Not to discredit our drafting team

[Shake n Blake]

(05-05-2016, 02:16 PM)GreenCornBengal Wrote: 1. He technically wasn't GM until the 2002 season, so you could say the first title wasn't really his  (he was a front office executive just not the GM). I suppose you could say he and Marvin Lewis share that title.

I believe Ozzie is very good at bringing in quality free agents (mason, boldin, steve smith) and retaining their star players, but just looking at their roster right now, I'm not sure how a top notch GM could allow a team to fall into this hole. Their roster is depleted at almost every position (no one on that team scares me anymore), 2. and you have to believe its because they decided to pay Flacco the big bucks.. fwiw the Ravens had some really great 1st round picks from 2002 - 2009 (Reed, Suggs, Flacco, Oher, Ngata etc) but the last 3 drafts (Matt Elam, C.J. Mosely and Breshard Perriman) haven't really lived up to expectations yet. They always say this is a "what have you done for me lately" league, and they havent been as good at drafting the last few years.

Anyways, saying they had "mostly crap seasons" was a bit of a stretch, but hey, they are a rival, so I probably brain washed myself into thinking that just because. 3. The only times I watch them is when we play them, and we have their number, so that probably also aids my perception of them.

1. Well I'm going to believe that Ozzie was the brains even back then because it makes sense and it helps my case.  

2. I've always said that the Ravens were put into a pickle with Flacco. How many times does a young QB win SB MVP in a contract year? Talk about jackpot. What were the Ravens going to do? Tell their fans they let their young SB QB go over a few million bucks? I'm sure that would've gone over well. But yeah, the Flacco contract has hurt them somewhat and I can't blame Ozzie for that.

I look at the Ravens like this. They're going through a transitional phase like we did in 2010. Will they rebound in a year or two? Who knows? I'd gladly trade places with them seeing how their fans can always look back on fond memories of titles in 2000 and 2012. Plus - if I'm betting - I think the Ravens will be competitive again with 1-3 seasons. As we've seen with Atkins/Dunlap/Green/Dalton, it only takes hitting on a few draft picks. They already have a decent QB, so we'll see.

3. Yes we do own them, thank goodness. Unfortunately I feel like the Steelers are to us what we are to the Ravens. Then Steelers/Ravens games are always competitive. Such a weird division.