Ravens lock down plan, players (notably a QB) for next dynasty

After Baltimore beat New England in the AFC title game, a Patriots player, long after the game ended, made an honest and blunt assessment of the Ravens.

A long, long, long, long, long time.

These are the NFL’s standard bearers right now: the Ravens, Patriots, Packers, Giants, 49ers and Steelers.

Bill Belichick remains the only coach in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in four years.

“These are the most arrogant pricks in the world, starting with Belichick on down,” the Ravens’ Terrell Suggs said after beating the Patriots in the title game.

In a radio interview this week, Suggs added: “There are 32 teams in the NFL, I guarantee the other 31 hate the New England Patriots.

The Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl in eight years (though they have been to two, losing Super Bowls XLII and XLVI), the roster has significant holes and depth issues and Tom Brady turns 36 in August.

Since nature and football both abhor a vacuum, a team will have to fill the dynasty void left by New England, and the team best prepared to do that is Baltimore.

In many ways, this Ravens group is reminiscent of the Patriots early in their run, the one that inspired so much imitation in the NFL and, as the Patriots beat the shingles off of people, simultaneously inspired hatred.

If some years from now, players talk of how much they hate the Ravens, then we’ll know that the Ravens indeed had a formidable dynasty.