MASNsports.com is your online home for the latest Orioles and Nationals news, features, and commentary. And now, you can connect with MASN on every digital level. From web and social media to our new mobile alert service, MASN has got all the bases covered.
Get the latest breaking news direct to your phone with our mobile texting service.
Last offseason, the Ravens coaches and front office members insisted that they already had the wide receivers that they needed to help Joe Flacco expand the passing game.
They pointed to Derrick Mason, Mark Clayton and Demetrius Williams as a playmaking trio to build around.
Today, at the "State of the Ravens" press conference, GM Ozzie Newsome and team owner Steve Bisciotti both admitted that in addition to the guys we've seen over the last few years, they'll need to add someone through free agency, a trade, or the draft that can improve the receiving corps.
"Do we want to improve at the wide receiver position? Yes, because I think that will further enhance our running game," Newsome said. "I think having a playmaker on the outside will help Joe Flacco become a better quarterback."
"We can score some points, but we want to be better. We've got to get better, because if we ever get involved in a shootout, I want to win the shootout. We don't want to have the Pro Bowl game [with constant offense], but...I want to be able to win a game like that and I want to be able to win a 6-0 game too. That's my goal."
With Mason and Kelley Washington unrestricted free agents and Clayton and Williams restricted free agents, the Ravens will have some choices to make this offseason. They'll need to bring back some in their free agent crop while also adding some fresh faces.
Bisciotti was in agreement with his GM that a big-play wideout is needed, but also noted that a receiver won't necessarily solve all the Ravens' problems.
"It seems to be in the league that a lot of the big 50-yard touchdowns that go down the field, if you watch them, not all of them are hotly-contested balls," Bisciotti said. "A lot of them are schemes or what you may be doing in the run game to free a receiver on a double-move or things like that. So, when I watch all the other teams in the league, I don't zero in and say 'Man, if that guy was 6'3, we would have had more touchdowns.
"[But] I do think we need better receivers."
