By Ross Gore, on May 9th, 2012 Today former Texans wide receiver, perennial fantasy football sleeper and major contributor to the Ravens playoff win last year Jacoby Jones, became the newest Baltimore Raven. For those who don’t remember Jones inexplicably tried to field a punt with Cary Williams bearing down on him in the second round of the playoffs last year. When Jones bobbled the punt it resulted in the Ravens jumping out to an early 7-0 lead over the Texans and an eventual win. Five months later Jones will enter camp trying to help the Ravens by not bobbling the ball but holding onto it.
 Jacoby Jones fumbles a punt against the Ravens in the second round of NFL playoffs. There is a lot to like about Jones signing. First, he is an incredible physical specimen: 6-foot-2 1/2, 210 lbs. and a 4.49 forty-yard dash time. Simply put, he has all the physical skills needed in a #1 wide receiver. Jones’ physical attributes shouldn’t be quickly dismissed despite his lack of production in Houston. When players with these skills/attributes “get it” they become stars. In past NFL seasons players like Miles Austin, Vincent Jackson and Brandon Marshall were all recent “projects” with similar physical skills who’ve developed into #1 wide receivers out of nowhere. More analysis on Jones and how he fits into the 2012 Ravens after the jump.
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By Ross Gore, on January 17th, 2012 
The annotated Winning Percentage Graph for Ravens Divisional Round playoff win against the Houston Texans is shown above. The graph is taken from NFL Advanced Stats, while the annotations are ours. The graph shows each team’s chance of winning the game given historical data calculated from previous NFL games. For more details on Winning Percentage graphs please see our Reader’s Guide.
The biggest play in terms of Winning Percentage for the game came after the Ravens went 3 and out on their opening drive and punted to Jacoby Jones. Jones attempted to field the bouncing punt at his 13-yard line. As shown in the picture below provided by the Associated Press, Cary Williams launched into Jones, Jones lost the ball and it was recovered by Ravens first round pick Jimmy Smith at the Texans’ 2. Ravens and Texans fans alike appear to be baffled by Jones’ decision. Here, we’ll explore that decision and try to determine if it was reasonable, or not.
Clearly Jones’ considered the decision to field the punt to be a calculated risk: he could field the punt so that the Texans could start their drive at the 13 yard-line or let it bounce and potentially start at the 3 yard-line. So, did Jones’ make a rational decision? Is the risk of bobbling the catch worth the reward of starting at the 13 yard line? We answer this question and look into another bizarre decision by the Texans after the jump.
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By Mark Brown, on September 15th, 2011  Week 1 wasn’t really full of surprises if you read my article on who to start and who to bench. I’m here again this week to make sure you start the right guys, and to make sure you win. If your 1-0 then you might as well go to 2-0 and really have a nice jump on the season. If your 0-1, you can’t lose and start 0-2. That’s already a deep little hole to get out of.
This week I’m going to switch up the way I do this, and hopefully this is the way it will stick for the rest of the season. You can expect my article like this every single Thursday throughout the season. I plan on updating it and moving guys around as the injury reports change. So I’m going to take a look at each position and give you the guys that are good starts, decent starts, and bad starts. This way you can compare guys at a certain position to other guys on your team at that position. You don’t have to scroll down the page to find all of your guys at one position this way. The players are in order of the time that their game is being played and not by any sort of rank.
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By Mark Brown, on September 8th, 2011  The NFL season starts tonight!!! More importantly, the fantasy football season starts tonight!!! Why else would any of us watch Cleveland vs. Cincinnati unless we have AJ Green and want to see what our rookie will do in his first game. For that reason, fantasy football is now bigger than the sport itself.
Do you have any questions about who to start over who in the first week? Let’s take a look at all the matchups and determine who are good starts, decent starts, and bad starts. Football is incredibly unpredictable, and it’s almost impossible to read splits the way you can with baseball. Because of that I can tell you all season long who will give you the best CHANCE to perform for you. Nobody can ever predict the day that Mike Tolbert rushes for 3 TD’s. It’s impossible. Keep that in mind. I base the starts on matchup obviously and I also look at how each player has done historically against the opponent. I also factor in who I think will win the game, and whether a team will be more pass or rush oriented in that game. Whether they are up or down on the scoreboard has a lot to do with their weekly values.
New Orleans Saints @ Green Bay Packers:
Good starts: Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Greg Jennings, Marquis Colston, Jermichael Finley, Mason Crosby
Decent starts: Jordy Nelson, Ryan Grant, Mark Ingram, Pierre Thomas, John Kasay, Green Bay Defense
Bad starts: Donald Driver, James Jones, Robert Meachem, Devery Henderson, Lance Moore, James Starks, Darren Sproles, Garrett Hartley New Orleans Defense
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By Mark Brown, on August 26th, 2011  Kicker’s are a dime a dozen. But….its impossible to tell exactly when a kicker is going to have a good week. So having one that is a top tier guy over the course of a season gives you a better chance to win. The best situation for a kicker to be in is a winning one. If a kicker plays for a winning team he obviously gets more chances to kick. But getting nothing but extra points doesn’t really help either. Although it is very difficult to predict how kickers will do, I will still tell you which ones are better to have than others. Here is my list of the top kickers for the 2011 season. I know everyone has been hitting refresh on their computer’s for the last hour waiting for this list to come up.
1. Mason Crosby (GB)
2. Matt Bryant (ATL)
3. Nate Kaeding (SD)
4. Robbie Gould (CHI)
5. Billy Cundiff (BAL)
6. Dan Carpenter (MIA)
7. Garrett Hartley (NO)
8. Stephen Gostkowski (NE)
9. David Buehler (DAL)
10. Rob Bironas (TEN)
11. Neil Rackers (HOU)
12. Connor Barth (TB)
13. Ryan Longwell (MIN)
14. Nick Folk (NYJ)
15. Alex Henery (PHI)
16. Phil Dawson (CLE)
17. Jason Hanson (DET)
18. Josh Brown (STL)
19. Lawrence Tynes (NYG)
20. Sebastian Janikowski (OAK)
21. Graham Gano (WAS)
22. Ryan Succop (KC)
23. Adam Vinatieri (IND)
24. David Akers (SF)
25. Shaun Suisham (PIT)
26. Matt Prater (DEN)
27. Josh Scobee (JAC)
28. Jay Feely (ARI)
29. Jeff Reed (SEA)
30. Olindo Mare (CAR)
31. Mike Nugent (CIN)
32. Rian Lindell (BUF)
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By Zach Wilt, on April 2nd, 2010 Last week we discussed the possible kicking candidates for the Baltimore Ravens in the 2010 season. You can cross one of those kickers off your list because today the Arizona Cardinals signed Jay Feely.
I was interested to read Jamison Hensley’s view on the signing, specifically when he said, “The Ravens now have the upper-hand in the free-agent market. The Feely deal takes the Cardinals out of the market for a kicker, and it leaves Neil Rackers and Shayne Graham still without teams. The Ravens could have their pick of either one.”
Or, they could have had their pick of one of the three.
Last year, the Ravens made the bold move of parting ways with Matt Stover with no real plan. They had a kicking competition, if you could really call it that, between two guys with no business playing professional football, Graham Gano and Steve Hauschka. To me, it appeared that the Ravens knew they didn’t want Stover, but had no plan for replacing him with an actual kicker.
But you know that story, Billy Cundiff comes in and saves the day. He booted five field goals in his debut against the Indianapolis Colts in Baltimore, talk about pressure.
Since the season came to an end, the rumors about Baltimore kickers have been swirling once again. Despite John Harbaugh’s comments during the season on bringing Stover back to Baltimore, no news about Stover has been reported. Instead, Baltimore has been in the market for some competition for Cundiff, or even a possible replacement.
This year, the kicking market had three viable candidates, unlike last season when, unfortunately, the Ravens decided to leave Stover looking for work. I’m hoping the Ravens have a plan this go around, that they won’t cut a guy if they don’t have a replacement and that they won’t tell the fans they’re holding a competition for a position between two guys that don’t belong in professional football.
But letting one guy go certainly doesn’t leave me feeling like the Ravens have the upper hand. What do you think? Who will we see kicking for the Ravens in 2010?
By Matt Sadler, on March 27th, 2010 It looks as if the Ravens are thinking about next years kicker. After a disastrous 2009 start with Steven Houshka, the Ravens brought in Billy Cundiff for mop-up duty. Unfortunately, Cundiff was the victim of some questionable snaps by long snapper Matt Katula. It’s looking like 2010 will be a different story.
According to Jamison Hensley, the Ravens have already met with Bengals Kicker- Shayne Graham, the former Virginia Tech standout. They have also contacted Neil Rackers of the Arizona Cardinals. Both have had solid careers. They also missed some big kicks in the playoffs last year.
I think bringing in either one would be an upgrade. My preference is Rackers because he is stronger with kickoffs and doesn’t have the health concerns. What are your thoughts?
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