Luke Jones gives Dennis Koulatsos a training camp primer as Ravens camp rolls toward Houston opener and the injury to Marlon Humphrey becomes real on the field.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
ravens, john harbaugh, dobbins, marlon humphrey, team, play, good, practice, cornerback, years, talked, field, corner, great, game, injuries, baltimore, season, jk, reps
SPEAKERS
Dennis Koulatsos, Luke Jones
Dennis Koulatsos 00:02
Welcome back leading off the show, as always is my good friend, Luke Jones doing great things covering the Orioles, the ravens and much more Luke, welcome in.
8
Luke Jones 00:10
Dennis, how are you, my friend? It’s great to talk to you as always
Dennis Koulatsos 00:13
same same here, Luke, we’re in full bloom and my goodness, since the last time I talked to you, or you’re still doing some great things. Ravens, of course doing great things on the field as well. But the team is evolving. You got some news from the council? Right?
Luke Jones 00:28
Absolutely. I mean, as you just mentioned, Orioles on the west coast. So I haven’t been I’ve been watching late at night but haven’t been around the team but plenty going on with the Ravens on the heels of their preseason opening win against Philadelphia, which, you know, got a whole lot to take away from that. I mean, we can get into that if you want but I think the big news Monday ahead of them beginning joint practices with the Washington commanders was JK Dobbins back on the practice field. John Harbaugh says he’s 100% healthy. We’ll hear from Dobbins at some point and point blank he needs to be asked, why weren’t you practicing because still no one has a fish. Dooley said why, I mean, he was willing to pee up list but John Harbaugh has made no mention of an injury. He said he’s healthy now. He was asked why Monday was the day for Dobbins and John just kind of wanted to leave it alone, which I can understand at this point in time, as I said to you, all along. If Dobbins began practicing right around now, he would have four weeks to get ready for the start of the season, I think gives him plenty of time to acclimate get plenty of time to ramp up plenty of time to get back in football shape. And from a team standpoint, get enough get enough time to figure out how he fits in and how to best optimize what he does within the scope of Todd Duncan’s offense. So you know, I said those first couple of weeks, I thought the team would be patient at least publicly in their stance, I’m sure and not even I’m sure I know there’s been some frustration and some shoulder shrugging because we’ve talked about the realities of the runningback market and how Dobbins fits into that picture. But I think from a team perspective, John Harbaugh is not going to say this publicly, but JK Dobbins is one of those guys. You know what you’re getting from him if he’s healthy, if he’s right, if he’s in shape, and by all accounts he is and we’ll see how he does out on the field. If he tweaks a hamstring the first few days he’s practicing, he’s going to be under a lot of scrutiny then and understandably so but he’s one of those guys that probably doesn’t need the full assortment of training camp practices to really be ready for the start of the season. So I thought mid August was always when it made sense if his most realistic goal. Like he wants a new contract, you know, he wants to be paid and he wants to be paid handsomely. But his if his most realistic goal was, at the very least I’m going to mitigate some early training camp injury risk from those practices in late July and early August. If that was his most realistic goal, then he appears to have accomplished that and, you know, no worse for wear in terms of rejoining the Ravens on the practice field.
Dennis Koulatsos 02:59
8Now he shares an agent with Dalvin Cook who of course, signed for, I guess, a top end of his contract around 8.6 million. Ellie’s gone to the Patriots for again, between three and six minutes. So I don’t know if there was any mate I don’t know if they throw him a bone if they throw money. What happened for him to show up, but you correctly predicted weeks ago that this is about the time we would see JK dominance. And it was great to see JK out in the field. And I want to talk about John Harbaugh, too, because there’s a clip of there’s a prolong HUD between John Harbaugh, and JK and John’s really squeezing them. And John has come a long way, you know from being this hardcore iron fisted a coach to now he’s a I’m not gonna say he’s still up a player’s coach, but he has a lot more flexibility than what he did when he started 15 years ago with the Ravens?
Luke Jones 03:46
Yeah, no question about it. And I think part of that Dennis is sometimes you just have to play the game. Let’s Let’s call a spade a spade, I’m sure the Ravens were frustrated, you know, they’re not going to come out and say that publicly, but they want their starting running back out on the field, especially when you have a new offensive coordinator, you have all these new moving parts. So there was frustration, but I also think, at least to a point now, that doesn’t mean that they were happy about Dobbins sitting out the first three weeks of training camp, but to a point, I think there’s some empathy. You know, we’ve talked and you and I’ve talked about this a lot. I mean, the market, its reality, and you just mentioned some names who were paid very handsomely, even a year ago, now, not making very much and we can talk about whether that’s right or not, but the market is the market as as is the case for any number of other services and goods that are available for people to purchase. So, you know, I think if you’re John hardball, regardless of how you might feel about it privately, does it serve any purpose to be certainly with the media to be surly with Dobbins to his face? Anything like that? Yeah, I’m sure he has his private thoughts about it. But, Dobbins back on the field. mid August. Yep, plenty time to, you know, almost a full month until they kick off against Houston in week one. So, from that stamp But you’re right. And I think if you’re a coach, however you fancy yourself players coach more of a an old school. I don’t want to say taskmaster, but you know what I’m talking about as far as how coaches can, can range. But I think, John, having done this now for going into his 16th season, I think he understands that you got to play the game sometimes. And there is business here, it’s not, you know, it’s not coaching in college. It’s not being that special teams coordinator. When you’re the head coach, you’re in charge of everything that happens from a football, you know, day to day football process. So I think from that standpoint, plays the game well, and as you said, it makes for a nice social media post, fans get the warm and fuzzies and JK Dobbins is back on the field. We’ll see how this year plays out and even more, so we’ll see how next offseason plays out. I think that’s a different story. But in the meantime, the Ravens want JK Dobbins to be great and he needs to be great to maximize whatever his earning potential is going to be on the market. Whether with the Raven, whether it’s the Ravens paying him or one of the 31 or the other teams,
Dennis Koulatsos 06:01
ravens cornerback depth continues to be a concern that certainly had some entry to back there. You’re shaking your head for our listeners on the radio can never have enough corners that rings in our ears as Newsom said so many years ago, this team was bitten hard by injuries at that position seen it seems like going back to forever Luke?
Luke Jones 06:20
Yeah, and I mean, Dennis, you know me I’ve been covering the Ravens a long time and I’m I’m not someone that’s much for hyperbole or recency bias. But when I really look at the state of this cornerback group right now, I don’t mean later in the season when you’ve had a bunch of injuries like they did two years ago and we all remember what happened against bank the Bengals in December, you know, right after Christmas when they had COVID issues that injuries Marlon Humphrey was done for the year. But this early stage of the of the preseason, knowing that yes, they still have some time here and Eric Decosta could still make a trade you know what we’ll see what happens I haven’t seen a position group look this unsettled this uncertain at cornerback probably have to go back to 2014 for me, and that’s when, you know they had Jimmy Smith, and they had LaDarius Webb great that looks that looked good on paper. But shocky Brown and ASA Jackson, you were hoping to be your number three number four corners. And I don’t know I look at this group right now. And look, Marlon Humphrey is phenomenal. You know, he’s one of the best corners in the NFL. Or we I’m signing off on rock you’re seeing being a starter, but he’s not what Marcus Peters was a couple years ago. So you have some question there. He’s missed time. You know, John Harbaugh said on Monday that he should be back pretty soon. I don’t think he’s in danger of missing the start of the season or anything like that. But he was a guy that needed reps needed to get acclimated to this defense and wasn’t necessarily practicing at an extremely high level. But you just look beyond him, even if we’re gonna sign off on your scene and you say, Okay, those are your starters. Who’s the nickel for this team? You know, who are the outside corners, that you’re confident in that if some to one guy and Humphrey has been mostly durable, other than you know, the injury two years ago that that he had in Pittsburgh that took him out for the remainder of the season. Other than that, he’s missed very little time in his NFL career, but rocky scenes been a guy that has had nagging injuries and missed some time. So you’re gonna need depth. And I don’t know who that is right now. They have seemed to have move Brandon Stevens back to outside corner. We saw him play there extensively in the preseason opener. I don’t think he’s bad there. I think he’s someone who’s generally there in coverage, but we’ve seen him over and over, struggled to make plays on the ball. But even if we’re gonna sign off on him, who’s your number four, who’s your number five there? I mean, Jaylen armour Davis can’t stay healthy. Yep. Come on. Seymour has been a good story. And look, I’m I’m an advocate of how, how well he’s played. I’ve mentioned it on multiple occasions. We talked to him, talk to him in the locker room after Saturday night’s game, but he’s been a career special teams guy. I mean, is that really going to translate that if he gets pressed into action, you’re going to feel overly confident there. You know how you Kelly their fifth round rookie draft pick, Dennis, he didn’t play until well into the second half on Saturday night. To me that was a sign that they don’t think terribly highly of his development and where he is right now. That doesn’t mean he won’t get there. But if they thought he had a chance to help them sooner rather than later. My goodness, why wouldn’t you have him playing in the first half? It was the Eagles backups. It’s not like it was AJ Brown and DeMonte Smith out there. So to me that was a sign that they don’t think he’s ready or might not even be close to ready so you can hear the in the urgency, my voice. I have some concern at cornerback. There’s no question about it. And it’s not so much that these guys aren’t going to come back from these injuries. You know, I mean, Jalen Omer Davis is supposed to be back soon. We did hear about Pepe Williams he’s having another ankle surgery so he is going to miss the start of the season but he’s not an established guy. either, so I just gave you a bunch of ifs Marlon Humphrey. Yes. Number one corner one of the best in the league, you’re not worrying about him after that. It’s a lot of uncertainty with that group and Dennis other than, obviously your franchise quarterback in the Ravens know that all too well the last two years and having major issues on your offensive line, there’s nothing that will sink a contenders chances of playing deep into January or in some cases, getting to January then having those kinds of issues at the cornerback position. So I don’t even feel like I’m sounding the alarm. And that doesn’t mean I don’t think this is good football team overall. But that is a position group right now that is not inspiring a whole lot of confidence. Because you’re dealing you’re counting on some young guys to come forward and it’s very simple. They’re just missing missing time on task right now, you know, to those reps on Saturday night against Philadelphia would have been so valuable for a Jaylen armour Davis or to Marion Williams if he was healthy but they’re not and you know, or even rock Eocene for that matter who’s not that experience. He’s still relatively young player. So not having those guys out there. It’s not to say they won’t be back in the coming days and they will still get some some reps but it’s just a whole lot of unknown with that group. And, you know, it’s one thing to decide you’re gonna move on from Marcus Peters. And look, I don’t think Marcus Peters is the player he was a couple years ago and certainly we know about his personality and whether whether that balance is going to be enough there especially if he’s not going to be that that legit locked down corner that that he was in his in his prime, but at the same time, deciding to move on from him is not the same thing as replacing him. And at this point, I’m not confident that that the Ravens have done that and they just have a lot of uncertainty with that secondary. There’s a lot of different options and potential as far as moving guys around and safeties playing nickel and what have you. So you know, I’m not saying the cupboard is bare, but just not a whole lot of proven commodities there that you’re necessarily confident in. Other than Marlon Humphrey at the top of course,
8Dennis Koulatsos 12:01
yeah, rain was also signed DeAndre Houston Carson from the Bears Bears fans lit up by my lease my time line said he’s a great guy, great addition to the team, special teams ace but he’s a safety he can’t give you any help at corner. And now as you mentioned, if if rock is seen can’t go, Tim you’re gonna throw away from Marlon Humphrey anyway. You can bet your bottom dollar that if it’s not rocket seen that cornerback whoever it is whether it’s Brandon Stevens force and to duty whomever, they’re going to see a lot of action over there.
Luke Jones 12:32
They are and I do want to point this out because I do want to be fair, full disclosure. I mean, this isn’t wink Martindale is defense where they’re asking their corners to play a lot of man on man on an island kind of defense. They played a lot more zone last year. So it’s not even necessarily that you need a great corner opposite Marlon Humphrey, but you certainly need someone that’s going to be dependable there. You know, maybe the best example would be and I’m not saying now, obviously. But what Brandon Carr was for the Ravens four or five years ago now when when you think back to what when he came in? I mean, it’s never wasn’t a Pro Bowl cornerback for the ravens, but he was out there. And generally he gave you really a really high floor on the opposite side of Jimmy Smith at that point. And then of course, they work Marlon Humphrey into the mix as well. So do they can they identify someone that can give them that kind of play on the opposite side for Marlon Humphrey, you’re seen as the guy that they envision doing that. I’m not saying he won’t be able to do that. But when he’s now missed, you know, at least a couple of weeks here with the knee issue. You know it, it is a little bit concerning there. And again, you keep in mind, he has been someone who’s had some nagging injuries. So, you know, whether it’s Tim, whether it’s Jalen Harmer Davis, whether it’s one of the other young guys, you know, come on Seymour, who, like I said, Good camp story. But is that going to translate is, is it going to hold up against starting caliber wide receivers? You know, that’s where I’m a little more uneasy about it. So, again, this is a position group. And when you couple that with some of the questions at outside linebacker and your pass, Rush and Tyus, Bowser still not being on the field and counting on OA and David a job Oh, to take a big leap forward. Yeah, that’s a lot of lot of ifs and a lot of unknown that you’re counting on. Two extremely critical position groups to your defense,
Dennis Koulatsos 14:19
Luke bank, leaving his name that comes up a lot when you’re when analysts such as yourself are putting together a current, if you will, a 53 man roster. Some people have him on a practice squad. Some people haven’t won a team. He’s had some reps to tackle as a team trying to showcase his versatility, or are they really looking for position for him to in the effort to keep him and the starting 53 After having invested a third round pick to obtain him?
Luke Jones 14:46
8Well, you and I’ve talked about Ben Cleveland a lot. You know, we talked about tight what happened with Tyree Phillips last year where, you know, got to the end of the preseason, and it was clear that he wasn’t going to be a starting guard for them. And I think at that point because He was a former third round pick, mind you. I think they were looking to trade them. They couldn’t they waved to him and he ended up getting claimed. I think with Ben Cleveland, I think, luck, you never really want to move move on from a third round pick. Unless you just feel that he’s, it’s not going to happen. You know, I thought as much as he was kind of posterized by Jalen Carter in that highlight. He also had some good reps. And I thought he also played well at times. But one of the big knocks on him internally has been that while he’s played pretty well, in games, he’s not he has not been someone who stacked practice, you know, whether it’s because he’s just been inconsistent, he hasn’t been able to stay on the field. So I think again, you know, going back to what I was saying about the quarterbacks time on task, when that’s lost for a young player who needs to develop you, you just get to a point where it’s just like, Okay, how much more time are we gonna go down this road with this player? It’s clear, because he didn’t play left guard at all in Saturday on Saturday night’s game. He’s not in that competition. Session. Yeah, that’s between bixolon That’s between John Simpson at this point in time. So I think the question for him, it could be some of what you mentioned, as far as potentially trying to showcase him. But I think there’s also an element to, you know, they know that Kevin Zeitler is going to be a free agent after this year. Who knows what’s going going to happen there? So how does he look at right guard? How does he look at right tackle, if you’re going to be a reserve, if you’re not going to be one of the five starting offensive linemen, he’ll play multiple positions, or at least know how to play multiple positions, because that’s, that’s the gig, you know what, when you don’t have a starting job, you’ve got to be able to move around because you don’t know what’s going to happen. And you don’t have a backup for every position. So So I think it could be potentially some, some trade showcase potential. But I also think they’re trying to see if, hey, can he play multiple positions? Because if not, then he’s not a very valuable offensive lineman to keep as a depth piece. So so I think it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. And I think, a big factor here and my latest 53 man roster, projection, I had him on the wrong side of the bubble. For me, it comes down to this. I think, when you have the when you’re talking about left guard, whether it’s John Simpson, or it’s big Sala, if they decide to go with the sixth round rookie, how confident are they in him to hold down that job? You know, if they feel emphatically that he’s the guy, no questions asked. Then maybe they move on from John Simpson, maybe they try to get him on the pack on the practice squad, and they go with big salah. But if it’s a little more neck and neck, or if John Simpson wins that job, then I think it’s much tougher to keep them Cleveland, you know, because then you’d be looking at keeping what 10 offensive linemen at that point in time. I’m not saying it’s impossible, and look, there, inevitably, there’s going to be a couple of injuries. And, you know, they’ll they’ll move a guide IR, you know, whatever ends up happening, they got two more preseason games. So that’s kind of inevitable that you’ll lose someone even when hopefully, it’s just not overly important, critical player for them. So yeah, I’m not saying you can’t make room for him. I’m not saying he’s definitely not going to make the team. But I do think you look at where Ben Cleveland is. He’s not in the mix at left guard. So he’s got to play multiple positions. And if he can’t do that, if they don’t have a high enough confidence level in him to do that, then I could see him ultimately getting that Tyree Phillips treatment at the end of the preseason where they try to trade them and if not, they waive him. See if he gets through waivers. And if he gets claimed he gets claimed. Yeah, no question
Dennis Koulatsos 18:25
about that. Got to quickly mentioned, Justin Tucker and out of if was he or somebody else, but they said hey, 40 is the new 60 is the new 40 for him.
Luke Jones 18:35
That was me. Yeah.
Dennis Koulatsos 18:37
Great, great tweet. And I can talk about that as I’m approaching 60 Hopefully, it’s the new 40 But I hate just casually hits a 60 yarder with room to spare Luke.
8Luke Jones 18:48
Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s incredible. And look, I say this all the time with Nestor and I felt this way. Gosh, I felt this way, probably close to a decade. I mean, I don’t know what to say about Justin Tucker, because it’s just been said and he just continues to do it. I do think what’s probably more meaningful about that. I mean, we’ve seen Justin Tucker hit a 66 yard field goal. So 60 You know, no biggie. Right. One he made it look so easy, but two and I think this is the most important point. I think if there was any lingering question, and this isn’t necessarily something that’s on the forefront of fans minds, but with them having lost Nick Moore to the torn Achilles, they bring in Tyler OTT as the long snapper the OP their operation has specialist you know, Jordan stout punted really well to had a couple great punts and Justin Tucker hits a 60 yard field goal with ease to me that extra remove any any meaningful doubts about Tyler rots ability to be there long snapper, but you’re right. I mean, Justin Tucker, it’s just that he made it look so casual. He made it look so easy. I mean, it’s a 60 yarder and he split the uprights you know, it’s there’s, there’s I just don’t know what else to say. Because I mean, we’re gonna be a Hall of Fame kicker. He’s on a path and he has to do it for more years. I’m absolutely on the path of being the greatest kicker in NFL history as long as he does it for I don’t know, three, four or five more years, something like that probably would help him to get to another Adam finitary kind of moment, if we’re being honest. But clearly he needs the rest of the team to help them on that front. But I think, you know, it is amazing to see what he does, but I thought that was a not the most interesting point to come out of Saturday’s game, but still an important one for the Ravens that show their specialist operation look like it didn’t miss a beat. Even though they have a new long snapper. Yeah, we’re
Dennis Koulatsos 20:33
certainly running out of superlatives to describe his performance given the new battery that he has to work with. Second one in the last two seasons, of course, due to different situations, Ravens have an offer to do even clowny they’ve had a couple of other guys in for visits. So somebody this roster hasn’t done Luke, somebody’s going to have to go once they need to assign an edge rusher or run stopper either way, but this roster still not settled.
Luke Jones 21:03
Yeah. Frankly, it shouldn’t be. I mean, you heard me talk about my angst over the cornerback position, but you just said it. I mean, outside linebacker right now. I mean, Tyus Bowser, I flat out asked John Harbaugh on Monday, you know, is there concern that he’s not going to be ready for the start of the season? And he said, Now that at this point, they’re confident he’s going to be ready, apparently some of the swelling? No, it’s, it’s it’s odd, because all on Oh, understanding is the Achilles is no longer an issue for him. But this is a knee issue that he’s dealing with. And, you know, it’s just one of those deals where it’s, it was problematic in the offseason, he’s on the NFIB list. So I don’t know if he injured it, you know, working out, you know, I haven’t heard that there’s anything shady about it. And you know, just to be clear, I’m not implying that but you know, that they’re just with him or John Harbaugh called the knee, quote, agitated, and he’s just been dealing with swelling and has been able to get on the practice field, but because of that scenario, and if it’s something that’s more something that could potentially linger, and not an injury, per se, but you know, and again, who knows what the deal is, is it tendinitis? What is it, but that just means even more so that they need to bring in another veteran and we know that they visited with Kyle van Noy a few weeks ago, they recently visited with to Davian clowny. Both of those guys, you know what, while van Noy not known for his past rushing prowess, good, good in coverage, good to be able to play set the edge and play the run clowny certainly known more as being the first overall pick and pass thrust potential, even though he’s never really consistently put up big sack totals. But he’s a good run defender too. And that’s something that whether Bowser is right or not. They need more of that because oh, wait at times looks good. Doing it other times has struggled with it. You know, I think there’s confidence that a Javo eventually will be a good run defender. But we even stolen a couple of occasions in Saturday night’s game, he got caught crashing inside. And on one occasion Mariota leaked out and picked up a first round running on third and long so tedious Robinson, he’s a rookie, you know, how much can you really expect him to do for you in that regard. So they need at least one veteran to bring to bring in and you’d like it to be someone that can do a little bit of both write a little pass rush juice for you, as well as playing the run. So yeah, we’ll see how it plays out. Anytime you have these kinds of visits, if you’ve identified a player, a veteran that you like, typically it comes down to two things. One, the big one, you know, the Paramount one being money. And two, sometimes it’s a veteran player that’s not in a major rush to get into training camp. And that’s okay to a point. But we are getting, we’re getting down to the point where you’re gonna start hearing the clock ticking for the start of the season and you’re gonna bring someone in you want to give them enough time to get acclimated to the defense. So, we’ll see. Now certainly, you know, we know they made an offer to clowny John Harbaugh said the door is still open. He has since visited with Jacksonville though it sounds like there wasn’t going to be a deal there. In fact, it sounds like an offer wasn’t made. So you know, who knows? Clearly he’s trying to get a little bit more money out of the Ravens or whoever it might be which is his right so we’ll see how it plays out but yeah, between corner and their outside linebacker picture tough to fathom they wouldn’t bring in I’d like to see a veteran at both of those positions brought in but you know, there are only so many guys available right now and you’re gonna have to you’re gonna have to pay Yeah, especially if it’s someone that’s in demand from some other teams
Dennis Koulatsos 24:34
8Mariota was certainly a good test for the defense the young guys that got looks that they wouldn’t ordinarily see with with a classic drop by quarterback and as you mentioned the newer edge rushers that got a bit of a lesson last Saturday night.
Luke Jones 24:47
No question about it. You know, I think with with what we saw from the defense overall poll, lots of not necessarily like in the first half, you know, some of those guys I thought played better in the second half. But yeah, I think you got an idea of why the Eagles are the defending NFC champions. They got a lot of depth on their roster. And they didn’t even play their starters. And yet, they still gave the Ravens no shortage of problems in that first half. So what does that mean? Got a whole lot? I don’t think but to your point, guys, like the job of younger guys that were out there that they certainly benefited from reps and putting some putting those reps on tape and going up against someone that you’re not familiar with to see how they fare. So, you know, in a job post case, some good and some not so good, which is probably what you expect from someone who is still basically a rookie, considering how limited his practice time and his certainly his playing time was last year.
Dennis Koulatsos 25:44
Well, before I let you go and look just your thoughts and comments on the Orioles. Of course Cedric Mullins, making a phenomenal return right that you couldn’t have scripted that one better.
Luke Jones 25:53
Yeah. I mean, that series in Seattle was just incredible. It really was. I mean, they didn’t swing the bats. Well, you know, they got their butts kicked on Friday night, which was on the heels of a really tough Houston series that as you and I talked about last week. So you know, I think after that Friday night, you’re kind of worried. I mean, the mariners had been the hottest team in baseball, and they figure it out, figure out a way to win two games and extra innings. I mean, it was Felix Batista DOING what He did on Saturday night in the one nothing game in 10 innings and and then on Sunday, it was a Cedric Mullins show, but you know, so they keep rolling and even even against San Diego on Monday night, Grayson Rodriguez, I don’t know if you had a chance to see it, Dennis. But that was as dominant as we’ve seen Grayson Rodriguez look, and we know that there’s a reason why he was the top pitching prospect in baseball over the last year or so, you know, or one of the top pitching prospects in baseball. And he’s pitched well, since he’s returned, you know, since the all star break, he’s pitched well. But Monday night, to me, that kind of felt like the arrival in terms of that guy looked like, he looked like a dude, it looked like a number one starter, he looked like an ace pitching seven strong innings the way he did, gives up the solo homer, and then he strikes out three in a row right after that. I mean, that was impressive. So I mean, what else can we say? We’ve talked about some of the concerns about this team. We know, on the pitching side, the bullpen the number of young starters they have that are, you know, getting to or blowing past their career high in innings, you know, they’re gonna have to manage that they’ve gone to a six man rotation at this point. So, you know, there are things about this team that you have some concerns about when you look at it on paper, but it’s uncanny just their ability to get the job done. And I was talking about this with a reporter the other day that so many times you hear about a team that’s resilient, and you know, they never quit all those narratives that you’re about in sports. And a lot of times that’s, I kind of feel those narratives are overused, but this team’s ability to just find a way to win game. It truly has been uncanny and it’s why they’re in first place and why they’re going to make the playoffs and why they have a heck of a chance of who knows maybe being the number one seed and earning that first round by that would certainly be nice in terms of being able to set up their pitching staff the way Brandon Hyde would like
8Dennis Koulatsos 28:07
yeah, it’s been a very long time since we had it. We talked about the Orioles. Yeah, like like we’re doing right now. It’s sure it’s a lot of fun, man. It’s great going through the park. Great talking to the fan base about them, but it’s a lot of great energy surrounding the team.
Luke Jones 28:20
No question about it. It’s fun. And we’re gonna see how it plays out the rest of the way you hope they stay healthy. You know, Mullins is back. Aaron Hicks came off the aisle, they did have to send Colton Couser down which I didn’t like to see. But I also I understand it. I mean he’s he was really struggling to a point where it was tough to put them in the lineup and you know, you hope he goes down to Norfolk resets for a couple of weeks. And who knows maybe he’ll be back come September and can still help them because I think still has a high ceiling. But there’s so much to like about this team right now. Even with some of their imperfections. They’re still finding ways to win games. And by the way, they’ve been beating maybe not the Padres here as much because they’ve been along with the Mets the most disappointing team in baseball but they’ve done it against really good competition. They’ve been beating winning teams and even when they lose a series like they did against the Astros, they found a way to avoid getting swept and they bounce back and they get the last game of that series. If your your formula is winning series and then avoiding sweeps your work you’re going to do you’re going to be in good position by the end of the season and that’s what the Orioles have done now for going on close to five months now.
Dennis Koulatsos 29:30
All right look, please tell our listeners where they can find your social media all the great stuff you do for wn St. Baltimore positive, your blog and everything else.
Luke Jones 29:38
8Absolutely. I encourage everyone to follow us on Twitter at wn S T can follow me personally at Baltimore Luke, check out my blog about comes cocoons for the Baltimore, the latest on the Ravens I have my 12 ravens thoughts from everyday practice Orioles thoughts. Certainly as they wind down this West Coast trip and they’ll be returning home we’ll have plenty there. You want to be on the wn st Baltimore time As the tech service sponsored by coons for the Baltimore any significant local sports news sent directly to your mobile device via the wn St. Baltimore positive tech service and of course, anything on AM 15 Seven eight with Nestor any Raven sound from Owings Mills, Oreos interviews from Oriole Park at Camden Yards you can try out all of that in the audio vault at Baltimore positive.com
Dennis Koulatsos 30:20
All right, look as always, I appreciate your time but don’t you do a fantastic job of covering the Ravens Orioles? I know you got a busy day ahead of you.
Luke Jones 30:28
Absolutely appreciate it. Dennis. We’ll talk next week and we’ll have plenty to talk about.
Dennis Koulatsos 30:32
No question about it. There it goes. Luke Jones here on 15 7am wn St. We’ll take a quick break and come back right after this.
