23 replies to this topic

[PrimeTime]

I'm still convinced the Ravens repeat in 2001 if he doesn't have his knee injury.

A great "what if" in franchise history. Also, had we stuck with Dilfer, would we have been better off? Even without Jamal in '01, the guys respected Dilfer and the obviously didn't care for Grbac. Or should we have gone to Randall Cunningham and stuck with him?

[NewMarketSean]

I'm still convinced the Ravens repeat in 2001 if he doesn't have his knee injury.

Losing Search on day one of training camp didn’t help matters either.

[NewMarketSean]

A great "what if" in franchise history. Also, had we stuck with Dilfer, would we have been better off? Even without Jamal in '01, the guys respected Dilfer and the obviously didn't care for Grbac. Or should we have gone to Randall Cunningham and stuck with him?

Who knows what things would have been like with Jamal and Searcy. I think Grbac would have benefitted from them being healthy but let’s be honest, the guy didn’t have heart and eventually quit. 
 

Dilfer would have likely been an improvement and Cunningham too. Just one of those aggressive decisions I didn’t blame the Ravens for making at the time but it blew up in their faces. 

[Ravens2006]

I think it was obvious later in '01 that Cunningham would give them a better chance come kick-off, but the Grbac signing had been so big a story that they were going to ride it out with him as long as he didn't refuse to go on the field. Which is a shame. I hate, hate, hate seeing teams make playing time decisions based on salary over performance. Especially when there's a clear indication that expensive guy isn't going to reclaim his glory days.

Yeah, Searcy and Jamal could have changed that whole season around too... maybe Grbac doesn't fold as fast with their protection and contributions. But that's football. The 2000 team from what I recall was VERY fortunate to not lose anyone significant to injury for any length of time. I recall Billick being credited for helping with that by the way he ran practices. To which Preston later morphed in to Camp Cupcake. Good when you're winning, a mistake when you're not.

Also for curiosity's sake... The Lewis drug case involvement was known about for quite a while before it became public knowledge. I think it was '01 or '02 that someone I know who was in media at the time told me that he was likely facing some serious trouble soon. I could be off a bit on that timing, but regardless, it was well before the story broke. If media knew about it, I'm sure the Ravens management had heard the rumblings. Enough time passed after I got that tidbit, that I eventually figured it was a bad rumor and not true. Then it eventually broke anyway...