2014 Baltimore Ravens Offseason Preview
By Patrick Conn
Feb 1, 2014; New York, NY, USA; Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh receives the Salute to Service award at the 3rd NFL Honors at Radio City Music Hall. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The 2013 NFL season is in the books after the Seattle Seahawks manhandled the Denver Broncos 43-8. It is time the Baltimore Ravens and John Harbaugh to refocus on building this team back up. They have already made one of those changes that I believe will be huge for this team offensively. Despite all of the struggles that the Texans had this season, new offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak should give Ravens’ fans a lot to be excited about.
The Texans were abysmal this past season but their rush offense should be a sign of what Ray Rice should be able to do moving forward. Despite only playing in 8 games Arian Foster did provide 725 all-purpose yards but only two touchdowns. His numbers were indicative of playing from behind during that span. His teammate Ben Tate played in 14 games and accumulated 911 yards and four more scores. Foster and Tate were injured for most of the season but their numbers prior to this season have shown that the combination of Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce should excel in this new offense.
The Ravens did lose key members of their defense prior to the season but they weren’t the reason that this team didn’t achieve at least a playoff berth coming off their Super Bowl Championship in 2012. They lost four games by a combined 11 points. The Ravens defense ranked 12th and 11th against the pass and run which is middle of the pack but should still be good enough to get a couple more wins. The Broncos were 27th against the pass and made it to the Super Bowl. Yes they did have Peyton Manning but Joe Flacco led the Ravens there just a season ago.
The Ravens have a number of spots that they will need to improve and a majority is on offense. Here is a list of players that are scheduled to be free agents come March 11th (the start of the new league year).
Offense:
- TE Dallas Clark
- TE Ed Dickson
- TE Dennis Pitta
- WR Jacoby Jones
- OT Eugene Monroe
- OT Michael Oher
- RB Bernard Scott
- WR Brandon Stokley
Defense:
- NT Terrence Cody
- CB Corey Graham
- DT Arthur Jones
- S James Ihedigbo
- S Jeromy Miles
- LB Daryl Smith
Like most successful teams they will need to look to the draft to fill these holes with the occasional free agent to fill the spots they aren’t able to fill in the draft. As the Seahawks proved last night you don’t need to overlook who can improve your team in the late rounds or even the undrafted guys. With such a deep underclassmen group in the draft this season, the Ravens should be able to find quality guys to get this team back to the top of the AFC North Division.
Ebony Bird will have their initial look at the 2014 NFL Draft class later this week.