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Ravens QB
Elvis Grbac
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BALTIMORE — In the salary-cap era, the biggest challenge for a Super Bowl champion
is usually keeping the team intact.
The Baltimore Ravens, though, had a different challenge this offseason.
The Ravens wanted to upgrade their offense. They didn’t believe they could repeat
with the same offense that ranked 16th in yardage last year. They felt they couldn’t
rely on a defense that allowed the fewest points ever in a 16-game season to carry them
again.
"To make our defense break the all-time scoring record in order for us to be
successful puts a lot more pressure on a defense than you want," head coach Brian
Billick said. "There has to be balance."
That’s why the Ravens dumped QB Trent Dilfer, who became the first Super
Bowl-winning quarterback not to be invited back by his team the following year.
Instead, they signed Elvis Grbac from Kansas City to run the offense and added a new
right tackle in Leon Searcy from Jacksonville.
They also drafted a tight end in the first round in Todd Heap, and they think WR Travis
Taylor, who missed the second half of his rookie season last year with a broken clavicle,
will upgrade the receiving corps.
On paper, it looks like a more dynamic offense than last year’s edition. Grbac
passed for 4,169 yards and 28 touchdowns last year for the Chiefs. By contrast, Tony Banks
and Dilfer combined for 3,080 yards and 20 touchdowns for the Ravens.
The offense also went five straight games without putting a touchdown on the board.
That led to Billick yanking Banks for Dilfer in the fourth game of that drought.
Dilfer, though, led the team to 11 straight wins, including the Super Bowl. As TE
Shannon Sharpe is quick to point out, Grbac will be judged on whether he takes the Ravens
back to the Super Bowl.
"If he passes for 4,000 yards and we win the Super Bowl in New Orleans, he was a
significant upgrade. Anything less than that, no, he wasn’t," Sharpe said.
It will be a pressure-cooker situation for Grbac, but he’s looking at it as a
challenge.
"I’m going to be disappointed if we don’t get to the Super Bowl,"
Grbac said.
Although Grbac is a better thrower than Dilfer, he has to prove he can match
Dilfer’s leadership skills. Dilfer bonded with his teammates, and the defensive
players tended to take pride in bailing out the offense.
Grbac, by contrast, admits he wasn’t a mature player when he arrived in Kansas
City four years ago from San Francisco. He got the reputation in Kansas City of pointing
fingers at his teammates.
"I didn’t handle it as well as I should have, and I learned from it. I made
mistakes calling out some guys in the newspapers," he said.
Grbac, who will be 31 on Aug. 13, was older and wiser upon his arrival in Baltimore.
"I’ve matured," he said.
Grbac said that in Baltimore, he’ll take the blame if things don’t go right
instead of pointing out the mistakes of his teammates.
"If they make mistakes, I’m going to take the blame," he said.
"I’ve been through the wringer, and I understand that you’ve got to do
that.
"When I was younger, maybe I didn’t take the blame sometimes, and I had to
learn from those mistakes. Once you start taking that blame and the receivers see that,
they’re going to say, ‘OK, I’ve got to really step up because he’s
really taking a lot of bullets for me. I should be making some plays for him.’ And it
goes hand in hand."
The burden will be on the receiving corps of Qadry Ismail, Brandon Stokley, Patrick
Johnson, Taylor and Jermaine Lewis to step up.
Last year Sharpe, who led the team with 67 catches, was Baltimore’s only big-play
threat.
Ismail, who caught 49 passes, was the only wide receiver to catch more than 28 passes.
RB Priest Holmes was actually the third-leading receiver with 32 catches.
Last year it was difficult to judge the receivers because Dilfer wasn’t always an
accurate thrower. Things will be different now that the Ravens have a proven thrower in
Grbac.
"It removes any and all excuses," Billick said. "It’s time (for the
receivers) to step up. You have a winning organization. You’ve got a proven
quarterback. You’ve got a solid running game. There’s no reason for these guys
not to have an impact."
This doesn’t mean the Ravens’ offense is going to resemble Billick’s
aerial circus in Minnesota in 1998. That year, the Vikings set a league record with 556
points.
Billick knows what his critics are saying.
"Here’s what you’re going to write, that the move to Elvis Grbac was
ego-driven (because) I can’t stand to win defensively. We’ve got to win
offensively because my ego won’t let us win the other way," Billick said.
Billick actually proved those critics wrong in the playoffs last season. They kept
waiting for him to blow a game by throwing too much, but he played it safe and won with
his defense and his running game.
It’s going to be very similar this season.
"To the layman, it might not look any different at all," Billick said.
Banks and Dilfer combined for 500 throws last year, and Billick thinks that’s a
good number, as long as he has featured RB Jamal Lewis softening up the defenses with his
battering-ram running style.
"We’ll still be around 500 throws, not 650," Billick said.
Last year Vinny Testaverde led the AFC with 590 throws, and Brett Favre was tops in the
NFC with 580.
What Billick wants is more accuracy and more deep throws. "We want to be at 59,
60, 61 percent (completion percentage) and have a couple more verticals," Billick
said.
Actually, Grbac and Dilfer had virtually identical completion percentages last year.
Grbac completed 59.6 percent of his passes, and Dilfer completed 59.3. But Grbac had an
89.9 passer rating, compared with Dilfer’s 76.6. That’s because Dilfer threw
almost as many interceptions as touchdowns (11 to 12), while Grbac threw 28 TD passes and
only 14 interceptions.
Grbac also was sacked 29 times on 576 passing plays (5.0 percent), while Dilfer was
sacked 23 times on only 249 passing plays (9.2 percent).
Billick said the difference this year might be as subtle as two or three more
completions a game.
What Billick hopes to do is get the lead in the first half by throwing the ball and
then protect it in the second half with the running game.
"The numbers may not be shattering, but that’s a pretty good formula,"
Billick said.
How good it is will be judged on whether the Ravens win another Super Bowl trophy in
January.
Vito Stellino covers the Ravens for The Sports Xchange |
