Preston and JO Question Trade/Direction Of Team

[PurpleRulz]

They don't seem to like this move at all, especially JO. Could this push JO to retirement? JO says Jamal was underutilized by team.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/football/bal-sp.preston308,0,1271830.column?coll=bal-sports-headlines

I know JO is a huge part of this franchise, but it may be time to move on without him. We should not fashion our offseason around what makes him happy.

[TTRaven]

Ogden needs to decide what he's going to do soon. Personally I think he's going to retire, and I think the Ravens might be thinking that also. Hopefully he'll let the Ravens know his final decision the right way.

I'm not even going to comment on the crap that Preston wrote.

[PurpleRulz]

Ogden needs to decide what he's going to do soon. Personally I think he's going to retire, and I think the Ravens might be thinking that also. Hopefully he'll let the Ravens know his final decision the right way.

I'm not even going to comment on the crap that Preston wrote.

I say we plan as if JO won't be back. Maybe the recent events (letting go of Mule and Jamal) is causing JO to want to retire. Let him. We should move on with Adam Terry at LT and just draft someone to take over RT. There will be a drop off, but we have to know that JO is not going to be here forever. Plus, ANYONE that replaces JO, the best LT in the history of the NFL, will be a drop off, but we must move on.

Maques Ogden commented that if JO feels "he won't have any fun" and if "his boys are not going to return" then JO will retire. As much as I respect JO, I want players that want to WIN, not just "have fun." Shoot, I would think winning IS fun.

JO needs to make up his mind and maybe he has. I'd rather have a hardwork Adam Terry at LT than a sulking JO at LT who is mad because he can't "have fun."

[ExiledRaven]

This was refreshing

Now I know with absolute certainty that J Lew was preston's "inside information" and more than likely JO was as well.

I never got JO questioning this and that. I know you want to win with the same old crew....the NFL isn't like that. JO is also bitter they didn't run Jamal like his 2000 yard season all the time. We all know how well we did. Lost in the 1st round of the playoff....the rest of the line isn't like that and we don't get 500 on the browns.

This isn't a "purge"....it's call constantly competitive.

Sometimes I just wonder if these guys get the gameplan. At some point they might think. Not playing with a friend is rough, but sometimes you have to man up.

[PurpleRulz]

This was refreshing

Now I know with absolute certainty that J Lew was preston's "inside information" and more than likely JO was as well.

I never got JO questioning this and that. I know you want to win with the same old crew....the NFL isn't like that. JO is also bitter they didn't run Jamal like his 2000 yard season all the time. We all know how well we did. Lost in the 1st round of the playoff....the rest of the line isn't like that and we don't get 500 on the browns.

This isn't a "purge"....it's call constantly competitive.

Sometimes I just wonder if these guys get the gameplan. At some point they might think. Not playing with a friend is rough, but sometimes you have to man up.


I'd rather win with a bunch of strangers than to lose with a bunch of friends. If JO wants to retire, then it just takes three names off the list of the 30 and over cap purge for 2008 (Jamal, Mule and JO). Hey, we all need to start preparing for life after JO anyways. Again, I'd rather have a hardworking Adam Terry at LT, than a sulking JO. And if Mason does not like it either, JO can take him as well. That way, we can begin the 2008 30 and over purge early.

[MoK55]

Does anyone else feel like Preston never is happy with what the Ravens do. I know he says he just telling it how it is or whatever but no matter what happens its never good enough or it’s not the right thing. He always has something bad for something good. I find myself just reading his articles just to see what he will say next. I was actually shocked it took till 9 tonight for him to post something on the sun website. I’m sure if we did not pick up anybody then He would of ripped the organization for dropping the ball. If we kept Jamal then we thought last years offense was good enough and we did not need to improve, he would rip the us for that as well.

Anyone who accelerates through a hole and does not stutter step to a hole is going to be better then Jamal. Loved watching Jamal in his prime, but it was way to frustrating the past couple years. It was time for a change. Yet in Preston's eyes, we didn’t make the right change.

The comments that J.O. made sorta shocks me. " I've been through salary-cap purges and rebuilding processes and I'm not sure where we're at." Not sure where we are at. Does it matter to you. they are moving on with you or with out you hopefully with. Come on guy. Does it trully matter. If the solid core of this team is ready to win and your the one everyone is waiting to hear from. If ya don’t wanna be part of it then go and retire. Don’t say comments like I don’t know where this organization is going when your not even sure if you’ll be part of it next year. I love ya, but don’t call out the Organization.

[PurpleRulz]

I am hip to what Preston does. His purpose is to get a rise out of folks. His blowing kisses at the Ravens would not sell papers (not that I have bought a newspaper in what? 15 years, because of the internet)?

This thread is more about what JO said than what Preston wrote. Someone, Billick, Ozzie or Steve Bisciotti, must reel these boys in with this whining to the media about everything. If that's what JO feels, then keep it in-house. I don't want to see (hear) the dirty laundry. Guys like JO, Reed, Jamal and Mason are setting a bad example for the younger players with this media whining.

More interesting is that Willis McGahee must be feeling like an ant right now if he is reading and hearing any of this stuff. Maybe this is a way for the JOs and Dan Wilcoxes to tell Willis to not start any shit when he gets here and that Willis better fall in line with the troops.

[festivus]

Does anyone else feel like Preston never is happy with what the Ravens do. I know he says he just telling it how it is or whatever but no matter what happens its never good enough or it’s not the right thing.

Understand you have said two things.

1. Preston is never happy no matter what the Ravens do.

2. Preston is telling it like it is.

Premise (1), while absolutely true, gives the lie to premise (2).

Preston is a whiny complaining malcontent. I do not encourage the people who post here to think they know more then the *real* experts - the FO, often times the coaching staff. With their superior access and their devotion of 18 hour days to their craft, and their records of success, we owe them the benefit of the doubt when we are unsure.

We owe *no* such benefit to Preston. Preston does not know about professional football, he hangs around the Ravens complex and gathers morsels of 'information' from whoever is at the time the most malcontented.

He is the voice of the ignorant hater fan.

[PurpleRulz]

Understand you have said two things.

1. Preston is never happy no matter what the Ravens do.

2. Preston is telling it like it is.

Premise (1), while absolutely true, gives the lie to premise (2).

Preston is a whiny complaining malcontent. I do not encourage the people who post here to think they know more then the *real* experts - the FO, often times the coaching staff. With their superior access and their devotion of 18 hour days to their craft, and their records of success, we owe them the benefit of the doubt when we are unsure.

We owe *no* such benefit to Preston. Preston does not know about professional football, he hangs around the Ravens complex and gathers morsels of 'information' from whoever is at the time the most malcontented.

He is the voice of the ignorant hater fan.

Preston knows what he is talking about and know what he is doing and he's good at it. I don't begrudge him that and I do read his article...for what they are. Again, my focus is on JO's comments.

[Raineman]

Wow! I didn't read the article, and I frankly just breezed through this thread. I am blown away at the way some of you are talking about JO. It reminds me of the line from "Tuskeegee Airmen" ......."are we only to be Americans when the mood suits you?"

Must have been a hell of an article the Donut wrote to have you all turn on JO so easily....and fast. Seems I was just reading the other day how JO deserves the time to make his decision, and that there was a respect level there that the FO was not going to force the issue.

:179421:

[PurpleRulz]

Wow! I didn't read the article, and I frankly just breezed through this thread. I am blown away at the way some of you are talking about JO. It reminds me of the line from "Tuskeegee Airmen" ......."are we only to be Americans when the mood suits you?"

Must have been a hell of an article the Donut wrote to have you all turn on JO so easily....and fast. Seems I was just reading the other day how JO deserves the time to make his decision, and that there was a respect level there that the FO was not going to force the issue.

:179421:

1. That line from Tuskegee Airman still holds even in today's times, but in a subtle way, but don't get me started on that.

2. You did not read the article, yet you are responding to our comments concerning JO's quotes from the article. Hmmmmmmmm.

[ravensjeff]

Jo's comments were harmless.

And Preston is an idiot. He must be the only writer who thinks Magahee wasnt an upgrade.

Glad to hear we signed him to a 7yr deal. I cant wait to see him run.

[purplepoe]

Jo's comments were harmless.

And Preston is an idiot. He must be the only writer who thinks Magahee wasnt an upgrade.

Glad to hear we signed him to a 7yr deal. I cant wait to see him run.

Yup.

But people on boards will eat it up and raise hell about it.

PP

[darb72]

I thought we discussed not ever discussing that idiot Preston on this forum?

If Jon isn't happy, then he needs to retire. The instant football starts to feel like a job, then you're going to start being really, really bad.

[Ravens0587]

I thought we discussed not ever discussing that idiot Preston on this forum?

Man law!

[UKRavenStockers]

I'd love Jon to come back but it's totally understandable if he chooses to retire.

But if I'm brutally honest, what the FO needs to do doesn't depend on Jon coming back or not. Whether he comes back or not we need a starting RT and whether he comes back or not we have either an elite or good starting LT. Unlike Kansas City last year with Willie Roaf, we aren't going to get left short at LT if he ponders for a long time.

[ravenwoman]

The reason we got McGaghee was to win now. Does anyone think Jamal Lewis is going to get better? Jon Ogden should be happy as heck we got him!

We need our "O" line to get younger. That's why Edwin was released, in part. As far as the draft picks, we are getting draft picks from losing Maake, Chester Taylor from last year. We will get comp. draft picks next year from losing AD, Ovie, and Pashos. What's the big deal here? Seventh round picks more often than not don't amount to anything anyway.

I trust the front office on this one and I am glad Jamal Lewis signed with Cleveland. They just wasted 3.5M of their cap.

[PurpleRulz]

Jo's comments were harmless.

And Preston is an idiot. He must be the only writer who thinks Magahee wasnt an upgrade.

Glad to hear we signed him to a 7yr deal. I cant wait to see him run.


Having a player question the direction of the team behind closed doors IS harmless. Having that player do it in the media and giving the media fuel to turn this into a distraction, is harmful.

Steve Bisciott or Billick needs to put a muzzle on these players just openly bitching through the media. It is cowardly, but JO is just trying to stir things up and needs the validation of the media to get his point across. We have JO, Mason, Wilcox and Reed all crying in the media. We got rid of crybaby Jamal. They are displaying a lack of wisdon, and are poor examples for the young players. Wisdom teaches, in part, that you know what to say, when to say it and how to say it. Keep it in house.

[festivus]

Having a player question the direction of the team behind closed doors IS harmless. Having that player do it in the media and giving the media fuel to turn this into a distraction, is harmful.

Steve Bisciott or Billick needs to put a muzzle on these players just openly bitching through the media. It is cowardly, but JO is just trying to stir things up and needs the validation of the media to get his point across. We have JO, Mason, Wilcox and Reed all crying in the media. We got rid of crybaby Jamal. They are displaying a lack of wisdon, and are poor examples for the young players. Wisdom teaches, in part, that you know what to say, when to say it and how to say it. Keep it in house.

Supposedly Wilcox was misquoted/taken badly out of context, and wants to come forward to clarify. He, according to Drew F., contacted NST and arranged to be on the afternoon (I think) show today. Hopefully someone who listens will write a detailed summary of the interview, I probably won't get a chance.

[festivus]

I thought we discussed not ever discussing that idiot Preston on this forum?

Sorry, my bad [self flagellation]. In my defense, the Noob asked.

[jonboy79]

But if I'm brutally honest, what the FO needs to do doesn't depend on Jon coming back or not. Whether he comes back or not we need a starting RT and whether he comes back or not we have either an elite or good starting LT. Unlike Kansas City last year with Willie Roaf, we aren't going to get left short at LT if he ponders for a long time.

The only thing that scares me abotu this is that it is correct. Meaning, I think that the FO almsot feels it has to get a day 1 starting quality RT. I hope what that means is they have someone scouted and rankede much better then me, because otherwise I think we might be reaching for Ugoh in round 1 for fear of beign empty handed. Regardless, if JO is back, I expect Terry to be the day 1 starter. If JO retires, or gets injured, Terry is LT, and a good one, that's understood, but the right side needs immediate attention either way. Because of this, and the fact that I see 29 and 61 to be likely talent vacuums(At least for day 1 RT material) for OT's. I see us reaching fo rthe first time in a while, though it could be argued Pittman was a reach due to an emfatuation...

We really have ZERO NEEDS behind OT, but there are plenty of places we could increase depth. Ozzie and DeCo are top notch talent evaluators, so hopefully I'm worried for nothing.

[UKRavenStockers]

At OT I really don't see the immediate impact at RT in the draft unless we can somehow get Levi Brown, who looks like only an RT to me and if NFL Scouts share that opinion he'll fall, if not he'll stay around 10-20 range and even if he's only an RT he won't get past KC I fear.

I don't like the idea of reaching for a Joe Staley or a Tony Ugoh at 29. If we take an OL there I'd want it to be Arron Sears of Tennessee who I think has the versatility to play guard and RT so could be a potential starter from day one.

That said I think we go BPA again and that could be a WR. Mason we know isn't happy and in the 2nd half of the year seemed to lose a step in being able to get open. A guy like Sidney Rice or Robert Meachem could be BPA at 29 and would ensure us a good 3 WR set for years to come. And with that talent at WR would Billick consider a return to a more wide open offense?

I'm probably not in favour of that and with my increasing uncertainty of whether anything but WR is value at 29 I'm of the opinion that our best option is probably to drop back from 29 to the top(ish) of the 2nd and pick up an extra pick on day one, as I think day one has pretty decent depth this year.

[GreenWave52]

I would love some combination of Blalock, Sears, or Buster Davis. I need to read up on Ugoh, he sounds like he would be good value if he falls to us in the second round.

Everyone says this is a deep WR year, but to be honest I'm not that enamored with any of them. Plus WR is one of the deeper positions we have on the team.

I think the deepest position is d-line in this draft. I wouldn't be surprised if we took a true DE early on the 2nd day. We are thin there after our starters.

On topic: Preston is Preston and JO is upset some of his friends are no longer on the team. Hopefully he gets over it and plays next year (I think he will).

[UKRavenStockers]

I would love some combination of Blalock, Sears, or Buster Davis. I need to read up on Ugoh, he sounds like he would be good value if he falls to us in the second round.

Everyone says this is a deep WR year, but to be honest I'm not that enamored with any of them. Plus WR is one of the deeper positions we have on the team.

I think the deepest position is d-line in this draft. I wouldn't be surprised if we took a true DE early on the 2nd day. We are thin there after our starters.

On topic: Preston is Preston and JO is upset some of his friends are no longer on the team. Hopefully he gets over it and plays next year (I think he will).

Give me Baraka Atkins in round 2. I think he's got an immense amount of talent and is the ideal backup to Trevor Pryce that we don't have at the mo.

[donnaj]

I would have thought that JO would be more upset abou tlosing Edwin than Jamal. I heard a great description of Jamal last night on the radio. He is a true football guy, doesn't play for the passion of the game, he simply plays because he is good at it and can make a lot of money doing it. Apparently his true passion is in outside interests like his trucking company. Now, hearing that his passion is not really with FB made a lot of sense considering his level of play. He didn't expect more from himself than what he delivered on the field and didn't really understand those folks that bleed purple's concern with his declining performance. unfortunatley he and JO both are sadly mistaken when they say he would have done better with more carries. We can look at the stats ourselves and see that his yards per carry actually decreased when given more carries. Sure we could have given him more carries and his total yards would have increased, that's a no brainer, but at what cost? If we had just tried to get Jamal more yards we would have had many fewer wins and I would hope as should JO that our goal is to win and advance to the next level of getting the to the championships ( AFC and SuperBowl). Jamal made a comment that he liked what Cleveland's goals were to run the ball more, well that just confirmed to me that Jamal is not a eam player, he is not about winning, he is about getting his own stats. I thought more from JO than that, JO has always struck me as a player that LOVES the game and wants to WIN, as was witnessed by his passion on the sideline this season, but if he can't see that the FO is trying to increase our competitiveness and be in the championship ranks every year than either JO is not as smart as I have given him credit or it really is time to hang up the cleats. Football is a fun game, but when a team wins they have a heck of a lot more fun than when they are getting frustrated about opportunities left on the field. JO opened up holes for JAmal last season that he simply danced in front of, I would think that got frustrating for JO, he should be excited about having a back that can cut into those holes and get more than 3.6 yards per carry. JO will see the chains more much more next season from those same blocks now that our offense has a little explosiveness to it!

[HDDream]

Everyone says this is a deep WR year, but to be honest I'm not that enamored with any of them. Plus WR is one of the deeper positions we have on the team.

I think the deepest position is d-line in this draft. I wouldn't be surprised if we took a true DE early on the 2nd day. We are thin there after our starters.

Not only DE, but don't to be too shocked if they take another DT as well. With Franklin leaving, they only have three (assuming Edwards stays as Pryce's backup) and the Ravens, like every team, like to play four at that spot.

As for WR, one of the biggest needs on the team, imo, is a return specialist (given the injury and off the field stuff with Sams). That could come from the WR group, although in an ideal world the returner would be another safety.

[Raineman]

donnaj-

Para-

graphs


please.


I got lost in there somewhere.

[ExiledRaven]

Give me Baraka Atkins in round 2. I think he's got an immense amount of talent and is the ideal backup to Trevor Pryce that we don't have at the mo.

What do you think about this guy?
http://www.nfldraftcountdown.com/scoutingreports/de/ikaikaalamafrancis.html

He's a bit raw, but Hawaii's D is really physical and could be solid at the 3-4 DE.

the 3rd might be a better spot, but I'll have to look at more film

[UKRavenStockers]

What do you think about this guy?
http://www.nfldraftcountdown.com/scoutingreports/de/ikaikaalamafrancis.html

He's a bit raw, but Hawaii's D is really physical and could be solid at the 3-4 DE.

the 3rd might be a better spot, but I'll have to look at more film

All depends upon what defensive front we're running. For some reason I favour a return to the 4-3 with the personnel we have right now and Atkins facilitates that as I don't see the other 3-4 OLB to go opposite Suggs where as we have the ideal LE in Pryce along with the two DTs in Ngata and Gregg as well as the ideal 3rd down and spell DT in Bannan. Pick up another nose to take the place of Franklin and then Atkins and we're set for a four man front.