Plenty of questions facing the Ravens this offseason

By: Corey Johns

Yesterday’s pain of finishing with a 5-11 record has turn into today’s excitement. While it is unacceptable for the Ravens to be sitting at home while 12 other teams are getting ready start playing in the playoffs, the Ravens can just focus on getting better for next year, by evaluating their own talent, looking to the draft and seeing where they can improve their own roster in free agency.

One thing that gives the Ravens a leg up in the offseason is that they know who their general manager will be and they know who their head coach will be. Some teams are blowing things up and cleaning house, but the Ravens’ success outside of this past season has created the luxury or being able to maintain stability. They know their guys can be successful. But while Ozzie Newsome and John Harbaugh are going to return, the rest of the coaching staff must be looked at.

Both offensive coordinator Marc Trestman and defensive coordinator Dean Pees must be looked at and evaluated hard. The Ravens were the most injured team in the league this year, but what they were doing just was not working, and it was not working before the team got overly devastated with injuries.

Other things the Ravens must consider is how they will handle the salary cap. The Ravens are a team that is always up against the salary cap threshold. Heading into offseason the Ravens are just $3.9 million under the $150 million cap, which means to improve the roster (and even to sign all of the rookies they could be drafting) they will need to make some cuts and re-structure some contracts.

Quarterback Joe Flacco has a $28.55 million cap number for 2016, $19 million more than anybody else on the team. That number has to go down through a restructure. Lardarius Webb, with a $9.5 million cap figure and $3.5 million in potential savings seems like a likely cap casualty. So does disappointing offensive tackle Eugene Monroe with his $8.7 million figure and potential $2.1 million in savings, especially considering his injury history and that Newsome has said he believes pending free agent Kelechi Osemele could play left tackle for the team.

Justin Forsett, despite just signing a three-year deal with the team last offseason, would save the team $2.3 million, Chris Canty would save the team $2.15 million and disappointing additions Kyle Arrington and Kendrick Lewis would save the Ravens $1.4 million and $900 thousand against the cap.

The Ravens have several key free agents, none necessarily at the level in years past, but they will have to make a decision on Justin Tucker and whether a team strapped for cap space wants to have one of the highest paid kicker in the league when they need so much help elsewhere. They need to decide is they believe Kamar Aiken has turned into a legitimate weapon for the offense or if he was a product of volume because of so many injuries. Then need to decide if they are going to let Osemele walk or if he has a future with the team after the team drafted in in the second round. Does former second round pick Courtney Upshaw have a future with the team considering he lacks much pass rushing ability and is only an edge-setter?

Will they make an uncharacteristic splash in free agency or will they stay quiet? Where will they go with the No. 6 overall pick in the draft?

For the ravens, the offseason starts now and it is a key one for the franchise because unless they improve significantly, their could be a much different offseason next year.

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