Any possibility that Ozzie brings either of them back to the castle?

Agree Mike, and it goes deeper than just Front Office. Sharper, Hartwell, Starks, and countless others have left this "system" and not been the same after leaving. I'm not sure where it starts, but the Ravens seem to put players and staff in a position to succeed. I wish nothing but good things for Bart Scott, but he may be the next example of this if we choose Ray and Suggs next year as the two to retain. I can see McClain stepping in to that spot (though its obvious that he has a lot to learn yet)...

Way to go Ravens. As a Baltimore sports fan since slightly before Johnny U. showed up, thank you Ravens for the great season of good, tough, intergerity laced football. And on to the play offs, were we are 50/50 to go to the Superbowl. Hur-Ruh!

If I were New England I'd send a hit man to go get Favre. Favre blew "big time" last years game against the Giants , He folded, he froze, he quit in that game. Again yesterday he was the worst. He quit again. Singeledhandly lost both of those games. Favre's a good football player, loves the game, great team mate, and all of that. But if I need someone to win a big game, in his whole career, it would have never been him.

How did Philly get into the play-offs? What a day, and in the end the best of all. They crushed and completely embarrassed them Cowgirls. How did San Deigo get into the play-offs? They did after being robbed and battered. They are going to be tough.

Football, it does deliver a great product. And the best doesn't start til next week. Go Ravens!

It trully is all very exciting.

Thanks to Ozzie the Raven's have had the best drafts for many years and have developed great teams year after year . This assembly of players for this past year seem to be the greatest and no stars were let go as in previous years under the Billick's rule . There are many questions concerning this phenominum . Why wasn't J. Lewis retained ? Why was Anderson placed on reserve when he was the best QB in camp several years ago . We spent a lot to get Willis Magahee and a long time without a decent QB . Then there were OL Kimiato , Pashos which were needed in those years . And it wasn'tt done for cap purposes but to free up money to obtain those players that Billick wanted to replace those that were let go as undesireable. Thank our God we finally got out of the Billick era and acquired Harbaugh a genuine coach and one who also rcognizes talent when it's there.

Ozzie. He was here when it all started, and he is still here standing tall. Ozzie will go down with the Baltimore greats. To me there is no greater compliment. Oz is good, Oz is great. He along with Bisciotti, coaching staff and the team have put Baltimore back into the big time, and we are looking real good. Baltimore sports fans are real proud of all of you.

You're dead on with this, Mike.

Just this summer, people were calling for Newsome's head. I know he has really drafted legit WR or a QB (until now), but yet the Ravens still remained competitive despite that. Now that the Ravens have a QB, they will be in the playoffs almost every year. If, that is, Ozzie stays as GM.

He has proven that's it's he who was the brain child behind the players chosen and the free agent pick ups, such as this year's secondary. He drastically improved the secondary without breaking the bank or mortgaging the future.

Some of the Wizard's accomplishments:

-drafted a 2,000 rusher
-assembled the best defense ever in a season
-assembled the best, or very close the best, defenses of the decade
-drafted two Hall of Famers with his first two picks, etc.

I really hope Biscotti makes Newsome the highest paid GM in football and retain him as long as possible.

(Sung to the tune of "Goin' to the Chapel"):

Goin' to the playoffs and we're
Gonna beat the Dolphins,
then we're
Goin' down to Nashville and we're
Gonna beat the Titans,
then we're
Goin' up to Pittsburgh and we're
Gonna beat the Squealers,
We're goin' down to Tampa
again!

You forgot to mention how Marvin Lewis underachived in Cincy. Though he started to get things righted a little bit in the last month or so.

I thought Singletary was already offered a muti-year contract.

Also... THANK YOU!

When Savage left, ingrates were posting here and elsewhere that Newsome was propped up by the talents of others. Savage definitely did NOT deserve to be fired, but......

GUESS WHO'S VINDICATED NOW, BABY?!

I think the naysayers were spreading these falsehoods about Ozzie because he is not buddy-buddy with some "bleed Ravens purple" media in town. I think we have seen the difference a year makes with better coaching and less injuries

I'm just thankful Dick Cass's choice for head coach (Jason Garrett) turned us down and Ozzie's man ended up getting the job. Garrett's snooty Ivy League demeanor may have played well with Cass, but John Harbaugh clearly is a Baltimore type of guy and was a much better fit to coach this team.

The transition from Harris and Savage was evident from the poor drafts from 2003 to 2005. Only 5 players from those drafts are contributing members.

I'm glad you are saying all this Mike. A week ago, Maese wrote this article saying that all this success we were having was purely because of ownership. Not once did he give Ozzie his due. We all will miss him once he decides to become Alabama AD one of these days.

Wow, where did all the people who posted here a year ago go? The people who claimed phil savage and Harris were the brains behind Baltimore's success in the past and the Billick defenders. I cannot even think of two groups of people who were more wrong about football. I wouldn't trade another GM for Ozzie. Also, credit should be given to Bisciotti for being decisive at the appropriate time when it was obvious that Billick was ineffective. Amen to the fact that the naysayers were wrong and good riddance.

anybody notice all 4 of the Higher seeded Road teams are Favored to win this weekend!!

This is a good story. Ozzie has done a very good job as GM for the Ravens. Ozzie took a lot of heat when Billick was fired. Some people insisted that the problem with the Ravens was a lack of talent and not a lack of coaching acumen from Billick. People gave credit for past draft sucess to Phil Savage and others. People said, and still say that Ozzie can't draft QB's or wide receivers. C'mon give me a break. The reason we haven't developed a good QB until now was because they were playing for Billick. See how that connects; the coach is offensively challenged so new offensive players fail to develop. Not because they were without talent, but because the coach didn't know how to make use of the new players talent. Billick is gone; and suddenly we have a new QB that is succeding brilliantly. I guess Ozzie can draft QB's after all. People say Ozzie can't draft WR's, but Clayton was widely hailed as the next big name for WR's after his rookie season. He of course languished under Billick. Now he has had some really good games with Flacco, and Cameron, and Harbaugh. He has made some really excellent catches in those games as well. Clayton is better than he's been given credit for, and Ozzie can draft WR's. People say that Ozzie's system of drafting the best player available works, but he can't draft on a need basis. The Ravens drafted Haloti Ngata, because Ray Lewis finally made enough noise about the Ravens' lack of a big run stuffing presence at nose tackle (BTW probably the same people who criticized Ozzie; came down on Ray for criticizing the front office, but Ray was right and the Ravens are better off for it.) There is also Flacco, who was drafted because we had to get a QB in last years draft, so Flacco is a twofer. Kudo's Ozzie you're still standing!

Major props also have to be given to Harbaugh and Cam Cameron who seem to actually understand sports strategy and have created an effective offense. Their use of a variety of non-conventional formations and plays is excellent, just excellent. How about doing a column on the difference between the Ravens offense under Billick and the offense under Harbaugh/Cameron. We now have a no-huddle offense, a Suggs package, that utilizes two QB's, and an unbalanced line, that utilizes 3 OT's on one side of the line, flea flickers, screens and a running attack that greatly suceeds without a feature back.

the Newsome/Savage thing reminds one of Tommy LaSordas comment when asked why he did not pay more attention to the fan's wishes he replied that if he did that he would soon be sitting with them.
Ozzie does a great job in a very tough job.

Ozzie has been a spectacular GM. His in-house scouting (hiring our own guys instead of a scouting service) gives this team an edge. He knows what football players look like, and he builds from the important base positions-offensive line, defensive line, and linebackers. It's incredibly difficult to draft a top QB or WR, and I would love to know the real story behind the Boller trade (was that Ozzie or Billick's call?) but his overall record is a testament to our team's year-to-year competitiveness.

Thank You Mr. Modell

Isn't it great that we went 3 & 1 against the NFC east, proclaimed by many as the "best division in football."
Living here in Redskin country I just have to laugh - we were on the front page of the sports section today - just to the right of the 'Skins. Here's what the Skins need; a new owner, little Danny sticks his nose in where it does not belong, a new GM, Vinnie couldn't tell talent if it landed on him and yes a new coach who would tell Clinton Portis to just run the ball and shut-up.
Go Ravens!

Mike Do you think Ozzie doesn't get the national pub he should because he so low key?