Sure, former head coach John Harbaugh had plenty of detractors inside and outside the building in Owings Mills, but at least in the early going under rookie leader Jesse Minter, it appears that the “new” Baltimore Ravens are buying into the program. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the week of prep for the fake football against Philly on Saturday night as they host the Eagles and we get our first look at the structure of the new system.

The discussion focused on how the Ravens should use their first preseason game against Philadelphia to validate early training camp impressions and test a new coaching staff.

Camp Standouts

• Luke said third-round rookie wide receiver Jacoby Lane has been the early star of camp, consistently making difficult catches, including against Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins.
• The main question is whether Jacoby Lane can carry that over to Saturday night against Eagles backups, likely with Tyler Huntley or Skyler Thompson at quarterback.
• Luke contrasted him with Mark Andrews, who did not stand out in his first camp but still produced as a rookie, reinforcing that practice performance can mislead.

Staff Evaluation

• Luke said the preseason opener matters less for score than for process: Jesse Minter will manage a game for the first time as head coach and call the defense, while Declan Doyle will test game-day play-calling logistics.
• Declan Doyle plans to work one of the first two preseason games from the sideline and the other from the booth before deciding his preferred setup.
• Luke said players appear to be buying into the new staff, and cited Justice Hill calling Declan Doyle the most detail-oriented offensive coordinator he has played under, though Luke noted that real evaluation begins once the team faces adversity.

Roster Questions

• The biggest roster issue remains the offensive line: John Simpson at left guard, the center competition between Ethan Posick and Danny Pinter, rookie right guard Venga Yuane, and year-three right tackle Roger Rosengarten.
• Luke said Posick has been brought along very slowly after an Achilles injury, raising the question of whether Pinter could open the season at center.
• Nestor emphasized that veteran performance will determine the season more than preseason hype, especially from Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, Ronnie Stanley, Roquan Smith, Mark Andrews, Marlon Humphrey, and returning defensive tackle Madabike.
• Open questions: Can the young standouts translate to games, can the line reach even above-average play, and can the new staff handle pressure well enough for a team with Super Bowl expectations in 2026?

Action Items

Outline

Preseason Opener

• Saturday night’s preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles was framed as the next checkpoint after two weeks of training camp.
• The focus is not the score but whether young players and coaches show progress in a live setting.
• Joint practices with Minnesota and Washington were also identified as important tune-ups for starters.

Young Players

• Jacoby Lane was the main training camp standout discussed, with Luke wanting to see whether his contested catches and practice flashes carry into game action.
• Venga Yuane and Zion Young were also cited as young players worth monitoring.
• Luke said rookie performance should be judged by whether they clearly stand out against backup competition.

Coaching Staff

• Jesse Minter is being evaluated on sideline demeanor, defensive play-calling, challenge mechanics, and overall game management.
• Declan Doyle will experiment with working from the sideline in one preseason game and the booth in another.
• Luke said players seem to like the new staff and pointed to Justice Hill praising Declan Doyle’s detail orientation.

Offensive Line

• Major uncertainty remains on the offensive line, especially at center with Ethan Posick ramping slowly from an Achilles injury and Danny Pinter in competition.
• John Simpson, Ronnie Stanley, Roger Rosengarten, and rookie Venga Yuane were presented as central to whether the unit can be good enough for a contender.
• Nestor argued the season will hinge more on established veterans such as Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, Roquan Smith, Mark Andrews, and Marlon Humphrey than on preseason breakout stories.

Open Questions

• Will camp production from Jacoby Lane translate when the lights come on?
• Can the offensive line be more than merely adequate after losing Tyler Linderbaum?
• How will the new staff respond once the team faces injuries, mistakes, losses, or late-game pressure?

Nestor Aparicio 0:02
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively getting the Maryland Crab Cake Tour out on the road on the 19th. We will be back at the Fishmonger’s Daughter. First time we’ve been there since it really just opened. I got a lot of friends been eating over at Catonsville. We’ll have the Faithley’s Crab Cake over there. We will have the scratch offs in the Maryland Lottery. These are the Ravens scratch offs with the Kiss Face Bird, the X2 version of this. We’ll have those also on the 26th at Koco’s Pub. All that brought to you by GBMC and our partners at Farnham and Dermer. I am wearing my bowling shirt because Zach likes to laugh at me when I wear it. He joined me at Costas two weeks ago, and we talked about teaching a six-year-old baseball by watching the Orioles make mistakes. So that was kind of fun. There’s plenty of mistakes out there. If you heard our baseball piece and my heckling of Brandon Young and Craig Albernaz and Brady Anderson last week, courtesy of Curio Wellness, you can go check that out. But this is a football segment, Luca. We do have the row houses of the 28th anniversary up now, so I feel like we’re in season here. It’s August. We’re 30 days out, pretty much on kickoff at this point. Getting up on that by the end of the week. How are you? How you holding up? You holding up better than Zay Flowers’ contusion?

Luke Jones 1:24
Yeah, I’m doing fine. I think you get to you get to this point in camp where you’re two full weeks in. You want a little more of a data point, right? You want some context, and that’s not to say we’re going to see the starters or established starters in this first pre. Well, at least we haven’t

Nestor Aparicio 1:40
seen the quarterback fighting with the defensive star like we had in Las Vegas, right? That’s true. But

Luke Jones 1:44
but you get to the point where, look, who has been the early superstar of training camp? It’s been Jacoby Lane, right? The third round rookie wide receiver. I want to see what it looks like in a game setting, right? And if he’s truly going to be someone that contributes for them right away as their number three wide receiver, which I think there’s a chance of that happening. Then he should look really good against the Eagles’ backups on Saturday night, right? I mean, he should look the part of someone where you say, “Man, that looks like someone that Lamar Jackson can throw to and contribute and be part of this and not be their number one. I mean, Zay Flowers is that guy, but oh no! Did you

Nestor Aparicio 2:27
say Saturday night they’re playing preseason football this year? They have a fake

Luke Jones 2:30
football game Saturday night. Absolutely. I mean, I

Nestor Aparicio 2:32
don’t. You know, I was in my calendar, but it’s in like a lavender, not like in a violet. You know what I’m saying? And like, yeah, it’s Saturday night. Okay, fair enough. So there is a reason to watch on Saturday. You’re giving me all that,

Luke Jones 2:44
Kobe Lane. I mean, seriously, you know I’ve said this. I’ve written this at BaltimorePositive.com. He is testing every fiber of my discipline as a seasoned NFL reporter to know not to put a whole lot of stock, if any, and what you’re seeing out at training camp, but he’s he’s been that impressive. Like it’s he’s making a highlight catch or two just about every day, where you look at it and say, “Man, how did he slip? So I mean, he’s he’s a bigger guy that you know he doesn’t have like he’s not a burner, right? He doesn’t have unbelievable speed. I think he’s. I think he’s can be fast enough, but you know, some of the knock on him was he didn’t run the whole route tree, and you know, you kind of go down the list. I mean, he slipped, but it was the third round. So what? So where

Nestor Aparicio 3:34
are the knocks now? I guess is my point. That that I was going to bring that out while everybody’s shining. I

Luke Jones 3:39
would still say, I mean, like, look, to make your money in the NFL in the contested catch business. Yes, there are guys who made a career, and frankly, made a Hall of Fame career out of doing that. Anquan Boldin at least saw a very good career of making catches in traffic and and winning 50-50 balls and all of that, you know that. But that’s a tough thing to do for the long haul, right? That’s a tough thing to do, even if you have six foot four size. You know, that would be my, you know, my question would be that. And but, but really, it’s everything, right? I mean, it’s it’s it’s practice, right? You can you can look good in practice, and you also understand that depending on who you’re going up against in practice, especially if it’s veteran players, they’re not necessarily competing and going through a practice in the same way that a rookie who’s trying to prove himself will will be conducting himself. So all those unknowns still exist. Like, let me be clear: this isn’t, but because I’m acknowledging that I’ve been impressed with Jacoby Lane doesn’t mean that he’s going to be 1000 yard. Like I’m not making like a crazy prediction based off of that. But he has piqued my interest, and I want to see what it looks like now in a game setting. Granted, Lamar Jackson’s not going to play right and. Most of the established starters are not going to play, but if he’s someone who is truly going to be capable of making an impact as a rookie, whether we’re talking week one, week six, or week 13, right? Then he should stand out in that kind of a setting, right? He shouldn’t just be someone that I don’t notice on the field on Saturday night. I always talk about that, and you know, you don’t have to be a football expert to understand that if you’re someone that is a starting caliber player, then shouldn’t you stand out against backup players? Shouldn’t you stand out against third string guys? Well, when

Nestor Aparicio 5:39
you’re a wide receiver, they got to get the ball to you too, right? So that’s no question. Well,

Luke Jones 5:43
and yeah, and and that’s going to be on their their bat. You know, Tyler Huntley and Skyler Thompson, and you know, I I would assume that like either one of those guys would be the ones throwing it to him. But but part of the thing with Lane, to the point of why I’m mentioning him and talking about him and why everyone’s talking about him. Is he’s been doing this against the starters on the Ravens’ defense? Like we’ve seen him make great catches with Nate Wiggins right there in coverage, or Marlon Humphrey right there in coverage. Right at times he’s made those guys not look so good. Right. So, but when you get to a game setting, we always you you’ve heard me say for years checkpoints throughout the off season, right? When a rookie comes in, rookie camp right off the bat, well, he’s going up against a lot of guys that literally those two days are the only days those guys wear a Baltimore Ravens practice uniform, let alone be signed to the roster or play in the preseason, or have any chance to make a roster, or even a practice squad. So rookie camp is much different from OTAs in in the in the coming weeks that follow that. And then at that point, you’re starting to go up against some of the veteran players that are there. And then the next point is what mandatory minicamp, when all the veterans who are healthy who are are out there and practicing, and then you get the training camp where you ramp up slowly, but then you put the pads on right for the first time. You introduce the threat of contact, so that’s another checkpoint. Well, Saturday night is is the next checkpoint where the lights come on, and I get it. It’s not going to be 71,000 people. You know, it’s not going to be packed to the gills at the stadium. Yeah, I would assume that you’ll you’ll see some Eagles fans that’ll make the trip just because it’s it’s close by and all that. But this is a

Nestor Aparicio 7:27
great chance for like your brother-in-law to take the kids to the game or something. Sure, you know.

Luke Jones 7:31
Yeah, absolutely. But but I think you know for Jacoby Lane and not just for him, for Venga Yuane, for Zion Young, go down the list of all the young guys, all the second-year players that are trying to prove themselves who didn’t necessarily do a whole lot last year. This is your first live game setting where you’re going to tackle to the ground and all of that, where you can make an make an impression. And why I’m so interested in seeing Jacoby Lane, it’s like okay, in practice you’ve you’ve been making an impression. You’ve made big plays. You’ve gotten excitement from the vet. I mean, the other day, Jacoby Lane makes a a nice catch on the sideline. Derrick Henry jogs 15 yards down the field and and you know does the hip bump with them, right? That you see all these players do in today’s game as a celebration. We’ve seen Lamar Jackson really spend a lot of time with him. Jesse Minter has said after practices that they’ve made a concerted effort to have Lamar really throw him the ball a lot, just to see what it looks like. And yeah, he’s had some drops here and there, like you know, like everyone. Zay Flowers drops some passes when you’re talking about the entire training camp, Mark Andrews drops passes over the course of all of training camp. Everyone’s going to have some of that, but man, I mean, like this kid’s just-he’s done everything you could ask him to do to this point. But now, can you take it over and let it translate for even a fake football game? It’s still a game setting, right? And then, if he can do that, then okay, what’s it look like in week one? What’s it look like in week two? And then, after that point, you’re starting to say, okay, well, either this guy is on his way to really being a good player, or then you look back and say, hey, latest example of training camp fulling people. So, but he’s he’s been really interesting to watch, and man, he makes some catches where you’re just like, wow, like that’s that’s a little bit different. So it’s been fun, but again, now you get into a game setting. No, it’s not going to be Lamar. It’s not going to be the starters out there, but you’re going to have Tyler Huntley throwing to him. I would assume, like I think Tyler Huntley’s going to play in the preseason, even even if he doesn’t play a whole lot, but what does that look like? Can he can he go out there and stand out amongst the backups? If he can stand out amongst the backups, that tells you that hey, this guy’s got a shot to be their number three wide receiver sooner than later. So that’s where it’s fun, right? And and we’ve seen this before with. Guys shine in practice, and then the preseason games come on, and they kind of disappear. And on the flip side, I can remember some guys over the years where they don’t necessarily do a whole lot to stand out the first couple weeks of practice, but then the the preseason games start, and then you say, “Oh, okay, that’s the guy they drafted, and then that that kind of gets guys going a little bit. Those those guys that are the proverbial, I’m more of a game player than a practice. Well, Mark Andrews was one of those examples right early on. Mark, it. I mean, I. It’s so funny you bring that up because he is one of the easiest examples I’ve cited over my 15 years covering the Ravens, you know, training camps of a guy who I’m not sure I could have been less impressed than I was in Mike or Mark Andrews’ first training camp. One, he was a little banged up. I think he had a hamstring or something like that. He’s kind of, you know, he didn’t miss a whole lot of practice time, but he just he didn’t look great. You know, he I can recall even thinking, this is probably the third week of August.

Luke Jones 11:05
I was actually wondering at that point in time if he was going to be a guy that was going to be little more than a redshirt year, and you know, not that he did a whole lot before they transitioned over to Lamar. You know, when Flacco got hurt midway through that season, but but he’s a perfect example of someone that didn’t necessarily shine at all in his first training camp, but had a very productive rookie season, right? And and obviously became one of the better tight ends in football over the course of the next few years after that. So, so he’s but he’s one of the prime examples that I’ll use of that’s the opposite of Jacoby Lane, right? Jacoby Lane’s looked really, really impressive in these practices, and you’re questioning will it carry over? Mark Andrews was the guy that my expectations, you know, not that I had high expectations through the roof for a third round rookie, but you’re thinking a third round pick. You’re hoping, hey, you know, you’re hoping that guy can contribute a little bit, and he showed so little during that training camp, but then come the regular season, he ended up having a really solid rookie year. So you never really know. And again, that’s why you tend to default back to your priors, right? I’ve joked, I’ve flippantly said this in recent years. You know, I do my roster projections. You can check those out at BaltimorePositive.com. I just did one a couple days ago, and I’ve often joked and said, “You know what? My roster projection at the beginning of training camp ends up in some years being better than what my final one was. And it kind of goes back to, you know, you could be really flip it and say, “I’d probably do just as fine in terms of knowing the team, feeling like I’ve got a good idea of what they are by not even paying attention to training camp. And I say that you know tongue in cheek a little bit, but not entirely because again I can give you all these examples of guys that look really good and then nothing comes of it. Or on the flip side, they don’t look so great, and then the games start, and you say, “Oh, that’s the guy they drafted. That’s the guy they really liked coming out of, you know, Georgia Tech or whatever college you yeah you’re talking about. So so that’s where there’s just for me, you get to two weeks in a training camp and say, “All right, these guys have been going up against each other. They’ve been hitting each other. They’re sick of going up against each other. No, the starters like that. We’re not going to see them. But for those guys that are going to be out there against Philadelphia, and I assume we’re not going to see the Eagles starters either. Yeah, you’re looking to see Jacoby Lane stand out in the same way that he stood out in practice. And if he does, then the excitement, you know, the hype gets even crazier, right? So that’s where it’s fun, right? I mean, that’s if if I’m trying to lay out my argument for what actually interests me in a preseason game, which isn’t a whole lot. I mean, I’m you know me, I’ve called it fake football, and not going to sit worse. I’m not yeah, I’m not going to sit here and try to hype something up to be more than what it actually is, but for the young guys, for those guys that have flashed and shown good things in practice, you want to see that carry over. You want to see the you want to see them continue to excel in the bright lights at the stadium, right? Understanding that it’s still there’s still no stakes, right? I mean, who cares whether they win or lose the game on Saturday night? So that’s you know you get to this point in camp. Give me some context, right? With these young guys, I want to see. I’ll tell you another name. I’ve I’ve spent so much time talking about Lane. How about the first round rookie, Yuane? If he, I, I assume he’s going to play.

Luke Jones 14:38
Like he might not play a ton, but I assume he’s going to play, regardless of the fact that we know he’s going to be a starter. I assume he’s going to play a series or two, right? I mean, I’d be a little surprised if he doesn’t. But if assuming he does, you know what I want to see Venga Yane look like against the Eagles backups? I want to see him dominate against the Eagles’ backups. If he does, that tells me, hey. This kid has a chance to to really have a really solid rookie year, right? That yeah, he’ll have some hiccups. I mean, I don’t expect him to be Marshall Yanda from day one. You know, let’s be realistic. But if he’s the real deal, and everything about him suggests he is, I’ve been impressed with him every time I’ve watched him. You know, I I see him making blocks. I’ve seen him. There was a practice earlier this past week. He put Broderick Washington right on his butt. I mean, it was a pancake block. I mean, that’s a that’s an established veteran NFL defensive lineman. So I’ve seen that. If what for whatever run he gets on Saturday against the Eagles, what does he want to look like he’s better than the guys he’s going up against, right? But because he’s not going to go up against, I assume we’re not going to see him go up against Jalen Carter and like the the Eagles starting defensive line. I wouldn’t think so. So you know that’s that’s kind of what you’re looking for, right? The score, you know, the entertainment value of it all. I’m not. I don’t have high expectations for that, right? I am interested to see how the the the new coaching staff manages the game, right? Get the play in, you know. If Jesse Minter wants to challenge a play, go through that process of you know making sure you throw the flag and and all of that, you know. So that so that part of it’s going to be, you know, little little added interest there because you know it’s not John Harbaugh at at this for the 18th straight year. It’s Jesse Minter doing this for the very first time. Declan Doyle calling plays for the very first time. Doyle, he’s he’s already said he’s going to plan. He’s going to be on the sideline for one of these first two preseason games, and he’s going to be up in the booth for the other one, and then he’s going to kind of decide what he wants to do. Right? I mean, those are the kind of things you have to figure out. And by the way, those things are really important to game game management. You need to have all that ironed out. So those are the kind of things that are going to be really important for the staff, regardless of the fact that you know I’m not expecting to see Lamar or you know Roquan Smith or your most established starters. I don’t expect that to change, but from a game management standpoint, from a logistical standpoint, these games are valuable for this coaching staff to to make sure they’re on their p’s and q’s and they’ve got all their processes figured out in terms of play calling, in terms of if there’s a replay they want to take a look at all those different things so so there’s definitely for that reason and again not going to oversell this it’s a preseason game and I think most viewers you love the idea of a preseason game until it starts and then you say oh well this this isn’t really the you know this isn’t week one. Let’s put it that way. This isn’t a september 13, but but there is some curiosity. I mean, just just to see what Jesse Mitter’s demeanor is on the sideline. Is he going to be a really stoic guy?

Luke Jones 17:53
Is he going to be quieter, or is he going to be a really demonstrative guy? And and you see him, you know, expletives flying every now and then. I’m guessing he’s, you know, based on what I’ve seen in practices, he’s he’s on the quieter side in that way. But this is all new, and that’s where there is some interest as far as how that’s all going to work. And and also for Jesse Minter, oh yeah, he’s calling the defense too. So well, I hope he’s

Nestor Aparicio 18:18
nicer to the halftime host on the way out,

Luke Jones 18:21
yeah, there was

Nestor Aparicio 18:22
the Brent.

Luke Jones 18:23
I think it’s funny. Two weeks into it, there was it was the one day I was not there for. I I did Orioles, you know. This was around the trade deadline, and and I wasn’t out in Owings Mills that day. And I read the transcript, and I’ll be honest, Nestor. I saw the reporter’s name. I I don’t know if it was someone just out of town that was doing like a camp tour, and I just didn’t recognize the writer or whoever. But they asked a question, and it it it basically had alluded to the idea that the offense wasn’t very good that day, that the defense had won the practice, and like the wording of the question was kind of, well, do you just chalk this up to being just one of those days for the offense or something like that? Like, put it this way, I I don’t want to critique it, but I would have worded the question in a much different way than than how the question was worded. And I read the answer, and it it was along the lines of, I’m not really sure exactly what your question was, and what’s funny is I read that in the way John Harbaugh would say that, and I’m like, oh, did Jesse get a little prickly with this guy? But then I asked a couple of the reporters who were actually there, and I went back and watched it, and yes, he said that, but he didn’t say it in a like he didn’t really sound agitated or anything. Watchman

Nestor Aparicio 19:40
did the same thing to me a month ago. He’s like, I don’t know if I answered your question or not.

Luke Jones 19:44
So, so, but, but the point with the point I’m making with that is, he’s handled himself well to this point. And look, they haven’t won a game. They haven’t lost a game, right? Has anybody

Nestor Aparicio 19:56
asked him a tough question? I’m, I, I, this. It’s a prick in me to say I don’t ever hear tough questions for any of these, including the baseball. Just what’s

Luke Jones 20:06
your tough question right now? Then, I mean, it’s training camp. I mean, I don’t know what’s tough to ask right now. Well,

Nestor Aparicio 20:12
that yeah, I guess that that is.

Luke Jones 20:15
And that was the point I was allocating.

Nestor Aparicio 20:16
Here, here’s something. Here’s something.

Luke Jones 20:18
Okay,

Nestor Aparicio 20:20
and and I know John didn’t work in hypotheticals, and he can use my middle finger whenever he wants it. But the fight that happened in Vegas-if that kind of thing happens from a coaching standpoint-what what is your philosophy on it getting too rough and when you need to get involved? I guess these are the kinds of things that when I’m having breakfast with John Harbaugh-that’s different than lights are on. There’s a brick wall and bugs are flying at me, and it’s 112 degrees, and he’s sweating and been out there, and he wants to just hear about the contusion to Zay Flowers so he can blow that off and take perfunctory dumb questions about a dumb preseason game and get lost. That was what I’ve seen the last 20 years. Listen, I’m not here to kiss Brian’s ass. A generation later, Brian really wasn’t that way. Brian never showed up agitated. He always looked at the media thing the way Buck did, which was let’s have some fun. I’ll give you what you need. You’re really just trying to pick my brain and find out what I think about something. I’m happy to tell you what I think because my name’s on the door, and I run the place, and I do have a philosophy, and I’m happy to share that with you. I think John could be a little bit that way at that breakfast thing when he wasn’t getting indicted about Justin Tucker or about some controversy or kind of missing a kick or whatever. If it’s just off season and rudimentary conversation, John liked talking about rules, philosophy, toughness, all of that jarhead Trump stuff that would make him be a philosopher about football. I don’t know Minter. I don’t even know where I’d begin on defensive philosophy if I really knew him was having breakfast with him to literally discuss what makes Kyle Hamilton so special and when he put him on on tape examining the job and the off season like those would be the kinds of things I would take it deeper it’s my show right like my show’s more deeper dive it’s not tell me about Saturday night meaningless game and how many minutes all that’ll play out on Saturday night. I’m much more philosophical about who this guy is, and I think when though that’s why Chad Steele doesn’t want me around. I’d be asking those kind of questions because I’m just to your point. We’re sitting here now. Our listeners are listening. He’s been the coach for eight months. I don’t know that if I walked through the Walmart and he was in a blue hat with a red sweater and just walking through the poultry aisle, that I would recognize him yet. He’s not been out in front of it in that way, and I think that’s that changed John’s life to be recognized, and trust me. And I still think he has a relative anonymity here that’ll disappear. To your point, once this train gets a going, this three four weeks from now, I won’t feel that way about him at Christmas time. That if he walked in the room, I’d look at him. If I saw him at the airport. I’d say, looks familiar, but I don’t. Is that the Ravens’ coach? You know, and if he shaved, it probably would change a lot of things. But I don’t even know the sound of his voice yet. To be honest with you, if I’m listening to my own radio station and I did this last week and we were running him for eight minutes, I’m like, who is that? And I had to, you know, because it’s not familiar yet, and all of that’s gonna change soon.

Luke Jones 23:45
Well, I mean, I I would have said the same thing about John Harbaugh if we were at this point in 2008. He’s Jim’s brother still. You know, I mean, like that that that’s what it was. But from my

Nestor Aparicio 23:54
perspective in the media, he he visited here with four of my hosts, Drew Forrester, Rob Long, sat here for two and a half hours in the radio station. He went around. He did his 30 minutes with Bruce Cunningham. He did his Sunday night with Scott Garso and Keith. Like literally, all they do now is just surround them with whatever boy-girl combination they have out there for podcast and whatever they do in their own building, and I’m not going to consume him talking to to roommates. I’m not. I mean, I I just I don’t learn anything. All I learn is how scared Garrett Downing is holding the microphone for his job and his career to not piss off the new guy because that’s kind of the way it works in places like that. So,

Luke Jones 24:38
so I I don’t care

Nestor Aparicio 24:39
about pissing him off. I care about learning about who he is because I haven’t figured all that out yet, like you.

Luke Jones 24:44
So he was asked about a week ago about training camp fights. He was asked exactly what you said. You know, so someone did ask him a tough question. You know, they are asked contrary to what you say because I’m out there regularly. I, I, it’s my job to pay attention to everything that happens every single day. But you know, here was his quote: “No, I don’t really like to see fights. To me, in a game, if you fight, you get ejected. Look, there are times where tempers rise and competitiveness happens. I think there’s a level that it can stay at a little bit of back and forth where we can get the guys back from each other. But to throw a punch or to do whatever, we’re not going to have that. That person’s not going to play after that. But again, with that stuff, there’s a realness to it. There’s a competitiveness to it. You certainly don’t want to tone down that part of it. But at the end of the day, if it’s something that in a game would get you ejected from the game, where you’re no longer able to help the team, then to me, that’s not how we want to operate in practice.

Nestor Aparicio 25:35
Well, this is where leadership steps in because that will happen. There’ll be a fight. There will be right. Like probably already has. I mean, and what what happens the minute that happens when it’s Max Crosby and your quarterback, right? Like,

Luke Jones 25:47
and I think it also depends, though. But but because you also know not all fights are created equally in these settings. Sometimes it’s a shoving match, and then a few other guys shove, and there’s a little bit of a pile up. But sometimes they’re

Nestor Aparicio 26:00
swinging helmets, right? No one’s

Luke Jones 26:02
really throwing haymakers now. If someone takes their helmet or someone throws a legit punch, something like that, that’s when you start to say, “Is that guy going to get thrown out for prac? Thrown out of my

Nestor Aparicio 26:13
my greater point is their organizational dishonesty in a general sense, from Justin Tucker backward, pick anything you want about anything they ever lied about, including my press credentials. But and anything that they gum up that Chad Steele would get in front of and say that’s a fact when you know it’s a lie and I know it’s a lie, right? I’m wondering the philosophical part of this is when there is a fight. Now that he said we’re not going to have that, right? Like what he then does about these as a leader of men, they’re going to break rules. They’re going to have girls. They’re going to do drugs. They’re going to break rules. They’re going to be late. They’re going to be early. They’re going to be up all night. There’s going to be a. How does he handle that? How does he handle like and that to me and the the notion that everything in that building is cover up cover up cover up that’s their nature not let’s address it let’s address it let’s address let’s cover it up we’ll just pretend Nestor’s not a medium let’s pretend Justin Tucker doesn’t work or just pretend that he didn’t wasn’t involved with it’s just this, you know. Let’s just with Lamar, especially in the way, and you know this. I mean, you know this from off the air and on the air, how he’s massaged as a human being, and how his fifis are, and he’s a special guy. I mean, he’s Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson. He’s like a child prodigy kind of person in regard to managing him and making him happy, and they’ve signed wide receivers for millions of dollars over budget to make him happy. So making him happy is Jesse Minter’s first job, and I this is where I would this is where I’m going to get tough because I’m not going to be able to get tough with him. And you can get prickly back with me and say, “Well, we ask him those, but this is where when I’m in front of them at this point, not in the Brian Billick era where nobody ever lied to me, and David Modell will be down the hallway and be willing to hold people accountable who did lie to me because he didn’t like that. They didn’t like that. Whereas the other guys, that this is off the off the train for how bad this has become in regard to what I believe and what I don’t believe and how they’re social. So for me, the mentor thing-he’s their dude. I mean, they’re paying John $20 million a year to do this job up the road, and he doesn’t even have decent players. This guy-how many? We haven’t had one of these segments yet. You and I-we only do you know one a week or so far where we haven’t said they better get to the Super Bowl? I mean, like literally, they better get to the Super Bowl. Whew, man! They ain’t a lot of that going on with the new guy. I don’t know what he sounds like or what he looks like, and he’s got to go be in the Super Bowl.

Luke Jones 28:58
Well, I mean, look, I’ll push back that on that to the degree that if they don’t get to the Super Bowl, they’re not firing Jesse Minter, right? I mean, if they

Nestor Aparicio 29:07
lose 34 to 13 in a home playoff game to the Houston Texans, be no worse

Luke Jones 29:12
off than they’ve been the last eight years. You know what I mean? Right, right. But they be they

Nestor Aparicio 29:16
would be worse off because they’d be one further year long in the Lamar thing. So as we take the Orioles and the Ruchman and the Henderson thing, and they’re breaking up the band. If they break up this band, and the best Lamar’s done is lose another playoff game, you know they’ve already broken up the band. They got rid of Harvard. I mean, they’re

Luke Jones 29:35
yeah, and this is where I’ll correct myself. Where it would be worse would be okay. We change the coaching. staff. You guys still fell short. You know what I mean? Like it would be that. Well, that’s

Nestor Aparicio 29:48
going to happen unless they go to the Super Bowl, and that’s that’s it. That

Luke Jones 29:51
is, but but you know, they’re having the same discussions in Buffalo right now.

Nestor Aparicio 29:56
I give him a pass if he gets to the AFC Championship game. That’s

Luke Jones 29:59
all. Of course. And obviously, you never look at this. You never look at this blindly, right? I lower the bar on it just a little bit. There are always things that could happen, right? You lose three starting offensive linemen, for example. Like if I tell you that right now, that over the course of the first 10 weeks of the season, they’re going to lose three of their starting offensive linemen to season-ending injuries. You and I both know right now. We would say, “Well, they’re sure as heck not winning the Super Bowl under that. Well, let’s start with this. Let’s say

Nestor Aparicio 30:26
the Madabike thing’s just a mirage, and he can’t really play or won’t really play for a while. That greatly affects where we thought about them a month ago, or where we’re outside of their

Luke Jones 30:36
defense. Sure, sure. I mean, and and look, we’re with that. There will continue to be at least some unknown with that, right? They’re ramping him up very, very slowly now. I don’t think that that’s the wrong approach, mind you, but until we really see him start to hit and how his body responds, how’s he feeling? And I’m not even talking like something catastrophic, just just the the everyday round and pound wear and tear of contact. How does his neck respond? How does he feel? Does he start having symptoms? I don’t know. He hasn’t talked to the media yet about this for us to get even attempt to get some specifics on the injury. Right? We know it’s a neck. We know he had surgery back in April. That’s all we really know. We know he missed all last season. That’s all we really know, right? He wasn’t carded off on a backboard like it wasn’t one of those against Cleveland. He finished the game, right? So, the understanding is he woke up either the that following morning or the morning after that and was dealing with some symptoms that alluded to, hey, you got something going on with you know. I don’t know if it was numbness in his fingers. Who knows? I mean, like it’s it’s conjecture to the outside world, other than just knowing that there was clearly space

Nestor Aparicio 31:49
to them. And this is a medical thing. So, but everything is shrouded in secrecy, which makes it all that much more important that Chad Steele’s not you know snatching reporters’ phones and going through them. You know what I mean. Like that, reporters are out there, sure, being reporters on this because they’re they they spin their own boujja all the way along. And the Tucker thing, more beyond me getting thrown out, which is just outlandish. The the Tucker thing to me, a year and a half, two years later, and John being gone and knowing how I felt about John’s integrity, literally his base integrity, and I knew John. I don’t know Jesse Minter, and I’m never gonna know Jesse Minter, and I’m okay with that. But I’m gonna, I’m gonna be hard on Jesse, you know, like, and I’m gonna keep an eye on Jesse, and I’m gonna keep an eye on all of them because of this, this expectation. And I think my biggest concern. Anybody comes up and asks me, and they don’t. They ask me more about Adley Ruchman than they ask me about the Ravens. Although I was at Cooper’s Pub the other night, and Terry did say, “What do you think of the Ravens? It’s

Luke Jones 32:52
gonna, yeah. I mean, that’s gonna start picking up. That’s where we are now,

Nestor Aparicio 32:55
right? And offense, offensive line, you know, new coach, new this, new Declan, that new all of this, I will still go back to. For me, the totality of all of this is how much money they have in veteran players and how those players play, and your Jacoby Lane guys that emerge. You know, you get another tight end to emerge behind Andrews. I feel differently. I don’t think there’s going to be another left tackle. I think Ronnie Stanley’s that guy. I don’t think there’s going to be another Roquan Smith. Roquan Smith’s that guy. I don’t think there’s going to be another Derrick Henry. Like so, some of these 30 somethings are Kaleius Campbell’s almost a 40 something at this point. Will be

Luke Jones 33:35
40.

Nestor Aparicio 33:36
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I

Luke Jones 33:37
think September 1 he turns throw Marlin Humphrey

Nestor Aparicio 33:39
in here too because we all know he’s my favorite, and I apparently am his. The veteran guys and the guys that used to bees, the guys that were the used to bees when John was here, and they were playing Patrick Mahomes in AFC Championship games all of three years ago. You’re going to have a hard time convincing this guy, me, having witnessed all of this for all this time, that all of the names that I just gave you, that something is not going to go real awry with older players in regard to injury, or we already aren’t in love with Roquan Smith. We’re already not in love with Ronnie Stanley as being a elite left tackle or a top 10 of this or that-that part of the first month where they’re playing these terrible teams, right? I mean, they’re playing bad teams. I don’t say I want to see Roquan Smith or Ronnie Stanley dominate, or Derrick Henry run for 180 yards, or run away from people, or stiff arm some six-round safety on his way to the end zone, or Lamar looking like he was 22 again, because we’ve talked a lot about that. For me, the aging process of the players, and to see that the Wiggins and the Kyle Hamilton’s-I mean, I guess Venguy-you know, some of the younger guys that you look and say, “Ooh, ooh.” Okay, because I’m counting on Zay Flowers. They gave him a boatload of money. I’m counting on on Kyle Hamilton. I’m counting on Lamar. I’m counting on the guys in their prime. Sure, right? Like they got to show up. Be 17 game 1000 yard receiver. Lamar’s got to do all the tricks to be an MVP candidate. He’s got to be a top five best player in the league kind of player to and what was that thing at one NFL 100 didn’t? Oh, I don’t

Luke Jones 35:26
give a crap about.

Nestor Aparicio 35:27
I know, but I’m just saying he’s got to be the difference maker that you and I believe him to be to make Jesse Minter smell good. But I’m mostly concerned about their the the big money veteran player, not in their prime players. I mean, if if Zay Flowers plays like Gunnar Henderson, they’re gonna stink, right? I mean, we know that, right? So if their stars aren’t their stars in their prime, but this last breath they’re trying to get out of Kalay’s Campbell, Roquan, Ronnie Stanley, Derrick Henry, Mark Andrews, Marlon Hum, man, that’s six. That’s 10% of the roster. I don’t know how many the snap set is, but I’m. If somebody comes up to me this week, I’m going to talk more about that because I’ll let you talk about the offensive line and the surprise of Jacoby Lane and all that. I’m more concerned about the guys we actually know their names and their numbers and where they’re going to be on game day. And am I going to look up at 4o’clock and say that they beat the pants off the Colts? And yeah, Roquan looks alive. Ronnie Stanley looks like he’s ready to play 17 games. Like that’s what I want to see in Week

Luke Jones 36:32
One. That I think that’s completely fair. And they’re all

Nestor Aparicio 36:34
going to be well rested by then because the rest of these guys are going to be in these car crashes against. I mean, think

Luke Jones 36:39
about it. I mean, really, the preseason for those guys, two joint practices against Minnesota next week, and they’ll have a joint practice against Washington the following week. Those are the that’s the the value of the joint practices because you have the veterans getting legit one on one reps with somebody else, but it’s in a controlled environment, right? You know that Lamar is not going to get lit up because, you know, Roger Rosengarden gets bull rushed and slips, and and but Roger Rosengarden’s going

Nestor Aparicio 37:11
100% in those hits.

Luke Jones 37:12
Yeah, yeah. I mean, like that that you want to see that group compete. I mean, again, it’s practice. You’re not going to sit here and overreact like crazy, but like that’s that’s their tune-up. There’s no doubt, but but yeah, for me, that you mentioned the veterans, and I think that’s I think that’s everything you just said. I think is completely reasonable. I would say, for me, yes, I’m going to continue to go back to the offensive line because it was one of this team’s fatal falls last year. I mean, it just was. So, how does John Simpson look at left guard? Just because they made him a $10 million a year guard doesn’t mean he’s going to play like a 10 million a year guard. Can’t look like a

Nestor Aparicio 37:54
deficiency on that one.

Luke Jones 37:55
I have my doubts. Let me be clear. Do I think he’s going to be better? Like, let’s let’s do this one by one, right? Do I think John Simpson at left guard is going to be better than Andrew Voorhees was at left guard last year? Yes, I do. However, do I think it’s necessarily going to be as dramatic an upgrade as some are hoping it to be? That’s where I’m a little. We’ll see, right? I think he can. I think he’ll be solid, but you know, if he he needs to be at least solid, right? Center. I’ll tell you, I’m. We’re getting close now. To, I’m starting to wonder about Ethan Posick. They’ve ramped him up very, very, very slowly, and that’s fine. He’s coming off of the Achilles. However, somebody else might be the guy on the 13th of September. I’m starting to wonder if, and I don’t see. Here’s where I don’t know. Okay, because you ask coaches, and everyone looks great in the summer, right? I mean, that’s just how it goes. That publicly, they’re going to, you know, if you’re a discerning reporter, you can listen for the constructive criticism part of it. But for the most part, everyone’s great. Everyone’s going to the Hall of Fame. They’re going to err on the side of optimists. It’s just, and and and that’s everyone this time of year. Every team in the league’s doing that kind of stuff. But I think for me, I don’t know if this is Danny Pinter is more impressive than they thought, or is Posick not looking great? And keep in mind, this is someone who, look, I to this day I’ll continue to say thumbs up on the signing because you needed to bring in someone with very legitimate starting NFL experience. I mean, Danny Pinter, 10 career starts in the league, right? He’s been a career backup. So, but the thought is, you know, Posick wasn’t amazing last year, anyway. And then he tears his Achilles in December. He’s on the wrong side of 30. Although you know we’re not talking Caleus Campbell old here, but is it possible that they’re just not seeing a whole lot? And is that Pinter winning the starting job by default, or is it a case of hey Danny Pinter, like we like this guy? Like I know he was a backup for the Colts, but we we like this guy. We think he can be we think he can be solid. You know, if it’s that scenario, then fine. But if it’s a scenario where no one’s really emerging, like you have these competitions. Sometimes I could tell you. I mean, so many times over the years at guard or wherever, where we talk up player A, B, and C competing for the starting job, and guess what happens? None of them really grab it, you know. And and then you’re just kind of like, all right, well, who’s the best out of the group? Who’s out there on the waiver wire? Who might we be able to trade for? And then, oh, this is just going to be something we’re going to have to do our best with all year, because that’s the reality of the salary cap. So I don’t know that yet. It’s still early. I’m not saying that that’s what this is, but at some point in time, I want to see some evidence that Posik’s working his way up the up the depth chart, so to speak. You know, I think you’re. I can’t. You know, we’re not allowed to just proclaim who first string is, second string based on practices. But I think you can read between the lines of what I’m saying here as far as how that competition’s gone. So

Nestor Aparicio 41:31
it’s real early, right? It is very early. Two weeks from now, he’s more healthy. Exactly. Three weeks from now, exactly. You wouldn’t want Ronnie Stanley out there grinding right now, either right?

Luke Jones 41:41
Oh, but but Ronnie Stanley’s still running. He’s running with the ones, right? I mean, like he they give him a vet day. You know, he’s had he had a vet day like earlier in the week. But there’s no

Nestor Aparicio 41:50
question he can play football on the 13th September. Correct, and there is with this guy. That’s

Luke Jones 41:54
where, and that’s where again. I’m just giving you the update two weeks into practices. I I’m a little surprised that we’re not seeing Posick be a little more prominent in that. I guess is what I’m saying. So we’ll see. That could change tomorrow. That could change Friday. We we could see him look really good in the preseason. Maybe he plays in the preseason open. I’m guessing he probably doesn’t, being a veteran coming off of an injury. So that’s all. But center, no matter who it is, it’s going to be a downgrade from Tyler Linderbaum. Just how much is it? A downgrade going from a Pro Bowl center to now you have a bottom five in the league center? Well, that’s a big problem, right? That doesn’t feel like that’s going to work for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. But can it be a guy that whoever is going to be the center? Can they be average? Can they at least be like? Let’s say, let’s say the floor is. Can they be the 20th best center in the league? I’ll. I. I think you can live with that, but he can’t be 30th. Certainly can’t be 32nd, right? So, so that’s the position. And then you want a look. The bar from Daniel Failele is pretty low, right? I don’t. I think it’s unfair to think that Vengoyuane is going to be Marshall Yanda from Jump Street, but at the same time, I don’t get the sense that they’re remotely concerned about him. I think they’re happy. I think he’s everything they thought he was going to be to this point, and now it’s just a matter of that continuing, stay healthy, and just continue to grow and develop as a player. I don’t think I’ll tell you something as we’re laying out scenarios for this team to to be that Super Bowl caliber contender. There is a scenario that Vengoyuane steps in and is their best lineman from day one. Is that with Linderbaum gone? I don’t think that’s out of the question. If he’s almost better be the

Nestor Aparicio 43:47
case, right?

Luke Jones 43:48
I mean, like put it this way: I I really hope that he’s at least say their second best. You know, you know, if you want to say Stanley at left, and Stanley’s. Let’s be clear. I know Ronnie Stanley’s not the All Pro 2019 version. He’s still a pretty good left tackle though. Like he was, he had a solid year last year, and the biggest thing I’ve liked about Ronnie the last couple years is he’s been available. He’s

Nestor Aparicio 44:10
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a player in that sport especially look completely debilitated and sort of washed up at that kind of position and come back and play at that level. But I don’t know. Yeah, I mean, I’m trying to think in the history. It’s not like we’ve talked about fielding and how bad the Orioles are, and I always use sort of like Melvin Mora as being a guy who was bad that got like plus pretty good. Yeah, and I like Ronnie Stanley. All the talent aside, and the fact that he was a lottery pick, and the fact that he could have been a Hall of Fame kind of left tackle. The kinds of injuries he had and the length of it. I mean, dude, I would have bet anything. You would have told me three years ago that he would come back, play, play well enough to get paid, play well enough to still be Lamar’s left tackle.

Luke Jones 44:59
Surprising.

Nestor Aparicio 45:00
2027, 26, whatever the hell we’re in. I’m getting you 26. Yeah, yeah. Well, going into 27, he will be if they make the Super Bowl. Like I, I would have said that. No way. Not at that position. Not at that size. Not at that. So this has been a medical marvel to me. So I do. I don’t want to because I don’t like Ronnie Stanley or whatever. I mean, Ronnie Stanley. I interacted with him for years and never interacted with him because he had the personality of not interacting. He’s very. I mean, even us guys. The whole organization’s wrapped that way because of Chad Steele and the owner and the old coach. Yeah, very much so. But like, I I don’t. I’m not picking. My point is, I don’t. It’s not Marlon Humphrey who you know I have no use for Ronnie Stanley, whatever you know. But I am impressed by him. It’s been by him, like from a Courage Award standpoint, and I did many of those. Yeah, Black Courage Award. Like to me, huge

Luke Jones 46:00
ups on this. I’ve not seen this in the 30 years the Ravens have been here. The the the the fortitude, the play, especially when you’ve already made the money. It’s different when you’re Batista and you’re a pitcher and you’re trying to come back and get paid the way Boz has, the way Bradish has. It’s it’s different, and I think it’s different for pitchers and Tommy John. Which you would say, if my 17 year old had Tommy John. It would fix his arm, and he would be right. Right. I mean, I don’t think anybody thinks repairing left tackle’s wheels. Oh, I mean that ankle injury was awful. And yeah, you think back to five years ago. Remember, they opened the season up in Vegas for for that Monday Night game. Ronnie looked awful, absolutely awful, coming back from that injury that year. And remember, that was the only game he played all year. He shut down and had another surgery three weeks later, whatever it was. But yeah, if you had asked anyone at that point in time, or even go back to go to the following year, 22. When what he? I guess I think he was on PUP. He missed the first four games, whatever it was. I don’t. I can’t remember if he was on a reserve list or not. I’m actually thinking he maybe he wasn’t. But point is, he missed the first few games that year. Man, if you would ask at that point, would Ronnie Stanley still be the Ravens’ starting left tackle four years from now, in September of 2022. Boy, as much as sports books are all the the craze in in current the current sports landscape, man, you could have gotten some good odds on that, right? You could have made some money off of that. So yeah, it’s a testament to him. But but yeah, just you know, to finish my thought on the O line, I mean, they need Yoane needs to be really good because he needs to be the guy that’s kind of the Bowie for their interior line. Well, I’m not expecting

Nestor Aparicio 47:50
Ronnie Stanley to be their best lineman. I guess that was part of my point.

Luke Jones 47:53
Yeah, I mean, like you’re, if Yoane is going to be the kind of guard that justifies drafting him in the middle of the first round. Maybe not week one, maybe not week five, but I better see it. But by week 18, I want to see a guy that we’re saying going into 27, he’s easily their best. By the way, you’ll know when we’ll see it because Lamar will see it and Jared Canberra will see it. Sure, sure. So, but but they need that. So, and and then the other guy, and I’ll you know this is the last one that we only mentioned in passing. Like this is year three for Rosengarden. This is the year we find out is this going to be a guy that you want to give a second contract to, or is he just hey he’s fine, but he’s going to go get paid by someone else after next year, right? That this is a big Ricky Wag for him, Alex big year for him, right? Yeah, yeah. Because you kind of look at it, Ryan Jensen. You can kind of see the next iteration of the Ravens’ offensive line taking shape if Yoani is the next Marshall Yanda, and if Rosengarden takes a leap and you say, “Man, they gotta, they need to re-sign him because Ronnie’s going to be testing out here over the next year or two, right? Whether it’s after this year or after next year, you would assume that could be it, but maybe not. I mean, maybe he’ll continue to defy father time in that way. Maybe he’s Harry Swain. Maybe you know, but but the point is, you would think two years from now, there’s probably a scenario where Ronnie’s no longer the left tackle. They’ve drafted someone, and you’re hoping that the right side of the O line is the strength of this O line, right? Where you’re saying you’ve got Vanguane, who’s becoming this perennial Pro Bowl caliber right guard, and you’ve got Rosengarden, who, whether he’s a Pro Bowl player or not, he’s above average at right tackle. Let’s say you know that’s the scenario I think you’re hoping to see that start to show up over the course of this season. If it does, then I think you feel better about the state of this O line. With oh yeah, a quarterback who is going to be turning 30 in January. Right, that you’re going to have a quarterback on the other side of 30. That Lamar is going to continue to be mobile, right? But he’s not going to be the guy he was at age 21 anymore as he gets older. So yeah, the line becomes that much more important as any quarterback gets older. So you know, I I still the the offensive line still makes me take pause when I’m trying to assess this team’s championship moxie. So well, it starts with that. To your point,

Nestor Aparicio 50:29
right? Yeah, because that’s the only thing that’s going to enable Lamar to be good enough, and Derrick Henry and Jay Flowers and whatever this offense is going to be to be productive. Because if the offensive line’s a patch job, it’s a mess.

Luke Jones 50:40
Yeah, especially the interior, right? I mean, well, it’s already a mess because we

Nestor Aparicio 50:44
don’t know what the center is. We have a rookie guard. We, you know, we have a left guard. We’re not sure about a left tackle that’s aging on a right tackle that we think’s emerging, and we hope the guard’s emerging. And that’s that’s the upside. That’s not the backups. That’s not injuries. That’s where it is right now. Right.

Luke Jones 50:59
I mean, you need, and obviously you need to stay healthy. I mean, that’s a spot. The top side

Nestor Aparicio 51:03
of the offensive line is adequate. Would you agree with that? I don’t think it can be exceptional.

Luke Jones 51:08
Yeah, I mean, is there a scenario where it’s like best case scenario, slightly above average? Hold your block one

Nestor Aparicio 51:16
second, and Lamar and Derek Emery will make you look. I mean, there needs to be,

Luke Jones 51:18
and it needs to be a little better than that. But, but yeah, I think I think you need to be realistic about this. So yeah, I look at that, and then the other thing I look at just in general for this team this year, you’re you are you’re navigating a lot of new with this coaching staff, just a lot of new, and that’s not I’m not saying that to be disparaging to Jesse Minter or to Declan Doyle, it’s just reality now. Not just new, really too. I’ll leave you new,

Nestor Aparicio 51:45
new at this gig.

Luke Jones 51:46
I will leave you with this. I will say. Now, Jesse Minter hasn’t lost a game yet, but you know what? He also hasn’t won a game yet. I have been impressed. The overwhelming buy-in that you’re hearing from the players, I think they really like this coaching staff. You hear them say a lot, and look, I know a lot of people end up making this a referendum about John Harbaugh or last year’s staff, and whatever. That’s fine. That I’m I’m less concerned about that part at this point moment in time, but I think you don’t always know because you also remember how that Ravens veteran locker room felt about John Harbaugh on day one, right? Chris McAllister, famous, you know, kind of infamously said at the time amongst themselves, “We got to get rid of this guy. Well, they they got

Nestor Aparicio 52:36
Billick fired, and Billick didn’t even you know was a different time and place for all of it, but

Luke Jones 52:42
but but John was not pub was not like oh my gosh we love this guy day one. Well, you you said let’s

Nestor Aparicio 52:47
not make this a referendum. Well, John, it is it is. Is it getting better or is it getting worse? Is it better this year or worse this year or about the same? That’s an easy exit question to ask anybody. Do you like this better than last year’s camp, and why, and for what reason, or do you like this? Your the coach in your room, or the coaching, you know, and the coordinator, whatever that is. Do you feel better or worse about it? If 90% of the veterans feel better about it, tells you all you need to know about John.

Luke Jones 53:17
Well,

Nestor Aparicio 53:17
I think

Luke Jones 53:19
maybe, but the onus is going to be on the players. Then you say, “All right, you guys better go out there, go six and 11, bring back

Nestor Aparicio 53:26
John. Right, and and that’s and that

Luke Jones 53:27
and that’s more so the point I’m making with that. But I think the buy-in’s there. But Justice Hill said it on Saturday, I think it was, and and it’s the you know it just resonated with me. Two things: one, Justice Hills has been here since Greg Roman took over as the offensive coordinator. He said Declan Doyle, and he said, “Look, we’ve had good coordinators here in the past, but Declan Doyle’s the most detail-oriented coordinate OC we’ve had. I thought that was impressive, and he said he didn’t name names, but it was very obvious. He said we’ve had offensive coordinators who’ve been really specialized in the run game, and that was obviously Greg Roman, and we’ve had offensive coordinators who were more passing game oriented, and that was Todd Monken. He said Doyle is really detail oriented with both, so he said that. But he also said what I just said: they’re still in the honeymoon phase, right? You can love your coaches until you blow another fourth quarter lead, or you burn a timeout at the wrong point, and and you know you messed up from a game management standpoint, or you just lose some games, or you go through some adversity, or there’s some internal strife, and and there’s some arguing going on behind the scenes, which happens with every team in the league at some point in time. So, but the but the point is, these guys, I think they like really like this coaching staff, and you’re hoping that that can lead to more consistency, breaking through in crunch time. Which, my goodness, that’s the identity of this team has been for. Quarter failures, right? Part of the identity of the last eight years, and even going back longer than that. You know, go back to the end of the Flacco era. That was a problem, even. But you really do get the sense that they like this coaching staff. Yeah, it’s the honeymoon. Yeah, they haven’t lost a game, but they also haven’t won games yet. And sometimes you need to win some games before you fully buy into what a head coach is doing, and it feels like they’ve already they’re already on their way in that way. And I think that’s that’s reason to be optimistic, even with some of the questions that we’ve laid out that are fair about this football team going into 2026.

Nestor Aparicio 55:36
Last thing I’ll leave you with, because you and I got the persnickety about tough questions for Jesse Minter, here’s a tough question for Jesse Minter, the one that pisses him off. That that would be the tough question for me. That when you ask him something he doesn’t want to be asked, whatever that is, what the reaction to that would be, and and what the answer, not just the job boiling over, is that a football question? Is that a comparison? Yeah, you know, does that challenge my religion or Trump or my beliefs or my manhood or what? What are you getting at? You got me. You got a gotcha. Like that was John’s. That’s who John is. So like it doesn’t feel like this guy is that guy. So that if I came out, or they let some really qualified guy like Jerry Coleman to ask tough questions that when things go wrong and there are tough questions to be asked about is he is he mad that you’re asking the question? That’s what Chad Steele and John Harbaugh were together. They were they were intimidating you. How dare you ask me that question? That was John Harbaugh. I don’t. I haven’t seen that in Minter. And at the heart of it, when that happens, and that’s gonna happen, he’s the football coach. They’re gonna break rules. They’re gonna jump on their sides. They’re gonna lose

Luke Jones 57:00
some games. They’re going to embarrass

Nestor Aparicio 57:01
themselves. They’re going to kick it around. Things are going to happen. How he front faces that in some corporate boujee way, some humanity way. I haven’t seen his humanity either. I haven’t seen him laugh so much, cry so much, be distraught, be upbeat. I haven’t seen. He feels like a corporate ball coach to me so far because that’s what the jobs entailed. The jobs entailed Johnny Bravo looking like the ball coach that might or might not be John, or at least as qualified as John. He better win as much as John.

Luke Jones 57:33
I mean, we’re going to find out, right? I mean, you’re not going to be able to see that full scope. Generally speaking, you’re not going to see that full scope in the spring, or july 28, or august 10. You’re going to see that starting with game week, september 13. First time you play the Steelers. First time you play Buffalo, right? I mean, like all that.

Nestor Aparicio 57:53
I got to throw this in because if I don’t, I won’t. Because we’re talking about John Harbaugh, and I have something on my mind. I’ve gone in and out of New York twice the last week and a half seeing rush, and you know I take the bus up, I take the train back, but when you go up on 95, you see the billboards. Lawrence,

Luke Jones 58:07
I figured, yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 58:09
not of John, of his quarterback. His quarterback is everywhere on billboards. Interesting, selling. I don’t even know what the hell he’s selling. I just saw billboards with Jackson Dart, and I’m thinking, I’ve never seen a Baltimore Ravens quarterback on a billboard here. I don’t think the Flacco even had bill. Maybe he had a first Mariner one for a minute or whatever. But I’m just like literally driving for a while. Okay, I mean, you know, Ray Rice on the MT, whatever, bleeding. Yeah, I’m just saying, like as a general thing in this town, we don’t have a lot of billboards. It’s New York City. It is what it is, right? But boy, that guy hasn’t won anything, and he’s just a big, good-looking lunkhead who runs in the linebackers, and he

Luke Jones 58:54
actually does run in the linebackers, and to the degree you’ve talked about it with Lamar Jackson Dart. Oh my gosh!

Nestor Aparicio 59:00
Well, my point is, John’s got to deal with a whole different kind of diva up there-one who might not be able to play.

Luke Jones 59:07
Yeah.

Nestor Aparicio 59:08
At least his diva here knew how to play. So I’m throwing that out for Harbaugh because if he didn’t like his press conferences here, wait till he loses in New York with a quarterback who’s got himself on every billboard and hasn’t earned anything to be on the billboards. That’s all I’m saying.

Luke Jones 59:21
Can he stay on the field? I mean, I look. I actually, I thought Jackson Dart did some nice things as a rookie last year. I agree with that. Goodness, I just don’t know if he’s going to stay on the field.

Nestor Aparicio 59:31
John can do a lot of things. He can’t go be quarterback. I know that he is

Luke Jones 59:34
truly for all of the criticism that Lamar has gotten gotten in in that area of the game, which I will continue to say to this day, I think was insanely overblown. But Jackson Dart, like oh my, when he came back, what was it? They played New England on a Monday night game, like last was it November or something like that, maybe early December, and I just remember there. A time where he didn’t run out of bounds and he just got completely lit up and it’s just like that’s your franchise quarterback and he can’t even like Lamar doesn’t do that Lamar didn’t do that wasn’t that as a rookie Lamar knows he can’t get hit like that yeah I mean like does it happen occasionally but like Jackson Tart it was happening like multiple times a game it’s like dude your best skill has to be your availability as a quarterback. Like, if if you don’t have that, then you’re not going to win as a franchise. So yeah, it’ll be it’ll be interesting. It’ll be interesting. I just think there’s a

Nestor Aparicio 1:00:32
different situation there, and we’ve talked so much about him and his demeanor laying waste to Owings Mills philosophically that it was John’s show all the way around, including my press credential. Though he didn’t take responsibility for that, which is part of his lack of integrity. But this new show was supposed to be fresh air. People were supposed to feel better about it, let that air out of the building a little bit, and at least for the players, to your point, there happens a lot of it that way. Yeah. All right. We’re gonna play play football on Saturday night, and Luke will be out knowings Mills all week long. All that brought to you by Farnham and Derma. They are the Comfort Guys. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour yet again next week. Now I’m at Mako in Ocean City this week. You hear some political stuff. I’m going down some community stuff. Very important stuff going on at the beach on Thursday, Friday. I’ll be back from that. But Fishmonger’s daughter the 19th next week, and then the 26th we’re back at Koco’s Pub, and then we’re going to get into the full rotation. I have the kiss face bird, my favorite bird, of course, of the Ravens to give away on the Maryland Lottery scratch offs. GBMC putting us out on the road as well, and Farnand and Dermer. I am wearing my comfort guy gear here. They will have me at Fishmonger’s daughter on the 19th, Koco’s on the 26th, and elsewhere as we get into September, you can always find Luke out on the interwebs at Baltimore. Luke, and if you’re on the WNST Tech Service, there’s any breaking news. Hopefully, it’s not contusions for Zay Flowers or anything catastrophic or weird going on in Owings Mills or with the Orioles this week. You’ll get it first on the WNST Tech Service. That’s all brought to you by Cole Roofing and Gordian Energy. It’s a click away to sign up. I am Nestor. He is Luke. It is almost football season, but we’re still in this wild card race. As I reminded Craig Albernaz and Brandon Young in full voice last week at Camden Yards, we are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking. Baltimore positive.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai