Stop Me If You've Heard This Before, But The Ravens Might Have A Receiver Problem

The Ravens have always looked like a team at least one playmaker short on offense.

It appeared that way in March after some quality tight ends left the building in free agency. It seemed that way in April when they decided to stick with mercurial and pouty and largely ineffective Rashod Bateman as a potential starter rather than trade him. It looked that way in May, even after throwing a bunch of day two-and-three draft capital at potential pass catchers.

It looked that way a few weeks into training camp when even the Ravens coaches couldn’t really muster talking up any of these project tight ends as being close to ready to do actual assignments asked of real NFL tight ends (the ability to block matters), and if Mark Andrrews is anything close to as cooked as I believe he is, it’s going to be even more heightened in September, too.

Rookie head coach Jesse Minter is being uber conservative about how he approached the preseason, so his real offense and real offensive players did absolutely nothing in these games. And now that Bateman is facing three family violence charges in Georgia with word leaking out last week of his arrest, they probably need to get real about what this means for their football team.

Not sure Minter is going to be able to “no comment” his way through this situation, try as he might.

Not My Kind Of Player

The allegations and details within the police report are disturbing. The NFL is looking into the matter and the NFL might decide that it’s in the league’s best interest to have a quasi-effective NFL player removed from the team and n longer representing that team and this league in its workplace and on its sidelines, by putting him on the Commissioner’s Exempt List.

Legal matters such as this can take quite some time to resolve, and as we know the NFL can take discipline even when the law does not. Bateman is a player I am on record that I would have traded for whatever you can get years ago and called it addition by subtraction. I’d have walked from him, and have urged the team to do in this space and others multiple times.

They’ve always been fooling themselves about this guy.

He doesn’t exude winning traits. He has only stuck around here this long because the general manager hates being ripped for years for failing with wide receivers and he’s a former first-round pick and he works cheap. He works cheap because of a shortsighted holdout a few years back, against the counsel he was receiving, which cost him service time.

He’s clashed with the team over his medicals and he’s felt aggrieved by coaches repeatedly, and seems to be forever basking in that next last chance. Again, he’s off my team years ago. I wouldn’t have had him on the plane back to Baltimore. I’d call the league and beg them to put him on that list ASAP. Pay him to stay away. It’s Roger’s way.

Bateman’s never clicked with a two-time MVP quarterback, Lamar Jackson, for any long period of time. His health tends to be iffy. Wouldn’t want him in my receiver room for a multitude of reasons. They got over on him with the contract, and seem to think that will motivate him to become something he never will be. Certainly not in Baltimore.

(When someone is the subject of this many trade rumors, it's for good reasons).

Instead, they built a roster in which he’s kinda got be a thing for this to work. Devontez Walker might be better than him, but we won’t know until he gets a real run in games that count, and he can’t stay healthy to this point. Ja’Kobi Lane looks like the real deal, but the learning curve tends to be steep, and consistency is usually elusive at first. Preseason can be a fickle indicator.

Zay Flowers is heck of a football player, but he’s not getting any taller.

Last week in Minnesota - losing the second-best center on the roster for the season and then with Bateman’s arrest coming to light - could prove to be significant for this offense months to come. A forward-thinking operation would have a plan to address the public’s concerns about a situation involving a three-month old child ready to roll out, as well as some options for finding capable replacements at receiver.

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