I'm in Free Agent/Trade withdrawal. (C'mmon, John...I'mm mm jonesin' mann...)
But thanks to the Ravens' Tony Jefferson, I have something to write about: Tony says that the Cleveland Browns will have to come take the AFC North from the Ravens.
That's no surprise. He has to talk like that, because he is a Raven. Tony is also right that a lot of teams that loaded up on talent in one offseason fell on their faces when the lights came on.
But with all due respect to Tony, the Eagles and the Rams didn't, and the 2019 Browns are following that template: Building around a young franchise quarterback on his rookie deal.
The ones that failed squandered all their draft picks on a quarterback, or massively overpaid one, and blew either their draft picks or salary cap on one player.
Nick Snook tells us how the rest of the AFC North did in the offseason (as of a few days ago), and we can check out the Ravens:
They lost Z'adarius Smith, Terrelle Suggs, Eric Weddle, and C J Mosely from their NFL-best 2018 defense.
They did a great job of replacing Weddle with Earl Thomas, and signed corner Justin Bethel, but yeah, they took a bad hit overall.
The Suggs thing is predictably being over-inflated, as expecting a linebacker his age not to lose something is just silly. But the Mosely thing was very bad.
The Ravens did sign Saints RB Gramps Ingram, who should still kick butt in 2019 (and catch passes too. Since the Saints got that other guy, everybody forgot Ingram is an accomplished receiver).
They managed to hold onto most of the rest of their offense, but that's not saying much, and yes: I'm including Lamar Jackson.
Willie Snead is their X receiver, and Jordan Lasley is next. (One Ravens fan said that Browns fans are "delusional" if they think their 2019 wide receivers are better than the Ravens'. I kid you not!)
Obviously, Harbaugh has to go all-in with Lamar Jackson and his still-strong defense, so it's going to be smashmouth and misdirection out the yinyang on offense.
I'd be lying to myself if I said it would be easy to stop, or that Lamar Jackson can't play in the Lamar-freindly system Harbaugh has designed for him...
It will be unique in the NFL, just as Lamar Jackson is unique. None of the athletic quarterbacks in the NFL (including RG3) are anything like him, which is why some teams asked him to convert to wide receiver.
Charlie Weiss (among others) is a huge Lamar Jackson fan. As a thrower, Jackson has "decent" accuracy and a great arm. You can't expect him to stand in a pocket and distribute the ball (like the quarterbacks did in the olden days, or Brady does now), but if you "use him right", he'll be very hard to stop.
Still, the 2019 Ravens *ahead of further signings and the draft* offense will not be in the same zip code as the Browns or Steelers' offenses.
On third and long, Big Ben or Mayfield vs Jackson is a huge mismatch, even without comparing the wide receivers and tight ends.
Anyway, in 2018 the Browns split with the Ravens due to another Browns' missed Field Goal in the season finale.
In that final game, Baker Mayfield and co racked up 24 points on the Ravens defense.
NOW, Mayfield has OBJ! Njoku enters his third season, Callaway and Chubb their second, and the Ravens just lost C J Mosely sooo...
I'm sparing you the link, but another writer predicts that the Steelers will recapture the AFC North in 2019.
He does make some of the good points I have:
The loss of Antonio Brown is being over-inflated. It will certainly hurt them, but Big Ben had at least as much to do with AB's awesome numbers as AB himself did.
Moncrief is a very solid replacement, and they do have young talent in the wings.
Ebineezer Bell is irrelevant, and they have held onto that great offensive line, so (until Big Ben bites it) the Steelers will remain an offensive juggernaut.
But this writer? He predicted that the 2019 Browns would "collapse under the pressure" of their "overhyped" fan expectations!
Who is going to choke? Baker Mayfield? Steve Wilks? Errah...Freddie Kitchens will uhh...start calling dumb plays?
That's an irrational prediction, so the hell with it.
The guy ignored the respective defenses.
Gramps Barron can't be Ryan Shazier anymore, but will help the Steelers' defense a lot.
But not enough. This writer declaims several games the 2018 Steelers lost on bad calls, guys slipping, etc, but conveniently ignores the fact that Tyrod Taylor's Browns' became the Keystone Cops in managing to somehow not beat them in the season opener.
He predicts that in 2019 the "ball will bounce back the Steelers way", ergo they will win the AFC North again.
Now, I stand corrected by Jake Burns (again dammit) on how good Derrick Kindred is or can be in coverage.
He lists a bunch of safety options who he thinks will fit the Steve Wilks defense better than Kindred does, and provides films and analysis to back all his assertions up.
Jake starts with the available veteran free agents, and drives through the draft from the second to fourth rounds.
All these guys look awesome, but at the end of each analysis, Jake brings us back to reality with age, injury histories, inexperience/rawness, etc.
Tre Boston is (I think) still out there (with Cyprian and Berry), and I kinda think John Dorsey is talking to their agents...and waiting for them to see what Jake Burns sees, and come back down to Earth with their demands.
I'll spare you the link, but another writer thinks that the Browns should trade with the Raiders for SS Karl Joseph, who excels vs the run...to replace Rodney Kindredfield.
...because he is great vs the RUN...
This is sad: the writer's sole reason for this trade is the fact that Kindred missed more tackles than Joseph in 2018.
Joseph and Kindred are nearly identical.
Nick Snook beat me to analyzing Daniel Jeremiah's "advice" to the Browns after the OBJ trade, but he did a great job of it.
Jeremiah points to "focus": The Browns top pick is now 17th in the second round.
Every team naturally focuses on their top draft pick. You can't miss on that guy, or you get fired.
Jeremiah says (basicly) that, now that Dorsey has traded that first round pick, he and his staff can check out the other guys more thoroughly.
Daniel thinks that Dorsey and company will now do a better job of finding diamonds in the rough, surprise starters, and super-special-teamers with their remaining draft picks, now that they can write off a bunch of top-ranked players who might have been there at 17th overall, or (for that matter) 33rd overall.
17th in the second round is their top pick now. The Browns can out-analyze and scout almost everybody else in the lower rounds.
That's enough for now...except to note: the talent upgrades the Browns have made, and Baker Mayfield are real--not "hype". So are the losses the other teams suffered.
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