545 replies to this topic

[PrimeTime]

People have used the term “easily replaceable” but whatever.

I don’t think what happened in ‘22 was his fault. The healing process didn’t go as planned. Consider it an extension of what happened in 2021.

Doesn’t matter now. It sucks he’s robbed of showing his potential once again.

Coming from someone who's on his 2nd reconstructive surgery, scar tissue is a bitch.

[PrimeTime]

Ive never really understood the love affair with him by Ravens fans

He's a fast, athletic TE that can also play in the slot. What's not to like?

[PrimeTime]

Hope your fiends didn’t hit the over as hard as you were talking about loving the over earlier this week, lol.

I took a JK TD, Ravens laying 8.5 and the stupid over. I thought it would be just over the number but both teams blew scoring chances in the red zone.

[PrimeTime]

MRI scheduled for Marcus Williams. That doesn't sound good. I'm guessing there will be some additional tests for Stanley (knee) and Linderbaum (ankle).

[Biggsy]

Ive never really understood the love affair with him by Ravens fans

Oh, idk, maybe I. his 2 spot starts last season, he put up 14 catches for 180 yards and a TD. He's athletic and a YAC monster. Plenty to love.

[Biggsy]

MRI scheduled for Marcus Williams. That doesn't sound good. I'm guessing there will be some additional tests for Stanley (knee) and Linderbaum (ankle).

Prior to coming here, he was one of the more durable players in the NFL. Ravens just can't win with injuries.

[mdrunning]

Williams' injury could easily be for four to six months depending on the severity. I guess it'll depend on whether it's a full or partial tear. If Williams goes on the IR, we still won't know anything because it could be for the minimum four weeks or much longer,

[cprenegade]

I didn't see a lot of the game so I'm going off of what I saw, what has been said here, and what I read and heard from external sources.

 

-  On the game prediction thread I predicted 26-3.   So at 25-9 I'll say the game went pretty much the way I thought.  Rookie QB, rookie HC would basically struggle in a hostile environment.  Ravens looked rusty in the first half.  That's what happens when you don't play your skill players for at least a few series in pre-season.  I'm not a fan of that.  I understand it because if Lamar goes out in pre-season Harbaugh gets roasted.  But seriously, was it that much better to save your starters and then watch Dobbins and Williams suffer serious injuries in game 1?   Maybe starting with Houston helped with that strategy.  If game 1 was against a real team, maybe they do give Lamar and others some pre-season time.

 

-  So far the offense looks a lot like a Who song.  "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."   Lamar's game line numbers, 17-22, 169 yds passing, 0 TDs, 1 int, 38 yds rushing.  Rest of the rushing game, 32, 22, 9, 9 yards.  Receiving Zay Flowers at 78 yards, rest of the team 37, 35, 15, 4.  Not exactly offensive powerhouse numbers.  Maybe the rust, we will see.  I saw nothing in Lamar Jackson's performance that leads me to believe he can run a high powered NFL passing offense.  It still looked like his best moves are when the play starts to break down and he relies on sheer athleticism and street football to make plays.  The times I saw what I thought were play changes at the line of scrimmage, the plays went nowhere.  

 

-  Defense looked like what I thought it would against a rookie QB and rookie HC.  Houston's offense is not very good.  Stroud did what he could, but the Ravens defense clearly overmatched Houston.  Three of their nine points came from a stupid play from Travis Jones.  Gets called all the time dude, learn the game.  

 

-  Sorry for JK Dobbins.  Guy is either injury prone, or just really unlucky.  I'm thinking this could be his last game in a Raven's uniform.  I don't know that there will be a huge market for him next season, but I think the Ravens will need to draft an RB and plug him in next year because their cap numbers will continue to push right up against the limit.  RB is simply a position at this point in time where you can't afford to spend a lot of money.   Williams injury could be even more devastating.  When you add that to Humphrey coming back off of surgery, the secondary might be stressed against better QBs.  

 

-  Bottom line.....it's a win.  A loss against this team would be a disaster.  Have to beat the teams you should beat, especially at home.  But it didn't look very good, and the injuries obviously dampen the mood somewhat.  

[NewMarketSean]

Ok game but the injuries sucked the life out of any positives. Lamar and the new offense looked like more of the same old same old.

Better get it together fast with at CIN coming up next.

[Mackus]

Ok game but the injuries sucked the life out of any positives. Lamar and the new offense looked like more of the same old same old.

Better get it together fast with at CIN coming up next.

Cincinnati played a way worse game, so could be an ugly week 2 matchup.

[mdrunning]

Didn't the Ravens hire a new strength and conditioning coach to replace the strength and conditioning coach who allegedly was responsible for the all of the previous injuries due to his strength and conditioning program?

 

Maybe it's all just bad luck.

[cprenegade]

Cincinnati played a way worse game, so could be an ugly week 2 matchup.

 

Cincinnati lost their opening game last year to Pittsburgh and lost their second game to Dallas.  They only lost two the rest of the season, one being to the Ravens in week 5.  They always seem to start terrible and finish strong.  The Ravens have started strong the last two seasons and finished weak.  Part of that was because Lamar Jackson hasn't been able to finish a season the last two years.  

[Biggsy]

Didn't the Ravens hire a new strength and conditioning coach to replace the strength and conditioning coach who allegedly was responsible for the all of the previous injuries due to his strength and conditioning program?

Maybe it's all just bad luck.

The sport is rough on the body. Some guys are built for it. Others aren't. Seems like some of our better players are the latter. Stanley, Dobbins and Lamar always seem to find their way on the sidelines at some point every season. Apparently Williams has turned to glass as well as soon as he put a Ravens uniform on.

[jamesdean]

Didn't the Ravens hire a new strength and conditioning coach to replace the strength and conditioning coach who allegedly was responsible for the all of the previous injuries due to his strength and conditioning program?

 

Maybe it's all just bad luck.

Some of it's bad luck but there's no mystery to me why there's so many injuries in the sport.  The players are overtrained, they've become too big and strong, and I would think the majority of them are on PED's which in of itself promotes injury over time.  The question is, what can the NFL do about it?  Or do they want to address it?  Lamar has shown he's vulnerable to having his seasons cut short but unless the other darlings at the quarterback position begin to go down for long periods of time and thus hurting the bottom dollar line, I doubt much happens in trying to change anything.  Even if you turned it into a flag football game, you'd still have huge, overly muscled men driving and pivoting joints, tendons, ligaments and bones.  Would putting a weight limit on specific positions lessen the carnage?  In other words, would linemen being limited to weighing no more than 270 lbs. help?  There certainly were injuries 40-50 years ago when they were that weight but the overall volume didn't seem as bad, especially players missing whole seasons.  Who knows what the solution is but it gets old.  Real old.  

[Biggsy]

Some of it's bad luck but there's no mystery to me why there's so many injuries in the sport. The players are overtrained, they've become too big and strong, and I would think the majority of them are on PED's which in of itself promotes injury over time. The question is, what can the NFL do about it? Or do they want to address it? Lamar has shown he's vulnerable to having his seasons cut short but unless the other darlings at the quarterback position begin to go down for long periods of time and thus hurting the bottom dollar line, I doubt much happens in trying to change anything. Even if you turned it into a flag football game, you'd still have huge, overly muscled men driving and pivoting joints, tendons, ligaments and bones. Would putting a weight limit on specific positions lessen the carnage? In other words, would linemen being limited to weighing no more than 270 lbs. help? There certainly were injuries 40-50 years ago when they were that weight but the overall volume didn't seem as bad, especially players missing whole seasons. Who knows what the solution is but it gets old. Real old.

I think it's a lot of different factors. Some of which you mentioned. I tore my ACL, and the way it was explained to me, is our ligaments are like a rubber band thats stretched out. When it's solid, you can pull it as hard as you want, and it will just stretch and bend. But put a couple of small tears in it, then pull on it the right way, and it will tear right in half.

These guys are way over-trained. Most spend hours every day in the weight room, trying to keep up with the rest of the NFL. Scared to take a day off. Eventually you get a couple minor, small tears in your muscles and ligaments, you don't give them time to heal properly, then you bend or turn the wrong way, and boom.

I also think you have guys getting bigger than their body is meant to be, and they outgrow what their joints and ligaments can handle.


And lastly, we've gone away from natural surfaces. Nobody likes watching a sloppy game where guys are slipping all over. But all of these artificial surfaces are very unforgiving on the body.

I'm not sure you're fixing any of that anytime soon.

[jamesdean]

I think it's a lot of different factors. Some of which you mentioned. I tore my ACL, and the way it was explained to me, is our ligaments are like a rubber band thats stretched out. When it's solid, you can pull it as hard as you want, and it will just stretch and bend. But put a couple of small tears in it, then pull on it the right way, and it will tear right in half.

These guys are way over-trained. Most spend hours every day in the weight room, trying to keep up with the rest of the NFL. Scared to take a day off. Eventually you get a couple minor, small tears in your muscles and ligaments, you don't give them time to heal properly, then you bend or turn the wrong way, and boom.

I also think you have guys getting bigger than their body is meant to be, and they outgrow what their joints and ligaments can handle.


And lastly, we've gone away from natural surfaces. Nobody likes watching a sloppy game where guys are slipping all over. But all of these artificial surfaces are very unforgiving on the body.

I'm not sure you're fixing any of that anytime soon.

Excellent post and I agree with pretty much everything you said.  The over training aspect of football is probably the most obvious detriment.  Not only are they weight training without sufficient recovery periods but they're put through conditioning workouts during the week and then they're out on the field practicing and getting ready for the next game.  It's just constant stress to the body and it has to take it's toll eventually.  I think the NFL takes for granted that these guys are young and strong and think they can withstand the punishment.  They can't.  Best case scenario is they're just perpetually banged up but can perform on Sunday.  But hey, this is what they signed up for and they make a lot of money doing it.  Head concussions are a major concern and the league has at least been proactive over the past several years addressing it but all the other wear and tear is dismissed as just a part of the game.  

[Mackus]

Not disagreeing with the overtrained argument, but that wouldn't explain at all why the Ravens have (seemingly) been so snakebitten compared to other NFL teams.  All the players train the same way, its not like only players for the Ravens are doing something unique and training super hard in the offseason.

[TwentyThirtyFive]

Id need evidence that we are more snakebitten than other teams. Not necessarily that we arent higher than avg but that we are some extreme outlier. I dont think as fans you pay attention to other teams as much and therefore you always think its worse for your team.

[Mackus]

Id need evidence that we are more snakebitten than other teams. Not necessarily that we arent higher than avg but that we are some extreme outlier. I dont think as fans you pay attention to other teams as much and therefore you always think its worse for your team.

 

Haven't seen it tracked recently, but I saw a while back that 2020 and 2021 were outliers compared to the rest of the league.  Way more injuries than other teams.  If memory serves, only the Packers had similarly high number of missed games due to injuries.  Someone has to have the most injuries in the league, so being an outlier doesn't inherently mean it can't just be random.

[CantonJester]

Excellent post and I agree with pretty much everything you said.  The over training aspect of football is probably the most obvious detriment.  Not only are they weight training without sufficient recovery periods but they're put through conditioning workouts during the week and then they're out on the field practicing and getting ready for the next game.  It's just constant stress to the body and it has to take it's toll eventually.  I think the NFL takes for granted that these guys are young and strong and think they can withstand the punishment.  They can't.  Best case scenario is they're just perpetually banged up but can perform on Sunday.  But hey, this is what they signed up for and they make a lot of money doing it.  Head concussions are a major concern and the league has at least been proactive over the past several years addressing it but all the other wear and tear is dismissed as just a part of the game.  

 

 

Different sport, but the Yankees lost their 'uber prospect', 20 year old CF Jasson Dominguez to a torn UCL yesterday. How does a twenty year old centerfielder blow out his UCL?

 

My guess is the overtraining and overdevelopment of his body pushing his ligaments is how.