Planning on making the drive, ready to go in enemy territory👊🏼. Question for my Buffalo ravens fans, there was a clip circulating where Lamar was signing jerseys after the payoffs in Buffalo. Does anyone know where exactly that location is? Gonna try my luck and see if I can get some autographs

(Shortened my original post because I realized maybe writing a dissertation on this was counterproductive to engaging a dialogue)

I'm getting tired of the reactionary criticism of EDC every time the Ravens lose. Apparently he can't draft, can't manage the cap, and is responsible for everything wrong with this team. I understand the frustration, but what I rarely see is anyone explaining what he realistically should've done differently.

I'm not saying EDC is perfect. I think relying on Faalele and Vorhees to develop was a mistake, I would've liked more veteran competition at guard, and Baltimore has struggled to develop a consistent homegrown pass rusher. But there's a difference between criticizing a decision and pretending the alternative was obvious.

Take the offensive line. Baltimore's 2024 line helped Henry rush for 1,921 yards, and Faalele improved as the season progressed. Expecting some continuity and development wasn't unreasonable, even if it ultimately didn't work.

Could EDC have signed Kevin Zeitler for $9 million? Absolutely, and I would've liked that. But Mekhi Becton got $20 million, Patrick Mekari $37.5 million, Will Fries $88 million, and Aaron Banks $77 million. Which of those contracts were people comfortable handing out, and what were we sacrificing elsewhere to afford them?

The Ravens also drafted Emery Jones in the third round, Carson Vinson in the fifth, and Garrett Dellinger in the seventh. That's three offensive linemen in one draft, so the idea that EDC ignored the position is nonsense.

And for everyone saying we should've drafted a guard higher, one of the best options near our second-round pick was Tate Ratledge, whom Detroit selected two picks before Baltimore took Mike Green. Getting Ratledge required trading up, which meant additional draft capital and potentially missing out on Green, a 17-sack college pass rusher at a position we also desperately needed to address. Wyatt Milum was similarly gone before our third-round selection. Marcus Mbow was available later, but selecting him would've meant passing on someone like Teddye Buchanan or Carson Vinson.

I'm happy to debate those alternatives, but you have to acknowledge the tradeoffs.

The Ronnie Stanley criticism makes even less sense to me. Baltimore retained a proven left tackle coming off a healthy season for $20 million annually. Dan Moore Jr. received $82 million over four years, Alaric Jackson got $57 million over three, and Jaylon Moore received $30 million over two despite limited starting experience.

Who was replacing Stanley? Moving Rosengarten to left tackle creates another hole at right tackle, and the premium tackles were already gone by pick 27. I don't understand complaining about the offensive line while simultaneously criticizing EDC for keeping its best lineman.

The salary cap matters, too. Without a Lamar extension, Baltimore has less flexibility to manage his future cap hits. Restructuring veterans creates room now but pushes obligations forward. People demanding we move on from Roquan or Marlon rarely acknowledge the dead money or the cost of replacing them.

And since people constantly bring up Isaiah Likely, what exactly was EDC supposed to do there? Likely wanted a bigger role and an opportunity to establish himself as a featured pass catcher, something that was always going to be difficult with Zay still on the roster. Baltimore wasn't going to force him to sign an extension, but offered him nearly the same deal the Giants did. He declined. HE declined, not the Ravens.

People also complain about extending Andrews, but consider the alternative. Likely and Kolar both left in free agency, so letting Andrews walk would've meant replacing practically the entire tight end room. In an offense that relies heavily on tight ends, that would've created another major need. I would've loved to keep Likely, but wanting a player to stay and having a realistic way to retain him are two very different things.

And people complain that EDC loves his own players too much, but maybe that's because they're actually good players. Linderbaum, Likely, Kolar, and Keaton Mitchell received more than $154 million in combined contract value from other teams this offseason. Add Patrick Queen, Ben Powers, Geno Stone, J.K. Dobbins, Odafe Oweh, Jordan Stout and others, and there's a pretty clear pattern of other organizations valuing players Baltimore developed.

Draft position is another enormous factor. Since 2019, EDC has had only two first-round selections inside the top 20, both at No. 14: Kyle Hamilton and Vega Ioane. Every other first-round pick has been 22nd or later.

Compare that to Cincinnati getting Burrow first overall and Chase fifth, or Philadelphia getting Jalen Carter ninth. Even Ozzie had Ogden at four, Boulware at four, Jamal Lewis at five, CMac at ten, Starks at ten, Suggs at ten, Ngata at twelve, and Stanley at six. Ozzie was an incredible GM, but he also had access to premium picks that EDC hasn't had.

Despite consistently drafting late, EDC has found Hamilton, Linderbaum, Zay Flowers, Travis Jones, and Nate Wiggins. Not every pick works, but that's true of every GM.

And who exactly is doing this so much better? Brett Veach drafted Clyde Edwards-Helaire over Jonathan Taylor, Skyy Moore over George Pickens, and Felix Anudike-Uzomah in the first round. Howie Roseman took Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson and pursued Russell Wilson before he rejected Philadelphia. Both are excellent GMs who've made significant mistakes.

And I'll offer one of my own draft criticisms: I wanted Nick Emmanwori over Malaki Starks. I thought he had more upside and versatility. That's a legitimate disagreement, but it doesn't automatically mean Starks was a bad selection.

Finally, at some point the coaches and players have to be accountable. EDC assembled the roster, but he isn't responsible for every missed tackle, blown assignment, or poor decision on the field. Minter has been adjusting, and I still believe this team has the talent to compete with anybody in the AFC if Lamar stays healthy and the execution improves.

I'm not pretending the Ravens have played well, and I'm certainly not guaranteeing a playoff run. But I don't think this roster is fundamentally broken, and I'm not writing off a team with this much talent in October.

So for everyone demanding EDC be fired, I'd genuinely like to know what you would've done differently. Who replaces Stanley? What are you giving up to draft Ratledge? How are you keeping Likely if he wants a bigger role elsewhere? Which guards are you signing, and where's the money coming from? What do you do if you're hamstrung by a contract with Lamar who's not renegotiating the way Mahomes, Allen, Burrow or Hurts are? Who replaces the veterans you want gone, and which GM has consistently drafted better from comparable positions?

I'm all for criticizing EDC when it's warranted, but I'm tired of people ignoring the actual alternatives and acting like every mistake was obvious in hindsight.

TL;DR: EDC has made mistakes, particularly along the offensive line, but roster construction involves tradeoffs. You can't sign every free agent, draft every breakout player, and retain every good veteran without sacrificing something. If you think he should be fired, explain what you would've done differently and what it would've cost.

And no, this isn't EDC's burner account. I just think we can criticize the guy without pretending he's a fucking idiot.

Haven’t seen anyone post any actual pics of the jacket yet. I put a light hoodie under mine as I suspect that’s how I’ll wear it in the coming weeks. I’m pretty pleased with it overall.

I know everyone was pining for Quenton Nelson and our long lost father Mike Mac got him. With Tavius Robinson's year ending pectoral injury, we are starving for a left side of the D-Line power defensive end with pass rush juice, and that's exactly what Tuipulotu is. Minter knows him, he knows Minter, so it's a day one fit in terms of scheme and flow.

Even if its a 10 game rental, it would be a key piece of the 4 man rotation (and that's coming from someone who really likes what I'm seeing from the Long Texan, Ethan Burke)

He'll be a $3.4M cap hit, so we don't have a make a major move in terms of clearing space

For Guard we just need Vega to get healthy and Lamar to be back.
For Cornerback I really wanna see what TJ Tampa has, and get Kone up to speed and practicing.
For Safety, oh man how about K'Von Wallace last game? He was flying around like a mad man

EDGE can also be handled by Ethan Burke and Adisa Isaac, but it's a strong spot for an upgrade

I feel like the problem with this team right now is that we’re just not good in the right areas. I’m beginning to wonder if our struggles are partially a talent problem. We went 8-9 last season and we’re 4-3 this season with a pretty easy schedule up to this point. We haven’t played good football in a season and a half. Thats a 12-12 record.

The Ravens have some stars like Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, Zay Flowers, Roquan Smith and Kyle Hamilton so our team looks like a Super Bowl contender when you look at it from a Madden perspective. However our offensive line is not very good, we see this with the sheer amount of holding penalties and false starts they get. Part of this is due to the injuries we’ve suffered on the OL but it wasn’t very good last season either. Drafting Ioane was a great pick and Rosengarten is a good OL but outside of those two who else do we really have? Ronnie Stanley is getting up there in age and he’s hurt half the time. We also see it with how often this team gets stuffed on short yardage situations.

This team had a rough offseason losing Isaiah Likely and Tyler Linderbaum, losing 2 young high quality offensive players in the same winter is a tough break which certainly didn’t help.

Then you have the defensive line, it is much improved but still not that great. We’re middle of the pack in sacks in 17th. We’re also middle of the pack in pressure %. So essentially we have an average defensive line. It’s not awful like it was last season but still average sort of lines up with how we’ve been the last season and a half.

Having elite skill players is great but it’s really icing on the cake. Being great at the line of scrimmage is what matters more. Our offensive line is below average and our defensive line is average. We have some great players but we’re not great at the right things.

Share your dogs in their Ravens best, for fun & luck.

First pic is Harrison meeting the cheerleaders in his final season, second pic is Zaye ‘you will never guess who she is named after’ Flowers.

I saw this on twitter and thought it would be a good idea to come here and hype it up.

If you had to pick a new fourth quarter song what would it be? After giving it some thought I'd be a big fan of "BIRDS" by Turnstile. Keeps the rock theme but with a local band and appropriately named song. Would be even cool to see a live performance to have them debut it.

Honorable mention would be "Till I Collapse" by Eminem feat Nate Dogg, hopefully it would inspire them with the right amount of grit and perseverance to keep fighting through the very end.

With Starks trending up and Hawking on injury, Tampa and Kone coming back from injury, should we debate moving Marlon to safety early?

He's already talked about exploring that option before and his regression of speed won't be as punishing while playing that position. With Hawkins being underwhelming, could that be a move on the backend?

That would make the corner rotation some mix of Wiggins, Awuzie, Tampa, Rivers which is a lot to ask out of a rookie in Rivers but it's something worth maybe exploring? This would then allow for KHam to fill more in his rushing role even more on the LHS of the line in conjunction with Green.

Take my questions and conclusions with a grain of salt, I'd like the opinion of those who know the sport more than I do, especially since Marlon has expressed his willingness to move to safety (which could then turn into a reduction of pay)

Who needs Buckner or Nelson when we have the GOAT

Why on earth do we still give justice hill rush attempts.
He never really gets positive yardage. On every run he attempts he runs into traffic, it seems like a lack of vision or just impatience to look for gaps and run through them.

Dont get me wrong, he still does some nice stuff in the passing game out the backfield but i just don’t see any reason why we should ever hand him the ball again.

I really think the ravens should try and get a shorter explosive back preferably with better vision than hill.
Would be a good 1-2 punch with henry.

Keep justice for special teams where he contributes amazingly.

Watch the film. Guys going to be a monster the back half of the season.

I got a notification that I was supposed to get my jacket last week on Saturday, but then got an email for USPS that there was a delivery exception after being out for delivery in my area (Towson), which then showed up in Texas.

Curious to see if anyone else got their jacket or similar experience?

Per ESPN. I was hoping we would trade for him

I’ll be there all Thanksgiving week and I read online that Christian’s Tailgate Bar is a ravens bar out there to watch the panthers game. Anyone tailgating before the Texans game?

Roquan
Calais
Henry
Trey
Marlo*
LAMAR
Ronnie

Like some of these guys are getting paid a disproportionately high amount of the teams cap and they aren't leading?
Ro and Marlon can head on right now if that's the case.

Great analysis as usual from Solak. Includes film from Bengals

Tl;dr

- Pass rush is fine. Secondary is the reason the pass defense is bad (he includes the numbers)

- Two high safeties arent reading well and making mistakes. Corners are not as good as you'd like. Hamilton is better close to the line than in coverage. Roquan is smart in coverage but getting old.

- Solak thinks this will improve as Minter teaches the secondary but he still thinks pieces are too weak. He expects trades for corners/safeties with the Chargers at the deadline.

Day 1: was 2 days ago, Ravens vs. Bengals

The next Sunday, 7 days later, ie day 8: Ravens at Bills

Then on Thursday, 4 days after that, ie DAY 12: Ravens vs Jaguars

It is getting on my nerve so badly that I've seen and heard so much "3 games in 11 days". It's 12 days. I've not seen one person get it right. Y'all had me going crazy thinking we had a Monday game when we didn't but it's just everyone doing the math wrong.

Edit: I genuinely can not tell if y'all are being trolls or troglodytes in the comments.

Edit: Say you have a typical white collar job. You work Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday 9am-5pm. Do you work 5 times in 4 days or 5 times in 5 days?