In the aftermath of a stunning 17-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game, Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the inevitable and very rapid offseason changes coming for the Baltimore Ravens. First up: Joe Hortiz to the Chargers. Next: Mike Macdonald and several other coaches. And then comes Patrick Queen and the roster…
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
year, ravens, talk, team, play, players, mike mcdonald, patrick, queen, week, draft, offseason, ronnie stanley, work, quan, super bowl, great, cap, defense, wn
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home, we are wn St. Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive am 1570. We’re up. We’re around this week and we’re certainly gonna be around next week doing something that we hope you contribute to. It’s going to be, it’s our cause. I’ve decided I’m going to be a cause guy around here. I can’t be a real media member. I’ll be a calls guy. We’re doing our little Jerry Lewis marathon telephone, radio THON thing. Athan, we’re calling it crabcake row. A cup of soup or bowl begins next Monday, begins on Monday at Lexington mark and on Tuesday. We’re gonna take it to Dundalk to Costas on Wednesday. We’re coming back to Lara Ville and Coco’s Robbie having to coconut shrimp with micro SIG Liana, who is my co host with a que on Wednesday on Thursday. We will be at State Fair in Catonsville. And then on Friday at Pappas, world famous crabcakes and we’re going to be the Cockeysville location because I think big Luke Jones, and I thought big ahead of time that this fun little crabcake row a cup of Super Bowl because Chad steel is said that wn st is ineligible for being a real radio station on radio row after 30 years in Las Vegas. I figured we’d do something good. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to do this for the Maryland Food Bank. We are going to offer you a free cup of soup or bowl of soup all week long. And they have great crab soup at all five locations. Great Maryland crab, great creamy crab, you get half an aphid, they might even make some chicken noodle on the side. If you’re not in the crab. I don’t know. But you bring out something cool for the Maryland Food Bank and we give you a cup of super bowl of soup. And we’ll be thought we’d be talking about the Ravens in the Super Bowl, I thought it’d be a purple pep rally. I thought I’d be paying for a free junket in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Luke Jones to hang out at the Luxor and roll the dice and be a real media guy. And you know what’s funny about all of this, and this is a total shoot interview right now with you look, you don’t love traveling and being in hotel rooms in Las Vegas for days at a time. So I don’t know, I don’t it’s not your gig. And I tried to explain that to Chad’s deal when I try to explain why I cover the road games and you cover the home games, because you’re working off and I know John Keller last week wants you to co host every segment with me here to do your job and my job and our jobs. It is an amazing thing that Chad Steele has, has banned my radio station poisoned our name with the National Football League. But we’re going to be doing something good next week. And I put your ass to work either way. So you get to come and eat crab cakes and eat free soup. So what do you think of that? Crab
Luke Jones 02:32
cakes and free crab soup? Man, that sounds like a tough gig right there.
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:37
Is this nice this time of year, I must say you know, I have not cancelled the flight. And you still have a room and it’s pretty next week. So if you just want to go after I run around with the 40, Niners and run around Patrick mahomes. That’s your big opportunity, man.
Luke Jones 02:50
I think I’m okay. I think I’m okay.
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:52
I want to say that out loud. Because I believe that like I really would send you and say do you want us go I got the room. It’s a couple 100 bucks. You got to fly once is CRO and you’d be like,
Luke Jones 03:05
I don’t really want to go to Las Vegas because like a lifter, especially with the ravens are playing. I was just gonna say if the Ravens were they’re great. But I mean, there’s only so many different ways you could say Patrick mahomes is great, right? I mean, it’s we’ve we spent the entire Monday morning commiserating about not being able to beat the chiefs. And I mean, they’re back there. I said it last week in talking about this game, and I even said this, you know, doing lots of out of town phone hits, you know, everyone wanted to talk about the ravens and you know, how they sizing up Kansas City and how they matched up and all that. And I even said, couldn’t tell you how many years we would talk about the demise of the Patriots and not when I say we any anyone that wasn’t a Patriots fan, talked about the demise of the Patriots, you know, Brady starting to look like he’s not the best anymore, and the Patriots look like they’re on their way down. And lo and behold, every year radio row, more often than not, not every year, but he’s asking why. Tom Brady up on the ladder. Yes, yeah. And mahomes And the chiefs are the same thing. Now. I mean, you
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:15
know, there’s Garoppolo and there’s golf and there’s Matt Ron, all the guys who got their ass kick, literally right. And everyone.
Luke Jones 04:22
Yeah, and now it’s, you know, it’s the same thing only with mahomes. You know, so, you know, long story short, I won’t be in Vegas, but now
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:32
like literally like you never been the thing.
Luke Jones 04:35
You know what the crab cakes and creme of crab soup. That sounds that sounds more appealing. Now. You know,
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:42
maybe I’ll talk about this, the more pissed off I get about the whole chat steel thing. Because I’d like to go to Vegas and broadcast next week because the Super Bowl is fun. But we’re gonna do a couple of Super Bowl. We’re gonna we’re gonna be doing this forever, and we’re gonna have fun and we’re gonna talk baseball we’re going to talk about let’s begin to cup a Super Bowl. We’re here since you know we may do a segment later on in the week here, but let’s do radio row week here. Let’s not talk about the Pro Bowl and team RayRay and team Dion or whatever the hell they’re doing this year. This is going to be an offseason of tumult around here. And we can be nice about it or whatever, but they didn’t get it done. We had 65,000 people leave the stadium pissed off and lighter in the wallet a little less later in the wallet than it would have been spent 15 grand in Vegas next week, even if it wasn’t gonna cost me 15 grand to send you. I still wanted to send you I wanted to have our promotion next week be a part of all I mean, the reason I picked Pappas on Friday, and stay fair on Thursday was like, by the end of the week, it’s gonna be crazy around here, you know. And all next week, we’re gonna sit and do this promotion for the Maryland Food Bank and promoting 100 different charities, which is really the topic of what we’re doing next week, in my own little Jerry Lewis way, but like every single conversation is going to be they didn’t get it done. They didn’t get it on the march show. It’s you know, what did they do? The offense wasn’t good enough. But in the near short term, the band’s about the breakup. And much like when Brian Billick gave that famous speech in Tampa now 23 years ago, crazy that we’ll never be together again. It’s never going to be like this again. This is the sad part where you go watch them clean the lockers out this week, but figure out who’s played their last game and Raven jersey. And I’m assuming Ronnie Stanley has, I’m assuming Beckham as you know, I’m assuming Patrick, Queen hat. I mean, this go down the list. I’m just getting the party started. But that’s really where we are. And I’m pretty sure Mike McDonald’s called his last game as the defensive coordinator.
Luke Jones 06:39
Yeah, since you mentioned his name. I won’t belabor it, but Stanley is still under contract. And you look at that, there’s, there’s still a good, very good chance he’s going to be playing for the Ravens next year. But I think we’re gonna be talking a lot about exit strategy there, you know, in terms of in the same way that the Ravens drafted Lamar Jackson when Joe Flacco was still their quarterback, so, but you just said it, look, players come and go, I mean, that that’s the nature of the beast in the NFL. And you view it more through the lens of tumult when you lose the way that you did on Sunday. And there’s all this disappointment, but I think, in the immediate future, what’s gonna happen with Mike McDonald, who, you know, before, before the locker room had even cleaned out on Sunday after the game, I mean, there were already reports, you know, even before the game about him interviewing with Seattle, about him interviewing with Washington, I think, I think Mike McDonald is very attractive to these teams. And I think even some of the teams that ultimately went elsewhere, probably it was a factor that, you know, there’s when you’re, your team still playing, and you’re not quite as accessible from an interview standpoint, that, that that’s a factor way back when with Marvin Lewis, that was a factor 23 years ago, why he wound up being a Ravens defensive coordinator an extra year, compared to what everyone thought but what’s going to happen with McDonald, Anthony Weaver is still drawing interest in terms of potentially being a head coach candidate, Denard Wilson on their defensive backs coach who came over from Philly and was a big part of why their secondary held together that didn’t just hold together, but played so well. Despite the fact that Marlon Humphrey missed roughly half the season. Marcus Williams missed about a quarter of the season, and they didn’t skip a beat. So I think Denard Wilson, there’s a good chance you’re gonna see him get a defensive coordinator job unless, unless maybe he becomes a candidate to become the Ravens DC if McDonald’s hired away so, you know, these are, there’s always they’re always moving pieces to this and there’s always change. And I think we need to be careful not to be too fatalistic about this because this isn’t post 2001 breakup. This isn’t post 2012 kind of breakup it, you know, the ravens, they’re gonna have their challenges from a cap standpoint, but it’s not cap jail, where they’re going to have this massive purge. I think a lot of it’s just going to be some guys that are free agents like Patrick queen, you know, go down the list of guys that we’ve talked about and will continue to talk about in the coming days and weeks because we’re still what a month, month and a half away from the start of free agency, but you know, what’s gonna happen? What’s gonna happen with Mata BK? Are they going to get a long term deal done with him? Are they going to use the franchise tag? What does that mean for their cap, you know, so your change is inevitable. And that’s why it is so frustrating for this football team, being the number one seed being in a position where the Bengals would burrow this year. We know what happened there. The Chiefs being down other teams in the conference, not living up to expectations. I mean, the Ravens were the team now that it came through them in Baltimore, and they let Kansas City come in and take it from them. And I think that’s where you look at this thing and you say, Okay, what are we going to be able to do to break through What are we going to be able to do to get over the hump? And I think what’s so frustrating about this Nestor, there is not a darn thing they’re going to be able to do during the regular season. That’s going to give us any indication that next January is going to be any different. I mean, it’s just the truth, right? I mean, they already were the best team in football. I mean, I, okay, I guess they could go 17. And no, but even then you would be said, okay, they better win. It
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:26
is gonna be coming here the third week of January.
Luke Jones 10:29
I mean, it’s just, and that’s where, you know, there is an element to this where, you know, and the Ravens would never say this publicly. But I think there is an element to this where you kind of throw your hands up and say, what’s it gonna take? What’s it? How do we take the next step, and some of it is just experience, I will continue to use this example because it’s a very relevant example, because it’s one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. Peyton Manning didn’t win a Super Bowl until year nine. Think about that. He was a rookie in 1998. And it wasn’t until oh six, you know, when they famously came into Baltimore, or infamously, I should say, and knocked off the Ravens in the divisional round. And then they finally got it done the following week, and go to a Super Bowl and win it. So you know, beyond just saying, experience, experience experience, but that’s where I keep coming back to Patrick mahomes isn’t going anywhere? The Chiefs, you know, Okay, Andy Reid could retire, I guess, you know, he’s gonna retire at some point. So there is that element to it. But mahomes is a year and a half older than Lamar. He’s not going anywhere. And by the way, the conversation we’re having right now is the exact same one happening in Buffalo. It’s the same thing happened in Cincinnati, although, to their credit, the Bengals did beat mahomes in the AFC Championship a couple of years ago, but this is the reality for the entire AFC and for the ravens, it’s a matter of what do you do to get over the hump. And, you know, to bring it back to what I mentioned with Mike McDonald, you are in a position now where unfortunately, you’re gonna have, you’re gonna sustain, you know, you’re gonna have to endure some attrition with their defense, whether it’s coaches, you know, your court, starting with your coordinator, or some of the personnel that’s, that’s inevitably going to depart now, guys can step up, you’ll draft guys, no, doesn’t mean I think that their defense is going to fall apart far from it. But boy, it was just such a formidable unit. And even on Sunday, I mean, as much as those first couple drives were frustrating, as you know, what, especially that second drive, this couldn’t get off the field on third down, I even asked row Quan Smith about it. And again, it was one of those deals where they made them go the length of the field, they made them convert third, down after third down after third down, but they did it. And it was a very frustrating feeling for them. But, you know, this defense, matching or duplicating what it did this year, next year and beyond, it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be a tall order, just because, you know, from a roster building standpoint, coaching standpoint, all that so, again, we come back to that same theme of this feeling like this was their best chance. And that’s not to say they won’t have chances. That’s not to say they won’t break through even next year. Who knows. But it’s just very frustrating. A very bitter way for such a fun such an impressive 2023 season to come to an end. Look,
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:24
Joe is here he is Luke at wn St. dotnet. And of course if there’s any breaking news in regards to coaching, you’ll get it first on the wn S T tech service. We’re we’re gonna make it through this week to get to the cup of Super Bowl week next week. And you know, part of this would be who’s staying who’s going where are they going? You talk about Ronnie Stanley, maybe not so fast in regard to that, you know, the way these teams are put together and the Kyle van noise and the Davian clowny is that come on? And the Odell Beckham’s that gets signed in the offseason or not the cap ology of all of this is about to change dramatically. And I think from the fan bases perspective, who don’t stay up with salary cap guy on the internet and all that stuff. The notion of how much money Lamar got and what that 20% 18% 21% against the cap is going to look like, let alone all this other money that’s going out the front door. The biggest thing is when you give Marlon Humphrey that money and you give Ronnie Stanley that money and they don’t play to that level, you need his a flowers, or a Kyle Hamilton to really play above their pay grade, right or a Tyler Linder. I mean, they’re getting great, great, great value out of most of their draft. Eric’s been very, very good on draft day the last few years, which is how you’re hosting the AFC Championship game right and very, very good on off the field personnel and the right veteran guys that John can deal with whether it’s the mall let’s or whether it’s a Darby, I mean, they roquan Smith, there’s a bunch said there’s a bunch of dogs in there. I’m not in the locker room first time and My career that I don’t know any of these guys, I sense the professionalism of what Van Noy imports from a Bella check team. What a row Quan Smith just has in his soul. What a Patrick Queen learned at LSU and brought here. And some of that bravado and mouth he had early in his career really went away and he’s become, you know, kind of a humble warrior. Patrick Queen strikes me as a guy who’s gonna get a lot of money and pick a good spot and be playing against the Ravens in January, you know, I don’t think he’s a guy that’s just gonna go cash in and play for some crappy team to take a deal. I think he’s a guy that’s going to be able to pick a place he wants to go and win. Yeah,
Luke Jones 15:39
well, and he’s earned that right. I mean, we talked about this, I mean, going up going all the way back to OTAs. We talked about this with the Jake, the contrast, you know, the juxtaposition of him and JK Dobbins and how Queen approached it, and how daven said and putting aside the injury, because that was unfortunate for JK Dobbins. You know, I don’t wish anything like that on any player. But just how he handled his business leading up to the end, including the start of training camp. How Queen did it you know, is very businesslike but that’s not and to be clear, this isn’t again, this isn’t going to be a tear down. But you’re gonna you’re gonna have some attrition here and that’s not to say that you want that Eric to caster won’t go out and sign next year’s version of Jadeveon. Clowney and Kyle van Noy, no. Heck, one of those guys could be back. I’m guessing probably not both. But you know, one of those guys could be back, you know, in the same way that Justin Houston hung around for a couple years. And that worked out pretty well. But the Ravens knew the right time to say okay, bye bye to Justin Houston. And that was the right decision because he wasn’t very good this year for Carolina. And then
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:43
it saved me Maclean’s Campbell to right I mean, they made that they got they squeezed their juice out of the 30 Something players and and bid them Adieu, literally, yeah, songs in the end and every do class Campbell had
Luke Jones 16:55
a good year for Atlanta. But was he a seven plus million dollar player that the Ravens were gonna have to make him to stay? No, he wasn’t anymore. So I mean, these, this is part of it. It’s a year to year roster building, you always have your short term roster building. And then you have your five year plan. The five year plan now is more challenging from the standpoint of you have Lamar on this big contract. And there are other big, big money players. And to your point, it becomes more problematic when you have Ronnie Stanley who’s under contract for what he is next year. And is not that kind of player anymore. Or Marlon Humphrey, who I’m not ready to put in the same exact category of Stanley because Humphrey had been a durable player until this year. But now it’s a case of okay, what’s his value? Where is he is he coming back and being the same guy and being the top guy, the way their defensive system works? Now, I mean, part of what made the mike McDonald system so effective here over the last couple years is it’s kind of moved the Ravens away from needing those elite man prep press man coverage kind of quarterbacks. And they did so well, even with Brandon Stevens, who was a great story this year, but he’s not Marlon Humphrey, or Marcus Peters in his prime, not a blue chip player. But he was good. He was above average. And that’s a credit to him. But the point is, the way the system morphed from wink Martindale to Mike McDonald, is you put those corners on an island a little less often, right. So, you know, it kind of put a little less pressure on them. I mean, the shining stars of the Ravens defense was, you know, up the middle, you know, with what they do, and that’s going to, that’s not going to change because you still have ro Quan Smith and Kyle Hamilton and Marcus Williams, and you hope just a matter BK, presumably at least on the franchise tag this year, this coming year, so but they’re going to have to make shrewd decisions, they’re gonna have to figure out who they want to try to keep, they’re going to have to draft and replace some of their depth they’re going to need guys like a Trenton Simpson, for example, we’ve spent all the time talking about Patrick queen, they draft to Trenton since Simpson, and in the third round last April to be the heir apparent, he needs to be ready. And they’ll probably bring in a veteran Josh Bynes kind of a guy to, you know, to elevate the floor there a little bit just in case but you know, young guys have to take over the draft the draft, which is always important to the ravens, it becomes even more important now, when you have a $260 million quarterback in the same way that it’s critical for Kansas City, it’s going to be more critical for Cincinnati. Now with Joe burrow, it’s going to be very critical for Buffalo when you look at some of their, you know, the decisions they’re gonna have to make and what their cat pictures looking like now, I mean that that’s just that’s the cost of having a franchise quarterback. I mean, you got to pay him because what’s the alternative? And you have to fill out your roster, draft drafting really well and making shrewd, good savvy signings where you’re going to get surplus value like they did with clowny and Vannoy this year, so you know that that’s not going to change and that’s going to continue to be the the goal and that’s going to they’ll continue to do those things. But not every guy is going to hit you know, for every cloudian Vannoy. We can also point to they traded for unique and Doc way three years ago, right? And that was not much of a not much of a factor for them. So you know, you have guys that you’re going to whiffed on from time to time that happens, no one bats 1000. But it’s why it was just so frustrating because of where this team was, what they had been up until Sunday, even what their defense did on Sunday. Like I said, I’ll continue to say it, if you tell me before the game, I think if you told anyone in Baltimore, not just Baltimore, if you told anyone period that the Ravens hold Patrick mahomes, and the Chiefs have 17 points, I don’t think you’re going to find anyone saying that they lose that football game. So that’s where it is frustrating that they had this kind of a defense overall, and I get it, they didn’t play perfect football on Sunday. And they gave up the third down play at the end where the offense could have gotten the ball back with two minutes ago. And maybe we’re having a very different discussion, if that happens. But you know, overall, I mean, it was a hell of a defense. And, you know, it is going to be, you know, there is going to be some attrition, there are going to be some challenges as far as who you’re going to try to keep they’ve they’ve extended Michael Pearce, you know, they signed him to a modest extension. So he’ll be back. We know the guys under contract will be back. I mean, you have ro Quan Smith and Kyle Hamilton, those are the two guys that I really view, no matter BK, we’ll see because you got to sign them long term, right. But those are the two anchors, those are the guys that this defense is going to revolve around. And I think Hamilton might even go beyond, you know, above where ro Quan is over the next couple of years, because that’s how great I think he is as a football player. So you’ve got, yeah, you’ve got an amazing foundation, that’s still going to be there. But if Mike McDonald got off to Seattle or off to Washington, and the next time you and I talk, we might have clarity one way or the other about that. But, you know, if, if he departs and you lose some of the guys that you’re gonna lose depth players, you know, someone like a Geno stone, for example, who has more than earned a starting opportunity elsewhere, you know, and we’ll see how it plays out for him, of course, but you’re gonna lose some of those guys. So what
Nestor J. Aparicio 22:16
about Moses? What about, you know, I mean, guys that are 30 Something guys that have been mailpieces to this, but I I think it’s a running back issue. It’s not a system issue. It’s certainly not I don’t think it’s even a personnel issue. If they didn’t try to run the ball on Sunday football game live. Yeah.
Luke Jones 22:35
I mean, you know, to pivot over to the offensive side, since you brought it up. I mean, I think siteleri is a really interesting one up. Look, the Kevin Zeitler still played a really high level this year. Yeah, he absolutely did. But you know, you do look at age, you look at the fact that, and some fans are gonna cringe at this, but I’m gonna bring it up. You do have Ben Cleveland, who, when he has actually played, has actually done a decent job. And I think they were really encouraged by the step forward, he took this year because he stayed on the practice field and actually was able to develop, he didn’t play a whole lot. And when he was called upon to play, you know, for Zeiler it wasn’t a whole lot, but you know, slightly missed a couple games at the end of the season. You know, you have to make some tough decisions. And there are some times where you have to roll the dice on a young guy because
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:22
they feel like they have the replacement for Queen Right. Or at least they did they got it. They got a sense of that a couple of weeks ago.
Luke Jones 23:28
I mean, I think they I think they’re very hopeful. I think they’re optimistic I think I mean, you can’t pay too off ball linebackers what row Quan Smith is making and what I expect queen to command which I think is going to be similar to what CJ Mosley got five years four years ago five years ago I guess it was now hard to believe that’s been five years right? But you know, I think I think Queens gonna get a 75 $80 million
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:51
contract queen will be one of the top five free agents in the market this offseason.
Luke Jones 23:55
I without without it across
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:00
the NFL across the NFL, he’ll you’ll be a first day 75 million that’s it. You know, he’ll be a serious guy. I don’t know that the dogs will be out of the way they work with Rex and pet and, you know, chasing parks, or whatever. But yeah,
Luke Jones 24:11
I think what you’re, I think where you’re gonna see I don’t know if he’s top five, because for one thing, I don’t have the free agent list. And I sound like John Harbaugh. I don’t have that list in front of me. But he’s certainly going to get paid. And I think what’s interesting, and look guys like me, were talking about this a few years back, he would go back to when they drafted or when they let CJ Mosely go and when they drafted Patrick queen, talking about off ball linebackers and positional value and how the NFL had swung so far in the direction of saying that that position is devalued. I think the ravens and the 40 Niners have shown that position is still valuable. Well, you gotta guard Travis Kelce. Right. Well, and but the cynic would say, Well, you had ro Quan Smith and Patrick queen and well, Travis Kelce still had 100 receiving yards of the AFC Championship, so Not? Sure, sure. Yeah. So some people would say that that might be an argument against what I’m saying
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:07
they could stop Gronkowski either forever, right? I mean, that would just kept Brady alive the last seven or eight years without Gronkowski? He wouldn’t. And let’s
Luke Jones 25:15
also, let’s also acknowledge you, generally speaking, even the best teams don’t have answers for Hall of Fame players. I mean, look at the ravens, right. I mean, their defense was the best in the league this year. And we saw what Patrick mahomes did on the first two drives. And we saw what Patrick mahomes Did on 39 to end the game. I mean, it’s just, you know, sometimes you just have to say, He’s better. He’s the best. We hate it, but it’s true. But I think for Patrick queen, he’s he this is going to be a sweet spot for him, I believe, because I think you’re gonna see teams start to recognize, okay, maybe we don’t need ro Quan Smith, but we can’t have too late round guys or late round guy and a journeyman, playing our off ball linebacker spots, I think people were starting to see that. Okay, that position is a little more important than maybe we thought five years ago, especially with, you know, how the NFL is morphing and evolving. So he’s gonna get paid, you know, go down the list. I mean, it’s, you know, you mentioned Zeidler. And Morgan, Moses, Moses is under contract for one more year, I’ll throw that out there. So, you know, we’ll have to see what happens there. But siteleri, I think it’s tough. I think all things being equal, you’d love to have them back for another year. But knowing some of the attrition you’re gonna have at some other spots and knowing where your cap situation is, is that, you know, do they have to make a difficult call to say, you know, what, this is one of those times where we’re going to part with a guy to a year early rather than a year late. And we’re going to have to roll the dice on Ben Cleveland. And we’ll look to draft another guard. And, you know, we’ll hope that Salah develops in the offseason. And we’ll have to see how that plays out. And with the understanding that, you know, if we need to, well, we can go out and get a guy in June or in August, you know, so, you know, we’ll have to see how it plays out. I think Zeitler wants to stay. I think he wanted to talk extension last offseason, you know, from what I understand. And I think the Ravens were kind of let’s wait, I think that’s how they approached it, which I can understand for a guard on the wrong side of 30. You know, they
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:21
already got money into the tackle on the wrong side of third. Yeah, exactly.
Luke Jones 27:24
I mean, and not to Kevin Zeitler is gonna command anything remotely like that. But yeah, I mean, you’re in a position already with your left tackle were, from a cap standpoint, it’s gonna be very difficult to maneuver out of that this year, if you absolutely are set on doing that. That’s why I said I think their best approach is probably going to be to try to identify your left tackle the future. And maybe he plays one of the other spots on the O line for a year. And that’s how you approach it. And then, you know, he moves into left tackle if Stanley gets hurt, or if you move on after, at the end of next year. I mean, who knows? I mean, there’s, there’s so much to talk about. So many possibilities there. But yeah, Kevin Zeitler at age 33. Again, I love the guy. And I think I think he had a really good year. And I think it’s a shame that he’s never gotten the Pro Bowl recognition that I think he’s deserved over the course of his career. I think he’s always been that guy, that’s probably the second or third or fourth best guard in the AFC. And it’s just, it hasn’t worked out for him for years, he was behind someone like Marshall yonder. And now he’s behind Joe, Tony, and, you know, quit Nelson in Indy, and go down the list of, you know, some of the very best, you know, he’s he’s on that list, but hasn’t gotten that recognition. But is he going to be a priority for them to keep?
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:41
I mean, it’s so that we’re where they spend their money and where they spend their draft capital. judicious and the draft capital is, you know, you’re picking 29th Now or whatever, right? 30 Whatever they’re gonna 30
Luke Jones 28:49
Yes, can be 30th. So I mean, that’s, that’s part of it. Now. You know, some of these guys that depart, they’ll get complex for but keep in mind, this will be complex for next year. So it’s not again, I want to be clear Nestor, this is not 2001 cap purge. This is not 2012 cap per just not anything like that close to that. And there are ways, there are ways to maneuver the cap with Void years we started, we saw the Ravens start to use voidable years, this past offseason, when they had rarely ever used those, I think you’re gonna see that continue. And there are ways to continue to kick the can down the road. So they’re not in deep. You know what, but it is going to be more challenging moving forward. And they do have quite a list of free agents. You know, we haven’t even mentioned you know, we’ve mentioned it in passing, but to Davey on clowny he was so huge for this defense. Do you try to bring him back? I’m guessing he’s gonna want some real money after playing on a very team friendly deal. I’m guessing there’s going to be more demand for him after the year that he just had, despite the fact that he’s another guy on the wrong side of 30. So do you go to try to keep him or do you go the route that they’ve gone the last few offseasons, which, for the most part has worked out pretty nicely for them, which is waited out and signed someone in August. I mean, you know, cloudy worked out Houston worked out a couple years ago, they annoy worked out. But as I mentioned, you know, then Gotway trade didn’t work out three years ago. And Jason Pierre Paul was fine, but not really a guy that moved the needle for
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:23
them played around here, I mean, to Sean Jackson, but, I mean, they have no problem bringing people in, you know, for
Luke Jones 30:30
sure, sure. And some of them work out and some of them don’t work out. So well. You know, I mean, that’s just that’s, that’s how it works. We know, again, you’re if you’re going to expect perfection, you’re going to be left wanting, I mean, no one’s going to be perfect, but the Ravens have done at a pretty darn high level, you know, with some of these veteran players, and they’re gonna have to continue to do that. And the good thing, and this is where I will put a more positive spin on it is this team when Lamar has been healthy has been right there. Other players want to come and play with Lamar Jackson. Just listen to how Dalvin Cook talked about Lamar Jackson, listen to how Kyle van Noy talked about Lamar Jackson listen to how clowny talked about Jackson back in August so that’s a heck of a selling point for them but it does still come back to the dollars cap number all of that which is going to become more challenging now as we move forward not impossible. That’s not a cop out it’s not an excuse. And he came with a franchise quarterback that that has paid that franchise quarterback is dealing with the same exact situation. But it does become more challenging now and again, that’s why you looked at the way this roster was constructed with the depth that they had the coaches that they had they’re gonna lose some of that this offseason so doesn’t mean they’re done doesn’t mean they’re in deep trouble doesn’t mean that they won’t be back in the AFC Championship next year. But keeps coming back to boy this just felt like such a great opportunity for this to be their time but it wasn’t you know, we could talk about this being there a year all we want it wasn’t because if it had been well, they’d be playing in Vegas in two weeks and instead we’re going to be talking about it from afar enjoying a crab cake and a cup of cream and crab soup.
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:12
Alright, are you cream are you merrily crabby Have
Luke Jones 32:16
you know what I kind of the 5050 is something that I kind of I was turned on to like four or five years ago.
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:22
I think for me too. I remember that. Remember if you’ve been eating crab soup your whole life you remember the first time somebody said yeah, why don’t you mix it? And I
Luke Jones 32:30
thought it sounded disgusting the first time that someone suggested that to me, you know, just the idea. The cream you have a good cream of crabs with the tomato. It’s just like now and put my it was my sister actually she’s like, I know it sounds gross. Try it. Trust me. I love it. So one or the other. I’ve always been more of a cream of crab guy but I’ve really become a 5050 guy over the last few years.
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:52
I’m really worried if I don’t have you around. I’m gonna go to the bathroom next week. doing live radio. We’re doing live radio for the first time in 10 years we’ll be on live from nine to five I’m calling it a marathon. We’re doing 40 hours of live radio to promote 100 local charities and Folkestone good stuff in the community. We’re calling it crabcake row because we’re not allowed on radio because we’re not a real radio station and I’m not a real radio owner and I’m not a real journalist anymore. Call check steal you’ll be getting a letter from me next week as well. Eric the cost is earned himself a little letter for me to a little dear Eric letter for him so you’ll be on the lookout for that next week. Meanwhile, we will be doing crabcake row a cup of soup or bowl of soup so we’re not gonna go to the soup for bowl but we’re gonna have a cup of soup or bowl. five locations starting on Monday. If at least downtown Tuesday we will be at Costas and Dundalk Wednesday, Coco’s and Lara Ville Thursday at State Fair in Catonsville then on Friday, I have my Pappas shirt on right now and this one fits me real nice to feels good feels like I could do some yoga lift some weights go to Planet Fitness do something nice for this thing. It feels good. On Friday will be a Pappas, I was hoping for a giant purple pep rally and instead it’s just gonna be me and Luke. doing good work charity work talking about other teams in the Super Bowl and looking at pitchers and catchers reporting nice offseason for the Orioles so far. I am not sure we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. Look expect me to be in a good mood with the Ravens get eliminated like this. How do you want me to be
Luke Jones 34:26
I completely understand and we haven’t said this my final thought disappointed for everyone. I mean, Sunday until the game started. It was a big special. It was special. I mean you have to go back to the Orioles and the World Series which 40 years ago. I mean 40 years ago 41 now or will be in October so just disappointed. I had so many friends I’ve people that mean a lot to me in my personal life. So excited about this and it’s disappointing when the team can’t get it On and look, the other team tries to but disappointing like I said this major 2006 Indy vibes only they were one went away from the Super Bowl instead of two.
Nestor J. Aparicio 35:10
Well hopes the shotty and here this piece because I didn’t bleed enough purple and black and here I guess to to warrant being at the Super Bowl next week doing our jobs, but instead we’ll be here doing our jobs. And we’ve done a great job around here covering the team traffic’s up we had Joe Flacco on last week. Lots of great conversations this week. We have Marvin Lewis last week and Brian Billick Brian’s coming back on this week to on average is going to be your Todd each gonna be your we’re gonna be doing plenty of sort of post mortem for a season that was a great ride, man. I mean, it produced an AFC Championship game in Baltimore. That was a winnable football game. And I remember when John Harbaugh was still talking to me and still considered me a real media member. He He gave us a ride in his in his cab in Indianapolis came by sat with us and said that he would never get over. Billy Cundiff I remember how morose that was, you can go and watch that on YouTube. After the Billy Condor kick that John came and spent an hour with us in Indianapolis two weeks later with the combine, just working through it a little bit and, and that was an AFC Championship game last that he still had won a Super Bowl, there was no guarantee that they were gonna go back and do all the things that they did a year later that they did. So I would just say, you know, from John’s perspective and the organization’s perspective the organization has been through disappointments like this with this leadership, this group to say, you know, bump Phillips, we knocked on the door this year, we’ll kick it in next year, whatever that is, there has to be a belief in that because of the core of ro Quan Smith and Kyle Hamilton and Lamar Jackson in the offensive Mark Andrews coming back and say flowers emerging and, and young players on the calm getting an opportunity to Brandon Stevens and these players. So there’s hope here, but there’s also you know, the reality of how hard it is to do so an AFC Championship game at home. And it couldn’t happen. So rough week around here. So we will be doing purple therapy here. This week. We will be doing charitable work next week with crabcake row and a cup of Super Bowl. And we really do hope to come out and support the Maryland Food Bank, which I’ve learned they have local pantries in every neighborhood. So the stuff we’re doing like Monday, if at least is staying downtown, the stuff we’re doing it cost us and Dundalk if you’re bringing food over that food is gonna stay in the Dundalk, Essex east side area. So I like that. So I’m going to be learning about this as we go along. We’re gonna be talking baseball football stuff. By next week. I’ll try to have some fun and laugh a little bit. It’s hard, especially for the folks spent a lot of money with down there on Sunday. So we’re still here for you. I’ve been here from the beginning. 32 years I was here beaten on the door trying to get a football team around here. So we’d have a day like Sunday that I could watch on television. While Luke sits in the press box with our company name on it. I am Nestor. We are WNS TA and 1570, Towson Baltimore, and we never stopped talking last opportunities and Baltimore positive stay with us.
