Luke Jones and Nestor discuss offensive line issues for Ravens in aftermath of free agency and why Ronnie Stanley stayed and Morgan Moses and Kevin Zeitler didn’t.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
year, ravens, play, week, offensive line, talking, tackle, derrick henry, ronnie stanley, cap, roster, offensive linemen, draft, point, starter, money, free agency, deal, morgan, good
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:00
I hope we are wn st Towson, Baltimore. Baltimore positive. We are just getting through this sort of post St. Patrick’s Day hanging over. But really what’s going on this week, Luke Jones and I are headed down to Sarasota we’re gonna be in Florida for the week working, like working media, he’s working in media. I’m sort of like, sort of like glue in, in back to school. I’m sort of the driver with the cap and Florida, but we’re gonna have a good time. We’re gonna be down in Sarasota later on in the week. So if you’re watching Red Sox games, or pirates, games or things on Masin, or they give me a Twinkies game. Yeah, this guy in an orange jersey that has really spectacular hair, it might be me. The Maryland crab cake tour comes back at you beginning in April we’re going to be fade these on Fridays live really live from two of the five. Don’t kick the wires. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery our friends at window nation as well as Liberty pure solutions and Jiffy Lube multi care. We’re taking it on the road here this week. But baseball we’re gonna get to baseball in a little bit. Opening Day rosters which are fluxing and flexing, and we’re gonna play baseball here. I hope it’s one of the 71 degree days and not one of the 43 degree days. Next week. Luke Jones joins us now we’re going to talk some so football though man so much is going on right like I I really felt like I thought about this all weekend before having you on because you and I have not done the deep dive other than Hey, they’re bringing Derrick Henry in you know, Eric the costume must be listening to Nestor show the last 18 months and I’m not going to spike the ball on that because I don’t know if it’s good idea or not. We now have like a totality right we have free agency and tampering is over we breathe some fresh air Morgan Moses just a whole whole whole lot of change. I mean, right on down to who the backup quarterback is right? I mean, snoops even gone out the side door and stayed in the division. They you notice any tectonic plates have shifted the last week maybe in Pittsburgh, where they have not one quarterback but to and neither one of them are named Kenny Pickett. But a hell of a week. It’s been a month of the weekend. Yeah, I
Luke Jones 02:15
mean, it always is. And I think this time of year, typically for the Ravens. And specifically for Ravens fans, it can be unnerving, it can be unsettling. We know that this is a team historically, there’s not terribly active in free agency, at least in terms of spending big bucks. And we knew that they didn’t have a whole lot of cap space. So they’ve taken some measures to create some cap space, without even going the route of renegotiating and restructuring a ton of contracts. But you trade Morgan Moses, you release Tyus Bowser, you give Ronnie Stanley a pretty substantial pay, cut, and even redo his deal to the point where next year was torn up. He’s going to be a free agent after this year, and you’ve reduced his cap number pretty substantially. And boy, they’re
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:05
good, aren’t they? I mean, at that point. I mean, like they really, they eat their Wheaties. I mean, in a way we compare them to the Orioles over years and years and years about wasted money and this and where they are getting the best deal with Lamar, even though it was ugly and like, oh, like they you can’t win a championship in March. But they never win headlines in March. But when they can compete for a championship, it’s because of these decisions, right? I mean, it’s really the way they run their business in that way. That’s so sound. Yeah,
Luke Jones 03:41
I mean, but at the same time, this is, this is what you do this time of year. I mean, the saints for years have read on deals and read on deals and read on deals, and you get under the cap. So I mean, some teams are better at it than others from the standpoint of not trying to have too many peaks and valleys in terms of how your cap goes. I mean, the Ravens have tried to maintain a little bit of a flatter situation, meaning that it’s a little more consistent year to year, but you don’t I mean, Ronnie Stanley had a $26 million cap figure for 2024 That was not in line with his production and his availability and his health at this point in his career. And by the way, he also knew that he wasn’t going to get that kind of money out on the open market if the Ravens said goodbye to him. So you get to a point where you try to come to a number that you feel is fair, the players not going to feel is fair. But he also realizes that the kind of deal that the Ravens gave him four years ago is not out there on the market for him at this stage of his career. So you know,
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:44
making that right now, isn’t it? I mean, you know, part of this is I just gave them all the credit make sure that you know when when when it hits the social media that I gave Eric credit but there’s also blame of like they missed on Ronnie Stanley from a financial standpoint of what they You’ve given him but that’s an injury. And that’s around the corner. And when they gave it to him, they thought he would be maybe not Jonathan, but maybe Marshall yonder, you know, like, yeah, just they just thought he was gonna be a really, really solid part, and that they wouldn’t be starting games with, you know, guys with arms that are foot shorter, quite frankly, and mCherry. Right, right. I
Luke Jones 05:23
mean, let’s face it go back in time. And we’ve talked about this over and over. I mean, he signed that near $100 million deal literally two days before he wrecked his ankle. So look, Eric to Costa, you can say a lot of things about how smart he is, or certain things maybe that didn’t work out quite as well. But, you know, he’s not a fortune teller to say, oh, yeah, we’re gonna sign this deal. And Ronnie’s gonna ruin his ankle and a couple of days. I mean, you know, unfortunately, it’s football. It happens from time to time. And when they signed him in 2020, he was coming off of the 2019 season, that was Jonathan Ogden, like, let’s say at least for one season, he was in that realm, at least where you were talking about him as one of the very best left tackles in football. So but but that was just one of many moves that we saw over the course of the first week of free agency, and the roster is still far from complete. I think that much is evident when you look at the number of Yeah, and it’s funny, because I’ve seen some fans, I’ve seen some media types, you know, even national media types talk about the amount of attrition, the Ravens didn’t Jordan, and look, they lost a number of players at the same time. Beyond Patrick, queen, beyond, you know, someone like Geno Stone, who wasn’t technically wasn’t a starter, but played starter snaps, considering how many three safety looks though they deployed this past year. But you know, for the most part, you’re talking about depth pieces you’re talking about, and look, that’s valuable, let’s be clear. And you you have to find that via the draft, you have to find that with internal options, you have to find that with you’re hoping will be some veteran signings that they were able to find last year, in August and July the way that they did and the way so many of them worked out. But you know, this is a roster at this point that, you know, does look different. And I think really the offensive lines the the big spot that I look at right now. I mean, sure we can talk about edge rusher, we can talk about needing another corner, go down the list wide receiver with Odell Beckham even bidding farewell to the Ravens via social media over the weekend, which was not unexpected, but kind of felt like have some finality to it. But it’s the offensive line for me right now. I mean, they traded Morgan Moses to the New York Jets, as I said to you, it kind of sort of felt like it played out that the Ravens kind of looked at Ronnie Stanley, they looked at Morgan Moses and they kind of said, All right, we’re not gonna get rid of both of you because that that’d be a step too far in terms of your offensive line. But yeah, we’re we’re moving on from one of you. And when Ronnie Stanley agreed to take the pay cut, Morgan, Moses is the one they said goodbye to. And I’m guessing if Stanley as is typically the case, when you’re talking about a pay cut situation, if a player box, you better be willing to cut that guy then because if you ask a guy to take a pay cut, and he says no, and then you keep them, guess what’s gonna happen every other player in the future that you have to take a pay cut? They’re gonna say no, because they’re gonna know that you’re not going to cut them. So but they move on from Morgan Moses. And you know, now we’re talking about three spots on the offensive line that they have to replace at this point. And look, are there some incumbent candidates that I think are viable contenders to be starters, on the 2024 offensive line short? Are any of them really proven? Not really. So they’ve got work to do on that front? And fortunately for them, it is a pretty deep draft class, at least perception wise in terms of the O line. So 30th Overall, I’m guessing there’s a pretty strong bet you can make that they’re going to take an offensive lineman there if the right guy is available, but, you know, in the meantime, they did resign just a matter BK. They brought in Derrick Henry. So they’ve at least solidified the running back position that was very much wide open, given the Keaton Mitchell’s health and, and Gus Edwards departure last week. So they’ve solved that so to speak, but they still have quite a few positions they’re going to have to address but as Eric Decosta said at the Derrick Henry press conference, as Ozzie Newsome said, year after year after year, they’re not playing football on March they’re not playing football in April and that’s a good thing because they have they still have a lot of work to do on the roster. But remember their starting point where they’re coming from coming off of a 13 and four season, having a franchise quarterback when you’re looking at all the all the musical chairs changing around the NFL with quarterbacks. You have stability there. So there’s till you look at this division, yeah, it’s changed. And Pittsburgh’s more interesting now than they were, but they’re still not great at quarterback, they’re still not proven at quarterback in the way that the ravens are in the way that a healthy Joe burrow makes the Bengals. But it certainly changed the landscape a little bit. But you know, the ravens are still, they’re still in good shape. They have a lot of work to do between now and September. But they’re still in a position where they’re going to be one of the favorites of this division, and they’re and they’re still very much in the mix in the AFC. But like I said, I still have quite a few boxes to check as we now are beyond those first few waves of free agency.
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:40
Luke Jones is here he is Baltimore, Luke, you can find them out on the interwebs and of course doing Orioles baseball, we are going to be in Sarasota together this weekend. So if you follow us out on the socials and there says the survey says 100,000 of you that follow us out on the socials and one place or another from YouTube or LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or threads or acts wherever you are. We will be there doing our thing and probably coming back with some stuff for you on the radio some stuff, the Baltimore positive certainly some stuff on social media, some observations, I’m going to be writing some writings. There’s a 25th anniversary documentary in the works. And I’ve been really hard at work. On the last week or so you’re going to be hearing here on the air greatest. It’s probably our last foray with the Angelo’s family and telling that story. We published the book out we have new ownership coming in and looking forward to that. So lots and lots of things including just a really interesting ravens offseason. So like, I look at this as a really deep dive now because not a ton is going to happen in the next four or five weeks, other than this stock is gonna go up and this mock draft is going to come out and this pro day and like all of that stuff, because you’re going to have your head into baseball, people are filling out March Madness brackets, and we don’t like even have dog and hunt around here. And that’s just been really weird to college basketball just sort of evaporated during this period of time. I know you got WrestleMania up and we’ll we’re gonna do a whole segment on that because I found all my old wrestling pictures. I found my parents pictures from the streets, St. Louis. So deep diving here, Luke with the offensive line. And let’s start with this if I knew Eric the cost anymore, and I only knew him for 30 years. And we were having our traditional coffee and hardball was having me in for the traditional 630 In the morning breakfast and I get thrown out around nine in the morning. And I asked these guys what’s up, and they put their feet up on the cocktail table. They would tell me how they feel about certain offensive linemen like Jermaine iluminar, who’s making some money in some other places. But what’s not John Harbaugh’s guy, right? You’ve mentioned Ben Cleveland. And I just want to say this for the record, because this is me being flipping after sitting up on like putting 25th anniversary together with all of these people from the inside of the inside of the inside. I just would say this for for anybody that pays attention to this. These are really, really astute up all night, working hard on this. They have opinions, they have tape, they have data, they have sports science, they have trainers, they have I like this guy, this guy’s got to off the field issue this guy has, doesn’t want to be here, this guy’s got a whatever all of this stuff they know after having a guy in the building for two or three or four years, and this is what I will always say this time of the year. You can guess and you can play internet expert you can go out and read the websites and all of these rags and I see ad on x and e insider this and insider that. They always tell you what, how they’re really feeling when they make their decisions. When they make that date. They give you the T Lee’s they like Ronnie Stanley, they think he’s got more football left in him. That may be you when I do Morgan Moses. They really feel like they needed some draft picks right like they really need some draft picks. And they need to figure this offensive line out for the next couple years. But I have a feeling that if they’re dealing off Moses, if they’re letting Zeigler go out the side door that they won think they’re really smart about replacing them and they’ll find another Ricky Wagner another Ryan Jensen, or that they have that guy because they were always stockpiling these offensive linemen and they get them to class about year three, year four, and the old system just in time to go off to Tampa and get $55 million and win a couple of Super Bowls. Right? So are one Super Bowl I didn’t want to write. But nonetheless, I throw it to you at this point. What do they really feel about the offensive line because to me, that’s the deed that they showed how they felt about Derrick Henry, you and I went for four weeks on six weeks on who’s gonna be the runningback who’s good. They made they they they sided with me on that one. They thought man we’re gonna spend 8 million we’re gonna get fat back Yeah, we’re gonna get we’re gonna get up. Dude, we need to dude to go with Lamar not a draft pick not a second round Nether Ray Rice gap that we need to do. They made that decision. You wouldn’t have made that decision. Right. But we talked about it Ronnie Stanley. I don’t know, maybe they’re just desperate. And it’s sort of like, they couldn’t, could they not caught him? Money wise, I’m thinking about that and thinking like, Hmm, you know, you want to play with Morgan Moses and have this cap, hit on run and then go into camp without a left tackle. But they like Ronnie stem. And they’ve told us things, I guess to this, the tea leaves are they’ve they’ve shown us they wanted a back. They want Ronnie Stanley at a price at a price, right that they could and they fixed all that. But they must love a couple of these offensive linemen they already have because I don’t think they go naked into the wilderness like this. Well, we’re gonna
Luke Jones 15:50
see, we’re gonna find out. I mean, it’s, I think Ben Cleveland replacing Kevin Zeitler. And by the way, I mean, considering how pretty lucrative the start of the market was, you know, start a free agency was for guards. I think with Kevin Zeitler. One, he’s gonna be 34 years old. I think there’s some concern about that knee injury he had late in the year, I do wonder how much of that scared off the ravens, I wonder if if that scared off some other teams, because you look at some of the other guards out there, less accomplished. And I get it. He’s not, he’s not a spring chicken. But for him to be unsigned, going into the second week of free agency, I think perhaps he might also be
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:29
looking for a three year deal for real for real ski, and think he’s gonna play three, he might be thinking, I’m gonna play three more years, and I’m going to get paid three, you know, like, show instead of a team thinking, dude, you might not make it to Thanksgiving.
Luke Jones 16:42
Well, and that’s and that’s the thing, but at the same time, we also know how teams throw it or throw around, and I said throw away. That’s a Freudian slip. But teams throw away money on free agents. I mean, they do it
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:53
rather than be 26 and 34 when they throw it, but to your point, and we’ve been through the villain of waivers and the garage. I mean, I’m thinking of the willie Andrew. I mean, you know, they’ve been through that channel, even bright McKinney, right. But also mapper, but you know, on the other side, they’ve had some and Morgan Moses, you’ve been very and Zeidler very serviceable guys that they brought in. They’re good at this, too. I mean, to me, kookiness, they’ve identified somebody that’s gonna get cut somewhere. Like, they’re just really good about this. And we sit here naked on March 18. And say, Whoa, we’re gonna go you know, if you read it. Oh, you know, the linemen? I? Yeah, they’re, they have something up their sleeve. They always do. Well, we’ll see. Yeah,
Luke Jones 17:38
I mean, but they’re also years where they think they do. And then they have a major problem. I mean, back in 2021, they thought el hundra, Villa Nueva was going to be a good insurance policy for Ronnie Stanley, and he wasn’t, you know, he was, he was bad. Their offensive line was bad that year, the year that Marshall yonder retired, they kind of thought that they could figure out right guard, and they really did it. And that’s why a year later, they went and signed Kevin Zeitler. But they they struggled at that position. So you never know. But I think the overall the prevailing theme, first of all, a couple of things. And to address what you said about Ronnie Stanley, it was prohibitive to cut him. I mean, it just was, you’re gonna have to the only way that it made any sense whatsoever from a salary cap standpoint, was what was going to be a post June 1. And then what does that mean? You don’t get that cap space until June. So you’re all that cap space that you’re gonna get. You’re sitting out, you know, the first, second, third, fourth and fifth wave of free agency. And through that lens, you still need a left tackle, because I don’t think Patrick McHenry is that guy. And when you’re picking 30th, overall, it’s one thing to say, All right, well, we’ll get our next Ben Grubbs, or we’ll get our next Morgan, Moses, or let’s say, Orlando Brown, who I know wasn’t a late first round pick. But he’s the third round pick, and ended up playing as the year went on. Point is picking 30th. Overall, you’re not finding a week one rookie starting left tackle, you might find the guy that’s going to grow into that role. You might find a guy that can do that in year two, or maybe he can even do it by week 10. But you’re not finding a guy picking 30th overall that you’re going to feel any level of confidence and comfort as a contender. That’s going to start at left tackle week one. So that’s where I think you look at this and say, All right, what can we do from a cap standpoint? What can we do from a compensation standpoint, to save some cap space? Offer Ronnie Stanley some incentives that if he plays and he plays well, and he stays on the field, he can make himself much more whole, financially for where he was going to be where he was supposed to be in 2024. And oh, yeah, if he has that really good here, then we’ll, we’ll tear up the last year of his deal and he can hit he can hit the market and you know, he’ll be 31, which isn’t young, but it’s not Kevin Zeitler old either. So it gives him some opportunity to have a really good year, get himself in good shape, put the knee injury that he dealt with all last year behind him, and try to come out and be not the 2019 version of Ronnie Stanley. I think that ship sailed five years later, but to be a better version of what we saw in 2023. And I think that’s the calculated bet that the ravens are taking. And again, we so often try to view these things through the lens of yes or no pass or fail. There’s more nuance to it. You know, Ronnie Stanley Cup was a major value concern paying him what was it $15 million between his base salary and the roster bonus, he was going to get his overall cap number was like $26 million. He was a major value concern. But now when you look at the rework deal, that brings his cap number down to I think it’s in the neighborhood of, I want to say it’s like 17, something like that. I still, it’s still on the high side, but it’s much more tenable. It’s much you can deal with that. So money
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:10
is unbelievable, dude, he’s made $101 million. As so far as I don’t go to the math often and in I don’t, and you don’t see it newspapers so much for you like you have to go look for it. Because it doesn’t sit just sit there you have to go to over the cap or sport track wins places. But like, it’s no wonder these guys don’t talk to any of us. I’m just like, sort of like, it’s just, it’s really, because I sit here and talk to John Martin about $100 million. And you know, and hitting the lottery and what winning 700 million this week would be in Powerball? Or are you making a million, it’s really, it’s unbelievable, it really goes. It’s, it’s, it’s just, I just have to take a moment and powder off after looking up to salaries and just thinking like, when you’re like, give him a chance to go out and make a little bit more money. And I’m like, okay, man, like, they cut his money, and he was gonna get take the market, but the lifestyle change of all of that and going someplace where it’s not a contender. This is good business, where everybody just to stay in the boat, if he can still play. If he can go out and play 18 games and be a left tackle for a Super Bowl champion. I question that. Well, at
Luke Jones 22:19
the same time, look, look how close they got to making the Super Bowl with him as their left tackle this past year at less than 100% and missing some time. So you know, I mean, we’re gonna see I think it’s obviously a huge offseason. For him. I think it behooves the Ravens that he comes out and plays well, because they are going to have so many question marks. But I want to get back to overall vision for the offensive line. And I think where they’re going under Todd Monken. And I think this even played into where they are with Derrick Henry, and I made the point to you last week that I think there’s people who only look at Derrick Henry and see how big he is, and see what the numbers look like and seeing the highlights. Derrick, Henry’s the kind of back that when he’s at his best, it’s getting to the edge, actually. And that’s not to say he can’t run between the tackles. It’s not to say he doesn’t run people over not saying any of that. But I think there’s this perception of him that he’s this between the tackle mauler. And when really when you see him at his best, we even saw him do this against the Ravens in London back in October. He gets to the edge. And I think
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:24
one thing and he’s got five steps and momentum going and you’re you’ve got two steps moving backwards sometimes. And that’s trouble. Sure, sure. But part
Luke Jones 23:31
of that is also with an offensive line that does more zone blocking. And I think they’re looking to get more athletic there. And I think that’s why you’re seeing, you know, not a lot of interest that they had in keeping Kevin Zeitler at 34 Even though he’s coming off of a season where he was their second best offensive lineman behind Tyler Linder. Bomet center. But I think with that move with the move, move on from Morgan Moses, who I see a lot of people give grief and treat the act like he was so bad this past year. Well, pro football focus gave him a good grade and ESPN is past block winrate he had a pretty good grade so must have been doing something right. And I think part of this is also I think we have higher expectations around the league for offensive line play than what you actually see practically speaking. And I think a lot of that goes into the college game, pro style offenses or lack thereof in college and linemen not getting in a three point stance as frequently as they did in the past in the collegiate game. So there’s lots lots of issues and and tentacles to that whole debate. But how
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:36
much of that goes to Monken being here for a year back in the lead? Watching the league every I mean, he’s a genius, right? I mean, literally, right? I mean, like, hey, we need to do this a little differently. Maybe if we were constructed a little differently. We could do things a little differently. I can’t do that with a 34 year old guard. I can’t do the things I want to do and a gimpy left tackle that’s we can’t cut you know, he’s our guy and you know He’s mediocre. He’s He’s middle of the pack at this point, we need to play to his strengths. Like, I would think this is. And again, this is when I used to talk, the hardball and the caster. And I had that this is an organizational. This is an organizational move around Lamar to me around Lamar, and we can’t have him getting hit. We have to have the Let’s pay a running back to get to take some hits. And a really good one. And but figuring out the offensive line, I think, last year’s last year, I don’t, I don’t think they’re gonna go back. I think they want to change what they’re doing. To some degree. Revolution, right. Evolution of the revolution. How about that? That’s pretty good. Let’s look at that splits. Yeah,
Luke Jones 25:43
I mean, look, I mean, is it going to be drastic? I mean, we’re gonna, they’re gonna have three new starters. So it’s gonna be drastic, at least from a personnel standpoint. But like I said, I think they’re, they want to be become more athletic. They’ve really been a team that’s taken pride in having big offensive linemen and physical and you think about what they tried to do running a lot of heavy personnel under Greg Roman, I think they’re trying to transition on that front. Now exactly what that’s going to look like, but we’re gonna have to see you they bring in I mean, I think Ben Cleveland’s gonna play right guard. But what’s what’s kind of interesting about this is, he doesn’t fit that mold of what I just really described. I mean, he’s not he’s a big, massive physical, right guard, he’s not necessarily a guy that you think about that’s going to be really good in space and pulling in things like that. And the way that Tyler Lindor bomb can move and you think about him blocking at the second level and downfield and, and some of the big blocks he threw last year to, to spring keep Mitchell on some of those long runs that we saw from the rook from the speedy rookie. So So
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:49
what he’s capable of to right in the middle that that Mitt that he special. Thanks for now. Yeah,
Luke Jones 26:56
it’s very evident. I mean, Linda bombs, the anchor, the best, you know, he’s their best lineman at this point in their building around him. I mean, Ronnie Stanley’s here for one more year, because it wasn’t, you know, you didn’t want to have four new offensive lineman, and it wasn’t practical to cut him. And you have to be in a position where you could bring in a left tackle on top of what you’re already going to have to do. You know, I think you’re trying to draft your left tackle the future to maybe play guard for a year to maybe play it right tackle for a year. But
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:24
you know, if I still talk there, if the costume is such a baseball fan, yeah, Red Sox fan. This is straight up the middle, right? Henry? Lamar, Linder bomb on the other side, money in the middle. You know, they just spent the money last week and then ro Quan, they spent all that money, and they’re gonna have to spend money on Kyle Hamilton. I mean, it really does. appeal to the baseball fan and you a little bit?
Luke Jones 27:44
Sure, sure. Yeah. I mean, we’ll see how it plays out. But you still got to fill out there are other spots on your roster. The offensive line? I mean, we’re gonna see I as I wrote it in my 12 ravens thoughts at Baltimore positive.com. After the first few days of free agency, I think talking about replacing three offensive linemen, I think it’s one of those things that sounds doable, and sounds practical and sounds good in March. And doesn’t doesn’t necessarily match up and how it looks come September. And that’s not to say that they’re going to fail and doing that. That’s not to say that it won’t work out, ultimately. But my point is, it’s probably gonna be some growing pains early in the season next year. And that’s where you’re hoping Derrick Henry is really going to make a major difference there. Because it might be choppy, and in fact, I’m not going to say might it’s going to be choppy, because we even saw with this current group this past year, that came together over the course of a couple seasons. Now that got that group got better. And you’re talking about veteran players even working together, let alone talking about young guys.
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:43
Guys, were really good players will look back Zeidler will look back at me for crying out loud, do they? They were 13 fun. They were unbelievable. They were great. I mean, it was a good it was a good offensive line. Like I say healthy for them. Like Well, I mean, offensive tackle. I mean,
Luke Jones 28:58
you know, they had to rotate guys down the stretch. I mean, that was they were doing that for health reasons. And that was unusual. And that’s not ideal, and we talked about that but but now they’re in a position where okay, right tackle. Who’s it gonna be? I mean, is it someone on the roster right now? Dan it to me, Daniel fall, Lele has not shown the potential to be a guy that’s going to start I mean, think he can fill in, he’s a backup. But again, big not really a guy that moves very well. So not fitting the mold of what I’m talking about here as far as what I think their vision is long term, but they’re picking 30th. Overall, it’s a deep draft class. I think they’re hoping they can find someone that will step in. Maybe they sign a veteran stop gap for someone that you say, Okay, we’re going to draft player x in the first round or the second round. We think he can be our starting right tackle but maybe not week one, and we’ll go out and sign a poor man’s Morgan Moses who’s going to start the first Five games or we’ll put Patrick McHenry there in September, with the idea that this guy is going to move in and, you know, in the way that Orlando Brown did his rookie year, you know, as the third round picks, so, so I think I really am skeptical that the right tackle is on the roster right now. Right guard, we’ve talked about Ben Cleveland, left guard, you know, what’s for he is going to look like Andrew Vorhees who they drafted in the seventh round last year out of USC, remember, he was the kid who tore his ACL at the Combine was a multi year starter at USC, prior to the knee injury was viewed as a guy that could be a mid round pick, you know, not a first rounder, not a second rounder. But you know, a guy that early day three,
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:41
you know, the kind of no job Oh, guy, right?
Luke Jones 30:45
What do you mean, like not, like, in thoughts
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:48
of how injured he was, and where his seal that
Luke Jones 30:50
he was gonna be rich? He was drafted with the idea that it’s a red shirt. I mean, it was an idea that said, You know what he’s gonna miss. He’s gonna miss his first season, but we think he can be a potential starter for us. So we’ll, yeah, well, we’ll draft him in the seventh round. Yeah, we’ll, we’ll draft him in the seventh round, knowing he’s not going to play and then, you know, we’ll see what he looks like. Do we have any idea if he’s gonna be able to play at this level? No. And especially on the heels of coming off of an ACL injury, I mean, we’re not talking about a first round pick, we’re talking about a guy that, you know, might have been a, maybe at best a third round pick, maybe he’s a fourth or a fifth round pick, which by the way, fourth, and fifth round picks can develop into starters on the offensive line. We’ve seen it here many times. But my point is, he’s not a sure thing. Big salah, who we saw drafted in the sixth round, last year, started training camp as their starting left guard. Once the pads came on, it didn’t go so well. And that’s the nicest way to put it. So I think he’s a guy that is this is a massive offseason for him. Because I think if you ask me right now, what’s more likely he’s on the roster bubble, or he’s really seriously competing to be their starting left guard. It’s probably the former, you know, based on the fact that they didn’t even think enough of him to want to play him in week 18, against the Steelers, you know, a chance to see what he looked like. And he didn’t play an ACC game even so, how they play John Simpson, the one starter on the row line that actually played extensively in that game. So, you know, I think we’re gonna see how this plays out. And, look, they have some means of cap space to, to go out and get a veteran stop gap here are their, you know, they’re gonna see how these young guys look. They’re certainly, I mean, at this point, Nestor, if the Ravens aren’t drafting, two offensive linemen in, say, the first four rounds, if not the first three, you know, and I certainly, you know, at this point, I’d put money on them taking offensive lineman in the first round, you know, not a sure thing. You never know, Kyle, the next Kyle Hamilton sitting there at 30 at that they had a number 10 Overall Grade on then okay, then that changes things. But if the board kind of goes the way you expect it to guess and they’re taken out in Oh, lime in there, whether it’s a tackle or a guard, because they need both. So, you know, we’re gonna have to see how this plays out. But they do have a couple internal candidates that are at least interesting. And we’re gonna see what they think of them. I think at this point, they’ve got a lot of work to do there. There’s no doubt, you know, the day would say right now, I think the truth serum, they would say, Yeah, we do like Vorhees. And we do like Ben Cleveland to handle right guard. But yeah, we got to figure out right tackle, because, you know, I’m guessing the internal options they don’t really feel overly confident about right now. They like Patrick mCherry is their sixth man. Right? They like him to be the swing guy. Not a starter. At least Plan A anyway. So yeah, they’ve got to figure that out. They’ve got to figure out other depth spots, you know, the defense edge, backup, you know, they need to number three corner, they need to number three safety. But you know, this, there are lots of teams right now, most teams, in fact, there isn’t anyone who has complete roster right now, right? I mean, it’s March. So from that standpoint, you know, they’re, they’re not in a position where there’s any reason to panic. And they still have a great group of core players. And they’ll take their core players up against anyone not named the Kansas City Chiefs at this point, I suppose. But we’ll we’ll see how it plays out. But early waves of free agency, I can’t say I’m shocked with how it went. I think we all knew that the Ravens were going to lose more players than they would gain over the first week of free agency. I think that’s just by the sheer number of free agents and the lack of cap space that they had that that was always going to be the outcome here.
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:42
I love how the haters say they had their carcass pick through it. You know, they haven’t had an offseason like this really where it’s been this sort of ravage, not yours. We’re like Ray and Emery we’re at the end of the end of Iran and there was a championship or whatever. This is a real transition for the offense and I’m you know real commitment to the defense with Raekwon. And, you know, straight up the middle and the money, they’re gonna have to give Kyle Hamilton and figuring out the back end. And you know, we’re gonna have other problems down in Sarasota this week. Like too many outfielders maybe not enough pitching, looking are gonna be in Sarasota, watching baseball later on in the week. I’m sure they’re gonna be a lot of moves in the next week, week and a half some games on television later on this week, you know, Luke, and I wait and thought, well, they’re gonna put the games on TV. Let’s go down there and get on TV. So we’ll get down there. I’ll have my orange jersey on you know, it’s not gonna be as 85 and sunny as I want it to be but what the hell it’s Florida. We’ll have a good time. Looking. I’ll be doing the owners meetings. One of us will be doing the owners meetings. I’ll be doing the bar. And maybe my mi See See you soon. We’re going to Florida next week. By the way, I screwed up. I said the evolution revolution. I said it was the banana splits. I screwed up my early 70s late 60s Psychedelic trippy Dippy a monkey’s before we go to break, Luke, I have to ask you this. Are you familiar with Lancelot link secret chimp? No. Okay, I need you to Google that Lancelot link secret chimp do it when we get off the air watch a video or to have a drink or loosen up? Yeah, I’m wearing the blunt shirt. Let you know. Bring a sense of humor. This is late 60s. Wavy, great. Like you’re gonna see it and you’re gonna say I can’t believe they made that but it think it was an answer to the monkeys TV show. And a little bit like Planet of the Apes and like all of that era, land slot link secret chimp that’s for you young kids out there. So you can see about the evolution revolution and know that I wasn’t losing my mind when I referenced the banana splits. And that was trial La la la la la la now you’ll be singing that one all day long. I am Nestor. We are wn St. Am 1570 Towson Baltimore. Baseball ahead and football ahead and Luke and I talking about things stay with us opening day soon.
