I’m a huge Ravens fan, and it was a huge offseason for us. Reports out of camp are that David Ojabo looks great and is giving our O line some troubles in practice.

He’d be my answer as our edge presence desperately needs “that guy” and Ojabo has all the tools. Hopefully his injury didn’t limit his explosiveness to much, still young and still motivated!

Now you guys go!

    • Sixner@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Jordan! Fullfil your destiny!

      Honestly Im setting the bar low. Hope he goes off MVP style, but I would settle for some good control and decent stats after 3-4 games.

      Resetting expectations is kind of fun. I might hate it in a year, but we’re in for a different type of season and that has some new excitement in it.

      • RustyShackleford@lemmy.wtf
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        1 year ago

        Agreed, I’m excited to see what the new offense looks like and as long as he’s not actively losing games I’ll be happy.

        Really hoping to see a jump from either Doubbs or Watson though. If those guys can get up to speed this year then I’ll be a lot more optimistic about our future. GPG

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    1 year ago

    Kyle Dugger has already been pretty good, and has earned some reputation as a very good box safety, but I think this year he’s going to really take off. We’re a stupid number of bodies deep at hybrid safety now, and all but Mapu (who has reportedly been picking up a lot and looking really natural in the LB role, at least) have good experience in the defense now. While losing McCourty hurts (though his decline was also a concern before officially returning), it means that we can play a lot more games in the middle of the field. You don’t know whether Dugger or Peppers is going to drop out, and you have enough options that you don’t have to saddle Dugger with manning up on the tight end with regularity. You can let him run wild and play instinctually and make it really annoying to attack the middle of the field.

    • MrAstroman@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Kyle Dugger is about to go off, the Defense on this pats team is no joke, even if Jack Jones doesn’t play. Also super excited to see Christian Gonzalez. So many things to watch on the d this year.

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        1 year ago

        I think it’s still a damn good defense, but I think you’re going to play a lot more Jaylen Mills CB2 snaps than we’d like. The idea of him playing box safety to man up tight ends in certain looks to let other guys do other shit was really appealing, and while the fact that he’s not a disaster outside is a definite value add, I think he’s always looked like a better safety (especially shorter) than outside corner and he’s spent his whole time playing out of position because they needed him to.

        He even posted this offseason when nonsense rumblings about “safety depth” were happening that he considers himself a safety, and they’ve made a point of trying to get him in the middle when they projected to have other options outside.

        • MrAstroman@lemmy.world
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          Yeah very true Mills is definitely more of a safety than a CB (I’m sure the plan was to use him as such), and he is for sure going to be playing a lot of CB with out Jack Jones. Idk who we’re going to put on TEs over the middle like you said, Marcus Jones is too small, it’ll be interesting to see what they do. But that’s why I’m so excited to see Gonzalez. If he has a solid year all we need is a CB2 next year and we’ll be cooking with gas, which shouldn’t be too hard to find.

          • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            A couple friends/whoever asked who I wanted going into the draft, and my answer was “pipe dream, but Christian Gonzalez. Since that’s not possible, I guess…” I was going nuts when they traded out with him on the board.

            I guess they had a good idea what the next guys were going to do, but I just thought the difference between him and anyone else on the board was way too big to take even a small risk with it. Since they got the guy, I’m obviously extremely happy with the outcome, but they had me real nervous.

            I think he’s the real deal. There might be growing pains like Gilmore because they’ll just throw so much at him, especially because they seem to like the brain and think he can handle it, but he’s just such a blend of traits with fucking great hips and movement skills.

  • Memento Mori@lemmy.world
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    Jaelan Phillips. He’s now in his third season, but his first with Vic Fangio. I’m excited for at least a 10 sack season.

    • Aizenn@lemmy.worldOP
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      As a Ravens fan, I’m way more scared of Miami then Buffalo or the Jets, even with Rodgers.

      Them getting Fangio is such an under the radar move that a lot of people aren’t considering.

      AFC championship game: Ravens vs Dolphins!

  • InfiniteLoop@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Not so much expect but I’m still hopeful trey lance can get a shot. I love purdy too, but lance never got to play with CMC and I’d love to see what that looks like

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      I kinda feel bad for Lance because it kinda feels like he wasn’t given a chance at all before the Niners went on this little episode of QB confusion. He had one game where he played good but not great and they’re already acting like they’re done with him because Purdy got fans energized.

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        It’s ok to feel bad for Lance, but the niners are going start whichever QB gives them the best chance to win.

    • Aizenn@lemmy.worldOP
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      Yeah, the 49ers bringing in Darnold definitely made me worry about Lance. I hope he gets another shot too, that foot injury was so shitty.

  • Wilziac@lemmy.world
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    The Chiefs are really hoping that Skyy Moore can be a legitimate WR threat rather than a gadget guy we used him as last season. 2nd year WRs can often take that jump, and the (in)famously complex Reid offense is apparently tough to learn as a rookie, so there’s a decent possibility that Skyy can make that jump.

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    As probably one of the only Titans fans ever in existence, I’m gonna say Chig Okonkwo. We have an abysmally bad receiver core, and if he doesn’t take multiple steps up, the season is likely dead in the water before the 1st snap.

    This is ignoring the other glaring OL issue we had, Skoronski is gonna have to come in at an above average level for us to even be able to pass the ball…

    • Aizenn@lemmy.worldOP
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      Love Chig. He carried me to a few wins this past season after my Waller and Ertz both fell apart.

      What’s your thoughts on Levis? Obviously Ryan’s the guy for now, but you guys have Willis as well. The Titans are weird because I could see them winning that division but also see them struggling heavily.

      • CMLVI@kbin.social
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        He’s looked good in mini camp (or otas? Or whatever they hell they’re called) but what rookie QB doesn’t? I don’t think Levis is a starter right now, and I don’t thiink he would be next year, but QB development hardly ever goes hand-in-hand with when they start playing. The second Tanny throws an INT, the grumbling will start. But I’m not a good measure for these things, I was mad we drafted Mariota and thought we should have kept Mettenberger to get OL. Coincidentally, I was mad we drafted Levis and thought we should have gone whatever was better of the OL/WR left.

        Malik is not the answer, and I never thought he would be. I wish we had kept Josh Dobbs over Malik, lol

  • Fleamo@lemmy.world
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    A second round RB from last year isn’t like a hidden gem but I expect James Cook will be the clear RB1 over Harris on the Bills, with a ton more snaps and production. He looked great in spurts last year, McD is always limiting rookies, and Singletary is secretly pretty good and he’s gone. I think Cook will be a top 10 RB by total yardage if he stays healthy the whole year.

  • Grangle1@lemmy.world
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    Hoping Lewis Cine steps up for the Vikes’ secondary this year after being out pretty much all last year. We might just have a semi-effective defensive scheme with Flores at the helm, but it’s just as much about execution as it is about coaching, and Cine is pretty much all we’ve got out there in the secondary. Our 2nd year GM spent the whole offseason cleaning up the cap hell Spielman left for him and freeing up money to pay JJ, so we lost a lot of talent. The guys who are left are all gonna have to step up, but especially the defense.

    • BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      wish we were able to keep duke shelley, dude was a beast last year. didn’t give up a single td i believe

  • quirzle@kbin.social
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    Rachaad White on the Bucs. Oline is in better shape, and leftwich won’t be calling 734 passes a game.

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        Joined, though it seems like it’s still new enough that the content hasn’t synced up with kbin yet as it’s showing empty when I view it from here.

        Anyway, also curious to see if Vaughn steps up or totally disappears and becomes Rojo v2. For all the talk of how easily replaceable RB is these days, we really seem to suck at picking them.

        • Schmedes@lemmy.world
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          Yep, I think I created the community yesterday morning. No idea how the sync with kbin works yet, but hopefully it works fine.

          No idea if Vaughn steps up or is a JAG but this is the year for him to show up if he does.

  • Frog-Brawler@kbin.social
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    Also Ravens fan, and I also agree. However, I feel like every year we hear some story about a guy that looks great in camp, and he either gets injured within the first 1/3 of the season, or he ends up under-performing. I’d like for it to be Ojabo, but I won’t hold my breath just based on history. I’d still like to see Bateman end up being WR1.

  • melchior@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Alec Pierce. Matt Ryan had a noodle arm and couldn’t utilize his skillset. Expecting a ton of Richardson to Pierce bombs this year