Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio settle in for a real Ravens spring training camp schedule now that Lamar is under contract and OBJ and Rock Ya-Sin have been added to the purple mix.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
year, ravens, lamar, talking, quarterback, drafted, week, rookie, marcus peters, rookie camp, lamar jackson, wn, team, season, point, baltimore, sign, win, otas, play
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome back, WN S T tassel Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively into another merrily crabcake tour week round here as well as some Orioles baseball homestand. That’s going to last forever. We’ll see how the outcome goes this week. We just know they’ll put a runner on second base if they do get to the 10th inning at some point, big big times around here I have been on the radio It’s my 32nd summer on Baltimore radio. It is our 25th year. Let’s wn st we’re going to be celebrating that on August the third I am re releasing the Peter principles very slowly as well as putting together some colonists thoughts about Lamar and the Ravens in the OTAs we are gonna be doing the Maryland crabcake tour this Friday at State Fair we’re in Kingsville so brought to you by the Maryland lottery we’ll have these instant lottery scratch offs to give away also our friends at weathernation actually did a segment with Pete Kurinji the other day with the awesome win donation a bucket hat I don’t know when the Orioles are given their hats out but until then I’ll be wearing the weathernation at 8669 V nation you buy two and you get to free do what we did last summer. Taking great advantage of that right now with with savings. You get five years 0% financing to buy two you get two free 866 90 nation our friends at window nation also shout out for our friends at Royal farms and coal roofing. Had some real farm chicken last week it had been like a month because I had been away. Don’t sleep when it was Western fries. That’s all I’m saying about ROFO Luke Jones joins us now to look through. You got a busy week, week and a half the Orioles are home they don’t let me in you have to go. The Ravens have OTAs you’re busy. They don’t let me in. You have to go. So this OTA time and where we were a year ago and where we were a month ago and where we were two weeks ago. People have gotten down on me believe that believe it or not on the internet after listening for 31 years, all of a sudden because the shotty lied to me kicked me out hardball lied to me to Costa lied to me chance to realize everybody that I am now anti Raven and down on Lamar. It is an amazing I say to these people, have you been listening for the last five years? I don’t know that I would have been the guy given Lamar Jackson $185 million of guaranteed money, believing that I’m absolutely positively going to win a Super Bowl. I don’t know that I’ve seen that body of work. That’s me being a professional. And that’s 31 other teams that said, yeah, we’ll play with Anthony Richardson will drafted will draft somebody. Before we give him a record before we give him the most amount of money in the history of the NFL. The Ravens didn’t want to give him the money either. Right? The Ravens fought with him for a long, long time. Where are you on all this now that it’s settled in, and you’re actually gonna go out there and watch football, because to be really honest, nothing’s changed, right? Like he’s been the quarterback the last five years other than a couple of OTAs. And here and again and December, we talked about nothing but Lamar Jackson potentiality, throwing the football, throwing the football running the football, all of that now he has more weapons. So this is maybe the most interesting conversation we’ve ever had about Lamar Jackson, now that they put up, he signed, they’re here. And this is what the franchise is for three years at least.
Luke Jones 03:12
Yeah, I mean, we’ve talked about this, and I’m sure we’ll continue to talk about it, because it’s just what we’ve gotten used to talking about for over two years specifically as it pertains to the contract. Like this was always the best outcome for Lamar Jackson and the Ravens from a pure looking at the scope of most realistic outcomes. This was always the best case scenario that Lamar Jackson would resign, he would resign and get a top of market deal, but it would have a traditional structure to it, which would in turn, give the the team the proper protection, whatever you want to call it. And but on the flip side, he is properly compensated for having been an elite quarterback over the last few years and you and I will continue to fight about his passing prowess and you underrating it and me being realistic about it, but also recognizing that he has had plenty of passing prowess, and shown that even if it has never been top of the league, but you’ve
Nestor Aparicio 04:11
been surrounded by elite talent, we we have blamed that we have blamed the lack of passing on Eric injuries, you know, change crochet and Devin and put Greg Roman in there.
Luke Jones 04:24
Right critic Roman being a big part of that. And by the way, knock on Greg Roman at previous stops. But But that said the Ravens always wanted this to be the outcome to this. Yeah, we talked about the potential for a trade. We talked about the idea that whereas you were much more in line thinking that was going to happen. I was much more skeptical that would happen. But I always acknowledged that there was a point in these negotiations and a point frankly, that wasn’t that terribly long ago that if they got the right offer, I think they would have been willing to do it but that did not matter. realize, and if that doesn’t materialize, you don’t want to give the guy away or trade them for less value than what he’s worth. So, yeah, this was always the best case scenario of Lamar Jackson signing long term and remaining Baltimore Ravens, because what else are you gonna do? Again, it’s, you know, you can talk about all these other teams and starting over and drafting a quarterback and look, you love your guy, the Ravens love their guy when they drafted Kyle bowler in 2003. And then you realize you can’t play and then you’re stuck and you have a team that can’t go anywhere, you know, in January, so we’re gonna see how it plays out. Look, lots of quarterbacks get paid. With no assurance, there’s never an assurance that you’re gonna win a Super Bowl, there’s no assurance that Patrick mahomes will win another Super Bowl, although I certainly would bet on it based on what he showed as far as being the best of the best today.
Nestor Aparicio 05:47
Boy, you should you said something and you’re not a gambler. And you know, we do support Hollywood casinos a Perry Ville here, plenty of people are gambling, your friends are gambling, my friend. Everybody’s gambling. But I’ve known you a long time. We’re not gambling men. This is the gamble. You know, this is really at the crux. If you had a fantasy football team, and you had to build your team, would you give Lamar Jackson 20% of your cap? Would you sign on knowing what you’ve seen injuries on the field off the field, how you feel about him, whether he can throw the football, all of that, right? Whether you would make him your guy or not, or whether you would opt for a different circumstance, I honestly believe deep down that there was a general manager or an owner out there that thought we’re gonna bring this kid to town because it’s gonna we’re gonna bring the circus to town, we’re gonna be a relevant franchise. For the next three or four years, we’re gonna have this exciting football player. And our fans haven’t seen that here. You know, I, I thought that some Minnesota Vikings tight, you know, some somewhere where they want something, that’s the next thing that he would have been more attractive than he was in free. I thought that I was the jerk that was a little bit down and thought maybe maybe not right? Nobody says maybe maybe not about burrow or mahomes are. I mean, and again, part of this is the style. Part of this is race. I mean, I see racist people, I get accused of being racist because I I’m not convinced Lamar Jackson’s the best quarterback in the league. I’m like, you might want to look at my 31 years before you start calling me racist. But I see racists I mean, I see all of that that goes into the last year of this cacophony of sound from the Players Association owners collusion, Bushati all the way down to now it’s done. And now the question is, are they going to win a suit? Would I bet on them to win a soup now that they’re constructed? Do I think they have the best chance to win a Super Bowl? Better than if Tyler hediki Was their quarterback? Or if they were going through the rookie pool for sure. So they gave themselves the best chance to win now, whether they win or not? That remains to be seen. I just thought I thought Lamar would be more attractive. I mean, I really did. I thought I was to Nate, I was too hard on Lamar, I was. Because I had been hard on Lamar Lamar has given me reasons to be I’ve seen the tweets, he hasn’t played all the negotiating style that look like it rubbed Eric and John the wrong way till it didn’t, until they overpaid him bid on them against themselves, and got happy last week at the press camps, they’re gonna be much happier having him the fan base is gonna be much happier having him than whatever the alternative was. That’s not what I’m asking. What I’m asking is, are they going to win a Super Bowl now?
Luke Jones 08:32
No one can predict the future. I mean, and they didn’t overpay him, they paid a market. I mean, that’s what market is. Now you can, whatever you think Lamar is worth, he wasn’t going to sign for that. So that’s not his value, in the same way that he wanted a fully guaranteed deal, and no one was gonna sign him to that. So that’s not his value, either. His value is what the Ravens gave him and it’s very much in line with what Jalen hertz just got. It was a little more than Jalen Hertz. And that’s kind of how this works. Joe burrow will get more than Lamar Jackson. Justin Herbert. Mike, probably will get more than Lamar but look
Nestor Aparicio 09:02
at the bidding last year, right like it was. Teams were lining up for this awful Yeah, Bill, human and Lamar was dangling out there and Lamar didn’t even get on a plane and like, show up wind up walking into a building with Arthur Blank or like the collusion part of that think these guys are scumbags. I mean, no, you know, I’m not saying Lamar didn’t deserve a contract. I’m just saying I wouldn’t have been the guy. If I own the team saying I’m, I’ve absolutely no, I’m willing to sue. I can’t get them on the field in December the last three years. That’s just a fact. So I like to me, the fan base is safety. I mean, they’ve done their job. They really have I mean, I think the cost is done. If people think I’m down on the cost, there’s a human I am if he’s if they got that on a football, football mind, they cost it’s done an unbelievable job of bootstrapping this thing up over the last four weeks, because this thing was teetering. I mean, this thing was teetering into, oh, it’s May he’s not signed, and now they’re at war with their quarterback. And you and I would have been where we’ve been for a year and a half. Except worse, a lot worse if Lamar would have dug in.
Luke Jones 10:14
Yeah, I mean, I don’t know what you want me to say at this point. I mean, it’s done. We’re gonna see there’s no guarantees. There’s no assurances for any quarterback, especially guys who haven’t won a Super Bowl. They’re all kind of, they’re all in the same camp until they win one, right. I mean, mahomes is the one right now. And I’m not counting Stafford because he’s at the very end of his career at this point. But Stafford was part of that group for the longest time until he wasn’t anymore. Everyone’s a loser until they win one. Right? I mean, that’s
Nestor Aparicio 10:40
the steak knives, right? The Glengarry Glen Ross first price, you know, the Lincoln cut. Second price steak knives? Well, you know what, Joe burrow got steak knives because he lost right. And it’s amazing to me. I guess I’m just on the wn S T Twitter too much and, and like I see locking forward down the dial fighting with fanboys of what you’re not wanting. I’m not one, but I know what it feels like. And I get that deal. But to say that Lamar is more accomplished and Joe burrow, like to Joe burrow came a minute and a half from winning the Superbowl. Like I Joe burrow pea patch won’t be like, oh, like I Lamar Jackson is not more accomplished, because he had an MVP five years ago. That arrow is right now. Like he’s just not
Luke Jones 11:25
let’s be accurate four years ago. Look, would I take Joe burrow over Lamar Jackson? I think I would do I think it’s, you know, you’re presenting it as though Joe burrow is worlds ahead of Lamar Jackson, I fully disagree with
Nestor Aparicio 11:39
that. Well, they’re they’re apples and oranges, man. Well, it’s like comparing a shortstop to an outfield or like, I don’t know, like, it’s just they almost play two different positions. I mean, what did it for offense? What did how they get their offense? They play two different game way differently.
Luke Jones 11:57
Yeah, they’re different. I mean, they’re both quarterbacks, they both have done a lot of winning. A lot of winning again, and I’ll continue to say that you sell short Lamar Jackson’s regular season success, even though I understand it’s not postseason success. But I’ll also give you a ton of quarterbacks who failed in the postseason for a long time until they did it anymore.
Nestor Aparicio 12:17
I’m not concerned about him. The night we saw him in Canton was Is he going to be able to play in December and he has an in three years. So like, I’ve just I keep going back to that. And I will keep going back to why he wasn’t on the sidelines Cincinnati and saying that just here? Are we gonna? We’re gonna just talk about this forever Nestor? I mean, we’re going to we’re absolutely going to when they don’t play till September, right, because this is all about expectations. So set the record straight because you’re getting frustrated with me. What where are the Ravens where what happens now? They come in fully over the weekend. They got jersey numbers. I mean, this is installation, this is get down the business. And everybody in the building is happy right now. Right? Like literally
Luke Jones 13:01
as as they should be. I mean, you’d better be happy if you just gave your quarterback 185 million guaranteed and 260 Max, I think they’re certainly happy about that. But they had rookie camp this past weekend. We did not get a chance to watch that as a media, for whatever reason that’s been open for years. And while we didn’t get to watch it, I guess John Harbaugh didn’t want us out there watching the rookies run around. So just so
Nestor Aparicio 13:24
everybody knows their war isn’t just with me. It’s just, you know,
Luke Jones 13:29
I think it was very much a case of the NFL Media Policy encourages rookie camp to be open, but does not require it. So well. The Ravens did not open it up. But they did have access we did talk to
Nestor Aparicio 13:41
they want you to have a great relationship with these young men, but you’re not allowed to meet them. Well, I mean,
Luke Jones 13:45
we weren’t gonna, I’m talking about watching practice. I mean, we they had the podium, you know, John Harbaugh was brought to the podiums a flowers is at the podium, Trenton Simpson was at the podium, big Salah I’m not even going to try to pronounce his name yet. I need to work on that one a little bit more. He was at the podium. But my point was you couldn’t watch practice and look, nothing earth shattering from rookie camp, not something I lost sleep over. But was the restriction of access that I’m gonna point out? Because, you know, it seems odd to me that you wouldn’t open up to what reporters,
Nestor Aparicio 14:16
I want you to discuss how they’re doing business because they’ve thrown me out to the point where the President doesn’t answer phone calls from legitimate media members, like this isn’t. I just want to be clear with everybody who listens and watches and knows who we are, that they think it’s Nesta, against the Ravens. The Ravens have been doing this to VM media. I’m the guy that raised my hand and has been retaliated against and had my career threatened for raising my hand and saying, You guys aren’t operating the way you used to the way you should. And in a community facing manner. It’s not community face and to be shutting your building off the weekend. You bring the rookies in, it’s not that’s not community facing. Yeah. And
Luke Jones 14:55
again, it wasn’t shut off entirely. It was just that they didn’t. We didn’t watch practice. And again, I don’t think anyone and listening cares about that from a big consequential sense, because, look, it’s rookie observations. And I couldn’t tell you very many interesting observations from rookie camp over the years. But just wanted to note that but you know that rookies are in over the weekend. We’re about two weeks out from actual OTAs starting meaning when it’s full team practices, noncontact, of course, but full teams, we’re about two weeks out from that, and every expectation is large acts, and we’ll be there and we’ll see about some of the other veterans we know veterans kind of, on and off are out there for the three weeks of OTAs. And then obviously mandatory minicamp is in mid June. So we’re getting to the point where we’re talking about on field workouts in practice, and there’s certainly a higher level of interest not just because of Lamar, but Todd Monken and Odell Beckham and ze flowers and a new offense and seeing what that’s going to look like. And I’m sure there’ll be plenty of hype, there’ll be plenty of highlights of running around in shorts, because that’s how it always works this time of year, but
Nestor Aparicio 16:02
ours is going to look great. There’s no doubt whenever Odell gets here, and if he’s not here late, guys, I don’t want you counting heads. Okay. I mean, if Odell is not here today, you’ll be here tomorrow and he’ll be fine. He’ll be ready to play in September. He’s a veteran. But no clay is Campbell Marcus Peters some of the grill gray beards aren’t a part of the organization right now. So there should be more more helmets out there to some degree, right?
Luke Jones 16:23
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there’s certainly some physician groups that are going to look different. I mean, one thing that we talked about late last week, but the signing of rock Eocene, even though John Harbaugh did not shut the door on a Marcus Peters return over the weekend. Oh rock, your scene was signed to come in and start opposite Marlon Humphrey now. We’ll see how that plays out. And he’s someone who has had some durability concerns and I’m not going to disqualify the possibility of a Marcus Peters returned, but certainly doesn’t seem like that’s what their plan is right certainly wasn’t their plan a or they would have resigned them to begin with. So. But now they’ve got to figure out their secondary a little bit. I think there are plenty of young options at corner in terms of depth, but who’s going to be the nickel, who is going to be meaningful outside corner depth behind on Marlon Humphrey and rocky scenes. You know, last year it was Jalen armour Davis early in the year until he really struggled and couldn’t stay on the field. You know, he was a fourth round rookie and his knock at Alabama had been his injury history. And he had injuries last year. So I still think they could stand to add another corner at some point in time. And I’m not saying that that will be a big time addition, but I could see a veteran addition. And maybe it’s someone like Kyle Fuller, who was here last year, of course, a local kid and tore his ACL on week one. But I think that’s that’s a question safety going to look different. No, Chuck Clark anymore. So Marcus Williams, obviously will be free safety. And Kyle Hamilton, moving into more of a starting safety role after playing the nickel last year. So the secondary, I don’t think it’s this major red flag or anything like that, but it’s gonna look different. So how does that play out? And not that we’re gonna get answers in OTAs in May in June, but I do think that’s one of the position groups that I’ll be watching as we get closer to the season, just to see what it looks like. Because you do have a couple of different pieces in the mix there that you know, a couple guys that have been in that secondary for a long time who aren’t here anymore. All right. Well, we’re
Nestor Aparicio 18:16
on the secondary since we’re talking football and not ownership or contracts or Lamar Lamar Lamar branded Stephens moving him. Interesting. Rocky scene thing you said he has durability issues. I just chuckled under my breath. They just signed a quarterback for $200 million. That hasn’t played the last few December’s right, like literally, we’re talking durability issues. And it made me think strangely, and I know you might have a little sour, but like Brandon Carr, right, like part of bringing a guy like that in was, he played 16 games he played for the cowboy every year. He plays he plays he plays when you bring guys in that don’t play and if Dennis we’re here, and I’m wearing my Koons Baltimore Ford logo here, Dennis would say, availability, durability is the best availability and availability is the best stability and like it is concerning when they sign guys that haven’t been on the field and moving guys positions. This is the time of the year to do all that. And this is when they discovered Pat Ricard pro bowler, right who’s now Pat Ricard, hey, I might be on the team. And you know, maybe there’s a role for me here. Where did Greg Roman go? I don’t see him around here. The old playbook. So this is a time of the year where that transitional part of that all happens. But guys was something to prove rocky seen them came in. Looks like he’s delighted to be here signed a nice contract. But I looked at his stats and said Gessner played a full season. How is this guy going to be on the field? December?
Luke Jones 19:43
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s a fair question. You know, and that’s one reason. I mean, he was on a one year do you know, up to $6 million. So that means of course, there’s some incentives built in there. Haven’t seen the full structure yet. But there’s some questions there. There is, I mean, he played 15 games in 2019. So that’s almost a full season, you know? As a rookie with Indianapolis since then 13 games 13 games 11 games you know, that’s that’s kind of Jimmy Smith ask right there for being honest. And Jimmy Smith, good player for a number of years. Good Raven, Super Bowl 47 08. And that to me drank
Nestor Aparicio 20:16
it two or three weeks ago. Thank you, Jimmy, I appreciate that very nice of you. But
Luke Jones 20:20
if Jimmy be the first to tell you availability was an issue for him throughout his career. So, you know, again, that’s why you need depth. It’s why you need that. That’s why you can’t just say, okay, here are our starters. Here’s our nickel, here are two safeties, here’s our dime back, we’re set. Because we know and we’ve seen that firsthand here in Baltimore go back two years ago. And I can think going back to 2014, big time, even for a team that made it to the divisional round. Nothing can torpedo a potential contender season more quickly than having some issues in the secondary and having some issues at a corner when you have a couple of injuries. So I think that’s going to be something you mentioned, Brandon Stevens, I’m glad you did, because I was I was a little surprised by that, quite frankly, I thought with him, he filled in late last season member Marcus Peters had the calf issue that he sustained and that Cleveland loss and missed a couple games after that, that I thought Brandon Stephens held up pretty well there now considering he’s kind
Nestor Aparicio 21:18
of thinking out loud, and you haven’t asked a question, and I wouldn’t expect hardball to be honest anyway. Because he’s not what maybe this is a tryout to say, could you do this? And if you can’t, we know you can play corner because I feel like well, yeah, the time of the year to do that. This is a time of your try yourself out a second base, right? If you if you’re gonna try it, right, put them in the outfield for a couple of days. Let them practice out there for a month. It’s May, maybe. I mean, that’s what they did with that requirement. That’s why they brought it up. Right? Like, hey, try this. And if it doesn’t work, you know, we, you’re still in the rotation here. Right? Yeah, I
Luke Jones 21:54
think that’s a fair point. Except he played mostly safety as a rookie. Remember to Shawn Elliott went down to Brandon Stevens was starting for them down the stretch in 2021. So so that’s where I was a little confused. One thing I will say though, and I was even talking about this with a couple other reporters on Saturday, at in the aftermath of hardball, talking about Brandon Stevens, you do wonder if you think back to last year, because who was their nickel last year in the second half of the season? It was Kyle Hamilton. Now he was playing the nickel exclusively for them or almost exclusively, let’s say. But you almost wonder with Stevens moving to a safety spot, or focusing on safety a little more again, maybe we need to reevaluate how we think about Mike McDonald secondary and his defense and his sub packages. We’ve always thought of the nickel as what a third corner right? Doesn’t have to be we know that. So maybe with what they tried to do and how they want to try to match up in the way the tight ends line up a slot. So often, it maybe it is a scenario where you think about safety, a backup safety being the nickel and maybe if you have Brandon Stevens plan more safety, maybe that affords the opportunity to move Kyle Hamilton to that nickel spot a little bit more he starts at safety. But he moves to the nickel when you go to the nickel or dime package. So Marlon Humphrey for years has been obviously a starting outside corner when they just play bass. But for multiple seasons, he’s moved to the nickel, you know, at different times. Now I don’t I don’t expect that this year. But we know that he’s done that in the past so so maybe we need to think more about those backups, safeties, in terms of nickel and dime more so then the backup corners that are on the roster. However, I’ll still point to that outside corner depth behind Humphrey behind rock Eocene, who we mentioned has had some health concerns over the last couple years and hasn’t played a full season. Who are there outside boundary corners that are, you’re going to need, you know, you’re gonna need one or two other boundary, you know, one or two other outside corners to start a game here or there fill in when someone turns an ankle, something like that, you’re gonna need that over the course of the season. So who is that right now? You know, you look at it. Jalen armour, Davis, you know, year two, hopefully he can make a jump hopefully can stay on the field. I thought it would be Brandon Stevens, but apparently he’s going to work more at safety, at least for the time being. So, you know, you look at CHI, you blue Kelly, who, of course, they just drafted in the fifth round. Yeah, we’ll see what he looks like. But that’s where I do look in the secondary and say, All right, is there another addition to be made and again, doesn’t mean it’s Marcus Peters, but could be another veteran corner that’s dangling out there and not saying they’ll sign them this week could be they bring them in during mandatory minicamp week or they bring them in the first first week of training camp in late July but that’s certainly of all their positions and we can mention left guard you know, we haven’t talked about that a lot. That’s going to be a competition but of all their position groups. Rock to seen obviously helps where they were post draft at the corner. back position, but that still feels like a spot that there’s another move to be made there at some point between now and the start of the season, if you really want to fortify your depth,
Nestor Aparicio 25:07
well, you talk about the front seven defensively. I don’t wanna say they have an embarrassment of riches at this point, because I think they’ll miss glaze Campbell. But but but the linebacker position and what they’ve done there and the way they’ve drafted there and the way they sign there and roquan Smith there, and and what they’re expecting out of oh, wait, and what you might expect them to bring Justin Houston back, who was a big brother or an uncle to a lot of these kids, right? That there will be more veterans. And that’s, that’s the way Eric operates, right? That whatever the team is, I mean, it’s the first week of May, this isn’t going to be the team, there’s going to be a guy or two or three, across both sides of the football that are going to join this team, maybe a veteran left guard before it’s all over with right? The front seven defensively or are you happy with that? Are they gonna be able to get after quarterbacks?
Luke Jones 25:57
I think the front seven in its totality I feel pretty good about I think you look at the defensive line, I do have some concern from a long term standpoint, you know, when you look at the age of Michael Pierce, and how little he’s played the last few years because of injuries and opting out because of COVID. And he’s on the wrong side of 30. Now, Brent urban, who was presumably going to play a little bit more now not not that he’s going to I think he’s going to start but he’s going to play more than he had last year because he’s that five technique Coleus Campbell, kind of build at least. And you look at Justin Mata BK and Broderick, Washington, who I thought both had a really good season last year. They’re both in a contract here. So you kind of look at the state of the current defensive line. I think it’s in place for this year, you feel good, and I think, I don’t think it’s necessarily a great group, but I think it’s a good group. But you know, that part of that is I want to see Travis Jones or third round pick from a year ago, really take a step forward. So he at least looks like okay, you have all these other guys that are either older or in a contract year, can he be a guy that’s going to be an anchor for you up front?
Nestor Aparicio 27:05
The only guy that’s really gotten up there, right, like, in a while. They’re wanting to have another brand and Steve or I just lost my train of thought. Brandon Williams, if they have to give another lineman, and I think that a BK would be the guy right, like he’d be the guy you’d say, if he plays big, you might have trouble keeping him
Luke Jones 27:30
Yeah, I mean, and that’s you know, and not to I don’t want to steer it back to Lamar but that’s the acknowledgement that is always going to be in play now not just Lamar they but they also have other near the top of the market guys that they’re paying you can’t be
Nestor Aparicio 27:43
same and we’re Flacco is and he’s costing so much against the cap. And we can’t do that because we pay Joe, we paid Joe we pay Joe, we pay them all into consideration.
Luke Jones 27:50
It’s a consideration. It’s part of it. That doesn’t, that doesn’t absolve you of making bad moves. That doesn’t absolve you of trying to make moves to improve your roster out. I never excused the Ravens from adding more and doing more at wide receiver on the second half of Flacco his career. I understood the challenges but you still had to you had an obvious need and you can you can fill it and but you paid money for other things. So but the point is bringing it back to the D line. There is that long term question. linebacker inside linebacker talking about the off ball guys. I mean, obviously you have ro Quan Smith, Patrick, queen, now we know he’s not getting the fifth year option. It would be surprising to me if he is back after this year. However, given the player that he is and the steps that forward that he took last year, I think he has a much greater value to the Ravens being on the team this year rather than trading him and I’m not sure what you’re even going to get for him when he’s in the last year of his deal when he’s an off ball linebacker. I mean, I think you’re much better off having a motivated maybe a little ticked off. Patrick queen, having a good season playing next to row Quan Smith in the same way that add Hartwell and Bart Scott and go down the list of all the guys that played next to Ray Lewis for years, playing with him having a good year. Queen gets paid in the offseason, ravens get a really attractive comp pick the following year. In the meantime, you have Trenton Simpson that you drafted in the third round. He’s the heir apparent to take over for Queen next year. Had a chance to talk to him over the weekend. He’s an impressive kid. I think he’s got a skill set that’s similar to Queen and I think part of that is also you saw some of the learning curve some of the growing pains that queen had his first couple of years really becoming an NFL linebacker that if you can mitigate that a little bit by having Simpson sit and play sparingly mix them in a little bit here and there. But mainly be a special teams guy in a backup his rookie rookie year I think that can only help him so I feel really good about off ball linebacker, especially with Simpson’s depth being added to the mix outside linebacker, look, the upside is there. I mean, we’ve talked about it with OA I think always this was a huge year for him. It was a disappointing year to for him. I don’t think there’s any way to mince words about that when you consider where the expectations were going into last year. And I think the major name is David Jabo. Fully healthy. We saw him have a cup of coffee late in the season last year, did some nice things, but had the Achilles, you know, they drafted him with the understanding that that was not a 2022 move that was a 23 and beyond kind of move, so full offseason with him. They brought in Chuck Smith, who was a pass rush guru, who’s there outside linebackers coach now, I think, highly regarded around the league. So I’m intrigued to see what he can do with those two guys. So there’s, there’s a lot of upside I just gave you, but they’ve got to do it. And as you mentioned, yeah, I think that there’s also a place, there is a rationale, there is a pathway to bring back a Justin Houston, someone like him, at the very least at some point between now and the start of the season. And, and Acosta even talked about this back in January, he was asked about Justin Houston at that point. And he flat out acknowledged Well, last year, you know, last summer, we signed him in early July. And you know if that’s in the cards again, and look, we love Justin, he liked playing here, we’ll see where he is with with his career in the offseason and where you know, where we are from a business standpoint, and, you know, we’ll see if we can get something done. And if we do would probably would be in the summer. So I could totally see that scenario. So, you know, overall, the front seven, I feel pretty good about it. But like I said, a little bit of long term concern up front and you are going to miss class Campbell, say what you want, and I get it, he was gonna be he’s gonna be 37 in September. And I’m not saying I would have given him 7 million fully guaranteed, like Atlanta just did. But he was still there best defensive lineman last year. And was he going to be again, I don’t know. But that’s still that’s a guy you have to replace. So there’s certainly going to be hope. And Michael Pearce is part of that equation, even if he’s not the same player in terms of an alignment standpoint, but impact, at the very least, and you’re going to be looking for some of these young guys to step forward. Because, you know, that is a group that beyond 2023. So big question mark, in terms of what it looks like from a depth chart standpoint. And it’s not as though they drafted any defensive tackles early. So there’s definitely some question there long term. And like I said, at the edge, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Tyus Bowser will be another year removed from the Achilles, so that should help with him, too. Don’t want to forget about him. But at the edge upside is there but known commodities. You know, the jury’s still out and could certainly see them adding a veteran to the mix between now and September. He is no
Nestor Aparicio 32:41
Jonesy will be at Camden Yards and in Owings Mills and out on the interwebs. You can follow him at Baltimore, Luke and Luke at wn St. dotnet. Any final parting shot on the Ravens here this week other than not much is going to happen so much here. We we went through a hell of a new cycle keeping you up late at night, right. And your girls weren’t even on the west coast all. But but now it’s the time for pay is over. And now it’s almost getting to be time for place. Coach pillock would say, Yeah, at
Luke Jones 33:11
least fake play right? At least a fake football or talk about your practice, especially in the spring when we’re talking about guys running around in helmets and shorts. And look, that’s fine. Just we keep the proper perspective. But yeah, I mean, we just spent some time talking about, you know, potential, a potential addition, or two or three, for the most part. However, this is mostly what the team is going to look like at this point, you know, but for the most part other than a couple positions, you feel like it’s mostly set, and just gonna be a matter of competing and kind of seeing, you know, the shell game who’s going to line up where and all that. So, so there’s some excitement there. But, you know, the next couple of weeks, you know, that, again, the guys are in the building voluntary workouts, we know that so, but we’re about two weeks out from OTAs. I believe, I want to say it’s the 28th Is it the 24th something like that is the first OTA that’s open to the media. So we’ll be out there for that and expect to see Lamar Jackson throw in Tuesday flowers and other guys, and we’ll see. I would assume Beckham will be there, at least for some of the OTAs that’s how most of the veterans work. Most of the guys are out there at least for some of the days even if they’re not out there every single day. So if they’ll get their work in and you know, we’re about five, five and a half weeks out from mandatory minicamp and everyone will be on the field then and then they’ll shut it down for what six weeks and then we’ll be talking about training camp so it is wild schedule we think although I saw Peter King made mentioned that maybe it’s not definitively this week, as they’re trying to finalize the schedule release for the NFL we thought Thursday night could still be Thursday night but I know there was a little bit of question about that but that’s gonna be coming soon. So you’re gonna be on the wn St. Baltimore positive a lot
Nestor Aparicio 34:54
of moving parts by the way with with television networks games, Lamar sign Getting players signing with teams going to be relevant where, you know, owners have to sign off on Monday nights and Sunday nights at 30. You know, that everybody needs to be kumbaya it is, you know, maybe it’s harder than you think.
Luke Jones 35:12
Yeah, well, and now what you’re gonna have a Black Friday game, I guess is introduced this year. And keep in mind you have Christmas. So Christmas is White Christmas Day is a Monday this year. So you’re gonna have a Christmas slate of games and Christmas Eve. So yeah, there are a lot of moving parts. And you know, there’s international games, all that at work. So we’ll see how it plays out. But again, set we think the schedule comes out this week. But again, that’s not 100% based off of reading Peter King on NBC, early Monday morning, so we’ll see how it plays out. But yeah, we’re starting to get that context. I mentioned the roster, we’ll have the schedule. We know who they’re playing. They’ll just be when and where and what time.
Nestor Aparicio 35:53
They have Jacksonville and Nashville on their schedule. They can’t have a game in Mexico City, I found that out that they’re remodeling the stadium down there. I didn’t realize that because when I saw chargers and nine or you know, West Coast teams, Arizona, I thought, Well, those are the kinds of teams they’d love to take Lamar to Mexico, they’d love to take Lamar to Germany, they’d love to take Lamar to London, now that Lamar is here, maybe the Ravens become more of a candidate in that way. I don’t know. But I can imagine, you know, putting the NFL schedule together. It really does feel like a jigsaw puzzle. And I’ve seen all the stories on that. But I think it gets a lot harder with Thursday night football and games and time off and all that stuff. Well, and
Luke Jones 36:31
I’m glad you mentioned that, because you mentioned Lamar, Aaron Rodgers with the Jets now, until those deals became official, until you knew for sure the NFL is in a holding pattern because you weren’t gonna put the football. But I’ll tell you this, if the Ravens traded Lamar or and he had signed somewhere else, ravens weren’t gonna get nearly as many primetime games as they’re going to get now, and same with the Jets now with Aaron Rodgers. So that is part of it. There’s no question about it. So yeah, we’ll see how it plays out. I expect to see the Ravens on primetime plenty. Yeah, I think you’ll see the jets on primetime plenty and, you know, we’re gonna we’re gonna see how it plays out. It’s a loaded AFC, we know that we’ve talked about that. I mean, my goodness, you, you look at a collection of nine or 10 quarterbacks in the AFC, you know, ranging from Patrick mahomes to even someone like Russell Wilson, who people are buried, but you know, we’ll see if Sean Payton can revitalize that scenario in Denver so we’ll see how it plays out it’s gonna be fascinating because it is a loaded AFC
Nestor Aparicio 37:29
All right, we got a loaded slate around here all we get the Maryland crab cake tour. We’re taking it to Catonsville back to the original homeland. Our first Baltimore positive sponsor State Fair, will be giving away the instant lottery the throwback to the lotteries first ever scratch off we had a lot of winners. He’s a bit lucky tickets. We were at fate least two weeks ago we had winners. We had winners two weeks ago a captain Larry’s we had winners in Middle River or is it Essex anaemic falls oyster unreal. Last week. I hope you enjoy my conversation with peak rich. We had some great guests here this week as well. We’ve had an Olympic champions Alison feel is going to be joining us this week, as well as some sports for National Kidney Foundation and our friends at sante had a great great conversation with Natasha got to get over to Harford road and try her brittle as well as some survivor stories for for kidney donation and kidney donors as well. Learn more about that out of Baltimore positive.com This week I am Nestor he is Luke we’re around he’s watching baseball night but if it gets to the 10th inning, they’ll put a guy on second base trust me. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stop talking Baltimore positive
