Usually at this time of year, there would be actual football.
It would be shorts and t-shirts, rookie minicamp-type football, but it would be football nonetheless.
Instead, we have courtroom football and no real football. So we'll continue to analyze, and now that it's been a week since the NFL draft ended, we've had time to let things sink in.
The Ravens have to be really, really anxious to get back to playing real football. Though it's not fair to judge draft classes before those draft choices even get fitted for their new cleats, the Ravens have always been one of the best drafting teams in the league. And the class they brought in last weekend should not only solidify their spot among the best teams in the league, but it could help them get back to the really big game they've now spent more than a decade trying to get back to.
Some teams draft for need, some draft for the future, some almost always take the best available player regardless of position (almost, anyway) and some use the draft for a quick fix. The Falcons were willing to trade five picks, including next year's first-rounder, to get Julio Jones and go for that quick fix. You could say the Ravens "won" the draft because they got theirs by staying put.
A team that needed to get faster did. The Ravens filled immediate needs at cornerback and wide receiver with first-rounder Jimmy Smith and second-rounder Torrey Smith. Don't be surprised if fourth-round receiver Tandon Doss plays right away, too, at least in the return game and in third-down passing packages. The drafting of tackle Jah Reid gives the Ravens depth and flexibility as they wait on the health and possible free-agent status of Jared Gaither.
The AFC North is again going to be one of the best divisions in football, and quite possibly the best. The Steelers are still the Steelers. The Ravens used the draft to fill as many immediate needs as anyone and the Browns and Bengals each are positioned to improve if they get solid play from the game's most important position.
Quarterback is the game's biggest "if," and generally the teams that draft in the area where the Browns and Bengals did last month do so because their quarterback play wasn't good enough in the previous season. The Ravens have long been in the business of brutalizing and demoralizing opposing quarterbacks, and their next step is to continue that while giving their own big-armed quarterback the best chance to succeed.
The Ravens have positioned Joe Flacco to be better than he was in his third season last year, and Flacco was pretty good then. Being able to stretch the field with Torrey Smith will make Anquan Boldin even better and more dangerous over the middle. The chemistry between Flacco and Boldin should automatically be better in their second year together.
What it comes down to for the Ravens is being a little better — a little faster, a little deeper, a little better equipped to score — in the regular season. Flacco is the first quarterback in history to win road playoff games in his first three seasons. The Ravens have the talent and the maturity to handle such situations, but the goal has to be to play those all-important games in their own house, one of the loudest stadiums in the league.
To beat the Steelers, the Ravens need to protect Flacco, take away the type of big plays in the passing game that sealed the deal last January and be able to expose the Steelers' cornerbacks, a glaring area of weakness on a team that doesn't have many. The Ravens know they can get to Ben Roethlisberger, and they know that getting him down is a different story. Being better at corner will allow them to bring different blitzes and make Roethlisberger think twice before letting the deep ones fly.
Those teams know one another so well it comes down to execution. There's very little guesswork, and there's less in terms of adjustments than happens in most games. It's line-'em-up and punch-'em-out football, and Smith and Smith should help the Ravens with both the first punch and the counter punch.
The Ravens hope to get a full season of a healthy Ed Reed and Lardarius Webb — something they didn't have last year — in the secondary. They weren't concerned about Jimmy Smith's past off-field missteps because they're bringing him into a veteran locker room full of leaders and true professionals. When it's Super Bowl or bust, that can help young guys focus as they find their way. And the drafting team led by Ozzie Newsome and Eric DeCosta is confident it brought in guys who have the ability to make a quicker and smoother adjustment than most.
The Browns and Bengals have every right to think they'll be better in 2011 than they were last year. The Steelers are still the Steelers and are still built to win championships.
But the Ravens have the talent and the pieces to be the best team in the division and one of the best in football. It's still going to take a little luck and a few bounces, but the Ravens used the draft to get the kind of players who can help them create those bounces. The Ravens feel like they're better equipped to cover Mike Wallace and A.J. Green in their own division, and with Ray Rice running behind a line that's grown up nicely, their offense should be multi-dimensional and dangerous.
When we get back to actually playing football, the Ravens are a team everyone will be watching.
