A Good Move, A Bad Move, and a Risky Move

It's NFL off-season time. More specifically, it's NFL franchising time. Before free agency begins at 12:01 AM on February 27th, teams across the league have been slapping the franchise tag on some of their best players. For those of you unfamiliar, placing the franchise tag on a player means:

1. The player gets a one year deal, valued at the average of the top 5 paid players at his position.

2. The player is forced to accept the deal.

3. Each team can only use one franchise deal per year.

4. If a player gets franchised two years in a row, his salary for the second year will be valued at 120% of his value the first year.

5. A player can not be franchised more than two years in a row. 

Players typically don't like it because they want long-term deals with fat signing bonuses at the beginning of them. Here's a look at three players who have recently had the franchise tag placed on them by their respective teams:

Darren Sproles - RB - San Diego Chargers - $6.62 million in 2009

For Sproles: Scary Move ...  Sproles knows now that he is "the guy" in San Diego - at least for one year. He is still sort of an unknown commodity; if you remember, he really only came on at the end of last season into the playoffs. Even if he plays well this year, his contract now won't increase, and unless his production is off-the-charts, his pay will likely decrease after this year. 

For Chargers: Bad Move ... I understand wanting to keep Sproles around, especially with the uncertainty surrounding LaDainian Tomlinson and his future in San Diego. Simply put, though, they overpaid him. These small, speedster-type guys are often injury-prone, and teams can scheme against him. Despite what we saw in the playoffs, I am very comfortable in telling you that Darren Sproles is not the third best running back in the NFL. 

Terrell Suggs - DE/LB - Baltimore Ravens - $10.20 million in 2009

For Suggs: Good Move ... Why wouldn't this be a good move for Suggs? Not only is he getting paid off the charts because of the 120% rule, but it guarantees that he is going to be given a long-term deal after this year. Even if he gets injured, he is completely proven. Every single team in the NFL would want to pay Terrell Suggs.

For Ravens: Good Move ... They may be overpaying him slightly, but it's a good move for the Ravens because it got Suggs out of the way. They can now focus their time and energy to resigning Ray Lewis and Jason Brown to multi-year deals. 

Matt Cassel - QB - New England Patriots - $14.65 million in 2009

For Cassel: Bad Move ... When the Patriots did this, they guaranteed Cassel that one of two things were going to happen. He now knows he either going to be traded before the season begins, or he's going to be Tom Brady's backup again in New England this year. Even if the latter is true, he knows he will be signing a long-term deal next year with someone. All this did for Cassel was put off the inevitable. 

For Patriots: Good Move ... They guaranteed themselves Cassel if Brady is not ready to start the season. It'll be a great move if they're sure Brady will be ready to go. Then, they can dump Cassel and his high number on some other team, and pick up boat-loads of draft picks so they can start a new dynasty. Leave it to New England. 

Late Night Ravens Stream of Consciousness

So, it's 12:30 at night, and I'm home because of some blood tests I had to have done. All of my friends are at college, so what else do I have to think about besides Ravens football? And when I think of something sports-related, I generally write it down on here. So, here are my thoughts on the Baltimore Ravens' offseason. 

I don't think Ray Lewis is going to be a Baltimore Raven next year, but I also don't believe he will be a New York Jet. In terms of salary cap money, this should tell you all you need to know. The Jets are dead last in the league in terms of cap space. The Cowboys don't fare much better, but I still think he's going to end up there. All they've lacked (or so they think) the past few years has been a leader in the locker room, and Ray Lewis provides that instantly. They will make a few cuts, and then break the bank for Lewis. After they choke their way out of the playoffs the next two years anyway, Tony Romo will rightfully be looking elsewhere for a job. 

Speaking of departures, I don't think Rex Ryan is going to be a very good head coach in the NFL. Rex is all about the buddy system. He loves his guys. This isn't college, though, where a bunch of young guys are going to follow every word you say because you recruited them. He's in a locker room with a bunch of 30 year old men teaching them a completely new way of playing. His way worked in Baltimore, but he also had Ed Reed, the best free safety in the NFL. He had one of the best linebackers in the NFL behind one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL. His scheme worked because he had the personnel to make it work. I think the Jets will be better on offense because he will run Thomas Jones into the ground, but I have my doubts whether the defense get much reward out of his risk-reward system. 

Now, as far as people staying, Terrell Suggs (pictured, right) is number one, and he will become the new leader of the Ravens next year. Harbaugh is very practice-oriented, and Suggs is energetic and doesn't mind practice. Ed Reed is getting up there in years, and the his nerve impingement in his neck isn't helping matters. Rumors have it him and Lewis smiled for the cameras, but neither was a big fan of Harbaugh. Suggs will be the man for the next five seasons or so, and expect Bart Scott to do everything he can to fill in Lewis's shoes at middle linebacker. Also, expect Jim Leonhard to be back, Dawan Landry to go elsewhere and succeed, and the Ravens will get a complementary pick for it somewhere in the draft. Jason Brown will also be back to anchor the offensive line. 

This is why I'm not buying into the now commonplace theory that the Ravens are due for a down year next year. Any defense with Trevor Pryce, Haloti Ngata, Kelly Gregg, Terrell Suggs, Bart Scott, Ed Reed and Fabian Washington playing for it will not be worse than a top 10 defense, and I don't care who the other four guys you line up are. (By the way, the other four will likely be very solid players in Jim Leonhard and Jarret Johnson, a potential star in middle linebacker tavares gooden, and a first round cornerback picked up in this year's draft.) Ngata and Gregg are both top 10 defensive tackles in the NFL, and if you don't believe me, look up Kelly Gregg's stats and compare them with other defensive tackles from 2003-07. You will find that Kelly Gregg has more tackles than any of them. Terrell Suggs is considered by all to be a top 5 outside linebacker. Already said is how dominant Reed is. The talent on defense will still be there. What will be missed is Ray's leadership, but leaders leave teams. New guys step in. John Harbaugh is a natural leader, and I believe in him.

To be continued in an immediate post following this; I don't have too much space left in this post. 

(Photo Credits: allposters.com)

Notable Pictures from the Weekend

I want you to get the context of this picture. I took it while on the bus, so I was sitting on the right side. It was as we were making a left turn. As you can see, the light was red, but we were turning anyway. The cop there is stopping traffic so we could pass. I think everyone that saw the bus pass by thought we were the actual players. 

Suggs; to get his attention, I actually yelled out "Hey, Sizzle!" I think he enjoyed that. 

Very nice and respectable pre-game

About this time, the "Let's Go Ravens" chant you heard started. 

If you want more pictures, check out my facebook. If you don't have one, or aren't friends with me on facebook, leave me a comment with your e-mail address, and I would be more than happy to send some to you. There were about 60 total, including some more good ones with players (Ngata, Mason, McGahee, McClain, Flacco, Johnson, Washington), and some shots of and around the hotel in which we stayed. 

Weekend Recap: VIP Style

This weekend, as some of you know, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Ravens-Miami game in Miami as a "Ravens VIP." It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I tried posting pictures with this, but I guess it would be too long, so I'm just going to asterisk things that have a picture to go with them and do a post immediately after this with the pictures I wanted. 

First, there was the so-called "VIP" treatment, which usually involves getting like a bagel and cream cheese on the flight (we did get that, by the way). The Ravens don't mess around with VIP, though. VIP means walking down stairs from the plane on to one of three coach buses. 

VIP also means police escorts. Meaning six police cars in a constant rotation around the three buses, blocking intersections*. 

And, of course, happenstance, not the Ravens, guaranteed this one, but being in Miami in January was nice, too. 

VIP also meant - and we didn't know this at the time - that we were staying in the same hotel as the Ravens. They checked in through the basement, so we didn't see them then. However, my sister and I stalked the hotel lobby from 4 to 6 and saw practically every player on his way out with other guys or a date out to dinner. 

A couple notes about the players, now. The nicest were Suggs (who actually stopped while he was in a hurry somewhere to take a picture*), Mason (who thanked us for coming down to support the team), and McGahee (the only Raven besides Flacco to smile). The rudest? Corey Ivy. As if he wasn't terrible enough on the field - and he's too small, slow, and weak to play in the NFL - the guy cussed out a little kid asking for his autograph. 

Side note here: Also in the group were some of the players' wives and, presumably because of his good friendship with Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, Maryland basketball Coach Gary Williams. Williams couldn't have been ruder. We were in line at the Ft. Lauderdale airport waiting to go through security, and somehow Williams ended up in line between me and my father. The line wasn't moving anywhere, Gary didn't have anything to do or anyone to talk to, and we weren't rude. We tried talking to him like he was anyone else that was in line with us. We just introduced ourselves, and I told him I was a Maryland student and a big fan. No "How's school? How's classes? You like it? Go Terps?" anything. Just an "Okay." I congratulated him on the Charlotte victory. Got a noncommittal head nod. Told him I was excited to attend the GT game this Saturday afternoon, and how it was fortunate the Ravens game wasn't until 4:30 so I could do both. Got a grunt about how GT plays them tough. What? I'm a student at your school and wasn't bothering you. But anyway.

Another note about the players, and this is the biggest cliche I'll give you tonight. They're huge. You knew that, I know. You don't know how big, though, until you get next to them in street clothes. Terrell Suggs could very well be the most jacked human being on this planet. And I kid you not when I tell you that one of Haloti Ngata's legs is about the width of both of mine put together. 

The rest of the weekend went as I expected it would. We went to the game. Miami, for their credit, was rocking that stadium at the beginning of the game. It was louder than it is in M&T Bank Stadium most Sundays, although a few extra thousand people couldn't have hurt that. They also did a nice pre-game ceremony, with Darius Rucker singing the national anthem and a field-sized flag stretched out*. 

I will say, though, Dolphin fans - probably because they don't go to their regular season games - are some of the least intelligent in the NFL. I had one guy to my left trying to convince me the Ravens got lucky when they beat the Dolphins by two touchdowns earlier in the year. After Derrick Mason's catch with about a minute left in the first half, a guy diagonal from me was screaming his head off about "throwing the flag" and couldn't comprehend when I told him that they couldn't do that. After Chad Pennington threw the incompletion on 3rd and 26 towards the end of the game, nobody around me knew that the force-out rule wasn't even in the NFL anymore, so it was a rightful incompletion. Also, Miami fans can secure season tickets next year by only paying a $100 dollar deposit. In Baltimore, you have to wait on a list for about 15 years, and that's not even near the longest in the NFL. One final note about their fans: they don't know when to cheer. They were louder while the team was on offense than on defense, and after the team got down, they stopped cheering for pretty much the rest of the game, save the Ronnie Brown touchdown grab. That being said, it didn't matter, because, by the end of the game, it was all Ravens fans anyway*. 

My actual game analysis will be in my next post, either today or tomorrow. Hope you enjoy the pictures.