Baltimore Ravens Odds

The Ravens are the defending AFC North champs but continue to get derailed in the postseason. Can the 2012 edition make it to the big game?

 

 

When you think of the Ravens, the word defense comes to mind and then the word old may creep into your description.  Old might be an apt adjective for future Hall-of-Famers Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, but there is plenty of young blood that has flown below the radar.

Football Outsiders ranked NFL teams based on what they perceived to be the most talent laden rosters comprised solely of 25-year-olds and younger. The Ravens ranked 19^th only because much of that talent has not taken the field, but the forecast for many of these players is stunning.

 “The Ravens are stacked with young guys who played a big role last year,” Danny Tuccito and River McCown of Football Outsiders wrote. “The Ravens suffer a bit in the ratings because they just didn't give many snaps to youngsters outside of those seven [Rice, T. Smith, J. Smith, Dickson, Cody, McPhee and Reid]. Still, that's an enviable young core, especially once LB Courtney Upshaw is added to it.”

 

 

One of the major questions regarding the long term health of the organization was answered earlier this week when the Ravens brass decided to ink Ray Rice to a five-year $40 million deal. But now that Baltimore has secured the services of one of the elite running backs in the game, the next question is, when will Joe Flacco's deal get done? 

Flacco may not be in that elite category of NFL signal callers but he is considered in the 2^nd tier and that's not a bad place to be, particularly for a team that is big on defense and needs a steady hand leading the offense. According to Flacco's agent Joe Linta, his client has one more year remaining on his current pact and getting a new deal is not a chief concern. 

"Joe is very, very excited for the season. He's really adamant about getting the Ravens to the next step. The contract at this point is secondary to that goal. Joe has the attitude that he'll earn it."

 

 

The Ravens will host the Bengals in an early AFC North showdown as the first of two Monday night football games. The Ravens won both meetings last season, at home 31-24 and then in Cincinnati 24-16. 

The Bengals may just be ready, however, to bust out of second class status, and Andy Dalton has the weapons to make life difficult, even on the most impregnable defenses like Baltimore's. We will take a flier on the Bengals making noise on Monday night and grab the generous head start. NFL odds makers have listed the Ravens as -7 favorites. 

Play the Bengals +6 ½ over the Ravens in Week 1 of the regular season.

 

 

Backup quarterbacks are a hot button topic in many NFL jurisdictions because the main guy is either prone to injury or prone to being lousy. Either way, there is an annual gnashing of teeth among coaches and fans alike as they debate which player is the most capable of carrying the clipboard and sending in signals to the offense. The top guns in the NFL's air force assault team like Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Eli Manning have been pretty healthy for the most part. Sure, Brady went down a few years ago with an eye wincing leg injury but by and large the rock stars of the NFL have remained upright and healthy.

But nobody has been as sturdy as the Ravens' Joe Flacco. Since his rookie season in 2008, Flacco has played in every single game on the calendar. He has suited up for 73 straight games including playoffs and if there is an NFL fan base who would have the least amount of concern for their team's QB contingency plans, Baltimore has to be on the top of the list. As of this moment, former Indianapolis Colt Curtis Painter and last season's backup Tyrod Taylor are competing for the number two spot just in case anyone but Painter and Taylor's immediate family cares.

 

 

The Ravens are not a team that is afraid to spend money as evidenced by their lack of cap room.  In fact, they have only $606,000 to spend and that will certainly encumber them if they need to sign a free agent to replace an injured player on their 53 man roster. 

Contracts meted out to Ladarius Webb, Jameel McClain and Bernard Pollard took up a big chunk of cap space, not to mention the $7 million over two years to lure Jacoby Jones from free agency and into the purple and black.  The bedrock of their defensive line, Haloti Ngata, chewed up even more money when he was tendered a 5-year deal worth approximately $60 million last year but the common denominator is that these players are all vital to the continuing success of the franchise.  That being said, the team with smallest financial wiggle room in the league will have to restructure contracts in a hurry if they are to be able to weather the injuries are that are sure to come this winter.

 

 

When you think of defense in the National Football league one of the few teams that leap to mind has to be the Baltimore Ravens. Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Terrell Suggs are the nucleus of a punishing unit that is the envy of defensive coordinators around the league. Therefore it has to bode well that Baltimore's top pick in this year's draft, 35^th overall, Courtney Upshaw is making even the accomplished veterans sit up and take notice during minicamp.

While Upshaw was both awed and humbled playing alongside his childhood idol Ray Lewis during minicamp and OTAs he quickly adapted to his surroundings and made a few new fans in the process.

Upshaw had to be ecstatic when Lewis remarked, "The way he approaches the game, his speed towards the game, and the way he flies around to the football, you really appreciate watching somebody like him."

If that wasn't enough, Suggs had this observation watching from the sidelines, "He's ahead of where I was when I came in my rookie year," and also stated, ""I've got 100 percent confidence in the kid."

Ravens fans recall that Suggs set a franchise record for sacks by a rookie with 12 and led the team in his first season. If Upshaw could produce even close to that number, the Ravens would have a young thoroughbred waiting to take over for the old warhorses.

 

 

Minicamp is mandatory but Ed Reed doesn’t seem to think so. The Ravens star free safety was a no-show but teammate Ray Lewis believes he will be in attendance when training camp starts. Head coach John Harbaugh was left awkwardly in the dark stating, "I'm not sure what the situation is." Regardless of Reed’s rationale for missing a mandatory team training session, the very least he could do is pick up the phone and let his coach know. It is just another example of professional athletes not living in the same world as the rest of us.

Derrick Mason may have been released last year as a member of the Ravens but that did not ruin the love affair he has with the team and the city. On Monday, the thirty-eight-year-old mason bid adieu to the NFL and announced his retirement flanked by GM Ozzie Newsome and head coach John Harbaugh at the team’s practice facility.

"The decision wasn't hard to retire, and the decision where to retire was just as easy," Mason said. "My heart was here. It never left. My body left, but my heart stayed right in this room." 

 

 

It appears as though Ravens starting quarterback will be a steady presence at the team's OTA's (Organized Team Activities) but his star running back Ray Rice has decided to abstain thus far. Speaking of the OTA's, rookies Courtney Upshaw (outside linebacker), Kelechi Osemele (offensive tackle) and Gino Gradkowski (offensive lineman) all took reps with the first team. All three will be vying for starting positions when the games are played for real.

With the injury to Terrell Suggs and the departure of Jarret Johnson via free agency, there is a healthy competition amongst the three players who will most likely be taking their spots. Top draft pick Courtney Upshaw, Sergio Kindle and Paul Kruger are all getting plenty of looks by John Harbaugh and his coaching staff.

Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith are clearly the top two receivers on the roster but Jacoby Jones, formerly of the Texans, is impressing so far. He has fit in quickly with Flacco and will probably be the number three receiver, giving Flacco another deep vertical threat this season. Jones was approximately five yards away from the JUGS machine and catching nearly everything at 35 miles per hour.

 

 

What could have been

Terrell Suggs has had an ongoing, mainly unilateral, feud going with superstar quarterback Tom Brady of the Patriots. Belichick's disciples don't normally engage in any rhetoric other than the party line, giving props to even the worst football teams so there will never be any bulletin board material to fire up their adversaries. Despite Brady's mainly tepid responses Suggs loves slamming Brady, however this season it appears he will do so mainly from the sidelines as he suffered a partially torn Achilles in March which may very well cost him the entire year. However Suggs is determined to get back in uniform by midseason which many believe is overly optimistic.  Ravens fans are still having nightmares about the Billy Cundiff shank with eleven seconds left in the AFC Conference title game against the New England Patriots. It was a 32 yard chip shot that Cundiff has drilled thousands of times in games and practices but it sailed wide left on a day when it truly mattered. Perhaps as bad as the loss was, it was who they lost to and that was the New England Patriots. If the Ravens are the rough, tough, no nonsense street thugs who hit you with brass knuckles and broken beer bottles then the Patriots are the rich kids who brings tasers and pepper spray to the fray.

Aging Defense

When you think Ravens football you think defense. Last year's squad ranked 4^th against the pass and 2^nd against the rush in terms of yards allowed. It is the hallmark of this team that propelled them to their only Super Bowl victory in 2000 and revealed one of the greatest defenses ever assembled.

Ray Lewis is the cornerstone of this defense but he is now 37 years old and though he has delivered the pain with reckless abandon throughout his career he has sustained his share as well. Sixteen years in the NFL takes a toll that few can withstand but Lewis remains the inspirational leader of this crew and sets the tone for the entire team. He will be needed because without a healthy Terrell Suggs in the middle and an injury prone Ed Reed in the secondary, this defense may very well be without all these defensive stalwarts for stretches at a time. All-American linebacker and former Alabama product Courtney Upshaw was deemed a steal in the second round of this year's draft when the Ravens tapped him to play alongside Suggs but will now have to pick up the slack in his absence.

Ray Rice contract status

While running back is no longer the marquee position it once was, it is still an essential element of a successful offense. Most running backs in the NFL are interchangeable, falling into one of two categories, either a power back built to move piles and break the plane of a first down marker or endzone while the other is a shifty scat back who can find creases and break long runs. The latter is by far the most coveted and Ray Rice is one of those elite running backs who makes the entire offense better. Wide receivers get less coverage and quarterbacks have more time to throw because defenses are keying on Rice. What makes Rice even more valuable is his ability to catch the ball as well as he can run it.

The Ravens understand Rice wants a long term deal but have vacillated, instead opting to extend him a franchise tender which Rice has not signed. However, it appears there may now be a benchmark for both sides in terms of total value and number of years. LeSean McCoy just signed a 5 year $45 million extension. Sounds like just the recipe to get this Rice cookin'.