Prescott Burgess Should Stay With Ravens

by Bruce Raffel on Apr 3, 2011 6:00 PM EDT

Special Teams ace and reserve linebacker Prescott Burgess has been with the Baltimore Ravens most of his four years in the NFL since being a sixth-round pick in 2007 out of the University of Michigan. The Ravens released him and he was picked up but released by the New England Patriots and returned to the team. He's been one of the best Special Teams players and led the Ravens in tackles off of the "Suicide Squad" the past two years.

Burgess will be an unrestricted free agent once the NFL owners and players resolve the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Until then, he remains in limbo and cannot have any contact with prospective employers, much less the Ravens. Free agency remains on hold and for the first time the NFL Draft will occur prior to free agency starting, as teams usually have made critical veteran decisions before finalizing their draft boards.

This year, it will have to be the opposite and this could make it much more difficult for specialty players such as Burgess to find jobs at salaries that would be a lot higher to teams than putting rookies in those positions. However, Prescott has "played like a Raven" and deserves to remain one in 2011. He his one of the hardest hitters and sure tacklers on the team and proves it every year at Training Camp, especially in the one-on-one drills.

Re-sign Prescott Burgess once free agency begins. Are you listening, Ozzie?

Tweet Comment 14 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Always liked Burgess being on this team. He was a pretty damn good player at Michigan and is now a quality backup for us.

Would love to keep him around.

Real G's move in silence like lasagna

by Mr MaLoR on Apr 3, 2011 6:08 PM EDT reply actions

I honestly dont know what potentials Prescott Burgress has becuase he never used

much or at all on defense he is a good on special team but for some reason he doesn’t see time on the defense even when Tavares Gooden went down

by jazz20 on Apr 3, 2011 6:57 PM EDT up reply actions

Right player, right price…

by JoshuaStein on Apr 3, 2011 6:49 PM EDT reply actions

He’s a really good ST and I think he’d be a good LB if plugged in more. I hope he stays.

by BmoreRavensFan on Apr 3, 2011 9:30 PM EDT reply actions

Although he has been great on special teams we just may not have room for him. We could possibly be adding another two LB’s through the draft and depending on how the final rosters play out we just may not have the space.

by AV23 on Apr 3, 2011 10:10 PM EDT reply actions

Right

The draft will probably tell us if there’s room for Burgess-or Ellerbe

by ursula on Apr 3, 2011 10:51 PM EDT up reply actions

Ellerbe is a guy I think we got to keep because he is a lot more talented than Burgess. Don’t forget Ellerbe worked his way to starter his rookie year and was the favorite for it last year until he got in Harbaugh’s dog house. McClain had a solid year and Ellerbe has the ability to challenge him for that spot.

by AV23 on Apr 3, 2011 10:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Don't underestimate the needs for

Special Teams’ aces. Burgess as well as Ayanbadejo both should fnd roster spots.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Apr 4, 2011 7:58 AM EDT reply actions

The problem is there are only so many spots. You can’t cut your 2nd string and potential starters for special teams guys. I agree that special teams is very important, but if it comes down to Ellerbe or Burgess I would not want to cut Ellerbe when he could potentially find a starting spot. We have a lot of LB’s and I see us adding at least two more through the draft. We can’t have a whole team of LB’s.

by AV23 on Apr 4, 2011 9:40 AM EDT up reply actions

Burgess is just another below average NFL LB at this point. Wait and see who we get in the draft before we declare any borderline players a must resign.

by MrPoopyPants on Apr 4, 2011 10:36 AM EDT reply actions

I don’t think anyone has said Burgess is a “must resign” player. Ngata, Flacco, Grubbs, Rice, JJ are our must sign players in the next 2 years.

But Burgess is a major contributing factor to us having one of the best Special Teams in the league, and people seem to not realize how important that is for our style of football which we play.

Keep Burgess along with BA continues to give us maybe the best ST duo in the league as proven by the stats.

Real G's move in silence like lasagna

by Mr MaLoR on Apr 4, 2011 11:44 AM EDT up reply actions

I’d say the best ST duo are Cundiff and Koch.

Burgess isn’t even our best coverage specialist, and honestly the difference between Burgess and the next man up isn’t enough to invest one of our limited roster spots on.

by Mayne_Event on Apr 4, 2011 9:46 PM EDT up reply actions

As far as good special teams contributor, after Koch, Cundiff, and BA, I think Cary Williams does his thing.

by Raven_all_day on Apr 4, 2011 10:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Lets just say we have a damn good ST group.

Real G's move in silence like lasagna

by Mr MaLoR on Apr 5, 2011 12:08 AM EDT up reply actions

Comments For This Post Are Closed

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recommended FanPosts

Ravens' Draft Picks: Analysis

by AV23 4 days ago

42 comments | 3 recs

Recent FanPosts

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >

Network Bar

Baltimore Beat Down -

An unofficial Baltimore Ravens blog