good job with your picks!!!! I have to disagree about lewis though, he is the face and heart and soul of this team and I am sure he will be brought back. I completely agree with you on scott and suggs. I also feel they should keep mclean and let willis go.. good luck representing the afc!
:howdy:
Hello goode05...
Thank you for the kind words my friend, with regard to Ray Lewis,
EVERY team gets to a point where a player becomes expendable when taking into consideration their real worth as a player versus what that team would have to pay that player to stay...
...some players opt to take a pay cut as a means of taking with the team in question, much like RB Jerome Bettis did because he wanted to remain a Steeler, however, other players simply move on to other teams when the team they are currently with refuses to meet the players salary demands.
Who knows for sure what will happen with Ray Lewis and the Ravens?
This much I do know, while its certainly true that once upon a time Ray Lewis was a dominating force in the NFL and in my humble opinion he is still one heck of a linebacker, the truth of the matter is that Lewis will turn 34 yrs old this May and his production is indeed down in comparison to previous years when he was at his best.
Keep in mind that Lewis was placed on IR for the remainder of the 2002 and 2005 seasons in which he only played 5 and 6 games in those seasons respectively and this is the
FIRST year since 2003 that Lewis played the entire 16 game regular season schedule.
This year Lewis had 85 solo tackles, however, he had 82 solo's in 2007 and had 80 solo's in 2006 and in those two seasons only played 14 games, meaning that it took him two extra games this year to surpass the solo tackle tally that he accumulated over the past two seasons.
ALL players lose a step with age and there's simply no way around it, however, the better ones make up for the loss with experience and to me that's what makes Lewis a good linebacker to this day.
The point of the matter is that the Ravens are stocked with talent on the defensive side of things and really need to sign the two much younger linebackers (Suggs and Scott), the money they would save by NOT signing Ray Lewis could be applied to the offensive side of the ball...
...the Ravens finally have a nice young QB that looks like he could take them places, so why not get the kid some weapons?
Take care and be well my friend
Dirtydog
:wink:
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