Bam Bradley and Jaylen Hill waived after failed physicals

**Davesta** · 03-20-2019, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by BillickFan

Will Bethel make Cyrus expendable? Do they wait till the last preseason game, to make sure all are healthy, and then cut/trade Cyrus?

I’m more curious if Cyrus can contribute to anything on Defense. He was legit in college

**PainServer52** · 03-20-2019, 02:39 PM

Both of them looked to be some great udfa pickups for the team for many years, sucks they got hurt. Bam Bradley seriously made more big time hits in a few preseason games than I saw Mosley make his whole time here.

**esmd** · 03-20-2019, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by saintmatthew

Lots of raw talent. Probably not so much drive. Rehab, especially to return to NFL level, is very difficult and they just weren’t dedicated enough.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's really not fair to call their dedication into question. It may have had nothing to do with that, sometimes the body just doesn't respond as expected and hoped for.

**Shas** · 03-20-2019, 04:49 PM

I was going to let it go, but you're right. More likely they deserve our sympathy than our ire.

**Mmcclend** · 03-20-2019, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by bmorecareful

I still don't see how Jimmy Smith has a spot on this team right now.

You must have forgotten the Frank Walker or Shareece Wright days.

**Filmstudy** · 03-20-2019, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by Shas

We'll see what they do.

The way I see it, If Humphrey and Smith are your boundary corners, and Young is in the slot, that still leaves Carr to rotate in, and play dime. Let's say Jimmy tweaks an ankle in the second quarter of a game. Carr and Humphrey are on the field on the corners, Tayvon is still the nickel--you don't even have to play another corner--Anthony Levine comes in as the dime.

For me, I have no problem with Bethel being the next guy on the depth chart if there is a second injury in that same game. He started eight games at corner on a top-ten passing defense in Arizona, alongside Jefferson.

If Jimmy's hypothetical ankle injury keeps him from being active the next week, they Averette and Canady are back in play for the active roster, backing up Carr.

If Averette or Canady play well enough on special teams to earn a spot there, I have no problem with them being active. But special teams play is a big emphasis for this coach--role as second-corner off the bench is only available to someone who has already earned a spot special teams--and we know that Jones and Bethel are guaranteed to pass that hurdle.

By the way, if you follow the logic, above, Carr ends up as the rotational corner/spare part. Kind of hard to conclude, with his new contract, that they intended to use $7MM in cap space this year, for that role. Kind of easy to conclude that they are looking to shop Jimmy Smith for a draft pick or player.

Any team trading for Jimmy will end up taking on his $9.5MM salary. Not a bad number (remember, Carr's cap number is $7MM). Jimmy was playing well down the stretch last year, so he definitely has value, and comes with a reasonable salary. I can see a team giving something decent for him.

The Ravens would absorb just over $6MM in dead money, but it saves them nearly $10MM in cap room, net. I think we'd all be okay if they used that flexibility to sign Houston to rush the passer, and use the draft capital to get back their second round pick (directly, or by packaging whatever pick they get for Jimmy to trade up).

They could get the receiver they like in the draft and still have another high pick. Or they could make a direct trade for a veteran receiver who could make a more immediate impact.

In that scenario, then your desire to have Averette and/or Canady active makes a ton of sense, and they'd probably look for a developmental CB later on, knowing Carr is only here through 2020.

I see there being 2 key issues for this Ravens secondary, age and rotation.

Age: With Smith and Carr on the team, the Ravens are getting very old at CB. I don't believe Jimmy will be here when the season begins for that reason. To me, it was a decision between Carr and Smith, which was decided when the team picked up Carr's roster bonus. Carr has the advantages of durability, versatility (played SCB and outside in 2018), 2020 option value, and price (relative to Smith). Smith is the better pure coverage CB and is a little younger.

Age is also critical, because the primary safeties are getting old and the team passed up an opportunity (rightfully) to get younger when they cut Weddle and replaced him with Thomas. Jefferson is entering his 7th season in the league, and Levine will be 32 in March. It's a fine unit, but long in the tooth. Converting Jimmy to safety won't make this unit younger, so I think that's clearly off the table at this point.

A small regret I have with the Thomas signing is that it blocks development for Elliott and Clark. They are both entering critical developmental years and instead of fighting for a starting role, they will be backups again who may have an opportunity to play some quarter this season, but otherwise are on the outside. Thomas and Jefferson should play every snap and one will have to as signal caller. It would also be a mistake for the team to move on or rotate at dime given how well Levine played in 2018. So that means it's likely one of Elliott/Clark will be inactive each week if all 5 safeties are healthy.

Given the age at safety, I think the Ravens need to commit to youth at CB, where the obvious first move is to trade or release Smith and increase Averett's playing time, which brings us to point 2...

Rotation: The Ravens had success last year rotating CBs, a luxury which is unheard of in today's NFL and usually rendered impossible by injuries. However, the team progressed with a full set of healthy CBs after Jimmy's return and rotated at the position effectively. Despite the rotation, Canady and Averett, were basically unable to get playing time. That was a shame, since Canady was coming off a half season as an effective nickel in 2017 and will be entering year 4 in 2019 with the Ravens still unclear about his ability to contribute on the outside. As such, they won't have an easy time deciding how to proceed when he becomes UFA.

The rotation itself produced the team MVP (Humphrey), who played just 64.7% of snaps, which has to be a record low for any team MVP at CB. In addition, the other players were effective in reduced snaps and the team was able to have an effective band-aid for each short-term injury. Since this is something Martindale aggressively did elsewhere as well (OLB, DL), I expect the success of the 2018 defense will mean more of the same to go with an emphasis on reduced defensive snaps from an offense that can hold the football for both snap count and ToP wins.

To rotate effectively at CB, I think the Ravens will need 5 CBs they can trust. From those they can rotate with 4 and the 5th can patch for injuries. Bethel and Jones are ST players who should be thought of as emergency CBs only. Jones had a small number of CB snaps in 2018 and Bethel did not play a snap on defense. They will be active, but they aren't part of the rotation.

In a sense, Jimmy is the perfect fit in this system, because it minimizes the damage from the time he has missed consistently. In another sense, the Ravens will be paying a significant chunk of their cap for a player with a rotational role. I don't see that happening, so I think the Ravens will pare their rotational CB set to Carr, Young, Humphrey, Averett, and Canady. Because Canady is a 4th-year player, they'll also draft another CB at some point to try to stay young at the position.

**52N19** · 03-20-2019, 07:14 PM

that's unfortunate for the ravens and even more so for the players. football is a brutal profession. i would never expect a player to take a home town discount. get whatever you can because your career might be shorter then you think.