Grade the Stone Signing

[Bengalstripes9]

I gave it a B. Seems like a good number on the deal. Seems like an ascending player. But lots of unkowns with him.


This is what I do know:

The Ravens D was stacked last year. Very elite defense. They got great pressure up front and it made things easier on the back end.

Stone had great PFF pass numbers and led all safeties with 7 INTs.

Stone had terrible PFF numbers against the run.

I trust Lou and co. a lot in evaluating talent. They have a strong track record. Vonn Bell was a great example of a homerun signing.

Nick Scott sucked last year, so you never know.


Bottom line. I think this could be a really good signing. But I think it's possible that Stone isn't very good against the run. Vonn Bell was a great signing on both accounts (pass D and run D). I would prefer someone good at both. Hoping Stone can show that he's good at both because the teams we play against run the ball very well and do it a lot.

Maybe he's used deeper in coverage and utilized to his strengths. I like Battle a lot for a Vonn Bell type role. Dax I think will only get better. Maybe the three of them together make a great trio. I also like what I've seen from Anderson in pre-season--but he needs to stay healthy.

Overall, this signing doesn't make this a great FA period. Signing someone like Mike Onewu would really set us up well though. If we can get a great starter at RT it will really open up the draft for us. A great DT would help as well, but there are a lot of options in the 1st/2nd round at DT. As far as offensive line, we all know the struggles in the draft, so adding someone at RT in FA would be huge and help us more than any other signing.