Ravens Cap Space Gives Team Flexibility
The Ravens find themselves in a unique situation at this time of the year. They are flush with $12.25M in cap space.
Relatively speaking, “flush” might be a rather dramatic description but for a team that traditionally spends to the cap, these are uncharted waters.
What Ozzie Newsome does from this point forward considering this rather anomalous position, remains to be seen. He could go in a number of directions. In the past, despite little maneuverability in his wallet, Ozzie has strategically added veterans during the summer to augment the Ravens roster and fill in areas of weakness.
Such weaknesses can become apparent to the trained eye during summer camp when either older players can’t quite get it done like they once did or younger players fail to blossom quickly enough, and let opportunities for playing time slip away.
With training camp less than 3 weeks away, two areas that have to be of concern to Newsome are offensive tackle and inside linebacker.
Joe Flacco is recovering from a torn ACL and if there was ever a season when protecting his blindside and that reconstructed left knee were of vital importance, this is it. The Ravens plan on handing the responsibility of that protection to rookie Ronnie Stanley who the team selected with the 6th pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.
By all counts, Stanley has impressed but let’s be real here. Up to now the Ravens have only played touch football in 2016. Maybe Stanley can successfully take that quantum leap from college to the pros.
But what if he can’t?
We only need to look to Atlanta where the Falcons plugged in Jake Matthews as their starting left tackle in 2014. Matthews, who coincidentally was chosen with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, had a wretched rookie season while attempting to protect Matt Ryan’s blindside.
Left tackle in the NFL isn’t a plug and play position for rookies. Even Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden played left guard during his rookie season. For the record, Matthews bounced back in 2015 and was one of the league’s top 10 tackles, but that does nothing to remove the nightmarish 2014 season for the former Texas A&M Aggie.
Ozzie has to be looking for a veteran reserve. We’ve already seen what happens when the Ravens are forced to turn to James Hurst.
As for inside linebacker the top candidates to play beside CJ Mosley are Zach Orr, Albert McClellan and Arthur Brown. I did say “top” candidates.
During OTA’s rookie Kamalei Correa took snaps at the weak inside backer spot but learning on the fly at the NFL level isn’t a desirable situation given the Ravens struggles to get off the field on third down in 2015. Too often the linebackers struggled in coverage on manageable third down situations. That has to change.
Orr is a decent cover linebacker but his ability to absorb blockers when defending the run is a concern. Ditto the enigma that is Arthur Brown. McClellan is stout in short yardage situations but he’s lost in space defending the pass and his speed or lack thereof will be exposed.
Add it up and it’s a decent bet to think that some of that $12.25M in cap space will be invested to boost the position of inside linebacker.
But where will this reserve left tackle and inside backer come from?
Time will tell but inevitably, high-priced veterans who are being outperformed by less expensive younger players, will eventually fall off rosters. You can rest assured that the Ravens brain trust already has potential roster casualties on their radar screen. They’ll just need to wait.
They’ll just need to be patient.
And as we’ve seen from Ozzie Newsome, patience is a virtue he clearly possesses.
When the time comes to strike, he will.
With $12.25M in his pocket, you can count on it!
