It’s not often that you can say Ravens fans and players breathe a sigh of relief when football season ends. I know that I speak for a lot of people when I say that the initial few days following the Ravens’ season border on depressing. Next September seems like an eternity; mock drafts and free agency rumors will have to do for now.
2015, however, is different than any year in recent memory. When Ryan Mallett threw an interception to Ray Maualuga to end the Ravens season I muttered to myself, “thank god the (expletive) season is over.”
The new season will offer new hope and a clean slate, which the Ravens desperately need.
Between now and September, though, there are a lot of questions to be answered and a lot of work to be done. A few contracts will need to be restructured. Decisions will need to be made on under-performing and aging, highly-paid players. Players will need to be signed to fill holes in the roster, and to replace players who may leave for greener pastures.
All of which will make Ozzie Newsome a busy man over the next eight months. Despite his stellar reputation around the league and all of the mantras Ravens fans have donned him with, the Wizard of Oz needs to makes this upcoming free agency period and draft count.
It’s likely the most important offseason in his twenty-year tenure as the Ravens’ primary personnel decision-maker.
To put it kindly, Ozzie’s recent drafts have been a mixed bag of results. There has been an occasional home-run and a couple extra base hits mixed in here and there, but for every crack of the bat, there’s been two whiffs. Misses on high draft picks like Terrence Cody, Sergio Kindle, Arthur Brown and Matt Elam caught up with the Ravens in 2015.
One could make the argument the Ravens have been at a disadvantage always picking at the end of every round. That won’t be the case in 2016, and the Ravens need to make sure they find difference makers and players who can contribute right away with their first couple of picks. Another middling draft could result in a couple more top ten picks in 2017 and 2018.
The Ravens don’t yet know what type of flexibility they’ll have come free agency. Joe Flacco’s contract extension will likely be the first domino to fall. If they can get his cap number around the $20 million dollar mark and they stick to their 80/20 rule and move on from some aging veterans, Newsome could have around $17.5 million dollars at his disposal.
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In their attempt to reinforce a secondary that struggled in 2014, the Ravens’ two biggest signings of last year’s free agency were Kendrick Lewis and Kyle Arrington. As a Raven, Lewis made it clear why he was playing for his third team in five years. And as the 2015 season winded down, Kyle Arrington was seeing as many snaps as Arthur Brown.
These types of poor signings aren’t going to cut it this year. The Ravens lacked necessary game-breaking speed on offense in 2015. On defense, they lacked the ability to create turnovers. Adding playmakers on both sides of the ball should be their biggest goal in free agency if they want 2016 to be an aberration instead of the new norm.
Thursday’s State of the Ravens will be the most anticipated possibly ever. Two years ago when the Ravens missed the playoffs, Steve Bisciotti was candid. He expressed his disappointment, but also made it clear that he was confident that Ozzie Newsome and the Ravens decision makers could right the ship. In an off-camera interview immediately following that press conference he told the Baltimore Sun’s Mike Preston, “I have to be patient to let people fail, but I don’t have to be patient enough to let people repeat failure,” Bisciotti said.
2015 was a disaster for the Ravens and both Harbaugh and Newsome will get a mulligan because of the lengthy IR list. But the Ravens’ problems in 2015 went beyond the injuries. Mediocre drafts and poor evaluations in free agency played an equal role in their final record.
Baltimore has been the definition of mediocrity since lifting the Lombardi in 2012. If that doesn’t change next season, don’t be surprised if there are some new faces at next year’s State of the Ravens.
