Right Off Russell

The NFL free agency period began today without deals in place between the Ravens and either Bart Scott, Ray Lewis, or Jason Brown.  While Brown seems all but gone, the deal for Scott, that was apparently almost completed last night, never materialized making him a free agent.  The Sun is reporting that Scott’s preference is to stay with the Ravens and that he would give the team a shot to match any offer he receives from other clubs.

The Ravens seem set on not over paying for any of their services and have shown extraordinary restraint in their approach.  I thought the Ravens would show less restraint, especially when it came to re-signing the face of the franchise.  The Ravens typically do a good job at assigning value to a player, if they have to go beyond that value to get it done they will likely pass.  It is also believed that front office officials for the Ravens do not feel the market for Ray Lewis will be as high dollar as Ray-Ray thinks.

How the market develops for Lewis and Scott will be interesting to watch, but I believe the Ravens have a good shot at bring both back.  If faced with only signing one of the two, who is your preference?

In other news, the Ravens could bring in former Maryland standout DB Dom Foxworth.  If the Ravens do sign Foxworth, it would either indicate that the team plans on parting ways with CB Samari Rolle and then look to find a corner in the draft.  Or, they could sign Foxworth to run with Rolle and Fabian Washington.  My preference would be to draft a bigger, more physical corner to play alongside 2 of Washington/Rolle/Foxworth, who are all smaller cover corners.  Thoughts on this or other FA targets for the Ratbirds?

As of this afternoon, The Sun reports that the Ravens and Bart Scott might be pretty close to signing that extension, both parties appear to be

… only $400,000 to $700,000 apart as far as completing a new deal.  Scott, though, isn’t sure if he is competing with Ravens Pro Bowl linebacker Ray Lewis for a big contract.

Things are looking good.  Hopefully the Ravens have decided to keep the right personnel at the right prices.

What do you think?  Do you like who the team has prioritized?

The last Ozzie Newsome talked to the press about his ability to re-sign linebackers Ray Lewis and Bart Scott, he didn’t have any answers.

“I can’t answer that question.  We’re making progress. We’re continuing to talk.”

In the meantime, that progress might have been greatly helped with word from the Sporting News is that the team has cut off talks with Center Jason Brown, meaning that the first “domino has fallen” according to Albert Breer.

According to an NFL source, the club has informed center Jason Brown that he is not in their plans for the 2009 season.

Brown, who turns 26 in June, is expected to garner immediate, strong interest from four or five clubs when the NFL’s free-agency period opens at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Brown started in ‘06 and ‘07 at guard for the Ravens, before moving to center to replace Mike Flynn last season.

The move to let Brown leave allows Baltimore to focus on its two free-agent linebackers, Bart Scott and Ray Lewis.

Negotiations are ongoing with both players — with the expectation that the Ravens will be able re-sign one, but not both — and are expected to run up to midnight, when the club will lose exclusive negotiating rights.

New York Newsday columnist and blogger, Bob Glauber, was on ESPN’s 1st & 10 this morning discussing NFL topics. He was asked about the Bart Scott situation and he responded by saying that

… negotiations have picked up steam and that there is a decent chance Scott would in fact re-sign with Baltimore, leaving Ray Lewis as the team’s free agent … [although] nothing is a done deal yet, but [very well could be.]

I’m starting to think that this might happen.

You can read Bob Glauber at Newsday.com.

Adam Schefter notes on his NFL blog that he sees six teams that meet the criteria of teams who would be looking at extremely talented receiver TJ Houshmanzedeh.

It likely will be with one of six wide receiver-needy teams: the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens, Miami Dolphins or Philadelphia Eagles. All of those teams are looking to upgrade at wide receiver. And all of them could be active in the free-agent market.

With the impending loss of Derrick Mason, this might be a great move for the Ravens.  Houshmanzedeh is already familiar with the division and complements the existing corps well.  The question is really one of money for the Ravens, who look to be tying up a lot of money in their own free agents.

Pro-bowl linebacker Terrell Suggs could be franchised for the second consecutive year if a contract extension is not struck by the Thursday deadline to declare a franchise player.  It is a move that makes sense for the Ravens and possibly for Suggs, who has expressed his desire to remain in Baltimore.    For the Ravens it buys them more time to negotiate with Suggs, while not running the risk of losing him this year.  It also gives the front office a better working cap number to try and re-sign other free agents.  Suggs meanwhile, gets a nice raise and it is likely that Suggs has received every indication of the Ravens desire to get a long term deal done.

The only risk I see is if a deal is not struck before the beginning of next season, Suggs might feel the Ravens mislead him by using the franchise tag again without the intention of getting a new deal done.  That could lead him to walk without giving the Ravens a shot after the coming season.

Anything I am missing?

With the Falcons announcing last week that they were looking to trade the rights to a certain Ron Mexico, I decided to entertain the thought in my head of what would the Ravens look like with this freak of an athlete. The beauty of the Ravens is that they can absorb the negative image, it doesn’t get much worse then Ray Ray and they tried to get TO. They are like the Cowboys and Raiders in that they are expected to have bad guys on the roster.

So if Vick came to B’more, where would he play? I don’t see the Ravens moving away from Flacco so starting QB is out of the question. He could run the Wildcat offense and would be an upgrade from Troy Smith. I really see him as a Reggie Bush style of running back- some in backfield but more often throwing him into motion and out on screens and routes. He is someone you want to see in the open field. Plus defenses have to respect his arm. I think he could be a unique weapon for a couple of years.

I am by no means saying the Ravens should trade for him. His trade value is low but his contract could be crippling against the cap. He would need to be cut and thrown into the free agent pool before anyone should make a move on him.

I think it would be a fun experiment (similar to Favre playing for the Jets), but then again how often do the fun little experimants actually work?