Baltimore Ravens' Wide Receiver Dilemma

A rare arm.  A big-time arm.  These are the superlatives most often attributed to the Baltimore Raven's second year quarterback, Joe Flacco.  Ironically, the Raven's greatest deficiency may be at the position of wide receiver.  

During their playoff run of a season ago, Derrick Mason was the receiver most often targeted by Flacco.  But the man who inspired last seasons playoff momentum—playing like a younger man while nursing a serious shoulder injury—will be missing training camp as he tries to recover from Labrum surgery. 

Meanwhile, Mark Clayton has yet to become the receiver the Ravens envisioned when they selected him with the 22nd pick in the 2005 draft, never catching more than five touchdowns or tallying 1000 yards in a season.

He plays more as a possession wide-out and like Mason, doesn't have the body to outrun or out-jump a cornerback for the long balls that his coaches hope Flacco will be throwing. 

At 6-2, the third man on the depth chart, Demetrius Williams, is taller than both Mason and Clayton, and was meant to provide the intimidating presence of a larger receiver.

The Ravens, though, are still waiting for their big man to excel as his numbers have never been strong and the injuries that have limited him to 16 games in two seasons have him rehabilitating an ankle this offseason. 

As they usually do, the Ravens chose to spend their draft picks on the best players available at their turn, selecting an heir to their legendary offensive tackle—Jonathan Ogden, padding linebacker positions and bringing in a cornerback to potentially replace Chris McAlister, their now retired—Pro-Bowl cornerback. 

Their strategy still leaves them without an impressive wide receiver to keep opposing safeties out of the box, opening up a running game that the Ravens so stubbornly work to establish.   

After their first day of full-team minicamp, Flacco responded to reporter's questions about his receivers, “We had a pretty darn good team last year, obviously, with the guys that we have. So we don't need anybody else.  We feel like we have the guys to get it done.  We feel like we have the guys to be a Super Bowl team.” 

Flacco's answer is neither surprising nor telling.  The young quarterback is smart to show confidence in the teammates who will, for now, have the most direct determination on the success of his sophomore season. 

In reality, the quarterback's feelings are irrelevant; the coaching staff will decide if they can build on last season's success with their current personnel. 

The coaches don't seem to think so, inviting three free agent wide receivers to tryout at last weeks minicamp.  The staff eventually settled on Kelley Washington, who made the best impression of the three candidates, most particularly with a one-handed touchdown catch from quarterback Troy Smith. 

Washington, a 2003 draft choice by the Cincinnati Bengals, was released by the New England Patriots after two years of special teams work. 

The wide receiver out of Tennessee has few achievements to his name, but at 6-3, John Harbough and Cam Cameron, Coach and offensive coordinator respectively, are hoping that he will—at least—force an opponent to take note.

However, the fact remains that the wide receiver position is the shallowest on a team that will be considered a failure without a Super Bowl victory to follow up its surprise 2008 season. 

Rumors about the Ravens' interest in trading for the disgruntled Arizona receiver, Anquan Boldin, has the Baltimore faithful optimistic, yet cautious, being spurned in 2004 by another flashy free agent, Terrell Owens, after the Ravens' trade with San Francisco was blocked by Owens the next day. 

Boldin, though, has a six year record of success and would make the team's weakest position suddenly one of its strongest.  But if nothing changes, the greatest question going into the new season will be:

Can the Ravens spend another year supplementing their receiving options with an aging tight end in Todd Heap?