Uhh press conference thread?

[Rygar64]

Tons of guards /converted tackles in the middle rounds

Not a huge fan of using really high picks on any line position besides LT for the Ravens. They have shown a consistent ability to find quality starters and even pro-bowlers in the mid rounds for OLine. It's one of the areas where I have a high degree of faith in the staff to develop a guy. It just sometimes takes a couple years.

[QtR Nevermore]

Not a huge fan of using really high picks on any line position besides LT for the Ravens. They have shown a consistent ability to find quality starters and even pro-bowlers in the mid rounds for OLine. It's one of the areas where I have a high degree of faith in the staff to develop a guy. It just sometimes takes a couple years.

I'd do it for RT too. The league is valuing that position more and more and the mid-round players the Ravens would have taken for that position in the past will tend to go earlier than that these days. (It's only marginally less important than LT anyway and the top ones get very well paid, so it's worth the draft capital.)

[JimZipCode]

I feel better about a competition between Powers, Bredeson and Tyre for LG than Mekari vs TCC for C.

Same!

[JimZipCode]

One of the national sports talking heads (Nick Wright) brought up an interesting point about DeCosta defending our "great" receiving core.

He said the Ravens put out that bs about being insulted about our receivers as part of the negotiation process with Lamar. In other words, if the Ravens think their recievers are so good, why are their numbers so low?

They're subtly implying it's not the receivers but the guy throwing the passes.

Ooooo: that's an interesting angle.



Lamar was the 11th-rated passer in the league this past year; Ravens passing offense was 17th in DVOA, 18th in epa per play. The "numbers" are only low in terms of volume. This stuff about the Ravens having "the #32 passing offense" is horseshit.

I'm not saying that 17th is awesome or anything. But it ain't #32 either. And given that we had backup QBs playing some, and lots of issues with pass-pro, I'm not terribly upset with 17th either.

[JimZipCode]

For the last two drafts I've thought a massive road grader would be a perfect fit for the offense but they've always passed on them. It seems like they just don't like that type of player.

A lot of pulling in this offense; and Cole GWNR said on Twitter that Outside Zone was the Ravens 2nd or 3rdmost-frequently-called running play.

They need their OL to be mobile, is what I'm trying to say. But most likely they just had someone else identified as BPA with those picks.

[WrongBaldy]

Ooooo: that's an interesting angle.



Lamar was the 11th-rated passer in the league this past year; Ravens passing offense was 17th in DVOA, 18th in epa per play. The "numbers" are only low in terms of volume. This stuff about the Ravens having "the #32 passing offense" is horseshit.

I'm not saying that 17th is awesome or anything. But it ain't #32 either. And given that we had backup QBs playing some, and lots of issues with pass-pro, I'm not terribly upset with 17th either.

You wouldn’t be upset at 32 either lol

[JimZipCode]

You wouldn’t be upset at 32 either lol

If they were #32 in DVOA or epa/play or passer rating, damn right I would be upset.

Joe was 32nd in DVOA in 2013, Ravens were 29th in passer rating, and I was not thrilled. Though, since the SB was still very fresh, we were all still in a fairly forgiving mood.




In 2019, the Ravens were 27th in passing yards. Ahead of only:

• Indy after Andrew Luck suddenly retired
• the Flacco / Drew Lock / Brandon Allen Broncos
• the Mason Rudolph / Duck Hodgers Stillers
• and the Case Keenum / Dwayne Haskins Redskins.

Where was all this bitching about passing yards then?

[QtR Nevermore]

So DeCosta has almost got the 20 picks over the next 2 drafts that he was talking about.

They have 9 this year. In 22 they have their original 7 plus 3 comps for Culley, Judon and Ngakoue. They could easily pick up the last either on draft day or by roster cut down day - the Ravens are probably going to have to cut a useful player so they might pick up a 7th there.

[Shas]

Ooooo: that's an interesting angle.



Lamar was the 11th-rated passer in the league this past year; Ravens passing offense was 17th in DVOA, 18th in epa per play. The "numbers" are only low in terms of volume. This stuff about the Ravens having "the #32 passing offense" is horseshit.

I'm not saying that 17th is awesome or anything. But it ain't #32 either. And given that we had backup QBs playing some, and lots of issues with pass-pro, I'm not terribly upset with 17th either.

I think this theory of praising receivers publicly as a way of diminishing Lamar in their negotiations with him is a bunch of crap.

While they have defended receivers they've also cited OL issues as the reason for passing inefficiency. Bringing up this fact shoots down any "negotiation ploy" in three seconds.

Not to mention they've stated they don't care about total passing yards. So you are 100% right that the "32nd ranked passing offense" mischaracterization of their passing offense is a bunch of crap. No more meaningful than praising an old Lions or Bucs team for being "the #1 ranked passing offense." Weak thinking.

Here's another one. People complain that Harbaugh refuses to embrace modern NFL football that depends on throwing the ball all over the place.

Oh, I agree that's what's in vogue right now. But you know when this was also in vogue? Five years ago when Joe Flacco was second only to Drew Brees in passing attempts, and the same whiners were asking why we couldn't run the ball.

The same John Harbaugh who presided over those mid-teens Ravens teams who built a team around explosive passing plays dowfield now gets characterized as too stubborn and old school, and "afraid to throw the ball."

Seems to me that while every other NFL team over the last decade zigged to a pass-first mentality, the Ravens zagged to a new idea that put defenses built to pass-defend on their heels. That to me sounds ahead of its time, not behind the times.

Isn't the point of football to keep the ball, win field position and score points? I'm not saying you can't accomplish that with a great passing game and defense. But no one can tell me you can't accomplish the same in other ways. Particularly when most opponents aren't built to defend it.

You know what else is horseshit? It's this dumb idea that the style of play they've adopted wins regular season games—Lamar is only, what, 30-7 in those games—but who cares?, because you can't win playoff games that way when you have to face good teams.

As if the Ravens have never faced a good team in regular season game; they only trotted out those teams for playoff games. It's just dumb logic.

Yeah of course playoff games are tougher. Duh. That's not scheme dependent.

You know what scheme also "can't win" a key playoff match? The kind of passing attack full of great receivers and a magical quarterback, you know, the kind the Chiefs run...when they don't have solid offensive tackles and the are matched against a strong pass rush.

Which brings us full circle back to my counter-theory that maybe EDC is just speaking the truth when he says he likes their young receivers but needs to bolster the interior of the line.

While conspiracy theories are fun, the truth adds a lot more utility to the conversation. Maybe we should be willing to consider the claim that two consecutive drafts, during their QBs second and third year in the league, which brought the team wide receivers in the first, two thirds and a sixth rounds, should be given another year to see what happens.

Whereas all burden of quality production on the interior of the offensive line had been resting on Marshall Yanda's shoulder pads for quite some time, as they roster-skimped around him on the interior...parading a sixth rounder and a four...count em....four UDFA'rs, when they weren't sprinkling in vaunted names like Parker Ehinger and Horniss Grasu (seriously).

And then they replaced Yanda with a rookie who barely played any meaningful college football at tackle, none at guard, after a washed up G/T on a veteran minimum salary, surprise, struggled.

None of these shenanigans bothers people, no. But dammit, when are we going to spend money and move up to get a wide receiver?

[rhapsody]

Excellent post, Shas.

[MidtownP]

I think this theory of praising receivers publicly as a way of diminishing Lamar in their negotiations with him is a bunch of crap.

While they have defended receivers they've also cited OL issues as the reason for passing inefficiency. Bringing up this fact shoots down any "negotiation ploy" in three seconds.

Not to mention they've stated they don't care about total passing yards. So you are 100% right that the "32nd ranked passing offense" mischaracterization of their passing offense is a bunch of crap. No more meaningful than praising an old Lions or Bucs team for being "the #1 ranked passing offense." Weak thinking.

Here's another one. People complain that Harbaugh refuses to embrace modern NFL football that depends on throwing the ball all over the place.

Oh, I agree that's what's in vogue right now. But you know when this was also in vogue? Five years ago when Joe Flacco was second only to Drew Brees in passing attempts, and the same whiners were asking why we couldn't run the ball.

The same John Harbaugh who presided over those mid-teens Ravens teams who built a team around explosive passing plays dowfield now gets characterized as too stubborn and old school, and "afraid to throw the ball."

Seems to me that while every other NFL team over the last decade zigged to a pass-first mentality, the Ravens zagged to a new idea that put defenses built to pass-defend on their heels. That to me sounds ahead of its time, not behind the times.

Isn't the point of football to keep the ball, win field position and score points? I'm not saying you can't accomplish that with a great passing game and defense. But no one can tell me you can't accomplish the same in other ways. Particularly when most opponents aren't built to defend it.

You know what else is horseshit? It's this dumb idea that the style of play they've adopted wins regular season games—Lamar is only, what, 30-7 in those games—but who cares?, because you can't win playoff games that way when you have to face good teams.

As if the Ravens have never faced a good team in regular season game; they only trotted out those teams for playoff games. It's just dumb logic.

Yeah of course playoff games are tougher. Duh. That's not scheme dependent.

You know what scheme also "can't win" a key playoff match? The kind of passing attack full of great receivers and a magical quarterback, you know, the kind the Chiefs run...when they don't have solid offensive tackles and the are matched against a strong pass rush.

Which brings us full circle back to my counter-theory that maybe EDC is just speaking the truth when he says he likes their young receivers but needs to bolster the interior of the line.

While conspiracy theories are fun, the truth adds a lot more utility to the conversation. Maybe we should be willing to consider the claim that two consecutive drafts, during their QBs second and third year in the league, which brought the team wide receivers in the first, two thirds and a sixth rounds, should be given another year to see what happens.

Whereas all burden of quality production on the interior of the offensive line had been resting on Marshall Yanda's shoulder pads for quite some time, as they roster-skimped around him on the interior...parading a sixth rounder and a four...count em....four UDFA'rs, when they weren't sprinkling in vaunted names like Parker Ehinger and Horniss Grasu (seriously).

And then they replaced Yanda with a rookie who barely played any meaningful college football at tackle, none at guard, after a washed up G/T on a veteran minimum salary, surprise, struggled.

None of these shenanigans bothers people, no. But dammit, when are we going to spend money and move up to get a wide receiver?

Might be the dumbest thing I have ever heard, coming from one of the dumbest humans to walk the earth, so it adds up.

[edromeo]

Ooooo: that's an interesting angle.



Lamar was the 11th-rated passer in the league this past year; Ravens passing offense was 17th in DVOA, 18th in epa per play. The "numbers" are only low in terms of volume. This stuff about the Ravens having "the #32 passing offense" is horseshit.

I'm not saying that 17th is awesome or anything. But it ain't #32 either. And given that we had backup QBs playing some, and lots of issues with pass-pro, I'm not terribly upset with 17th either.

Lol, why don’t realize the Ravens have the worst passing offense in the NFL? What’s wrong with you!
*sarc*

The fact that the Ravens had the 17th/18th ranked passing game is a testament to Lamar’s brilliance. He was still able to keep the passing game near league average despite poor pass protection, a young developing WR corps, injury and lack of depth at TE and his own slip in rhythm drop back fundamentals all while playing in a passing game with very vanilla and conservative passing game concepts. Then throw in a global pandemic.


I think last year was Lamar’s floor as a passer. I’ve been watching him since Louisville and last year was certainly the sloppiest I’ve seen his fundamentals in the passing game.

But his spontaneous genius/improvisational ability kept the passing game afloat. When he merges his playmaking with the high level passing he displayed last year your looking at a QB capable of winning SB(s) and MVP(s).