Bernard Pierce was an interesting choice for the Ravens in the 2012 NFL Draft. Granted the Ravens have always practiced what they’ve preached on draft day and that is to trust in their board and select the best player available. But moving up 7 spots to get Pierce and foregoing a fifth round pick to do so while Anthony Allen and Damien Berry wait in the wings is no less than intriguing. A message to the franchised Ray Rice? At the very least thoughts of veterans with John Harbaugh connectivity like Brian Westbrook backing up workout buddy Rice or Ricky Williams pulling a Brett Favre, have been permanently squelched. Some think that the Ravens erred by not moving up in the first round to land either David DeCastro or Dont’a Hightower selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots, respectively. Hightower at No. 29 would have been a decent pick but with Courtney Upshaw still on the board (who by the way fills a more important need and a player most projected...

Ravens fans have grown frustrated with the team’s inability to make much of an impact during the free agency signing period. Some have even taken to criticizing one of the league’s best GM’s, Ozzie Newsome. What fans aren’t aware of is that there’s more to the Ravens’ penny-pinching than limited cap space. Word is the club’s cash flow has slowed to a drip. Insiders have suggested that while the team’s stadium deal was once a very good one, by today’s standards it’s a bit obsolete and there is talk of building a new stadium sometime within the next 5 years. Possible locations include Columbia and Severna Park. The limited cash also threatens the Ravens’ chances to sign Lardarius Webb to an extension this year. That makes Webb vulnerable, particularly to teams that have two first round picks. Some have suggested that the Patriots will make a play for Webb while others think the Bengals might throw their tiger helmet in ...

The New England Patriots have a glaring hole(s) to fill at cornerback. After Tom Brady recently re-structured his contract it left the Patriots with about $18M in cap space to play with. The Patriots have 2 first round picks – one of which they acquired from the Saints during a draft day deal in 2011 and their own, the 31st overall. Lardarius Webb is a rapidly developing corner, a restricted free agent whose current team has less than $4M in cap space. Signing him to an offer sheet would cost the Patriots a No. 1 pick this year if the Baltimore Ravens choose not to match any offer they might make. There is no corner in the draft at the bottom of the first round as certain as Webb in terms of being a skillful NFL player with his well-rounded game. Webb played extremely well against Bill Belichick in the AFC Championship Game. Add it all up and it nearly screams that Webb could very well be wearing red, white and blue during the 2012 season and beyond. It simply makes l...

Like the spring every offseason spawns a new season and along with that newness comes change. NFL rosters generally churn and burn at the rate of 25% from one NFL calendar year to the next. Teams look to get younger and create value on their rosters in order to manage the cap effectively. As Steve Bisciotti once told us, “If I can get an Ed Dickson who performs at 80% of a Todd Heap but costs a fraction of what Heap does, I have to make that move.” You can expect more of this heading into the 2012 season. 24x7’s cap expert Brian McFarland provides an excellent perspective on the Ravens current salary cap here and the picture he paints should provide clues to some roster augmentation. Here’s my take on some of the likely moves… Offense Unless Lee Evans takes a significant haircut on the pay scale, he’s as good as gone. His Super Bowl denying dropped pass in the AFC Championship Game aside, a No. 3 WR who Cam Cameron put on the field for all of 8 s...

The Ravens lost Dawan Landry, Chris Chester, Josh Wilson and Le’Ron McClain to free agency but signed Vonte Leach, Bernard Pollard and Ricky Williams. They did lose a few others: Donte Stallworth, Fabian Washington, Jared Gaither & Tony Moll but they all signed minimum deals and probably won't factor into the compensatory pick equation. So according to our capologist Brian McFarland, the Ravens will more than likely receive only 1 comp pick, probably a 4th or 5th rounder. That said one Ravens’ source has indicated that the team could receive 2 compensatory picks. A team is eligible to receive compensatory draft picks if it is determined that they lost more or better players than they were able to acquire during the previous year's free agency period. The number of picks a team receives equals the net loss of compensatory free agents (maximum of four) and that net loss is determined by a complex and unpublished formula developed by the NFL Management Council. Some obs...

Every year when the calendar winds down to its end, reminiscing runs rampant. So why should we be any different, right? Earlier this week I posted a thread on our message board (which by the way if you haven’t seen the new one, check it out – without a doubt the finest Ravens community on the planet and I’m allowed to say it because I had nothing to do with it) polling asking our members their thoughts on the Top 10 Ravens Moments in 2011. And they delivered. Now I took it upon myself to cut and paste all of them which you can see at the link above. I then paired it down to the top 17 moments, gradually grinding it down to 10 – not an easy job. Then after assembling the 10 I ranked them. And here they are – in my opinion of course with a big tip of the hat to my collaborators – the message board members. 10. JUDGEMENT DAY ~ The front office taking the hard line approach to let go of some hometown favorites (Todd Heap, Kelly Gregg, Willis McGahee ...

Ben Roethlisberger is a pretty tough dude. Even his teammates think so. He’s also a very dramatic one. After his heroic return to the game during the second half of the Steelers’ game against the Browns on Thursday Night, Roethlisberger stood at his locker, presumably on a swollen ankle, and addressed the media. He said things like, “[my ankle felt like] it was about to explode.” “I thought my leg was broken.” “I felt like my foot was outside my leg.” Whatever that means… QUESTION: If all those things Ben said are true, why is he standing there entertaining the press when any reasonable member of the media would have understood that he needed to ice down in the trainer’s room? ANSWER: Because he’s a drama queen and he wanted to come off as heroic. Well congrats Ben, the Steelers fans bought in and so did the Pittsburgh infatuated national media. Speaking of the national media and drama, the NFL Network’s...

Many in Owings Mills breathed a sigh of relief during the offseason when Sergio Kindle was medically cleared to play after his unfortunate tumble down a flight of stairs a year earlier left him with a fractured skull. Kindle, a second round pick who is said to have first round measurables, was viewed as a bonus 2011 draft pick and he was expected to be a situational pass rusher. But it hasn’t quite worked out that way. So far during the 2011 season Kindle has been on the active roster just once during the first 8 regular season games and he hasn’t recorded a single statistic. We’ve all heard that Kindle isn’t a productive special teams player and that he hasn’t impressed the coaches enough during practice. Both must be understatements! How else do you explain that the team elevated a lanky undrafted free agent linebacker from Alabama named Chavis Williams from the practice squad and immediately put him on the active roster the first game he was eligi...

For the life of me I don’t get all the hate and bile directed towards Derrick Mason from Baltimore Ravens fans. All Mason did during his 6 seasons in Baltimore was to give all that he had. Sure he yapped when things weren’t going well offensively and ok, I get that the needle leaned towards the selfish side but from his arrival in B’more to his departure, no one was a more consistent or more reliable starter than Derrick Mason. No one! Mason never missed a game as a Raven, playing in 96 consecutive regular season games and 8 playoff games. He is the franchise’s all-time leading receiver in receptions (471) and yards (5,777). He was also a leader on offense, a role normally reserved for the quarterback but given the temperament of the men behind center the Ravens have employed, Mason seemed more like the offensive alpha male than anyone else. He played fearlessly, practiced hard and always respected the game. If the Ravens had 53 Derrick Masons during his 6 s...

Torrey Smith made a huge splash in his first start collecting 5 catches for 152 yards and 3 TD’s plus a 10 yard run to boot.  The Ravens coaching staff was confident that they could exploit a suspect Rams secondary even without Lee Evans. The plan couldn’t have been executed with more precision. Not only did the vertical presence of Smith open up the intermediate routes and the running game, the rookie’s performance is now on tape and that forces opposing defensive coordinators to account for him, possibly with more than one defender. Smith is said to be one of the team’s hardest working players and his plus character is off the charts. While the team still expects the typical highs and lows of a rookie WR in the NFL, coaches are impressed with the way Smith attacks a ball in flight. The emergence of Smith from the embers of a flame set by critical fans and media could parlay into more space for Lee Evans and that could be a difference maker this week aga...