As the OTAs continue in Owings Mills and veteran players and rookies mingle and prepare the mandatory camp in two weeks, Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the new world order of rookie head coach Jesse Minter and the next way that the Baltimore Ravens will practice and prepare for September 13th in Indianapolis.

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the new world order of Jesse Minter in Owings Mills and OTAs. Luke highlighted the intrigue surrounding the new coaching staff, including Jesse Minter’s unique approach to calling defenses. They noted the absence of key players like Lamar Jackson and Marlon Humphrey during OTAs, which allowed younger players like TJ Tampa to gain valuable reps. Luke expressed concern about the Ravens’ offensive line, particularly the center position, and the need for high-impact players like Venga to step up. They also touched on the Orioles’ dismal season and the potential need for ownership changes.

Action Items

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Plan and produce a dedicated segment discussing Orioles fan frustration/ownership issues (Nestor and Luke to collaborate; scope and date to be determined).
• [ ] Notify Chad Steele that Nestor will not attend the June 8 mini-camp (he’ll be seeing Rush in Los Angeles that night).
• [ ] Write and publish the regular ’12 Raven’s thoughts’ piece (continue producing the 12-point Ravens analysis content).
• [ ] Tell Ryan Ripken that Nestor does not want the burned hot dogs when you see him (pass along Nestor’s request).

Outline

Maryland Crab Cake Tour and Coppin State University

• Nestor Aparicio discusses the Maryland Crab Cake Tour, mentioning the Fishmonger’s Daughter and Catonsville as upcoming locations.
• Nestor appreciates Coppin State University for their partnership and congratulates all graduates, especially those from Coppin State.
• Nestor mentions the challenges of Memorial Day weekend, including rainy weather and the absence of baseball, but highlights the upcoming football season.
• Nestor introduces Luke Jones, who has been attending OTAs and avoiding the Orioles’ disastrous start.

Intrigue and Injuries at OTAs

• Luke Jones talks about the intrigue surrounding the new head coach and coaching staff, including Trey Hendrickson’s transition from the Bengals to the Ravens.
• Luke mentions the excitement of knowing the schedule, including the potential to end Aaron Rodgers’ career if the Steelers miss the playoffs.
• Luke discusses the significance of OTAs, noting that they are more about the process and avoiding injuries rather than making significant observations.
• Nestor and Luke briefly discuss the NBA playoffs, with Luke mentioning the excitement of the Eastern and Western Conference Finals.

Observations from OTAs

• Luke Jones shares his observations from the first open OTA, noting the differences in coaching style between John Harbaugh and Jesse Minter.
• Luke mentions Jesse Minter’s approach to calling the defense, which is different from Harbaugh’s style.
• Luke discusses the rotating options at center, including Cory Bullock, Javon Gwinn, Dwayne Leffert, and Danny Pinter.
• Luke expresses his belief that the starting center is not currently on the roster and that the team is trying different combinations to find the best fit.

Historical Context and Personal Reflections

• Nestor and Luke reminisce about their favorite Ravens players, including Rob Burnett, Kim Herring, and Mike Flynn.
• Nestor shares a story about meeting Rob Burnett and other Ravens players at a Hooters in Harbor Place.
• Luke reflects on the significance of the 2000 Ravens team and the impact of players like Rob Burnett and Kim Herring.
• Nestor talks about attending a Maryland party in Vegas with John Ogden and other Hall of Famers, including Shannon Sharpe and Rod Woodson.

Jonathan Ogden and the Offensive Line

• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of Jonathan Ogden and his impact on the Ravens’ offensive line.
• Luke highlights the challenges of the current offensive line, including the need for a new center and the potential of Venga as a high-impact guard.
• Luke mentions the importance of Dwayne Ledford, the offensive line coach, and the need for the interior line to step up.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the potential impact of Malachi Starks and the role of Kyle Hamilton in the defense.

New Coaching Staff and Player Development

• Luke Jones talks about the new coaching staff’s approach to player development and the importance of building relationships with players.
• Luke mentions the need for Lamar Jackson to be present at OTAs to help the new coaching staff establish a culture.
• Luke discusses the importance of communication between the coaching staff and veteran players, including those who are in and out due to personal reasons.
• Nestor and Luke reflect on the challenges of a new coaching staff and the need for a smooth transition into the regular season.

Orioles’ Struggles and Ownership Crisis

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ struggles, including their 8-game losing streak and the need for more fight from the team.
• Luke mentions the potential ownership crisis and the need for changes within the organization, including the general manager.
• Nestor shares a text from Marty Conway, who describes the current situation as an ownership crisis.
• Nestor and Luke agree that changes need to be made, whether it’s before the draft or the trading deadline, to improve the team’s performance.

Final Thoughts and Future Outlook

• Nestor and Luke reflect on the importance of the upcoming training camp and the need for the Ravens to establish a strong culture.
• Luke mentions the significance of the preseason games and the joint practices with the Vikings.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the potential impact of the new coaching staff and the need for players to step up in key positions.
• Nestor concludes the segment by expressing his excitement for the upcoming football season and the potential for the Ravens to make a strong comeback.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Jesse Minter, OTAs, Ravens, Lamar Jackson, offensive line, training camp, new coaching staff, player evaluations, injury concerns, football season, Orioles, ownership crisis, player development, defensive strategy, preseason games.

SPEAKERS

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Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:02

Welcome home. We are W N S T A M 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. I am comfortably in my Coppin State University shirt because it’s a thick model. Thank you, Dr. Jenkins and Daphne, and everyone over there for making that happen. Big appreciation and congrats to all, all grads everywhere, graduating from places, but Coppin State, they’ve been our partner for a long time around here. We’re appreciative of them. Also, the Maryland Crab Cake Tour headed to the Fishmonger’s Daughter. I’ve had some sickness and some cancelations and weird things going on, but I’ll be in Catonsville, Frederick Road, on Thursday, giving away the Maryland Treasures scratch-offs, the fine collection of good-looking spring and summer travel logs for all Baltimore people, all of its Eastern Shore base for me. So, you know, let’s get through these 52 degree rainy days, Memorial Day, and we’ll have base. We won’t have baseball, we got football. Uh, Luke Jones is here. He has been at OTAs, um, trying to avoid the Orioles, although I mean, from my perspective, for you and I to be sitting here talking about OTAs on Memorial Day weekend, when I know you don’t like them, Chad Steele knows I don’t like them, even though I went to them, and even though I got thrown out by him saying I didn’t attend OTAs, which is hilarious, you know. I guess when Derek Henry has a little fall, or Lamar Jackson’s rumor to not be around for a day, there’s some news, but you were out there sniffing around. We’ve had Jesse Minter on the year, we heard from Derrick Henry, amongst others. Simpson spoke earlier in the week, the veteran guard. Now that they’ve brought back, I don’t know, you got observations other than this is going to be a long baseball season, and we sort of want football to be some sort of a distraction, even though they’re not playing a game till september 13, or whatever it is. Yeah, I mean, I

Luke Jones  02:00

look, this is part of the process. There’s absolutely more intrigue when you have a brand new head coach, new coaching staff, new players on the field. You know, Trey Hendrickson’s out there running around in a 91 Ravens jersey rather than a 91 Bengals jersey in Cincinnati. So, there’s that intrigue, there’s that interest. I understand excitement, especially now we know the schedule, and you have the context of, you know, they’re kicking off in Indianapolis, and go down the list of possibility of ending Aaron Rodgers’ career, right? If, if the Steelers don’t make the playoffs, and you know they’re playing the Ravens week 18, so you have all of that, but there’s also the idea that it’s football and shorts right now, and the observations that I and others pass along, it’s, it’s fine, but you also know in the grand scheme of things, other than the possibility of an injury, as we saw with Derek Henry for about 15 seconds on Tuesday, where he goes down, he’s holding his knee. You’re saying, ‘Oh, what happened? Come to realize he knocked knees with someone. He was fine. He was back in, I think he missed one rep, maybe two reps, something like that. But beyond that, it’s just the process, and I think, in the context of what you just mentioned, with where the Orioles are at this point, and how disastrous their start has been for a second straight year. You don’t want OTAs to be the headline on the local sports scene, you know what I mean? Like, you want it to be something that’s more what’s

Nestor Aparicio  03:30

going on lacrosse this weekend or something, right? Yeah, NBA the next. Hey,

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Luke Jones  03:35

I’ll say this. I mean, I know

Nestor Aparicio  03:37

that

Luke Jones  03:37

I know you’re not a big NBA fan. Game one of both the Eastern Conference and Western Conference Finals, incredible. You had a double overtime game in the West, you had the incredible Knicks come come back, and

Nestor Aparicio  03:48

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I was in Vegas when it all happened.

Luke Jones  03:50

Yeah, I mean it was wildly entertaining, even if you’re not someone who follows that. So, yeah, I made the point on social media the other night, and then I’ll get to the Ravens here, but I made the point on social media as I was watching the Orioles, I feel like watching the Orioles has become an exercise in looking at the clock and kind of thinking to myself, what other games am I missing right now? What else is on TV right now? And I said it to you in our previous discussion, I don’t want to belabor the point. I’ll continue to watch, I would continue to watch, even if I wasn’t doing this for a living, because I’m a sicko in that way, because I love baseball, and I’ve watched the Orioles from the time I was two years old, but yeah, when you had, when you, you’re having that kind of a season and that kind of disappointment for the second straight year, you are going to look to Ravens and say, okay, what is going on, and that’s where it is interesting, because it is there is a newness to this, one of the biggest things that struck me on Tuesday for the first open OTA is I think back to years of the general rhythm of a practice, the general look of a practice, and John Harbaugh being the head coach for as long as he was generally. When they would go into full team, he would kind of post up standing behind the offense. Well, Jesse Minter isn’t doing that, you know why. Jesse Minter’s off to the side with the handset, and he’s calling the defense over with the defensive guys, because he’s going to call the defense on game day. So that right off the bat, there were a couple different points where you’re kind of looking around for him, and then you think to yourself, “Oh, he’s calling the defense, so you see, and he has the walkie talkie, and it’s he’s signaling the defensive call to whoever’s wearing the green.so way different than John Harbaugh. It’s, yeah, I mean, it’s definitely different in that way. I mean, we talked about that, the idea of whether they were going to hire an offensive-minded head coach like a Clint Kubiak, or whether it was going to be someone like Jesse Minter who was going to call your defense, you were going to have a head coach who’s going to be much more hands on, even in the minute to minute, period to period practice, right, of the ebb and flow of a typical practice, whether it’s an OTA or when we get into training camp here in a, in a couple months, so it’s that was very interesting. I’m not going to sit here and say that I had a ton of observations that were, you know, all that noteworthy. As I said, there really aren’t any observations this time of year that are of that great of consequence. Who’s playing center?

Nestor Aparicio  06:20

That’s my observation.

Luke Jones  06:21

Yeah, I mean, right, right off the bat, right off the bat, and it’s kind of what I had thought, you know. I, I’ve said this to you before, I do the Ravens preview for the Lindy’s Pro Football Preview magazine, that, that Howard Balser, you’re a good friend of yours, he’s the editor in chief of that, you want 1x part of that exercise, and that’s due right after the draft. Well, you’re kind of looking at it, and part of that is who are the projected starters. Well, I kind of looked at the options when you’re talking about Cory Bullock, who’s played only a few snaps in the NFL period, Javon Gwinn, who came over from Atlanta, along with Dwayne Leffert, their new offensive line coach, who has only played very, very sparingly in the NFL, and Danny Pinter, who at least has started a handful of games in the NFL and has been around and was in Indianapolis. Danny Pinter, the veteran, has been the starting center for now. Now, Jesse Minter was asked about that, and as you’d expect, he said, “Look, we’re going to be rotating those guys, we’re going to work in different guys, we’re going to be trying different things. It’s no different than how they handled the guard spots over the last few years, when you know, when we were talking, is this the year for Ben Cleveland? What about Daniel Fall Ley? What about Andrew Voorhees? Right, so it’s nothing different in that way, but as I expected, and you know, as you would kind of think they would proceed when you’re talking about one guy that actually does have some experience, albeit not much. I mean, we’re only talking about 10 or 11 career starts for Danny Pinter, and I believe some of those were even at guards, so not extensive experience there, but more than the other guys, and I will continue to say, if you’re asking me to bet $1 on it, I am still inclined to think that their starting center is not on the roster right now, but in the meantime, you’re going to look at what you have internally, you’re going to try things out, you’re going to see how this looks, you’re going to hope that Vengo, you want a looks great at right guard, that’s a new position for him, more so than playing the left side, primarily at Penn State, and you’re hoping everything else falls into place. Look, it doesn’t have to be a formula that High Low Linder bomb’s gone and you replace them with another three three time Pro Bowl center, right, especially if you want a as a guy that is a plug and play above average, maybe a future All Pro at guard.

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Nestor Aparicio  08:45

Don’t expect $27 million center.

Luke Jones  08:47

Yeah, but it’s got to be someone that’s at least capable and can do a solid

Nestor Aparicio  08:52

job. Mom was so good that we didn’t notice it, kind of like Marshall Yonder was that good, kind of like John Oddsha was that good. And Bob, anyway, so I was in Vegas over the weekend, and John Ogden attends this Maryland party every year. This year, Shannon Sharpe was there as well, and Rod Woodson, you’re my favorite Hall of Famer. And I told Ogden that with Rod there, I’m like, look, if Ray were here, I’d say Rod’s my favorite. So John knows this, but John and I, I didn’t spend a lot of time with Rod. I just saw Rod elbow bumped with Rob. We’ll get together later. Shannon and I caught up, which was nice, because I haven’t seen Shannon since New York Super Bowl. I think a picture with him next to me. There’s a new Super Bowl, I think.

Luke Jones  09:36

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There may have been another Super Bowl or two since then that you and I attended, but probably was just like walked by and said hello, and that was

Nestor Aparicio  09:44

it. I mean, I have a picture of he and I in New York together, and I don’t remember the interview, but he and I went at it, and it was real animated, because my wife took pictures of us, and we were in that ballroom at the Sharon in Manhattan, but dude, what year was that? That was January of 14,

Luke Jones  09:58

that was the year after the. Purple, so it would have been January of 14 or maybe early February

Nestor Aparicio  10:03

12 years, and Shannon wasn’t he on stage the night that Goose made his final, he was, he was, he was there that night, Chad Steele, it was, he was in the process of throwing me out, so I did not, and ESPN ran that event, and Saint Steele got hit in the mouth of the golf ball, and Kevin Byrne had to emcee it, and like on last-minute notice, so it was a weird day. I saw people that day, but I did not see Shannon, but he was there, right? Yeah,

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Luke Jones  10:30

yeah, he was, he was on stage. Yeah, in fact, it’s funny you mentioned that, because I just, I’d seen it before, but as you know, and I’ve said this to you plenty of times privately, I mean, when you cover a team for a living and do it as long as I’ve now been fortunate enough to do it, I still think of, like, those are my Ravens, right? Like, I don’t think about that, I don’t think about it in the same way in the present day, and it’s, you know,

Nestor Aparicio  10:54

look at Zay Flowers the same way

Luke Jones  10:57

that I thought of Rob Burnett, who was one of my favorites, or obviously Ray Lewis, or you know, go through the list, but, but yeah, Shannon Sharpe was part of that, because they had the whole back

Nestor Aparicio  11:06

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of your

Nestor Aparicio  11:07

favorite players, you said Rob Burnett, well,

Luke Jones  11:09

Rob Burnett, he wasn’t my, let me be clear, he wasn’t my favorite, but he was always my Rob Burnett’s way better than he gets credit for, and anyone who watched the 2000 team, Rob Burnett was excellent that year, you know, for all the attention that other guys got, I mean, Robert,

Nestor Aparicio  11:23

that’s really special to me, man. He was an unsung about him, much. Yeah,

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Luke Jones  11:26

he was an unsung guy for me. I mean, like,

Nestor Aparicio  11:29

I first Raven I ever met, he went to lunch with me, Kevin Byrne, with the day they entered, right, the day it got real. Kevin Byrne was at the harbor, and he didn’t know Scott Gar, so and he didn’t know me, and me, Scott Garseau, Michael Jackson, and Rob Burnett had Hooters Wings together at the Hooters at Harbor Place. In, I don’t know, you tell me, February of 96 March, somewhere in there.

Luke Jones  11:57

Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  11:57

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you know,

Luke Jones  11:59

I guess,

Nestor Aparicio  12:00

yeah, it was like that, and Rob Burnett was.. that’s my heart there. I didn’t know you liked him, so I

Luke Jones  12:07

mean, I just.. he was one of those guys for me. I liked Kim Herring more than the typical fan, and part of that was the Penn State, you know, me.. I mean, I live in Pennsylvania, there’s a little bit of Penn State.. I’ve been for Wally

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Nestor Aparicio  12:17

Richardson,

Luke Jones  12:17

so I had no expectation for Wally Richardson, but Kim Herring was a guy, in fact, the very first, and this was the first big-time college football game I’d went to, Kim Herring had like an 80 yard fumble recovery for a touchdown. I mean, Penn State was playing Northwestern, and that was that was the year before Northwestern’s really good team, right, North that Northwestern team that beat Notre Dame and went to the Rose Bowl, but, but yeah, Kim Herring had an incredible play, and when you’re.. I was 11 years old, when you’re going to a big-time college football game for the first time in your life, and something like that happens, it leaves an impression on you, and I remember I met Kim Herring at training camp a couple years later, just, you know, as a fan boy trying to get an autograph, and I said to him, like, I saw you return that foam ball at Penn State, and like you know, and you know he, I love

Nestor Aparicio  13:05

probably so like hearing these stories from you is great. This is better than OTA for me to find, sure, sure, he was a fan. Oh, but because you act so professional now, you don’t act like a real fan. I’m just, you ain’t a fan anymore.

Luke Jones  13:18

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Oh, I have a.. I mean, these, these were the teams of my.. it wasn’t quite childhood, I mean, it was more so me being a teenager, but you know what, you have to remember my generation, like I grew up and the cults were like it was a mythical idea, right? It was, they were folk heroes, like you met these guys because they were around town and they were still part of the community, and

Nestor Aparicio  13:42

stop making schlitz this week. Did you see this?

Luke Jones  13:44

I saw that. Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  13:47

I gotta post a proper picture of me and Artie. I haven’t..

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Luke Jones  13:50

I was gonna say Art Donovan would be so sad,

Nestor Aparicio  13:53

but anyway, go ahead.

Luke Jones  13:54

But, but, yeah, but you know, so.. so, and after years of, you know, whether it was the Buccaneers or the Bengals or expansion or whatever close call you could think about that a 10 year old would have some hopes that hey, we’re gonna get a football team for it to have actually happened, and then I mean it was, I mean it was, you know, I mean, and it was one of those things, I mean you have to remember my dad passed away in 2004 you know, we, you know, we didn’t even go to an Orioles playoff game together, because think about 96 and 97 were the only opportunities, not counting 1983 when I was two weeks old, right, but so, so like those opportunities to go to Ravens games, and then we didn’t go to a Ravens playoff game, but we went to Ravens games in 2002 1001 and 2003 but to be able to experience that and that team, and that specifically that Super Bowl team, I mean that was very special to me, because again five or six or seven years, or certainly 10 years earlier, I mean, not. Felt impossible, that felt like something that

Nestor Aparicio  15:02

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I did the 25th reunion a couple months ago at Michelle Modell’s house, and Trent Dolfer and me and Matt Stover and Brandon Stokely were up real late, Brad Jackson, you know, amongst others, just people that have been in my life, and then I walk into a room in Vegas, and JT the Brick told me that Shannon was coming, that Jos there every year. Dellis Thomas has been there because he does business ventures with Steve DiCastro,

Luke Jones  15:28

another one of my favorites, by the way. Yeah, Dallas Thomas, a

Nestor Aparicio  15:31

D hung out last year at length, and it was great to catch up with. I think I saw him here like a week later. No, I saw him at the Super Bowl. I’m like, I already hung out with you, man. I need to hang out with you. You know, I like hanging out with the new people, but Shannon came, saw him, saw Rod, who’s by any measure, anybody knows me, knows Rod Woodson’s my all-time, all-time favorite of, he’s my Tony Gwynn to my baseball, you know, like, so just I love Rod, and we have the same kind of conversations to this day, and it was brief. Rod didn’t even attend the party on Monday. He, he doted about his seven year old grandchild. He’s like, you know, grandson’s got this, gotta go, you know. I’m like, hey dude, you know. So this is where we are in life, right? But Jo, and I caught up, and it’s been a while since, like, you know, I see Jo, you know, we say hello, we take a picture, you ask about my wife, it’s like nice. Jo had a cigar and a seat and a comfortable seat at a pool, and people around there was like a cigar thing, and Jo, big lout, I called him a cheap skate. I did it. I did the whole routine. I did the whole nasty Nestor routine. He said, I’m I’m not cheap, I’m frugal. I’m like, you’re cheap, and everybody else nodded. He’s cheap. So tell a millionaire stays a millionaire, by the way. But we talked, and a lot about football, like it was a football conversation. Fans were coming up. There was a dude who worked for Larry Hogan, that really was a big football fan, and he was a nice guy, and actually saw him on the street later, but he was up in Ogden fanboy and asking good questions, so I’m just there like poking J Hope while he’s smoking his cigar, and we got to talk about Fowlelay, and when you talk about, and I guess this is the long way, eight minute way of me honoring Super Bowl 35 and talking about Rob Burnett and Kim hearing with you, which I love, because I don’t ever get any of that out of you, even when there’s 25th year reunions, I don’t get any of that, I only get that out of you when OTAs are boring, and that’s almost every year, if you count our years together,

Luke Jones  17:41

some of that, you have to remember some of those anniversary things that happen. I mean, that’s in the middle of a season, like I’ve got, you know, I’m getting to the stadium really early the next day.

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Nestor Aparicio  17:48

I saw J O with that thing, but we didn’t sit and talk football, we talked about, you know, Mike Flynn’s haircut, or whatever, you know, just locker room talks, you know, everybody had their wives, and it was food and booze, and like, this was different. This was like he was talking about Follett’s footwork, and he was just talking about, like, who was going to play center. He knows Linderbaum, obviously. Now, Linderbaum lives in Vegas. Somebody else I knew played golf with Lindner Bomb last week in Vegas, a Baltimore person, a Baltimore real estate person, so like Linda Bob’s comfortable at Vegas, getting his 27 million years, sure. And I would say for Jo, when in talking to a Hall of Famer about these things, dude, the observations were unbelievable for a guy like me that does this professionally to sit there and and have Jo tapping his big legs, and you know, showing me, you know, and talking about guard. He said, ‘Guard, I play guard. Guard’s easy. You got help on this side, you got to help on that side. Tackle now, you’re out there on the island. So, you know, Jo is doing his, his dinner speech, but the offensive line part of this, and talking to Jo about it for 15 minutes was fascinating to me to hear observations of what you can coach and what you’re not going to coach.

Luke Jones  19:12

Yeah, I mean it’s, and you just said it, I mean, you’re hearing it not just from someone who did it at a high level, but a Hall of famer, and a guy that you hear me say this before, I’ve said this a lot about Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, but Ogden is Ogden as well,

Nestor Aparicio  19:27

but

Luke Jones  19:28

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the guys that would be Hall of Famers amongst the Hall of Famers, right? I mean, you’re talking about three first ballot guys there. In the case of Ed Reed, there’s an argument that he’s the greatest safety of all time. In the case of Ray Lewis, greatest, there’s an argument to be the greatest middle linebacker of all time, you know, with no disrespect to others that are in that conversation. Jonathan

Nestor Aparicio  19:47

Zugs will not be of that level when they, yeah, I don’t think right.

Luke Jones  19:50

I don’t think anyone would say Ogden’s the greatest left tackle of all time, but I think you can make a sound argument that he’s a top four or five greatest left tackle of all time, I. Think he can absolutely be in that space. Point is, when you’re hearing talk and analysis, and look, I’m not suggesting that Hall of Famers are breaking down film on the regular, but their observations, or what it takes to do those. I bet

Nestor Aparicio  20:16

if I jump back to all the John Ogden interviews I ever did, and they’re all long form, they were all out at the barn or over at Putty Hill, or you know, wherever I did shows. John did a show with me every year. John was really a linchpin for me in that locker room for years and years, where when anybody, Marshall Yonda, anybody came into the locker room, John would always say he’s a real Baltimore guy, you know, treated accordingly, and, and that went on until Chad Steele arrived, quite frankly, and John Harbaugh, and like weird disingenuous people got involved, John Ogden and Rod Woodson, or not, I don’t know, they’re.. I wish they were all like that, and I don’t mean Hall of Famer. I wish they were all like Kim Herring and Mike Flynn. I wish they just had better people in sports, better people in their organization, better people top to bottom. I wish they had a better owner, like I wish a lot of things, but when I do spend time with people of that era, of my, my era, your childhood era, it really does cut the cloth for what it is and what it used to be and what built it and what now sustains it, I guess, which are games in Rio de Janeiro and OTAs that they let you in some of the time, and Jo, and these guys, you know, Shannon Sharpe, say we had pads on in May, dude, you know what I mean, like it’s differently, right? I mean, it’s a different world for that, and for that, you would like to think that they could bubble wrap these guys and still get them to the field for 17 games, but that’s not going to happen either. But you don’t want Derrick Henry going down this week, for sure.

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Luke Jones  21:55

Certainly not. And as far as you know, to kind of bring it back to the O-line conversation, because that’s what we were talking about, and obviously when you mentioned Jonathan Ogden, an offensive line, I mean, it doesn’t get any better than that. But yeah, I mean, this time of year, look, I’m not sure how much evaluation is truly going on right now, as much as you’re just testing things out, and you’re looking at how you know, do guys are guys learning the playbook, do guys know where to line up? You know, how does it look? You know, in the case of the O line, you don’t have that pure brute physicality that you’ll have come training camp, as far as the O line against the defensive line, but

Nestor Aparicio  22:33

just handing and moving their hand

Luke Jones  22:35

fight. I mean, there’s there’s more contact with those guys in the trenches, even this time of year, than anyone else, right? I mean, no one’s tackling, but they’re still hand fighting, you know, they’re hand placement, they’re doing that kind of stuff. So, but you’re looking, what you know, you’re trying to see what it looks like, and in the case of Dwayne Ledford, who we’ve talked about, of all their position coaches, right, you and I haven’t spent a ton of time talking about all these guys, and look, I’m still trying to learn how to say Declan, right? Sure, but, but of all their position coaches, not the coordinators, but the position coaches, I mean, Dwayne Ledford’s the most important on this roster, you know, this roster of coaches. I mean, when you look at this O line, I mean, you got Ronnie Stanley, fine, but it’s Ronnie Stanley who’s another year older, you have Roger Rosengarten, great, is Roger Rosengarten going to take the next step to be a guy that can be in the Pro Bowl conversation, or is he going to merely remain a perfectly fine starter, which, hey, that’s still valuable too. But you look at that interior, I mean, what’s it going to look like? I mean, they gave John Simpson money to make him a $10 million guard, but you want him to play like a $10 million guard. He’s start, but he also let’s call spade a spade. Three years ago, when he was here at this time, three years ago, John Simpson was competing just to be the left guard, right? I mean, he was not. He came over from.. he was also a factor of the failure of Ben Cleveland and the whole

Nestor Aparicio  24:00

8

people that could not step up and win,

Luke Jones  24:02

Javelin, Brent Bredesen, I mean, Ben Powers was good for a year and then got a big contract elsewhere, but his development was on the slower side, so yeah, but you bring back John Simpson, hoping that hey, plug and play, we don’t need you to be an all pro, we kind of know you’re not an all pro, but can play well enough for us not to worry about that

Nestor Aparicio  24:24

starter. Yeah, be a starter,

Luke Jones  24:26

and obviously you bring in Venga, you know, the big boy from Penn State, and he’s your first round pick, and you spend a middle of the first round pick on a guard, like that’s absolutely a plug and play guy. You’re, I mean, you’re.. I don’t think it’s out of the question that he’s their best guard already on this roster. I mean, you’re kind of hoping, if not, then then you’re kind of, you’d like to think by week eight that would be apparent, right? I mean, he’s going to start, I mean, he’s going to start from day one, because he’s absolutely at least one of their best too at guard, but you want, he needs to be a difference maker, you know, we talk about. You’ve heard me talk a lot about positional value, right, going all the way back to Roquan Smith, or drafting a safe safety in the first round, or you know, drafting a guard in the first round, a center, right. We talked a lot about the fact that they didn’t value the center position for a long time before they took Linderbaum in the first round. If you’re going to take players of non-premium positions in the first round of the draft, that’s fine. However, they need to be a high-impact player. Then, like, I’d say the same thing about Malachi Starks last year, he was fine for his first year. I wouldn’t say that he was a big disappointment or anything like that. He had his ups, he had his downs, as rookies, even first-round rookies tend to do, but he’s not going to the Hall of Fame. I can tell you that. I, I mean, it’s tough for me to say that about anyone. That said, he needs to take a step forward now, right? And he needs to be a higher impact guy in year two, and you’re hoping with Jesse Minter and his defense, and Jesse Minter being more of a defensive back, you know, defensive backs coach, that’s kind of where he cut his teeth, specifically when you’re talking about defense, you know, I want to see Matt, I’m everyone talks about the Hamilton effect, right? What’s Mitchell going to do with Hamilton in the way that he deployed Derwin James with the Chargers? That’s a given, right? That’s a given. We’ve talked about the way Hamilton’s used for a few years now, but I’m intrigued, like, hey, what about Malachi Starks? Can he be a guy that moves the needle a little bit more? And so that’s what you need, but, but yeah, to bring it back to you on a.. I mean, I think there’s a hope. I’m not putting this expectation on him. Let’s be clear, I think there’s a hope that much like Jonathan Ogden, albeit Ogden playing guard, and Tony Jones was the left tackle back in 1996 I think there’s a hope that, like, Joanna is going to be a Pro Bowl guard from day one, you know, whether he makes the Pro Bowl as a rookie or not. You know that, that I mean, what does well, expecting a 27

8

Nestor Aparicio  26:59

year old to

Luke Jones  27:00

look like Marshall Yonda at 30, is you know, that’s, I mean, it’s, but, but it’s, it’s high praise, and like I said, I’m not expecting that, but I think there’s some hope that they think he’s that good, that right away it’s like, you say, okay, well, take a step back at center, because whoever’s replacing Linderbaum, whether it’s Danny Pinter, or or someone, player X, that they’re going to acquire in the next two months is going to be a step down from Linderbaum, but we are going to have such a dramatic upgrade at right guard that, okay, it’s not Marshall Yonda at age 30, but it’s a guy that we think is going to be that kind of player moving forward for a long time, if you have that, then yeah, your offensive line doesn’t, it’s not going to be the best thing for 20, but it’ll be to worry about, but it’ll be good enough, right? It’ll be good enough. So that’s what you’re hoping now, that’s hopes and dreams, like football, when you’re running around in shorts in May and June. I mean, that’s the hopes and dreams of a season, right? When you’re not lining up to play real games for a few more months, you can dream and you can hope, but that’s what they’re hoping to see here. They’re they’re hoping to see you with a very smooth transition to right guard, John Simpson’s the left guard, and right now they’re looking at the internal options. I mean, the fact that the Costa said on the final day of the draft when they did their recap in the auditorium in the facility, the fact that he even mentioned the possibility of, well, we’ve got a plan, we’ll look at trades like all that, like he said that the aftermath, I mean, that tells you they don’t have that solved, maybe Danny Pitcher will surprise, or maybe one of these other guys will shock them, but I’m guessing again, if you’re asking me to bet on this, I still think their center – there’s a very good chance their center is not on the roster. Doesn’t mean that guy’s going to be an all-pro that comes in, or that guy’s not going to be an issue. It’s still going to be one of my biggest question marks of the various, you know, if you gave me three or four reasons why this team isn’t going to win the Super Bowl this year, that’s going to be one of the ones, right? I mean, that the O line, the interior O line, is a question mark, big time, right now, because of the impact that can have on Lamar, the impact that could have on their countering, etc. etc. Yeah, right. I mean, we saw it a lot last year, so, but you know, that’s kind of something, your foundation for the house, yeah, you’re looking at it right now, you’re working your way through it, you’re trying out different combinations, you’re saying, you’re seeing if, hey, maybe the new coaching staff says, “Oh my gosh, Corey Bullock is really good, but maybe they should have, you know, the old staff should have taken a closer look at him at guard, or, you know, not center, because they had Lindenbaum, but you understand my point, so you’re trying to do a lot of that, and it’s always interesting, and you know one example I think of a lot, and you can certainly relate to this, because you covered this, but you know, I think back to, you know, 1998 the transition from 98 to 99 right, Ted Marchibroda to Brian Billick, you know, who were. Young players that look like they might be emerging, and then very quickly they’re out the door, like Ralph Staton, someone who comes to mind quickly for me, just as watching as a fan, you know. It was Ralph Staton was kind of this good story, like a guy that was kind of emerging as a young player out of nowhere, and with the new regime, and you know, Staton, I think he had some issues right off the big, yeah, but the point is he’s gone. Then Chris McAllister, a guy that, as a player, still to this day, I think belongs in the Ring of Honor, but butted heads with Harbaugh, was at a point in his career where physically, you know, he had the knee and, and all that. Chris McAllister is out the door very quickly, right. So I’m not saying that’s going to happen again with any specific player, but the point is, when you have a new coaching staff in place, you’ve got new eyes and a fresh perspective. So sometimes players that you kind of thought, well, they haven’t made suddenly not so much, or someone that was basically anonymous is suddenly an important part of your football team, so you know, not, not that you can predict that in mid May, but those are the kind of things that I’m thinking about this time of year, much more so than the fact that Robert Longer Beam had an interception on a on a Skyler Thompson pass during Tuesday’s OTA, which did happen. Look, nice moment for Robert Longer Beam, who missed most of last season, his rookie year with a knee injury, but I’m not sure anything about that specific rep is going to be, you know, have a lick of consequence to what the 2026 Ravens ultimately accomplished, but this is the time of year, like I said, you’re trying some things out, you know? I mentioned Malachi Starks, you know, Kyle, I didn’t mention this, and I’ll mention it now. Hamilton did not take part on Tuesday, however, he came out to the field and was observing. Jesse Mitchell didn’t specify why, but you read the tea leaves, Hamilton tweaks something, you know, I don’t think it’s anything serious, because Minter expects him to take part in some of these subsequent OTAs here over the next couple weeks, but that right there creates an opportunity for Malachi Starks to move around and kind of do the Kyle Hamilton stuff, you know, whether he’s lining up at nickel or moving into the box or blitzing, or what have you, so you know you need to find these things out, and that’s, you know, some of the.. and maybe this will be where we transition into, you know, Lamar, and all that, but when you have certain players, whether they’re a little banged up or certain guys aren’t there, like this week the D line, like Travis Jones wasn’t out there, Kaleus Campbell wasn’t there, so it kind of gave some of the younger guys an opportunity, but when you have some of that, this is the time of year where you can mix and match like crazy, just to see what it looks like, right, just to see, hey, you know, go work at that position, as opposed in the middle of the season, Sean Jackson Holiday, yeah, whether you’re there’s always a connection back to the Orioles, right? But, but, no, I mean, that those are the things you’re looking at this time of year, and I know the other day I said it, and I won’t say it was complete, Jess, because I, I’m not at a point where I can say I enjoy OTAs, because you just, you’ve done it long enough, and you just know that you can come up with all these observations, and you’ll write, you know, I write my 12 Raven’s thoughts, and I’ll still do that, but I keep reminding people this is great for the time being, it gives us something to talk about, but you know what, forget it a week later, because it doesn’t really matter, but you know, this is the time of year where, especially with the new coaching staff, they’re

Nestor Aparicio  33:44

all.. that’s what I was gonna say. 11 of my first 12 questions are about Jesse Minter, because, like, yeah, I know how important that role is, and if Chad Steele were thrown out the side door, and they had a real PR director there, and they called me, like they should, and say, “You should come out and cover practice and cover the team, because, like, that’s just the right thing to do. The first thing I would do, if I were you for a day, would be to figure that part of it out, like the mentor part. Like, we’re four months into this now. I don’t really know the sound of his voice, which is probably as much on me as it is on anyone else, but sitting in, rolling through, I haven’t heard him say anything interesting, I haven’t heard him say anything thoughtful, to think like, well, if I ever had dinner with him, I wonder what I’d say to him. I haven’t even gotten to that point, and quite frankly, his cue is not that great to me, like he did some squirting out in the outfield for the baseball for 30 seconds, he was around a team, he was around opening day, right? You know, like, but in a general sense, I haven’t seen a fan take a picture with him, I haven’t seen him at a gas station, I haven’t seen him do a fellowship of Christian athletes. I don’t even know if he’s Christian, I don’t know anything about him, like, I, you know, like, I don’t know if he golfs, I don’t know if he fishes, I don’t, I don’t know his politics. Because I don’t know, I haven’t spoken to him, I’m not given access to speak to him. I don’t feel like you’ve been given real access to speak to him, or really, does he know your name? I mean, I like, literally, I don’t. I’m trying to vibe this out, because it won’t be the new thing, but I don’t. I have no opinion, good or bad. My opinion’s mainly bad, because it’s not good. You know what I mean? Like, he hasn’t made any splash with me in any way. And we’re here with the Albernais thing. I’m worried about that cat, you know? I mean, six weeks into this, like, right?

Luke Jones  35:34

8

Just like how bad the team is,

Nestor Aparicio  35:36

right? The whole thing’s going to get blown up over there. This is dangerous, having a new coach come in with these high expectations, and all these players, and all this, that if somehow this thing does go on a six and 11 trajectory, or something bad were to happen, the mentor thing to me is the piece. I know all the rest of these guys. I mean, I don’t know the new garden well, you know, I’m used to rookies, I’m not used to new head coaches. We haven’t had a whole lot of that around here.

Luke Jones  36:02

Sure, I mean it’s interesting. I’ll, a couple things, and everything you mentioned, I’m not going to argue against any of that. I will say this: you are talking about someone who’s married with young kids, they are not living here yet.

Nestor Aparicio  36:16

Oh, wow, so know any of the seniors? So,

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Luke Jones  36:19

my understanding

Nestor Aparicio  36:21

is he’s doing weekends, he is,

Luke Jones  36:22

I mean, he, when he’s here, he’s working like it’s, but he’s trying to see his family, some, you know, they’re trying to get through the school year, about in LA, all that, so I think there’s been a little bit of that where every waking moment that he actually has that isn’t football, you know, he’s trying to, there’s a family life there, and all that in balance, and look for the first few months as he’s trying to figure all this out, that’s fine, right? He can’t lose

Nestor Aparicio  36:50

8

any football games in May,

Luke Jones  36:52

exactly, exactly, and you still want to, you know, he still wants to have a marriage, he still wants to see his children on occasion, so, so, there’s some of that, so I think there’s that transition, I mean, you know, even John Harbaugh, who, you know, him and Ingrid are empty nest at this point, I mean, his daughter’s, you know, an adult now, but there’s there’s been some of that for him, where he’s going back and forth, I know they’re selling their house, all that in Owings Mills, but I

Nestor Aparicio  37:19

saw he gave his speech in Miami over the weekend, yeah,

Luke Jones  37:22

yeah, but, but, but the point is, there’s so much that’s going on, and especially when you’re talking about a first-time head coach, I mean, you, you’ve called it drinking out of the fire hose, I mean, there’s, there’s absolutely go that going on just to get to the point now where, okay, OTAs have started, we’ve got the bulk of our guys out here, you know. Lamar isn’t here the first couple days of OTAs, but you know, by multiple accounts, and even some people I’ve talked to, it sounds like he’s been in the building regularly. I don’t know if that means 100% but he hasn’t been a stranger, right? He’s been there, but you know, you’re just trying to get to know your football team, and, like, I said, like, I was just talking about, like, all the, you know, trying guys out at different positions and trying this or trying that, but there’s also just building relationships, right? The idea that, like, Jesse Minter was, yes, he was here through 2020 but think about how a football team’s roster evolves, how many players are left from the 2020 season? I mean, you can count them on two hands and have fingers left over. I mean, it’s just.. it’s not much, right? I mean, so there’s a lot of it is just getting to know guys, and you’re trying to see what makes this player tick. What makes that player tick? Is this the kind of guy that you need to lay into, or is this the kind of guy that you put your arm around them, because we all know, I mean, that’s life for everyone that might need a kick in the tail, and I believe me, I can remember my parents telling various coaches that I had growing up that, you know, Luke’s one of those guys that he responds better to you being a little harder, a little bit hard on him, compared to, you know, certain players, you, that’s not the way you approach it. You know, certain players, you put your arm around them and you say, hey, they’re there, it’s okay. So, you know, it sounds a little silly saying that, because we’re talking about adults that are millionaires, or at least 100,000 heirs, but you know, you have to learn that, right? And, as a coaching staff, that’s that’s why the spring, and I was even having this debate with someone on social media, you know, but because of, you know, the idea that Lamar wasn’t there the first couple days, and again, taking it for what it is, if he misses the first couple days and he’s there the rest of OTAs, no problem, who cares, like that’s fine, but if it’s a situation where your quarterback isn’t there for an extended time, gotta remember rookie head coach, a first time play calling offensive coordinator who is a few months older than your quarterback. Those guys need Lamar Jackson there way more than Lamar. Even needs to be there to learn a new offense. Think about it from that perspective, right? You’re laying down a culture, you’re trying to, like I said, get to know everyone, trying to see what makes everyone tick, because when you get to training camp, that’s when you want everyone to just hit the ground running, right? You don’t want to be having to do those things during training camp, so that’s why it’s important.

8

Nestor Aparicio  40:21

That’s when the fights happen, and the personalities happen, because they

Luke Jones  40:24

don’t know each other well. And you’re just, you just want to get to, you want everyone to know each other from a football perspective, that it’s just like, hey, this is what we’re doing, and this is, you know, we’re trying this out, and you know, you’re, you’re not installing the game plan on July 30, but it’s

Nestor Aparicio  40:39

July 30 the date is that

Luke Jones  40:40

8

no, I mean, we don’t have an official date yet.

Nestor Aparicio  40:42

Yeah, I mean, I, yeah, I didn’t know when they’re gonna camp. I mean, september 13 feels

Luke Jones  40:47

it is

Nestor Aparicio  40:48

really little, that’s, and the other part of that is the three preseason games, they’re all scrimmages. I mean, like, there’s no cadence to summer camp to me, there’s more to you than me. When they were doing two a days and playing four games, and you know, the first team would take the first snaps in week one, they play quarter in week two, they play, you know, week three, they play three quarters, usually week four they don’t play, or you know, they come out and Jim said, like, yeah, that’s all over with, and all the teams do it differently, right? Well, I mean, I guess the Steelers, now that Mike Tom is going, won’t be starting to starters anymore, right?

8

Luke Jones  41:21

Well, I mean, we don’t know, right, but because when it is a new.. because there are still.. there are some teams that still play starters in the preseason, you know. We’ve talked about

Nestor Aparicio  41:30

always doing it until we.. they all got hurt

Luke Jones  41:32

in one, right? Right? I mean, the JK Dobbins era, right? I mean, it.. so, but we don’t know exactly how Jesse Minter will proceed with that, we do know that the Ravens have some joint practices, you know, when they go out to Minnesota for the second preseason game, they’re going to have a couple joint practices, they’re going to have a joint practice with

Nestor Aparicio  41:49

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summer in Minnesota, perfect, love that,

Luke Jones  41:52

but it is a little bit different, I mean, their first preseason game’s not till august 15, right, I mean, so I, I would assume first day training camp, you know, maybe somewhere in the neighborhood of july 25 ish, you know, somewhere around there, you know, the last week of July, because, you know, they have the, they do ramp up more slowly now, I mean, they’re not in pads for the first what, four days or whatever it is of full teamwork, so, but, but point is to go back to what I was saying. I mean, that’s why in a year where you have a brand new coaching staff, and there’s so much newness, and you’re coming off of a disappointing season, which largely explains why you have a new coaching staff, you want to address as much of that newness as you can now, so that come July and August, you kind of just there, you kind of just feel like a normal football team at that point in time, right? I mean, you don’t want, you don’t want surprises in from a cultural standpoint to pop up then nearly as much as if it happens now, where you say, okay, hey, let’s talk this out, or hey, this is what I expect. You know what the players expect from the head coach, what the head coach expects from the players, right? I mean, there’s all that. I mean, they’re.. it’s not high school football, it’s not college, you know, it’s kind of tough to say college football, because the college players are paid now too. But you know, these are men amongst.. you know, it’s men versus men, right? What you’re talking about adults, but you’ve got to find that sweet spot in terms of how everyone’s going to communicate with each other. I mean, one thing Minter mentioned that I thought was a good thing. He said, as far as some of the guys were in and out, and let me be clear, Lamar wasn’t the only one that wasn’t there on Tuesday. I mean, I was kind of surprised Marlon Humphrey wasn’t out there. I mean, a guy that we talked about as a potential cap casualty, right? He wasn’t out there, Woozy, a wasn’t out there. I mentioned Caleas Campbell, Hamilton was banged up, Teddy Buchanan’s not back from the knee injury yet. But the point is, you go through that, that list, Minter did say communication has been good in terms of some of those veteran players saying, hey, I’m not going to be here this date, or I’m not going to be here. I’ve got something going on with my kids, or something like that. I want to be respectful to the employer who’s paying you $8 million or whatever that number. Well, and just you want to maximize the work, right? I mean, I said it, I mean the other day, and this was one of my 12 Raven’s thoughts, that’s pretty inconsequential to the big picture. But no Marlon Humphrey, no Woozy. A guess who was running with some of the first team, getting a lot of first team reps. It was TJ Tampa. You know, he’s a third year former fourth round pick, a guy that, frankly, if they want to have good outside corner depth this season, they need him to emerge, and not, you know, not that he’s going to be a starter or anything like that, but if you have a guy go down in game or you have someone that’s out and then someone else goes down in game, like TJ Tampa’s got to come in and not kill you, so he got some meaningful reps against the one, so you know, but when you be against Jamar Chase, it. Gonna be, you’re hoping you hope not, but yeah, hey, things happen, but the point is, when you communicate, when you have your vets communicate with the coaching staff and say, hey, I’m not going to be here now, they know that, hey, this is a time where we kind of let’s, let’s take a look at TJ Tampa, or let’s take a look at Robert Longer Beam, I mean, so you know, I mean, it’s all about having respect for one another, right, and having respect for the process, and that’s why, yeah, and even going back to Lamar, you know, me, you and I argued about his OTA OTA attendance for a few years, it’s way more important for him to be there this spring than coming off of an MVP season and it’s your second year with Todd Monken or your third year with Todd Monkton, or what have you, right? Or your eighth year with the same head coach. There’s so much newness this year, there’s so much new, there’s so much change that you want everyone to be in lockstep, and you’re creating that culture now. And if you want to be great, you know Jesse Minter’s buzz buzz phrase has been be at our best when our best is needed, which that sounds great, but you don’t just kick the ball off in September and you’re ready to do that, that’s a process that begins, actually began a couple months ago, right? It began from the moment they hired him, but you want to lay the groundwork and you want to have a culture that is superior to what these guys have been used to, and look, they’ve won a lot of games, they won a lot of games under John Harbaugh for a long time, even this group, whether they have a, you know, a championship ring or not, right, they, they won a lot of games in the regular season, but you want to do it differently come January, you want to break through, that’s that’s a long process, that’s not saying what what happens in Tuesday’s OTA directly is consequential to what might happen in January, but it’s part of, you know, you hear a little bit of coach speak, right? If you can get 1% better every day, right, and you do that over the course of weeks and months that end end result, that end product’s going to be a lot better than it was back in April. So that’s what they’re doing right now, not making too much of it one way or the other, but it’s part of that process. And you know, as far as attendance here in subsequent weeks, assuming Lamar is there, assuming some of the other vets who are gone this week or back over the next couple weeks, there’s no problem, but you know it’ll, it’ll all kind of wind up, and they’ll have mini camp, I think it’s the week of june 8, you know, it’s a little bit, little bit on the earlier side than some years, and then they’ll have their break, you know, they’ll break up, it’ll be the last day of school, kind of feel, and then business will pick up for real, kind of real, I guess. You know, we’re going to call training training camps real compared to OTAs, let’s say that. But you know, before you know it, we’ll be counting down there, and boy, the way baseball season’s going, we’ll be counting down to training camp much harder for a second straight year compared to, you know, how we hoped it would be anyway.

Nestor Aparicio  48:01

Let Chad know I won’t be there june 8. I’ll be seeing Rush in Los Angeles first night of the tour, so I’ll be with Getty, not Lamar. He is Luke Jones. He can be found at Baltimore. Luke, he can be found at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. You want to pile on the Orioles, and anything you want to say in two minutes or less on the Orioles here that we haven’t already said that we won’t continue to say as we go into this really, really dark period, where, like, the fans are pissed, and maybe you and I should just do a whole segment on that.

Luke Jones  48:29

I mean, it’s just, I want to see more fight, like, look, when you’re eight, when you fall in seven, eight games below 500 and the two best teams in the league are in your division, you know, with Tampa Bay leading the way, the Yankees still being really good. We don’t, we don’t, we’ve said it mathematically, is it over yet? No, but it feels over, but man, she’ll fight, you know, don’t let this, don’t let this fall apart to the degree that it did last year, where it really truly was mathematically over by late May, but I don’t know, are the, are these players cut out for that? Is this manager cut out for that? Is this

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Nestor Aparicio  49:09

ownership cut out? First text I got this morning was from a long time guest of ours, and Marty Conway, who ran the Orioles 40 years ago, and he wrote to me three words, first ownership crisis.

Nestor Aparicio  49:24

Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  49:26

I think that that’s what they have,

Luke Jones  49:28

8

and this is where we’re going to see, right? I mean, David Rubenstein doesn’t know a whole lot about Bayes, you and I’ve talked about that, right? I mean, but he’s a private equity guy, right? I mean, that that’s how he’s in the position he’s in, and is he just going to be that, and say, well, you know what, I’m going to be out of this at a couple years, whatever, and I’m going to make my money, because we know the valuation of franchises only goes one way up, pending what’s going to happen with the work stoppage and all that, but you know the point I’m trying to make, so does he. Really, care, does this ownership group really truly care? If they do, how are they going to proceed? Because, as you and I said, whether it’s going to be now, two months from now, or October

Nestor Aparicio  50:10

one, changes need to be made.

Luke Jones  50:11

It feels like changes are are necessary, whether they actually do it or not. We’re going to see.

Nestor Aparicio  50:18

Well, you and I have had that argument about whether it’s in your best interest to fire a general manager before a draft, before the trading deadline, and I keep saying to you, no, if you’re going to break up with a girlfriend, break up with a girlfriend, don’t wait till Christmas and give the.. the

8

Luke Jones  50:29

point is, whenever it’s whenever it’s going to happen, whenever it should, or whenever it’s going to happen, or if it’s going to happen, it sure as heck feels like that kind of.. I’ve

Nestor Aparicio  50:39

already made up my mind, how about that? You know, so

Luke Jones  50:42

I don’t.. I cannot.. it’s difficult for me to look.. I, if they have a major league kind of recovery here and make the playoffs and all that, fine. But short of something like that, I don’t know what could possibly happen that would make me change my mind about.. and it’s not just Michaelias, it’s the entire thing, but the buck stops with him. He’s in charge of the entire thing.

Speaker 1  51:05

8

A new

Nestor Aparicio  51:05

ownership gave him plenty of latitude. They

Luke Jones  51:07

gave him, they gave him a promotion. I mean, even if it was just title inflation, it was still title inflation. So, yeah, I mean, it looks at almost as bad as last year at this time. I mean, it’s there are a few games better, sure, but that’s not the bar. I mean, like, that was

Nestor Aparicio  51:26

pitching, drafting in the organization, the defensive play, and the lack of hitting from the guys that they have drafted. Other than that, everything’s great. Yeah,

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Luke Jones  51:35

other than that, everything’s great. All right,

Nestor Aparicio  51:36

it’s um, it’s OTA season here for me and Luke and everyone in Camden, everyone in Owings Mills, I should say. If there’s any breaking news about the center, or anything else, you get it first with the WNSD tech service. It’s all brought to you by our friends at Cole Roofing and Gordian Energy, who took me out to Las Vegas and wanted to dine me. Did all of that. You know, I wound up at a dinner party with Ryan Ripken, and he offered me. when anybody sees Ryan Ripkin, tell him Nestor doesn’t want those damn burned hot dogs. They offered me burnt and hot dogs. This was when I get a hold of Bill Cole. If he comes out to Fishmonger’s daughter, we got to talk about burnt and hot dogs. And Luke likes seeing cotton candy in Las Vegas 20 years ago as a dessert item, and all the girls eating it, and then starting to see it in every bougie restaurant that I see. I’m telling you, burnt and hot dogs. Once I see it in Vegas, I know it’s coming here. It’ll be here by Christmas.

Luke Jones  52:35

I didn’t know that was a thing, dude.

Nestor Aparicio  52:37

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I didn’t know the thing either offered it to me, like being in Kansas City, burn-in, like you know, beef or whatever, hot dogs, they look like little burned barbecued wieners, they look like Vienna sausage, made me sad, the Orioles are just burnt ends right now, football season around the corner, september 13, he’s Luke, I’m Nestor, we’re Baltimore positive, stay with

Luke Jones  53:02

us.