What they're saying about the Ravens
A roundup of national media coverage on the Ravens:
NFL.com's Vic Carucci writes about Joe Flacco's first day at Ravens minicamp:
Ray Lewis had some advice for the rookie teammate who would command the greatest amount of attention during the first practice of the Baltimore Ravens' mandatory minicamp.
"Don't be scared to be the second Ben Roethlisberger," Lewis told Joe Flacco before the Ravens took the field on a rainy Friday. The message was clear: As a rookie quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2004, Roethlisberger enjoyed considerable success, largely because he made himself a complement to a strong defense rather than taking it upon himself to carry the team on his young shoulders.
ESPN.com compiled its power rankings by taking the average of eight different voters. The Ravens ended up slotted at No. 22:
Are the 2008 Ravens more like the 13-3 team in 2006, or the 5-11 unit last season? This is certain: QB play is key.
ESPN.com's Mike Sando notes that the Ravens produced more disparity among voters than any other team:
One voter ranked the Ravens 13th. Another ranked them 28th. I had them 23rd without knowing quite what to do with them. Have they solved their quarterback situation? No one knows.
Contract negotiations between first-round pick Flacco and the Ravens are under way, according to ESPN.com's Hashmarks:
[Agent Joe] Linta arrived in Baltimore Sunday night and spent Monday with the team setting up parameters of what is expected to be a five-year deal. The intent from both sides is to ensure Flacco arrives in training camp on time this summer, so he could compete with quarterbacks Kyle Boller and Troy Smith for the Ravens' starting job.
FoxSports.com's Peter Schrager hands out his offseason awards:
The Larry Brown Award: For the Recycled Coach Hiring Kinda Sorta Intrigues me, too:
Winner: Cam Cameron, Offensive Coordinator, Baltimore
Cameron had great success with the 14-2 AFC West Champion Chargers offense in '06, but struggled as head coach of the 1-15 Dolphins in '07. That said, the Dolphins offense was downright ravaged by injuries last season, with Trent Green and Ronnie Brown both going down early in the year. Cameron's top receiver — Chris Chambers — was then traded away mid-season, as well. You hate to make excuses for any guy who's career coaching record is 1-15, but what exactly was Cameron working with on O in Miami? Whether it's Kyle Boller, Troy Smith or rookie Joe Flacco under center for the Ravens come opening day, Cameron should play a major role in their performance. Four of his last five starting QBs earned Pro Bowl or All-American recognition: Philip Rivers and Drew Brees in San Diego; Antwaan Randle El at Indiana; and Gus Frerotte, who he coached with the Redskins. Cameron's time in Miami was brief and forgettable. Can he upgrade Baltimore's long anemic offense? I'm curious to see.
The Ravens are involved in another one of Schrager's awards:
The Kyle Boller Award: For the tall, big-armed college quarterback that Ozzie Newsome took with the 18th overall pick of the draft.
Winner: Joe Flacco, QB, Delaware
Despite both Chad Henne and Brian Brohm still being available, the Ravens made the golden-armed Flacco the second quarterback taken in April's draft. Baltimore brass saw the Delaware kid as their man, grabbing him at 18th overall. Trading back to 26, then trading up to 18, Ravens coach John Harbaugh was ecstatic to get the kid from Philly. With just two years of extensive college experience -- at Delaware, no less -- Flacco's a bit of a wild card.
SI.com's Peter King attributes one of his quotes of the week to Ravens veteran Trevor Pryce:
"Go ahead, wrestle each other, pull each other's facemasks, yeah, great, wonderful, have fun. If we can get all this out of the way now, scrapping and being undisciplined and 80 men jumping in a pile together, fine. So now we've proved I'm tough, you're tough, hooray, we're all tough. Are we a good football team? What's more important, proving you're tough or proving we're a good football team? That's how I look at it."
Pryce was seemingly disgusted by an 85-man scrum at Ravens minicamp Saturday. No one was hurt, but there was lots of pushing, shoving, cursing and punching.
Mike Florio of the Sporting News and Pro Football Talk runs down the 10 worst moves and non-moves of the offseason. He says Steve McNair waited too long to retire:
It came as a surprise to many when Baltimore Ravens quarterback Steve McNair announced his retirement in the days leading up to the draft. And presuming the announcement also came as news to the Ravens, it would have been much nicer if McNair had made his intentions known weeks earlier. That would have allowed the Ravens to explore options on the free-agent market, such as Todd Collins, the Redskins’ backup who played well down the stretch and who could have been a potential bridge at the position while a draft pick got ready to play. As it played out, the Ravens were forced to target a quarterback in Round 1. They reportedly wanted to trade up for a crack at Matt Ryan; instead they traded down and then up (taking a bath on the points chart in the process) to get Delaware’s Joe Flacco. In the end, all will be forgotten if Flacco flourishes in his first season or two. But if Flacco flounders initially, Ravens fans can thank McNair for not retiring early enough.
USA Today's Sean Leahy writes about the Ravens' first day of mandatory minicamp:
Lewis, who slipped away from the final minutes of the afternoon practice for some quality time with the quarterbacks, has a vested interest in the success of whoever lines up under center this season, be it Flacco, second-year player Troy Smith or veteran Kyle Boller. One of them will be charged with mounting an offense to support the Ravens defense that has ranked no worse than sixth in the NFL in the past five seasons.
Comments
Please, national press keep writing bad things about the Ravens. I love it when they count us out because the character of the team matches that of the city; A gritty underdog that prides itself on beating expectations.
Posted by: David Fisher | May 14, 2008 12:20 PM
That is more proof King is a flat out Raven hater. When was the last time he had anything to write about the Ravens that was not some sort of backhanded slight on Ray or Billick or the whole team?
The 2006 Ravens were the most unheralded 2 seed in the AFC in the era of media saturation, not many national chuckle heads had much to say about us when we were dominating the best teams in the NFL.
LT was breaking records for TDs, but no one seemed to notice Ray Lewis and company shutting him down and out of the Endzone.
The fact that the Ravens won the division by 5 games, had the best defense since 2000, and should have beat the SB winner in the playoffs was all but erased by last season's debacle. There were some signs the talent was still there like week 13, or the fact they still were #6 in D, and got good yardage out of Willis, but it was basiclly really ugly with the turnovers and blown coverages.
The problems were not hard to see and were addressed through rehab, the draft and free agency. Just like Cleveland last year, the Ravens will have a huge influx of talent coming back from injury along with key draft and free agency depth. We also have a lot of good young players who are entering the 3rd or 4th year, that got extensive PT because of the injuries.
Last year we had one of the thinest rosters in the NFL, this year we will have one of the deepest. They have already addressed all the areas of concen but TE, and I think they will bring in a post June 1 veteran to back up Heap and Wilcox, who were huge losses last year.
They were our redzone offense, and we could move up and down between the 20s on anyone last year, but were the worst in the NFL at finishing drives with TDs. Billick was a major factor in that, but not as much as losing Heap and Wilcox to injury.
Posted by: JJ | May 14, 2008 12:29 PM
Flacco is not going to be good. There goes another qb who must have passed the "boller test" during scouting. We can't compare him to Ben Roethlisberger who had a much better college career (in a more competitive league) and was universally considered a top-10 pick.
Posted by: Rohit Rao | May 14, 2008 2:24 PM
Hey Schrager- Flacco is from New Jersey, not Philly. Just shows how little the media knows about the kid let alone what he did at Delaware. Small school or not, the league is full of great talents from small schools. McNair was from Alcorn State. When he gets his shot he won't be doing any trash-talking because it is not his style. But at least we should be able to enjoy the silence from all the media know-it-alls who want to pass judgement before he throws a pass in an NFL game.
Posted by: matt | May 14, 2008 3:10 PM
JJ - are you serious? Give that guy a scouting contract! Doh!
Flacco is no boller - have you read anything about the kid? In many ways, he can't be further away from boller. Completion percentage and how he carries himself are two huge differences. Calm cool and collective vs happy feet skittish boy.
I'm excited about him, I think there's a better chance he's another berger then he is a boller..
Posted by: Ryan | May 14, 2008 3:46 PM
I don't get the Boller comparisons to Flacco either. They were both first round picks by the Ravens who were said to have great arm strength, but beyond that there is not much else in common.
Flacco compares more to Ben R. on the high side or Byron Leftwich on the low. He is another really big guy from a smaller school who really showed he can play the position on that level, can make any throw and at least has the tools to take it to the next level.
He would have been the #1 pick if he had done it in D1, but we never would have got him.
Yes Ryan I am serious.
I may be a Harm City Homer like Babe freaking Ruth, but I hit you with nothing but the truth.
In 2006 with the squad mostly healthy, even Boller played well. He had a 105 QB rating and 5 TD, 1 pick. He also played pretty well in the last 4 games of '05, including the back to back Mondaynight games vs GB an Minn who was a playoff team.
The 2006 team did not get much help from the running game, and McNair was not exactly tearing it up.
To me, it is not hard to imagine Boller, or Troy Smith playing better than Steve did that year, and leading us beyond the 2nd round of the playoffs.
The Freaking Clowns won 10 games last year people, and they have always been horible. They got solid QB play from our former 6th round pick, why not us with our former 5th rounder or 5th year 1st rounder.
Posted by: JJ | May 14, 2008 4:36 PM
So it's more due to you being a smith backer then a non-flacco fan? I say give the position to whoever wins it in camp. I actually hope it is Troy or Kyle - let the new guy sit. I just get the feeling that they're already thinking Flacco. I know it's just mini-camp, but the reports have pro-Flacco - he's been picking things up very quickly and displaying the arm and accuracy.
Posted by: Ryan | May 14, 2008 5:35 PM
Boston College has 9000 students Delaware has 16000 students and they call u of d small Rich Gannon come from Del and scott brunner too, scott took the giants to the playoff's. anyone knows gannon
Posted by: jim coulter | May 14, 2008 10:03 PM
I agree Peter King is an idiot and a hack journalist. I think the Ravens will be a .500 team this year, maybe 9-7.
Posted by: Marcus | May 16, 2008 3:39 PM
Peter King can't even hold Rick Reilly's jockstrap. And when will all of these Cleveland Brown-Eyes bandwagon jumpers learn to control themselves? They essentially threw away the first day of their draft for a backup QB and two DTs. By the way, they threw away their only decent CB, too. They better hope they make the playoffs this year, because they didn't do their LBs or defensive backs any help in the draft this year; who do they have? I'm tired of hearing people say that Phil Savage was the genious behind our drafts. Anything other than the playoffs for Cleveland this year will be a total failure.
Posted by: Mr. Deez | May 19, 2008 6:18 PM