The first days of the new tenure of rookie head coach Jesse Minter bring a fresh look for everything in Owings Mills as the Baltimore Ravens begin a march toward February dreams of a successful January. But, first, the dog days of July as Luke Jones and Nestor open the doors of purple training camp in Owings Mills with three big areas of concern.
Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discuss the Baltimore Ravens’ training camp, focusing on three main areas of concern: the offensive line, the defensive line, and the health of Nnamdi Madubuike. Jones highlights the need for the new offensive line starters to gel, the potential impact of Madubuike’s return on the pass rush, and the importance of key players like Roquan Smith and Marlon Humphrey. They also debate the value of Trey Hendrickson versus Maxx Crosby, with Jones predicting Hendrickson to have slightly more sacks. The conversation emphasizes the importance of staying healthy and the potential impact of injuries on the team’s performance.
Opening Remarks and Initial Thoughts on Training Camp
- Nestor Aparicio welcomes listeners to WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and mentions the ongoing baseball season with the Orioles and the upcoming trade deadline.
- Nestor and Luke Jones discuss the excitement surrounding the new coaching staff led by Jesse Minter, the new coordinators, and the high expectations for the 2026 Ravens.
- Luke emphasizes the importance of the new era with a new head coach for the first time in 18 years and the need to settle into the new football season.
- Nestor and Luke talk about the excitement of the new season and the importance of starting the season well, referencing past struggles with slow starts.
Key Areas of Concern and Expectations
- Nestor asks Luke about what he is looking for in training camp, specifically mentioning the offensive and defensive lines.
- Luke highlights the three new starters on the interior offensive line and the addition of Ethan Posick, expressing cautious optimism about the group’s gelling.
- The status of Namdi Matabike is a significant concern, with Luke noting his placement on the PUP list and the potential impact of his return on the pass rush.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of key players like Roquan Smith, Ronnie Stanley, and Marlon Humphrey, and the need for them to perform at a high level.
Pass Rush and Defensive Line
- Luke emphasizes the importance of the pass rush and the potential impact of Namdi Matabike’s return on the defensive line.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the significance of Trey Hendrickson and the need for him to perform at a high level, given the significant investment made in him.
- Luke mentions the potential for other players like Mike Green and the drafted players to step up and contribute to the pass rush.
- The conversation touches on the impact of the new defensive coordinator, Jesse Minter, and his vision for the defense.
Secondary and Cornerback Depth
- Luke expresses confidence in the safety position, highlighting Kyle Hamilton and Malachi Starks, and the addition of Jalen Hawkins.
- The cornerback position is seen as a potential area of concern, with questions about Marlon Humphrey’s performance and the readiness of Nate Wiggins to step up.
- Luke mentions the depth at cornerback, including T.J. Tampa and the drafted players, and the need for them to contribute if injuries occur.
- The conversation includes a discussion on the importance of the secondary in complementing the pass rush and the potential impact of playing more three-safety nickel formations.
Offensive Line and Quarterback Play
- Luke discusses the importance of the offensive line, particularly the interior line, and the need for the new starters to gel.
- The conversation touches on the potential for Lamar Jackson to play more under center and the impact of play-action passes on the offense.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of staying healthy and the potential impact of injuries on the team’s performance.
- The conversation includes a mention of the new coaching staff and their impact on the offense, with a focus on the play-calling and game management.
Final Thoughts and Preseason Expectations
- Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of the preseason games and the need for players to stay healthy while getting valuable game experience.
- The conversation includes a mention of the upcoming trade deadline and the potential for the Ravens to make moves to improve the roster.
- Nestor highlights the importance of the media credential for covering the Ravens and the excitement surrounding the new season.
- The conversation concludes with a focus on the importance of the next few weeks in training camp and the need for the team to perform well in the preseason.
Nestor Aparicio 0:00
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. Football on the brain all week long as the Orioles try to fumble around and flounder around in Detroit before the Phillies get to town. There is a trading deadline next Monday. Any breaking news will happen first on the WNST Tech Service, all of that brought to you by Cole Roofing and Gordian Energy as we get into Trade Week, and certainly Luke gets into purple gear. Owings Mills open for business this week. Rookies in, veterans in, Namde Matabiki maybe in. I’m not sure. Luke Jones will be doing all of this, and on Thursday. I will be at Costas and doing the crab cake tour in Timonium this time, not Dundalk. I was there for crabs over the weekend. Also brought to you by Farnan and Dermer and our friends at GBMC. And I will have the Ravens scratch offs to give away because it’s Raven season, and no one knows that more than you. Heading out to not too hot this week, at least to start things. But the new administration, the new coach, the new everything, and the same old Lamar and Derrick Henry. You know, it’s it’s good the football season’s here. You and I are getting worn out on this baseball nonsense.
Luke Jones 1:14
Yeah, yeah, and we’ll continue to talk about that because, well, that’s the wild card picture in the AL, but it’s time, right? We we’ve had we’re talking now what six months or so since Jesse Minter was hired, and it’s time, right? And I don’t mean you know in and out for an OTA here or there or two day mandatory minicamp. It’s time to settle into the equilibrium of a new football season, right? New head coach, new coordinators, mostly a brand new coaching staff, save for a couple guys, a roster that is different and quite different in some ways, in other ways not so different. So, a team that has very high expectations, despite having a rookie head coach. So, there’s a lot of fascination. We talked a lot about the honeymoon back in the spring training camp. I don’t think you know. You’re certainly not in regular season mode. You don’t lose games during training camp. However, you can lose players, especially as you get into pads and and you know just the realities and the the rigors of football. Just kind of you you face that and you you deal with some attrition here and there, but it’s time. I think it’s everyone’s excited. I think there we’ve talked about the newness of NIST going back to, you know, even going back to the introductory press conference with Minter and seeing the new coordinators and and all of that. But now you settle in, and you say, all right, less and less talk about John Harbaugh or Todd Monkin or Isaiah Likely or any players that left last year. Now it’s okay. What are the 2026 Ravens going to look like? What what is this era going to look like? Right, it it is a new era with a new head coach for the first time in 18 years. So I’m looking forward to that. I’m looking forward to just settling in, seeing what this team looks like on a daily basis. You know me; I’ve been at this long enough. I’m not going to be, you know, you don’t overreact to to good or bad, other than if you have a major injury over the course of the next several weeks. But we also understand, even if you’re not necessarily entertained and waiting with bated breath on every single camp observation. This is part of the process of getting ready. And if there’s one part of the narrative from the last couple years that you want to see the Ravens absolutely reverse, is they need to get off to a better start than they did the last couple years, right? Captain, obvious statement when you were one and five last year, and even the year before they were zero and two, and that was the difference of playing in Buffalo rather than Buffalo coming to Baltimore, for example, two years ago. So the schedule on paper looks like it should lend itself to being able to get off to a pretty good start, but you’ve got to go out and do it, and that work starts this week, and obviously there’s a lot of excitement with, at the very least, you know, maybe not a complete reset, but at least a refresh, some fresh coats of paint, so to speak, on what we’ve known the Baltimore Ravens to be in recent years.
Nestor Aparicio 4:17
Well, you’ll be out there. What are you looking for? I mean, this is this is the little boy in me asking Luke, the reporter guy. Like, you’re out there. I would think the offensive lines, and we’re going to continue to talk about that until we don’t talk about that. Like, who’s playing? Who’s in rotations so early? Yeah. Other than the Madabike thing, they don’t have any massive injury, big questions, and who’s going to be on the field september 13, but dude, six and a half weeks of practice. I know there’s a WNST text coming where somebody’s going to turn something and f their season up. Somebody’s going to get hurt. It’s just the way it works. They’ve lowered these preseason games. Nobody plays in them in the John Harbaugh. That’s sort of interesting. Minter will see how he uses these three hours of real fake football in August as well. But what are you looking for?
Luke Jones 5:12
Yeah, I think you really touched on it big time. I would say the offensive line and also the defensive line, right? I mean, the offensive line. You’ve got three new starters on the interior, assuming Andrew Voorhees isn’t going to miraculously beat out John Simpson or Vengo Iwane as one of the guards, so you’re going to have three new starters there. Obviously, they added Ethan Posick last week. I think that’s something they had to do, and that’s not to say that I have incredibly high expectations for him, but I certainly feel better about him than Danny Pinter or Javon Gwynn or Corey Bullock. But how is that group gelling? And I, I don’t know if you’re necessarily going to, you know, for for anyone who’s out there on a regular basis that you’re going to glean a whole lot, unless it looks really, really bad. You know what I mean. Unless unless the pockets just being collapsed regularly, but you have that. And then on the flip side, you know what what is the status for Namdi Matabike early on? He’s officially on the PUP list along with five other players. But you’ve heard me give this spiel what now, 15 years, 16 years, whatever it is that I’ve been at this full time covering the Ravens, that the active PUP list is a procedural move for anyone that was dealing with something pre-existing going into the start of training camp. It’s possible that all six guys are on the practice field for the first full squad practice. Probably not, but all signs. You know, there was a report from the Athletic over the weekend that you know Madabike has been cleared by independent doctor. We’re going to see exactly what that means in terms of write that down for me on a depth portion for the listeners and for anyone out there that’s just zooming into this and saying, all right,
Nestor Aparicio 7:00
Travis, what’s his name? And then the Hendrickson guy-they gave him a little bit of money, like that front seven and what it needs to be. And you read the Riot Act to Roquan Smith last week. I heard that. I was driving around listening to AM 1570 and one of our segments, and you were onto the Roquan thing. His significance cannot be understated, and his disappearance and absence is part of John Harbaugh’s absence and giving these wacky speeches that he is known for up in New York, where it’s not playing so good. But but having him back and having the real version of him, he was that emerging young football player that disappeared. I mean, I talk so much about Roquan and Ronnie Stanley and Marlon Humphrey, these guys that just Derrick Henry, these guys, Mark Andrews, all of these guys, I’m expecting them because I’ve watched a lot of football all my life. When guys get to be 32, 33, 34, 35, I’m not expecting the same thing out of them. Now, like that country music song, they might be as good once as they once were, like Ray Lewis shooting the gap on Sproul’s at the you know out in San Diego, like I I he was 33 or whatever at the time when he did that or whatever 31 whatever it was was you know otherworldly. I’m expecting Lamar to be otherworldly on certain occasions. I’m not expecting his magic. I’m not pissing on Lamar as much as everybody thinks I do or can or will, I think as a pocket quarterback, he’s not going to the Hall of Fame. And if that’s what they turn him into, and the running game’s not there, and the protection’s not there, and the tight end Binky’s not there, and Zay Flowers has an ankle turned, it’s not going to go well. Things have to be perfect here for 35-year-old running backs and 33-year-old left tackles and just on on and on and on, but what what’s Madabiki? 2829, Like this is prime for him. He’s being paid prime and disappeared. Disappeared’s awful. Playing poorly’s not good. Playing and not being Gunner Anderson, being out there and not being yourself, is not good either. There’s a big part of his money, his health, his neck, his spine, whatever’s been going on in the HIPAA that we’re not allowed to report on. That it’s very unknown, but as we sit here, we’re like, “Oh, he’s back. He’s going to be the football player he was two, three years ago. That would be great. That’d be great. That would be great.
Luke Jones 9:23
There’s no doubt about it. I mean, look, we’ve talked about this a lot with the Orioles, right? You don’t want to just chalk everything up to injuries, right? Because I’ll push back on something you just said, and I think you just were, you know, you were just kind of saying it in passing. You can’t expect everything to go perfectly, right? That’s not reality. Go back and look at the 2012 Ravens and some of the guys they missed at various times. I mean, their number one corner early that season was Ladarius Webb. He tore his ACL in week six or week seven, whatever it was. He was out for the year, right? I mean, Corey Graham emerged to be one. Their starting corners. He was a special teams guy, so even with championship caliber, true championship teams, not everything’s going to go perfectly. But you need enough of those questions that we’re talking about right now. Whether we’re talking about an injury situation, someone who’s a little bit longer in the tooth, right, a little on the wrong side of 30, you need enough of those questions to fall the way you want it to. If you want to be a Super Bowl contending kind of team, I mean that’s just the truth. So there’s that. But with Madabike specifically, this is a guy they lost in week two last year. You go back and look at the Ravens and look. We’ve had so much, so much discourse about the pass rush for years and years and years. Even going back to late in Terrell Suggs’s career, we were talking about the pass rush, but you look at Madabike’s last three healthy seasons: so 2022, 2023, 2024. Two of those years with Mike McDonald, of course. 2024 was Zach Orr’s first year as defensive coordinator, but Matt Abike had I think it was 25 sacks combined over those three seasons. Mind you, this is for an interior defensive tackle where typically you don’t see big time sack numbers from defensive tackles, like it’s it’s just not how it works generally. It’s the edge guys that are John
Nestor Aparicio 11:26
Randall, right? Exactly, Lauren Sapp.
Luke Jones 11:28
Yeah, I mean, but even those guys generally they might have had a couple seasons like that, but they weren’t having 20 sacks seasons every single year or anything like that. But with Madabike, those he had 25 sacks over those three seasons. Of course, had the monster season in 2023, where he led all interior defensive linemen and sacks with 13. The Ravens were top five in sacks in each of those three seasons. Last year, with him exiting the season in week two and never coming back because of the neck injury, they plummeted to what? Tied for 28th. So if you get a version of him, and let’s let’s even let’s even put a little bit of wiggle room in there. Let’s say it’s not necessarily the version of Madabike from three years ago, but it’s still a version of him that’s 28, and he’s in great shape, and the neck’s feeling good. You know what? And part of this, it’s hard to project because we don’t know exactly what happened with his neck. We’re going to hear from him at some point. You know, one of the first questions that I’m at least going to attempt to ask-it doesn’t mean he’s going to answer it-is, you know, what can you share with us as far as what exactly happened with your neck and why was there like what needed to happen for you to be cleared? You know, I mean, neck and spinal cord. I mean, there’s a lot of things that go on with that that you you just don’t know. But
Nestor Aparicio 12:53
and we went through that with Zach Orr, no question as a media creator. And that’s my thing.
Luke Jones 12:57
Like that would be my question. It’s like okay, Nambi, like was this just a pure injury, or was this an injury that then revealed something else going on? I mean, if you remember Zach Orr, he had a herniated disc, and that’s where they discovered he had the congenital spinal condition. Right? It was another injury that revealed, oh my gosh, his cervical spine is in terrible shape. Like he can’t play football anymore. Should have never been playing football, quite frankly. So, is it a situation like that? Was it purely an injury that happened to him? You know, I. What symptoms did he have? All that. But all that being said, if if he’s cleared and and he’s going to be on the practice field at some point here in the near future, and the indications are that that’s going to happen. If he can be anything close to what he was for them the last few years, boy, that that is such a game changer for their pass rush, especially now when you add Trey Hendrickson into that conversation coming off the edge. So it just alleviates the pressure on the likes of Mike Green and Zion Young and Tavious Robinson and put you in a position like fresh
Nestor Aparicio 14:04
names some of these days not Tavious Robinson but not Mike Green but like Hendrickson’s a fresh name too and sure play like a $20 million football player
Luke Jones 14:13
no doubt but you’re hoping that him playing as a $20 million football player the trickle down effect can make those other guys that much better as well. I’ll still I’ll still say this. Look, if you can go sign Jadavion Clowney and add him to the mix, and he’s still out there, I I’m still doing it, right? I don’t. I am so far beyond this concept of well, we’ve got to give our young guys snaps. No, make the young guys force their way into the conversation. It’s just that simple. And I don’t mean that just at edge rusher. I mean that at any position. Same thing with wide receiver right now. I mean, they the Jacoby Lane hype train is unbelievable for for a guy who hasn’t played a game in the NFL and was a mid round pick, right? Let me be clear. I’m not saying that to throw shade on him, but he hasn’t done anything at this. Level yet, so I don’t say that meaning you need to go out and get a guy that that then camps, you know, camps his butt on the bench. No, but I’m not going to sit here and say I wouldn’t like them to add another veteran wide receiver into the mix, and and that’s probably way more about Rashad Bateman than Jacoby Lane or Elijah Surratt. Quite frankly, that’s more about Bateman underperforming last year. So, so you know you can look at these different spots, but when you when you bring back someone like Madabike into the picture, if he’s healthy and ready to go and has no setbacks here, has no symptoms with the with the neck, and he’s good to go for week one, or he’s good to go for the bulk of the season, however, this shakes out in the coming weeks. That is, I mean, that’s the kind of guy that can be a force multiplier for your pass rush. And then you pair that with Hendrickson lying lining up from the edge. Man, that’s a different ball game than last year. Travis Jones having to take on double teams over and over and over, and the best you have is Draymond Jones rushing from the edge, right? Or a rookie Mike Green rushing from the edge. So that right there, and then yes, you’re very much hoping the Jesse Minter effect of him calling the defense as opposed to Zach Orr. And I don’t say that to dissack Gore, but the body of work also speaks for itself. Even even with Matt Abike in 2024, they didn’t get off to a good start that year defensively, and and Zach Gore’s got a. That’s why Zach Gore is coaching linebackers again in Seattle, as opposed to still being a defensive coordinator. But you hired Jesse Minter because of his aptitude calling a defense and his vision as someone who’s cut from the same cloth as Mike McDonald. Those three variables: Hendrickson, Madabike, Minter. You know, and there’s other players and other things at at work as well. But those three things alone, this pass rush should be better and better, you know. It it needs to be better. It better be improved, right? Because of those resources that that you pumped in there. So,
Nestor Aparicio 17:11
so that being said, the best offenses quarterbacks get rid of the ball quick, right? Like in in those circumstances, important. Right. So the inside
Luke Jones 17:20
pass rusher so important. This is
Nestor Aparicio 17:21
where the secondary and we talk about the front seven. This is where the back six matter. You know who’s covering who, who’s got who out of the backfield. How are they not going to get water tortured? Yeah. Because let’s say their pass rush is great. That’s how you beat a great pass rush, right? Everybody knows that.
Luke Jones 17:39
Yeah. I mean, you know, it’s a give take, right? I mean, a good, a great pass rush should help the secondary. A great secondary can help your pass rush, right? I mean, it’s it’s it’s really a push pull kind of thing. If you recall, one of the one of the big analytics concepts and debates that that really kind of came into vogue, I don’t know, six seven years ago at this point. Remember, I I talked about it a lot. The idea of pressure versus coverage, right? The idea that you conceivably can scheme up pressure, but you need guys that can cover on the back end. And you know, I do look at the secondary right now. I feel really good about where they are at safety, right? I mean, you have Kyle Hamilton first and foremost. You know, for for my money, the best, you know, best all-around weapon at the safety position in the National Football League. You have Malachi Starks, who’s going to be in year two. We had a-I don’t know if you want to say his rookie season was underwhelming, but it wasn’t horrible or anything like that. I think he flashed promise, and I’m-I want to see what he looks like now in year two, especially with what you hope is going to be better coaching. You and I talked about their coaching staff a lot. Others talked about their coaching staff a lot last year, and it not being up to par at a number of position groups. And I think the secondary was probably one of them, quite frankly. So you have him. You know, one of my favorite signings of their free agency was Jalen Hawkins. You know, I think as the number three safety, I think that was one of easily one of my favorite under the radar kind of additions. This is a guy who played really well for New England last year, and you know, circumstances there they wanted to bring in more of a veteran leadership kind of guy, and Hawkins was out there, and the Ravens signed him, and they signed him for a you know at a very reasonable price. So I feel really good about where they are at safety, right? And and even you know they’ve got Kavon Wallace that they brought in, who’s played in the league. Keandre Jackson was a really good special teams player last year. We’ll see if he develops into a depth safety that they can use if they have an injury. So, but I feel really good about safety. Corner, you know, there are question marks at corner. How could there not be? I mean, let’s begin first and foremost with Marlon Humphrey. He’s in the last year of his deal. To this point, there is no knowledge now. Maybe at some point they’ve made some kind of an adjustment here to. His contract, but my goodness, Nestor, we talked over and over, wondering if Marlon Humphrey would be on this football team, let alone playing at the same rate of that cap number and that compensation level for him coming off of a poor 2025 season. But he’s still there. You need him to be the best version that he can be at this stage of his career, and I’ll I’ll remind everyone: Marlon Humphrey was excellent in 2024. You know we’re we’re a year removed from that. It’s not as though it’s what he was last year is guaranteed to be what he is this year. But they need the version of Marlon Humphrey that’s much more 2024 than 2025. Nate Wiggins, like this is year three for him. This go time for Nate Wiggins. He’s got to, he’s got to be that guy. He’s got to be their number one corner. Like he’s got to become that. He needs to be that guy that you’re saying, all right, he’s the guy that can line up on an island on the outside and cover. We’ve seen glimpses of that for periods of time, but we’ve also seen him struggle and be inconsistent.
Luke Jones 21:06
So this is a big year for him in terms of: Are you going to be that next guy that we’re talking about? The Ravens needing to sign to a contract extension. That’s that’s the kind of territory Nate Wiggins is in this year. That he’s got a he’s got a show to be that kind of guy. He’s got to show to be he’s absolutely a second contract guy, not not out of necessity, but because we want to make him a second. Well, it’s an indictment on DeCosta
Nestor Aparicio 21:30
too. What if if he doesn’t take a step forward? What have you done with these draft picks that that we are getting Pro Bowl players because they’re going to need that because it’s not Marlon Humphrey anymore. To your point, it’s not Roquan Smith. It’s not Ronnie Stanley. It’s not Mark Andrews. It needs to be, and that’s where Nande Madabrike falls into that. Hey, can kind of be in the middle. Bill Flowers, good pick, good player, right? Like we’re looking at those guys, but the secondary is where they’ve they’ve put their meat, and that’s where they’re going to get beaten late games, bad with ball going over the head. If the pass rush is there, there’s still some quarterbacks in the stuff to cover the Mahomes and the Josh Allen’s. That you you can rush them all you want. You better have them in third and 18.
Luke Jones 22:14
Yeah, I mean you still have to cover, right? I mean you you need both right, and that was I think when that analytics debate came up 567, years ago, and we would talk about it. And the answer is, you need both, right? And you need both. You need each to be able to complement the other. So we talked about Humphrey. We talked about Wiggins. I love that they brought back Todobi Awuzier. Awozier was one of their one of their best signings last year. For all the Jair Alexander hype, Awoozier was 10 times better. Right? I mean, Alexander didn’t even make it through the year, obviously, but but Awoozier was good for them. But the reality is, he’s another year older. He’s a guy that has an injury history. We’ve seen Marlon Humphrey be banged up at times and miss some games at times over the last three years, and Wiggins is you know Wiggins is the guy where you just say hey it’s go time like you need to become that week in and week out number one corner for this team. Problem is for me I look at the rest of the depth chart okay T.J. Tampa entering year three, what’s he as a fourth-round pick? Can he become a guy that you feel confident in if you have an injury and he’s got to start, or you have an injury and he’s got to go in and play the final 20 minutes of the game because you lost two corners? You know, can he be that guy? Can he hold up in that capacity at the very least? Now, I’m not even talking about oh, can you become a starting caliber player? But you need to at least be the kind of guy that that Jesse Minter can have the confidence in putting you on the field if something happens to one of those top three guys. So you have him. They obviously drafted Chandler Rivers. You know, he’s more of a. I think he’s going to be more of a guy that plays on the inside than the outside. You know, and and last year, I mean, they drafted two corners in the sixth round last year, and Bilal Kone and Robert Longerbeam. I am very skeptical because they’re sixth round picks, but I do know people in their organization were thrilled to get those guys. Can one of them emerge as any kind of representative depth piece of any kind of a representative depth piece for you. You know, I I just kind of ran down most of the depth chart, and there’s some other guys here and there, right? I mean, you never know. Someone could surprise. Reuben Lowry was the guy last year that surprised during training camp, even though he didn’t make it too long. But I just kind of look at this group, and even if you’re going to sell me on the top three, and the top three still carry question marks themselves, obviously there’s not a lot of depth there. So that’s where if you’re looking right now for me, position groups on this roster. That I’m uneasy about. The corner depth is one of those where I look at that and say, “Man, if you get an injury to one of those top three, man, that that that’s really already getting dicey. So unless T.J. Tampa, who got a ton of reps with the first team defense in the spring because Humphrey wasn’t out there a whole lot, a Wuzzier wasn’t out there, so he got a lot of reps against the likes as A Flowers in practice in in the spring. You’re hoping that the coaching staff looked at that and said T.J. Tampa’s ready to be a a number three, number four kind of caliber corner like that. We can feel good about him if he has to go in there and play, because he’s if he’s not, and if they have an injury, and the reality is, go look at Cheeto. How many times has he played 16 games in the last six or seven years? You know he doesn’t do that. He’s gonna miss some time. Marlin Humphrey’s probably gonna miss at least a couple games, right? So you hope Wiggins stays healthy.
Luke Jones 26:01
In addition to taking that next step, so I do look at the corner position, and even I probably have not necessarily made as much of a potential issue in that as it could end up being if either a Humphrey and Awuzier don’t look the part, and they look old, or if they’re injured, or if B. Nate Wiggins doesn’t necessarily take the next step and solidify himself as a number one corner. So that is definitely, you know, I feel good about safety corner. I’m a little more uneasy. I will say this, however, and this is something that will alleviate some of the pressure there. Keep in mind, this defense is going to play a lot of three safety nickel, so much three safety nickel. I mean, they’re going to be in way more three safety and two corners than three corners and two safeties. Right now, they’ll be in dime, and they’ll be in dime at times where they’ll have three corners on the field in three safeties, and they’ll do it that way, but that does help. So, if you’re asking me for the way that Jesse Minter wants to play defense in the secondary, yes, I will say it’s more important to have more safety depth. That said, you still need to have a couple guys that can cover and win on the outside in coverage against Jamar Chase and against DK Metcalf and against all the other talented wide receivers that they’re going to face over the course of the 2026 season, so corner that’s where I I do take a little more pause as far as like looking at this every position group on the roster, you know you can name some others. I mentioned wide receiver. You know the depth there is at least unproven, if nothing else. But corner is one of those spots where, man, you need the best version of Marlon Humphrey. You need a Woozier to stay as healthy as possible as your number three corner, and you really need Wiggins to. If we’re still talking in these same terms about Wiggins in November and December, that worries me about that group. But if Wiggins year three, it’s like, all right, he’s the number one guy. He’s the shutdown guy in this group. He’s not the best corner in the AFC, but he’s overwhelmingly the Ravens’ best corner. If he can be that, then I think this defense has a chance to be really good and even really good in the secondary, which certainly was not the case last year. Luke Jones is here. He will be there in Owings Mills. As we’re um, we’re not going to answer any of these questions till september 13, right? Oh yeah, I mean all of this is as you say, eyewash between now and then. The injuries are real. I think the way this the process is real. How is this going to work? What kind of leader is Jesse Minter going to be? What kind of a general manager has Eric DeCosta been and will be? And then these picks, these players they’ve entrusted, the players they’ve paid, the Trey Hendricks and Max Crosby thing will follow them. No doubt. I mean, that’s going to be a fascinating. It’s really the next few years. There may be an
Nestor Aparicio 29:06
NFL a person I have on from Howard Balls or through whomever. I’m on baseball this week. I just booked Buster only five minutes ago. That’s a trade deadline. Yeah, yeah. It’s base. You know, like, but once we get into football and I start talking to football people, it won’t just be JT the brick who covers the Raiders that is going to be interested in the Max Crosby thing. I mean, the Max Crosby thing will follow them. That’s all I’m going to say. It’s going to follow. They don’t play the Raiders, but it’s going to follow them.
Luke Jones 29:31
Well, and and let’s and I don’t I I don’t say this to be negative. I’m but I’m I’m pointing out the facts here. Trey Andrison only played seven games last year. You know what I mean. The guy was
Nestor Aparicio 29:43
all about the Max Crosby thing, and you were too. We were lubricating. We were wet and wild. We were hey, this is a they they brought a beast in. In Trey Hendrickson, they brought a guy in that the first thing you say about is he played seven games. You know what I mean? Like it is like, but but this is also.
Luke Jones 30:00
And I’m not anti. I like Trey Hedgers. When he played for the other team, I’m like, he wish. I wish he was on our team. Yeah, all 35. I don’t. I and this goes to Vengayuane. I mean, and and and the tentacles of next year’s first pick. It’s not over by a long shot. It matter of fact, it hadn’t even started. Doesn’t start till september 15. None of this does. I. You heard me say this a lot. Now we haven’t said it lately, and I’m going to use a baseball comparison here. It’s really this isn’t as consequential as Hendrickson versus Crosby, but it’s really not terribly different than the Taylor Ward for Grayson Rodriguez trade, in the sense that even though right now, like Taylor Ward hasn’t hit home runs, but he’s had a high on-base percentage, and Grayson Rodriguez has been lousy for the Angels this year. So that right there might say, “Well, the Orioles won that deal. Well, keep in mind, Grayson Rodriguez still has a few more years of team control, and even if he somehow gets healthy and works his way into being an average, a league average starting pitcher, the Angels probably end up winning that deal if that plays out. But that’s that’s the long haul, right? That’s looking at it three years from now, not just looking through the 2026 lens. You know, I think what’s going to be fascinating as it pertains to the Crosby Hendrickson thing is what does Max Crosby look like in September, considering he is coming off of this knee surgery? I mean, he wasn’t taking part in OTAs for the Raiders this year, right? He was still recovering. So, how does he look in training camp? Is he ready for Week One? How does he look in Week One? Does he play 17 games? Does he play 16 games? Does he play 15 games, or does he play 11 games? On the flip side, is Trey Hendrickson everything the Ravens need him to be? Right? Is he the guy that combined for 35 sacks in 2023 and 24, or is he a guy that is going to be 32 years old in December and looks like he’s starting to slow down a little bit, which I’m not saying he will. I’m not predicting that. I think I think Trey Hendrickson’s going to have a really good year for the Ravens, but we don’t know, right? Especially coming off of an injury-played year. Now it
Nestor Aparicio 32:12
wasn’t. I don’t know that. If you gave me poly market right now, or I could think it’s going to have a good year. I don’t think there’s going to be $1 to wager on or against Trey Hendrickson being a tremendous impact player for the team this year? I don’t know. I don’t know. I I question that. I do. I on a health basis, on a one-dimensional basis, on him having to be great at the one thing he does. It’s like Gunnar Henderson. You get on him, dude. He ain’t a great fielder. He ain’t ever going to be a great. I mean, I I’m on that. So he has to hit. Like you know what I mean. So to to me, Trey Henderson’s got to rack sacks up or be a third down player because I don’t think he’s going to be like this tremendous first or second. You know, he’s well, no, I agree with that. I mean, he’s
Luke Jones 32:54
I don’t I don’t think he’s going to be on the field a ton in front first. So for that alone, oh, he’s got to rack a money back down play. I agree with that, and so I’ll do this, and
Nestor Aparicio 33:03
you know this wasn’t a six and one half dozen the other for me. In oh, well, we have you want it. We have our draft pick because that’s literally what it was. We have our draft pick and Dre Henderson, and we’re going to give him most of the money we were going to give to Max Crosby anyway. So I,
Luke Jones 33:21
well, Max Crosby. If Max Crosby is healthy, and that this all comes back to
Nestor Aparicio 33:26
that
Luke Jones 33:26
question, right? If Max Crosby is healthy, he’s absolutely a better player than Trevor. How about his health? And I’ll never,
Nestor Aparicio 33:32
I’ll never jump off of that. This was not about his health. This was about the opportunism, and this is about somebody. And I believe it might have been. I don’t, I don’t feel like rehashing
Luke Jones 33:40
this again. You know, we did. We did hours on it. Yeah, yeah. It. I don’t know how you can say it wasn’t about his health. It. I’m not. You can say it’s not 100 about his health, but his health was absolutely part of it. But
Nestor Aparicio 33:52
they made up their mind that they were not signing him before he ever. Let’s go back. Let
Luke Jones 33:56
Let’s stay on point here. Yeah. Because you mentioned Trey Hendrickson. So I just pulled this up. I don’t do this very often, but I got the I got an email from our pal Jimmy Shapiro, who works for you know a betting website. You know, not going to say who it is, but he had the over/unders for an array of pass rushers, right? So just just you know, for for the purposes of this, now number one is who you would expect it to be. It’s Miles Garrett. The over/under for him is 15 and a half. You know, now with the L.A. Rams, that’s a that’s a a big number. But hey, the guy just set the NFL record right for single season with sacks.
Nestor Aparicio 34:35
I would bet on him in L.A. What what over?
Speaker 1 34:39
Oh, I will never get.
Nestor Aparicio 34:41
I will take the over on that. I think
Luke Jones 34:43
there’s something to be said. I will take the
Nestor Aparicio 34:45
over on that.
Luke Jones 34:45
I think there’s something to said for my for Miles Garrett now being free from the chains of Cleveland.
Nestor Aparicio 34:51
I’m just gonna say he’s gonna be a better football player.
Luke Jones 34:53
I mean, he might have 25 sacks this year. You know, like
Nestor Aparicio 34:56
that guy Jefferson did in the in Fast Times of Ridge Mile.
Luke Jones 35:00
But so so let’s let’s do that. So Trey Hendrickson and Max Crosby. Trey Hendrickson’s number is 11 and a half. Max Crosby’s is 10 and a half.
Nestor Aparicio 35:10
Wow.
Luke Jones 35:11
So I will
Nestor Aparicio 35:12
bet the over on Max Crosby and the under on Trey Hendrickson and Hendrickson 11 and a half is
Luke Jones 35:18
you’re confident Max Crosby then?
Nestor Aparicio 35:20
Yes.
Luke Jones 35:21
Okay. I’m not. I’m not nearly as confident. Max Crosby. All
Nestor Aparicio 35:24
right.
Luke Jones 35:24
I. I think. I think. Neither was
Nestor Aparicio 35:27
Eric DeCosta, by the way.
Luke Jones 35:28
Sure. Now, and let me be clear. This is. I’m not saying he’s gonna, he’s gonna play five games and have two sacks. Like, but I also think you look at Max Crosby. Look at his career historically. Now, some of that might be being in Oakland or Las Vegas, wherever they are. Well, he-I think he was in Oakland for a year, right before they moved. But you look at him; he’s had okay. His his career high for sacks is 14 and a half. He has another 12 and a half sacks season. His other seasons 10, 787, and a half, 10. Right. So he’s he’s been he’s been more of the Terrell Suggs where you would say like Terrell Suggs. Yes, he ended up finishing with over 100 sacks in his career, but Suggs didn’t have many like he didn’t have many unsafe girls or guys
Nestor Aparicio 36:17
that were next to him that that got the 16 eight. But like
Luke Jones 36:20
Suggs was an all, you know, he he made himself into an elite edge setter and playing the run at a high level, which he wasn’t that when he came out of college. He learned how to do that. So you know, Crosby’s the more dynamic all-around player. So I just from that standpoint, I do find it interesting to see what like the the over/unders are for for the sack totals for each guy. If you ask me to go over on one and under for the other, I’d be the opposite of you. I I would say Trey Hendrickson just a smidge over that. Say 12, let’s say, and I’d say Crosby at like eight or nine. That that would be my if you ask me to predict right now. I mean, who knows? They both are coming off of injuries, right? And
Nestor Aparicio 37:01
talk about it. And I just know I was more excited to have Max Crosby than I am to have Trey Hendrickson. You want a? I, I, they certainly needed that, so I’m not going to argue against that. But now that they have to go play, what is the defense? Which is where this all began. Which is Madabike looks like he’s going to play. We hope it’s at a high level. Hendrickson, he better play. They paid him a lot of money. These young players, they better get better. Mike Green better be better. The kid that they drafted better be better. You know the tight ends that they brought in behind Mark Andrews better be like. We better notice some of these guys whose names aren’t Kyle Hamilton or Lamar Jackson. That’s all. Sure,
Luke Jones 37:39
no doubt. And and you need your stars to be at their best as well, which that’s been a problem for them in January. I’ll leave you with this: there’s a time for pay, which is the off season. We’re talking about that. I
Nestor Aparicio 37:50
can finish that sentence right. And there’s a
Luke Jones 37:51
time for play, right? We talked about this a lot before they finally got Posick, and and we’ll see if Ethan Posick is is good enough for them, right? I mean, they don’t need him to be Tyler Linderbaum, but he can’t be a liability either, right? And part of that equation is you’re banking on your guards to be much better than they were last year. So you kind of look at it like who’s a net positive or a net negative, right? But at some point in time, when you kick it off, doesn’t matter what these guys are making. It doesn’t matter that you made a fiscally responsible decision to let Tyler Linderbaum go if he didn’t find an adequate replacement, right? So we’re going to find out. And there’s a lot of excitement with the new regime, you know, new coaching regime. There’s a lot of excitement with some of the names they brought in. They did lose some pretty important players as well, right? Especially when you look at the offensive side, some of the, you know, likely and you know, Pat Ricard’s not there anymore, and you know, no Charlie Kohler. I mean, this tight end group is young. Well, other than Mark Andrews, oh, it’s going to look it’s going to look a lot. I think the early thing that you hear, you and I’ve touched on this briefly. I know we’re trying to wrap up here, and we’ll have plenty of time to talk to so much about this. But the offense, I think they’re going to be under center a lot more than they’ve been in the past. I think Lamar with play action specifically under center, they didn’t do it a whole lot under Monkin, but if you kind of look at when they did it, it worked really well. It’s one of those things. Why didn’t you do that more? I do think Declan Doyle’s going to do that more because that’s kind of what he’s come from as far as you know Ben Johnson. They did that a lot with Caleb Williams last year in Chicago. So interested to see that. But and so a lot of this for me is the next couple weeks? I just want to see this thing breathe for a while, right? What does it look like? What’s the player’s temperament on the field when they’re practicing for the fifth straight day and it’s 96 degrees in Owings Mills on and Harbaugh’s not out there
Nestor Aparicio 39:53
doing his Mighty Men routine? No, you know they’re oxygen. There’s going to be no doubt. There’s
Luke Jones 39:57
they’re practicing most their practices are. Like 1011, o’clock, as opposed to 130 in the afternoon, which is something they had done in recent years. You know, no, no judgment on that, but it’s different. We’ll see what that looks like. You know, and the most important thing, which we’ll continue to come back to, can they stay healthy? Right? Can they get their work in, but do it in a way that they’re protecting each other, and you don’t lose any players, especially at some of the positions where I mentioned that they’re a little lighter. Right? They lose one of those top three corners. Heaven forbid something happens as A flowers. You know, not even talking like catastrophic season ending, but like some kind of injury, like what happened with Likely last year, breaks his foot. He’s out the first month of the season, boy, that that changes the complexion of what you think you are as a football team very quickly. So, but every team in the league’s dealing with that. Carolina lost an up and coming linebacker their very first practice late last week, torn ACL. It happens. It’s going to happen to someone, and you just hope it’s not someone of great consequence at a position where you’re. This is also where
Nestor Aparicio 41:04
Harbaugh put a lot of emphasis on that. Not it didn’t work out well. I mean, they had a lot of injuries here. Sometimes it
Luke Jones 41:09
did. Sometimes it didn’t. Yeah. I mean, they they had healthy years. They had years where they were very very injured. I there’s a lot of there’s a lot of variance and luck involved in that. But you need to be sensible. Ramp your players up. Be careful with Madabike right off the bat. Right, you don’t you don’t want him to suffer a lower body body injury because he hasn’t played football since last September. Right, you bring guys along slowly, ramp things up. But ultimately, hey, get ready for the 2026 season. It’s it’ll be here before we know it. We’re we’re now at that point where you know it’s not imminent, but you can start to see it. Right, september 13 is within eyesight down the down the road here, as we’re now into training camp, and they’re going to put the pads on for real here in the next several days.
Nestor Aparicio 41:55
All right, I just pulled Raven’s report off of my calendar on Tuesday of this week because they’re there. You have a media credential. I do not. Any breaking news happens first on the WNSD Tech Service. It’s all brought to you by Cole Roofing and Gordian Energy and and the Orioles with a trading deadline this week. And the Phillies in town. Plenty going on. I’m doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour presented by the Maryland Lottery in conjunction with GBMC, who’s also joining us this week, and our partners at at Farnham Dermer, the comfort guys. Zach Dermer is going to join me at Costas on Thursday as well. Alan McCallum, who just lost his mom last week, we’re thinking good thoughts for him. He’s going to come talk some baseball with me on Thursday. I got Joel Poili coming on this week. Marty Conway’s coming this week. Evan Drelick, Moneyball coming on this week. Buster Olney coming back to Baltimore this week, even Janet Marie Smith, future Hall of Famer, is going to come on and talk some baseball with me this week. And the Phillies are in town. My pal Michael Buchdall, who was a great, great guest. If you get a chance to listen to that segment, Luke, please do so. Micah gave me my first press pass with the Capitals in 1984. He’s been a Philadelphia lawyer for a quarter of a century, but a big Eagles guy, Phillies guy. I saw him at the All Star Game and told the best Charlie Eckman stories. He he roomed with Charlie Eckman as a blast intern 50 years ago, and we have stories galore this week as the Phillies come to town this weekend as well. And there’s a rumor Getty Lee is somewhere in this time zone, somewhere near us this week. So there’s going to be you’ll hear some rush stuff here as well this week. He is Luke. I am Nestor. Football season is sort of open. Fake football season is open, and the real Orioles MLB trade deadline is here on Monday the third. We’re WNSTAM 15 70,000, Baltimore, and we never stop talking. Baltimore, positive. We got a great week ahead.
