Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the Ravens’ glaring pass rush needs and how the NFL trade deadline has evolved and helped teams patch roster holes.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens pass rush, NFL trading deadline, Deontay Johnson, Eric da Costa, Zadaria Smith, defensive needs, safety position, Thursday night game, pressure rate, draft capital, Max Crosby, pass rush help, defensive back, Kyle Hamilton, trade deadline
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
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Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, Tess, Baltimore. Am 1570 we are rocking our world here during an election time. We got a quick turnaround for football this week, and we’re getting the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road beginning next week. We’ll be at State Fair, going to be Cooper’s north, bunch of places through the turkey holiday, all that. Brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I will have Raven scratch offs to give away as we did it mama’s on the half show. Last week, we had Finn and my pal Howard out, and also our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care, putting us out on the road for the Maryland crab cake tour, the oyster tour in progress, brought to you by curio wellness and foreign daughter and our friends at Liberty. Pure solutions, one 800 clean water, the oysters, keeping the bay nice and clean. So we have these big fat crap cakes here in November to go along with the big fat victory over the Denver Broncos, 41 to 10. And now a quick turnaround, got an election. Everybody. Go. Vote, vote, vote. Please. Vote. If you’re in Pennsylvania like Luke, vote responsibly. Vote like the president’s going to be babysitting your nieces or something like that. Luke, it’s a weird way. It’s also trading deadline for the NFL, right? We’re at the halfway, halfway point where you can’t be eight and eight, you can only be nine and eight, or eight, nine, and the Ravens feel like the defensive side is getting together here. But the trading deadline, and Eric da Costa and wherever zadaria Smith winds up that won’t be Baltimore, maybe or not, or who our competitors might get to fortify their run. This is an important couple of days after adding Deontay Johnson last week for basically, you know, nothing, quite frankly, right? Yeah, I
Luke Jones 01:40
mean, a pick swap that I think amounted to probably will amount to 15 or 20 spots, you know, a fifth round to a six round pick. So never, never any doubt about that deal. I mean, we’ll see. Deontay Johnson didn’t play a whole lot on Sunday, and that wasn’t surprising, considering he only had three days of practice, and Lamar Jackson was only on the field for one of those days, but I think it’s all attention on what Eric da Costa does or does not do to try to fortify this defense. We’ve talked about the defense step in the right direction, but certainly not coming out of Sunday’s game saying, oh, all is well, right? They shut down Bo nicks and the Broncos offense, which they didn’t really but because we know that they had some opportunities in that game, but certainly played better in the second half as the offense started to put some distance on the scoreboard. But what is going to happen with that pass rush, the safety position? Is there a name out there to add? I mean, think it’s notable that Eddie Jackson was a healthy scratch a week after he started, in place of Marcus Williams, right? So I’m not making any assumptions there, but is there a safety that moved to be made there? I don’t know. So I think most of the attention now is on the pass rush the reports as of Sunday evening, we’re talking about zadaria Smith winding up in Detroit, sounding like that’s a matter of when, not if, but until it’s official. You never know, right? And this is a weird week, in the sense that the Ravens play a Thursday night game too well, on top of all of this, right? I mean, you have the trade deadline, that makes for a weird week. Anyway, knowing that you can bring someone in Tuesday or Wednesday, and they’re on the field playing for you that Sunday, little bit different when you’re playing a Thursday night game, though, but you know, it’s, it’s so odd, and we’ve talked about this because you look at the Ravens right now, I think they’re fifth in sacks, you know, you just look at that, you say, well, the pass rush can’t be that bad, right? But then you peel back the layers of the onion and you see pressure rate. I think next gen stats has them at 26 then pro football reference has them low, uh, their their pass rush win rate. But from that, ESPN keeps track of low point is, yeah, in terms of just looking at it strictly from a sack standpoint, it hasn’t looked too bad. But we also know that Saxony make up a, yeah, that makes up a very small percentage of defensive plays. What are you doing when you’re not bringing the quarterback down? Are you getting enough heat on the quarterback? And that’s where I think anyone who’s watched this defense this year has seen that. It’s been inconsistent at best. I think we’ve seen it look really good at times, but it tends to be a little more feast or famine than you’d like. Even on Sunday, they bring Bo Nicks down four different times. Go back and look at those plays. He he stood in the pocket for a few seconds on each one of those. It wasn’t as though someone got this unbelievable get off and just beat, you know, one on one on one match up to to bring down the quarterback. So what can you do there? I mean, I think part of this is we need to be realistic and understand that. I don’t think the Raiders are going to make Max Crosby available, for example. And even if they were, what are you giving up? Get him. What’s the asking price? Is it anywhere? That makes sense? I mean, I don’t think necessarily players like that are even gonna be moved. So you kind of look at the next tier. You look at as a Darius Smith, you know, people have talked about jadavion Clowney. I mean, he’s got an extra year due on his contract. You know, he’s on the wrong side of 30. Would the, you know, is there a move to be made there, where maybe you can make the reunion, have a reunion be possible? I don’t know, some people have talked about Aziz ojalaria of the giants. You know, he’s someone that probably garners interest. So, you know, there are names out there, but in the same way I just mentioned about the sack total for the Ravens defense, right? And you looked at that, if someone knew nothing about the ravens and hadn’t watched them, they’d say, Hey, you’re fifth and sacks. What’s the big problem? There is also the question of fit for what you do schematically. I mean, we talked about this a lot with Yani. Can go away four years ago when the ravens brought him in and, you know, looked good on paper. Maryland guy had been to a pro bowl, and the impact was minimal. So not that it was a bad trade. I mean, it’s not like they gave up a second round pick form or anything like that. But you also do have to recognize it’s gotta be someone that that’s a fit. It’s gotta be someone that look trade a draft pick. I’m not, I’m not at all sitting here saying you need to hold on to your picks by any means, but you also don’t want to just give away capital for something that’s not going to move the needle a whole lot. I mean, the thing about so unique time for
Nestor Aparicio 06:29
them in that you’re always talking they’re going to win the Super Bowl, they need to win the Super Bowl. So there ain’t, no, you know, F those picks to some degree in an organization where it’s not f those picks. But it’s not even up those picks when they have the supplemental picks coming back, based on all these guys we talk about them losing, including, you know, next week, we’ll be talking about the linebacker that the Steelers, you know, help provide for better draft picks for us next year. But this is part of the game this organization plays with draft picks that they can make expendable any year when they’re expected to win the Super Bowl, and if there’s a piece there, they win God roquan Smith, they went got Eugene monrovie that they they don’t mind making a splash maneuver if such a thing is available, and then arsenal to do it from a draft right? They do.
Luke Jones 07:19
However, I will also throw this out there. There are other teams looking for these things, right? I mean, everyone around the league that that fancies himself a contender, saved for maybe a couple teams are probably looking for pass rush help. So, yes, they have draft capital, but there is, you know, there’s, you look at those picks when they’re projected to pick at the end of the round. You know whether they’re going to pick 32nd and win the Super Bowl, or whether they’ll be like they were this past year, which was they ended up being 30th, right? And then because they got to the AFC Championship, and they had the best record in football in the regular season. So other teams are looking for that. So you have to, you always have to stay true to value from the not from the standpoint of not being willing to overpay, but if you’re going to overpay, you want it to be worth it, right? You don’t want to overpay. And then it’s like, well, we’re adding the guy, but we don’t think he’s that much better than unique and gawk way, or that much better than tavius Robinson. So you know, I mean that that’s all part of it, and is Jack Flaherty available to trading deadline? Yeah, right. So, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s challenging, but to your point, and I wholeheartedly agree, if the if the move is there to be made, and maybe it’s a touch more than you’d like to give up, then do it. Do it. I mean, you don’t. They’re never going to be at a point where they’re saying, forget about draft picks, right? I mean, that’s this organization’s DNA, is the draft, and looking at their track record over a quarter century, plus, it’s hard to argue with that, right? So that that’s never going to go away. But, well,
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Nestor Aparicio 08:58
that’s why they’re not giving up two ones on Monday morning for Max Crosby, they’re there. It’s not what they do.
Luke Jones 09:05
Yeah, well, but I guess the point I was trying to make, though, is you also have to keep in mind, even if they’re willing to give up, let’s use that just as the hypothetical, right? Some other teams going to be willing to give up two ones. And guess what? That other teams probably projected to have better looking first round picks than what the Ravens do. So, you know, I the question actually came up in the Ravens media room this past week. And again, if someone’s listening to this right now, and zadaria Smith is officially a Detroit Lion, then you know, we’re just speaking in hypotheticals here. But you know, the question was posed, would you give up a fourth for Zaria Smith? And I have no idea what the price is going to be for him, whoever lands him? But I’d say, yeah. But then you think about it, if the ravens are among the best teams in football, then that fourth kind of sort of feels closer to a fifth to the Cleveland Browns. So then it might be, hey, they want a third from you. And they they want, they might want more than that, because you’re an AFC north. Division foe. So that’s just one example, but I’d hate to think, and I said this in our previous segment, you know, breaking down this ravens win over the Broncos. I hate to think that the defense holds them back after so many years, going all the way back to the days of Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, so many years of the offense holding them back and having championship caliber defenses some years, frankly, wasted because their offense stunk and just wasn’t good enough. I’d hate them to be on the opposite side of this where you have an MVP quarterback, a guy looks like he’s going to on his way to winning his third MVP halfway through the season, at the very least, and you have guy who’s going to be the rushing champion, assuming he stays healthy, although saquon Barkley is also having a heck of a year. So let’s throw that out there. By the way,
Nestor Aparicio 10:50
for a weekend of plays, we had to kick catch the ball on Thursday night that I’ve never seen anything like it, and then we had this pirouette thing that Barkley did I still never seen like. So why are we watching NFL not just to bet on it? Because we’re all degenerates here, and that’s what we do, not but, or to prays on any particular part of this. But every weekend, we see stuff we’ve never seen before, including Lamar, just, you know, including things like Lamar,
Luke Jones 11:17
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absolutely, absolutely, but, but you look at everything they have offensively, I mean, right now, their biggest weakness on offense is what their offensive line. But even that has been better than many expected, and has improved and has certainly looked like it’s good enough, you know. And even pointing out the Browns game, or even pointing out what happened in Kansas City? You know, you’re still talking about a team that’s managed, even on bad days, to score 20 plus points, right? So get your defense to a level where you know you’re not as worried about Joe burrow scoring 38 on you or or, you know, take your pick of, you know, whatever quarterback you want to throw out there. Patrick mahomes, assuming the Chiefs do what the Chiefs do, which is get better as the year goes on. But you just want to be in a position where can you fortify your defense? Can you whether it’s coverage on the back end, maybe it is bringing in a safety again, I don’t know who that is, that’s definitively going to be available, that you say, Hey, that’s a clear upgrade over what we have, or talking about the pass rush, but and if they if they’re waking up Wednesday morning without making a move, it doesn’t mean season’s over or anything like crazy. Let’s be clear, you can only make the moves that are available to you to make, but there’s gonna be a sense of disappointment, and there’s gonna be a sense of uneasiness, I think, that we’ve got this amazing offense. Don’t let this defense be what holds you back in January, you know, after all these years of it being the opposite, you know, going reason,
Nestor Aparicio 12:50
I think that they would not be willing, they might be willing to give up a low three for something that somebody else would give up before because, yeah, not because they’re desperate, just because they need it like they they need in the same way they went and got team peace couple weeks ago. Like, yeah, they’re trying to do whatever they can do, whether it was benching Marcus Williams last week and telling them shut up with you guys about it and go out and play. And Eddie Jackson got his this week. And, hey, man, stakes are high. We just won 41 to 10. We got to play again on Thursday night. I just think, from a defensive standpoint, you’re asking this pass rush do something that it hasn’t really done since McDonald since clowny, since last year, since the back end was better, since Matt abigay was better, like, there’s just a lot of better. And to your point, Travis Jones not being healthy, just a lot of it, and even Kyle Hamilton just being such a special player that they’re trying to scheme up things and do different things when there’s not a lot of communication going on as a unit, as a unit, but pass rush has to be better. And I don’t think that’s coming from within. I don’t think that’s coming from David ajabo. I don’t believe that anymore, and I don’t think Tyus Bowser is coming back, or any of the other internal remedies that they’ve talked about since, like, Matt Judah on left,
Luke Jones 14:09
yeah, and and again. I mean, look, Tavis Robinson had a nice day on Sunday, you know, unique, and gauques had his moments. I’d much rather that those be my four and five in my edge rusher rotation, they need to add a top three guy to go along with Van Noy and Adolfo. I mean, that’s at this point. I mean, the ravens are telling you what they think of David ajabo at this point. And I know, anytime you ask them, they’ll say, Oh, he’s doing a great job. He just needs to keep learning all that. And look, he still might figure it out at some point down the down the line, right? We’ve seen guys come into their own in year three and year four. Paul Kruger got a got paid by the Cleveland Browns for doing such such a thing. But where it stands right now, when he’s a healthy scratch, it’s clear they don’t have a lot of confidence in him. So can you add another guy that can be a factor? You know, is that guy? Out there again, you know, whether it’s making a move for zanarius Smith and the Browns agreed to it, or bringing back to Davion Clowney, or getting ojalari, or, you know, any number of other guys that you look at and say, Okay, well, maybe even the sack totals aren’t as high as you’d like, from a perception standpoint. But you dig into it and say, Hey, he’s got a really good pressure rate. We feel like we can scheme this guy up in a certain role, and he’s going to do a nice job for us, and he’s going to pop. And doesn’t mean he’s going to have 12 sacks for us, but he might have six, and that could be a difference. And he could have a really good pressure rate and be disruptive and and kind of be a serve in a role in a capacity that really worked well for this guy under Mike McDonald, and we feel we can execute the same way now trying to do this. So, you know, it’s all about so much of it’s about fit, right? It’s been talked about a lot, and I’ve seen people mention this on social. I’ve seen some people maybe not write big expose, A’s about this or anything like this. But Patrick queen, if you look at like his pro football focus grade for Pittsburgh, it’s not like he’s playing at an elite level there. I mean, I haven’t necessarily heard a lot of people say, Oh, Patrick Queen’s going to make the Pro Bowl as a member of the
Nestor Aparicio 16:12
Steelers. Well, it felt like with him and roquas were like pets and onions here in some right? It fit
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Luke Jones 16:18
really well. Right? It fit very well. Geno stone hasn’t played great football for the Bengals, but it fit really well him being their third safety, and what they did last year, and how they could utilize Hamilton and how they utilized Marcus Williams. So
Nestor Aparicio 16:31
I even think when they had Chuck Clark, we’re going back a couple here, but here we’re in the dot and guys that saw the field well, guys that were leaders. That was the thing that Earl Thomas never got, that I don’t know Marcus Williams could be a leader. He didn’t play well enough. He wasn’t on the field enough to exhibit that thing that Eric Weddle had when he got here, which is just knowing where everybody’s supposed to be, just lining up right. Even when Chuck Clark was a middling talent, to some degree, he could line others up in the same way that the linebacker that came after Ray Lewis
Luke Jones 17:08
did right, yeah. Darryl Smith,
Nestor Aparicio 17:10
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I mean, I was gonna call him Al Smith. That was an oiler. Darryl Smith, I always get that wrong,
Luke Jones 17:16
yeah, yeah, although all of his teammates called him buck. That was his nick,
Nestor Aparicio 17:19
the old Jaguar, yes, yeah, yeah, exactly. But those were the smart guys, you know what? I mean, like, for me, Jameel McLean was one of those guys that got on the field that just knew where everybody was supposed to stand. And when you when you don’t have that, you don’t have much, right? I mean, they really have had communication. Have great ball players. If you’re misaligned, Miss assigned or miscommunicate rod Woodson’s back there with Ray Lewis, and they’re miscommunicating, you’re going to get beat by tight end
Luke Jones 17:51
well, and again, that’s what makes this so frustrating. Because, look, we mentioned a couple guys that aren’t there anymore from a player personnel standpoint. But it’s not like this defense turned over entirely, right? I mean, they didn’t replace eight starters or something like that. You know, this isn’t like a college football team that had eight guys graduate to the NFL. I mean, we’re still talking about mainly role players there. I mean, okay, Patrick Queen starter, understood. ABN clown, he started, understood. But like Gino stone and Ronald Darby, I mean, they were, they were role players, right? When
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Nestor Aparicio 18:26
roquan Looks slower, right? When Humphreys beaten up, when the backsides not communicating in a general sense, when you have no pass rush, when Matt abike is not as good as he was, but the whole run front has been outstanding. It puts more pressure on the back end, even then, knowing that, alright, they’re not going to run, so now they’re gonna pass, or we’ve got a lead, or it’s a track meet, and they know they’re playing Lamar, so they’re just gonna pass more, and we’re gonna have to cover more, and because we’re not gonna sack more or flush out more especially not against Joe burrow on Thursday night. So it just becomes more taxing all the way around, right? It does, it does, but, but
Luke Jones 19:08
on the flip side, you would say, but it should be easier if, if you’re in these positions where you know they’re going to pass right? I mean, well, this
Nestor Aparicio 19:17
goes back to what makes you know Mike McDonald is different and better than Zach or,
Luke Jones 19:23
8I mean, just and look again. It doesn’t mean Zach or is not going to figure this out. But yeah, there’s too much going on. There are too many breakdowns, or too many guys that we perceived as high level players not playing high level right now. To just say, Oh, it’s all on the players. And to be clear, that doesn’t absolve the players entirely either. Let’s, let’s be very clear again, it’s never just one thing. But is there a piece, whether it’s a safety, whether it’s an edge guy, whether and let’s, let’s also throw this out there, interior defensive line. Mike, we haven’t talked about it. Michael Pierce is on IR now with a calf injury. He’s supposed to be back, but. It that that’s another important piece to your rotation that you think of as more of a run stopper. And yes, Michael, Michael Pierce is more of a run stopper than a pass rush guy, but he’s still part of that equation that you now have less depth up there. And again, I mean hopefully Travis Jones, with him barely playing at all. You know, not really playing at all on Sunday, didn’t play at all on defense Sunday, you know, we’ll see if he’s available Thursday night. But even on the even if he plays or plays on a limited basis, he’ll have the mini by on the other side of that, hoping that you get him right, because he’s a big part of what was actually going well with this defense. And not having him right the last few weeks has certainly taken its toll on the pass rush. But so much of the trade deadline, there’s the splash moves, and then there are the moves that are kind of under the radar. And if you can find someone that you just think is a really good fit, that’s why, you know, I’ve seen some people make mention Hey, Claus Campbell might be available. You know, with the dolphins. I mean, they lost again on Sunday. I mean, could you bring him back as not, he’s not going to solve your edge rush issue. But anyone who goes back and looks at the Ravens pass rush when Coleus Campbell was there wasn’t him, necessarily, but it was him with some of those defensive line games where they could stunt and twist and dude, he wants to win a championship, and he could, but he could help set some people up on some of those pass rushes and stunts and whatnot. So, and I don’t think you’re going to give up very much for someone like that at this point in his career. So look,
Nestor Aparicio 21:31
can I throw something at you just as a talking point to jump in on something here, Kyle Hamilton and how he’s being used as a super freak, right? Different kind of super freak than Javon curse, kind of super freak, or different kind of super freak than JJ Watt, kind of super freak, or even TJ watt, kind of super freak, right? Um, he blitzes. He’s up on the line of scrimmage, he’s on the ball, he’s up on the line. He’s super special and rangy, and has a skill set to beat a tight end, big Maul, a running back, hold his own against the guard, or at least be fast enough to beat a tackle with whatever you think of him and how he’s being used, is part of this, that Swiss Army Knife thing that leaves them a little bit more exposed in the fact that a you don’t want your safety to be a rush edge. You want Terrell Suggs to be that guy, or perfect. You want ojabo to be that guy, or you want someone else to be that guy. But I do think that it can be a little dangerous that when you have that kind of player to say, how are we best going to utilize him? Let’s get into the ball, to the ball, to the ball, and at at what risk and at what sacrifice. And by the way, I go back to all the contributions of Chad Steele to this program. And my programming is that I get to watch the games on TV now in real time. I used to watch him and take the lay, but didn’t pay so close attention to what the announcers may or may not be getting from the Broncos or a relationship with Sean Payton that Tony Romo might have because Tony Romo’s whole career was because of Sean Payton, right? And he pointed that out a couple of times. He said, I love Sean Payton, right? But he pointed out like that. Bo Nicks was being coached to wherever Kyle Hamilton was. Don’t throw that way. Go the other way. And Romo said that a couple of times, like he threw at Hamilton. At one point, Hamilton got up, got that, got his hand on the ball. And Romo is like, oh, Sean’s not going to be happy with that. So the things that you learn when you listen the right way and you see, like offensive coordinators and veteran call of almost fame, kind of guys like Sean Payton are telling Tony Romo before the broadcast, dude I’m telling this kid, if you see Hamilton coming on the right, move the play to the left. And I don’t know what that means, but I know it happened during the broadcast, and I know that Hamilton the apple of your eye, the apple of everybody’s eyes, going to the Hall of really good. He’s a special player. How to best utilize him when you have deficiencies in lots of other places on the field. That to your point, if you don’t get to the quarterback, and you could never get the Brady, you could never get the Manning, the really good ones, you know, just get rid of the ball.
Luke Jones 24:30
Yeah. I mean to go back to to the question you posed before, as far as you know, is using him in such a way, does that put them in some bad spots sometimes? I mean, to me, that’s not a Hamilton problem. That’s a problem of you’ve got to have another safety that. That’s why Gino stone was so valuable, right? He just played solid football. And look, he led the AFC in interceptions last year. I think if you went back and looked at that, most of those were right. Ice right time. Now, he played the ball well and he caught the ball, which we’ve talked about, that being an issue for this secondary. But look what you just mentioned. As far as the example for Kyle Hamilton, it’s no different than Bill Belichick telling Tom Brady fine Ed Reed on every single play pre snap. I mean, famously, Brady wrote that on his wristband when he played the ravens, find 20 on every play. I mean, you can go back and someone zoomed in on it, and you can find it on social media. When you can process
Nestor Aparicio 25:26
football with that level, you can process everything, and it’s like looking right left and right again, left again. When you’re crossing street, you’re a little kid. You know what I mean? That last check, that last check on a player, creates either chaos or opportunity, right? Like, literally, right, right, exactly.
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Luke Jones 25:44
And look, I mean, this isn’t, this isn’t something unique. I mean, this is Lawrence Taylor. Which side of the line of scrimmage is he lining up on? Well, you better go to the other side, or you better get the ball out quick, or you better have someone chipping and helping. Who’s your hot Exactly, exactly. So you so you always have that so and and here I am, because in our previous segment, I even posed the question, do the Ravens need to go a little more conservative on defense? You know, I’d hate to take Kyle Hamilton out of that Swiss Army Knife role in the name of because you don’t have another safety that you can trust on the back end to play too high coverage, right? I mean, shame on you if, if you can’t find someone that can do that. And look, our Darius Washington might be that guy next to Marcus Williams and and maybe that’s going to be the answer. That isn’t perfect, but is better than Marcus Williams and Eddie Jackson on the back end, right? That’s what they did Sunday. Eddie Jackson was a healthy scratch, and at at least in the second half of the game, coverage was better. So that was a step in the right direction. I’ll be at a modest one. So you know, but, but ultimately, and we talk about this in any sport, right? When you have when you have a unit, when you have a team that’s not playing up to a certain standard that you come to expect, the answer is, rarely, I need my great player who’s playing great to play even greater, right? Yeah, I think that’s the easy thing to kind of say, and just say, Well, you know, can he do more? You need your other guys to step it up. And again, maybe that’s why, when you and I reconvene to talk about what happens at the trade deadline, maybe they do add a safety, maybe they do add a defensive back that is another one of those hybrid kind of players that maybe does a few things, like Kyle Hamilton, but also can cover on the back end, like Kyle Hamilton, and maybe that makes you a little bit better in that way. So, you know, it’s hard to say, but they need one of two things, right? Ideally both to happen, but you need to either disrupt the passer a little bit more to help out your coverage on the back end, or your coverage on the back end has to stick be sticky a little bit longer to the point where your pass rush can get home. Ideally, you’d have both those things improve over the second half of the season. But again, you know, it’s not just as simple as fantasy football, and say, Okay, well, that guy has six sacks, so let’s just, let’s go get them. You know, we’ll overpay for them. Whatever it’s got to be something that fits and makes sense. Because we talked about this again four years ago within gauquet. On paper, it looked great, but what they found out at that point in time, and I’m not commenting on him as a player now, but what he was four years ago was a guy that didn’t necessarily stay true to the defense as far as what they wanted him to do. Rush wise, did not play the run well, so that left them vulnerable on the edge, and they got to a point where they stopped playing them as much down the stretch as a result. So that doesn’t mean that you don’t make a move, but you always have to be mindful of guys that are going to be a good scheme fit. And we’ve seen this with the Ravens defense and their offense right. There are great players and there are great fits. You want, you know, the best situation is a great player that’s a great fit, but they want to try to find something that can help move the needle for them. And again, I kind of point to the pass rush, but it’s easier said than done. Go look, go search, all off every team that’s not out of it at this point, which aren’t that many at this point, any of those teams you’ll see reporters talking about, add a pass rusher. Add an edge rusher. Boost, you know, boost that pass rush a little bit they need to get to get, to get to the quarterback a little more consistently. So it’s a really popular wish for teams at the end with your fifth in
Nestor Aparicio 29:31
the league at doing it right, right? Well,
Luke Jones 29:34
they are, they are in terms of sacks, but again, they’re the first team that will tell you we look at pressure rate, because adopt a old way. The last couple years, didn’t have many sacks, but they said, Hey, we love his pressure rate, so I’m not going to let them off the hook and just say, Hey, we’re fifth in sacks. Everything’s fine. They know they’re not fine with their pass rush. They know that they could really use another guy. Question is, is the right guy out there that’s really going to move the needle for them? And at what cost is. Going to be because, as we said, it’s one thing to say you’ll give up a fourth round pick, but if there’s a team that has a worse record than you that’s willing to give up a fourth, then you’re talking about having to give up a third. So doesn’t mean I won’t, I wouldn’t do it, but you know, you’ve got to be willing to pay and we’ll see ultimately, if the ravens are willing to do that. We’ve seen them do it in the past. I mean, go look at what they gave up for roquan Smith two years ago. I don’t, I don’t think there’s any reason to look at this and say Eric Acosta isn’t going to go make a move and potentially give up a real draft pick to do it. But it still has to. The deal has to come together. It still has to manifest itself. You know, you can’t force it as much, as much as Ravens fans dream about Max Crosby. You know, if the Raiders say we’re not trading them, stop. You know, we’re not, we’re not trading them period. There’s only so much you can do under that scenario. So,
Nestor Aparicio 30:51
8
but knowing that they dealt for roquan Smith, knowing that they would play Hokey Pokey with the cap, with the quarterback, they could add an elite player, if such an elite player moves along like that. Yeah, that’s all I would say. And I wouldn’t rule them out. No, like maybe 20 years ago, when nobody made those kind of deals. You know, things happen here. Teams fall out of favor with a player, or we’re not going to sign that player. We don’t want that. Whatever it is, just a lot of players and a lot of bad teams
Luke Jones 31:20
that might look to say, I’d rather have a pick, yeah, and a lot of bad teams saying, not only do we want that pick, but we’ll redo his deal and we’ll pay down some of what’s his remaining salary is to get this done. And that’s where it makes makes it easier for the ravens, knowing that, you know, they’re pretty tight against the cap. There are some things they can do to create room. There are always things you can do to create room that always comes with at a cost. But we saw this with the Deontay Johnson trade. I mean, not only did the Ravens only have a measly late round pick swap to get it done, but Carolina paid down most of what he’s owed the rest of the year. I mean, the ravens are paying him next to nothing. So Deontay Johnson, how much he ends up doing for the ravens, who knows, but you didn’t give up anything of meaningful value to get him. So why not? So that’s where we look at this and say, okay, might not be as easy to get an to get an edge rusher using that same formula, but if you’re willing to give up an attractive enough pick a team might say, You know what, we’ll take that pick and we’ll roll some of what’s remaining of his salary into a bonus. We’ll pay him that, pay it down, and then you only have to pay the minimum the rest of the year for that player. So there are always ways to do this, but you’ve got to find an attractive partner. And like I said, what the ravens are coveting here is not something that’s unique. Lots of teams want this. So that’s where it is a little more challenging. And you know, the browns, with zadaria Smith being a great example, Cleveland might not want to trade in the division. And they say, Well, you know, we’ll trade them to the NFC, and Detroit’s willing to give us a nice pick. And you know, we don’t, we don’t want to deal with ball. We don’t want to make the we don’t like the Ravens. We don’t want to make them better. So, you know, there, there are teams that still think like that, even, even though I think that’s a very short sighted way of viewing things. But we’ll see what happens here.
Nestor Aparicio 33:10
Our curiosity will be satisfied very shortly. As Buck Showalter used to always like to say, we’ve, we’ve had a great conversations here in the aftermath of a blowout win over the over the Denver Broncos, Cincinnati Bengals, coming in on Thursday night. Luke will be in and out of Owings Mills. You’ll hear it all in the Luke’s locker rooms available out of Baltimore positive as well. We are doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery. Have Raven scratch offs to give away. Still in my bag. We’re going to be I Coopers north. We’re going to be at State Fair very soon, maybe over to Beaumont as well as Cocos in December, all of our regular spots I wear my cocoa shirt. December 4, we’re going to be there. December 5, we’re going to be at Gertrude. December 12, we’re going to be at Faith leagues for the holidays, talking about holiday shipping and crab cakes. All of our places do it. Nobody does it better. Send, get get them all. Get Costas too. We’re going to be there on the 18th. And I got Gina Shaka, who’s put the go, Go’s back together. So there’s big news out of gun dog, and I’ve got some other just great, great guests coming up after the election. We’re getting through election week. We’re getting through a short week with Cincinnati Bengals and a trade week as well. Luke’s available Baltimore, Luke, I’m available anywhere the internet is served. We are W, N, S T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stopped talking Baltimore positive. I.
