This is going to be pretty tough, but let me give this a shot. This Ravens' year was a pretty good season for most football teams. You beat your hated rivals in the playoffs. You took the eventual champs to the brink. All in all, a pretty good year.
If you're the Cleveland Browns.
But you are the Ravens, and you have learned to live with a certain level of expectations. So this was a nice season. But it wasn't noiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. It was good. Not legendary. But don't fret, you still have plenty of reasons to be optimistic for the future of this team.
Let's start with that Steelers thing
Now I'm a neutral observer, but I can imagine Ravens fans probably get annoyed with all of the Steelers fans tugging at their ankles all the time. Steelers fans just love to talk about their four Super Bowls of the 1970s, which of course occurred before most of you were born, and well before the Ravens even existed. Plus, those four Super Bowls were back in an era when the NFL was more of a fringe sport like NASCAR or professional wrestling. Sure, some people cared, but the NFL was far from the cultural phenomena we're currently at.
Again, as an outside observer, I always thought the Ravens were the most esteemed team. You had just as many Super Bowls during your existence, but the only thing that was lacking was that pesky win in the playoffs. Well, that's over now. You guys finally vanquished the Steelers in the playoffs when it counts and I would imagine we'll have a pretty good laugh about this sometime in the distant future as you guys continue to win and the Steelers become the NFL version of the Pirates.
So now you can put that past you and move on.
Your front office is amazing
It's crazy. Rookie C.J. Mosley was in the Pro Bowl after his first season this year. Of course he was. There was no other way that could have ended. And then the Ravens also ended up with Timmy Jernigan, too. I mean, this was a guy who was slated to go in the first round (even to the Bears) and then as he fell in the draft you just kind of sat there thinking to yourself, "Oh [expletive], this guy is going to end up with the Ravens." Of course he did, because you guys never seem to miss.
Even when guys don't always pan out, like Courtney Upshaw, they still seem to be decent enough contributors. (BTW, Upshaw is a pending free agent after 2015, so he's going to have a monster year. Watch.)
Seriously, I'm just going to end up putting your first round pick in the Pro Bowl right now. He's a lock for the all-rookie team.
Joe Flacco is the truth
Flacco gets a lot of heat on social media during the regular season because people want to poke him with the "elite" label and all of that stuff. But the dude is awesome when it matters the most: the playoffs. He's like the anti-Peyton Manning. He's a little better than meh during the regular season, but just comes alive in January.
When coach John Harbaugh said that he would rather have Flacco over every quarterback in the game during the playoffs, that wasn't the typical hyperbole a lot of coaches depend on. He has a lot of reason to feel that way.
Now the team has gone and added Marc Trestman, too. I wrote about Trestman extensively when I covered the Bearsright here. Trestman failed as the head coach of the Bears. There is no way to sugarcoat that. But he's a pretty exceptional offensive coordinator. He's been successful in all of his stops as an OC, and I don't expect this to be any different. I'm curious which way the Ravens are going to lean in the draft. Defense is always a strong possibility. But damn, I've seen some mocks where they end up with running back Melvin Gordon. Because of course he would because the Ravens always end up with somebody awesome.
*Odds are Adam Rank won't be welcome at Primanti Brothers at any point in the near future. But if you want to engage him on Twitter, follow him at @adamrank. *
