Richard Seymour: A Valuable Free Agent Addition in Today’s NFL

Richard Seymour should have the pick of many teams after June 1st.

It is often noted that today’s NFL is a passing league. With eight of the top 10 seasons for individual passing yards coming in the last five years, it’s impossible to argue against that claim. However, even though it is a passing league and offenses need to have a good quarterback to win games, balance on both sides of the ball is as important as ever.

When you look at the final four teams who competed for this year’s Super Bowl, each were able to run and pass the ball with different approaches. The New England Patriots unbalanced defenses with their plethora of weapons, the Baltimore Ravens have a pair of excellent running-backs and a strong offensive line, the San Francisco 49ers had the best offensive line in the league and a stable of runners in various forms and the Atlanta Falcons used their passing threat to set up the running game.

Yet, ultimately the two teams who made the Super Bowl are considered defense-first units. Led by Justin Smith and Haloti Ngata, the Ravens and 49ers ranked 12th and second in the league in points allowed during the regular season respectively. Smith and Ngata are singled out for very important reasons. Ngata wasn’t fully healthy during the regular season, which was a big reason that the Ravens fell to 12th overall in points allowed per game, while Smith wasn’t healthy in the post-season, when the 49ers’ defensive output dropped notably compared to when he was 100 percent.

Analyzing the Flexibility of the Baltimore Ravens’ Re-Tooled Defense

Lardarius Webb needs to come out of the shadows for the Baltimore Ravens in 2013.

Nothing ever stays the same. Nothing in life or in football. The Baltimore Ravens learned that the hard way this off-season.

After figuring out the formula to winning a Super Bowl with Joe Flacco as his quarterback, Ravens’ general manager Ozzie Newsome was pushed into rebuilding his roster this off-season. Immediately after he lifted his second Super Bowl, Ray Lewis’ career came to a close. Lewis’ long-time partner in leading the Ravens’ defense, Ed Reed, followed his inside linebacker out the door in free agency.

Lewis and Reed were the two most recognizable names leaving the roster, but joining them were key pieces such of the Super Bowl run such as Paul Kruger, Dannell Ellerbe, Cary Williams and Bernard Pollard. Not to mention Matt Birk, Bryant McKinnie and Anquan Boldin on the offensive side of the ball. Each of those losses were compounded by the losses of key members of the roster in 2012, Ben Grubbs, Cory Redding, Jarrett Johnson, Lee Evans and Ricky Williams.

In just two years, the Ravens’ roster has gone through some serious surgical subtractions.

Of course, Newsome would never accept those subtractions without making significant moves to fill them in with quality replacements. The offensive side of the ball brought in younger, unproven players to replace the departed veterans, but on the defensive side is where Newsome showed off his creativity.