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2026 Offseason Thread

rossihunter2 said:
in 2023, Lamar asked for a trade, signed a long-term deal, skipped most of OTAs despite having a brand new offensive coordinator and system

He then went on to win his 2nd MVP and lead the team to their first ever home AFC Championship game

it would be great if he went to OTAs, but it really doesn't matter if he skips them

in 2024, he skipped OTAs, missed out on 750k in incentives, and then had one of the most historic QB seasons ever and was robbed of a 3rd MVP (and back-to-back wins) by media who were too bored of him winning
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And fell short both times

Maybe OTAs would’ve helped. The guy who touches the ball every play and the leader of the team should be there
 
JO_75 said:
Is there a reason offseason activities are starting really, really early? I thought everything started in May after the Draft, but it seems there's OTAs before the Draft?
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New head coaches start a couple weeks early. Guess fans in Pittsburgh and Baltimore are just finding that out :lol:
 
JoeyFlex5 said:
And fell short both times

Maybe OTAs would’ve helped. The guy who touches the ball every play and the leader of the team should be there
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I generally agree that OTA's is good in a situation like this but I am not sure how it would have helped us in the playoffs. Would it have caused the defense to commit a turnover? Would it have helped Tyler remember he is a Pro-Bowl C? Or Andrews not fumble? Andrews not drop a pass? Lamar not turn it over after a terrible snap? What about not scoring from the 1 with Henry?
 
gtalk12 said:
I generally agree that OTA's is good in a situation like this but I am not sure how it would have helped us in the playoffs. Would it have caused the defense to commit a turnover? Would it have helped Tyler remember he is a Pro-Bowl C? Or Andrews not fumble? Andrews not drop a pass? Lamar not turn it over after a terrible snap? What about not scoring from the 1 with Henry?
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All of these are valid points, BUT when it comes to all 53 players being locked in and in sync for 4 quarters, on the road, in January, you aren’t talking about a play here and there, it’s program building, team building, culture building etc.

The old ravens were polar opposites from these ravens, they weren’t juggernauts in the regular season who choked in January, they went into the playoffs with question marks and then locked tf in and played as a full team, played physical, and overachieved. Why? Because the team leaders demanded a certain culture of brotherhood, we go through all the steps of the struggle together, and we are better for it in the end, bonded by it.

It’s an abstract concept, sure, but you can’t convince me that it doesn’t matter. You can’t be a master of something if you are taking half the year off, too much rust building up in those times off, and when we’re talking about 53 guys playing in sync, then Lamar’s solo offseason work in Florida is only helping HIM achieve mastery on his own, it’s not building mastery as a 53 man team. The rust is building up between Lamar and his teammates as he’s working in Florida and they’re working together as a team in Baltimore.

The more time you spend doing something, the easier it is to do that thing comfortably, confidently, and at a high level when the task becomes more challenging. We need to spend that “time doing something” as a team, to be able to execute confidently and comfortably as a team. Not everyone executing at an individual level, that’s not what football is.

It’s just a matter of building resolve, belief, and mental toughness between the whole team, you can’t have that if the most important player and leader of the team is off doing his own thing while mostly everyone else is grinding out the dog days of the offseason as a unit.

I fully believe that being present for all the OTAs helps avoid things like the inexcusable int to Bateman against Buffalo, or the triple coverage int to Likely, or the dropped snap that Lamar fumbled. Those plays happened because of unfamiliarity, panic, and a lack of confidence that you could accomplish the task by doing what you’ve been doing all year, because as a team they were NOT doing it all year. Lamar panicked, the team lacked confidence that they could grind out a win so everyone began trying to force plays to happen, and the spiral began.

You need that feeling of “we’ve been here, we’ve worked at this all year, we know how to do this, so let’s go do it” and Lamar’s ravens haven’t had that. The more time and reps spent together, the more calm and confident you’ll be in these moments. The team has literally been known for meltdowns to a point that it’s an annual meme and it’s true, mental weakness causes the meltdowns, mental toughness solves it, you achieve this mental toughness by doing this shit so much that you are confident knowing it’s gonna be executed the way you practiced it a million fkn times.
 
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JoeyFlex5 said:
All of these are valid points, BUT when it comes to all 53 players being locked in and in sync for 4 quarters, on the road, in January, you aren’t talking about a play here and there, it’s program building, team building, culture building etc.

The old ravens were polar opposites from these ravens, they weren’t juggernauts in the regular season who choked in January, they went into the playoffs with question marks and then locked tf in and played as a full team, played physical, and overachieved. Why? Because the team leaders demanded a certain culture of brotherhood, we go through all the steps of the struggle together, and we are better for it in the end, bonded by it.

It’s an abstract concept, sure, but you can’t convince me that it doesn’t matter. You can’t be a master of something if you are taking half the year off, too much rust building up in those times off, and when we’re talking about 53 guys playing in sync, then Lamar’s solo offseason work in Florida is only helping HIM achieve mastery on his own, it’s not building mastery as a 53 man team. The rust is building up between Lamar and his teammates as he’s working in Florida and they’re working together as a team in Baltimore.

The more time you spend doing something, the easier it is to do that thing comfortably, confidently, and at a high level when the task becomes more challenging. We need to spend that “time doing something” as a team, to be able to execute confidently and comfortably as a team. Not everyone executing at an individual level, that’s not what football is.

It’s just a matter of building resolve, belief, and mental toughness between the whole team, you can’t have that if the most important player and leader of the team is off doing his own thing while mostly everyone else is grinding out the dog days of the offseason as a unit.

I fully believe that being present for all the OTAs helps avoid things like the inexcusable int to Bateman against Buffalo, or the triple coverage int to Likely, or the dropped snap that Lamar fumbled. Those plays happened because of unfamiliarity, panic, and a lack of confidence that you could accomplish the task by doing what you’ve been doing all year, because as a team they were NOT doing it all year. Lamar panicked, the team lacked confidence that they could grind out a win so everyone began trying to force plays to happen, and the spiral began.

You need that feeling of “we’ve been here, we’ve worked at this all year, we know how to do this, so let’s go do it” and Lamar’s ravens haven’t had that. The more time and reps spent together, the more calm and confident you’ll be in these moments. The team has literally been known for meltdowns to a point that it’s an annual meme and it’s true, mental weakness causes the meltdowns, mental toughness solves it, you achieve this mental toughness by doing this shit so much that you are confident knowing it’s gonna be executed the way you practiced it a million fkn times.
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They overachieved most the time because they had HoF play on damn near every level of the defense and won a ring when Flacco finally decided to get his shit together for 4 consecutive games. Also a bit of luck like most SB winners.
 
redrum52 said:
They overachieved most the time because they had HoF play on damn near every level of the defense and won a ring when Flacco finally decided to get his shit together for 4 consecutive games. Also a bit of luck like most SB winners.
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Yeah so like… can Lamar get his shit together this January? These OTAs are a good start
 
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