Just because he is retiring means he is leaving football field forever. Many QBs retire more than once. :)
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True. If it's because he's being pushed, that may be the case. You wouldn't be thinking of Vinny, would you.
-- Bill O.

FLACCO !! FLACCO !!

Welcome to the Troy Smith era. Give the kid a shot. All he does is win. An unheralded sand-lotter named Unitas had a pretty good career. And I'm not sure any of this year's crop of collegians is "can't miss" (like the other QB who remains on the roster).

Vinny did cross my mind. But, the first one that came to mind is Favre. Who just retired and is already offering to come back if the Packers need him. Its not even spring training yet.

What are the cap implications of this?
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Jim,
Back when McNair was first signed two years ago, ESPN.com reported the cap charge for 2008 as $6.45 million. I couldn't say whether the terms of the retirement, if there are any, would change that.
-- Bill O.

Oh please man...get a clue. It was the DEFENSE that primarily accounted for the 13-3 season. McPrayer was done before he ever got here. He was the slowest QB to get up to the LOS I've ever seen. He had some great games in 2006, and some horrible ones. He single-handedly lost the game against the Colts. He was ridiculous last year with his distorted notion of his over-inflated ability to play despite his total inability to do so. His smirks on the sideline whenever Boller messed up were inexcusable. He ate up way too much of the salary cap with his beat up lousy play. All he really did was delay the inevitable. He's a bloated has been, and basically everybody in Tennessee knew that years ago.
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Gee, I thought you were going to say that 13-3 was all Billick's play-calling.
-- Bill O.

Losman to the Ravens for a 2nd Rd. pick.

Trade the #8 pick for a low first round pick, a second, and a 3rd or fourth round pick, and then take FLACCO! When everyone says that he is the most likelly QB of this class to be a probowl player in year 3-4, then you take him. Kyle had his chance, and troy smith is not the long term solution. The comment that I had to laugh at is that all troy does is win. He played like 2 games. He has never had to run an NFL game. and teams never really prepared for him during gameplanning. All those things will change his appearance.

I truly hope we dont draft a qb in the first. CB is the most pressing need I saw last year, and really in previous years as well. Last year we embarrassed ourselves several times on national television. The veteran cb squad is slowing up and injury(sick leave) prone and the rookies look severely overwhelmed. Even if we had Manning or Brady I'm not sure we could win with the defense giving up touchdown after touchdown. CB Please!

It's sad to see Steve McNair's carrer come to an end, however its not sad for the Ravens. McNair would have been nothing more than a stop-gap this season anways, now this forces the team to speed up the process of getting a QB in here. I'm not opposed to giving Troy Smith a shot, I think he was solid last year. However if Matt Ryan is available they have to take him. But kudos to McNair for being a warrior his whole carrer, he's not a Hall of Famer though.

I don't think McNair's retirement should change the approach to the draft. If the Ravens planned to draft Matt Ryan, if available, at # 8, they should still do so, but if they don't believe he's worthy of going that high, they should stick with their board and not draft him (or any other QB) just because McNair is now out of the picture. For the short term, I'm comfortable letting Boller and Smith battle it out for the starting job, hopefully with a drafted rookie QB watching from the sideline and learning for at least one year.

Even if he doesn't retire the Ravens should draft a quarterback. That way we might have one. McNair has never been a 'take you to the Super Bowl' level QB and Smith shows no signs of that either.

What does this mean for the 2008 salary cap?
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As I mentioned previously, when McNair was traded and signed, ESPN reported his salary cap impact would be $6.45 mil for '08. I don't know how that's affected by the retirement.
-- Bill O.

I'm with Captain Jack: FLACCO!!! FLACCO!!! FLACCO!!! FLACCO!!! FLACCO!!!.

Salary Cap Hit

McNair signed a 5 year contract in 2006 which included an $11M bonus of which two years or $4.4M has been amortized. That leaves a $6.6M hit this year from the bonus in 06.

I'm not sure how ESPN came up with their $6.45M pre-retirement cap number but it could be a wash from a cap perspective.

"All he does is win". Reminds me of Trent and look how he got railroaded out of town.

I'd like to see the Ravens trade picks with the Giants and nab Henne. The Giants wouldn't drop that far, so might be open to the idea for a reasonable price (this year's #2 and next year's #2?) Plus, and this is big, imagine the competition in Ravens camp between the OSU and UofM quaterbacks!!!!!!

This may sound crazy but I think 2 players could drastically change the outlook of our offense: Donavan McNabb and Chad Johnson. I people would say that Donavan would be Steve McNair 2 but although he is injury prone I do not think he is past his prime. I think he could help tutor and develop Troy Smith and add a player with diverse talents and good leadership. I know you think I'm crazy for wanting Chad Johnson but although he is a cry-baby he is a serious vertical threat, knows our conference, would complement Demetrius Williams and add a much needed swagger to our bland offense.
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Chris,
While Chad is acting loopy lately, there's no denying his talent and he has a good chance of becoming available. I don't think there is any way that the Eagles let McNabb go. They think they can win this year but not without him.
-- Bill O.

Let's applaud Steve McNair for having the courage to look at himself and realize he can no longer perform at the level he once did.
Maybe his timing could have been better, but his decision seems to force the Ravens to draft a QB...something most experts (BTW, I'm not an expert) and fans think they should do anyway.
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Ed,
He made up his mind before the draft so he was a team guy all the way.
-- Bill O.

Doesn't matter, TROY SMITH IS OUR GUY! Draft someone in the later rounds like Dixon. We need to fix the O-LINE first or any QB is gonna end up like McNair. If Ryan Clady is there, take him!

put Troy Smith in and i bet the Ravens will go far, especially in the future. he is better than boller and will be better than any college QB's coming in now...so welcome to the Troy Smith Era! =p

Could pick 39 get us Sage Rosenfels from Houston???? Could a 4th rounder and Boller (who has only a year contract so is easily tradeable) get us Rosenfels from Houston??? That man wants starter money & I think we would be glad to make him the 25th highest paid QB over 3 years and allocate funds elsewhere....

I would like to thank everyone for the comic relief today. I have had a lot of laughs with all the Troy is our man for the future stuff. Even Sydney Ponson and Daniel Cabrera had good years. And then the cherry on my laughter cake came with the idea to draft dixon out of Oregon. This years draft is deep in CBs. The Ravens could trade down and get a few quality DBs AND a franchise QB in the late first/early second.

Cully --

According to Mike Florio, a 2nd round pick (#39) could get us Rosenfels. That's an intriguing scenario IMO.

I had to laugh. On the Baltimore Sun Sports page, is a poll. "Who is your all-time favorite Raven's QB?". Of course the answer was Trent. Funny when he was here, nobody wanted to keep him.
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Absence (and Elvis Grbac) makes the heart ...
-- Bill O.

First off, i want to thank Steve McNair for his one good season in Baltimore. And his terrible season the next. With all this qb hysteria, its easy to forget the most pressing need for the Ravens: cornerback. Behind McAllister and Rolle, we got nothing. Those two are also past 30 and are both injury prone. We need a corner to provide some depth behind them and start to groom! weve gone this long without a good qb, so what's one more season?
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I've been on the cornerback bandwagon from the day the season ended. Rex Ryan's defense, which is the foundation of the team, is highly dependent on good corners. I believe it's absolutely critical to develop depth there. We saw what happened last season.
-- Bill O.

In today's game, you need at least 2 CBs that can actually cover WR in man-2-man coverages. Old days, you only needed 1 and the other CB you used FS and SS to help out. But, with most teams having 4 Wideout packages. Its crucial to have guys that can man up.
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Absolutely, and Corey Ivy, bless 'im, works as an extra CB on nickel or dime or if you want him to get a free run at the QB but you don't want him exposed on X and Z receivers game after game. When you consider injuries and three- and four-wideout sets, your No. 3 CB has to be as good as your starters.
-- Bill O.

Troy Smith won a Heisman, its not like he cant play, i bet if we start him sooner, the sooner we'll see our needs for QB to go down, let him get used to the field and hes gon do good, i bet...