Will the Ravens be anywhere near the SB next season?

[josh24]

Given the amount of important players they have on the free agency, is gonna be interesting how they manage that situation.

Here are their FAs and their minimum salary for 2013:

BAL 2013 Cap salary : $15.7 mill

QB
Joe Flacco - $715,000

RB
Anthony Allen - $630,000
Damien Berry - $630,000
Bobby Rainey - $630,000

TE
Ed ****son (RFA) - $715,000
Dennis Pitta (RFA) - $715,000
Billy Bajema - $840,000

OT
Ramon Harewood (RFA) - $630,000
Bryant McKinnie - $940,000

C
Morgan Cox (RFA) - $715,000

DE
Arthur Jones (RFA) - $715,000
Ryan McBean - $715,000

DT
Bryan Hall (RFA) - $630,000
Ma'ake Kemoeatu - $940,000

LB
Josh Bynes - $630,000
Albert McClellan - $630,000
Ricky Brown - $840,000
Dannell Ellerbe - $715,000
Paul Kruger - $715,000

CB
Cary Williams - $715,000
Chris Johnson - $715,000

S
Emanuel Cook (RFA) - $715,000
Sean Considine - $840,000
James Ihedigbo - $715,000
Ed Reed - $940,000

Retiring
LB Ray Lewis
C Matt Birk (not sure actually, many rumors around this one)

These are only base minimum salaries, and do not include signing bonuses, roster bonuses or any other incentives.

Ravens GM face a serious problem this offseason:
- How can you keep Flacco, who will probably be one of the highest paid players in the NFL next year, plus signing Ellerbe, Kruger, Pitta, ****son, Reed, Williams and McKinnie, all of them being key for this team to make a succesful SB run this year?
- If you can't keep them, where will you find a cheap replacement?

My answer to the original question is no. With Flacco getting somewhere around 16-18 mill a year, there is no cap for a balanced team. Reed and Williams will probably go, and they won't keep Pitta, Ellerbe and Kruger happy with cheap contracts.

 

[Brady2Moss]

Helllllllll no

 

[Joey007]

Wouldnt it be hilarious If they pull a Trent Dilfer and don't bring him back??

 

[Thunderkyss]

The Ravens are going to have a hard time winning their division regardless. Then they've got to beat two of three........ Texans, Patriots, Broncos....

If they get to the Super Bowl, they'll be battle tested, & probably win another one.

 

[Joker]

what battle tested??...playing defensive holding every snap of every playoff game and betting the refs assigned allow it like THIS post season's hack crews?...Hochuli would have called at least 10 pI calls on the Ravens tonight..at least

 

[MoneyFX]

Sorry, but I don't see them even reaching the AFC title game next season. Lots of personnel changes are going to be made and for most of those guys, it was probably their last ride on the team. It's only fitting that they won a ring.

They'll probably win their division again and maybe lose in the divisional round to New England or Houston.

I look forward to seeing the Patriots (assuming they upgrade a few areas of the team) and the Broncos (improving young talent and Peyton will be as good as advertised) at the end of it in the AFC next season. Not confident in the Texans, nor so with a Steelers bounceback.

 

[DocHoliday]

what battle tested??...playing defensive holding every snap of every playoff game and betting the refs assigned allow it like THIS post season's hack crews?...Hochuli would have called at least 10 pI calls on the Ravens tonight..at least

If you can't adjust to a certain style of reffing, you're a team that needs special circumstances to win.

That's not a winner. Every team could've recognized the trend of officiating. Kudos to those that played a little friskily and got away with it.

 

[Brady2Moss]

what battle tested??...playing defensive holding every snap of every playoff game and betting the refs assigned allow it like THIS post season's hack crews?...Hochuli would have called at least 10 pI calls on the Ravens tonight..at least

Ravens plan was to hold and knew that the refs wouldn't call it every play and in the case of the last two games, never. Sick of this BS NFL has become WWE

 

[YearbookCurfew]

I'll go with "Hell naw" for 300 alex.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

they will be in the playoffs again..they will still win that division just like pats will win their division

 

[Sciz]

they will be in the playoffs again..they will still win that division just like pats will win their division

Yeah, this is probably true. The Steelers are getting hit hard by the cap too. The Bengals would have to improve, but they're losing some important pieces too.

Hmm, maybe the Browns should make a play for a talented QB who is a backup on another team, with the goal of taking advantage of what should be a weak AFCN next year.

 

[DC_Patriot]

If you can't adjust to a certain style of reffing, you're a team that needs special circumstances to win.

That's not a winner. Every team could've recognized the trend of officiating. Kudos to those that played a little friskily and got away with it.

Wow, I never thought I'd see a fan of one team congrulate a rival team on taking advantage of bad officiating.

 

[borg]

Between Flacco and Lewis, their combined 2012 salaries were just under $12 mill. That's a nice starting place to find money to pay Flacco and rework the rest of the roster

Here are the Ravens' top salary-cap figures for 2013:

Player Base salary Salary-cap figure

Terrell Suggs $6.4 million $13.02 million

Haloti Ngata $4 million $11.5 million

Anquan Boldin $6 million $7.531 million

Marshal Yanda $4.5 million $7.45 million

Ray Lewis $5.4 million $7.3 million

Ray Rice $8 million $5.75 million

Lardarius Webb $7.385 million $5.385 million

Jacoby Jones $4 million $4.9 million

Vonta Leach $3 million $4.33 million

Michael Oher $3.085 million $4.255 million

Jameel McClain $3 million $4.2 million

Matt Birk $2.75 million $3.45 million

Bernard Pollard $2.5 million $3.25 million


On second thought, lets raid and trade with Baltimore

 

[Pewsterbaby]

Wow, I never thought I'd see a fan of one team congrulate a rival team on taking advantage of bad officiating.

It's called adaptation to circumstance and is the key to success in sport as well as life, fool.

 

[OneMore87]

I doubt it. I give them props for doing what they did but I think
they'll some key guys due to the cap and they have the Steelers
in that division AND the Texans, Colts, Broncos and Pats to contend
with in the AFC. I think they'll be in the tourney but not a deep run

 

[WhiZa]

I doubt it. I give them props for doing what they did but I think
they'll some key guys due to the cap and they have the Steelers
in that division AND the Texans, Colts, Broncos and Pats to contend
with in the AFC. I think they'll be in the tourney but not a deep run

They peaked. They're players are older now. The offseason is going to humble their defense. Their offense will still be good, but they will need to rebuild on the fly like we had to 4-5 years ago.

 

[thenepatsrule]

The Ravens will be 191 miles from the SB game next season

 

[BradyFTW!]

Next year's Ravens *should* be significantly worse than this year's. Offensively, they really came together once they moved McKinnie to LT full time and put Oher at RT. Made them better at both tackle spots. McKinnie is a UFA, and even if they do bring him back, I doubt that he can hold up for another season -- they were lucky that he did this year.

Defensively, they're going to be relying on a lot of young/unproven guys, and I would expect some growing pains there. Flacco's going to have to play up to the contract that he's going to get -- and I think he can, he was amazing this postseason --and they're going to have to become an offense-first team, for the most part. With Webb, Suggs, and Ngata, they're going to have some premium talent on defense, regardless of whether they bring back Reed and Kruger, but of those guys, Ngata's body seems to be breaking down on him. They're probably hoping that Suggs will be better next season, when he'll be further removed from the injury that should have kept him off the field this year (no way in hell he wasn't taking HGH). Seems like a reasonable assumption, but this defense could become very top-heavy very fast, because they're going to have to pay a lot of guys on offense, and when you have a $20M per year quarterback, a lot of flexibility that you'd otherwise have goes right out the window.

 

[FosterTheSkins]

I hope not. The Rat-Turds fans were insufferable with one SB win. I'd hate to see how much more obnoxious they'll become after three?

 

[Joey007]

Yeah, this is probably true. The Steelers are getting hit hard by the cap too. The Bengals would have to improve, but they're losing some important pieces too.

Hmm, maybe the Browns should make a play for a talented QB who is a backup on another team, with the goal of taking advantage of what should be a weak AFCN next year.

I would love to see a change of teams other than us in the playoffs in general. Let's see the Browns, Raiders, and Titans back in it.