The annual “State of the Ravens” press conference was held on Thursday (January 7) and the main message coming from owner Steve Bisciotti—“No changes in coaching or personnel executives are required, the current group has my full confidence and support…”
That’s a refreshing approach from an owner in the wake of a bad season (5-11), especially when you see many owners around the league panicking and firing their leadership guys after only 2 or 3 seasons (the Glazers down in Tampa come to mind)…
Bisciotti along with team president Dick Cass, GM Ozzie Newsome and head coach John Harbaugh fielded questions from the media for about a full hour.
Some other key points made by the owner:
-He underestimated the domino effect of losing veteran pass rush specialist Terrell Suggs in Week One (Achilles tendon).
-Without creating pressure on opposing QB’s the Ravens defense was exposed, strained and stranded on the field for too many snaps. The team will be aggressively adding pass rushers in the Draft and in free agency.
-Ozzie said he will be seeking more depth at wide receiver in both the Draft and free agency.
-Joe Flacco’s recovery from knee surgery is going well and he is expected to be ready for 2016 training camp. Also, Ozzie said the team hopes to re-negotiate Flacco’s current contract to become more cap friendly, but even if it turns out they fail to do so, they will live with the $25 million cap hit if necessary in 2016.
Those are the main talking points— I will add more quotes from the top brass after a short break here…
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Some key statements from the owner Steve Bisciotti:
“Disappointed? Yeah. Mad? No…No, I don’t think we’re overhauling everything.”
“I hope that we don’t have as many injuries and I hope we have a whole lot more turnovers. I think those differences would get us back to where we want to be.”
“One thing that I’m proud of is that we all view continuity as a strength. Continuity doesn’t stem from laziness. It comes from confidence. And I believe in these guys. So I have a lot of faith that we’ll get it straightened out.”
“Yeah, I’m concerned about it [falling behind in the AFC North division]. But when I look at their rosters, I don’t think there’s a huge talent difference. I think Cincinnati is being touted as the class of our division. If we get all our players back, I think we’ll close that gap. If we have a good draft, if we do well in free agency, we can compete with them.”
Some key statements from GM Ozzie Newsome:
“I don’t think we’ll be as busy as some teams are in March. We never have…But if there’s a player that we think can come in and improve our football team and help us, we’ll have the cap room capable for being able to get that player signed.”
“Yes, I think we do [need more receivers]. And if possible, two, whether it’s by the draft and/or free agency. I think we need to continue to improve the depth of our receivers on this roster.”
“I think the biggest move is ‘Webby’ [Lardarius Webb] to safety. The way the game is going, to have someone that has some range – has some really good ball skills – back in the back end is very [much] needed. We have [cornerback] Shareece [Wright] that’s up for contract. That’s something that we’ll look at going forward. … It’s trending up. Would we like to add some more pieces if they’re available to us? We will definitely add them to it as we move forward.”
“Left tackle is important to protect the blindside of the quarterback. When [K.O.] agreed to move to left tackle, we thought it was a good thing for us to get a chance to watch him over the course of four games, and then also improve his value to the National Football League. We still have Eugene Monroe. When he was healthy, he played really well for us. We have some options.”
A key statement from John Harbaugh:
“We’re definitely looking to add somebody [at pass rusher] – not just there, but in a lot of other areas, too. I don’t want to pick it out and say that’s just the one spot, but pass rush is really important. You lose Terrell Suggs, you lose Pernell McPhee, you try to replace them, move guys into those spots and you work with them. Elvis Dumervil, I’ll tell you what, he was bringing it, week-in and week-out. But he was getting a lot of attention, too. … We want to add good players at every spot. And pass rushers, I would say, would really help us. We’re all determined to get that done.”
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