Harbaugh has Work Cut Out for him with Ravens
Baltimore freed up some cap space by restructuring Jonathan Ogden’s contract.
New Baltimore Ravens’ head coach John Harbaugh faces a major uphill battle as he tried to rally this team after a devastating 5-11 season in which it sunk to the bottom of the AFC North.
One of the first orders of business, and this is more of management issue of course, is the team must try to trim some cap space.
Restructuring Jonathan Ogden’s deal was a good first step and that should free up enough cap space to keep the franchise tag on Terrell Suggs.
Back-up running back Mike Anderson, a total bust since arriving in Baltimore, has been released, opening up at least $1.3 million in cap space, another move that should help the Ravens re-sign their restricted free agents. However, the team still needs to clear around $10 million in cap space.
One of those restricted free agents is starting left guard Jason Brown, but the club is expected to retain him after they gave him a second-round tender offer Wednesday.
So now if Brown signs an offer sheet from someone else, Baltimore has the right to match it and retain him or let him walk and get that team’s second round pick.
Brown earned $435,000 this past season, but will get $1.47 million under the second-round tender.
Obviously, the Ravens would be wise to keep the up and coming guard. Just 24, he made SI’s All-Pro team last year and he’s been incredibly resilient since taking over as a starter in 2006, starting 28 straight games.
GM Ozzie Newsome said Baltimore would like to talk to Brown about an extension before he can become an unrestricted free agent after 2008. Brown is talking the talk, at any rate, saying how much he loves the city and the organization.
Whatever. Nobody loves Baltimore. It may be a great organization (although somewhat beleaguered now after such a crappy year), but Charm City is anything but.
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[...] RotoRob wrote a fantastic post today on “Harbaugh has Work Cut Out for him with Ravens”Here’s ONLY a quick extractNew Baltimore Ravens’ head coach John Harbaugh faces a major uphill battle as he tried to rally this team after a devastating 5-11 season in which it sunk to the bottom of the AFC North. One of the first orders of business, … [...]
[...] As RotoRob mentioned in one of his rare football forays, new head coach John Harbaugh will have his work cut out for him as he tries to change the chemistry, and then perhaps finally the Ravens can turn the page towards a new era. Baltimore’s philosophy of defense first needs to be refined. Harbaugh spent years with Andy Reid in Philadelphia and learned that having a productive quarterback and good defense typically yields successful results. Furthermore, the Ravens have to put away the AARP cards. Younger and quicker players are needed in the secondary and on offense. They’ll probably have to do most of this through the draft considering they don’t have a ton of cap space (entering the offseason, they had roughly over $7 million dollars of cap space, one of the lowest figures in the league). [...]