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By Jeff Zrebiec, The Baltimore Sun | May 15, 2013
Troubled inside linebacker Rolando McClain informed Ravens officials Wednesday that he will retire from the NFL, a decision he reached before participating in one practice with his new team. McClain signed with the Ravens on April 12, was arrested just nine days later and then made the surprising decision Wednesday to call it quits on his playing career at the age of 23. Taken eighth overall by the Oakland Raiders in the 2010 draft, McClain played just three seasons, his career marred by on-field inconsistency and off-the-field legal issues.
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By Mike Preston | May 15, 2013
Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome was having a great offseason as far as acquisitions and building the team, but the Ravens are embarrassed by linebacker Rolando McClain's announced retirement. The old mantra about "In Ozzie We Trust" should be changed to "In Ozzie We Trust, Most Of The Time. " The Ravens blew it on this one. They went out and signed a knucklehead who remained a knucklehead. At this point, we don't know why McClain retired at age 23, and to be honest, I'm afraid to ask. I really don't want to know, and I'm just glad he is out of here.
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By Matt Vensel | May 15, 2013
The Ravens could have as many as seven or eight new starters on defense when the 2013 season begins. You can produce a number of statistics that suggest why they may have felt compelled to overhaul their defense. Here is a good one: The Ravens whiffed on 87 tackles during the 2012 season, according to Football Outsiders. Aaron Schatz, who wrote about broken tackles in this recent post , explained that Football Outsiders define a broken tackle as one of two events: “either the ball-carrier escapes from the grasp of the defender, or the defender is in good position for a tackle but the ball-carrier jukes him out of his shoes.” Schatz added that “if the ball-carrier sped by a slow defender who dived and missed, that didn't count as a broken tackle.” Based on Football Outsiders' charting, done by more than two dozen people, only three NFL teams missed more tackles during the regular season.
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By Matt Vensel and The Baltimore Sun | May 3, 2013
With their 2013 draft class in town for their rookie minicamp, the Ravens announced the jersey numbers that their 10 draft picks will wear. The Ravens rookies wore their new shiny jerseys Friday afternoon at The Castle. First-round pick Matt Elam will wear No. 31, the number that fellow safety Bernard Pollard wore for two years. Linebacker Arthur Brown, their second-round draft pick, will wear the No. 59 formerly worn by Dannell Ellerbe. The full list of draft pick jersey numbers: Matt Elam, S, No. 31 Arthur Brown, ILB, No. 59 Brandon Williams, NT, No. 98 John Simon, OLB, No. 47 Kyle Juszczyk, FB, No. 40 Ricky Wagner, G/T, No. 71 Kapron Lewis-Moore, DE, No. 67 Ryan Jensen, C, No. 77 Aaron Mellette, WR, No. 80 Marc Anthony, CB, No. 36
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Kevin Cowherd | May 1, 2013
Ravens Nation, you feel better about things, don't you? The great panic is officially over. Oh, it was rough there for a while, watching the Ravens clean house and get rid of the old guys and the locker-room lawyers and the over-valued players who somehow had other teams lobbing sacks of money at them. You looked around one day and everything had changed. Ray Lewis and Matt Birk retired. Then Anquan Boldin was gone and so was Paul Kruger and Dannell Ellerbe, Bernard Pollard and even Ed Reed.
SPORTS
By Matt Vensel and The Baltimore Sun | April 30, 2013
The Baltimore sports scene is blessed with a bunch of talented bloggers who bring their unique perspective to the conversation. Each week, I hope to chat with one of them in a regular feature called Blogger on Blogger. This week, I exchanged emails with blogger Gordon McGuiness, who writes about the Ravens for Pro Football Focus and also contributes to Russell Street Report and the Purple Reign Show . MV: What are your thoughts on the team's 2013 draft class, specifically Matt Elam and Arthur Brown?