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The Ravens Achilles Heel

The Ravens Achilles Heel
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Drafting Wide Receivers Doesn’t Come Easy

The Ravens and drafting wide receiver go together about as smoothly as the Washington Capitals and a Stanley Cup Finals appearance. Perhaps this season it will be different as Ozzie Newsome & Co. try to fix the Ravens Achilles Heel. Press play for more or read the transcript below.

The Ravens have long been denounced for their inability to develop wide receivers and for the most part, they’ve earned the criticisms. In his 20+ seasons as the team’s GM Ozzie Newsome has spent three first-round picks on wide receivers – Travis Taylor, Mark Clayton and Breshad Perriman. Two fell way short of their draft status and the third has yet to take an NFL snap.

This season the team believed that they could uncover value at the position in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. They believe they got their guy in Chris Moore, a player whose skill set seems to match up with QB Joe Flacco. Time will tell if the Ravens are right.

In the past the Ravens used round 4 to select wide receivers Tandon Doss, Marcus Smith, Demetrius Williams and Ron Johnson. The career numbers for these four receivers COMBINED are 100 catches for 1,562 yards and 6 touchdowns. That’s a good SEASON for Antonio Brown if he misses 4-5 games. Brown, a 2010 6th round pick, was selected one pick after the Ravens turned in the card for the great Ramon Harewood.

But I digress…

The Ravens also once used a fourth-rounder on Brandon Stokley who had a solid career albeit mostly with teams outside of Baltimore. Stokley had 73 catches for 1,028 yards and 7 scores while wearing the bird on his helmet.

Hopefully things will work out differently for Chris Moore.

The Ravens receiving corps, like their offensive backfield, is a bit crowded for the moment with 13 candidates vying for 6 or 7 spots on the 53-man roster. Perriman, Steve Smith, Mike Wallace, Kamar Aiken and Moore are locks. Keenan Reynolds is the favorite for the 6th spot and Mike Campanaro could be extended the 7th, but he’s hardly a lock.

Camp is injury prone and if Reynolds is in, Campanaro really offers little in the way of special teams contributions. Marlon Brown. Nope. Kaelin Clay. Forget about it. Chris Matthews or Jeremy Butler? Maybe. Both can be counted on by special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg.

But can they be counted on by Joe Flacco?

That remains to be seen…

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