Boldin's Replacement "In House"

After the Baltimore Ravens failed to draft a receiver in the first few rounds of the draft to replace the departed Anquan Boldin, as usual, Ravens fans took to Twitter to express their frustration about the matter. Apparently current Ravens receiver Torrey Smith noticed and he wants Ravens Nation to know that the problem is under control.

"We have talent," Smith responded on Twitter. "Just watch."

The "talent" that Torrey is referring to comes in the bodies of Deonte Thompson, Tommy Streeter, David Reed, Tandon Doss, LaQuan Williams and rookie seventh round draft pick Aaron Mellette. Now, no one is saying that none of these players has the potential to break out in the NFL but with the Ravens coming off a Super Bowl win I think fans are just hoping for, well, a little more of a promising prospect, I guess...

Don't get me wrong. I would love to see each and every one of these young men go on to reach the Pro Bowl. The problem is, the Ravens have tried to get some of them on the field at times over the past few seasons, like Reed and Doss and Williams but none of them has really shown that they can be an effective asset to this team against the leagues best competition. The Ravens, by the way, will be facing most of the leagues best competition again this year. Last year when our backs were against the wall Anquan Boldin is the one we called on to make that big time catch on 4th and 1 with the game on the line.

Yes, yes, Torrey and Jacoby Jones had their moments as well but no one was as consistent as Boldin during the playoffs. No One. Consistency seems to be the one thing this receiving core is lacking and I'm just not sure they are going to find that in a bunch of guys that haven't played a full NFL season if you combined all the time they have spent on the field together. I suppose the Ravens are playing the numbers game though. If you have enough of them, at last one is sure to work out right?

It sounds like Ozzie Newsome and Smith are on the same page too.

“We need to figure out if those guys can play,” General Manager Ozzie Newsome said. “The only way they’re going to get the opportunity to play is to get them out on the football field. And now not having Anquan, those guys will get that chance.”

“Hopefully one or two of those guys are going to emerge,” Newsome said. “It would be great if all four of them did, but if two of them did, then that would help us to be able to say, ‘OK we need to sign David going forward, or we need to sign Tandon going forward.’ But if we don’t get a chance to get them on the field and tell them, ‘The job is yours to win, we’ll never get the opportunity to be able to provide for those guys to be able to play here in the future."