FanHouse DawanLandry

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.

Ben Roethlisberger's concussion three weeks ago was apparently scarier than the run of the mill concussion. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that Roethlisberger's injury was a spinal cord concussion, as his spinal cord suffered a severe enough jolt to leave him unable to feel his arms.

It's the same injury that left Tommy Maddox motionless on the field after a sack against the Titans in 2002, but he also quickly returned to action. It didn't turn out as well for Ravens' safety Dawan Landry, as he had to be placed on injured reserve this year after a spinal cord concussion.

A spinal cord concussion explains the numbness, and like most spinal cord concussions, Roethlisberger's symptoms went away quickly. If this news had come out a week ago, it would have caused massive anxiety for all Steelers' fans, but a day after he answered any questions about his health by leading Pittsburgh to an easy win over the Chargers, it's just a minor blip.

Undoubtedly, the post-game chatter will be about Joe Flacco being the first rookie quarterback to win two playoff games even though, you know, he completed just 11 of 22 passes for 161 yards and the defense, as usual, had almost everything to do with the final outcome.

Whatever your perspective, the fact remains: Baltimore is headed to the AFC Championship game for the first time since 2000. And they'll do it as the most banged-up squad in the league. On Wednesday, the Dallas Morning News' Rich Gosselin wrote that the Ravens finished 11-5 during the regular season "despite losing 64 games by starters because of injury, the fourth-highest total in the league. Baltimore lost 14 more games by starters than any other playoff team."

And next week, whether the Ravens travel to Pittsburgh or San Diego, they could be without a few more starters. Right tackle Willie Anderson, running back Le'Ron McClain, outside linebacker Terrell Suggs and cornerback Samari Rolle were all injured during the Titans game. McClain did manage to hobble his way through the second half, but was mostly ineffective.

This sorta got lost in the exciting news that Chad Javon Ocho Cinco is now the official sponsor of Chad Johnson, but yesterday Mr. Eight Five commenced with pregame smack talking.

(For some reason, Ocho Cinco wasn't interested in talking about his name after going through great pains to make sure everybody knew he was changing it, but he was good ole Chad Johnson when it came to smacking his gums.)

"The last time we played, he [Bart Scott] cussed me out and told me to stay out of his huddle, and I took offense to that, so this Sunday I am going to hit him in the mouth," Johnson said. "He's really rude."

As for [Dawan] Landry, Johnson said, "He's always trying to be a he-man when there's a running play."

I'm certain Ocho Cinco won't be hitting Bart Scott in his mouth because everybody knows that Bart Scott will kill a fool. Or at least threaten to after getting his bell rung on national television. Plus, Chad's not that tough.

Maybe the most interesting thing to come out of the interview was Ocho Cinco's admiration for Ray Lewis.

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is right around the corner, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: The position has been an issue in Baltimore since, well, the club moved from Cleveland. Brian Billick turned out not to be such a smart guy, after all, which explains Tony Banks, Elvis Grbac, Chris Redman, and Kyle Boller. Second-year player Troy Smith showed promise during a brief stints last season, but Joe Flacco is the team's newest franchise quarterback. Now it's just a matter of getting him up to speed on running the offense. Heat Index: 4

Running backs: Letting Jamal Lewis walk after the 2006 season was a no-brainer, even if he had a resurgence of sorts with the Browns. Willis McGahee is more than capable when healthy, and rookie second-rounder Ray Rice should see plenty of action. Heat Index: 7

Mixed Martial Arts is usually the domain of Michael David Smith and Josh Alper, but strictly speaking, this story isn't so much MMA-related as it is Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan making fun of rookie safety Tom Zbikowski, who once moonlighted as a professional boxer.

Everybody knows MMA is nothing like boxing, but Ryan uses the reference when describing Zbikowski and fellow rookie safety Haruki Nakamura.

The Ravens scouts do extensive research on all of their draft picks, but it was easy to assume rookie safeties ... Zbikowski and ... Nakamura would both be physical. ...

"We call them the mixed martial arts safeties," ... Ryan said. "We might not be able to cover anybody, but we're going to beat up somebody."

It's joke, but there's a lot of truth to what Ryan says. Not so much with Zbikowski and Nakamura -- neither player has yet to see the field in a NFL game -- but the Ravens' defensive philosophy in general. And for the last eight seasons, it's been pretty effective.

Of course, outside of Will Demps, most of the Ravens can cover, too. Ray Lewis, who is known more for flapping his gums and making big hits, is probably one of the best pass-covering middle linebackers in NFL history.

The two rookie safeties will primarily see playing time on special teams since Ed Reed is still, well, Ed Reed and Dawan Landry is drawing rave reviews after a solid start to his career. If nothing else, Zbikowski and Nakamura will provide valuable backup should the Ravens get into an on-field scuffle.

During Thursday night's Bears-Redskins game, Washington safety LaRon Landry picked up a personal foul penalty for drilling Bears receiver Muhsin Muhammad.

The hit came late enough and hard enough that I think it's fair to call it a cheap shot, and I'm sure he'll be fined, although I heard some sports radio folks in Chicago going a little overboard, talking about it like it was the dirtiest play in football history.

Watching Landry, who was the Redskins' first-round pick this year and is one of the most important players to the future of their defense, you get the feeling that he would rather knock somebody flat on his back than intercept a pass. Cris Collinsworth said as much during the NFL Network broadcast. Landry, right now, is a player with great potential, but far from a complete safety.

An interesting thing about Landry is that his brother, Ravens safety Dawan Landry, is a complete football player. Dawan isn't as good an athlete as LaRon, which is why Dawan was a fifth-round pick and LaRon was a first-round pick, but Dawan does all the subtle things that a safety needs to do but that don't get you on SportsCenter. Some day soon, the Redskins need LaRon to do those things. Some day he will.

I'll be honest, when the Ravens chose not to re-sign safety Will Demps last off-season, I was sure their secondary would suffer. Instead, GM Ozzie Newsome used a second-day pick on Dawan Landry, put him in the starting lineup, and all he did was provide great run support and rack up five interceptions. This is why I'm not an NFL personnel guy.

Demps signed a five-year, $12-million with the Giants last off-season, had a rough go of it in '06, and just reached an injury settlement with the team after dislocating his elbow during the preseason. And now, it looks like the Eagles might be interested in the former undrafted free agent.

This seems kind of peculiar given that Philly is pretty well stocked in the secondary, and it's not like Demps is particularly adept against either the run or the pass. On the other hand, Demps is a veteran player who's lasted six years in the league primarily because of his football smarts. He might still have a little something left in the tank.

It's probably worth noting that an Eagles source says the team has no interest, but Demps could be a good guy to have around for organizing social events.