A little over a week ago I engaged in a brief debate in our Ravens247 Facebook Group. The debate started as a friendly one but when it escalated to name calling, I bailed out and invited the Ravens fan from Los Angeles with whom I was debating, to submit a guest blog to articulate his position more thoroughly.
Anthony Carreira is not a fan of paying Joe Flacco big dollars. He explains why below along with a couple other suggestions he’s made to improve the Ravens chances for success moving forward.
It’s appropriate to let you know in advance that I told Anthony that I would not edit his blog in any way other than running it through spell check. I have chosen not to alter grammar, punctuation or check any facts and figures. I’ve also retained the original spelling of the names mentioned in the blog so as not to alter the spirit of this guest piece. Feel free to comment below or send your comments to Anthony at his email address, which is also shown below. Thank you! ~ Tony Lombardi
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I’m going to start off by saying to all you Ravens Fan’s trying to analysis the problems going on with the Ravens and the Front Office let me start off by bringing up Joe Flacco’s Contract!
First of all; Ever Since we signed Flacco to his 6 year $120.6 Million Dollar Deal his overall QBR past 2 out of 3 Seasons has been fairly low in (2015) 83.1 and (2013) 73.1, unlike his fabulous 2012 Super Bowl Year in which his QBR is 87.7, and let’s not forget to bring up the fact that this is the 2nd year out of 3 years the Ravens have missed the playoffs. If the San Diego Chargers hadn’t lost week 17 in 2014 then this would be the 3rd year the Ravens miss the playoffs since Joe Flacco signed his “HUGE” contract! The Ravens Front Office considering how back heavy Flacco’s contract is dating back to the “next 3 years” of his contract 2016, 2017, & 2018, has the Ravens Organization paying Flacco over $84 Million Dollars which is absurd and ridiculous if you ask me! Since Flacco’s new contract in 2012; I feel the Ravens Front Office has run scared in letting go of all their super bowl talent to “CATER” to Flacco’s contract! We have gotten rid of Anquan Boldin which was a terrible decision considering the following: Boldin led the playoffs for the Ravens in receiving yards, and touchdowns that year! Without Boldin’s contribution; the Ravens don’t go onto winning the Super Bowl in 2012! How can the Ravens Front Office trade Boldin who has presently over 13,000 Receiving Yards and 3 Pro Bowl Appearances? Boldin wasn’t even asking for a pay increase! He just wanted to remain at his $6 Million Dollars per year! In addition; I’ve seen the Ravens Front Office get rid of Corey Graham, (bad move) Darnell Ellerbe, Paul Krueger, Haloti Ngata, Bernard Pollard, (Patriots Killer) Darien Stewart, Pernal McPhee who had 7.5 sacks prior to releasing him & he was second on the team with 7.5 sacks, Owen Daniel’s, Torrey Smith Etc.
If Joe Flacco was a “TEAM PLAYER” and put the best interest of the team first, and didn’t accept such a “HUGE” contract from the Ravens Front Office, more championships would had followed Flacco possibly giving him 3 to 4 more Championship Rings putting him in Joe Montana‘s and Corrupt Shady Tom Brady‘s category! Instead dating back to the past 3 years of Flacco’s Contract Fan’s outside of Baltimore are calling Joe a “ONE HIT WONDER; HE’S A FLUKE!” I see this team NOT making the playoffs for the next 2 to 3 years if Flacco doesn’t restructure his contract to bring in more offensive weapons for him to throw too! A QB is only as good as the talent that is built around him! The Ravens can’t afford to bring in the likes of a Antonio Brown, Dez Bryant, Julio Jones, AJ Green, Randall Cobb, simply because the Ravens Front Office can’t afford to sign these player’s for the money they are requesting and rightfully deserve! You Fan’s wonder why we can’t bring any talent to Baltimore because this is the reason why! I see a recipe for disaster happening if Flacco decides to have this me, me, and me, attitude, and doesn’t put the teams interests in front of his own! It’s already been said in past articles of Tony Lombardi that Flacco’s Agent Joe Linta blames the Ravens for not signing Flacco to a 5 year extension paying him $16 Million over the next 5 years at the end of his 2011 season, saving the Ravens $35 Million in salary cap money! Joe Linta has butted heads with the Ravens Front Office in the past, and moving forward will be difficult for Joe Flacco to restructure his contract as his agent isn’t going to want Joe restructuring his contract for cheaper money!
Second of all; Ozzie Newsome needs to stop going after the best available player in the draft! He needs to start picking draft picks based on the weaknesses of the team needs like Safeties, Wide Receiver’s, Pass Rushes Etc. We need more Skill Position Player’s on this team. What Ozzie and the Front Office did in 2011; parting ways with the following player’s: Willis McGahee, Todd Heap, Kelly Gregg, Derrick Mason, and the previous year 2010 (Releasing Mark Clayton), the Ravens received a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round, draft picks from Denver Broncos, along with giving the Vikings their 2012 1st round Draft Pick in exchange for the Vikings 2nd, & 4th Round Picks then taking home a Super Bowl in 2012 was remarkable considering releasing all of our talent in 2011. That was then, this is now, and as you can see Ravens Nation all that talent we lost at the end of the 2012 Super Bowl Year; this team hasn’t benefited the least bit dating back from (2013-2015) seasons while watching all our talent vanish away the past 3 years in “NOT” making the playoffs the past 2 out of 3 years!! Getting right to my point here is Ozzie Newsome’s System in giving away 1st round Draft Picks for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Round Draft picks like he did in 2010 and winning a SUPER BOWL 2 years later simply was a thing of the past, which will NEVER WORK AGAIN FOR HIM & THIS ORGANIZATION! I respect what he has done for this team taking home 2 Championships since 2000; but I just feel Ozzie needs to pick players based on “THE WEAKNESSES OF THIS TEAM BY POSITIONS!” I would like to see Ozzie trade up a little bit more with other team’s that have higher Draft Picks than us in the 1st Round of the NFL Draft. Going after a top five Wide Receiver, Safety, or Pass Rusher, in the Draft is very important in rebuilding this team for another championship run!
Third of All; Dean Pees needs to be “FIRED” as the Defensive Coordinator especially after the pathetic play calling he called in the 2nd Half of the Patriots Playoff loss last year falling into a soft zone press coverage, along with rushing 3 Down lineman staying in a 3-4 Defensive Scheme! Granted we had 18 Players on the Injured Reserve List, but the worst kind of defensive scheme you can call against Tom Brady is rushing 3 Players, while playing a soft zone press coverage, and stop blitzing Brady, was the main reasons we lost (2) 14-point deficient’s! We sacked Brady I believe twice in the first half of that game, while rushing his throws which gave us the lead at halftime! We were blitzing him, and getting to him, while hitting him hard! Why do you want to change the defense by falling into a soft zone press coverage, staying in a 3-4 scheme, and stop blitzing Brady? It simply makes “NO SENSE” to me why Dean Pees didn’t make adjustments to Coach Belichick’s game plan @ halftime when the Cheatriots went to their short term passing game in the 2nd half to “NEGATE OUR PASS RUSH WHILE TAKING PRESSURE OFF TOM BRADY!!” Dean Pees should had stayed in man to man coverage, continued blitzing Brady, while going into a 4-3 Defensive Scheme, at times showing a 5 or 6 man front at the line of scrimmage to stuff the short term passing game from Brady to Brandon La Fell, Danny Amendola, Julian Edelman! Force Brady to beat you with the deep ball 50 plus yards down field where he isn’t as accurate as a Aaron Rodgers, or Drew Brees Etc.
These are the 3 problems I see happening to this team; that must be changed immediately! This all starts with Joe Flacco being a “TEAM PLAYER” and restructuring his contract or this team will hit “ROCK BOTTOM TO THE OCEAN FLOOR” if we continue paying Flacco $84 Million Dollars these next 3 years coming up in 2016, 2017, & 2018!!
Responses to my Blog can be sent to tc****@ao*.com” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>tc****@ao*.com or Facebook by looking me up in the search engine under the name Anthony Carreira or just plug my email address into the search engine on Facebook and you will find me there!
I’m looking forward to hearing your responses Ravens Nation!!
Sincerely Yours,
Anthony Carreira
