Brent Englar's Baltimore Ravens fan blog

The Baltimore Sun beat me to the punch on this topic, listing the Ravens top 5 options not currently on the roster for replacing the seemingly retired Mason:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bal-sp.mason15jul15,0,430

Here are the Sun's top five receivers:

1. Marvin Harrison
2. Brandon Marshall
3. Anquan Boldin
4. Plaxico Burress
5. Drew Bennett

They also list the following free agents still on the market: D.J. Hackett, Amani Toomer, Justin McCareins, Reggie Williams, and Darrell Jackson. To that list I would add Koren Robinson. Let's break down each option: 1. Marvin Harrison: Harrison is an unrestricted free agent, so he wouldn't cost any draft picks, and like all UFA's in July, the market for his services appears quite small (otherwise he'd be signed by now), so he shouldn't command an outrageous contract. Even a close approximation of his prime would give the Ravens a receiver who runs crisp routes, has excellent hands and vision, delivers the occasional big play downfield, and commands respect from teammates and opponents alike---in short, the very things Mason brought to the offense. The problem is that for the past two years Harrison has been nowhere near his prime.  The numbers say it all: 

Continue reading "Replacing Derrick Mason: The Ravens External Options"

So Derrick Mason may or may not be retiring. All right, let's suppose he does --- where does that leave the Ravens' passing game?

The first thing to ask is how good it was expected to be even WITH a healthy Mason catching passes in 2009. And I don't imagine too many fans were so drunk on the purple Kool-Aid as to expect our passing attack to have finished in the top half of the league. We're bringing back pretty much the same cast from last year, when we ranked 28th in the league with a mere 175.5 yards/game. Even accounting for the continued development of Joe Flacco, Ray Rice, and that young offensive line, that's a heckuva lot of ground to make up. Unless Demetrius Williams finally becomes the vertical threat this offense hasn't had in over a decade, you're not going to shoot up that many spots riding an aging possession receiver, I don't care how good he is.

Continue reading "Breaking Down the Ravens' Receivers"

I will follow up this brief post with a more extensive analysis of the Ravens current (and potential) receiving situation in the wake of Derrick Mason's bombshell announcement yesterday that he is retiring.  But first, a few quick points:

• As the Baltimore Sun is already speculating, Mason appears to have left himself an "out" clause in this announcement (which apparently he did not make to Ravens officials, but rather to ESPN News and a website affiliated with his agent). He has not filed the requisite paperwork with the league offices, and in a statement to ESPN News, he spoke hypothetically rather than absolutely:

"If I do change my mind, it won't be because of the Ravens. It'll be because of some other things - my family and talking with other people. I still got to talk with some coaches over there. As far as financially, I don't think they can do anything to sway me."

Continue reading "Derrick Mason Retires"

So, ten weeks and nine games into the season, what is it fair to say we have? One probable loss (at New England), four TCOB games (i.e., no excuse for losing, not if you want to be Super Bowl champion: home against KC, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Denver), and an equivalent number of toss-ups (at Cincinnati and Cleveland ... mostly because they're division games, at Minnesota, at San Diego). Leaving us with an intriguing stretch run that features two games against the Super Bowl champions, one game against Peyton Manning and his flying circus, and one game against a team that could very well be looking for its first victory since December 2007.

WEEK 11: VS INDIANAPOLIS (2008 record: 12-4): We haven't beaten the Colts in 6 tries. Any reason to believe it'll happen this time around? For starters, it's an ordinary, Sunday-afternoon home game: no playoffs, no prime time, no special meaning for Baltimore fans to get worked up about---just two teams gunning for a victory late in the year. The Colts will be coming off their annual prime time slugfest with New England. So we might be just a little bit fresher (though we'll be coming off a Monday-nighter against Cleveland). Betting on the Ravens in this series is getting to be like betting on the Cubs to win it all ... still, we've got to get a W one of these years. Don't we?

Continue reading "Breaking Down the Ravens Schedule, part II"

I haven't blogged since the Super Bowl, and I probably won't blog again for a while (at least not until the draft), but the 2009 schedule was just released, and it's worth taking a quick look at the way the upcoming season breaks down for the hometown team. One thing you can count on, there are games that look easy right now that will look a lot tougher when they get here, and there are games that look tough now that will end up looking much easier. The most one can do, therefore, is to say: IF LAST SEASON'S RESULTS CARRY OVER INTO NEXT SEASON ... which of course they never do.

Still, IF LAST SEASON'S RESULTS CARRY OVER INTO NEXT SEASON, here's how things look right now for the purple and black:

WEEK 1: VS CHIEFS (2008 record: 2-14): There aren't many sweeter ways to open the season than at home against the woeful Chiefs. Matt Cassel gets his first test right away, and even with our aforementioned caveat, a Chiefs win here would qualify as a major upset. Were this game in November or December I might temper my confidence (slightly), but in Week 1, for a team that last played in the AFC Championship game and blew out nearly every inferior team it played in 2008, anything less than total domination by the Ravens would be inexcusable.

Continue reading "Breaking Down the Ravens Schedule, part I"

I'm not going to blog about the Super Bowl. For terrific analysis, I'd recommend Greg Easterbrook (i.e., TMQ) at ESPN's Page 2 or Michael Lombardi at the National Football Post. (Bill Simmons's running diary is also pretty good.) I will say that it turned into a terrifically entertaining game, but let's hold off on the "greatest Super Bowl ever" talk ... at least until a FEW days have gone by, hey pundits?  The first half was entertaining enough, though the Cardinals' decision to defer after winning the toss, followed by their insistence on "establishing a running game" rather than simply airing it out of the no-huddle, frustrated me to no end. Dance with the one that brung ye, as TMQ is fond of reminding us.

The third quarter, however, was deadly from an entertainment standpoint, and Pittsburgh blew several opportunities to put the game away for good. (See Bill Simmons for more insight on this.) That the Steelers did not put the game away paved the way for the marvelous fourth quarter, which is all that most people will remember (plus the James Harrison runback). Which is fine. But a great fourth quarter alone does not an all-time great Super Bowl make. Especially not when one of the participants had been roundly ridiculed as "The Worst Super Bowl Team Ever" in the days and weeks leading up to the game. Can a Best Super Bowl Ever feature a Worst Super Bowl Team Ever?

Continue reading "2009 Super Bowl: Great Game, but Hardly Greatest Ever"

Todd Heap: Before the season began, the conventional wisdom was that Heap would rebound from an injury-plagued 2007 (he only played in 6 games) to post Antonio Gates-like numbers in Cam Cameron's new offense. When injuries to Kyle Boller and Troy Smith forced young Joe Flacco to assume the starting QB job ahead of schedule, Heap looked like an even safer bet: what better friend is there to a rookie QB than a big, athletic, Pro Bowl tight end?

Unfortunately, Heap's lingering injuries caused him to miss most of the preseason (much to the coaching staff's displeasure, if the rumors were correct). Still, on opening day the very first pass of Flacco's NFL career went right to Heap, who took it 9 yards for a 1st down ... and promptly fumbled. Later in the half Flacco found him uncovered in the end zone and fired a perfect pass ... right through Heap's fingers. It would take Flacco until Week 10 to find his tight end in the end zone again, by which time Derrick Mason had firmly entrenched himself as the go-to guy, while Heap spent a (for him) unprecedented amount of time blocking pass rushers. The rumors that the extra blocking duty was punishment for failing to gut it out during training camp were doubtlessly overblown---a rookie QB behind a green offensive line (minus a certain future-Hall-of-Fame left tackle) is a recipe for disaster, and with backup tight ends Quinn Sypniewski on IR and Dan Wilcox battling his own slate of injuries, Heap had little choice but to accept the less glorified role. Still, the final numbers added up to a mere 35 catches for 403 yards, by far his lowest totals for any season in which he played every game. While he can surely take pride in working himself into a credible blocker, helping to pave the way for the league's 4th-best running game and keeping his QB on his feet far more often than might have been expected, it's a safe bet that for Todd Heap 2008 did not go according to plan.

Continue reading "Baltimore Ravens 2008 Player Grades: Tight Ends"

Derrick Mason: I don't know how much more I can say about Derrick Mason (other than that I'd name my first-born for him). He was Joe Flacco's primary option and security blanket from the start; indeed, until Mark Clayton and Todd Heap began to show up down the stretch, he was for all practical purposes Flacco's only option. Yet somehow he kept getting open, though every defense we faced doubtlessly game-planned specifically for him. And it wasn't just the dink-and-dunk kind of "open," the kind that came to define Brian Billick's plodding offense and resulted in Mason's catching a career-high 103 balls in 2007 for a career-low 10.6 yard average. He got open short, he got open long, and he got open every which way between, with a full three-quarters of his catches producing first downs---the best ratio in his career as a starter.

Continue reading "Baltimore Ravens 2008 Player Grades: Wide Receivers"

Willis McGahee: McGahee never got on track in 2008. He skipped the OTAs to work out on his own in Miami, then showed up at training camp unprepared for his new coach's up-tempo, physical two-a-days. Assorted injuries led him to miss the entire preseason, and when he dressed for but didn't play in the season opener, the conventional wisdom was that the coaches were sending him a message, namely that if he wanted to play for the Ravens he'd better get on board with the new regime. He recovered from his injuries enough to rush for 100+ yards in two midseason games against the Dolphins and the Texans, though by then it was clear the team preferred rotating him from game to game with fellow backs Le'Ron McClain and Ray Rice. Nagging injuries and declining productivity seemed to rob him of much of confidence during the second half of the season, as the cry to bench him for good (and then cut him in the offseason) grew louder on the local airwaves. For all that, he played a crucial role in the epic late-season win against Dallas, and in the AFC Championship loss to the Steelers, he was the best offensive player wearing purple.

Continue reading "Baltimore Ravens 2008 Player Grades: Running Backs"

The first of what I intend to be a running series of "grades" for each player, position by position, on this year's team. I'll give my thoughts on how they performed in 2008 and where I see them fitting into the plans for 2009. And I'll begin at QB.

Joe Flacco (R): The future of the Baltimore offense hangs on the capable right arm of the first QB in NFL history to start and win 2 playoff games as a rookie. That by itself should tell you all you need to know about Mr. Flacco. We all know he's poised, "unflappable," "Joe Cool." We all know to divide his season into two distinct periods: his first 5 games, during which he threw 1 TD and 7 interceptions, and every game since (including three playoff games), during which he threw 14 TDs and 8 interceptions (and only 5 until the AFC Championship Game ... that Steeler D will do that to a QB).

Continue reading "Baltimore Ravens 2008 Player Grades: Quarterbacks"