re: Im so glad that this is Ray Lewis last half of football.

Lewis is not the linebacker he was 5 years ago-- but he's still a highly productive guy, the sort that rounds out a quality linebacking corps, rather than defines it. The Ravens definitely do things now to disguise him when he has man coverage on TEs, and he has absolutely lost a step, but he is still the sort of 'cog' that a defense needs.

That said, I spent a decade underappreciating his actual contribution to the Ravens-- I watched them and thought 'Lewis isn't the thing that makes this defense work; it's Ed Reed'; then I watched the 2005 edition of the Ravens, when Lewis played only 6 games; the change was stark. It's the only time I've ever seen a football team that was a playoff contender drop off the face of the Earth-- how the Ravens got to 6-10 was probably the best coaching job of the Brian Billick Era- it was a team worthy of winning 3 games.

The next year, Ray plugged himself right back in, and while starting to show his age, they were a 13 win contender again. I begrudgingly tip my hat to the guy, one of the few difference-making guys on the defensive side of the ball that could make or break a franchise, in the last 35 years.