Regarding off season moves, I understand it's a numbers game and that the cap is tight, but it is very frustrating that the cap expenses seemingly hurt the offense the most. We always have cap space to spend premium money on players like Marcus Williams, Marlon Humphrey, Nnamdi Madubuike, Roquan Smith and draft players consistently highly with our draft picks.
And I'm not even necessarily disagreeing with the allocation of draft resources such as players like Wiggins (who I love) because it's smart to stay a step ahead. Looking at next year, there's a real possibility that Marlon and Stephens aren't here, so the Ravens have a replacement in the wings. That's smart.
But they aren't consistently doing that for the offense or even really making decisions that make sense. The contingency plan for Zeitler, Moses, and Simpson was apparently a seventh round guard who had ZERO practice/snaps a year prior, a career swing player, and a converted fourth round tackle who doesn't really fit what the Ravens want in their offensive lineman. And next year, Stanley may not be here, so the Ravens are going to have to figure that one out. If you figure Rosengarten is the logical next man up, that's great and makes sense, but still leaves a void at RT. So, the Ravens almost assuredly have two spots to fill and might potentially want to upgrade another.
I'm incredibly miffed that the Ravens re-signed Bateman to be the starter when he's shown no reason he should be the starter. But hey, at least the Ravens signed a 30 year old, non-schematic fit at running back when they were letting THREE starters walk on the offensive line. Because that's smart. Not like guys like Gus Edwards thrived here with a good offensive line because of Lamar. And I say that as someone who likes Derrick Henry, but I didn't love the signing.
It's just frustrating that defensively, the Ravens can seem fairly flush with cap space consistently and allocate so much in the way of resources, but can't do the same for Lamar to make his life easier.
And I'm not even necessarily disagreeing with the allocation of draft resources such as players like Wiggins (who I love) because it's smart to stay a step ahead. Looking at next year, there's a real possibility that Marlon and Stephens aren't here, so the Ravens have a replacement in the wings. That's smart.
But they aren't consistently doing that for the offense or even really making decisions that make sense. The contingency plan for Zeitler, Moses, and Simpson was apparently a seventh round guard who had ZERO practice/snaps a year prior, a career swing player, and a converted fourth round tackle who doesn't really fit what the Ravens want in their offensive lineman. And next year, Stanley may not be here, so the Ravens are going to have to figure that one out. If you figure Rosengarten is the logical next man up, that's great and makes sense, but still leaves a void at RT. So, the Ravens almost assuredly have two spots to fill and might potentially want to upgrade another.
I'm incredibly miffed that the Ravens re-signed Bateman to be the starter when he's shown no reason he should be the starter. But hey, at least the Ravens signed a 30 year old, non-schematic fit at running back when they were letting THREE starters walk on the offensive line. Because that's smart. Not like guys like Gus Edwards thrived here with a good offensive line because of Lamar. And I say that as someone who likes Derrick Henry, but I didn't love the signing.
It's just frustrating that defensively, the Ravens can seem fairly flush with cap space consistently and allocate so much in the way of resources, but can't do the same for Lamar to make his life easier.