Baltimore Ravens Draft Grades!

2(43)/ Sergio Kindle/ OLB/ Texas- I think this has the potential to be the biggest steal of the draft. There are two knocks on Kindle that have people down on this pick, concerns about his character and his knee. The character concerns don’t bother me as much as they would if he were a 1st round pick because the financial obligation is substantially less. And make no mistake character is only a concern because of the money involved. I have to admit the knee worries me, especially given the Ravens history of wasted 2nd round picks like Dan Cody and Dwan Edwards the first 5 years of his career. The Ravens medical staff cleared him but I am not giving the benefit of the doubt on this one. I think he’ll be a guy that can upgrade the pass rush immediately but, until proven otherwise, is not a long term solution which is a shame. Of course, if I am wrong and he stays healthy, the Ravens have a great pass rush talent on their hands. This is a high risk/ high reward pick.

Grade: C+, with the potential to turn into an A+.

2(57)/Terrance Cody/ DT/ Alabama- Cody is a monster in the run game and I think when teamed with Ngata, he gives the Ravens one of the best run stuffing duos in football. A duo that in a few years could take the title of best running stuffing duo away from the Williams Wall of Minnesota. Cody is also good for the Ravens for practical reasons. The Ravens lost Dwan Edwards and Justin Bannan in free agency and Corey Redding, can only replace one of them. So, they lost depth that they simply needed to replace and Cody does that. Cody also gives them some much needed youth at the position because Kelly Gregg, Trevor Pryce, and Corey Redding are not young players. The knock on Cody is that he sometimes takes plays off and he has weight issues. This is a common complaint about defensive tackles coming out of college. Haloti Ngata had some of those same red flags attached to his name and ESPN ridiculed the Ravens for taking him. Albert Haynesworth, Shawn Rogers, and Casey Hampton are some of the best DT’s in the business and they have all either struggled with weight at times or been accused of taking plays off. That makes me completely comfortable with this pick. At best the Ravens have a long term DT on their hands at worse they replaced a rotational guy.

Grade: A

3(70)/ Ed Dickson/ TE/ Oregon- Dickson adds much needed depth at the TE position and another weapon for Cam Cameron and Joe Flacco. The beauty of this pick is that he doesn’t have to step in and contribute right away. He can sit behind Heap and contribute on a marginal basis. He needs to work on his blocking but so did Heap coming out of college and he seems to do just fine now.

Grade: B+

4(114)/ Dennis Pitta/ TE/ Brigham Young- This was a bold move by the Ravens and one that many people have been critical of but I am not one of them. I love that the Ravens picked up two good young TE’s. In SD, Cam Cameron used a multitude of TE’s in that offense. Gates was the main guy but they got contributions from several other guys at the position. Heap is getting older and the Ravens just need the depth. Before picking up Pitta and Dickson, Edgar Jones and Davon Drew were Todd Heaps backups. Jones, came into the NFL as a DE/LB hybrid and Davon Drew was cut by two teams, including the Ravens, after being drafted last year. Long story short: The depth behind Heap has just not been good and this Ravens fan has been thanking his lucky stars that Heap has stayed healthy. Losing him could have been catastrophic. Now it doesn’t have to be.

Grade: A

5(156)/ David Reed/ WR/ Utah- I am not a huge fan of this pick, mainly because the Ravens will have about 4 guys in training camp that are very similar to him. This guy is the 6th wideout that the Ravens have drafted in the last 5 years and the only guy that is no longer with the team is Yamon Figurs. Yet, the projected top 3 WR’s for the Ravens come from other teams. Do you see where I am going with this? The Ravens have failed miserably at drafting wideouts. They just have. I am not suggesting that they stop trying but they’ve got 5 “project” receivers on the roster right now. They need to be patient and see if one of them can emerge before drafting another project. The wideouts that the Ravens should be drafting now and within the next 2 or 3 years need to be as close to sure things as they can possibly be. They have enough projects at WR, they don’t need more.

Grade: D

5(157)/ Arthur Jones/ DT/ Syracuse- This pick adds more youth to the defensive line. If he can remain healthy, he’ll be able to help fill the void left by Edwards and Bannan, as well as be a solid starter or reliable rotation guy in the future. This is a low risk, high reward pick.

Grade: B+

6(194)/ Ramone Harewood/ OL/ Morehouse- He’s a project but he has a lot of raw talent and he’s massive. Given Ozzie’s history of taking project lineman early in the draft , Chris Chester and Adam Terry come to mind, I am very happy to see this pick made here in round 6 as opposed to round 2. I think this guy needs a lot of coaching and help with his mechanics but the good thing about going to the Ravens is that they have a great OL coach and they are set on the offensive line. They can afford to take the time to develop him properly. Another low risk/ high reward pick.

Grade: B

Overall Grade: B. The great thing about the Ravens is that they are a very deep football team, so none of these guys have to start right away. There are a couple of project players in there but the Ravens can bring them along slowly, without compromising their ability to win now. They also managed to get talented players at positions of need. The only player that did not fill a need is Sergio Kindle. In fact, linebacker is the deepest position on the Ravens roster. But with his pass rush abilities, even that pick sort of filled a need. Overall, I think the Ravens had a good draft.

The Draft

I'll be unveiling my thoughts on the draft and the post draft Ravens, soon. I've got draft grade for the Ravens and their AFC North foes, but doesn't everyone. I've got an early projection of the Ravens 53 man roster. I am also going to be unveiling a new feature called Hate it or Love it.

Hate it or Love it will be a section of the blog that chronicals an NFL event, the draft, a game, etc. I'll tell you five things that I hated and five things that I loved about that event. The first event will be the draft. Then a couple of games during the regular season. The regular season games will most likely be MNF games, the Thanksgiving day games, and Ravens and Panthers games (since I am a Ravens fan living in North Carolina). I'll generally do two or three games per week. Then I will do all 11 playoff games, including the SB. End of the season awards, the Pro Bowl, and the combine.

Stay tuned.

Jared Gaither v. Michael Oher: Ravens LT of the Future

There is very little buzz coming from the Ravens these days because of it Jared Gaither’s future in Baltimore is being beating like a dead horse. It is all speculation at this point. I don’t believe Jared Gaither isn’t going anywhere. So, let’s explore some of the reasons people seem to think the Ravens want to get rid of Gaither, RIGHT NOW.

1) Michael Oher is the LT of the Ravens future: Whatever! Just because Ogden came out said he thinks that’s what is going to happen doesn’t mean TPTB think the same way. If I can recall, Ozzie Newsome once said he thought Gaither was a better “prospect” than Ogden was coming out of college. Do you think Ogden and Ozzie agreed on that? Not a chance. Another thing is that the Ravens brass have given no indication that they are planning to move Oher to LT in the future. When they make plans to move a player to a certain position, they generally indicate that they plan to right away. (ie. Suggs and JJ to LB, Kruger to DE). All those guys played other positions coming in but it was known when they were drafted where they were expected to end up. Oher was drafted as a RT to play RT, not to convert to LT.

2) The Ravens don’t want to pay two guys LT money: This one of course is contingent on whether you believe Oher is the LT of the future for the Ravens, I don’t but for arguments sake we will say he is. They still don’t have to trade Gaither, RIGHT NOW to save that money. Oher has 4 years left on his rookie contract and given Ozzie Newsome’s history, he WILL play 4 years before he gets a contract that pays him LT money. The Ravens can avoid paying two guys LT money by: a) signing Gaither to a 4 year contract. Let Gaither be LT and Oher the RT for now. Allow the deals to expire at the same time and then make the final decision. They can also give Gaither a 3 year deal and decide his fate a year earlier than Oher’s. b) they could structure Gaither’s 5 or 6 year deal, so that its front loaded and cap friendly in the later stages of it. Somewhat like they did Suggs recent deal. That way when Oher gets his LT money, Gaither’s salary and cap numbers are not elite LT money anymore.

3) Michael Oher is a better LT than Gaither: This one blows my mind. Gaither is by far the better player at this point and in my opinion he’s got much more potential to become an elite LT than Oher does. Oher’s performance at LT was admirable for a rookie but Ravens fans need to stop kidding themselves, he was a serious down grade at LT. The Ravens were 2-4 with Oher playing LT, the two wins came against the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions. They were 7-3 with Gaither at LT. The disparity in the win/loss column when Gaither is playing vs when he is not playing is too vast to ignore.

4) Jared Gaither’s work ethic isn’t that good: In my opinion this is the only valid reason for why the Ravens would be hesistant to commit to Gaither long term. They don’t trust him to continue to working hard after he gets his big pay day. If that truly is the case, not many other teams are going to trust him enough to take that risk either. In fact, you could count on one hand how many teams would they are : The Oakland Raiders, The Washington Redskins, Al Davis Raiders, the Raiders and finally the Raiders. Having traded for McNabb recently you can take the Redskins off that list. My point is the Ravens are not going to get the compensation they are looking for in a trade for Gaither if there are character concerns. And Gaither to this point has been a very good starting LT, you don’t give guys like him, work ethic issues and all, away for pennies.

In short, I don’t think Gaither’s future is in any way tied to that of Michael Oher. Oher was drafted to play RT and I believe the Ravens will stick to that. If Gaither is traded somewhere down the line, the Ravens will look to the draft to sign another LT. Not every tackle drafted in the first round is meant to be the teams LT of the future. If a guy is an elite RT and a slightly above average LT, he needs to play the position where he is elite. That’s how the situation with Oher will play out. Look no further than the guy he replaced, Willie Anderson, as the prime example of this. I am sure if absolutely necessary Anderson could have filled in admirably at LT in his younger years but he was an elite RT, which is why he stayed there his entire career.

But this is just one football fans opinion.