Eric Weddle helped convince the Ravens to go hard after safety Tony Jefferson in free agency, Childs Walker of The Baltimore Sun writes. Now that Jefferson has landed in Baltimore on a four-year, $34MM deal, Weddle is delighted to partner with him in the secondary.
“He’s physical, explosive and he’s only going to get better,” Weddle said. “I not only look at this season but for the future as far as building this team. He can be that guy to lead this defense. From the outside looking in, when I move on, the Ravens D is still going to be good.”
Weddle also believes that the arrival of Jefferson will take a lot of work off of his plate.
“No disrespect to any of the guys I’ve played with, but it’s nice not to have to explain why I do certain things or why I’m doing this in this coverage,” Weddle said. “From day one, he already had a feel for how I play and how to work off me. … It frees me up a lot more mentally. I don’t have to tell him after each play why I did this or, before the snap, let’s do this. He already knows. That is just light years ahead of most guys I’ve played with. I’ve loved every guy I’ve played with, but he’s just on another level.”
Here’s more from Baltimore:
- The pressure could be building in Baltimore for coach John Harbaugh, Jim Owczarski of USA Today writes. Harbaugh might not be on the hot seat at this moment, but his team has compiled a 31-33 record since winning the Super Bowl after the 2012 season, missing the playoffs in three of the last four years. It’s possible that Harbaugh could be a victim of the high expectations he set for his teams in Baltimore. Before winning the Super Bowl, the Ravens made the postseason in each of his first five seasons and reached two AFC Championship Games. Even if things go terribly wrong in Baltimore this year, I have a hard time seeing any scenario in which Harbaugh does not get the chance to turn it around in 2018.
- The Ravens are using 10% of the salary cap on players who are no longer with the team, Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com writes. That helps to explain why the Ravens are near the bottom of the league in available cap room. Offensive tackle Eugene Monroe, who has not played for the team since November 2015, accounts for the biggest dead money hit with a $4.4MM cap charge for 2017, giving him the tenth-highest hit on the team. After Monroe, there are four more players with $2MM+ dead money cap hits: tight end Dennis Pitta ($2.7MM), cornerback Shareece Wright ($2.66MM), linebacker Elvis Dumervil ($2.37MM), and center Jeremy Zuttah ($2.2MM). Hensley notes that the Ravens are usually in the middle of the league when it comes to dead money – they landed in the top 10 only twice in the last five years and placed No. 14 last year.
- This week, PFR’s Dallas Robinson made the case for why the Ravens should sign tight end Gary Barnidge.
All that dead money, Ozzie’s bad decisions have been adding up for along time. Was a great player, had some initial success as GM, picking Ogden & R. Lewis in 1st round same year…..that was 21 years ago. Ravens had no business even being in their last SB, if not for some DB underestimating Joe’s arm strength on very deep ball w/min left in Championship gm@Den. Other SB win was after organization, Ozzie brought in record setting offensive guru Billick…..n proceeded too go 4 straight gms w/o scoring a TD that year,
Instead winning on fg’s n with a once in a lifetime intimidating D….even then what does he do…? Get’s rid of SB winning QB before their next season, ask Ravens fans how that whole Elvis Grbac thing worked out, Scott Mitchell, Kyle Boller, hell, Stoney Case. The game has passed Ozzie bye….along time ago. It happens, the game is always changing, evolving, as well as rules. Joe Gibbs came back, was great before, barely avg on return, the game passed him bye, Jimmy Jones, Bill Parcells, Father Time never loses, that includes coaches n front office as well as players. This is a big year for Harbs n Ozzie….31-33 since that SB yr, need a good play-off run or it might be time to clean house….