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Ozzie Newsome - Visionary or Buffoon ? (1 Viewer)

Ozzie Newsome - Visionary or Buffoon ?

  • VISIONARY

    Votes: 85 85.0%
  • BUFFOON

    Votes: 15 15.0%

  • Total voters
    100

Casting Couch

Footballguy
Paul Kruger - signs with CLE

Ed Reed - free agent, unsigned

Bernard Pollard - cut

Dannell Ellerbe - signs with MIA

Anquan Boldin - traded for a 6th round pick

I was stunned to see them cut Pollard who is still only 28 and playing at a high level

just to save $500K bonus due this Saturday. His cap number was $3.25 for next season, not outrageous at all.

With the departure of Ray Lewis, add on top of it, Kruger, Ellerbe, and now Pollard, all gone,

I have to question the direction which Ozzie is taking this team.

edit to add :

In my opinion Newsome is one of the best GMs in the league, I'm not questioning this.

I'm referring to THIS OFF-SEASON ONLY. I've never seen a GM dismantle a young defense who just won the Super Bowl......period.

....

 
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When has Ozzie ever been wrong on letting a guy go? Priest Holmes? After that?

Ellerbe and Kruger just made a combined $70+M despite having just 21 starts over 4 years between them.

 
When has Ozzie ever been wrong on letting a guy go? Priest Holmes? After that?Ellerbe and Kruger just made a combined $70+M despite having just 21 starts over 4 years between them.
I believe the question is, "is he wrong THIS TIME ?"If they hadn't broke the bank for Flacco they would have been able to retain the key components of their defense.
 
His track record shows to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's been right more than wrong. It's really f'n annoying.

 
His track record shows to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's been right more than wrong. It's really f'n annoying.
Dude is one of the best GMs in the league, I'm not questioning this.I'm referring to THIS OFF-SEASON ONLY. I've never seen a GM dismantle a young defense who just won the Super Bowl......period.
 
I believe the question is, "is he wrong THIS TIME ?"If they hadn't broke the bank for Flacco they would have been able to retain the key components of their defense.
How do you know if he's wrong THIS TIME until it plays out? Also, you're totally wrong about Flacco's contract- it's essentially a 3 yr deal that is pretty reasonable and gave them flexibility with the cap.There were too many things working against them this offseason not to have had major changes. A couple surprise me, but overall it was going to look very different no matter what.
 
When has Ozzie ever been wrong on letting a guy go? Priest Holmes? After that?Ellerbe and Kruger just made a combined $70+M despite having just 21 starts over 4 years between them.
I believe the question is, "is he wrong THIS TIME ?"If they hadn't broke the bank for Flacco they would have been able to retain the key components of their defense.
Please. Stop. With. This. Bull. Flacco's contract is more cap friendly now. It has nothing to so with the current exodus.
 
They held the defense together with an obviously aging Ed Reed, a badly injured and slowed Ray Lewis, and missing their best pass rusher in Terrelle Suggs, just in time to win the prize. Now comes the reality of all that patch work, time to rebuild the defense. It's the nature of this NFL. Not sure why everyone is so bent up about this? This is how it works.

 
When has Ozzie ever been wrong on letting a guy go? Priest Holmes? After that?Ellerbe and Kruger just made a combined $70+M despite having just 21 starts over 4 years between them.
I believe the question is, "is he wrong THIS TIME ?"If they hadn't broke the bank for Flacco they would have been able to retain the key components of their defense.
Please. Stop. With. This. Bull. Flacco's contract is more cap friendly now. It has nothing to so with the current exodus.
With a "cap friendly" contract to Flacco. It makes these moves look even more puzzling.
 
They held the defense together with an obviously aging Ed Reed, a badly injured and slowed Ray Lewis, and missing their best pass rusher in Terrelle Suggs, just in time to win the prize. Now comes the reality of all that patch work, time to rebuild the defense. It's the nature of this NFL. Not sure why everyone is so bent up about this? This is how it works.
They cut 3 mainstays of the defense who were all in their 20's.EllerbeKrugerPollard
 
When has Ozzie ever been wrong on letting a guy go? Priest Holmes? After that?Ellerbe and Kruger just made a combined $70+M despite having just 21 starts over 4 years between them.
I believe the question is, "is he wrong THIS TIME ?"If they hadn't broke the bank for Flacco they would have been able to retain the key components of their defense.
Please. Stop. With. This. Bull. Flacco's contract is more cap friendly now. It has nothing to so with the current exodus.
With a "cap friendly" contract to Flacco. It makes these moves look even more puzzling.
Ozzie works off a formula of value in relation to performance. Whatever it is, they are pretty good with it. Top 5 team the last half a decade.
 
They held the defense together with an obviously aging Ed Reed, a badly injured and slowed Ray Lewis, and missing their best pass rusher in Terrelle Suggs, just in time to win the prize. Now comes the reality of all that patch work, time to rebuild the defense. It's the nature of this NFL. Not sure why everyone is so bent up about this? This is how it works.
They cut 3 mainstays of the defense who were all in their 20's.EllerbeKrugerPollard
Mainstays? How long has Pollard played for them? How many starts did Ellerbe and Kruger have for them over the last 4 years?Courtney Brown will be great as a starter, Suggs is back and they'll be just fine I'm sure.
 
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A Super Bowl winning defense? Technically you’re right, but the defense is not why the Ravens won the Super Bowl. Look at some rankings:

22 by Football Outsiders in total defense

12 in points allowed

17 in yards allowed

16 in sacks

19 in INTs

31 in forced fumbles

Why would you overpay to keep this unit together? Part of what makes Baltimore’s front office is its self-scouting and the collaboration between the coaches and the player personnel department. The Ravens know who can play and who can’t. Look at the litany of defensive guys who have left and think about whether Baltimore should have overpaid to keep any of them:

Jarrett Johnson, Kelly Gregg, Adalius Thomas, Bart Scott, Dawan Landry, Ed Hartwell, Jim Leonhard, etc., etc.

They are keeping their three mainstays who are in their 20s, none of whom contributed much this year: Suggs (ok, he's actually 30), Ngata and Lardarius Webb. They have sunk a ton of money into those guys and now need them to step up and earn it.

Finally, the Ravens are in a great position to draft a Safety or ILB. Talented guys at those positions always fall in the draft because they aren’t considered “impact positions.” For example, the Ravens got Ray at #26 and Reed at #24. This team will look a lot different in a couple of months after the draft, and additional free agency moves.

The Ravens front office has been together for 16 years. The coaching staff has been there for 5 years. They have a plan and it’s impossible to comment on its execution until we see what it is.

 
Worst thread ever.

Kruger is worth nowhere near what Cleveland gave him, losing Boldin and Ellerbe stings a bit but at close to $15 million / year combined, well good teams have to make those type of tough decisions every year.

 
ProFootballTalk ‏@ProFootballTalk

League source on Bernard Pollard: "Three teams in how many years. Soon four. What does that tell you?"

 
His track record shows to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's been right more than wrong. It's really f'n annoying.
Dude is one of the best GMs in the league, I'm not questioning this.I'm referring to THIS OFF-SEASON ONLY. I've never seen a GM dismantle a young defense who just won the Super Bowl......period.
Part of me is wondering if this season is an anomoly. He won it all and feels he can do whatever he wants. That he can ignore that all his guys that have contracts up are now due more money for winning a SB. And that he lost a bunch of lockerroom leaders (Boldin, Reed, Ray Ray). Flacco is a quiet guy, not a rah rah type dude. I know they are up against the cap and that Ozzie drafts well, but I think this will be a very rough season in 2013.
 
I don't think this has anything to do with Ozzie Newsome. 90% of all GMs would have done the same thing over the last two weeks.

Suggshas a cap number of $13M this year and Ngata is at $11.5M. Marshall Yanda ($7.5), Flacco ($6.8), Rice ($5.8), Webb ($5.4), and Oher ($5.0) all have big cap numbers, too. There's simply no way the Ravens could have resigned Ellerbe or Kruger or held on to Boldin.

The Pollard move is the only head-scratcher, but presumably that's not a cap move. And if the Ravens want to cut him for non-salary reasons, I'm not sure we're in a good position to criticize them for that.

But Newsome is neither a visionary or a buffoon (at least with respect to the recent moves). The Ravens are paying a lot of people a lot of money, and simply can't keep everyone. Newsome doesn't have to have a plan in place to fix these issues -- but Ravens fans better hope he does. Still, Baltimore should be pretty good on offense next year if Flacco can play like a top-10 QB, so I don't expect a huge slide for them.

 
They held the defense together with an obviously aging Ed Reed, a badly injured and slowed Ray Lewis, and missing their best pass rusher in Terrelle Suggs, just in time to win the prize. Now comes the reality of all that patch work, time to rebuild the defense. It's the nature of this NFL. Not sure why everyone is so bent up about this? This is how it works.
They cut 3 mainstays of the defense who were all in their 20's.EllerbeKrugerPollard
They didn't cut Ellerbe.They didn't cur Kruger.Pollard wasn't a mainstay of the defense, he was there for two seasons. He's a good player, but my guess is there are off-the-field type issues with him.
 
As has been pointed out, Baltimore really wasn't all that great last year. Their best ball happened to come at exactly the right time, but it's not like this was a dominant outfit that has to be kept together at all costs. It has more in common with the 2011 Giants than the 2000 Ravens.

Baltimore decided Kruger and Ellerbe weren't worth what they wanted. They decided Boldin wasn't worth what he was owed. Bernard Pollard is a journeyman, not a cornerstone. I suppose Baltimore could have paid these players more than they were worth, but Newsome has tried that before and he knows exactly how it turns out- after 2000, he kept overpaying everyone to try to make one more run, he came up short, and then he was forced to gut the team. If your internal evals decide that a guy isn't worth what he's asking, your only choice if you value your franchise's long-term health is to part ways. Sometimes it sucks, like it sucked for New England to move on from Richard Seymour and Deion Branch and Ty Law and Lawyer Milloy. In the long run, though, it's a lot better than overpaying.

 
When has Ozzie ever been wrong on letting a guy go? Priest Holmes? After that?Ellerbe and Kruger just made a combined $70+M despite having just 21 starts over 4 years between them.
I believe the question is, "is he wrong THIS TIME ?"If they hadn't broke the bank for Flacco they would have been able to retain the key components of their defense.
Please. Stop. With. This. Bull. Flacco's contract is more cap friendly now. It has nothing to so with the current exodus.
Only for 2013. He probably doesn't want to be 30 million over the cap in 2014.
 
They held the defense together with an obviously aging Ed Reed, a badly injured and slowed Ray Lewis, and missing their best pass rusher in Terrelle Suggs, just in time to win the prize. Now comes the reality of all that patch work, time to rebuild the defense. It's the nature of this NFL. Not sure why everyone is so bent up about this? This is how it works.
They cut 3 mainstays of the defense who were all in their 20's.EllerbeKrugerPollard
They didn't cut Ellerbe.They didn't cur Kruger.Pollard wasn't a mainstay of the defense, he was there for two seasons. He's a good player, but my guess is there are off-the-field type issues with him.
My mistake, they didn't re-sign them. At the end of the day we will see who they replace them with.I just can't remember a dismantling to the degree we are seeing with Baltimore, this defense struggled during the season but peaked when it mattered most.On an offensive note, Boldin for a 6th is mind blowing. I just can't get with what ON is doing this off season.
 
Imagine Denver's Safety hadn't let Flacco throw the ball over his head, but had stayed back to knock it down, and the Broncos held on to beat the Ravens 35-28 in the divisional round of the playoffs this year. And now imagine that in the wake of that, Baltimore made every move it has made until now exactly the same.

Yes, people would be screaming even more over Flacco's contract. But what if the Ravens message were: we need to get younger and faster, both offensively and defensively, to compete with the AFC's top teams and get over the hump to win a Super Bowl.

To me that would seem pretty sensible. And would account for letting go of older guys (like Reed, Ray Lewis) and slower guys (Boldin, Pollard). I think they have a long-term plan in place to be competitive every year and they're not letting the fact of a Super Bowl victory get them away from it.

The Ravens are the only NFL team to reach the playoffs the last 5 seasons since Harbaugh arrived in 2008. I just did a count - there are 8 guys from the 2008 roster currently on the team. That's an average turnover of 9 guys every year. So this is nothing new.

How many of the 8 can you name?

Flacco

Rice

Yanda

Suggs

Ngata

Koch (punter)

Ayanbadejo

Jameel McClain
 
Paul Kruger - signs with CLEEd Reed - free agent, unsignedBernard Pollard - cutDannell Ellerbe - signs with MIAAnquan Boldin - traded for a 6th round pick
I think it's fairly more likely that Kruger doesn't play at the level of the contract he got than that he does.I could see the thinking that you need a quality free safety to make up for Pollard's deficiencies in coverage. So if you don't think Reed is returning, you might think Pollard isn't the right guy going forward.Ellerbe I think will leave them with a hole. While they are in a position to possibly fill it where they are picking in the draft, you have a number of holes to fill. But still, I'm not going to overly second guess Ozzie on Ellerbe.Not sure the reasoning for getting rid of Boldin. He's one I think I'd have overpaid for the year if need be.
 
as far as replacement LBs - dont they still ahve Suggs, Upshaw and McClain? Ngata & Canty up front?

I guess the secondary might need some work at Saftey if they lose Reed and Pollard.

 
Many of these moves had to be made because of the monster contract offered to and signed by Flacco.
Flacco lowered his cap number with the new deal according to most NFL insiders.
From numbers I see on places like Spottrac, if you get down to brass tacks Flacco's contract looks like a 3 year contract after which it is up in the air. He has reasonable cap figures, $6.8m, $14.8m, and $14.5m. At the end of those 3 years he's cleared about $48m, or $16m a year.After that the cap hits skyrocket. $28.5m, $31.1m and $24.7m. Of those last 3 figures, his base salaries are $18m, $20.6m and $20m, so most of that could be avoided by cutting or restructuring him.It's likely the Ravens may look to restructure him after 2015. Though the new TV money will kick, and the money the players borrowed from future caps will no longer be keeping the cap down, so maybe they won't be as ridiculous as they look right now. Though if nothing else, it's a contract that could force the Ravens to renegotiate at a time the cap would spike, which could be to Flacco's benefit as well.But in any event, Flacco's contract currently looks like 3 years of manageable cap hits after which he possibly becomes a lead weight.
 
Ozzie Newsome - Visionary or Buffoon ? dismantled a Super Bowl winning defense Poll: Ozzie Newsome - Visionary or Buffoon ?

Ozzie Newsome - Visionary or Buffoon ?

VISIONARY

BUFFOON

Pleae gimmeafuk'n break.

One ridiculous polarizing option or the other?

Why? Because you say-so.

No!

Get real, give real options and don't overtly try to paint anyone who gives objective crticism of the Baltimore Raven Super Bowl champion team that has taken more than one personnel hit into a 'YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY CRITICIZE OZZIE NEWSOME BECAUSE IF YOU DO THEN YOU ARE SAYING HE'S A CLUELESS BAFFOON AND I AM SOO SMART I'LL MAKE A POLL TO CUT ANYONE WHO SEES THE OBVIOUS HIT THEY TOOK AND MAKE THEM LOOK FOOLISH'

Um no.

People feel free to give your true thoughts on how much better the Ravens are today as opposed to the state of the team a few months ago when they had, LB Ray Lewis, LB Paul Kruger, LB Daniel Ellerbee, WR Anquan Boldin, and QB Joe Flacco playing for literally millions few dollars on his contract.

Give us that objective argument Raven fans. We've already heard how lousey every single one of the free agents who left were and how smart Ozzie is for not signing them.

Okay, yeah. Um just objectively make the case HOW MUCH BETTER the Ravens are today instead of this assinine poll.

 
as far as replacement LBs - dont they still ahve Suggs, Upshaw and McClain? Ngata & Canty up front? I guess the secondary might need some work at Saftey if they lose Reed and Pollard.
Cornerback might be the deepest spot on the team, even with the loss of Cary Williams, if Webb comes back healthy. Of course that's a big if, but he was their best defender last year until he got hurt.Webb starts at one corner, with Jimmy Smith and Corey Graham battling for the other starting spot. Either Graham or Webb moves into the slot in nickel.Up until Torrey Smith, the Ravens have always been pretty bad at picking WRs. But they've always been really good at picking Safeties - both in the draft and free agency. In 06, they picked up Dawan Landry in the fifth round and then plugged him into the starting lineup. Leonhard was a career back-up in Buffalo until the Ravens signed him.I'm more worried about Nose Tackle than I am about Safety. Terrence Cody has been a huge bust there.But Ray Lewis had fallen off a cliff this year, Suggs was playing on one leg when he finally came back, their best defender (Webb) was gone for the year after Week 6, and their next best defender (Ngata) was banged up all season and not very effective until the playoffs.I don't see any reason to think they won't be at least as good defensively next year as they were this year - with or without Reed.
 
When has Ozzie ever been wrong on letting a guy go? Priest Holmes? After that?Ellerbe and Kruger just made a combined $70+M despite having just 21 starts over 4 years between them.
I believe the question is, "is he wrong THIS TIME ?"If they hadn't broke the bank for Flacco they would have been able to retain the key components of their defense.
Please. Stop. With. This. Bull. Flacco's contract is more cap friendly now. It has nothing to so with the current exodus.
Only for 2013. He probably doesn't want to be 30 million over the cap in 2014.
Exactly. Flacco's cap hit in 2013 is 6.8 Million. However, Flacco will collect 62 Million over the first three years of the deal. Eventually all of that 62 Million has to count against the cap.
 
Former NFL scout/current NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks on Twitter) asked if there were any defensive players who left the Ravens and played better for their new team, as he couldn't think of any. The one name which was proposed, and which he agreed with, was Aubrayo Franklin with SF. That's a pretty short list, and shows a good success rate on getting the most out of your players. Always better to get rid of a guy a year early than be locked in and overpay him for two or three more years.

 
Antwan Barnes is another. I like Jeremiah, but he's a former Ravens scout and Ozzie disciple, so you have to keep that in mind.

 
But in any event, Flacco's contract currently looks like 3 years of manageable cap hits after which he possibly becomes a lead weight.
If he restructures after 3 years, how would the cap-unapplied 26 million in bonuses work against cap numbers? Does it get evenly distributed again, or does it all hit in the first year of the new contract?
 
Given Ozzie's track record calling him a buffoon is ridiculous

could he be making mistakes here? sure, but time will tell and he has done a pretty good job so far.

 
They held the defense together with an obviously aging Ed Reed, a badly injured and slowed Ray Lewis, and missing their best pass rusher in Terrelle Suggs, just in time to win the prize. Now comes the reality of all that patch work, time to rebuild the defense. It's the nature of this NFL. Not sure why everyone is so bent up about this? This is how it works.
They cut 3 mainstays of the defense who were all in their 20's.EllerbeKrugerPollard
They are great at finding these guys. Ellerbe was the best of the bunch and he was an UDFA. Kruger was a 2nd round pick. They are smart for not over-paying for guys they can find in the draft for cheap.
 
I think it boils down to his confidence in his ability to year-in, year-out draft good defensive players. All GMs have their strengths, and while some are much more limited than others, Ozzie knows defense. While he finally has decent offense, I don't think he would do the same dismantling job on the O side of the ball as it has taken him so long to get a good unit. When you look at the many versions of his defense, it has almost been plug-and-play for 15 years and he just has more confidence he can come back from that...but he wasn't going to try to reload with a QB and let Flacco walk (or even franchise and trade him).

Either way, he was forced to let people go, but I think he picked the right side of the ball to unload.

 
Imagine Denver's Safety hadn't let Flacco throw the ball over his head, but had stayed back to knock it down, and the Broncos held on to beat the Ravens 35-28 in the divisional round of the playoffs this year. And now imagine that in the wake of that, Baltimore made every move it has made until now exactly the same.Yes, people would be screaming even more over Flacco's contract. But what if the Ravens message were: we need to get younger and faster, both offensively and defensively, to compete with the AFC's top teams and get over the hump to win a Super Bowl.To me that would seem pretty sensible. And would account for letting go of older guys (like Reed, Ray Lewis) and slower guys (Boldin, Pollard). I think they have a long-term plan in place to be competitive every year and they're not letting the fact of a Super Bowl victory get them away from it.The Ravens are the only NFL team to reach the playoffs the last 5 seasons since Harbaugh arrived in 2008. I just did a count - there are 8 guys from the 2008 roster currently on the team. That's an average turnover of 9 guys every year. So this is nothing new.How many of the 8 can you name?

FlaccoRiceYandaSuggsNgataKoch (punter)AyanbadejoJameel McClain
:goodposting:Why is this so hard to understand? Ozzie flipped that 2000 roster really quick and stayed competitive
 
But in any event, Flacco's contract currently looks like 3 years of manageable cap hits after which he possibly becomes a lead weight.
If he restructures after 3 years, how would the cap-unapplied 26 million in bonuses work against cap numbers? Does it get evenly distributed again, or does it all hit in the first year of the new contract?
I wasn't entirely sure so googled on it for a bit. If the things I'm seeing are correct, once you give a signing bonus, the proration of it for the cap is unaffected by future renegotiations of the contract. You're locked into that proration (unless you cut or trade him then it hits sooner). His signing bonus of $29m is prorated to $5.8m every year for five years. A signing bonus can't be prorated over more than 5 seasons, even if the contract runs longer as Flacco's does.So if they renegotiate after 3 years, they would still have $5.8m of cap space hitting his cap figure in 2016 and 2017, on top of whatever the renegotiated contract had for those years.
 
I think it boils down to his confidence in his ability to year-in, year-out draft good defensive players. All GMs have their strengths, and while some are much more limited than others, Ozzie knows defense. While he finally has decent offense, I don't think he would do the same dismantling job on the O side of the ball as it has taken him so long to get a good unit. When you look at the many versions of his defense, it has almost been plug-and-play for 15 years and he just has more confidence he can come back from that...but he wasn't going to try to reload with a QB and let Flacco walk (or even franchise and trade him).

Either way, he was forced to let people go, but I think he picked the right side of the ball to unload.
Kind of ironic for a guy that spent his football playing days on offense.
 
I think it boils down to his confidence in his ability to year-in, year-out draft good defensive players. All GMs have their strengths, and while some are much more limited than others, Ozzie knows defense. While he finally has decent offense, I don't think he would do the same dismantling job on the O side of the ball as it has taken him so long to get a good unit. When you look at the many versions of his defense, it has almost been plug-and-play for 15 years and he just has more confidence he can come back from that...but he wasn't going to try to reload with a QB and let Flacco walk (or even franchise and trade him).

Either way, he was forced to let people go, but I think he picked the right side of the ball to unload.
Kind of ironic for a guy that spent his football playing days on offense.
Guess he understood what it took for the other team to stop him.
 
Building one Superbowl roster is an awesome feat for a GM

Building 2, 12 years apart puts him in a very rare tier.

Rebuilding rosters is easier said than done and Newsome has done better than all but, less than a handful of GMs before him.

Question him, sure, but he can point to the trophy cabinet and that's the end of the matter.

 
:crazy:

ETA: to question ozzie seems ridiculous to me. one of the best of the business. he wasn't going to overpay those guys... he has a plan and it'll likely work out given his track record.

 
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Imagine Denver's Safety hadn't let Flacco throw the ball over his head, but had stayed back to knock it down, and the Broncos held on to beat the Ravens 35-28 in the divisional round of the playoffs this year. And now imagine that in the wake of that, Baltimore made every move it has made until now exactly the same.Yes, people would be screaming even more over Flacco's contract. But what if the Ravens message were: we need to get younger and faster, both offensively and defensively, to compete with the AFC's top teams and get over the hump to win a Super Bowl.To me that would seem pretty sensible. And would account for letting go of older guys (like Reed, Ray Lewis) and slower guys (Boldin, Pollard). I think they have a long-term plan in place to be competitive every year and they're not letting the fact of a Super Bowl victory get them away from it.The Ravens are the only NFL team to reach the playoffs the last 5 seasons since Harbaugh arrived in 2008. I just did a count - there are 8 guys from the 2008 roster currently on the team. That's an average turnover of 9 guys every year. So this is nothing new.How many of the 8 can you name?

FlaccoRiceYandaSuggsNgataKoch (punter)AyanbadejoJameel McClain
I agree for the most part, but I think it goes without saying that if the Ravens had lost to the Broncos in the divisional round, Flacco does not get the contract he did end up getting.
 
As a Browns fan, I REALLY WISHED the Ravens would have tried to keep as many of their players as possible by restructuring deals or whatever.

I think this would have put them is such salary cap hell that it would have hurt their team for many years, which is what I would have loved to see.

Unfortunately for me, Newsome is smarter than that, and he is willing to severally diminish their chances for 1, maybe 2 years, in order to build the team back to a point where it can be a playoff team every year for a while.

These are the kinds of moves smart GMs make, especially when they know they have job security. How many GMs could keep their job in the NFL today if their teams went 0-16 in 2013?? Ozzie is one of them.

 
Imagine Denver's Safety hadn't let Flacco throw the ball over his head, but had stayed back to knock it down, and the Broncos held on to beat the Ravens 35-28 in the divisional round of the playoffs this year. And now imagine that in the wake of that, Baltimore made every move it has made until now exactly the same.Yes, people would be screaming even more over Flacco's contract. But what if the Ravens message were: we need to get younger and faster, both offensively and defensively, to compete with the AFC's top teams and get over the hump to win a Super Bowl.To me that would seem pretty sensible. And would account for letting go of older guys (like Reed, Ray Lewis) and slower guys (Boldin, Pollard). I think they have a long-term plan in place to be competitive every year and they're not letting the fact of a Super Bowl victory get them away from it.The Ravens are the only NFL team to reach the playoffs the last 5 seasons since Harbaugh arrived in 2008. I just did a count - there are 8 guys from the 2008 roster currently on the team. That's an average turnover of 9 guys every year. So this is nothing new.How many of the 8 can you name?

FlaccoRiceYandaSuggsNgataKoch (punter)AyanbadejoJameel McClain
I agree for the most part, but I think it goes without saying that if the Ravens had lost to the Broncos in the divisional round, Flacco does not get the contract he did end up getting.So instead of 6 years for 120 million, what do you think he would have gotten?? 6 years 110 million?? 105 million??
 

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