The Baltimore Ravens depleted secondary became more skeletal recently with the loss of Domonique Foxworth to an ACL injury. He joins 2009’s starting cornerbacks Fabian Washington and Lardarius Webb as the walking wounded of Baltimore’s pass defense when both went down to ACL injuries in 2009. Fabian Washington was cleared for practice in training camp recently but no one knows when Webb will be back. Foxworth was slated to start in the backfield when he went down last week.
Ed Reed, the Raven all-pro starting safety is recovering from hip reconstruction surgery and does not know when he will return. Does this spell disaster for the Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl run? Well it could, but some fantasy football owners are taking notice of the weakness and are preparing to take full advantage of it.
The Ravens have a good but aging defensive line. However, they can put pressure on the quarterback. Sergio Kindle, their rookie linebacker was supposed to start this season but fractured his skull recently and no one knows when he will come back. The key indicator here is Ed Reed. He is what makes the Ravens secondary tick, and without him they will be lost. Reed is to the Ravens as Troy Polamalu is to the Steelers. He is the heart of the pass coverage, and without him, the Ravens will be pure vanilla in the secondary on Sundays.
Fantasy owners should take note of this in their upcoming drafts especially if Reed is put on the PUP list for the first six weeks. The Ravens will be scorched in pass defense which means that they might have to score more points than ever before just to win or stay in a game. This should elevate the draft status of Joe Flacco, Anquan Boldin, Derrick Mason, and especially Ray Rice, as he was the leading running back in 2009 with 63 receptions. The pressure will be on for all of these players to over- produce.
This is a situation that all fantasy owners should monitor and take advantage of if you can in 2010.
James
Way to evaluate the defensive impact on fantasy football. Often overlooked. On another note, since the Bengals play them twice, in what are usually important divisional games, the Ochocinco-Owens connection with Palmer may come strong.
I know its preseason, but I was dissapointed to not see Ray Rice get one touch last night. I the mean time, McClain and Magahee looked good. With all the new weapons at WR, I hope they are not going to go with more of a power running game to compiment as I was planning on keep Rice as my franchise. I also have M. Turner of the Falcons. I am in a PPR league so Rice was my choice going into last nights game. Now I am not so sure.
Thank you Legend!
Conrad,don’t even sweat it, Rice will be fine. I have had him in a keeper league since he was a rookie and he has provided huge dividends to me. The Ravens secondary will be so weak that Rice and the WR’s will have to catch a lot of passes and score a great deal of points to stay in games. Boldin will help open up the offense. This benefits Rice to.
Draft Rice with confidence.