The Ravens have no top 70 CBs in Bleacher Report’s list. Ogden discusses the five hardest players he ever blocked. Hargreaves makes the list of boom-or-bust prospects. Why the Ravens’ RB mix is so crowded. Hargreaves is the pick in the ITP Mock War Room. I end with a couple of lame jokes about the weed.
B/R NFL 1000: Ranking the Top 101 Cornerbacks from 2015
The Ravens’ secondary didn’t have a good season last year. Lardarius Webb continued his decline as he ages. Will Hill was awful in the second half of the year. Kendrick Lewis might as well have not even been on the field.
And Jimmy Smith struggled as he recovered from his 2014 season-ending Lisfranc injury.
Still, you wouldn’t expect him to rank as poorly as Matt Miller of Bleacher Report did for the year. He came in as the 71st best corner in the league. Ouch. Miller points to a lack of consistency in his footwork and finding the ball as the two primary reasons for his decline.
Jimmy’s decline was a big one last year, but dropping him all the way down to 71st is a bit harsh.
Here are the Ravens’ corners who ranked:
72: Shareece Wright (same slide)
87: Kyle Arrington (slide 4)
97: Lardarius Webb (slide 2)
The 5 Toughest Guys I’ve Ever Blocked – by Jon Ogden
As I was searching for an image of Jonathan Ogden to feature in my links yesterday, I stumbled upon this Players’ Tribune article from November. Ogden describes the five toughest opponents he faced in his playing days. For me, the most memorable one was Dwight Freeney. He always seemed to get the best of Ogden when no one else could. Ogden describes how tough it is when doing your job 43 out of 45 times against a player like Freeney isn’t good enough.
5 Boom-or-Bust Prospects in the 2016 NFL Draft
John Breitenbach of Pro Football Focus looks at the five most volatile prospects in this year’s draft. One of them is a popular pick for the Ravens here at RSR: Vernon Hargreaves. John says Hargreaves’ size is, in many ways, the least of his worries. After being the second-highest graded in coverage in 2014, Hargreaves fell all the way to 71st best in the nation in 2015. Ouch.
Why is Ravens’ RB mix so crowded?
Clifton Brown of CSN Mid-Atlantic answers a reader’s question about the running back situation for the Ravens. Cliff says that the crowd at the position is to ensure that the Ravens have a good running game once the season starts. A good competition will help to make it happen.
ITP Mock War Room Draft – Baltimore Ravens Make Pick #6
The guys over at Inside the Pylon mock the war room for the Ravens. They have one front office member look at the statistical analysis of a variety of players, another determine who the best player available is, and then the coach helps to fill in which is the biggest area of need.
They argue between two guys by the end, but end up going with the bigger need over the player who they think is the best. It’s an interesting listen, for sure, but if they think that’s how Ozzie thinks, then they are mistaken.
The pick is Vernon Hargreaves for those who don’t want to give the full podcast a listen. The other option that they considered was Joey Bosa. I like Hargreaves more than Bosa, but that’s because I believe Hargreaves is a better player. It has nothing to do with the marginal difference in need.
Annual substances of abuse testing period: April 20th – August 9th #PlayerAlert
— NFLPA (@NFLPA) March 30, 2016
I could make a bunch of high-larious jokes about that date, but…uh…what was I saying?
…Okay, no more lame jokes. We’re done.
