What to Expect From Season-Review Press Conference | Ravens Final Drive

I would love to have Beyoncé’s phone number… not sure which of us has a higher chance to see their wish come true… and I have 0 chance 😀

@bioLarzen don’t give up hope

@Waffles Enjoyer Haha, so true 🙂

We might not know until training camp! In Greg contract it says ravens can’t& will not announce to the public if they decide to terminate his contract!

@bank roll Yeah – they could still announce that “Roman has decided to move on” or some similar BS… but I’m quite sure nothing like that will happen today. BUT: if they really want to install a new OC they either have a secret candidate so obscure they are confident will still be available in the year – or they better act fast before all good candidates are picked up.
That all said, I still think Roman will stay as OC.

Not very hard when they are only gonna hire from their own building.

Urban and John need , ending to

@Dub … from with in is taking us out. Wakeup mr b.

1. Not gonna happen unless Lamar backs off his demands. Ravens are projected to have just over $40M in cap space (obviously depends where the cap number for next year is set). Tagging Lamar would cost north of $45M next year. Setting the non-exclusive tag would be less expensive, but allow other teams to negotiate and possibly sign him away. And Lamar’s contract demand is more than what Deshaun Watson is getting from the Browns. For reference, his cap number next year is $55M. The Ravens obviously can’t afford that, and certainly not MORE than that. Even if the largest expiring contract in Marcus Peters is not renewed, that is only a $14M subtraction (which, technically, is not even included in the cap space calculation for next year anyway since his contract is expiring, so it would be more like _not_ subtracting from their available cap space by re-signing him), which would still not be enough to give Lamar the $250M guaranteed contract he is angling for.
2. This may actually happen, albeit he won’t technically get fired since his contract is expiring. There’s actually a decent chance he just… won’t be re-signed. You won’t hear that at the press conference, and you certainly won’t hear any news about it even if it does happen because it’s more of a thing the Ravens just _didn’t_ do rather than something they did. But I do honestly think there’s a solid possibility of them deciding to just promote someone like James Urban to OC, which would effectively be “firing” Roman.
3. There really aren’t any possibilities here. The best free agent WRs available are a list of overrated 2nd and 3rd stringers like JuJu, Lazard, Chark, and past-their-primes like Landry. The best trade option is Hopkins (and that’s IF Arizona decides to trade him), and he hasn’t played a full season in over 2 years due to suspension and injury, and isn’t getting any younger. I know the Ravens have been tied to him in media speculation, but personally, I hate that option. Also, the Ravens don’t have a ton of draft capital after giving up a 2 and a 5 for Roquan — they won’t be getting any compensatory picks this year, either. It’s unlikely they trade away their 1 as then they wouldn’t get to pick at all until the end of day 2. The best option, at least this offseason, is for them to do what they’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) to do for years: draft one. Either they use their 1 if someone falls in their lap at 22 like a Bateman, or they try to grab a steal in the 3rd or 4th and hope he pans out better than the Duvernays and Boykins of the world.
4. Again, the draft is probably going to be the best spot for them to pick one up. Peters and Fuller are pending FAs, one or both could be re-signed if the price is right. If not, it would fall to Stephens to step up as the 2nd corner, and Armour-Davis (if healthy from injury, which I absolutely see the irony in here) and “Pepe” Williams, who barely got any playing time, to fill in the 3rd/slot corner role. If one does get drafted, it likely will be another mid-round pick who will fall right into that mix of fighting for playing time. This is not as crucial of a need as some other positions unless you happen to be playing a team like the Bengals or Chiefs with umpteen million receivers. I get it, we play Cincy twice a year. But we defended them just fine both times.
5. I don’t really know how to respond to this. If you’d brought this up after last season (which maybe you did and this is some sour grapes or whatever), I’d have said 100% absolutely yes. But you have to admit there was a noticeable difference in the total number of injuries and the severity of injuries this year. In addition, players like Edwards, Dobbins, and Peters came back at or very near 100% recovery after sustaining brutal injuries last year. If anything, I think the conditioning of this team has greatly improved, and that has to be a credit to the coaching staff, even if you think they were detrimental last year. At any rate, I can’t imagine it’s exactly easy to replace an entire strength and conditioning team in a single offseason and not expect there to be hiccups, especially since you can’t really fire the guy at the top and expect the assistants to stick around, whether by their choice or that of the potential new department head.
6. I would much rather see the #5 on this list as an improvement to the pass rush, whether that’s in the draft (certainly feasible) or free agency, or even a redistribution of playing time/positioning, formation, scheme/whatever. Sure, if you take out the Eagles’ ridiculous 70 sack total this year, the Ravens (48) only finished 7 behind the would-be leader Chiefs’ 55. But they were in the bottom half of the league in total pressures and pressure rate (19.2%), hurries and hurry% (6.3), knockdowns and knockdown rate (6.4%) and missed tackles (79). The one positive is their blitz%, which was middle of the pack and roughly half (21.3%) of the Giants’ (Wink Martindale’s) 39.7%. So they made the most of opportunities in getting sacks, but otherwise put very little pressure on QBs. The way I see it, the sacks that came on 3rd downs may have been drive-enders, but the 1st down sacks were easily overcome by allowing the QB to stand in the pocket unfazed for 2 straight plays. Yes, the defense as a whole improved greatly after the addition of Roquan, and those season-total numbers are deceiving in that regard, but I don’t think there’s any question the pass rush needs to be more efficient as a whole, and it’s one of the main reasons teams were able to consistently build comebacks and win games late against the Ravens. Regardless of how well you play the run or who your DBs are, you can’t expect them to brick wall the other team for 60 minutes. I could also get into how the offensive ineptitude was a huge part in allowing other teams to generate momentum from repeated, long possessions, but I won’t do that here. Just give the pass rush some help. Maybe that’s Ojabo, maybe that’s another year of experience for Jones and Madubuike in the middle, or maybe the answer is somewhere else out there.

@matrixphijr the only thing i can be bothered to respond to is your point about lamar’s contract. While you are correct about the cap hit for signing him, his contract would likely be structured where he gets less in his first couple of seasons and more in his later seasons, as tends to be how teams do it. this will mean his 70 million in 2026 will mean less when the league raises its salary cap(which always happens when they sign a new deal) and allow for the ravens to only have to pay him 20-30 million this year

@matrixphijr ur insane no one is reading this college thesis

@Robert Gross The problem is that “most contracts” are not fully guaranteed, and thus allow for flexibility in structuring the dollar amounts. However, most contracts also have base salaries, which are paid out on a per-game basis (obviously not guaranteed). The only way to get a truly “fully guaranteed” contract, is to have a very low base salary and put most of the money into signing bonuses, which you may know are paid up front but prorated over the length of the contract for cap purposes. In other words, by giving someone a _fully_ guaranteed contract, you are truly flattening out the cap hits for each year. That’s why Deshaun’s cap hits are $55M each of the next 4 years. That’s why Dak’s cap hits for the next two years are $49 and $52M respectively (4 year extension for $120M, $110M guaranteed). For Lamar to get $250M fully guaranteed means there is very little flexibility in how to spread out the dollar amounts as they pertain to the cap.

@matrixphijr thank you for clarifying that. i always thought signing bonus’ still technically payed out “per game” just that the money came upfront. hope we figure something out then 🥲

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