ChadSlaughter Posts -- FanHouse

Baltimore Ravens: What About Ray?

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

It was improbable. The Baltimore Ravens made another playoff run in 2008 based on a defense that used the art of suffocation (oh, and Ed Reed) and an offense that improved dramatically over the previous years. John Harbaugh was impressive as coach, putting a rookie quarterback out to toss the ball around and sticking with him through thick (17-29, 248 yards, 2 TDs in Week 9) and thin (11-28, 115 yards, 2 INTs in Week 15).

Now the team has to figure out what to do about a superstar in Ray Lewis, and how they should handle other important positional players (hello Mr. Stover) in order to return to (and move past) the AFC Championship game without their defensive coordinator.

Raiders Left Tackle Out Two To Three Weeks

On Monday night in San Diego, the Raiders yielded nine sacks against the Chargers in their home opener. Now comes the news that the rock of the offensive line, left tackle Robert Gallery, will miss two to three weeks, and maybe longer, with a torn calf muscle.

Gallery will be replaced by Chad Slaughter, who has only made one start at left tackle in his whole career, and none since 2003. Needless to say, the Ravens defense was already salivating at the prospect of going up against the Raiders, and now I'm sure that Ravens right defensive end Terrell Suggs has to think that a career outing is in the offing for Sunday.

My NFL Fanhouse colleague Michael David Smith has already declared the Raiders eliminated from Super Bowl contention. That's a realization that's already sunk in with the fan base, and it seems like it's been the feeling inside the locker room for weeks now. And with Art Shell looking completely overmatched, both on and off the field, how long will it take for Al Davis to pull the plug on his old friend this time?

Now, a sea of purple passion awaits the Raiders in Baltimore. It may very well be the ugliest Sunday in Raiders history since the Super Bowl XXXVII debacle against the Buccaneers in San Diego.