YOUR QUESTIONS ASKED AND ANSWERED!
How about [Ed Reed] as a coach? ~ Michael G. Fisher
Ed Reed has coaching aspirations but he has stated in the past that he’d like to begin at an amateur level. As for him coming on board and coaching the Ravens, that may be a little too close to home. Think about the difficulties you might struggle with if suddenly you were appointed manager of a group of work friends that were once your peers and said appointment is your first as a manager.
Such would be the case for Ed in Baltimore.
Where was Jacoby the remainder of the game on Sunday, the 10th? ~ Jane Ehrhardt
Great question Jane! With bracket coverage rolling towards Torrey Smith and a base defense designed to primarily stop the run, Jacoby should have enjoyed single coverage for most of the game. Not taking more shots in his direction, particularly after he badly beat Bengals safety Reggie Nelson on the deep post, is a bit of a mystery.
Jacoby might not be the most sure-handed player the Ravens have and while he doesn’t go up and snag the ball at its peak, he does get open and he has made big plays for the Ravens.
Who do you think we get rid of next year? I think it’s time we say bye to Ngata considering the high salary cap figure. Not too mention we are spending too much money on Rice for his low output. “Right player right price” comes to mind, Ozzie’s motto. I also think we should get rid of Oher. I see some great free agents next year like Jimmy Graham, Jermichael Finley and Eric Decker. If we unload some high priced players what are the chances we could land someone like that? ~ Chad Racine
The Ravens have seldom been competitors for highly desirable free agents who command top dollar plus they will have salary cap challenges in 2014. So the term “free spenders” won’t be used to describe Ozzie Newsome & Co. any time soon.
With that said, I don’t see them competing for a player like Jimmy Graham. Jermichael Finley is scheduled for spinal surgery and some believe that could put his career in jeopardy. (How tragic that is.) Decker is a player who benefits greatly from playing with Peyton Manning and sharing receiving duties with DeMaryius Thomas and Wes Welker.
As for Haloti and Ray Rice – neither is going anywhere. While I would agree that they are not playing to the level of their contracts, a death wish in the salary cap era, the resulting cap hit in 2014 is exorbitant enough to save them for one more season. In 2015, such a move becomes more realistic should their struggles continue.
I want to know if they will turn Flacco loose and let him run his offense and do the no huddle more often. Something has to give on offense to work. ~ Rose Matlak
You have seen signs in recent weeks that the Ravens will allow Flacco to do exactly that but enabling Joe doesn’t necessarily mean it will work. Flacco has struggled the last two weeks. His supporters will argue that without a running game and given the team’s very suspect offensive line that he doesn’t have time to throw.
The truth is Flacco has had ample time to throw regularly over the past 2 games and he’s still struggled. He’s thrown short on long balls and he’s been off the mark with some key short and intermediate throws. He needs to step up and earn his paycheck too.
O-Line Questions
- When is our running game going to get yards? ~ Brandon Buettner
- Can we get the O-line together for the whole 60 min? ~ Sheree Mosley
- When are we going to do something about the center position? ~ Chris Omlor
Yards have been difficult to come by in the running game for sure and the struggles will continue until the offensive front begins to mesh. It could be that the combination of talent (or lack thereof) across the offensive front will never fully mesh. But it may not be a bad idea to see how AQ Shipley does at center alongside Jah Reid, Ricky Wagner or Ryan Jensen at left guard.
Time will tell if they’ll improve but time is also running out. I do believe that it would help if Bernard Pierce is inserted as the featured back given Ray Rice being at less than 100%.
As for playing 60 minutes, it would be nice if the offense as a whole can put together four consistent quarters of football. Being so one-dimensional makes such ambitions a steep uphill battle.
Do we have any role for Tyrod Taylor in the offense because the one play we ran with him in game vs Bengals was big? ~ Wil S. Baxter
Just the other day John Harbaugh hinted that players like Tyrod could be used more regularly.
“We’ve got to find a way to create some plays, obviously, and you try and use your guys. We’ve got some guys with some specific talents that we’re going to try and find ways to get them out on the field and do that. We’ve done that in the past here and it’s important for us to do that.”
Hopefully that means that we’ll see a little more of players like Kyle Juszczyk as a pass catcher and Deonte Thompson who showed that he can make plays in Buffalo.
