Will the Ravens be anywhere near the SB next season?

[PatsSweFan]

I can see Ravens not get into the playoff during "elite" Flaccos new mega contract time (say 100m$ - 5 year).

 

[brdmaverick]

They better resign James Ihedigbo.....after all, he MUST have been the difference maker for winning the AFC Championships these past two seasons.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

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

Those salary figures alone are the key to how Ozzie may manage the cap in 2013. Lots of players with high salary that can be converted in restructure. Upwards of $40M+ in substantial salaries they can play with and redistribute over 2-3 seasons, freeing up another $10-20M in current cap space. Will depend on which have years remaining and which are candidates for extension in which to spread it.

There are conflicting reports as to how much cap space presently exists before the 2013 season commences. ESPN's Clayton had the $15M figure a month ago. Schefter said yesterday they are $5M over. Don Banks yesterday in his piece said they had $107M committed cash heading into 2013 which is closer to what Clayton was claiming. Ray's retirement will save $3.4M. They do have quite a few starting or significant players who are UFA, along with a handful more who are RFA including some who may require first round tenders if they want to hang on to them absent new deals.

The key will be if they can get a deal done with Flacco that is cap friendly. He has all the leverage now. To exclusive tag him which they will have to do if a deal isn't done will cost them close to $20M. If they give him a deal that averages close to that for 5-6 years they can lower that cap hit to a single digit one in year one of his new deal. Similarly they can do deals with their UFA that will be similarly cap friendly initially. The issue there is always what happens down the road and how much cash over cap Bisciotti is willing to spend to facilitate those deals and how much guaranteed money down the road Ozzie is willing to commit to a number of guys.

The thing is Pittsburgh is in a similar albeit perhaps worse situation in that they sucked this season and are aging out and have a couple of UFA in positions of need that they have already determined they will let walk or test the market. They aren't tagging anyone per their GM. They are letting Wallace walk. They have their franchise QB for better or worse but he's heading into the backend of his deal they have had to restructure already and he's increasingly an injury waiting to happen. The Bengals while seemingly on an upswing remain the Bungles, so who knows. And the Browns will be hard pressed to compete with no franchise QB yet on the roster and a whole new regime taking over. Of the four teams two historically draft and develop pretty well although of late the Ravens have probably done a better job than Pittsburgh while at the same time faring pretty well in the mid level FA market.

There is an old adage that the only thing harder than getting to the top is staying at the top. Which while some here don't appreciate it has been where Belichick and Brady have excelled. Will be interesting to see how Baltimore navigates that reality. Last time out they didn't fare so well. Will guys with rings begin to coast and smell the roses or chase the money as they often do? Time will tell.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I can see Ravens not get into the playoff during "elite" Flaccos new mega contract time (say 100m$ - 5 year).

I think Flacco in many ways has emerged as the poster boy for hanging tough in developing young QB's. Something that this league has seemed unable to do for much of the last decade or so. His first couple of seasons were borderline abyssmal. But he survived them and he gradually began to figure it out. The last couple of seasons it was a tug of war between sticking with a system and adapting it to his talent. He gets in trouble in an offense that bogs down. The more plays it takes to traverse the field the more likely he was to make a costly mistake. Those flashes of good Joe and Bad Joe are what led to his contract impass even heading into this season. They had the weapons to open it up but not an OC willing to. Once they started playing to his strength everything changed. It was no longer a case of the defense bailing him out and just hoping he didn't screw up so badly they couldn't carry the day. The key to his continued success will be can they mantain the kind of weapons around him that allow for a lot of quick strike production. While at the same time maintaining a top 5 defense to hold the line against equally explosive or productive offenses.

For all he did they remained 2 minutes of poor play calling and execution by an opponent away from losing their first Superbowl in 12 seasons. So signing him isn't the be all and end all. Baltimore needs to not only maintain that defense, they need to improve it a bit.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

As Mo pointed out just above, discovering whether they can match the ability of the Krafts and Belichick to sustain excellence over multiple seasons is the next challenge for the Ravens. As a follower of the NFL, that interests me. Otherwise, I really don't care whether the Ravens succeed or fail.

As a Pats fan, I'm spending my "fan energy" on worrying about whether Brady has another season or two left playing at the highest levels, whether they can afford to re-sign both Welker and Taibi, whether they can find a big Wideout to stretch the field and "go up and get 'em" as we saw on Sunday night when his receivers turned a couple of Flacco "hope heaves" into big plays, whether Gronk's spate of injuries is random bad luck or whether he is injury-prone, whether they can continue improving in the Secondary, whether the O-Line continues to protect a QB who, let's face it, isn't getting more mobile as he gets older and whether they can build on the success of the Running Game from this season.

That strikes me as more than enough to have on my mind. Let the Ravens worry about themselves.

If I were a Steelers' or Bungles' fan, I'd probably care a lot more about what the Ravens were up to, but, until we have to play them again, I really don't.

 

[Tunescribe]

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

I pretty much agree with this, although they will take a step back and I think the Patriots take a step forward. If these two meet in the AFCCG again, the Pats take it.