Ravens Make Potential Solid Pickups at Wide Receiver Position

The Ravens made some free agency movement by picking up two wide receivers that have showed the capability to be productive. Although both players, Jerry Porter and Kelley Washington, have either been a disappointment or simply have not had much playing time as of late, their potential and skill are no doubt present.

Porter is the one that has been a disappointment. In fact, he has been a disappointment since his years with Rich Gannon in 2004 and 2005. Since then, his numbers are a total of 56 catches for 905 yards. Hardly great for a guy who was considered a great slot man and potential number two wide receiver, if not number one. However, in those two solid years with Gannon in 04 and 05 he produced 64 catches for 998 yards and 76 for 942 respectively. So, that’s just three years ago, and in the three years after he has had to deal with Kerry Collins before he found the fountain of youth in Tennessee, a young JaMarcus Russell, and a fluke-a-luke David Garrard in Jacksonville last season. Perhaps good things are to come on a team with a promising QB in Joe Flacco and a winning attitude.

Kelley Washington has not done much since his years in Cincinnati. In fact, his totals since 2005 are not very good; 20 catches for 119 yards. But in his first two years he looked like he was on a steady growth plan with 22 catches for 299 yards in 2003 and 31 catches for 378 yards in 2004. Plus, he has had to play behind four exceptional Pro Bowlers in T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Chad Ochocinco from 05 to 06 with the Bengals, and two more in Randy Moss and Wes Welker in New England from 07 to 08 which could definitely leave a guy to be overlooked.

Although both these men are not stars, they definitely have shown the tools to be admirably productive at best. What this tells me is that the Baltimore Ravens are really looking to be better than their already great 11-5 record from last year.

Why has no one Picked up Torry Holt or Marvin Harrison?

The off season has been here for about two months now and after Torry Holt was released from the St. Louis Rams to clear eight million dollars of cap space, and Marvin Harrison wasn’t resigned because of his age, they still are homeless. I think that’s a huge surprise, because even if Holt, 32, and Harrison, 36, are getting up there in age, they are still capable of helping a team out in a big way.

Holt’s totals this year were 64 catches for 796 yards. But that was with 14 starts, and the four seasons before that he has averaged 95.5 catches per season. Plus, he’s been playing with mistake-prone Marc Bulger for a lot of years, still put up those numbers, and had one skid and everyone seems ready to give up on him. In fact, the only team showing interest is the Jaguars, and that’s because they released Matt Jones, Reggie Williams, and Jerry Porter. So the fact that just one NFL team is interested in this guy and only because that team is desperate just baffles me.

 

As for Harrison, he has not been as productive as Holt the last two seasons with 20 and 60 catches respectively. However, the year he had 20 catches he only played five games, and although last year he was dropping huge passes, most notably in a game at Pittsburgh, he seemed to clean things up later on in the season in terms of drops. So honestly, to me, that season in which he played five games should not even factor into what kind of ability he might have left. Plus dropping the ball has nothing to do with age, and he has always had sure hands. If he was dropping big passes, that means he still knows how to get open for them. And how the heck is there not some suck-team like the Bears or Chiefs looking at him. That too surprises me.

 

I really hope each of them gets placed onto a contender, and I can see them both becoming huge possession receivers, especially Holt.