A Much Different Ravens Team

[Wraith]

Ray Lewis is Gone

Matt Birk is probably gone

Bobbie Williams is likely gone

Bryant McKinnie is not likely to be brought back

Flacco, Boldin, and Reed are all free agents (Pick two)

This will be a VERY different Raven's team.

[ArmyBengal]

Anyway around, it's one the Bengals are capable of beating.

I can't say as I worry myself about it one way or another.

The Bengals are in a nice spot moving forward.

[HoosierCat]

Maybe. For all the hype about Lewis, he barely played this year. McKinnie had a great playoff run but wasn't a starter either. Bobbie graded out pretty poorly per PFF. All those guys are arguably addition by subtraction. Clearly tho they are going to need to do some major work on the o-line.

Flacco is a lock. I'm not sure they don't get both Boldin and Reed back. Boldin turns 33 this year and Reed 35, so neither of them is getting a big-bucks deal in FA.

[skyline]

Whatever the case (even if everyone is returning for Baltimore), I simply don't see a huge gap between the two teams. Yes, the Bengals need a few more pieces, but if Baltimore can win it all, then why not us?

I really hope that's the attitude Bengals players woke up with this morning and one that Lewis will hammer into them throughout the offseason.

[ArmyBengal]

Yep, can't say as i'm worried.

The Bengals are built to continue to improve and I don't care what the other teams do in the least.

But yeah, some of the teams are going to look different moving forward.

[jjakq27]

Quick..name the last team to beat the Ravens this season.

Yep. why not us. I hope the guys realize what it takes to get there and to keep going back.

2013-Time to grow up and take the next step

[COB]

The Ravens are going to change. I don't think you can overvalue the leadership provided by Ray Lewis. And now that he's leaving, there will be a gradual dropoff.

PS - I told my buddy, a guy who doesn't really follow or even like the NFL, that Ray Lewis was coming back with a big brace oh his arm, due to a triceps injury. His response: "Was it his stabbing arm?"

[Stripes]

What the Ravens lose in Ray's leadership will be gained back, perhaps in excess, in actual on-field ability. Lewis was becoming pretty terrible towards the end there, and he was really bad in the Super Bowl.

I expect the Ravens to field a team that is more than capable of a 11-12 win season next year, and the Bengals will have to take the division from them by beating them head-to-head -- preferably twice. I am not going to pretend I expect that, because I don't. The AFC North is still within reach though.

I also refuse to ignore Pittsburgh or even Cleveland.

[ArmyBengal]

Nor do I wish to ignore the other teams in the division and certainly put the Ravens right there in the mix.

The only thing I continue to believe is, the Bengals have just as much of a shot at the AFCN as the others.

[jjakq27]

The Ravens are going to change. I don't think you can overvalue the leadership provided by Ray Lewis. And now that he's leaving, there will be a gradual dropoff.

PS - I told my buddy, a guy who doesn't really follow or even like the NFL, that Ray Lewis was coming back with a big brace oh his arm, due to a triceps injury. His response: "Was it his stabbing arm?"

I think Ray not only helped his team and franchise win a lot of games but I also think he helped a number of his coaches get head coaching jobs (Marvin, Big Rex, Pagano, Mike Smith). They are all good head coaches but having that one stud player doesn't guarantee big success (Super Bowl) at the next stop (see Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel).

That being said, I think the Ravens can be had but I fully expect them to turn that roster and still be successful year-after-year. I think Newsome and Harbaugh are a great combination.

My hope for next season's schedule is that we get a chance to start the season with someone else besides the Ravens and to play Cleveland during week 17 for once, while the Steelers and Ravens go at it. Just sayin'.

[Sea Ray]

What I can't seem to shake in watching this Super Bowl is the arms we saw from Flacco and Kaepernick. I understand Dalton can get better with his reads, get him a better RB and WR but he'll never be able to fling the ball deep like those two can. I hope I'm wrong but it seems to me that Dalton will be hard pressed to take us that far.

[HoosierCat]

Well, we had a guy who could fling the ball deep like nobody's business here for years and never won anything. I know I'm not saying anything you don't already know, but there's a lot that goes into winning a Lombardi.

[ArmyBengal]

Hard to say, there are times where Dalton has absolutely zipped a ball right in there, but it seems more to me like he lacks the confidence to pull the trigger at other times. I can't say as it's one way or another definitively, but it's something because there is a noticable difference.

I think it was Shula who made the comment about watching Luck zip the ball into Green for a TD.

I watched that highlight and thought the same thing. Wow.

[HoosierCat]

Y'know, over the years I have taken plenty of shots at Muckraker Mike, so I suppose its only fair to point out the hired help (in this case Josh Alper) can make Florio look like a genius at times. Check this howler, from the post "Ravens won’t restructure contracts to keep team together":

When the Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV, they restructured a lot of contracts to ensure that the nucleus of their title team remained together as long as possible.

The result was not a repeat championship. The Ravens made the playoffs in two of the next three years, but they slowly decended into salary cap hell as a result of those post-Super Bowl decisions and the team slumped before Brian Billick was fired.

Yes, Alper would have you believe that the reason the Ravens didn't repeat after 2000 was...restructuring too many veteran contracts.

Somewhere, Trent Dilfer is doing this: :frustrated: