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09-27-2012, 07:24 PM #1
"An aging, an AGING, Baltimore Ravens defense"
This is what Marshall Faulk just said, but I've heard it a ton from a lot of different people, and it's starting to irritate me, because it's not true. Everyone sees Lewis and Reed, and automatically that means the entire defense is aging.
Lewis is 37 and Reed is 34. Duh, they're aging.
You can also say something like that of Suggs, though Suggs is only 30 which is hardly over the hill, and he's not even on the field this year so far.
However, the rest of the major defensive players?
McPhee - 24
Ngata - 28
Jones - 26
Cody - 24
Kemoeatu - 33
McClellan - 26
Kruger - 26
McClain - 27
Ellerbe - 27
Upshaw - 23
Webb - 27
Williams - 28
Smith - 24
Pollard - 28
Ihedigbo - 29
Out of those 15 guys, one is over 30 and only two are over 28, which is sort of what's accepted as a player's peak age. Even if you include Lewis, Reed and Suggs in that crowd, which I would guess represents 95%+ of the player plays on defense, it's an average age of 27.8 years old. Eliminate to only the pure starters (include Suggs) and it's either 28.4 or 29.2, depending whether you consider Kemo or McPhee a starter. That's an aging defense??? I would bet it's actually less than the average defense age in the NFL for the major players (though maybe not for the starters).
- C ----------------------------------------------------
www.oblongspheroid.com
A blog about any and everything football.
Twitter: oblong_spheroid
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Re: "An aging, an AGING, Baltimore Ravens defense"
You know it irritates me too. Were not a defenseof one player. Ray and ed are both great players but not what they once were. We no longer rely on them being amazing, only ordinary. I get that theyre the heart and soul of this defense but we will thrive after theyre gone as well. Overall, were a young team in general which should make the league very scared.
-JAB
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09-27-2012, 07:35 PM #4
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Re: "An aging, an AGING, Baltimore Ravens defense"
I dont know where they get this Old thing from? We have 3 players over 30 in Ray, Ed and Kemo thats not old at all.
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09-27-2012, 07:44 PM #5Legendary RSR Poster
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Re: "An aging, an AGING, Baltimore Ravens defense"
Sure Ray is old. That's about it. Reed is 34, but he'll still take a pick to the house. It's just lazy reporting.
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Re: "An aging, an AGING, Baltimore Ravens defense"
We have four starters who are 28 or older right now. Two are locks to be in Canton someday, and the other two were rated by their peers as being among the top 15 players in the entire league last year.
Here are the current ages of our top 13 defensive players right now, counting our nickleback and top guy off the bench in the front seven
37
34
29
28
28
27
27
26
26
26
24
24
23
23
Not sure what makes that defense old.....
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09-27-2012, 07:52 PM #7
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Re: "An aging, an AGING, Baltimore Ravens defense"
Jesus Christ deion sander said it again " long in the tooth" wtf can someone make a decent statement yet??
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09-27-2012, 08:10 PM #8
Re: "An aging, an AGING, Baltimore Ravens defense"
Not sure why it upsets people so much. When they talk about the ravens defense they are talking about the 2 future HOFer's who have been the heart & soul of the ravens D for so long. They are getting a bit long in the tooth. Especially Ray. He is a just shell of his former self. Anyone who can't see that is just in denial.
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09-27-2012, 08:14 PM #9Legendary RSR Poster
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09-27-2012, 08:27 PM #10
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09-27-2012, 08:28 PM #11
Re: "An aging, an AGING, Baltimore Ravens defense"
Actually I don't think the DL is dipping in talent. Maybe if you compare to 2000. But the DL in the last few years has been adequate to very good, and I think this year's is pretty decent. If you count Suggs as part of it, I actually think it's one of the best defensive lines we've had recently, assuming Suggs comes back as a great players.
It's upsetting because this defense isn't all Ray and Ed anymore. In fact, they're mostly cogs in the wheel. Ray is at this point an above average LB, and Reed is still an amazing ball hawk who, when not intercepting passes, is more a liability than anything else as he loses coverage a great deal. If you ask me to rank our defensive players in order of importance, my list goes like this:
1) Suggs
2) Ngata
3) Webb
4) Lewis
5) Reed
and frankly I'd strongly consider putting Pollard in front of either Reed or both him and Lewis.
- C ----------------------------------------------------
www.oblongspheroid.com
A blog about any and everything football.
Twitter: oblong_spheroid
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09-28-2012, 12:10 AM #12
Re: "An aging, an AGING, Baltimore Ravens defense"
Completely agree Chris, this has been one of the biggest misconceptions in all of football and like you it pisses me off. I check outside fans all the time about it. Usually like this..."Besides Ray and Ed, future hall of fame and still all pro caliber players, name me an old player on our defense...take your time, i'll wait...lol"
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