).

    So if anything, we're probably the greatest villain in the "what if" argument for other teams. The Titans, Broncos, Patriots, 49ers, Giants, Steelers, Chiefs, and Dolphins have all been favored over us to win in the play-offs at some point, and I'm sure that their fanbase all thinks that they would have been shoe-ins to win the SB if we didn't knock them off that year (maybe I'm missing a few, and I didn't count the ones where we had home field advantage).





  12. #12

    Re: Ravens what if's

    For the record, my biggest "what if" is if we would have called Flacco's bluff and franchised him at $14.6M in 2013.

    Either the Browns would have given his two free first round picks and we'd have tons and tons of cap room to do whatever we him (and hopefully we'd have resisted the urge to draft Geno Smith)...

    Or Flacco plays out the 2013 at a much reduced rate (the cap hit would have been higher than $6M, but remember, that was all smoke and mirrors, that prorated money killed later), he plays like crap in 2013, and we get him for next to nothing after 2013....

    Or, it motivates him to have another stand-out season, and we get another SB appearance out of it. The next franchise tag would have been about $17M, so it still was probably a better deal than the $20M a year one we gave him.

    In general, we've been pretty lousy since 2012. Any butterfly effect change we could have made would have been a welcome one. I'd rather the team have just had some bad seasons and dumped cap space than always being up against the cap and always going 8-8.





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