Baltimorican
Veteran
I think Tampa's gonna break out, otherwise word for word.
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2026 Offseason Thread
- Thread starter Simba
- Start date
I think Tampa's gonna break out, otherwise word for word.
Baltimorican
Veteran
I love the defense and think it will hit the ground running but it will be very hard to win the shootouts with the current state of the weaponry. You're banking on a career year from Zay (sure) bounce backs from Bate and Hill (meh) a break out from Tez (I think so) and after all that you still need at least one of these mid rd rookies to shine out of the gate.
Throw in an OLine that might take a bit to gel, 29 yr old rookie OC, Andrews past his prime....seems like an awful lot on Lamar and Henry.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Biggest question marks for me are Doyle and the Oline. If they're both good, it's a top 10 offense all day. Borderline top 5.
Plethora of weapons is nice but doesn't really correlate with Lombardi trophies. Neither of the teams who just played in the SB have weapons that are are significantly better than what the Ravens current roster has, and both the Chiefs and Bills have been churning out well below-average WR cores for a few years now.
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
The least likely I think is a breakout from tez. With our struggles at wr last year he would’ve gotten more looks if he was that guy, I doubt year 3 he suddenly starts coming on, he is likely a WR3 at best kinda guy and that might be a stretch
Baltimorican
Veteran
It's a low bar, 25rec/400 yds would be a breakout from him. I think that will happen, as long as he is legitimately dangerous in his 2-3 targets/gm he's good. Plenty of Wr's have made big jumps in year 3.
I always find it funny how OLine is referred as one thing when really this statement amounts to: if half the players on offense are good then paired with the 2x MVP QB they can be a top 10 unit.
Baltimorican
Veteran
JSN is a one man passing game. Buffalo not a good example, you could say they have fallen short specifically because of those weapons. Chiefs are a nuanced discussion about Kelce/tyreek and a SB they won with defense.
Ravens have had really good offenses without great Wr groups but we've also had a top 3 TE room for ages that made up for that. We don't have that anymore.
We're certainly banking on a lot to go right as far as the pass catchers go, but I don't think we're a guy short... yet. Think you just have to see what you have in these young guys before you bury them. There are moves that can be made much later in the process if you need to.
Baltimorican
Veteran
For sure, it's not a right now thing.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
So a) if JSN is a one man passing game, then so is Flowers. Flowers is a 30% target share guy. Ravens passing game is heavily funneled through him. The major difference between JSN and Flowers in terms of usage is that Seattle simply threw the ball more.
b) Buffalo has fallen short plenty of times, but that's primarily to a single team (the Chiefs) and they've largely handled everybody else in the league who has better receiving cores.
c) If the Chiefs team was built on TE play and defense, is that not exactly what the Ravens were built on?
d) I think fans generally overestimate our TE room. Especially last year. Wasn't really all that impressive. Not one of those people who thinks Likely is a stud or will be a stud, and Andrews is obviously declining. Likely was given instant credibility as a stud in year 1, despite being drafted in the same range as guys we took this year, so not sure why there's a buildup period here.
Seattle doesn't have an impressive TE room. Last year their TEs had 730 yards and 7 TDs. The Ravens TE room, allegedly a top 3 unit, had 870 yards and 8 TDs. That's a very small gap.
I would certainly say they are a guy short. They have a league average number 1, a below average 2, and are hoping someone can step up and become a 3 If they had a solid number 2 then they would be a good WR room but as it stands they are a guy short.
Baltimorican
Veteran
If Zay were capable of 160 targets I wouldn't be worried. BTW, Buffalo does have a top end TE duo in Kincaid/Knox but still spent the entire offseason upgrading WR. As for last year's Ravens, well, they weren't good enough were they?
RaineV1
Ravens Ring of Honor
When it comes to weapons on offense we shouldn't underestimate the impact of a really good OC. The right coach can get a lot out of people.
Even if he wasn't the play caller Doyle still had a big role in coaching the Bears offense that really over achieved. Honestly just getting their attitude of fighting to the last play will make a big difference.
Even if he wasn't the play caller Doyle still had a big role in coaching the Bears offense that really over achieved. Honestly just getting their attitude of fighting to the last play will make a big difference.
Is there a WR2 available though? I can buy Diggs but there's a host of off field stuff that is working against him there.
That's why I don't buy that we're a guy short yet. We can add someone to the room but it's just someone in a similar position with different concerns.
Yea last year lamar was out a few games and oline was terrible.. our tightends are much better than what stats show. Same for buff, those two guys are good over there.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Correct, they weren't. But what they made clear, as other teams have, especially in the AFC, is that you can win Lombardi trophies, make countless AFCG, etc., without having a stud WR core.
Zay's certainly capable of 160 targets. It would just require a passing offense that is operating at much higher volumes than previous years. That question has less to do with whether Zay can handle it, and more to do with whether Lamar can handle it. And how effective he is in a high-passing-volume offense.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Absent some sort of a trade, a Hopkins-level player is the ceiling for the vet addition. And that player isn't taking snaps or targets away from Flowers or even Bateman.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
So I generally agree with this. I'd mostly just point out that this entire paragraph applies to most of the high-end teams in the AFC. The Chiefs, Bills, and Patriots don't have a league average #1 WR on their roster, and don't have a #2 WR better than Bateman on their roster either.
I'd say the Ravens had a better WR core, overall, than the Steelers did last year, and pretty much on-par with the Texans. I personally don't think the gap between the '25 Ravens and the '25 Broncos WR rooms was that wide either.
That pretty much covers the entire list of teams you'd be competing with in the AFC. Some of those teams, like the Steelers and Broncos, have much huge upgrades. Some of them haven't done anything.
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
Rashid shaheed was a fkn phenom last year for Seattle and cooper kupp was a very strong no 3
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
People are severely downplaying the importance of the iOL being a better unit in pass protection.
You can forget about all the wr and TE talk from last year if you take our OL and replace vorhees and faalele with Simpson and Vega. Give our run game some movement and give Lamar a clean pocket and literally none of that shit matters because the offense would have worked. Instead, Lamar ran for his life, got injured, and the whole offense fell apart.