Time for DeCosta to make a move

[GOTA]

This is not the time of year when you can just target a position. If an opportunity comes up then you can make a move. It has to come up though. This isn't the start of free agency or the draft where you can identify a position of need and address it. Now it's about getting lucky that a player is let go at position that you are looking to add. Unless a significant starter suffers a season ending injury you don't panic and offer some premium price for a mediocre player

[Purplenemesis]

This is one of my dead horse moments, Marshall was a head scratcher and we should have done something else with that pick, be it ILB or IOL... but it should have gone in that direction instead of a guy without a roster spot, or even really a chance at one. He is a mortal block for IR and as such should not have been drafted. This isn’t the NBA draft and stash...

I've been watching a lot behind the scenes NFL specials, and it sometimes scouts find something they really like in a player and agree they must have him if he falls to a certain spot in the draft. My only guess is they had Marshall pegged as one of those guys at the spot he was taken in round 4. The Ravens seem to know what they are doing when it comes to drafting DB's, so I'm not going to knock the pick yet. If they like what they see they will find a way to keep him, even if it's an IR stash for this season.

[NjRavensFan]

Doesn't matter if one person knows or the whole galaxy knows if someone/something "has" to do something. If myself and other teachers know that I "have" to study for a test, it doesn't mean I "will". I may "have" to drive sober to get back from Baltimore City safely, doesn't mean I "will".

This is the most ridiculously semantic arguments I've ever seen here.

And don't joke about drunk driving, asshole

[NjRavensFan]

I think his point is that guys develop.

We saw Rick Wagner and Ryan Jensen make major strides over multiple offseasons. Why is that we doubt Skura can solidify himself as a starting calibre C?

He played pretty damn well last year for his first year. He needs to make strides no doubt, but we've seen guys on this team do it in the past.

He lacked a lot of functional strength that seemed to hurt him. He's reportedly added 10-15 pounds of good weight in his lower body. That's very encouraging news.

I remember absolute meltdowns at the thought of Jensen starting around this time that year.

[JimZipCode]

When I spoke with Eric about the O-Line he had a couple of interesting things to say.
...
He's going to be a great GM. He's smart, savvy, articulate and has solid relationships across the league. He wants to make his mark in the league and I'm telling you, he will!

That's great to hear. Thanks for sharing.

Lastly, he shared with me that he thinks the Ravens could be great THIS YEAR if Lamar plays well.

That's my take, too. I think they've already done the heavy lifting of building their next contender. I think the core currently in place will compete for AFCCs and SBs over the next 3 or 4 seasons. The players are here now: they just need time to grow into it.

This Ravens team, the 2019 version, can be a 12- or 13-game winner. They need a couple things to break their way; but they've done a good job of creating chances for those things to break their way. And a lot of that starts with Lamar.

[The Excellector]

Well that's because good teams do not draft based on what their roster looks like that season. The Ravens didn't go into the 2017 draft only thinking about how they could make the 2017 team better. They wanted to also make the 2018, 2019, 2020 teams better. In the first round, you're trying to find a guy who will impact your team for ten years.

And it's a good thing they did. Because while they had CBs in 2017, in 2020 they are most likely going to lose Smith and Carr. And if they didn't have Humphrey, we'd be praying for guys like Canaday and Averett to morph into #1 CBs, or worrying about having to take a CB in the first round no matter how good the draft class was, or dropping huge dollars in FA, or going back to the days of watching Rashaan Melvin vs Tom Brady in the playoffs -- none of which are very appealing options.

This is the whole 'best player available philosophy.' It's what good teams do. It doesn't mean you completely ignore need. But it's what allows you to draft JO when you already have Tony Jones, to draft Todd Heap when you already have Shannon Sharpe, and to draft Marlon Humphrey when you already have Jimmy Smith. Build for the future.

But that’s what it led to. Nearly ignoring needs. CB over WR. Safety over TE. Pass rusher over OL. It got to the point where offense was only the choice when it was ABSOLUTELY needed (My apologies, don’t know how to use the bolded from my phone). The philosophy you talked about was being carried on from a defensive perspective, in the early rounds of the draft. It was not being carried on, from an offensive perspective, in the early rounds of the draft. Due to the reality that there was a clear prioritization of defensive positions.

DeCosta, as a result, ended up in a situation where he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t, because so many offensive positions needed help. If he went OL, we don’t have WRs. He went WRs, because we couldn’t go WR last year, because we needed TEs so bad, because we passed them up, because the position wasn’t valued the same.

[camdenyard]

I think Powers will take over at LG before midseason and not give it up.

I think he'll end up being the best value pick of our draft.

[Valhain]

There is so much you can do with very little cap space and going into the Draft with no 2nd round pick though. No team in this league is stacked at every position either.

And for all the good vibes we are getting from TC we will be incredibly lucky if all the offense players we've drafted (Brown, Boykin, Hill and Powers) not only come good but start producing reliably in their rookie year.

[JimZipCode]

My point exactly. We had far better depth at CB, but Humphrey is still the better player at the more important position.

So now that Lamar is here, how important do you think TE is now?

Not to pull your trick of avoiding the question: but now that Odell Beckham is in the division, how important do you think CB is now?

You don't spend high first-rounders to plug a short term need. Those guys must be long-term cornerstones of your team. That's exactly what Humphreys is. We're going to be building our D around him for several years.



Circling nearer to your question: TE was not less of a need with Joe than it is with Lamar. Joe operated best when he had a Pitta or a Heap he could rely on. Lamar's no different.

I think what is different is that, with Roman here, the TEs have to be able to block as well. It's not Mark Andrews who has more value with Lamar than he would have with Joe; it's Nick Boyle who has more value with Roman than he would elsewhere.



And finally: I think having a good pass-catching TE is important. It's one of those "levers" that can take an offense over the top, from "functional" to "great". They come in flavors from capable chain-movers like Owen Daniels or Pitta, to mismatch weapons like OJ Howard, to team-changing dominators like Gronk.

For my money, a true shutdown, All-Pro caliber corner like we hope Marlon Humphrey is, is still a better and more-important player than any of those flavors short of Gronk. If OJ Howard is Gronk, then we missed out by not taking him. Anything less, then if Humphreys is anywhere near Revis-Island level, we made the right pick.

I think what undermines your position (which seems to be that the Ravens were idiots for taking Humphreys over Howard), is that players like Howard have been available in each of the two drafts since. Mandrews and Thor are each at least 85% of Howard as a player; we got both of them. Noah Fant is basically the same player as a receiver as Howard; Broncos got him this year. TJ Hock went even higher in this year's draft.

Howard's a good player. But is he that much better than Mandrews and Thor and Fant and TJ Hock? I don't see it.



From the 2017 draft, it's not Humphreys over Howard that bugs me. That was fine. It's Bowser over Juju. That's where you should be making your case. I'd rather have Humphreys and Juju from that draft over any pair that includes Howard.

(Easier to say now that we've got our TEs, of course. )

[Shrubbs]

Howard is also constantly injured! I don't get how we aren't talking about that part of the coin. He's sucked since he's been in the league because he's never on the field! We call our players busts when they're injury prone!

[JimZipCode]

Everyone and their mother? Before the draft, weren't you saying the Ravens would only draft one WR in the mid/late rounds and prove they didn't care about the passing game?

So many, many times. Over and over again.

[NjRavensFan]

Lol

Shit's not funny bro. I should probably take this to DMs but fuck that. I'll get banned for this if it comes to it.
Shit ruins lives, including ones in my own family but that doesn't matter. I really, really hope you never have to get that call, but now you're out here joking about causing someone else to get it and that's not fuckin ok.