Ravens: Evans is real deal
Who knows how much Thursday night's ragged performance by the Ravens factored into the deal today to acquire Buffalo Bills receiver Lee Evans...and who cares. Evans figures to have a very positive effect on the Ravens offensive attack if he stays healthy, and he probably will, considering that he has missed only three games due to injury over the course of his eight-year career.
Evans suffered an ankle injury in December last year and missed the Bills' final three games of the season, so his career-low 37 receptions are deceptive. He averaged just under three receptions per game, which would project to about 46 over a full season. He totaled 578 receiving yards, which would project to about 710 over 16 games.
Those projections would be pretty much in line with his non-peak seasons. He caught 82 passes for 1,292 in 2006 and caught 63 passes for 1,017 yards in 2008, but has averaged 46 catches over the other six seasons. His 15.6 yards per catch last year were right in line with his career average (15.7), so there's no indication that he's slowing down significantly as he enters his 30s.
In other words, the numbers confirm that it was a pretty good deal. Now, everyone is going to resume clamoring for GM Ozzie Newsome to address the offensive line.
Stay tuned.
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Comments
Please just end this. You obviously don't want to do it anymore.
Alternatively, you could let some younger staff member take over. There are plenty of young writers who would love the exposure, and would be more than willing to put in the extra time required to write a decent major paper blog.
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Pete's reply: Last time I looked, nobody was forcing you to stop by. So please end that.
Posted by: george | August 13, 2011 1:11 AM
I like the move for both teams. Bills cannot win it all anyways so why not give your young guys a chance to develop and the 4th round pick might give them depth at some position in the next draft. The ravens have been in the playoffs for years and now have a deep threat for Flacco's huge arm. Even though he's rather small he's fast and can seperate from slower CBs and if he can't it will at least stretch the field for the other receivers.
Posted by: G.V. | August 13, 2011 10:45 AM
I think Evans is an upgrade over Mason, Leach over McClain, Pollard over Landry,
Williams over McGahee but then again I'm just a fan. Would be interesting to ask a scout or similar from another organization how they rate our additions to our losses. Now we need address the OL.
Posted by: Don I | August 13, 2011 5:05 PM