The post-Super Bowl mass exodus

The Post-Super Bowl Mass Exodus

 

Ray Lewis was nice enough to give us a few weeks to absorb his retirement, and nothing could ease the pain of losing a legend better than watching an historic post-season run. We knew going into the Super Bowl that, regardless of the outcome, the world had seen Ray Lewis strap up to play for the last time in his decorated 16-year career.


Ravens fans did not, however, expect to lose so many more. Here goes the list:

• Matt Birk (retirement) - Political activism aside, Matt Birk deserves credit for holding an often patchwork offensive line together for four years with the Ravens. Whether he was flanked by Grubbs, Gradkowski or Osemele, Birk seemed to make the guards around him elevate their game. I have my fingers crossed that the big Pollock Gradkowski (I'm Polish, don't write me hate mail) can fill the huge void left by Birk.

• Dannell Ellerbe (free agency) - Ellerbe joins a long list of Ravens linebackers who matured and excelled with the Ravens, then signed a lucrative contract elsewhere. Ellerbe became an excellent inside linebacker over the past two years, but at $35 million over 5 years, the Dolphins can have him.

"Luck" is an understatement for Kruger...

• Paul Kruger (free agency) - This is still the funniest off-season storyline. During Kruger's four seasons with Baltimore: 
• he saw action in 51 games (out of a possible 64) 
• recorded 69 total tackles (of which 22 were assists) 
• notched 15.5 sacks (UNDER FOUR per season)
• forced ONE fumble and snagged TWO interceptions.

So, Cleveland does what it does best and overpays another mediocre player (see: Braylon Edwards). 5 years, $40 million for a guy who MIGHT give you 4 sacks a year. Oh yeah, and he's not playing opposite recent Defensive Player of the Year, Terrell Suggs.

•  Ed Reed (free agency) - Ozzie wasn't going to give Reed $15 million over three years when he'll probably retire in two, and our GM obviously had an eye toward getting younger. I love Ed, and Baltimore will miss him, but he's become too unpredictable (on the field and off). He remains a class act off the field, taking out a full-page ad in The Sun thanking Baltimore for an amazing run, and he recently joined his former team at the White House for the Super Bowl ceremony. Good luck with that hip surgery, and I wish Ed Reed nothing but the best with the Texans. Except when we play them in week three.

What do you mean, "look for the football?"

• Cary Williams (free agency) - $17 million for three years? HE GOT MORE THAN ED REED?! If you asked me last year, "What's Cary Williams' role on the Ravens in the 2012 season?" I probably would have responded, "Getting cut in training camp." I will thank Cary for the few things he did throughout the season to help us win a championship, but he was a long ways off from being a "good" cornerback. Buh-bye.

Check out the ref in the back right. He's blurry, but it definitely looks like he's cringing watching this hit.

• Bernard Pollard (cut) - This is one of the two moves that still has me scratching my head. We cut him for "cap reasons," after we signed Joe. His cap hit for next year would have been around the $1 million mark, which is next to nothing for a solid, play-making, veteran strong safety. 

EDIT: In the couple weeks since I started doing these initial posts, Pollard has made some comments that lend some truth to the rumors of him being a problem in the locker room. He didn't join the team at the White House—and he's not the only one, don't get me wrong—even though Reed and Lewis attended, and he won't even participate in the ring ceremony. He sounds bitter and childish about the move to cut him, and I am starting to believe that he was indeed an agitant in the Ravens clubhouse.

• Anquan Boldin (traded) - I'm still working on un-furrowing my brow at this move, even over a month later.

If you're going to cut Pollard to save cap space, why not use the extra space to throw another million at Anquan, whose postseason stats were through the roof:

• 22 receptions on 36 targets
• 380 yards with a long of 50 yards
• 17.3 yards per catch
• Four touchdowns
• Super Bowl: 6 receptions for 104 yards and a touchdown.

Phew. That's all the bad news. Now we can get to...

The Good News

 

We've seen this all before. No one wanted to let go of Mason or Heap or Ben Grubbs. But we did. And Ravens nation flipped out... That is, until the team took the field the following year with Torrey Smith, Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta.

This is what Ozzie does. He drafts well, he makes the tough decisions and his "right player, right price" mentality has paid huge dividends.

So now that we've looked at the players we've lost, let's look at the ones we've brought in (click on the players' names to open their ESPN player profile in a new tab):

• Chris Canty (DT, Giants)—You can bunch Canty and Spears together in the "well played, Mr. Newsome" category. Both are shrewd, inexpensive, veteran additions to an already formidable defensive line. We should see even more varied defensive packages this year, and a much more fresh Haloti Ngata throughout the season.

• Michael Huff (SS, Raiders)—Solid players on poor teams can be had for very little money. This was the case with Huff, who has churned out a bunch of respectable seasons with a less-than-stellar supporting cast. Still relatively young, Huff joins first-round pick Matt Elam to patrol the Ravens secondary.

• Marcus Spears (DE, Cowboys)—See: Chris Canty.

• Rolando McClain (LB, Raiders)—See: picture above.

That's amazing. I'm not even mad.

• A.Q. Shipley (C, Colts)—A harmless, depth-oriented acquisition. Shipley has started a few games recently, but he shouldn't provide much of a challenge for Gino Gradkowski, who ought to win the starting Center battle.

• Bryant McKinnie (LT, Ravens)—This was huge (no pun intended... seriously). Anyone who followed The Ravens throughout the season and during the playoffs noticed a stark contrast between Flacco's protection during the first 16 weeks and the final four games. Bryant McKinnie was the reason. He allowed Oher to move back to RT (the only place Oher is worth anything) and gave our interior lineman a huge boost.

Practice makes perfect.

• Elvis Dumervil (DE, Broncos)—The biggest coup of he Ravens' offseason (so far). With the Elvis Dumervil, The Ravens not only have arguably the best defensive line in the league, but the best pass-rushing tandem as well. Granted, this is all on paper, and we have no idea what Suggs' Achilles is going to do, but I'm excited.

That's it for this week. We'll have one more post about the Ravens on Monday, taking a look at the draft, potential impact starters and a breakdown of the regular-season schedule. After that, we'll mostly be talking O's. And for the second year in a row, it's mostly good things.