Team execs and coaches were back to business as usual for the Ravens annual "State of the Team" press conference held Feb. 7 at their Owings Mills training complex— a mere 4 days after winning Super Bowl XLVII.
Here are some of the highlights as they pertain to the future direction of the team:
With the Super Bowl behind you, the calendar moves forward, and it’s time to focus on the offseason and next season. How important is it to create organizational priorities quickly moving forward? (Gerry Sandusky, WBAL)
(GM OZZIE NEWSOME) “It’s very important. You could say we are five weeks behind the league. But, I will take being five weeks behind the league every year. (laughter) But, we’ve started already. We had a great personnel meeting yesterday. The coaches were very candid. We must have talked [about] between 70 and 75 players yesterday. So, that laid the foundation. Pat [Moriarty] and I have been meeting all morning. We’ll meet this afternoon, and we are preparing ourselves to go down to Florida this weekend where we will sit down – Dick, John, Pat, [assistant general manager] Eric [DeCosta], Steve and I – and we will talk through all the scenarios, just as we have done in the past two to three years. And then we fast forward. As soon as I get back, we are right in the draft meetings. So, it is full speed ahead, but I think with the people that we have in place who are in charge of different areas, we will be able to move through it very smoothly.”
Do you feel from a salary cap standpoint, regardless of whether Joe Flacco is signed or franchised, you will be able to retain some of your players, or are you prepared to lose a lot of free agents because of the realities of the salary cap? (Aaron Wilson)
(NEWSOME) “First of all, we will discuss all of that this weekend, and we will come up with our priorities as to how we are going to go about building the roster for 2013. But, we do realize that, starting with Joe, because at some point in the middle of February we’ve got to make a decision whether it’s the franchise tag or not. But, we will put our priorities together once we all get together, get down there in Jupiter [Florida] and have a chance to vent a little bit between us. But, we’ll come up with a plan.”
Knowing you will not have the same team back next season, are you confident that the young players will be a big help in moving the team forward? (David Ginsburg)
(HC JOHN HARBAUGH) “That’s a great point. The fact that so many guys got so much experience and played well, they’ve gotten a taste of it. They understand what it’s like to play in big games. That’s got to help us going forward.”
After the 2000 Super Bowl win, you tried to keep the team together and it became a tough salary cap situation. Will that experience play into what you might do this year, even though the salary cap seems like it will go up in 2014? (Stan White, WBAL)
(NEWSOME) “Yes. We will not repeat what we did in 2001, because we are trying to build where we can win Super Bowls more than just one more time. But, I think our team is structured differently this time also. We do have some veterans that will probably be retiring, but we have a great nucleus of young players. [We have] players who are just hitting into their prime that we are going to build this team around. But, we are not going to be restructuring contracts and do all of those different things to be able just to maintain this team to make another run. We’re not doing that. But, all that being said, John and I have talked about it, and we have talked to the coaches, [and] that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to try to go and repeat.”
(PRESIDENT DICK CASS) “By the way, the cap is not expected to go up dramatically in 2014. The cap this year is going to be roughly $121 million. It should not be much more than $122 million in 2014.”
John, you are very hesitant to answer reflective-type questions during the season. Now that you’ve won the Super Bowl, have you had a chance to reflect on things, and what are your thoughts on what you’ve accomplished? (Mark Zinno)
(HARBAUGH) “No, I haven’t. It’s like Steve said: The parade was amazing, and then Ozzie had us in there for 10 hours yesterday grinding. In all seriousness, it’s really amazing. It’s a wonderful thing. I’m proud of our guys beyond belief, our organization – from top to bottom and sideways – and everybody involved. Every face you see, you know, you want to give them a big hug and thank them. That’s really what it boils down to. And guys go back to work. We talk to our team about, ‘We’ve got to improve.’ We have to get better next year as a football team, just like we always do. That’s going to be our goal. And [G/T] Jah Reid is in the weight room lifting right now as we speak. So, that’s what we will be all about going forward.”
Steve, when the franchise passed from Art Modell to you, you’ve been charged with all the changes, and it’s your organization. Can you break down the three to five top decisions you made or didn’t make that led to the Lombardi Trophy? (Nestor Aparicio)
(OWNER STEVE BISCIOTTI) “Geez. Hiring him. (pointing to Harbaugh) I don’t have a list of three or five. I haven’t done that much. (laughing) Look around, with Ozzie and Eric and [senior vice president of public and community relations] Kevin Byrne. Kevin doesn’t get nearly as much credit as a confidant to all of us. He should be the fifth guy up here, really. I rely on Ozzie and John to counsel to me through the football stuff. I rely on Dick and Kevin to counsel me through the business side. Other than that, as you guys know, this place hasn’t changed much. There is not much that I can hang my hat on. I’m happy that I had that window of four years to see that we had such a quality organization and then be able to maintain it. So really, other than replacing the head coach, that’s about the only major decision I’ve made in all these years, unless you can come up with something that I did. I am willing to accept credit for anything else you can throw out there.” (laughing)
Steve, having achieved great success in business and now being at the pinnacle of the NFL, what is your personal philosophy about maintaining a drive and hunger to continue to succeed and do it again? (Mark Viviano)
(BISCIOTTI) “Ozzie kind of spoke on it. We are not going to get caught up in the moment and do things to our salary cap and make decisions in the euphoria of winning that could hurt us in 2014 and 2015, like we did in 2001. Every single veteran was restructured, I think, so that every single veteran could stay, and then we ended up losing so many people the next year [in 2002]. We don’t want to do that. You have to make sure that the excitement of the day doesn’t cloud what we promise to build, and that was a consistent winner. I am just proud for Baltimore, and there is a great pressure off of us. This is what we work for, and you know as you get closer that it’s like, ‘If we don’t get it this time …’ We felt that way last year. We have to get to it this time when we went up to New England, and we were devastated when we lost because we know how hard it is to get back there. Pittsburgh won two Super Bowls, and then didn’t make the playoffs the next year. So, we’re going to try and do that. We’re going to try and build a consistent winner. We’ve got this one in the bank. Like John said, you can never take it away from us. I’m just proud for Baltimore for everybody that gets to bask in this.”
Ozzie, how much of a priority will it be this offseason to address the left tackle position long term, and did Bryant McKinnie’s play in the postseason make him a more viable option to keep moving forward? (Luke Jones)
(NEWSOME) “I think the thing that we found out this season is that we have probably about eight or nine offensive linemen with starter potential that were able to go in and play very good football for us. So, I think you start with [the fact] that we have good depth. ‘B-Mac’ [McKinnie] is a free agent. I think the way he played down the stretch against [Colts DE Dwight] Freeney, against [Broncos OLB Elvis] Dumervil and then against [49ers OLB] Aldon Smith, I think it makes a statement for him. I think he has a decision to make as to whether he wants to come back and play here. But, I think we like our young guys. I think [run game coordinator] Juan Castillo is going to be a great addition to our staff. He is known for helping and developing young players. So, I feel very good about our offensive line. If you look at the point, you’re saying left tackle … But [Broncos OLB] Von Miller plays on the left side, and he has to go up against the right. So right now, it’s not a right tackle-left tackle thing. You have to have the ability to be able to hold up whether you’re playing on either side.”
Steve, could you talk about the coaching job that John did this year, especially in terms of all the challenges that the team had to overcome? (Kevin Cowherd)
(BISCIOTTI) “It goes back to all the coaches. We did have a lot of injuries, but they were marquee players, and we got Ray [Lewis] and [Terrell] Suggs back quicker than we thought. We didn’t know if we would get them back at all. [It was a] masterful job, but I think that it’s not a mosaic, really. It’s just every day he comes in and he talks with Ozzie, and they make the right decisions. It goes back to having those young players capable of stepping up. What I commend John for is that he spends a lot of time one-on-one with these guys. The 52nd guy on the roster is just as likely to be in a one-on-one meeting with John as Ray Lewis is. From an organizational standpoint, John understands that those guys on the bottom 15 – if you will – could be in at any given moment, so he spends an inordinate amount of time with the guys – the second half of the roster – so that he understands them. He has a real one-on-one relationship with them, and when it comes time to put them in, he knows what their strengths and weaknesses are. You can’t run a business by talking in front of a group. John spends the majority of his time in one-on-one meetings, and I think it’s the right way to run a business.”
You have said that Joe [Flacco] is the priority. You hope it gets done. If it does, who becomes next? (Morgan Adsit)
(NEWSOME) “That is, when we will take the time for the tag? Oh, if we get a deal done with Joe, we will not franchise another player. We will not do that. You are OK with that, right?” (looking to and asking Bisciotti)..
(BISCIOTTI) “Absolutely.” (laughter)
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