Of course we know the Baltimore Ravens don’t have to play this weekend. But what if they did? Luke Jones and Nestor assess the spring additions and subtractions and how the Ravens’ draft picks will find playing time and opportunities in camp.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
draft, ravens, year, point, people, talked, play, offensive line, player, wiggins, ready, eric, week, fourth round, john harbaugh, corner, nate, pick, put, draft picks
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are wn st am 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively taking the show on the road. It is the Maryland crabcake Tour presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I have the PacMan scratch offs these bad but a pretty lucky batch. taking some pictures I was up at Greenmount bowl and remount station last Wednesday. Talked a lot of horse racing. It is Kentucky Derby week, make sure you’re listening out for that past present future had a really really great lengthy chats with David Richardson, as well as Alan Forman, involved in Maryland racing and the Stronach and going back to the Frances and old memories and old names that were brought my way as well. At one point he said Jack Klugman used to come to the alibi breakfast and I told the whole story about the alibi breakfast which begat the liars lunch and and all that. And then I realized like the 25th anniversary Jack Klugman has referenced this Oscar Madison so it all comes full circle it is racing week, Kentucky Derby week, and we’re going to present that also our friends at the Liberty pure solutions, putting on the Maryland crab cake tour keeping my water delicious. I’ve got it poured right here right now. So I’m down with that. As well as Jiffy Lube multi care, I am wearing my curio purple. It’s you know, probably all the time. First off, it’s a little long sleeve ish. And I like me like a concert Jersey kind of feel to it. But this football thing, it’s about to like go away. Again. We got about two minutes to talk about these kids. And we’re on the nest or whatever his name is not me the pitcher from the Yankees. And who’s gonna be in the bullpen and man, they were you know, look,
8
Luke Jones 01:39
it’s still football season
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:41
here. Right? I mean, even though we’re in the May in it, you know, we’re gonna have little mini this and passing that and mandatory this and certainly better drama than we had this time last year.
Luke Jones 01:53
It’s always football season. I mean, and that’s not a Baltimore thing. That’s a United States thing, right? I mean, the NFL is the biggest professional sport in America. And the second biggest is the NFL offseason. I mean, it’s just it’s how it is the the ratings reflect that the the fact that you have hundreds of 1000s of people in Detroit, basically standing there watching players be picked not watching a game, but watching players be picked. And you know, everyone had a great time. So what do I know about that? But, you know, certainly a big weekend for the Ravens. I mean, the first round picks always exciting, right? I mean, Nate Wiggins, good value, they’re certainly going to help them as far as boosting their depth in the secondary where, you know, their starters were established after that it was kind of like, who’s gonna be the backup, you know, who’s gonna be the number three corner all that so. But once you get beyond the first round, I think for most people, especially with it coinciding with the Orioles, off to the start, they are bullpen concerns aside, it is a little bit of a different dynamic. But for the ravens, I think they felt really good about their draft in terms of the value you and I have spent a lot of time talking about the offensive line and what they did and did not do. And we’ll continue to talk about that. Because, yeah, rookies will be running around in shorts this weekend and Owings Mills and OTAs will start late next month. And we’ll be out there a few times here and there, meaning media, but football players in shorts, especially offensive line play. That’s not telling you a whole lot. So that’s going to continue to be a question but I think Eric Acosta, John Harbaugh, David Blackburn, the entire front office scouting department, I think they were pleased with what they were able to come away with. You know, what, stand up immediately is fortifying their depth at cornerback as we mentioned with Wiggins, not just him, but TJ Tampa and the fourth round to a lot of people thought might be a second round picks. So they did that they added another edge rusher and a dis Isaac out of Penn State similar traits to adopt AOA, but maybe a little more, you know, not maybe definitely more production in terms of sacks in the big 10. And at Penn State. So an interesting pick there you and I’ve talked already about Roger Rosengarten. To me, he’s he’s the short term key to this draft class, right? I mean, they they kind of sort of need him to play week one right, they kind of sort of need him to play as a rookie whereas that’s not necessarily the case with the rest of these guys but you go down the list and you know, we can go one by one I think all of these picks to some degree or another make sense I think all of these picks even if value was what the pick was driven by I think all of these picks you can see where Okay, that makes sense. Okay, they needed that. You know, right on down to Nick same MAC in the seventh round at a Michigan State a guy who started multiple years at center Okay, he’s not going to want he’s got to make the team first we know a seventh round pick is never a given to even make the team but ideally, he might be able to be Tyler Linder bomb. She Keep dependable backup for the next three or four years, I mean, who knows. So even with the seventh round pick, you can kind of sort of see what they envision with each of these picks. And now it’s just a matter of getting them on the field. And seeing if what you project what you scouted what you hope they can be, will actually come to fruition, we know it’s not going to be the case for all nine, that’s just reality. But with some of their best draft classes, they’ll get some use out of six or seven of these guys, at least for the next couple years.
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:30
8Luke, you know, we’ll get to the Atlanta Falcons thing because I’ve got the quote, ready to go with you. And we can talk about that. But as I you may make light of that and don’t even have to say it out loud that we’re like laughing at the Falcons and overdrafting for a position. I mean, we sat here two years ago, and they drafted a safety after the sign of safety. And we tried to make sense of that, even though you’re like, well, on the inside, they would make sense that the thing about the Ravens against the tide and everything else we talked about here. And we talked a little bit about the Orioles and like, Will Elias be here when Adley rutschman is in year eight, you sort of hope so and that works out with new management and all of those things. But you can manage your team differently. If you’re managing thinking, I’m going to be here through the duration of let’s say Lamar Jackson or Steve Bashaud. He’s tenure ship, his owner or however many three to five more years that John Harbaugh wants to coach in the way he wants to coach and you feel like Monken probably is gonna be here a couple of years now, to go with Lamar. So you start to put these pieces together and you draft differently, you think differently. And even when they go away from Zeidler and Moses and veteran players. And last year, we talked about Coleus Campbell, and you know, that’s always going to be the case and even drafted guys like, you know, Patrick queen, that is a pic they had that they’ve converted now and well we’ll figure out hope he plays well, then we’ll we’ll get a late third, fourth round pick whatever would be there so good at this and the science of it that once they get into the weekend, and they identify their needs. We always sit here on Monday and say, Well, you know, at wide receiver Well, yeah, you know, they’ll need a you know, but the guard thing is a little weird that they didn’t jump more in, and it speaks more to where the draft is. But it also speaks to them having pro personnel out and cockiness and these guys saying, Well, you got this guy with a cap issue here and that guy, we’re gonna keep an eye, one of these five guys will pop and we’ll get a player.
Luke Jones 07:53
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, sure that you’re always looking at every draft class, every roster is a puzzle. And it’s not about having to find the exact, perfect piece every time it’s having the right combinations. Yeah, we talked about this a little bit. When you and I were at Feedly slash late last week, a breaking down the neat Wiggins pick. And one of the things that we talked about, and what Eric Decosta talked about, on that Thursday night was he felt when you look at where they, they look at the analytics, they look at trends, they look at how the board stacks, they look at draft rankings, all those different things. And they try to anticipate when they’re going to be those certain runs at each position. Right. Obviously, the quarterback run in the first round was the first run that we saw. But then we saw our line. You know, we saw corners early in, you know, earlier in the second round. And that’s one reason why the Ravens thought hey, there’s probably a good chance that we can still find a good offensive tackle that we feel can start sooner than later whether Rosen gardens going to start Week One again, we’ll have to see. But the point is they felt more confident that they could get the offensive tackle in the second round. If they took Nate Wiggins, if they reached for one of the Offensive Tackles that, frankly, at that point would have had a second round grade. If they did that at 30. They could have done that team’s reach the Ravens have reached for players before it even though they they’ll never tell you that they have. But the point was if you if they did that, they didn’t feel as confident that they’d be able to get a cornerback then in round two or three that would be able to help them you know, obviously wasn’t going to be as good as Nate Wiggins, but it’s a matter of can you get someone that’s going to help you or is it going to be a developmental guy that is going to be either inactive or exclusively a special teams player so this is no different than
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:47
your rotisserie draft your fantasy league once there’s a run you better you better get somebody in the seat like literally and you you know I I don’t see I feel panic for them on behalf of the offensive line. I do think what We’re easily Cleveland. They feel like we could go play this weekend if we had to maybe not well, but it’s not like they’re maybe we’re the Orioles are with a closer where they really don’t have one right now you know like they don’t have a guy that didn’t know could do can play that position.
Luke Jones 10:15
Well, and this is where we also go back to expectation right you can draft someone and that guy could end up being a Hall of Fame player. Does that mean that guy’s going to be a Hall of Fame player in year one? Most often not. Now, someone like Ray Lewis. Okay, Ray kinda looked like a Hall of Famer from the first day he stepped on the field in Memorial Stadium. But in most cases, it takes time and offensive line specifically, how many examples have we seen now? Over the last 10 years, you know, for every Ronnie Stanley who by the way was picked six overall, right? It was wasn’t a late first round guy. For every guy that you’ll find that ends up playing right away. You’re gonna find others who struggle or don’t really get on the field. I mean, Ben powers two years ago, right? He got last offseason, he got paid big time by the Broncos. Going into that season. He was regarded as a question mark for the Ravens because he hadn’t really developed that quickly. So I think for the ravens, you got to the third round, fourth round, and I think that’s kind of beyond that, you know, you’re really looking at lottery tickets, right? I mean, especially for O linemen you get beyond the fourth round you know, you’re kind of looking at guys that are exposed Oh Ryan Jensen that come on now. Ryan Jensen was he’d be the first to tell you he was a developmental guy I mean he did he was cut even by the ravens and was on their practice squad I mean he know he was hurt if beginning point is those late round guys you’re never counting on to play right away. So if you’re the ravens, you’re looking at your board third round of the size IQ edge rusher they ended up taking him was regarded as being good value. I think most people thought he would go right around then some people thought he might go a little bit earlier than that certainly wasn’t a guy that people were talking about as a fifth rounder and then you’re saying well why did they take him in the third round? So good value their fourth round picks Tez Walker out of North Carolina. Kinda looks like could have a chance to be a poor man’s Torrey Smith. Now he’s raw he’s got to refine his route running but probably has a chance to get on the field is there number four receiver who maybe run some go routes that maybe Lamar find some chemistry with unlike throwing numbers out Bateman last year but that’s you know, that’s another conversation the
8Nestor J. Aparicio 12:27
names of the two Farnese the Thailand wars and all you know we can we can throw those guys this the last five years that there’s always a dart and the cow catch a touchdown pass somewhere along the way, right? You’ll
Luke Jones 12:39
get on probably, I mean, unless he just can’t. I mean, sometimes they just can’t play like Jordan. Lastly, I think was a fifth round pick. He couldn’t play a lick. Julio Scott, who they drafted in the fourth round, he couldn’t play a lick, you know. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:51
remember the guys that can’t play a lick. And I just like try to figure out like, well, I’ll give you a funny story. I’ll just interject this as we’re talking football, with a sort of a sad ending. I lost one of my executive producers last week. Very, very tragically. His name was Lonnie Williams. And Lonnie is the reason we love P quads pizza in Chicago, he was a cop in Chicago. And I was literally doing the 25th anniversary documentary and I was looking through some things and he very famously and you can go to our social media and see this with his handwriting and a typewriter of some kind he had some computer that typed in about six point font in this DPI thing where he put all the names of guests on these these mini discs little square mini smaller than the Pac Man ticket I’m holding like a little bit smaller than that even in square mini disc was something nobody had but nerds like us in the industry. And he put all these names. Hey, dude, it said Mark Clayton on it. And I’m like, hold on. This was 1999 2000 and then I saw Dooper right next to it and I’m like, oh, was the other Mark Clayton it wasn’t that Mark Clayton, you know, so there’s different more Clayton’s even in my life once you get to be this old, but I remember all the draft picks and I just any thought of a wide receiver at that point being more than a returner. Um, you know, I’m skeptical of even even Travis Taylor whom I love and Mark Clayton who I love you know, and even Hollywood Brown who I liked you know, it’s the hardest thing in the world picking these wide receivers and that’s why when they’re picking them you’re like, Well, you know, they’re gonna take a try at it, but and you have to because you’ll spank them in the offseason if they don’t, but I My expectations are always a little lower with wide receivers. I guess that’s my point.
Luke Jones 14:54
8Yeah, well, I’ve wasn’t I don’t disagree. You have to take swings though because you see what the fuck We were talking in a previous segment about starting pitching and paying Corbin burns. You see what wide receivers are making in free agency now. Now the deal, the Ravens just signed Rashad Bateman to who even if Bateman never raised, you know elevates beyond what he is right now probably isn’t bad value that’d be that’s just how the going rate for top shelf wide receivers now is $30 million a year. I mean, that’s what we’re talking about. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:22
you bet $2 million a game. And by the way, you said a poor man’s Torrey Smith. And in a poor man.
Luke Jones 15:29
Sure, sure, sure. But, but But to go back to the point I was making it that, you know, with those third and fourth round guys, and the other one being TJ Tampa, the Iowa State corner who you know, I think is a really interesting player might be the best value pick they made, compared to and I’m not sitting here saying I studied rounds one through seven and I intimately am aware of every player in this draft. But lots of people thought he was more of a second or third round pick outside corner. But some people think maybe he’s a guy who transitions to safety. And if there’s one roster need beyond the offensive line that I look at right now, third, safety Who is it? Because you want to be able to move Kyle Hamilton around, right? We don’t You don’t want to change that. My gosh. I mean, he’s the maybe the best defensive swiss army knife in the National Football League at this point in time. So who’s that Geno’s stone? I have no idea who that is on the roster right now. I don’t think it’s our Darius Washington, I don’t think it’s, you know, unless they’re moving a corner over there.
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:29
It also that’s a very smart position, right? That is a position where you need a, you know, a chuck Clark kind of, you know, you need a guy that can wear the green.
8Luke Jones 16:40
You doesn’t have to wear the green dot, but you need someone who
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:43
is capable of seeing the defense multiple Li and reading keys and always making the right decision on reads. Because that’s how you get killed. You just get killed you you started saying Well, this guy is not ready and that guy’s not ready. That’s probably exactly what they’re saying out in the building about like, I cannot trust Russell Wilson on third down out there in Pittsburgh, what you know, like, can’t have that with two minutes left to go in the game, we get a breakdown of communication breakdown. And I think that that’s the hardest part of replacing these players, especially in the back end there is you want to have the pieces in place and have a full practice and have them really get comfortable with each other in that defense.
Luke Jones 17:27
No question about it. But you know, TJ Tampa I think is a really interesting potential piece for them again, doesn’t mean week, one of his rookie year but so But going back to the original point I was making because we were talking about the guards. I think if you’re Eric, the caster if you’re any team that has a specific need. But then you look at the board and you say, Okay, we could draft a guard there. But this guy is hot, we have as a better talent, we have him as higher on our board. And here’s the reality when we’re taking a guy in the third or fourth round, well, you know what we took Tyree Phillips as a third rounder back in 2020. And that guy, you know, they eventually gave up on him, but he couldn’t really play. We took that in Cleveland in 2021. And we think he might be ready to play now. But he sure wasn’t ready to play those first couple years. Point is, yes, they could have drafted a guard in the third or fourth round. But if you’re talking strictly through a 2024 lens, is that guy better than what you have on the roster right now for this year? Probably not. So that again, this goes back to when you are filling three spots on your starting offensive line from a year ago. You have some incumbents, I’ll sign off on one or two of them maybe be able to do the job. But you’ve got three, not just maybe three complete unknowns right now. And that’s that’s assuming Ronnie Stanley is unknown. And we’ve already talked about even that being problematic. So the point is, you kind of get to the middle rounds where the Ravens were and I think they made the decision to say, You know what, instead of reaching for a guard that probably isn’t going to be ready to play for us this year. Anyway, this guy’s a better value, and this guy might be able to help you know, this, Isaac might be able to, he might step in and be the third or fourth member there outside linebacker rotation from day one. I don’t think that’s impossible. And part of that also speaks to not having a ton of proven depth there. And that’s another Tyus Bowser
Nestor J. Aparicio 19:28
8came on in sort of that roll you know, through through time, right?
Luke Jones 19:32
I mean, through three years into it. Yeah. And he was a second round pick. So again, you get to these everyone, and especially the draft nerd and I I say that with affinity I don’t say that to be derogatory. The draft Twitter draft, ravens draft nuts, you know, not not just the media but fans. You look at those draft picks and you try to envision the best case scenario with all them and you know that the best case scenario hopefully plays out with your first round pick, maybe we’ll play out with one or two other guys. A couple other guys will be some will be decent backups. And you’ll have a couple guys who either won’t make the team at all or they’ll be gone after a year. I mean, that’s just how it works. And that’s, and that’s a pretty good draft class, mind you, you know that you’re not going to hit on everyone. So that’s why they’re there thought the way they approached us was we’re going to take the best players available and they still aligned with needs, you know, I didn’t even get to them. But fifth round pick machina Rashi nollie. From Marshall. Now he had a biceps injury at the Senior Bowl, you know, should be okay to go by the time training camp comes around, you know, keep Mitchell’s not going to be ready week one most likely, you know, he tore his ACL in mid December. So you have Henry, of course, as your feature back, you have Justice Hill, but you’re going to need another back. So they added Regina Lee, and we’ll see where he fits. Maybe he’s the eventual replacement to Justice Hill, who’s in a contract here. Maybe he doesn’t play very much other than just on special teams. But you take a running back in the fifth round. And you know, you kinda, again, if if you’re drafting exclusively for need, look, it might work out sometimes. But over the long haul, that’s going to be a losing proposition. The teams that do this the best the ravens, other teams that you regard as teams that have drafted well, for not just recently, not just the last five years, but for the last 20 years are the teams that see the value and maximize the value. And look, that doesn’t mean that it never converges with need. Of course you’re drafting for need, but you want the best player available that’s going to fit a need for you.
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:36
Well, special teams and John Harbaugh’s mind, maybe that’s changing a little bit in regard to kick off, but certainly not in regard to punt.
Luke Jones 21:45
I mean, it’s always, always part of it. Yeah, it’s always part of it, especially when you get to day three, right? I mean, day three, that I mean, machine, Ali’s gonna play special teams, those
8Nestor J. Aparicio 21:53
guys are the athletes, those guys have to be dogs, as they say. Yeah,
Luke Jones 21:57
you know, in the seventh round, they took the safety Sanusi Kane who didn’t even go to the combine, you know, from Purdue, Eric Decosta, actually compared him to Haruki Nakamura, who never really played a whole lot defensively, but was a heck of a special teams player for them for three or four years. So you need some of that. But the point is, again, bringing it back to the the offensive line conversation and you mentioned guard, once you got beyond round one, round two and even round three. At that point. You’re drafting your next Ben powers. You’re drafting your next Ben Cleveland, you’re drafting your next Ben Bredesen, you’re drafting your next Tyree Phillips. You’re drafting your next big salah, you’re drafting your next Daniel file, Lele. And look, some of those guys eventually developed into pretty good players. But we know in most of those cases of the names I just mentioned, none of them really played and played. Well. Your ones. So Orlando
Nestor J. Aparicio 22:53
Brown got on the field, right. I mean, after the horrific, you know, so there are I
Luke Jones 22:58
8mean, there were exceptions that are an exception. Sure, no question. But even he, he was a guy from a tape standpoint, people talked about him potentially being a first round pick, he tested so, horrendously, that he fell to the third round. So yeah, there are some cases like that. But generally speaking, this is why the Ravens did what they did. And look, they could turn out to be totally wrong, there could be a guard that they passed on in the fourth round, who ends up being a pro bowler by a second year and is a day one starter. I mean, it happens. It’s not. It’s not what you should be counting on. You know, it’s the exception to the rule. So it does happen. But I think they felt that getting, you know, coming away with a guard at that point of the draft probably was not going to be better than what they have on the roster already. Who guys that have already been in the program, guys who are already familiar familiar with the offense, guys who have already been working from a strength and conditioning standpoint. So we’re gonna see how that plays out. You know, look, there’s there, they have absolutely opened themselves up to some second guessing here. I mean, that’s why I said in one of our previous segments that, you know, as time has gone on here, I do wonder if maybe the Morgan Moses trade ends up being a step too far, maybe you should have held on to him and if rose and garden on seats, him come back six, then great, or frozen garden is so great during training camp, you could trade Morgan, Moses at the end of the preseason, and probably could have gotten a similar pick, swap kind of deal out of it. So you know, we’ll see it could work out to be fine. And I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt in the sense that they have been able to develop some mid to late around offensive line talent, but as I also pointed out, they did have an issue, replacing Marshal yanda that first year and that’s why they got Kevin Zeitler the following year, and they did have an issue, not accounting for the stunt the Ronnie Stanley injury enough when they got to In a way, but who was done? I mean was not good.
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:03
The way they accounted for it right? Because they didn’t, you know, like, they didn’t really draft for it this week either, right? So sure.
Luke Jones 25:11
Oh, yeah. Well, and that’s the that’s why I said, I mean, this is already, you know, some there’s already some questions here. Heaven forbid if Ronnie Stanley can’t stay on the field again, because then. Okay, mCherry moves over to the left side. But then what if Rosengarten plays like a rookie, which doesn’t
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:30
matter what you have a rookie right tackle, no matter how good he is. He’s a rookie, right? Yeah, yeah. So So you know, they didn’t, they didn’t really draft.
8Luke Jones 25:37
I mean, I know some people have talked about Rosengarten. In terms of at Washington, he was protecting Penix, who was a lefty, so you know, right tackle was kind of protect, you know, as protecting the blind side. So some people have said, Well, does that mean he could be a left tackle? I don’t really think so. I mean, I could be wrong about that. But the point is, they need him. If he’s not a plug and play guy, then I’m really really uneasy with where they are with their
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:03
data, right? Like a whole Luke column on the importance of that one pick. Right? That’s it You know, like,
Luke Jones 26:09
I think that’s the pivot. Look, Nate Wiggins could end up being their their next Ring of Honor corner. And let’s be clear, look at the history of their first round corners. Dwayne Starks check Chris McAllister, check plus plus right Ring of Honor guy, Jimmy Smith, check. Even if the injuries he didn’t fulfill the potential that he had, he was still a really good player for a long time. Marlon Humphrey, three time pro bowler check plus. So history tells us that they’ve hit on Nate wig, they’ll hit on Nate Wiggins, and the value tells you they should hit on Nate Wiggins. I mean, he’s that kind of talent. But for me, the short term, there’s no one more important than Roger, Roger Rosengarten to the 2024. Team. I mean, I think he’s that consequential here. I’m not saying he has to come in and be great. He doesn’t. But can he come in and be ready to play week one, or even? Even a scenario where macarius starts the first three weeks, and then he’s ready to play by October 1. If that scenario plays out, and he’s solid, and looks like he can even be better than that. And boy, than this this draft? It did the job in the short term. And then we’ll see how the long term plays out. I mean, that’s always an unknown. But for 2024 Yeah, I feel like Rosen guard in the second round pick is, yeah, I feel like that’s more pivotal than even Nate Wiggins. I mean, Nate Wiggins, I think is gonna play and I think, at times play a lot, but they do have Marlon Humphrey and Brandon Stevens ahead of him in the pecking order. So it’s not like he asked to play 100% of the snaps, rose and garden if he’s not ready to play head, right tackle, and we’re talking about foul play, or we’re talking about Patrick mCherry. Or we’re talking about them having to go out and try to make a move for a veteran, which I still think, like I said, if I had to bet $1, one way or the other, I think you’re still gonna see something along those lines at some point, you know, even if it’s just a depth piece, but, you know, I think they’re counting a lot on Rosengarten. Again, I like the prospect, this isn’t me knocking him. But it’s just, it’s a lot to ask the 62nd overall pick, an offensive lineman drafted 62nd overall to play week, one of his rookie year, I mean, you just, you quite often do not see that. Maybe he’ll bucked the trend. And maybe Eric constable deserve it absolutely deserve his flowers for that. Or it could play out as most guys in that area of the draft to Oh, line wise, usually they need a year or two. So I know the one thing about him is, he does need to get a little stronger. I think that’s one thing that scouts and pundits have said about him but moves his feet Well, seems like a perfect fit from a zone blocking standpoint seems like a guy that can hold up and five man protection when you’re dropping back to pass and not having to keep extra blockers in so he checks boxes don’t don’t make I’m not second guessing the pick, I’m second guessing any expectation that he’s necessarily going to be ready week one, but we’ll see. Maybe he will be and if that’s the case, if he can be like Orlando Brown as a rookie, then they’ll be fine. Yeah, there’ll be fine there. And then then it’s a matter of the guards. But until we see that, you know, we’re all doing the same thing, including the ravens, which is trying to project on a lot of unknown about these young players.
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:27
8Who we play week one what we don’t know yet, but we will know soon. We’re gonna gather seven or 50,000 people waiting around to figure out whether we’re going to Mexico City or whatever the hell we’re gonna do. We’re not going to Brazil. I found that out there get theirs. Yeah. They need to send the animals down to the Amazon. So they’re sending they’re sending the Eagles fans down there. So what they’re doing
Luke Jones 29:49
right, right. Yeah, I mean, we should be I would assume, probably not. I guess not this week, but maybe next week is the schedule release. What it’s been right around the first verse
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:58
I got for you ready? Okay 223 was May 11 and 22 it was May 12 and 27th. It was May 12 and 20. It was May 7. Now this would show you that I have COVID Today, right before that, April 17, April 19, April 20, April 14, April 21, April 23, April 18. It was always before the draft. So, if people are wondering who they’re playing week one, I guess I made my point, which is for anybody that followed the Ravens the first 25 years, it was sort of out by now and we would know we’re playing the Bengals they have they milk this, don’t they? Lucas? They melt it?
Luke Jones 30:36
Well, you know, they didn’t have a tentpole event for May. So now they, now they have one I mean, I don’t think we’re gonna get to a point where they start hosting, have a host city for the schedule release. I don’t think we’ll get that crazy. Because Oh, my gosh, if we do, it just says so much about us as a society, I think,
8Nestor J. Aparicio 30:55
can they get Mary J Blige to play it? If they can, I’ll go, Hey, that’s
Luke Jones 30:59
okay. You know, that’s okay. But yeah, we should be getting it. And obviously, the COVID year was when this started in terms of pushing the schedule back. And I think they realized, hey, let’s, let’s wait till after the draft, because then we can have another three hour special and proper rating on ESPN and NFL Network. And, you know, our TV partners are happy. And we can, you know, we can spike the ball in May when before we didn’t other than just OTAs. So, so yeah. So we’re waiting on that next. But, you know, at this point, draft is complete. I want to be very clear all my questions about the offensive line aside? I don’t have a problem with their draft, I think I think they got good value. I think this has the potential to be a really good draft. There’s always the unknown. You know, I mean, the pundits always loved the Ravens draft. And more often than not, it ends up being true, but sometimes it’s, you know, sometimes they wish from time to time that happens. But overall, yeah, we come away from this with the same big question. You know, they addressed some of their other needs corner, I think they’re in good shape. Now. You know, I think that’s one that they really addressed big time. As well as you can, obviously, but yeah, offensive line. And to be totally honest, Nestor a week ago, if you asked me if they would have saw their offensive line problems in the draft, I would have said no, because they’re picking 30. That’s the best they can do anyway, so they’re probably
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:18
going to take a quarter or two to recruit you. Because now hold you accountable. They’re going to train at anyway. Right. So anyway.
Luke Jones 32:25
8And by the way, they they did their work, Eric to Costa confirm that there there were offers there were phone calls that they had to trade out, but they really liked Nate Wiggins, and I think from a value standpoint and where they were not just in 24, but really moving forward. I think they needed to take a corner. I mean, they first first round corner they’ve taken since 17. And since then, over their last over their previous six drafts. Brandon Stevens was the only corner they had taken in the first three rounds. So that shows you you know, it was time to make an early draft capital investment at corner. And certainly Nate figure or Nate Wiggins fits that description.
Nestor J. Aparicio 33:02
So people think Kevin Brown is the only one that can just drop musical references and that just, you know, dropped on the Mary Jay and their hall of famer Mary J. Blige. I gotta throw that in before it’s all over without getting foreigner references in for that crew as well. And I’ll go through all the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers here. At some point I write that letter to Eric to concert with all the Pearl Jam references that I’ve been putting together. But I’m waiting for the concert waiting for Pearl Jam to get through the summer. We’re rockin and rollin here I you know, our 25th anniversary has been celebrated in many ways, but the documentary has been the funnest, if that’s a word to put it through because I like hearing John Stebbins voice and I like seeing art modell and art Donovan and goose and some of the dearly departed people that have made up this journey over all these years. So if you haven’t seen it, please go check it out. Throw me a little feedback on it. Thanks my friend, Greg Landry Blue Rock productions and tacit transfers for making that happen. If you have stuff laying around like I do, old VHS, that kind of stuff. That’s the work that Greg does, in addition to making pretty cool movies and documentaries, as he labored deep into the night to get that ready for draft weekend. And we can now get ready for the Yankees, Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, all that stuff going on here. election coming up in the next two weeks, make sure you get your your voting done. Wherever you are in the state. We want everybody voting and he’s Luke, I’m Nestor we are wn St. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore football baseball, pennant race, Yankees draft picks. Springtime he was like, there was no COVID which is the way I like it. Stay with us. It’s Baltimore positive
