Ravens named as the best potential landing site for Roquan

Ravens named as the best potential landing site for Roquan Smith

Steve Bisciotti opens up on the relationship with players, the injury-plagued 2021 season and more

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti did an interview with Sirius XM Radio at training camp yesterday. Here are some highlights:

His relationship with players: “I think there’s a sweet spot that if you’re here too often you can kind of alienate your players and if you’re here too little you don’t give them a chance to be comfortable around you. So friendly I instinctively want them to know who I am, to know that I care about them… I go to the dressing room before the game, I never go after the game because I never want to see them in a heightened emotional state and have to deal with it before the owner.”

The Ravens’ injury-plagued 2021 season: “I’m a bit shocked by the injuries last year. I’m sanding down the curbs out there so no one trips and falls on their way in. I’ve looked at the stats over the years and you see how it goes every now and then.. If we had moved to a new facility, we would have gone to artificial turf… it was the same as before. Everything we do here is the same, it’s the same coaching staff, so nothing’s changed except that rash. I think they did a study and put a scoring system in place… if you lose a Pro Bowler it’s five points, a starter four points and a backup three points, and we’ve been #1 for the last 20 years, 648 examples. It was really bad and this team should finish 4-13 not 8-9. And we lost two of them because we decided to go for a two-point conversion at the end against the Packers and Steelers and so it could have been 10- very easily. 7.”

Its role in the design process: “I get the board from Eric [DeCosta] very early, and I know it’s preliminary, and I like to start studying players, but I’m not qualified to watch like the top 30 players because the nuances are different. What I like to see is when I have six fourth-round draft picks and I know the standard deviation says we’re going to take between 110 and 141 players from 70 to 100 down to 141. So that’s what I do then, focused on three months; Study these players, these Isaiah Likelys and Charlie Kolars and these fourth-round picks.”

Ravens focus on special teams: “You appreciate John [Harbaugh] for what he did. I think in the 15 years he’s been here we probably need to be in the top 6 on special teams, so I want him to be proud of that third rail. It makes and breaks games that make or break playoff performances. I’m always alerted when my favorite corner is forced into the practice squad because of that corner [Harbaugh’s] plays special teams better. And I’m reminded every year that on special teams it’s better to stand out when it comes to the last places. And it’s driving me nuts that we’re putting a guy in… he’s not going to make the training squad. Someone else is going to claim it and it’s damn it, I knew this was going to be good. And John didn’t have it because he doesn’t play hard special teams. John always told me, and has said it a million times to other reporters, that when a young man is great on special teams, he almost always becomes a great player. And the Zach Orrs and Albert McClellans who didn’t play straight away were the ones that only made special teams shine, and it’s proven true. It still doesn’t help me on cutdown day.”

Using analytics: “I love analytics and statistics. I also trust the eyes of my scouts and the eyes of my coaches. But not knowing things we didn’t know years ago… I mean, you look at a team like Pittsburgh that just keeps finding wide receivers. it’s not just eyes. You look deeper and find things. They look at attributes.”