Baltimore Poised to Defend Title

The Baltimore Ravens and their fans enjoyed the parade after their Super Bowl XLVII win but the second parade of players leaving was much harder to watch.

The knee-jerk reaction was to write them off and proclaim a changing of the guard in the AFC North. 

As my least favorite announcer Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast my friend!” The Ravens lost talent and leadership but Ozzie Newsome showed Baltimore why he is the GM envy of the rest of the league. 

The Ravens reloaded and have themselves in the best position to repeat out of any team in the last 5 years.

First let’s look at the losses: Ray Lewis (retirement), Anquan Boldin (trade), Ed Reed (Signed with Houston), Bernard Pollard (Signed with Tennesse), Matt Birk (retired), Dannell Ellerbee (signed with Miami), Paul Kruger (signed with Cleveland), Cary Williams (signed with Philladelphia), among others.

The headline name is Ray Lewis heading off into the sunset but what are the Ravens really missing? Ray was the vocal leader but he missed most of the season and wasn’t playing at the same level he was accustomed too. Former Kansas State linebacker Arthur Brown could provide the same production; of course without the respect and leadership Lewis provided. In time, Brown could be an all-pro but no one realistically expects him to be the Hall of Famer like Lewis but Brown should statistically do what Lewis did this year. 

(As a side note I thought Rolando McClain might be able to resurrect his career here but it looks like the only things he has in common with Lewis are a criminal record and retirement)

Ed Reed was another “big” loss for the Ravens but he fell into the same category as Lewis: Savvy player who was long on name recognition but had lost a step. The Ravens signed Michael Huff in free agency and then added safety Matt Elam, who some scouts had as the best at his position in a deep class. Huff and Elam may never be the player Reed was but they could be better than the player Reed is. 

At this point, the combination of Huff and Elam may be an upgrade over Reed and maybe even Bernard Pollard too. Pollard was the one I thought was tougher to lose at this point. 

Dannell Ellerbee and Paul Kruger both moved on to greener pastures but the money they received was too rich for Newsome.  He let both players walk but they will be filled in with a healthy, non-basketball playing Terrell Suggs, Elvis Dumervil (who now has a “brick wall” on his shoulders) and Courtney Upshaw, who could be used at a number of linebacker positions with his versatility within the Ravens scheme.

(That is, if Jim Harbaugh can get Upshaw to stop snacking and watching Wedding Crashers. "No Courtney, crab cakes and football is not all that Maryland does")

On the back end the Ravens lost Cary Williams who was great and played his way into a nice contract in Philadelphia with the lesser of the East Coast birds but Ladarius Webb returns from an ACL injury and the Ravens hope Jimmy Smith can be the play-maker they thought he was when they drafted him in the first round. 

Up front the Ravens return their best defensive player from their Super Bowl team in Haloti Ngata and also rising young players in Arthur Jones, Pernell McPhee and Terrance Cody. They added Marcus Spears and Chris Canty, both of whom have experience lining up in multiple positions along the defensive front. 

Offensively there are more questions. Is Joe Flacco’s spike in play real? If it is, do they have enough weapons on offense to help him?  The loss of Anquan Boldin and Matt Birk leave the team with some question marks but with today’s NFL salary cap, every team has major questions somewhere. And the Ravens never really were built on offense now anyway.