The Ravens leadership group has a packed weekend.
General Manager Ozzie Newsome, Head Coach John Harbaugh, President Dick Cass, Assistant General Manager Eric DeCosta and Sr. Vice President of Football Administration Pat Moriarty are all convening this weekend at Owner Steve Bisciotti's Florida home for their annual meeting to review last season and lay out the blueprint for the next year.
They'll dive into the salary cap, discuss which players they'll let go, attempt to keep or ask to take pay cuts, and identify areas where they clearly need to add talent.
"Usually, it starts with trying to get me zoned in on the salary cap," Bisciotti said. "Everything kind of goes from there."
Getting a strong understanding of the salary cap is critical for teams like the Ravens that consistently spend to the cap. Every offseason, Baltimore's front office must make difficult decisions about which high-priced veterans should be back for the upcoming season and where they should spend their money in free agency.
"Ozzie has always done a good job of painting the picture of what is to be and what can be," Bisciotti said. "Clearly, if you release players that are still under contract, there's a decision about the dead money versus the saved money."
In addition to the front-office executives making the trip, Bisciotti also threw out an interesting idea in Tuesday's season-review press conference to invite quarterback Joe Flacco on future trips. The Ravens view the veteran quarterback as a partner in terms of the team's overall success, and they clearly value his input.
"If I called Joe and said, 'Do you want to come down Saturday and Sunday?' He would be there," Bisciotti said. "Maybe that's not a bad idea. Maybe we should invite him down this weekend, because he's open to criticism, and he'd tell you that he thinks he needs to be better."
A key priority for the Ravens this offseason is to surround Flacco with a premier offensive line – Harbaugh said "we are going to build an offensive line that is best in the league" – and the executives will discuss how to make that happen.
Right tackle Rick Wagner is one of the key players in line to become an unrestricted free agent, along with defensive tackle Brandon Williams and fullback Kyle Juszczyk, and the Ravens will come to a clear consensus on whether they can afford to get those players back in Baltimore next year.
"We will formulate to a plan when we go down to Jupiter as to how we want to execute the plan," Newsome said.
