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. READ MORE >>>
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.
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 READ MORE >>>
When you mix the first Ravens preseason game with anxious, excited, over-the-top Ravens fans and alcoholic beverages, wagers about the upcoming season will be made. I may or may not be speaking from experience here, but I know it happens. For the past four years, a popular conversation piece around Baltimore, mostly bantered back and forth within bar walls, has been about Joe Flacco’s on-the-field performance. There are both Flacco supporters and Flacco haters out there, but despite which side you’re on, the arguments for both are nothing short of interesting.
One of those interesting discussions arose during last Thursday night’s game between the Ravens and Eagles. The Flacco debate began and the overly confident predictions followed. To make a long, expletive story short, a wager was made about how Flacco’s statistics last season will compare to that of this season’s. The wager, which was brought on by the “uncertain” Flacco fan, consisted of the following stipulations – Flacco would have lower numbers this season in two of the following three statistical categories (yards, completions and passing touchdowns) than he did last season. The “confident” Flacco fan quickly complied, the two shook hands and the deal was sealed. READ MORE >>>
Yesterday, Charles Robinson and the team at Yahoo! Sports broke an absolutely Earth-shattering story, which details rampant NCAA violations committed by ex-booster Nevin Shapiro at The University of Miami. In a nutshell, Shapiro did something similar to what Luther Campbell did for Miami football in the ’80s and ’90s; paid for players to go to nightclubs, hosted parties for players, and gave monetary rewards for players performing well in big games.
Shapiro, a booster who cashed in on the real estate market in Miami, also owned a large stake in a sports agency which ended up being the go-to agency for top NFL draft prospects coming out of “The U.” In addition to his NCAA violations, Shapiro was involved in a ponzi scheme which has landed him in jail. Although the ex-booster struck up many relationships with top Miami football and basketball players between 2002 and 2010, the only players with ties to the Ravens involved with Shapiro were Willis McGahee and Tavares Gooden.
Due to the lockout putting teams on a tight deadline to make signings, NFL free agency this year is pretty much impossible to follow. Here at BSR, we’ll try to help you out with our Free Agent Tracker. Here we track the comings and goings of Ravens free agents, meaning you can keep up with who leaves Baltimore, and who will be a new face in the purple and black.
Currently, you’ll see a few “2011 Team” spaces left blank. As players agree to contracts and sign those contracts, we’ll update that space.
***Additionally, you’ll see Casey Rabach’s name crossed out. This is because he failed his physical after agreeing to a contract, and therefore will not be playing with the Ravens this season.***
It appears that the Baltimore Ravens are on the path of a youth movement.
Yes there is still about one month until opening day, but early signs since the lockout was lifted show the Ravens giving a lot of young players their opportunity to step up and prove they can contribute. With the departures of Todd Heap, Willis McGahee, Derrick Mason, Kelly Gregg and others, a lot of new faces have stepped in. And while the Ravens have signed free agents Vonta Leach, Bernard Pollard and Ricky Williams, there are still plenty of young players filling out spots on the two-deep depth chart.
Many of them will be getting their first taste of football Thursday night in the first preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Look for a ragged contest, probably on both sides as teams continue to shake off the rust from the long lockout. For the Ravens, the one question that hopefully begin to get answered is this: can any of these rookies and new faces be part of the final roster? Can they step in and make plays? Names like Sergio Kindle, Terrence Cody, Ed Dickson, Jah Reid, Torrey Smith and Tandon Doss (to name a few) will get their chances. Football teams value experience, but young players have to gain their experience by playing. Thanks to the salary cap, teams have to find players that can step in when their number is called as soon as possible, because they never know when it might be their time.
There may be more moves to come in the next few weeks, before the Steelers come to town. Finding a backup quarterback, a center and more depth at other positions will be crucial. But as of right now, the young players have the opportunity to show that the belief placed in them by the organization was not given in vain.
The former Dolphins star and Heisman winner at Texas has agreed to a two-year deal worth up to $4 million, according to Florio’s “league source.” Williams is now 34 and entering his 11th season, after rushing for 673 yards and three touchdowns last season as a backup in Miami.
This is now the second backfield free agent the Ravens have acquired, with the first being fullback Vonta Leach. The team will look to Williams to replace Willis McGahee’s production as the #2 running back. McGahee was cut shortly after the lockout ended.
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Edgar Walker writes stuff, and pretty much all of it is about sports. Follow him on Twitter so that you can read more stuff he writes, with pretty much all of it about sports.
Stick with us at BSR for more on this signing and further reactions.
“I have nothing against Baltimore. It’s just that this was the right place,” Mason told reporters. ”Why not come here with the big fella and try to win a championship,” he asked.
I’m of the belief that Harbaugh is looking to start fresh in the locker room without sacrificing too many wins or too much talent. By dropping Todd Heap, Derrick Mason, Willis McGahee and Kelly Gregg, the Ravens aren’t just dropping salary, they are dropping pre-Harbaugh players and guys that may not have fit in his system. Just look at how Harbaugh used Heap over the past two seasons.
It has been a week of frenzied activity since the NFL resumed business. Players have been changing addresses-some to other teams, some to destinations unknown at the moment-while others have come back to the fold. Training camps have opened up, fantasy football leagues are making up for lost time-yes football is back. You almost would’ve forgotten that anything else was going on in the sports world: baseball had its trading deadline come and go, and the Orioles, as usually is the case, were giving players away rather than adding players for the stretch run. Yes there were some big deals made in baseball, but nothing quite like the headlines coming from the NFL.
My daughter’s boyfriend has been peppering me with questions throughout the lockout and since it ended. Since my job doesn’t really allow me to follow the news 24/7, he usually gets the highlights of what transactions have taken place over the course of a day. Like me, he is a Ravens fan, so it was interesting to see his reaction when I told him that Derrick Mason, Willis McGahee, Kelly Gregg and Todd Heap had all been cut last week. I tell you, there was palpable panic etched in his face. I had to explain to him that they were cap casualties, cuts made to make room under the new salary cap for the upcoming season. It eased his pain when I told him that the Ravens were going to make an effort to bring them all back, but for less money than they had been making. Of course, now that McGahee, Gregg and Heap (HEEEEAAAAPPPP!) have all headed for new clubs the sky is really falling now for him. Throw in the other departures as shown on the handy Baltimore Sports Report Free Agent Tracker (shameless plug), and now he is wondering who will be left when the season starts. Gloom and doom are the order of the day. READ MORE >>>
Fans in Baltimore have been campaigning for Asomugha to wear purple all offseason. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that the Ravens cap room will allow for that. The Jets appear to be the clear cut winner for Asomugha in a secondary that will be far and away the best in the NFL. Asomugha and Darrell Revis? It’s almost unfathomable. This clearly upsets Ravens fans, especially with the number of former Ravens that the Jets have grabbed over the years.
It wasn’t until I listened to ESPN’s Colin Cowherd this morning that I felt okay with the Ravens current offseason status. It’s strange to think the Cowherd is my voice of reason, but hear me out. The Jets have an average quarterback, an average running game and they overspent for a good receiver, Santonio Holmes. On defense, their pass rush is weak but that corners are already solid. Add Asomugha and the secondary becomes the best in the league. Cowherd argues, and I agree, that good secondaries don’t win championships, good offenses and pass rushes do. Cowherd thinks that Rex Ryan has fallen in love with Asomugha and that the Jets are going to do everything in their power to bring him to New York. Even if that means backloading their franchise quarterback’s contract and ignoring their offensive struggles from last season. ”This is an offense that got worse in the last 48 hours,” Cowherd said on his show today. READ MORE >>>
Tony Lombardi of Ravens24x7.com reports that the Ravens are handcuffed by the salary cap at the moment and he sees only one solution.
Last week ESPN’s John Clayton reported that the Ravens were $1.8M over the cap and that number did not include the RFA tenders which totaled around $10M. Then the minimum salaries went up by $55K per player for about three-fourths of the team’s roster. Not all of those add into the cap because of the rule of 51, but that also took away another $1.5M or so.
Bottom line, until the Ravens can sign Ngata to a long-term deal or restructure other contracts, they appear to be handcuffed.
Ozzie Newsome has always acted as a patient general manager, but Lombardi wonders if their patience this season has more to do with a lack of money than a method of operation. The Ravens need a wide receiver, a back up quarterback an offensive lineman and could certainly use some help in the secondary. They need a few bucks though first.
It’s been a busy week. The Ravens cut Todd Heap, Derrick Mason, Willis McGahee and Kelly Gregg. They also lost Donte Stallworth and in my opinion, their biggest loss was free agent cornerback Josh Wilson, both of whom went to the Washington Redskins.
Wilson, was arguably the best of the Ravens three free agent cornerbacks, Fabian Washington and Chris Carr being the other two.
It’s clear that the Ravens top offseason priority was re-signing offensive lineman Marshal Yanda. It’s my hope that in doing so the Ravens didn’t forget about one of their best corners, Josh Wilson, who they let slip for a very reasonable 3 year/$13.5 million deal with a $6 million signing bonus.
This move says one of two things; either the Ravens completely dropped the ball on Wilson in the midst of what has proven to be a hectic week or the Ravens have bigger plans for the cornerback position in 2011.
Thus far, their moves have made sense, Wilson’s loss seems to be the only flaw. If the Ravens let him slip through the cracks, they need to ensure that they bring back Chris Carr, who has been outspoken about wanting a bigger role with the Ravens this season. If not, then maybe they are in the running for Nmandi Asomugha. The Asomugha rumors have been full of Jets news, but perhaps Baltimore will sneak in at the 11th hour and and pull off a big deal.
Yesterday afternoon free agency fever was dead in Baltimore. The news that the Ravens had cut four fan favorite players (Todd Heap, Derrick Mason, Kelly Gregg, and Willis McGahee) along with Baltimore’s possession of four unrestricted free agent offensive linemen (Marshal Yanda, Jared Gaither, Chris Chester, and Tony Moll) cast a Poe-like gloom over the Charm City. However, according to the Ravens web site and Baltimore Sun, the Ravens have agreed to terms with their 2007 third round pick — 6’3 315 lbs. guard/tackle — Marshal Yanda. With the re-signing of Yanda, one of the top free agents in this year’s class, the Ravens have spent some of the money they saved by cutting Heap, Mason, Gregg and McGahee.
Terms of the deal have not been disclosed but a press conference is scheduled for some time today (Wednesday). Last season Yanda started all 16 games at right tackle after Jared Gaither missed the entire year with a back injury. However, the Ravens would like to move Yanda back to right guard, which many NFL talent scouts consider his natural position.
Jason La Canfora of the NFL Network reports that the Ravens are hoping that they can re-sign Heap, Mason and Gregg following the cuts.
The Ravens began informing veterans of their pending release Monday and are hopeful of being able to re-sign TE Todd Heap, WR Derrick Mason and DT Kelly Gregg, but they’re trying to clear salary-cap room to make other moves.
Baltimore re-signed Marshal Yanda to a five-year, $32 million deal, on Tuesday. Hopefully now they can begin negotiating with Mason, Heap and Gregg.
As you all know by now, the Ravens have released four fan favorite, veteran players that will free up about $18.6 million in cap room. The news saddened both teammates and fans of Derrick Mason, Todd Heap, Kelly Gregg and Willis McGahee, but in the salary cap era it’s clear that personal relationships don’t factor in when it comes to taking care of business. I know that for some of you this is tough to hear. But you need to have faith in Ozzie Newsome and the organization that while these aren’t the most popular moves, they are in the best interest of the team. Nobody likes getting rid of quality players and leaders like they’ve done here. It’s tough for everyone affected by the moves, but the organization is looking at the bigger picture here, believe me.
Many Ravens have already made their outlook on the situation clear. They don’t necessarily agree with or like the decisions that have been made over the past few days, but they do understand the business aspect of the game. Some guys, such as Ray Rice and Terrence Cody, feel like they are losing their mentors. But I think it’s about time for the young core of Ravens, guys like Rice, Cody, Joe Flacco, Michael Oher and Lardarius Webb, to step up and become the new leaders of this team. Ray Lewis only has a couple years left at best and who knows how much longer Ed Reed’s health is going to hold up. So judging from this recent departure of leaders like Heap, Mason, McGahee and Gregg, I think it is clear the Ravens are putting the fate of this team’s future in the hands of their younger players. READ MORE >>>
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.
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