Is the Ravens Organization Too Player Friendly at Times

[BearArms]

I love EDC. I feel without doubt he's a top GM in the league. We hear all the time from players touting how well the organization treats them. That's terrific in most areas.

It is not terrific when the team starts letting players dictate or persuade them to let them go so they may be happy and play the position they want or maybe get more targets!! Contracts be damned.

First we saw it with Ginger Thor and it clearly made a difference IMO from 2019 to 2020. But good old cherry curls won his gripe and went off to merry Atlanta land to wallow in a loser team. The second was great for Dobbins. So wait, we got nothing out of that deal for this year? Crap! Glad we learned our lesson about players telling the team that drafted, developed and treated them well demanding or griping in media about how it just isn't fair. Oh wait

Flub the combine, but the Ravens put faith in me. Where my father played!! I owe this organization and I'll play hard for them and show them all. Thanks for drafting me Harbs and EDC.

Fast forward 2 years.

I'm a left tackle!!

Wait, no, your not unless we say you are. You know, that little contract thing and all the great effort put into you. We're not just going to let you dictate and lose a huge peace of our offense. You can play left tackle when Stanley signs a major contract of generational wealth.. Then proceeds to injure get injured immediately after signing huge contract. You can play LT then because you said your s team player and we drafted you under contract.

So when Stanley comes back you will proceed to STFU and do your JOB at RT!!! Then if we want, well franchise your ungrateful ass the next year. Oh you'll play hard, or you'll screw yourself in the future.

"Can't wait to smash mouth my old team Andy, I got your back Patrick and Lamar got a running of the bulls at his ass". Hahaha

F That EDC!!!!.don't do that again please. Its a business. They're paid professionals. Make them act it

[GOTA]

I don't see that at all. What I do see is EDC trading players at the peak of their value. Hurst was a bust as a 1st round pick. He wasn't even worth exercising th 5th round option on which would have been very expensive. They got value for a player they didn't want. They then extended Nick Boyle so there was a plan for that money at that same position.

With OBJ there was a clock ticking. You have a player who will not resign with you. He plays OL where all the franchise amounts are exactly the same which makes him expensive to franchise. They didn't just trade him for anything. They got a 1st round pick. If they had kept him they would have probably gotten a 3rd round comp pick in a year. If they wanted that 1st pick it had to be this offseason. Just like with Ngakoue the price would be going down if they waited for in season. If no team had offered a 1st round pick then they probably would have kept him on the team. Remember, Brown had been complaining for months before they traded him. That's because no team to that point met their price.

The third example would be using the franchise tag. We all know how players hate the franchise tag because it's a 1 year deal that they can't negotiate. The Ravens used it just last year on Judon. A team that was accommodating players isn't using that tag. Want even another example? They refused to pay Earl Thomas. They cut him and withheld millions of dollars claiming he violated his contract and knowing that would lead to a judge making that call. Think they were too nice to Earl?

The team is looking out for the team. That doesn't mean they're going to be like the Saints and demand someone take a pay cut 2 hours before his contract become guaranteed. They aren't to that level but they also aren't letting any player walk all over them. Don't look at the present and say they would have been fine if they had kept those players because of the injuries we have today. There is a real time factor to every personnel decision and the crystal ball doesn't seem to work

[FruitPunch]

Lots of great points GOTA. I agree with this 100% and still believe trading O. Brown was a great move to maximize the value. His replacement has so far been less than adequate, but that is a different issue.

One area where you could argue they may be too nice is in terms of moving on from injured players. Examples are Pitta, Tavon Young, maybe Boyle? We always seem to have tons of cap locked up in players that are injured/may never fully recover. Though it's hard to say, because 1. I'm sure players appreciate that they will be taken care of even if injured, so being too cut-throat could be bad for morale.
2. There is a chance of full recovery, and since they do this only for the more important players, they could lose out on the fully recovered and now probably extra loyal player.
3. I'm not sure whether contracts allow them to do this, but I believe sometimes it may be better to cut a player now, eat the cap hit and clear the books/roster spot. This also avoids a situation where you don't know if you have a position settled based on a player's injury status.
4. There is a bit of 20-20 bias to this as well, because at the time it is hard/impossible? to see who will/will not be able to recover.

Would be interested in getting your thoughts.

[Ravenswintitle]

I wasn't a fan of trading Brown but if a player isn't bought into the organization, there is a problem. Not sure they had a lot of choice in the matter. Thinking a 32 year old guy switching positions was the answer is a major mistake though.

[Desert Raven]

Nobody in any profession likes working for a my way or the highway style of authoritarian management. They do a pretty good job at attracting outside free agents and getting them for reasonable deals. Justin Houston the latest example. Can’t blame injuries on the front office, but they can control overpaying for guys like Mark Andrews.

[ravensfan7716]

I do not think they are too player friendly. There has just been some bad decisions period.

Look back. They gave Stanley a contract, and literally like 3-4 days later he goes down with season ending injury. I think Stanley is a really good OT, at times elite level. But his problem is, he misses games every single year. I applaud wanting to keep your best players and especially elite OT. But his injury history should have factored in somewhere between his contract and the decision to trade Brown. Ultimately it does not appear to have been. Brown was traded before Stanley was even healthy and they did not draft an OT early which most would have expected to happen.

Roll back the clock on Ozzie selecting Hurst. At the time, there was a major need still at WR and they passed on some good ones (Calvin Ridley, DJ moore) just to name a few. Here we are almost four year later still talking about the same problem. Only this season will tell if that problem is finally fixed for a while.

But now you have to factor in the Oline is going to probably affect the WR and QB positions so it will be a tough evaluation this year with all the injuries.

I just think they have made some bad decisions, like this year burning two of your last draft picks on a DB and FB who are no longer on the team and you sit out the last two rounds of the draft and have a Major hole on the Oline.

Look at the players traded. (Guard, DB, FB) where Mason could possibly have received some carries are all positions of weakness at this point with the amount of injuries that continue to mount.

Last year Oline was considered major problem, and it really was not totally addressed in the off season.

[Dirt1]

I wasn't a fan of trading Brown but if a player isn't bought into the organization, there is a problem. Not sure they had a lot of choice in the matter. Thinking a 32 year old guy switching positions was the answer is a major mistake though.

I didn’t have a problem with the Ravens trading Brown if they had gotten significant compensation for him. Getting the 31st pick was fine, but I was very upset that they agreed to give up their second round pick as part of that deal. If that was the best deal they could get, then I felt strongly that they should have kept Brown.


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[brown2RAVEN]

I didn’t have a problem with the Ravens trading Brown if they had gotten significant compensation for him. Getting the 31st pick was fine, but I was very upset that they agreed to give up their second round pick as part of that deal. If that was the best deal they could get, then I felt strongly that they should have kept Brown.


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That's a valid argument. They could have gone back Brown and said "We tried, but nobody is offering the trade capital you should command"
But all in all I'm OK with the trade and like the way the Ravens handle player relations.

[Shrubbs]

I don’t get the Hayden Hurst love affair. It’s not like we traded away Ray Lewis, Hurst sucked here and he sucks in Atlanta. By far the biggest factor that changed this team for the worse from 2019 to 2020 was the retirement of Marshal Yanda, not the Hurst trade.

[iceman43]

This is why players what to come to our team as we take care of people

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[blah3]

I thought the ravens were too nice under Ozzie. I don’t think so under EDC. Its not good to have a disgruntled player in your locker room. Getting value for him when you can id a good idea. Being a dick to him does not help the organization long term. Everyone loves how players like coming to play here because of the environment, being a dick to players doesn’t facilitate that

[JonAB]

I don’t know anyone can look at the Hurst deal and think that was the wrong move.