Feb 3, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; Baltimore Ravens inside linebacker Dannell Ellerbe (59) celebrates on his knees after winning Super Bowl XLVII at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports

So the sky is officially falling in Baltimore(at least if Ravens fans reactions are anything to go by). In the past 36 hours the Ravens have lost a 33 year old WR who never had a 1000 yard season for them, a situational pass rusher who couldnt cut it as a full time starter(and never had a double digit sack season) and a former undrafted free agent who started 14 games in his career thus far.

Those are all over-simplifications, but do you get the point? these losses suck. especially when they are fan favorites like Boldin and Ellerbe, but this is life in the NFL. When you draft well and always have a loaded roster full of in house talent, you have to let some guys go. look at the Ravens top cap hits. Suggs, Ngata, Yanda, Flacco, Rice. All in house talent. This is what Baltimore does.

Every year Baltimore fans should just lock themselves in a padded soundproof room with no access to the outside world from the start of free agency till after the draft. That way we could do without the month and a half of bitching in between about how Ozzie has lost his touch and the Ravens are doomed. May I remind you that for the past 4 seasons, Sports illustrated has not picked the Ravens to make the playoffs once. ESPN has only picked them in 2 of the past 5. Yahoo is also 2 of 5. The Ravens have made the playoffs 5 of 5 and won a championship and picked up 3 AFC title game appearances on the way. Every year the Ravens are popular picks to have a down year because they “cant replace this guy” or “will miss that guy”. Some of the notable departures were Derrick Mason, Todd Heap, Kelly Gregg, Ben Grubbs, Bart Scott, Dawan Landry, Willis McGahee etc. None of those guys were really missed all that much.

So today, news came that Paul Kruger had signed with the Browns for 8 million per year(suggs only makes 10 per year), I didnt worry, or honestly care about it. If Kruger were worth that much, The Ravens would have him right now because they always find a way to pay their players. Kruger was a situational guy and there are about 5 guys in free agency that could fill that role easily with Upshaw as a full time starter.

A few hours later, Dannell Ellerbe signed with the Dolphins. i will admit, I was initially upset at this. And then I saw the numbers. 5 years 35 million is insane for a player with questions about his focus and health with 14 career starts. 7 million per year would be a crippling contract for the Ravens for a player that is good, but far from great. For reference, Ray Rice makes 8 million per year. Can anyone out there convince me that Ray Rice and Dannell Ellerbe are equivalent value players? I didnt think so.

Calm down Ravens fans. The Ravens management knows how to play this game. They re-signed some good guys today. David Reed, Morgan Cox and most significantly James Ihedigbo will be back. Were those guys as important as the guys that were lost? probably not, but the Ravens won a championship as a team, one unit. They didnt win because they had a handful of superstars, they won because they had a ton of stars and an incredible supporting cast. None of that has changed. By the time the draft is over, I have confidence that the Ravens will be among the best teams in the league once again. This is a tough day in Baltimore every year, but just like it has for the past 10 years of roster cuts and free agent losses, the sun is going to come back up in the morning.

Jan 28, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco (5) during a press conference at the Hilton Riverside Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

The Ravens came into the offseason with one mega-free agent, and 4 big free agents. The Mega, of course, was Joe Flacco. He was, by far, the best free agent on the market and was coming off one of the top 3 post-seasons in NFL history which ended in a championship win and a Super Bowl MVP. The 4 big free agents were Dannell Ellerbe, Ed Reed, Paul Kruger and Cary Williams.

The Ravens highest non-Flacco priority was always Dannell Ellerbe, The Ravens are losing Ray Lewis to retirement and have another Linebacker still recovering from a spinal injury, so keeping the best ILB you have is a major priority and a big big part of the roster. Without Ellerbe the Ravens have a massive problem at linebacker, with him they need some depth and a player that can challenge for the other starting spot.

Ed Reed has played his entire hall of fame career with baltimore and retiring with the team would just be the cherry on the top of his career. Reed isnt the player he used to be, but he still changes the way offenses play the Ravens. Reed got more attention for a few missed tackles, but no one talked about how QBs still avoid his entire side of the field like the plague. Aside from the sentimental side of the Reed issue, the Ravens dont have another replacement on the roster. Their best option is probably putting Christian Thompson in the starting role(players call him little Ed Reed because of his nose for the ball), but Thompson is still just a second year player from a small school that was taken in the 5th round. behind Thompson there isnt a backup at all. The good news is that this years draft is the best safety class in at least 5-6 years, and the Ravens could easily take a guy like Matt Elam, Eric Reid or DJ Swearinger. It would be very nice to have Reed teach these guys how to be a pro for a year or two before they stepped into starting role.

Paul Kruger and Cary Williams are luxury re-signings. The Ravens already have players to replace them on the roster (Upshaw for Kruger and jimmy smith for Williams) that were first or second round picks in the past 2 years. The priority between the two would clearly be Kruger, but in all honesty Kruger has played his way into a bigger contract than the Ravens could ever afford. Williams thinks he is worth quite a bit more than it appears the Ravens think he is worth and all indications are that the Ravens wont even make a serious effort to re-sign him.

In all likelyhood, Kruger and Willaims were gone no matter what happened with Flacco, but Ellerbe and Reed had a chance if Flacco got a new deal. Now Flacco has that deal.

The Ravens will have until March 12th to try and get a deal done with those other players. It wouldn’t be a huge shock to see Reed or Ellerbe get tagged, though I certainly wouldn’t expect it to happen. A tag for Reed would only cost about 7 million and would almost assure he retired a Raven. Ellerbe would be a bit more expensive to tag(about 8.8 million), and he needs a long term deal anyway. Ellerbe will be the Ravens next biggest priority, and it is very likely that they will allow Reed to test the market. The hope with Reed is that he will go out, find out there isnt a place that will pay him substantially more than Baltimore will(probably about 4 million) and be a better place for him. It is highly unlikely that Reed will find a place willing to build around him this late in his career the way that the Ravens defense is built around him. That makes Baltimore the best place for him to be as far as on-field life goes. The money might not be perfect here, but at the end of the day Baltimore is where Reed belongs and i think Reed will recognize the significance of playing an entire career in one place.

Without Flacco signing on the dotted line, there was no way the Ravens could have re-signed anybody. Now they have some space to maneuver and get some of their players back. Flaccos deal may sound huge at 120.6 million, but compared to a franchise tag, the deal is a huge bargain. It probably saves the Ravens about 12-15 million in cap space this season(we will know for sure on Monday when the contract is signed). That is space the Ravens can use to take care of their own, and that is just what they intend to do.

Jan 20, 2013; Foxboro, MA, USA; Baltimore Ravens inside linebacker Dannell Ellerbe (59) celebrates with teammates after intercepting a New England Patriots pass during the fourth quarter of the AFC championship game at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Can You hear that? That is the sound of every GM in football evaluating the Ravens upcoming free agents during the Superbowl.

Playerw who have big games in the Superbowl don’t always get big deals, but they do quite often. Al Davis was notorious for evaluating heavily during the Superbowl and signing guys to contracts that were way to big based on one game. He signed three straight Superbowl MVPs during the 90s and all three of them busted out, but they got paid first.

All that is just to say that a huge Superbowl performance just raises the market value for a player(be it a little or a lot). With that in mind, here are a few guys who can drive their value up on Sunday.

1. Paul Kruger- Kruger is a pass rusher pure and simple. He also plays well against the run but he is a pass rusher first and foremost. let me let you guys in on a secret. PASS RUSHERS GET PAID. period. if Kruger turns in a 2 sack game and gets constant pressure in route to a Superbowl win, he will get paid. whether that is with the Ravens or with some other team is yet to be decided.

2. Dannell Elerbe- Ellerbe is in for a payday either way. He just has a chance to raise his value by increasing his leverage. I suspect Elerbe will be a Ravens one way or another unless some team gives him a stupid high offer, but the amount of money he makes playing for the Ravens is still to be determined. He can give himself some bargaining fuel this weekend.

3. Cary Williams- Williams has been hated on by Ravens fans all season(and last season). Cary Williams is a good football player though. He probably shouldn’t be any teams no.1 corner, but he is a solid number 2 guy and he has made some money this year. the Ravens offered him 3 years 15 million last year, right now I think he is worth about 17-20 million over the same stretch. with a big Superbowl he could raise that number as high as about 21-22 million.