That will probably continue to hold true to form. Look at how much hemmin and hawwin is going on about re-signing Adalius Thomas and he has been a key figure on the Ravens defense and special teams for the last 3-4 seasons.

i'll continue the idea i brought up in the pashos thread. Name me the lower level free agents we have lost (with the exception of Casey Rabach) that were big hits where they went. Maake? - for the money I'd rather have Ngata. Baxter? be serious. Hartwell - he should be in jail for stealing his salary. Zastudil? - he's a freaking punter. Kim Herring? Duane Starks? Higher level guys who were busts as free agents. The only ones who left that I was sorry about were Priest Holmes and Casey Rabach. 2 in the last 5 years. In Ozzie we trust!

Mike,

Why not throw AD into this. Hes certainly a low pick who worked as hard or harder than the others to get where he is now.

I know the mechanics of things will prevent this.

But also you forget Bart Scott as a example of when they did reward a hard worker who was even a undrafted free agent.

Thats recent enough to make me think they at the "Palace" are cognizant of your on target observations here.

Francesca

The thing is PPDOC, is that all those players you listed were all soild contributors for the Ravens. From the way they performed here realistically all of them deserved strong consideration for a contract extension. What they did, how their health held up, and how they were utilized by their new teams when they left the Ravens is all part of the game of chance that the NFL is.

And you forgot one Chester Taylor who had a solid year in Minnesota.

OK, Mike...I know this is your blog...but I want a percentage of the take from this post, since it's basically what I said in the Pashos thread. (J/K...I know 50% of zero is still zero. LOL)

However, I'm not kidding about the fact that PPDOC STILL doesn't seem to get the gist of what's being said, despite the fact that it's now been reiterated at leaast twice. Will 3 times be the charm? I doubt it.

I think the days have long gone in resigning some of the people that have come through since being drafted. The leage isn't what it was a decade ago. The players that have worked hard will still get the rewards they seek and earned. I would love to see thoseplayers stay with the Ravens however it's a business that only allows money to be spent wisely.

AD? We've already given him an extension once - this is the second time he's been on the market.

What about Bart Scott and Kelly Greg? I can't think of anyone who's gotten away that I wished we would have kept outside of Rabach and Holmes.

Chester Taylor did not want to be back here. From what I have read it sounds like he was a clubhouse problem as well. I realize well that it is a game of chance on FA's. My point is that when you look at who we've let go vs who we've brought in, on the whole our front office does a very good job. I would submit that it is in the top 5 in the league. So the guys we let go deserved strong consideration for extensions and Ravens passed. On balance from the body of work these guys who left have posted, in MOST, but not all cases they made the correct decision. Perfect example is this year - We lost Tony Weaver (good guy, good player) to a large contract (way more than he was worth in my estimation) and brought in Trevor Pryce (older no question) who had what most people consider a probowl year. I just think that there are too many people who are quick to call out Brian and Ozzie and never give them the respect they are due. I am by no way a Purple colored glasses type, but I think that it is a lot easier to be a critic and there are an awful lot of critics in this town of a class organization.

Its easy to look in the rearview mirror of the big purple bus and say " Wow, I'm glad we never resigned Baxter and Hartwell, those guys were a walking MASH unit". But in reality those two players performed very well for the Ravens and were consitently healthy. While Bart Scott replaced Hartwell, I still wish we had Baxter playing opposite McCallister. I mean as much as I've loved watching receivers torch Rolle's side of the field the last two years, I just miss Gary Baxter. He was a physical presence on the field and he never got taken to school the way Rolle has.

baxter did get schooled and it wasn't infrequent. less so than Rolle, because if you'll remember the Ravens almost always rolled saftey coverage to his side. Rolle almost always gets left alone which allows Rex Ryan to be creative with his safties on the line and in the blitz.

But again, PPDOC....I think you're missing the point. Let's just focus on Ovie Mughelli for the sake of argument. Let's say we end up losing him and he doesn't really do much for any other team. Your logic doesn't necessarily apply, because just the fact that he doesn't do anything for any other team has nothing to do with the impact of his loss to OUR team. The fact that he is a good fit for our team, and losing him would probably cause the Ravens to drop a notch or two in our run schemes has nothing to do with how well he does or does not fit somewhere else.

And the fact that we have not offered him a serious contract bid bothers me, because of what Ovie has shown he can do to help our running game, and because we can't be talking about real big bucks here. Since the Ravens keep harping on "VALUE", I think Ovie provides the perfect example of that -- a player who showed what he can to and who shouldn't cost us a fortune to keep. So why not just take the high road and tender him an offer commensurate with what he’s worth to this team?

We are now officially doomed by Mr. Bisciotti's decision to extend coach Billick's contract. The Ravens are now the Orioles with Peter Angelos, the new Buffalo Bills.Billick has no creativity or flexability.It's over people were done. R.D. VEGAS