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Scouts, Coaches Not on The Same Page

Ravens coaches and scouts
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Case in Point: Kamalei Correa

The Ravens once enjoyed a lofty reputation for their draft day, war room prowess. Unfortunately, those days are fading far away in the rearview mirror.

Sure, they can land some solid players on day 3 of the draft, but early round selections have failed to make an impact the way early round picks are supposed to. A case in point is Kamalei Correa.

Correa was an active edge-setter at Boise State with a nose for the football. The Ravens used a second-round pick on him in 2016 and like several others before him, Correa is tracking like another Round 2 bust.

Ravens coaches and scouts

Perhaps Correa’s struggles aren’t entirely on him. The Ravens scout a player for what he’s done at the collegiate level and their discoveries help set the draft board. If the player is the best available (“BPA”), more times than not, Ozzie Newsome will turn in the card for that player.

But in Correa’s case, he arrives in Baltimore and the coaching staff decides to give him a new position. It’s a recipe for disaster.

This seems to be a regular theme for Harbaugh’s staff. Tony Jefferson is recruited by the Ravens and earns the 10th highest contract among the league’s safeties. He’s most effective in-the-box, near the line of scrimmage. Dean Pees seldom uses him that way.

Offensively, the Ravens try to jam a west-coast style offense down the throat of their tall, lumbering quarterback whose skill sets are better suited for a more vertical style – that of Don Coryell, the style preached once in Baltimore by Cam Cameron. Instead the coaching staff wants to take their highly paid QB, who earned multi-multi-millions of dollars running the Coryell-style offense, and make him into a quick-read, get the ball out quickly, hit the receiver on the move to enable YAC kind of quarterback.

Ever hear the story of the square peg and the round hole?

Instead of taking the unique talents of the players the Ravens acquire and place them in positions to succeed, the Ravens coaching staff prefers to make the players adapt to them.

The best teams don’t do that.

You know who they are and the Ravens aren’t among them.

But back to Correa…

RSR’s Ken McKusick wrote a piece earlier this week titled, “Dividing the Defense at Midseason”. In the piece, Ken defined a few transitional players. Among them was Correa.


“Correa may be the saddest healthy case. He’s poised to finish his 2nd season as a core ST player who has failed at his first 2 positions, OLB and ILB. Time is running out and it’s not clear where (or if) his next opportunity will arise.”


 

Lorelei Correa, Kamalei’s Mom, took notice and chimed in with a comment:

Screen Shot 2017-11-16 at 7.19.38 AMYou see it.

A player’s Mom sees it.

And when she shares her opinions on it, opinions that may be influenced by those of her son, and then posts said opinions publicly, it’s a problem.

But we already knew that, right?

When will someone at One Winning Drive admit it?

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