Torrey Smith

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 Chris Worthington, who blogs about the Ravens for Baltimore Sports and Life . MV: The Ravens made a splash Sunday, agreeing to terms with Elvis Dumervil. Your thoughts on the move? CW: My initial thought is that this is a very good signing for the Ravens.

Torrey Smith has heard it before. About three months after the wide receiver was drafted, the Ravens released three popular and productive offensive players, and Smith remembers the talk that the team was headed for some struggles. "They had cut [ Derrick] Mason , [ Todd] Heap and Willis McGahee [and] everybody was panicking and saying, 'Oh, you're going to be terrible,'” Smith said Saturday before hosting his charity basketball game at Stafford High School, his alma mater.

Ravens officials made it clear at this week's NFL meetings that their primary focus over the next month is not what remains on the free-agent market. With 12 selections in next month's draft, the organization is busy evaluating college players who will help replenish a roster that has been hit hard by free agency, releases and retirements. But with a little over $7 million of remaining salary-cap space, the Ravens are still looking to add a couple of free agents, hoping to find a couple of bargains that will help fill some holes.

Here is what national analysts are saying about the Ravens trading Anquan Boldin to the San Francisco 49ers. --- Pete Prisco of CBS Sports says that trading Boldin makes sense because he no longer gets separation . “He was old and slow and made too much dough and had to go. … I think Boldin is the best receiver in NFL history at catching passes when he is not open,” Prisco wrote. “His inability to separate because of a lack of speed has forced him to evolve into a receiver who uses his hands and his body to make catches.

Five points as the Ravens and wide receiver Anquan Boldin remain at an impasse over the wide receiver's status for the 2013-14 season:   1. It has been said and written that the Ravens have until tomorrow's start of free agency to make a decision on Boldin. While they'd obviously like to get the situation rectified as soon as possible, there is no deadline. The Ravens are already under the cap so they don't need to slash anymore salaries before the market opens at 4 p.m. tomorrow.

Several Ravens arrived at the Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric on Monday night to participate in the premier screening of the DVD that chronicles their Super Bowl winning season. But instead of celebrating the accomplishment, the Ravens found themselves lamenting the loss of one of their dominant performers from their playoff run. Veteran wide receiver Anquan Boldin , who burned the San Francisco 49ers for six catches, 104 yards and a touchdown in the Ravens 34-31 victory in Super Bowl XLVII, was traded to the 49ers on Monday for a sixth-round draft pick.

You don't have to be a serious fan to know the NFL Films look and sound. Stunning shots of overcast skies hanging low over packed stadiums are accompanied by tympanies rumbling and choral voices soaring as a perfect spiral sails in slow motion through the lights down into the heavenward-stretched hands of an airborne receiver. And that lyricism is juxtaposed with the most in-your-face mud, blood, grime and grit, hand-held close-ups you will ever see on a screen. Sometimes it feels as if you are in the middle of the mayhem on the field.

The NFL offseason heats up on Tuesday when the free agency period begins and the NFL draft will take place next month. In anticipation of those events, blogger and reporter Matt Vensel will look at six key positions the Ravens might address in free agency and the NFL draft in the days leading up to the start of free agency. The Ravens won their second Lombardi Trophy this winter thanks in large part due to the play of quarterback Joe Flacco, but let's not forget about the speedy guys who were on the receiving end of all those tight spirals.

Joe Flacco will sign his new six-year, $120.6 million contract extension Monday afternoon, a deal which will make the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player the NFL's highest-paid player while also giving the Ravens salary cap wiggle room. Since the news of Flacco's new deal broke Friday night, many national reporters and analysts have pointed to Flacco's game-tying touchdown pass in the playoff win over the Denver Broncos and said that Flacco would not be as rich as he is today had Broncos safety Rahim Moore not allowed Jacoby Jones to get in behind him. True, the Ravens caught a break there as Moore misplayed the ball and tumbled to the turf as Jones caught one of the biggest touchdown passes in Baltimore sports history.

Lest anyone had any doubts about Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith's good eggdom, just check out the rap video (above) he made with his fiancee to get kids to study. Smith's fiancee, Chanel Williams, teaches fourth grade at Dogwood Elementary in Windsor Mill. With the Maryland School Assessment tests coming up, Williams convinced Smith that a message from a football star might inspire her students to do well. Together they created the "MSA Rap" and put it on YouTube where it has already garnered nearly 20,000 hits.