Draft / FA / Offseason Roster Moves (Merged)

[BigPlayReceiver]

I think it's worth noting that when we took Torrey in the 2011 2nd round (#58 overall - 5th WR taken), Harbs and Ozzie pretty much said the same thing...(paraphrasing), "we were surprised that he landed in our lap, but we knew we had to take him."

So they probably had 1st round or upper 2nd round value on him.
We know KC took Baldwin at #25.
At 43, MIN passed on a burner and went TE.
At 44, DET went with Titus Young over Torrey...a more natural slot guy inside of Mega and Burleson. Young was the top WR on my board FWIW.
At 47, STL also decided to pass on a burner (to help Bradford) and went TE too.
CLE was at 59 (one slot behind us), but either they didn't want to or couldn't trade up for Torrey, and took Greg Little instead.

Accounting for the "good, but not great, big bodied" WRs out there (Allen, Hunter, etc.) plus the Combine-heroes, I can clearly see Studman staying on the board until late into the 2nd round.

[BigPlayReceiver]

Mike Wallace has likely played his last down as a Steeler. Probably will get decent $ from some team.

He would be kind of redundant to Torrey. Though it would be interesting to see how teams would cover two speedsters. After seeing him some this season I question his heart. He looks like he quit in quite a few games. Plus the Steeler fans for the most part don't want him back it seems.

I think Dwayne Bowe would fit us nice, but doubt we will go after him.

You know, I completely disregarded the fact that at least two teams with [theoretical high] WR needs are going to be filling them with Wallace and Bowe. PIT can't pay another WR with its aging defense, but KC just might pay Bowe (which would be great b/c LT Albert would only have to escape the tag in order to hit the market).

So that most likely takes one team, and maybe two out of the "we need to draft a game changing WR" mix for the Draft. So any perceived game changing WRs will stay on the Board longer...effectively pushing Studman down the board even more.

Another x-factor...you can argue that STL at #30, DET at #54, and the other 3 teams in between that took a late 1st or early-to-mid 2nd WR in 2012--got burned, but even if they don't think that they did, do they come back in 2013 and take another WR? Probably not. Good for the Studman and General Patton fans among us.

[JCroUSAF]

BPR I hate you! Lol you have me in love with bailey. A thought just hit me tho. It is very possible that Austin goes in round 1. Couldn't it be very possible that the team that drafts geno smith reaches for bailey in the 2nd much like the colts did with luck and his tight end? The only hope we have is if Austin is there in round 2, I would still much rather have bailey as he is the more all round receiver . Just a thought.

[bmorecareful]

BPR I hate you! Lol you have me in love with bailey. A thought just hit me tho. It is very possible that Austin goes in round 1. Couldn't it be very possible that the team that drafts geno smith reaches for bailey in the 2nd much like the colts did with luck and his tight end? The only hope we have is if Austin is there in round 2, I would still much rather have bailey as he is the more all round receiver . Just a thought.

I was actually thinking about that as well. I believe the Chiefs will take Geno Smith #1 overall as I think he'll be fantastic through the pre-draft process. I would then think that if Bailey is around for the first pick in the 3rd, KC certainly could grab him at that point. Teams love to surround a rookie QB with comfortable weapons, and Bailey and Smith have been playing together since high school. They would be a natural pair at the NFL level and KC has a need at WR if they let Dwayne Bowe walk, which most believe they will.

Could/should Bailey go in the 2nd round? Well, the draft committee told him he'd be a 3rd round pick and most scouting services have him in that range. The pre-draft process will really dictate if he's able to creep up into the 2nd. If he has a great Combine, great Pro Day, etc. then it might be possible. I don't know if he'd be the Ravens' BPA at that point.. depends on who's on the board. I like him enough as a prospect to do it, though.

[bmorecareful]

It's kind of funny, because looking back at some things Mark Clayton was also listed at 5'10 193 coming out of Oklahoma, exactly the same as Bailey, and they really were quite similar prospects. Both of them were guys who had very polished route running and quickness out of their breaks, but not elite long speed. Both were top playmakers in the short passing game who put up big time YAC with toughness, both played bigger than their listed size, and both were also credible deep threats and red zone targets for a Heisman Trophy-favorite QB. Both were Biletnikoff Award finalists who played in extremely receiver-friendly offenses in pass-happy conferences.

Clayton wasn't a bust per se at the NFL level, but the game was simply a bit too fast for him to be as dominant as he was in college. Does that bode anything for Bailey? They are REALLY surprisingly similar prospects if you go back and re-watch tape. Kind of interesting and neat to look at.

[Raveninwoodlawn]

I'm nowhere near a huge Bailey fan as some of you, but there is no way he lasts until our 3rd round pick.

Frankly, there are a couple wideouts I like in this draft, but frankly the team has too many other issues IMHO to take one unless they are going to be a game changing type of guy.

[leachisabeast]

On the subject of Brandon Albert, he isn't really a known quality in the NFL yet. He's a very good LT and would be three times the upgrade over Oher at LT, but he won't be as expensive as I thought. I looked at Duane Browns contract, and it's around 55 million over 7 years, so I think we could possibly get Albert to sign for 5 years for 40-45 million which is below market price for top tier LT's, but it really depends on how good Albert thinks he is. We could probably just about afford him if Ozzie gets away from his signing ''depth over stars philosophy'', and go into 2013 relying on more of the younger draft picks stepping up with an already young squad that are blooded after this year. If we get Albert to sign, we could re stock this defense in the draft, while possibly drafting a C and a wide out.

We will need to cut a lot of players for this to happen, and probably restructure a deal or two and extend some others, but I think it's just about possible, if the deal is backloaded.

[leachisabeast]

Still on the Kevin Minter bandwagon



Positives:
Shows great discipline sticking to his gap assignments
Surprisingly good in coverage (I also heard he used to play safety like a bunch of other LB's in this class
Looks to be the biggest hitting LB in this class apart from Manti
Once he gets his arms around you, it's over
Has a good frame and perfect weight at 242 lbs
Looks to be a guy who can drop back into coverage, but also be a north and south defender
Would compliment Ellerbe in the 3-4 scheme, but looks to be a good fit in a 4-3 too
Good inside blitzer

Negatives:
Looks pretty short
Takes some bad angles at times
Can be sloppy with his tackling technique, needs to wrap up more effectively
He is good in coverage, but his foot work dropping back into coverage looks sloppy at times

Because of the nature of the position, I can see him dropping to us in the second, and IMO would be a great value pick. Through the last few years, here are some highlighted second round picks on LB's.

Sean Lee
Daryl Washington
Curtis Lofton
James Laureinitis
Pat Angerer
Akeen Ayers
Bruce Carter
Novoro Bowman (3rd round pick, but he's so good, I just had to include him)

That's a lot of talent found in the 2nd round, there certainly seems to be a high % of picks on LB's in the 2nd round that work out.

[wickedsolo]

Lots of good games on today fellas.

Syracuse vs West VA (Geno Smith, Ryan Nassib, Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey, Alec Lemon...)

Texas vs Oregon State.

TCU vs Michigan State.

[BigPlayReceiver]

For our hypothetical 4-3...how about the undersized DT from Arizona St, Will Sutton as a pass rushing specialist? I having a hard time placing value on him though. 3rd? 4th?

Fella has a good motor and quickness. Figure he'll give Gs fits lined up next to Ngata.

[BigPlayReceiver]

BPR I hate you! Lol you have me in love with bailey. A thought just hit me tho. It is very possible that Austin goes in round 1. Couldn't it be very possible that the team that drafts geno smith reaches for bailey in the 2nd much like the colts did with luck and his tight end? The only hope we have is if Austin is there in round 2, I would still much rather have bailey as he is the more all round receiver . Just a thought.

Haha

Interesting thought though.

Looking at KC drafting Gino...they have a slower Austin in Mc Cluster (they just don't use him well,) so I think they'll avoid Austin. If they lose Bowe then they'll probably go after a big body to replace him.. especially b/c Baldwin is a bust.

[Lee Van Cleef]

Just say that a player like Fisher, Ansah or Jordan isn't there for them in the first. Imagine if they could trade down into the second, and trade up from their third to a second and snag a trio like Minter, Margus Hunt and Bailey? Wouldn't you just sit there with wet underwear?

[leachisabeast]

Just say that a player like Fisher, Ansah or Jordan isn't there for them in the first. Imagine if they could trade down into the second, and trade up from their third to a second and snag a trio like Minter, Margus Hunt and Bailey? Wouldn't you just sit there with wet underwear?

BPR had the exact same idea, and I love it. The second round this year is going to be deep and filled with depth at the positions we have needs at. If it happened, I'd rather we take a look at Lane Johnson rather than Bailey (as much as I like Baily, I don't want us to draft a wide out this year, unless it's the 4th round and beyond).

[Lee Van Cleef]

BPR had the exact same idea, and I love it. The second round this year is going to be deep and filled with depth at the positions we have needs at. If it happened, I'd rather we take a look at Lane Johnson rather than Bailey (as much as I like Baily, I don't want us to draft a wide out this year, unless it's the 4th round and beyond).

I'd be surprised if Oz traded down two years in a row. But assuming the Ravens draft in the 20's I don't really like the look of what I see there in comparison with the depth that could be had in the second. And of course, if Oz does trade down it probably wouldn't work out in the long run!

A lot of it will probably depend on compensatory picks. If you have those then it gives you more flexibility with your regular picks.

[arnie_uk]

If we can get a third and fourth comp pick, that gives us great manoeuvrability. We can use our original third and fourth to move up in the first, or trade back in the first to second then use them to get a third 2nd round pick and three potential day 1 starters.

Also have the option of making a real bold move. Our first 2nd 3rd 4th and move way up in the first round. And still have a third and 4th round pick, just really lose a second but you could move up and get a potential legit left tackle, or Hankins for nose, teo for ilb, heck even one of the top pass rushers if Kruger goes.

[leachisabeast]

If we can get a third and fourth comp pick, that gives us great manoeuvrability. We can use our original third and fourth to move up in the first, or trade back in the first to second then use them to get a third 2nd round pick and three potential day 1 starters.

Also have the option of making a real bold move. Our first 2nd 3rd 4th and move way up in the first round. And still have a third and 4th round pick, just really lose a second but you could move up and get a potential legit left tackle, or Hankins for nose, teo for ilb, heck even one of the top pass rushers if Kruger goes.

I don't see any pass rushers really worth trading a bunch up to get, apart from maybe Damontre Moore, or MAYBE Jarvis Jones, but I really don't know about him, he isn't quite what Von Miller was coming out. I would trade up for as you said Hankins, Teo, Louteilei, Joekel, or maybe Ansah (although, I'm not all that sure where exactly Ansah will be rated on most teams draft boards, probably number one on the Seahawks board knowing Carroll lol).

[Ravenswintitle]

Lots of good games on today fellas.

Syracuse vs West VA (Geno Smith, Ryan Nassib, Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey, Alec Lemon...)

Texas vs Oregon State.

TCU vs Michigan State.

Yup, I watched part of every game yesterday including that horrible VA Tech / Rutgers exhibition. I guess if you like defense it was OK but it was really more about anemic offense.

I will be watching WVU /Syracuse for sure; hell I will watch them all

[leachisabeast]

I think I'll be watching the Oregon game.

[Ravenswintitle]

I think I'll be watching the Oregon game.

That should be one of the most entertaining bowl games of them all; when Oregon or Kansas St. has the ball, you can't take your eyes off the screen

[gretzky_scores]

We need to spend the first 2 picks on D. Can't be ranked #26 again next year - esp w Ray & Ed & Haloti aging...... Come on Oz!!!