Updated: The favorites to make the 53 man roster
This is all barring trades:
Bold Italics means the Starter, Bold means a lock, Parentheses means not a lock, Just Italics means Rookie Free Agent.
Offense:
QB- Joe Flacco, John Beck, Troy Smith, Marc Bulger
RB- Ray Rice, Willis McGahee, (Jalen Parmale, Matt Lawrence, Curtis Steele)
FB- Le'Ron McClain, (Mike McLaughlin)
WR- Anquan Boldin, Derrick Mason, Donte Stallworth, (Mark Clayton, David Reed, Marcus Smith, Eron Riley, Demetrius Williams, Justin Harper)
TE- Todd Heap, Dennis Pitta, Ed Dickson, (Davon Drew)
OT- Michael Oher, Jared Gaither, Oniel Cousins, (Tony Moll, Stefan Rodgers, Ramon Harewood, Joe Reitz)
OG- Ben Grubbs, Marshal Yanda, Chris Chester
C- Matt Birk, David Hale
DE- Haloti Ngata, Cory Redding, Trevor Pryce, Paul Kruger, (Lamar Divens, Arthur Jones)
DT- Kelly Gregg, Terrence Cody, (Brandon McKinney, Kelly Talavou)
ILB- Ray Lewis, Dannell Ellerbe, Tavares Gooden, Brendon Ayanbadejo, (Jason Phillips, Prescott Burgess)
OLB- Jarret Johnson, Terrell Suggs, Sergio Kindle, Antwan Barnes, (Jameel McClain, Edgar Jones, Albert McClellan)
CB- Domonique Foxworth, Chris Carr, Ladarius Webb, Fabian Washington, (Travis Fisher, Walt Harris, Cary Williams, Prince Miller)
S- Ed Reed, Dawan Landry, Haruki Nakamura, Tom Zbikowski, (KJ Gerard, Marcus Paschal, Ken Hamlin)
Special Teams:
K- Billy Cundiff or Shayne Graham
P- Sam Koch
Long Snapper: Matt Katula or Morgan Cox
Locks: 45 (Did not include Webb and Ed Reed, who will likely start on the PUP list)
Out of 80 players, there are 45 locks. That means the remaining players are battling it out for 8 spots, although some players will make the practice squad. I will only discuss the practice squad to discuss player who I think will for sure be on it to start the year, like Ramon Harewood. Others, like Ladarius Webb, and likely Ed Reed will likely start on the PUP list opening up one additional spot.
I will start out by addressing how many of the remaining spots will be filled at specific positions. After the locks, we still have holes at CB, WR, FB, #3 RB, and need more depth on the O-line. So assuming McLaughlin makes it at FB, we keep 2/3 of the backup QB's, Hamlin instead of Reed, and a #3 RB, that leaves 7 spots for the remaining players. We are left with:
6 SPOTS for 20 PLAYERS!
I guarantee that we will have teams bidding for many of our castoffs, albeit with late round draft picks. Players like Antwan Barnes and Jameel McClain will likely garner much interest.
20 players: WR: (Marcus Smith, Mark Clayton, Demetrius Williams, Justin Harper, David Reed, Eron Riley), DB: (Travis Fisher, Walt Harris, Cary Williams, Prince Miller, KJ Gerard), DL: (Brandon McKinney, Kelly Talavou, Lamar Divens, Arthur Jones) LB: (Edgar Jones, Jameel McClain, Jason Phillips) Tony Moll, and Davon Drew .
So out of the remaining 6 spots, my guesses are we keep: 1 LB, 1 DL, 2 CB, 2 WR . This leaves O-line, which I believe we need to carry one more player, but do not see the caliber of player at that position that would make this roster. I fully expect us to trade from our WR and LB depth this pre-season in order to bolster our other positions and pick up some draft picks instead of losing players for nothing.
1 LB: McClain (If we trade Barnes or McClain, then Phillips)
1 DL: Hoping for Arthur Jones, but McKinney, Divens and Talavou or valuable depth that other teams will want
2 CB: Likely one of the veterans (Fisher or Harris), and 1 youngster (hopefully Cary Williams, but could be Miller)
2 WR: Hopefully Clayton will be one of them, and I am rooting for David Reed. I think we can stash Marcus Smith on the PS until someone gets injured.
The opinions posted here are those of the administrator of this blog and his loyal readers. They are in no way official comments from the team, and should not be misconstued as such, even though he thinks he could do just as well or even a better job!
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The main thing that is going to suck about this training camp is that we are going to have to cut players who have already been with us for a while.
Jameel McClain
Burgess
Marcus Smith
Harper
But gotta do what we gotta do.
We might be able to slip Marcus Smith and/or Harper onto the Practice squad. Don’t care about Burgess, he is not that good. I think we trade either Barnes or McClain, since they could probably net us a 6th rounder. I would love to see what we can get out of Phillips, he was a stud in college, but he got injured last year. Also, if Ayenbadejo starts out on the PUP, we could keep both and see how it goes.
yeah
he sounds like a real freak athlete with a high ceiling. The type of guy who could blow up in our face as a star on another team. While he sounds like he might be better as a 43 DE, I’d still like to see us put him to work a bit this year.
Maybe we could run a little of that 1-5-5 nickel Prowl defense on 3rd downs? Suggs, Kindle, Lewis, Barnes, Johnson? Eh? Eh? What do you think?
"Cam, we're not going to have any issues because we're going to be winning."
--Joe Flacco
"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden
That sounds nasty.
Suggs/Johnson/Kindle could effectively set the edge, and no one would be running up the middle with Lewis and Ngata.
well we’re probably talking about sure passing situations, as you generally don’t go 1-down lineman unless you think running the ball is either very unlikely or very unwise.
But I’d love to see how an O-Line reacts to that. You could drop Ray and JJ into coverage with the 5 DBs and send Suggs, Barnes, Kindle, and Ngata at the passer knowing that there’s still 7 guys in coverage.
"Cam, we're not going to have any issues because we're going to be winning."
--Joe Flacco
"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden
At this point in Ray career
I would rather have Ngata drop into coverage and Ray blitz up the middle.
Man
How awesome would it be if Phillips developed into a pro-bowl caliber player over the next couple seasons and eventually took over for Ray?!
This is basically his rookie year since he was already injured when he was drafted, so he’s behind the curve with respect to the rest of the ’09 class, but he should still have enough time left on his deal to make an impact if he earns the opportunity.
They say the empty can rattles the most...
woah there buddy
How awesome would it be if Phillips developed into a pro-bowl caliber player over the next couple seasons and eventually took over for Ray?!
Hold your horses…
"Cam, we're not going to have any issues because we're going to be winning."
--Joe Flacco
"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden
Yeah, at this point, he’s closer to Dan Cody than Ray Lewis.
Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.
The Ravens drafted him knowing that he’d be on IR the first year.
Phillips is a good player and slipped in the draft because of his injury.
Ellerbe is further up the pecking order than Phillips
but it sounds like he’s gonna get his shot too.
"Cam, we're not going to have any issues because we're going to be winning."
--Joe Flacco
"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden
Yeah, at this point, he’s closer to Dan Cody than Ray Lewis.
he said take over as the starter, not be as good. We drafted him knowing he would miss some games, but he was a stud in college. He was a finalist for the butkus award.
by Rayisyourdaddy on Jul 23, 2010 3:21 PM EDT up reply actions
he said develop into a pro-bowler. As always with player who have never played a down in the regular season, hold your horses.
"Cam, we're not going to have any issues because we're going to be winning."
--Joe Flacco
"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden
sorry missed that. but it should have been “closer to Dan Cody than Zach Thomas,” Ray is a once in a lifetime player…
by Rayisyourdaddy on Jul 23, 2010 5:51 PM EDT up reply actions
Massacre also said:
…and eventually took over for Ray?!
I stand by my comparison.
Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.
So you cant say you want someone to become really good and take over for Ray, because it means you expect him to be as good as Ray? Ridiculous!
by Rayisyourdaddy on Jul 23, 2010 6:40 PM EDT up reply actions
I said that Phillips has more in common with Dan Cody than with Ray Lewis. Do you not know who any of these people are, or why the comparison is appropriate?
I don’t understand why people get their panties in a twist over players that haven’t actually done anything. Apparently, the off-season makes people all crazy-like.
Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.
Ima Tavares Gooden fan but he is often injured, he has great speed to be a ILB, im hoping this year he wins the position next to ray
He doesn't have great instincts though
His consistent overpursuit seems to indicate he is a read and react type of LB, which is not something we value in a Raven MLB. He also gets lost in blocks. We are not the Raiders… speed isn’t everything.
yeah
Unless Tavares reports to camp weighing 245 and starts demolishing TEs and FBs, I think Ellerbe should have that one sewn up. Phillips is the guy who will get a shot. Tavares may get the snip-snip or he’ll be relegated to gunner duties.
"Cam, we're not going to have any issues because we're going to be winning."
--Joe Flacco
"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden
If Ayanbedajo is cut
Then they may look to Gooden to fill his role on ST and as dime LB, that is, if he can stay healthy.
why would you cut BA instead of Tavares? He made the pro-bowl the last time he finished a season!
"Cam, we're not going to have any issues because we're going to be winning."
--Joe Flacco
"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden

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