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Coaching and injuries play their part but Ozzie is most to blame

Coaches, players and injuries have played a big part in the current state of this football team but somehow Ozzie newsome has mostly escaped criticism. Not to downplay the other factors because they make an impact but I will argue that Ozzie is mostly at fault.

1) we don’t draft well anymore. Here are the last 5 draft. I will list picks I consider good. You might argue a few with me but this should be pretty close to how most feel

2012 draft

Courtney upshaw round 2 pick 35

kelechi osemele round 2 pick 60

osemele is a great pick. One could argue that at 35 we should expect more than a run stopping OLB who never rushed the passer well but he was a key contributor on a SB Team. Not a great pick but not going to say bust

2013 draft

brandon willams round 3 pick 94

kyle juszczyk round 4 pick 130

ricky Wagner round 5 pick 168

2 great and 1 solid mid round pick save this draft from complete embarrassment but I can’t call a draft a success when your top 2 picks bust as hard as Elam and Arthur brown.

2014 draft

CJ Mosley round 1 pick 17

brent urban round 4 pick 134

mike campanaro round 7 pick 218

you could argue Jernigan, brooks and Gilmore but Jernigan is a bad scheme fit for what we do, brooks never got a chance because bust Elam got every shot and we drafted/signed enough TEs to make it clear we have never liked Gilmore. This draft had some solid players but did a poor job of putting players needed on the roster.

2015 draft

9 picks and I would say there is not 1 good pick. This draft, guys in year 3, is the biggest reason for this year being as bad as it is.

2016 draft

ronnie Stanley Round 1 pick 6

tavon young round 4 pick 104

alex Lewis round 4 pick 130

kenneth Dixon round 4 pick 134

matt judon round 5 pick 146

maurice Canady round 6 pick 209

this draft might not have the Lewis/reed/Ogden/suggs (although Stanley is good) but this draft has a lot of studs. Can also add that Michael pierce was an UDFA this year. Young, Lewis and Dixon not playing a down this year hurts us a lot but this is easily one of ozzie’s Best drafts, even with the horrific pick of Correa. Hated it at the time and hate it more now. He made up for it in the middle rounds

2017 draft

marlon Humphrey round 1 pick 16

marlon has already shown me enough. Not ready to write off the rest of these guys. Siragusa injured and the rest are rookies. Marlon just the only one I am already willing to say was good. The issue with this draft is the same issue with the team in general. We prioritize BPA which you can do to an extent but you need to have a pulse on offense. This was arguably the best RB draft of all time. The fact that we went wormley and Tim Williams over a guy like Kareem hunt or didn’t trade up to take dalvin cook or trade back and take kamara over bowser shows the problems. I like bowser. I think he will be very good. Did we need him? No. He’s a luxury player on a team with a defense full of them and an offense with no talent.

2) Joe Flacco contract

we can argue about Flacco all we want. For years he has had inferior talent around him and has gotten a bad shake of it from media who didn’t recognize that. To an extent I understand giving him the original gigantic contract. He should have never gotten the second one. He has never been elite and it’s tough to build a great football team when your QB is the highest paid player in the league but is at best an average player.

3) signings/restructures

if the Joe Flacco cap hit wasn’t so bad I would point to our dead money as the problem. Over $20 million in dead money is INSANE and that doesn’t count the pushing of money into the future for yanda (has to decline at some point as he ages) and jimmy smith (why draft marlon if you don’t want him to replace the talented but expensive/injury prone smith?) start to become bigger problems with the cap. Pitta getting big guaranteed money coming off a hip surgery was a horrible move that anyone could have seen coming. Webb was unproven and given a monster deal, bigger at the time than the steeelers paid Antonio brown. Webb was already proven to be injury prone.

4) free agent signings

he has had some success here but Jefferson’s contract is looking BIG based on his play and he has already been restructured. We have had some good gets over the years. Again let’s look at this year. What could have improved the defense the most? Resigning Williams? Maybe. Signing Jefferson? Maybe. Carr? Maybe. I would argue the answer is to put up points. This is an offensive league now. 2000 ravens 0 margin for error D isn’t realistic. What did we add? Woodhead who is good but NEVER healthy and then maclin who is good but NEVER healthy.

Injuries are a part of football but anyone who watches football knows that pitta coming off bad hip injury was a bad signing and webb, maclin and woodhead are injury prone players.

does harbaugh need to go? Maybe. Does morningweg need to go? Definitely. Ozzie newsome, as much as I love him and everything he has done for the Ravens, is the one who we need to go the most.

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