Help is On the Way – In 2018 (Part 1)

Considering the needs coming in, it was pretty surprising when the Ravens left the 2017 NFL Draft without one skill position selection. Many frustrated fans subscribed to the running theme that the team is routinely negligent when building the offense. The older I get, the more it becomes increasingly difficult to believe Vinny Testaverde’s 33 touchdown season in 96’ actually happened. Since then we’ve lived through it all…inept QB play, long streaks of no offensive touchdowns, savior coordinators that didn’t save anything, the T.O. trade/non-trade…really, I could go on.

Fans don’t have to look any further than the division and see the weapons Ben Roethlisberger and Andy Dalton have at their disposal and wonder, when will it be our turn?

Hang in there guys; 2018 is the year.

What the hell else are they going to do?

Regardless where you stand on what the Ravens should have done during the draft, there’s no denying this defense is absolutely loaded. The infusion of athleticism is staggering, and the talent is layered with depth at each position with careful thought towards the future. Besides Will linebacker, or maybe an heir apparent to Eric Weddle, I can’t find a substantial need for the next couple seasons.

Maybe the most beneficial aspect of the defense is this: the highest upside players have been added in the last two draft classes, meaning they will be under relatively cheap contracts through at least the 2019 season.

Improving cap situation

The Ravens have been tight up against the cadp for much of the last six years, but brighter days are just around the corner. A roster once bloated with dead money and too many veteran players making contributions disproportionate to their cap number is almost completely filtered out.

Our Brian McFarland has the team at $139 million in commitments (Not counting this rookie class).

The salary cap for this year is at $167 million, up $12 million from 2016, which was up $11 million from 2015. The Ravens stand to have the most space they’ve had in quite some time.

Now I’m not suggesting they have to the kind of space to just throw outrageous money at free agents, but they certainly have the room to get some things done.

Upcoming free agents

2018: Mike Wallace, Benjamin Watson, Michael Campanaro, Terrance West, Crockett Gillmore, Lorenzo Taliaferro, Brent Urban, John Urschel, Ryan Jensen, James Hurst, Sheldon Price

2019: C.J. Mosley, Terrell Suggs, Breshad Perriman (if option is declined) Dennis Pitta, Albert McClellan, Maxx Williams, Carl Davis, Za’Darius Smith, Buck Allen, Nick Boyle, Darren Waller, Michael Pierce, Stephane Nembot

How many guys on this list would you consider essential moving forward? Because I got one: C.J. Mosley…maybe two depending on where Terrell Suggs is as a player by then. Now that’s not to say the Ravens won’t want to retain anyone off this list, but even in the rosiest of projections I can’t find a scenario where any of these guys are commanding top dollar.

I look at Breshad Perriman differently in context of free agency. Unless he has another major injury or takes a gigantic step back in his play, I think his option gets picked up.

Desperation

Assuming the Ravens don’t acquire a skill position player with a contract past this year, this is what 2018 looks like currently…

RB: Kenneth Dixon, Danny Woodhead, Buck Allen

WR: Breshad Perriman, Chris Moore

TE: Dennis Pitta, Maxx Williams, Darren Waller, Nick Boyle

And we thought the skill positions were in dire straits now! I know skeptics will point to what happened this offseason as a reason things will remain the same, but this group is worse.

In today’s NFL, you need players that force opposing defensive coordinators to make concessions on game day. Guys that can get open on 3^rd down, make plays after the catch and in the red zone to put you over the top.

Maybe it takes this level of despair to set the wheels in motion in Baltimore.

Joe Flacco

Flacco is entering his 10^th season as the starting QB of the Ravens and he’s still as polarizing a player as there is in the league. No matter which side of the spectrum you stand on, I think it’s fair to say he’s not the caliber of player that can raise the level of marginal talents. That’s no knock on Joe; few are. He’s shown that with suitable talent in place he can play really well and win at the highest level.

Almost as important as getting him weapons he can win with, is how they go about doing it. Flacco is 32 years old now, so acquiring players ready to contribute now makes more sense for his timeline. I’ve long wondered how he’d perform with weapons comparable to his contemporaries, and what that would do for the narrative surrounding him. Free Agency has never been the way to sustainably build a team, but much like what the Ravens had to do at safety the past two offseasons, draft misses and mistakes at a position force your hand and cost cap dollars.

Time for the Ravens to pay up.

The team has a few young pieces that could excel in secondary roles with the right talent at the top of the depth charts. Drafting more young players in positions that usually have steeper learning curves like WR and TE and expecting them produce at high levels early could be problematic, especially since the 2018 draft doesn’t project to have a Julio Jones or A.J. Green level talent in it.

The draft

Speaking of the draft, I’ve long defended the Ravens against the notion that they aren’t good at drafting receivers. My argument has been that they haven’t drafted enough of them, high enough in the draft to say one way or the other. Some expand the view to skill positions as a whole, and I’ve continued to disagree but…

1996: Jermaine Lewis, James Roe

1997: Jay Graham, Steve Lee

1998: Patrick Johnson

1999: Brandon Stokley

2000: Jamal Lewis, Travis Taylor

2001: Todd Heap, Chris Barnes

2002: Ron Johnson, Terry Jones, Javin Hunter, Chester Taylor

2003: Musa Smith, Trent Smith

2004: Devard Darling, Clarence Moore, Derek Abney

2005: Mark Clayton

2006: Demetrius Williams, Quinn Sypniewski, P.J. Daniels

2007: Yamon Figurs

2008: Ray Rice, Marcus Smith, Justin Harper

2009: Davon Drew

2010: Ed Dickson, Dennis Pitta, David Reed

2011: Tandon Doss

2012: Bernard Pierce, Tommy Streeter

2013: Aaron Mellette

2014: Crockett Gillmore, Lorenzo Taliaferro, Michael Campanaro

2015: Breshad Perriman, Maxx Williams, Buck Allen, Nick Boyle, Darren Waller

2016: Chris Moore, Kenneth Dixon, Keenan Reynolds

2017: none

Don’t be alarmed, that’s just a list of all the skill position players the Ravens have drafted in their history (sad face emoji).

Now maybe some of these guys would have panned out in different situations, but the percentage of misses here is impossible to ignore. This doesn’t mean they should quit taking skill position players, but using this clean slate to build a base of ready-made targets could help the Ravens in the draft.

This will alleviate the pressure to draft day-one feature weapons. Instead, they can focus on finding fits that mesh with the talent they already have. They can also take players with upside that need grooming, and actually have the time to do so.

As the talent base builds, they can then figure out how to make sure the cupboard never again gets as bare as it is today.

So how can the Ravens use the 2018 free agent class to finally address these holes? I’ll get into the specifics in Part 2 later today.

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