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Operation Boller: with upgraded talent around him, Kyle Boller finally is in position to prove he's more than a caretaker quarterback on a defense-first team. The season—and the future of the Ravens—hangs in the balance

Sporting News, The, July 1, 2005 by Paul Attner

Because guys like Brett Favre and Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and Daunte Culpepper and Donovan McNabb make playing quarterback appear simple when it's really football's equivalent of programming a computer, life is incredibly complex for Kyle Boller. Because he doesn't perform with the ease of his peers and hasn't duplicated their successes, he quickly is dumped onto a list with journeymen--a list where guys who just don't play well enough reside. There's no middle ground for him or them--no area for possible development and maturity. The judgment is quick and inflexible. Just ask Drew Brees.

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Of course, it's the definition of "can't play well enough" that becomes the problem. Should Boller be dismissed after only two seasons because he hasn't produced the statistics of his elite peers--or because he possibly never will be their equal? Does that mean he simply won't ever be good enough to lead a playoff team--or a Super Bowl winner?

If so, then the problem becomes bigger than Boller. If he's not good enough, then the Ravens' offense itself will be stuck in perpetual inefficiency. If he's not good enough, the team itself faces a future of uncertainty--and the blame must reside with coach Brian Billick and general manager Ozzie Newsome, the architects of a lopsided, defense-first roster that produced one of the NFL's most underachieving teams last season.

That's why this offseason has become a franchise-turning time in Baltimore. The Ravens finally are attempting to become balanced, finally applying attention and resources to fix their long-neglected offense, finally trying to accelerate the growth of Boller by surrounding him with upgraded coaching and talent. They are giving him a chance to have a Brees-like epiphany and direct them into the postseason--something they are convinced he can do. Most strikingly, this means the Ravens finally are giving an overdue heave-ho to the worn-out winning formula left over from Super Bowl 35--a formula that asked their offense to make occasional plays but otherwise not mess up their defensive dominance.

"We will be going through a transition here," Newsome says. "Our defense won't be as strong as it once was--it wasn't last year--and Kyle hopefully will be the person who will provide the transition for us. He will be able to win three or four games because he is the quarterback."

But for him to do that, the offense has to cease being what Billick bluntly calls "the bastard stepchild" of the defense. That's why the Ravens have made an expensive commitment to spark the turnaround and why Jim Fassel is the new offensive coordinator, Rick Neuheisel is the new quarterbacks coach and former Titan Derrick Mason and rookie Mark Clayton are the new wideouts. And that's why it's instructive to stand with Boller not on a football field but on the tee box, driver in hand, staring at a green some 325 yards away.

Last year, Boller had a 12 handicap with illusions of level-par grandeur. Much like his passing, his golf game had moments of excellence surrounded by too much inconsistency and inaccuracy. On this day in May, though, Boller is about to launch the ball with newfound confidence, hardly glancing at the water winding down the fairway's right side, eager to catch his usual fade.

His swing is quick, smooth and deceptively powerful, reflective of someone with natural athletic gifts cruelly denied most of us. The ball is a blur. It finally comes into clear view as it bounces, bounces--and finishes on the green. He accepts congratulations from envious onlookers, but his own joy is understated. He has come to expect this kind of achievement. "A different approach," he says about his golfing improvement. "I'm more under control. It's not just swing away and hope for the best anymore."

OK, not everything is perfect. A half-wedge from 20 yards for an eagle is surrounded by a few missed short putts and a botched chip or two. Yet there is more precision than mis-hits, more smiles than frustrations, reflecting newly emerging maturity and patience. "I'm not the same golfer I was last summer," he concludes with a big smile. "And I know I can get better."

For the Ravens, his improvement on the course parallels what they see on the field. He has the talent to execute the spectacular. But because there is much more to playing quarterback than an arm that can launch a 60-yard pass, their focus centers on his understanding of Fassel's streamlined offense--and the accuracy and consistency of his execution, both of which have increased markedly since the season ended.

"It's not even that we have to throw more than last year," says Fassel, the ex-Giants coach and former tutor of John Elway, Boomer Esiason and Kerry Collins who served as a Ravens offensive consultant in 2004. "If we just improve our accuracy, you will see a quantum improvement in the efficiency of the offense."

Boller completed 55.6 percent of his passes last fall; 60 percent is the starting point for quarterback excellence. If Boller had been a 64 percent passer his goal for this fall--that would have meant another 39 completions, the difference between 9-7 and perhaps one or two more wins and a playoff spot. The Ravens certainly would not have finished 31st in passing yards and total yards--an embarrassment for Billick, whose ascent to the Ravens job six years ago was fueled by the prolific Vikings offense he coordinated in 1998.

Operation Boller: with upgraded talent around him, Kyle Boller finally is in position to prove he's more than a caretaker quarterback on a defense-first team. The season—and the future of the Ravens—hangs in the balance

Sporting News, The, July 1, 2005 by Paul Attner

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