Where Do We Go From Here?

The Ravens’ season is over. The only thing we can really do, aside from cheer on former defensive coordinator Rex Ryan and his Jets, is look forward to next year. There could be a lot of turnover on the roster, with around half of the players being free agents. There are a lot of major names on that list of free agents too, including LeRon McClain, Donte Stallworth, TJ Houshmandzadeh, Jared Gaither, Marshall Yanda, Chris Chester, Haloti Ngata, Fabian Washington, Josh Wilson, Chris Carr, Dawan Landry, Sam Koch, and Billy Cundiff. Some of these guys won’t be back. McClain said yesterday he didn’t expect to be back. Housh said he’d like to come back, but the returns of him and Stallworth are doubtful. Gaither would like to come back, but it’s unknown if the Ravens want him back with how much of a lost year 2010 was for him. Washington was terrible for most of his tenure in Baltimore and should be shown the door.

But most of the rest, I’d like to see come back. Wilson impressed me this season after being acquired from Seattle during training camp, and I wouldn’t really mind if he was brought back next season to either start or be a nickel, with Domonique Foxworth hopefully recovered enough from his torn ACL to take on one of those roles as well. Carr was decent enough for the team, and could also take on more of a role next season. Landry is pretty good opposite Ed Reed at safety, and the duo of Koch and Cundiff is one of the best kicking tandems in the league.

The biggest free agent though, and the man the Ravens have given priority to bringing back, is Ngata. The man has been an absolute beast for the Ravens since being drafted out of Oregon, and I don’t want to imagine the team’s defensive line without him. Ngata can stuff the run, pressure the quarterback, and even for the hell of it sometimes, bat down passes. He is everything you could want in a defensive tackle, and the Ravens should throw every dollar in Steve Bisciotti’s bank account at him. If Ngata plays elsewhere in 2011, the Ravens chances of making the playoffs take a huge hit. As much as I like Terrance Cody’s size and ability to clog up the middle, he doesn’t have the athleticism that Ngata has. The team *needs* Ngata to stay.

There could also be shakeups on the Ravens’ coaching staff in 2011. With the hiring of former Baltimore QB coach Hue Jackson as the new Oakland head coach, there are rumblings that he could picking apart the Ravens staff for members for his own staff. Offensive assistant Al Saunders is apparently going to be Jackson’s offensive coordinator. It’s also rumored that current QB coach Jim Zorn won’t be back. That’s fine and dandy and all, but I think Joe Flacco was fine this season. I don’t know how you’re going to improve him by giving him another new position coach. Offensive coordinator Cam Camerson on the other hand? Yeah, I wouldn’t be crying if he was sent to the bread line. His play calling was terrible at points (most notably, in the second Pittsburgh game…Flacco passing when the Ravens are trying to run out the clock?), and it got to the point where every game, you could expect a reverse with Stallworth called to get a yard or two. There was no unpredictability at all with his playcalling.

All we can do now is wait. The draft is still over three months away…so we’ve got plenty of time to start overanalyzing everything and continue to be optimistic fans.