Happy Final Friday of February, Flock! Jared’s down in Sarasota watching the Birds in Spring Training, so I’m filling in today. Let’s see what’s going on…
The beginning of March brings us the NFL Combine, which runs all next week from Indianapolis. Our Nikhil Mehta will be in attendance for the final few days of the event, and he’ll be bringing us both written reports and a podcast with an eye on the positions of most interest to Ravens fans. It’s a first for RSR, and we’re excited to see what Nikhil delivers, so stay tuned on that front.
It's fairly well known that the #Ravens are one of the best run organizations in the NFL. Though they went #RAS heavy in the last class, they've traditionally taken more swings than most teams on guys with poorer testing, though generally not in the early rounds. pic.twitter.com/vFJRRjulIl
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) February 22, 2024
When you start to hear about RAS (Relative Athletic Score), keep the above tweet in mind. The graphics are interesting to look through, as we see quite the mixed bag. For instance, Malik Harrison (9.43) scored higher than Patrick Queen (7.98), while Charlie Kolar (9.1) was well above Isaiah Likely (4.87). 2020 was the last time the Ravens drafted anyone with a score of under 8.0 in any of the first three rounds.
Ravens GM Eric DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh will both meet with reporters at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis next Tuesday.
DeCosta will talk at 10:30 a.m. Harbaugh will go at 11:15 a.m.
— Jonas Shaffer (@jonas_shaffer) February 22, 2024
This gave me instant flashbacks to last year’s annual league meeting, when Lamar Jackson took to Twitter to announce that he had requested a trade at the same time Harbs and DeCosta were talking to reporters. Ugh, what a time.
Speaking of the combine and Jackson, did you remember that he wore purple cleats during his workout in Indy?
The purple cleats were a sign 👀
The Combine is back next week 📺: NFL Network pic.twitter.com/oqyV17ftNS
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) February 21, 2024
Anywho, thus begins another season of Harb-speak. Hooray.
Elsewhere on the NFL Calendar, we still have a few weeks until free agency begins along with the new league year on March 13.
(Remember that you can always conveniently check on the dates of these things in Brian’s article here:)
Countdown to Free Agency ’24 – Important NFL Offseason Dates
A position that keeps coming up among free agent discussions is running back.
Pick one of these running backs to add to the Ravens' roster in 2024 pic.twitter.com/hG2Jh3I7tS
— Kevin Oestreicher (@koestreicher34) February 22, 2024
Maybe you’d vote for Derrick Henry. Perhaps you’d prefer Josh Jacobs. However, before pining for any free agent running back, you should check out Ian Hartiz’s list here.
Running backs to fetch $10M+ signing with a *new* team in free agency 2016-2023 pic.twitter.com/NjJBoDQ06d
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) February 22, 2024
I see a whole lot of free agent busts there (and David Montgomery and Mark Ingram). Running back just isn’t the place you want to spend your cap dollars, and with so few with which to work anyway, the bet here is that Eric DeCosta agrees.
As we look forward to hopefull NFL stars running around in shorts, here’s hoping you all have a great weekend!
2 Responses
I agree with the RB topic. I think we go RB late in the draft or UDFA. We have other more pressing needs in the draft. We also have to address our FA situation before considering any FA RB signings. Maybe we add a FA RB once the dust has settled.
In EDC we trust.
First off let’s be reasonable on the RB topic and most Offseason/free agency topics which most aren’t. You have Analytics camp (Ken Mckusik and the likes) who are slaves to the Math and their algorithms no different then PFF. Then you have everyone else who lives in the Real World. Watches the games and sees team needs etc. Doesn’t just sees things through “Process, Value ” algorithms. But the next piece towards winning a SB.
Which brings me to RB. Ravens organization has found “Value” in UDFAS and late round picks bc they get boosted off Lamar force field, his force multiplier factor. They never put a CMC type in the backfield beside no.8 partially bc Jk injuries but that would be a game changer & needs to beo done for 3-4 year stretch before no.8s athletic prime is gone in 5-6 years. When he’s 33-34 slows down instead of 800-900 yrds he’s doing 500 yds yrly. So yes if you can get SAQUAN on 1 yr 7-9mil or spread it out over 2 years on top of drafting a typical 4th round RB…. do it