Luke Jones and Nestor go marching into free agency and the franchise tag designation to see where this standoff will go between Eric DeCosta and the Ravens organization as the window tightens.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
lamar, lamar jackson, quarterback, point, guaranteed, franchise quarterbacks, deal, weeks, people, sides, question, ray lewis, play, ravens, draft, years, fully, franchise, terms, herbert
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
8
Welcome back wn S T tasks Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively sort of back on the beat here getting into March. We have Maryland crabcake tours back out on the road. I’m a drug city on Friday 1954 It should have won since 1968. That’s my birthday on truck sitting in Dundalk, Maryland. Come on down on Friday. I’ve got some surprises, but Calvin state is going to be a part of this. And anybody from the Dundalk area familiar with the state of singers. That’s Friday at drug city all brought to you by the Maryland lottery conjunction with our friends at window nation 866 90. They should be telling you more about them all month long. We’ll be at Faith Lee’s on Wednesday the eighth doing the Maryland crab cake tour sneak in maybe one last one in that at the old Lexington market. We got some great guests booked for that as well. And in the meantime, let’s see they’re playing spring training baseball. Sometimes you get to watch the games. The Terps are crushing it right now and bowl eligible as they would say it’s March. It’s March Madness. And of course, we have a saga here that has now engulfed ESPN. It is involved all of sports nation around the National Football League. Man, this thing’s got everything. It’s got raised. It’s got players association. It’s got quarterbacks, it’s got franchise, it’s about to have franchise owners and agents, all sorts of stuff. Luke, are we intrigued yet by Lamar Jackson drama sweepstakes? This you must admit this is a unique, unique thing for us to be covering. And I rereleased the Ray Lewis 2009 conversation from Tampa. It’s been 14 years now. When Ray When Ray Lewis was in a hall of fame didn’t have a statue yet, but was in the Hall of Fame when all this went on Lamar Jackson’s in the whole of you know, he’s pretty good. But let’s see him win some playoff game. This is a fascinating debate. And it’s the time for the debate. Right?
Luke Jones 01:57
Yeah, I mean, I don’t think that comparisons all that. All that relevant from the standpoint of Ray Lewis was very much closer to the end of his career. A middle linebacker even a Hall of Fame middle linebacker compared to a franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson’s better than pretty good. Let’s come on. Let’s let’s not go back to that discussion. We can debate where he ranks in terms of franchise quarterbacks, but he’s absolutely a franchise quarterback. But I don’t know if intrigues the word for me at this point as much as exhaustion quite frankly, because we’ve been at this specifically in the context of guaranteed contracts and Deshaun. Watson and the Cleveland Browns, and what all that means for the Baltimore Ravens and for Lamar Jackson for 11 months now. I mean, we’re at 11 months since that deal was given. And that changed the landscape of this with what had already been a unique and unsettling negotiation from the standpoint of where everyone was on this thing two years ago, I
Nestor Aparicio 02:57
don’t know, as I met on Shaun Watson thinking that sort of screwed it up. I don’t know that it was ever going to get done with or without, like, you know, I don’t know where where the Mars had was on the money on and nobody does either. I don’t know that. That is the only I think it was certainly a game changer in the negotiation. But I think all along. I don’t think he would have been at camp last year, I don’t think it would have been done. I I don’t, I just don’t think it would have been done. And that’s, I don’t know what it would have taken to get this done when it’s all done 90 days from now. And he’s playing for the dolphins or wherever it is right. Like I, I will wonder aloud and I don’t know that Eric will ever be honest with anybody if he wasn’t going to be honest with me that will ever really know what’s going on here the last year, but it certainly feels like we’re on the exit slope, right? I mean, we’re on the exit ramp at this point, right?
Luke Jones 03:49
I don’t know that. I mean, you keep saying that. And other people have said that, I’m not sure about that. Because it still comes back to if you even if you’re going to trade the margin accent, he’s going to have to sign a franchise tag in order to do so if another team is going to acquire his services, he’s going to have to sign a long term contract in order for that team to do that. I don’t know if that’s happening. And
8Nestor Aparicio 04:10
these things are usually baked by like a really professional agent and a team of lawyers that get behind the scenes and figure out how to get Deshaun Watson ditches Jimmy Haslam and get him to Cleveland and get a deal and get draft picks worked out and make Houston. All that has to happen here for this dish up and right,
Luke Jones 04:29
no question. And look, there’s so much conjecture, every report that comes out that claim some new information. I’m not so sure there is new information, you know, beyond some Anana anonymous quotes here or there. He said she said type situations, all this stuff about the offensive coordinator search. I’m bored by hearing that. I even if Lamar Jackson was signed long term, I don’t know how involved he would have been in search. I don’t know how involved he would have wanted, wanted to have been in the search. I can think back Joe Flacco not being terribly involved in offensive coordinator searches, and I’m not sure that there are that many quarterbacks around the league that are going to be that involved beyond some texts here and there, maybe a call, maybe a quick zoom things of that nature. So all of those factors, this still comes back to a very simple principle. Now, when I say simple, I mean, clear cut, doesn’t mean that it’s easy to fix because it involves compromise from one side or the other, or, in most cases, both sides compromising. But it comes down to a very clear cut principle. Both of these sides have a legitimate argument whether you want to agree with it or not, whether you think one side is right and the other side is completely wrong. Both sides have a legit clear cut argument here. Lamar Jackson looks at Deshaun Watson and says, the Cleveland Browns gave this guy who is not as accomplished as I have been, has not been a league MVP had not played the last two years, and has all this off field baggage to the point that he’s going to cause all kinds of bad publicity for your community. And he got this fully guaranteed deal. Why should I get that? On the flip side, the Baltimore Ravens say? Just because the Cleveland Browns make a bad move, a stupid move in our mind, does not mean that we have to follow suit and we feel this is an outlier. We feel that quarterback deals that have been done since then, I’ll be it Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson aren’t perfect comps to Lamar Jackson by any means because Kyler Murray is not as accomplished and Russell Wilson’s much older, so you don’t have a perfect comp.
Nestor Aparicio 06:34
And Lamar Jackson had a better year than either one of them that for where it is immediately got hurt. Sure. At the end. Sure. Right. Sure. So
Luke Jones 06:40
8so that’s what we keep coming back to this everything else, you know, the OSI, all this conflation between fully guaranteed and total guarantee which really hasn’t reflected well on a lot of media types. You’re either ignorant to what that what those terms actually mean. Or you’re manipulating it to push whatever your narrative is. Because the dollars that are thrown out there comparing one contract to another, it’s apples to oranges, people were throwing out what the full guarantee at signing was compared to the total guarantee of other deals. I mean, it’s just there’s so much. I mean, there’s just so much out there that is conjecture or speculation or trying to manipulate what little reporting that has been done over the last calendar year about this. I mean, the reality is, from a media standpoint, there’s been very little clear cut information that’s been released from either side, and even stuff that’s been put out there through back channels, you question how accurate it is? It is. So we still come back to this very basic principle of both parties here in this negotiation, having a legitimate argument again, that doesn’t mean you have to think Lamar Jackson’s right doesn’t mean you have to think the Baltimore Ravens are completely right in this. So I’ve said all along, going back two years ago that I feel both sides probably did things. You know, as far as the negotiation goes, that probably wasn’t the best way to approach it. But here we are, at this point, now we’re we’re in the midst of the franchise tag window, we will have some sense of a revolute resolution, as it pertains to which tag by next week, you know, march 7 being the deadline. We’re going to hear from Eric Acosta and John hardball this week at the combine and Indianapolis, I don’t think we’re going to get that much. That’s different than what we’ve already heard at different points, which is not much. We’re going to hear them say complimentary things about Lamar Jackson, even if they don’t care for Lamar Jackson, the negotiator at this point in time, two years into this thing. But until there is a resolution, a trade, a decision to be made on the tag, or if they do at some point in time, work out a compromise and still salvage this thing from a long term standpoint. All of those options still involve needing to play nice and needing to play nice publicly. So now, that doesn’t mean that that’s going to continue to happen, or as we’ve heard different leaks. You know, Stephen A Smith talking about things from Lamar Jackson side of this thing, someone from his camp, which, you know, how much of its accurate? How much is not? I don’t know. But this still comes back to at the end of the day, both sides having an argument that has some legitimacy to it, whether you think it’s the right one or not, and both sides have a lot of conviction about their own their own argument in this, but it’s led to this impasse that as I said to you, the moment the season ended, and we turned our attention away from Tyler Huntley fumbling the ball at the goal line to what is going to happen with Lamar Jackson. I continue to say what is going to change that hasn’t already been the case the last couple of years. And I think at this point now, and one thing that has been brought up a little bit here recently, which is why I’m still not ready to say that that ship has sailed in terms of Lamar Jackson is what’s going to happen with Joe burrow. What’s going to happen with Justin Herbert, it’s going to happen with Jalen Hertz. If you’re a Lamar, and you’re still looking for a fully guaranteed deal, or let’s say, at least more fully guaranteed money than Deshaun. Watson, as we get into the semantics of this, and whether Lamar has asked for a fully guaranteed deal or not, and all of that, but we know he’s clearly asking for a ton of fully guaranteed money more than Deshaun Watson. And the Ravens haven’t been willing to do that. And at this point, with him having been injured at the end of each of the last two years, doesn’t feel like there’s any reason for them to change their position there. But if you’re Lamar, you’re more inclined to continue to try to wait this out. Because what happens with burro? What happens with Herbert what happens with Jalen Hertz. And it’s not to say any of those organizations are going to give out fully guaranteed deals, it’s not to say that those individuals are going to seek fully guaranteed deals in the way that Lamar has. But they’re more data points, right. And if there’s a couple more deals that come come out later this offseason, and they’re not fully guaranteed, it just pokes more holes in lumbars camps argument. On the flip side, if one of those guys does push, then this looks like much more of an inflection point, you know. So it’s a lot on the line here. And as you mentioned, at the beginning of our conversation, not even mentioning at this point, the NFLPA and D. Smith and D. Smith talked about this in a podcast about a month ago, talking it flat out said, talked about the idea of what’s the Watson deal, and Lamar is deal being bookends for quarterbacks getting fully guaranteed deals. So that’s why, you know, some of the more recent information and Steven A saying what he said about Lamar not seeking a fully guaranteed deal. That doesn’t, doesn’t smell right, compared to everything we’ve either heard or assumed about this deal. So or about this negotiation. So nothing has really changed, compared to you and I talking about this two weeks ago, or a month ago, or 10 months ago, quite frankly. But what has changed is we are at the point where we’re getting to the deadline of the tag, which tag is it going to be exclusive non exclusive? What does that mean? If you put them on a position where you say, go see if you can get that fully guaranteed deal? How does he go about doing that? Do the Ravens try to accommodate that, you know, through the the exclusive tag and saying, hey, we’ll talk to Team A, B, and C, who has interest in you and see what they’re willing to offer, see what the trade compensation is all that, you know, we’ll see how that plays out. But we are at least getting to a point now where we’re at least going to find out which tag it is. And then we’re going to see how it proceeds from there. So as much as we keep trying to say because I think so many people, whether you’re pro Lamar, pro ravens are just sick of it one way or the other, waiting for this thing to be over. I don’t know if we’re getting that resolution sooner rather than later. So buckle up. And, you know, at this point in time, you prepare for it to potentially get a little more, a little more heated as far as things being leaked. But at this point in time. Now, even though there have been some recent reports, you know, it still doesn’t feel like anything that drop dramatically different has occurred here. We’re still at the same point where both sides have a strong argument that they feel has some legitimacy to it and there has not been a compromise made in the process.
Nestor Aparicio 13:41
He is Luke Jones. He is Baltimore Luke, He will be on it. If there’s any real news you’re getting first and the wn S T tech service brought to you by our friends at Coons, Baltimore for Dennis will be here on three until five on Thursday with Luke amongst others and again on Sunday. And the more I read about it, and the more I think about it, and the more I even have my own inside information with John Harbaugh, and Eric Decosta, who used to actually sit down in a three hour breakfast with me and talk about such things. This time last year. i The most important thing that Raven skinned do, and I’m going to write a column about this is keep his value high. That’s their sole goal in this right. So at the combine this week, Eric John, you and I used to fly out there for this they won’t credential me they didn’t credential me at the radio row couple weeks ago. Like these perfunctory press conferences with leader a or leader B have said organization times 32 Other than Bella check in Indianapolis, we’ve been a part of a dozen of these. I’ve been a part of more than those over the years. They really are very scripted, right. I mean, by the time you get to this point, every team has its script. We need this. We want that this is what we’re saying. This is what we’re not saying. These are our coordinators meet our new staff. Meet our new coach, meet our new general manager. That’s what this next six weeks is about. For a lot of these organizations, I’ve been a lot of combine a lot of these owners meetings, the owners meetings, it’s always the head coach, they have a breakfast. It’s it’s a month later on where we are, then there’s a liar’s luncheon period, then there’s the draft these next eight weeks for other organizations. It’s almost like it’s been around here for a number of years. Hey, tell me about your safety. So much of quarterbacks? Look, this team has so many questions right now. Right. Like above and beyond Lamar and everything that happens there. You did the Todd, Monken jurnee last week, and we’ll figure out the you know, new coaches and strengthen like all of that stuff that’s happening inside the organization. But the smoke screen here and nationally on the Lamar thing. It’s like suffocating. Right? Like it’s like there’s no room to talk about anything else. And I know the Ravens would love to pat their backs about Roe Quan Smith and talk about the year Marlin Humphrey had and talk about their needs and talk about bringing Coleus Campbell, but they’ll be doing all that this week. But there’s not a whole lot oxygen. There won’t be questions about any of that, especially not from the national media in Indianapolis.
Luke Jones 16:14
No, no question. I mean, it’s there’s one story for the Baltimore Ravens. And it’s the future of Lamar Jackson, you know, regardless of how you think it’s playing out, regardless of whether you’re holding out hope for a compromise in a long term deal, or you think that he’s going to play on the tag or even if you think it is going to be a trade. And as I’ve said for a while I’m I’m expecting anything at this point, anything and everything. But you just said it. It’s such an interesting time for the organization from a standpoint of you have the rest of the roster, fully acknowledging wide receiver fully acknowledging, needing to add a cornerback of consequence, whether it’s an early pick or trying to resign Marcus Peters. But those two positions aside, and look, those are big positions. Let’s be clear about that. But when you look at the remainder of this roster, if we’re putting Lamar over to the side for a moment, understanding that that’s paramount with everything that’s going on with them right now, because it impacts everything else, from a cap standpoint and what else you’re doing. But you look at the rest of this roster, it’s very much a roster that you would say is a contender, right? I mean, if everyone’s healthy and you bring in Todd Monken, you add a wide receiver, you draft a corner in
Nestor Aparicio 17:27
those things. And if you add Derek Carr, oh, that just say Derek Carr, let’s not talk about Tyler. Hey, Derek Carr is an accomplished guy. Right? I mean, is he He’s okay. He’s played in the league. He’s been a starter that we can make that argument either way. But let’s say you get a veteran you can play 16 Get not what Russell Wilson was last year, not what Carson Wentz has been three different times like I’m talking about a serviceable Ryan Tannehill. Right. You know, like a serviceable starting quarterback for this team. Is this team, a playoff team? If they get adequate quarterback if they get Matt Stafford if they get adequate quarterback play?
8Luke Jones 18:08
I mean a playoff team? Sure, because almost half the teams make the playoffs. Fair enough. Fair do I think they’re? Do I think they’re a legitimate contender of any consequence? No.
Nestor Aparicio 18:21
Are they gonna be Patrick mahomes del Ferro and Justin Herbert and back to back to back weeks in January. Right. Right.
Luke Jones 18:27
So, so but that but this is where it comes back to what I was just mentioning that you have the rest of this roster that feels like it’s built to win right now. I mean, coleus, Campbell is under contract, right? I mean, you have other veterans under contract. So you look at where the rest of the roster is. I’ll be it a couple other areas they have to address. And again, Lamar status complicates all of that, because how much is Lamar going to count on the cap? Is it 32 million? Is it 45 million on the exclusive tag? Is it big, striking a long term deal, and it would be on the lower side? And then you would have a little more flexibility? I mean, this is what where you’re dealing with this right now. That’s why you would like a resolution sooner rather than later. But if you’re trading Lamar Jackson, and look what you just presented, lots of people have talked about, I’m on moved about that, to me. Bringing in Derek Carr or Ryan Tannehill. To do what I mean, this isn’t a franchise that has missed the playoffs and is just going to be happy with the tenant seven record. For me if you’re if you’re trading, if you’re going to trade Lamar Jackson, I want to go land a franchise quarterback in the draft or figure out how you’re doing it because that’s what’s you know, it’s very, just like, we’ve talked about all these different scenarios. It’s easy to sit here in late February and March and say, well, we’ll trade Lamar Jackson. Well, all right. Yeah. Because you don’t you’re not playing another football game that matters for six months. But what are you doing in the meantime? If you bring in that veteran and then say, All right, well, we’ll look towards that we’ll get these picks and we’ll have these early picks in next year’s draft or whatever, which I don’t know how you say that this
Nestor Aparicio 20:07
8has been scrimmaged in Jupiter two weeks ago right oh question
Luke Jones 20:11
right but but this is where I just keep coming back to you know, I mean and look I didn’t mean to be quite as dismissive as I was when you saw you’re
Nestor Aparicio 20:18
gonna win the Super Bowl with Lamar Jackson is Lamar Jackson gonna go beat these three guys? I don’t think so. I didn’t even show up four weeks ago so I can get the Dundalk angry fan and me out to win. Okay, but but you can’t you can’t possibly die because we’re not going to win a Super Bowl with this guy and we’re not going to give Twitter $50 million. So I can play that that card too. But to your point they might have more uncertainty, right going into this combine this week. It would be interesting if they still let me in to go after and just sniff around with the other meeting people because I have been in the room where they’re the most confident people in the room Eric’s hired for life John’s hired for life. everybody’s comfortable. We do draft picks better than anybody Ozzie still in the corner over there. Our owner lets us do our thing. We nobody’s like they are a comfortable bunch. Like it’s I’ve seen it and all I see is uncomfort every or discomfort everywhere else where Johnson seat looking over and you know packers got a new coach Vikings got everybody’s got a new coach. And they’re comfortable. And I think Steve’s comfortable. This is an uncomfortable 60 days for them 90 days because they are not going to bed knowing who their quarterback is either. I think they’re pretty convinced it’s not going to be Lamar. I mean, I keep working for that premise that I don’t believe there can be a marriage here. And Dennis and I work from that angle and we sound like, like pricks like it. No, we sound like businessmen who’ve been through this and older people who’ve been through this with employees who’ve watched it in sports, who’ve watched it everywhere who are now watching this manufactured lie machine right like John’s line but Lamar is gonna have input on on my coordinator. Eric’s up there fiddling around, making notes sweating his ass off right? All that’s going to come out again this week. Because they are not comfortable right now because Carson Wentz might be their quarterback on September 7, and there’s not a damn thing they can do about it like literally that that there’s nothing this kid has come in and said it’s 232 Don’t call me until you’re not guaranteed, then don’t call me. Don’t call me and insult me with $150 million. Don’t do it. And then there’s OTAs last year the head coach texting some media members about Lamar is absence and Lamar has been shippi Lamar, Twitter stuff Lamar not being on the sideline. And since it like all of this smells to me, and I can’t treat it in any other way look like for me to talk about Lamar being the quarterback of this team in September would say to me that they would take him to market, no one would want him he would actually play under the tag and come in and happily show up at some point before like August 23, right to play for $52 million, or four to 48 points and wherever that number is right? Then like, that’s poppycock, Luke, there’s no way that’s going to happen. So for me to on March 1, to be discussing the possibility that they’re gonna work things out. And here’s the weird thing. 85% of the fan base that I touch, I’m talking people with purple underwear, right? Real raving fans, they believe they’re gonna figure it out and he’s gonna play. Like I think it’s a very small percentage of people that because they always worried they work this out with Johnny Unitas they work this out with Joe Flacco. They work this out with Ray Lewis Cal Ripken work to everybody. We always work this out. They work this out with Suggs, they worked. They’ve worked it out with everybody they’ve ever wanted to work it out with. I’m not sure they want to work it out. One that let’s start with that. One, two, and three. I’m not sure that there is married to Lamar as people might think they are. The other part of this is, I think, delays Campbell, Marlin Humphrey, Patrick queen, Ro Quan Smith, Ronnie Stanley, I believe they all believe he’s going to be their quarterback September seventh. And like, I don’t know why they believe that. But I really get the vibe that the players on the team think Lamar is going to be the quarterback.
Luke Jones 24:24
He’s really good. They’ve won a lot of football games with him. That’s why I mean, I keep coming back to I don’t know how this is going to play out. And I hear what you’re saying. But trading him still involves him agreeing to the tag and agreeing to a long term contract with another team. And I’m not convinced that that’s going to happen in
8Nestor Aparicio 24:43
pan the Raven to green compensation, which is no question mark. Right. Yeah, no
Luke Jones 24:47
question. So that’s where I keep coming back to I’m not nearly as convinced as you are that they will stay together another year on a franchise tag because it might be their only option short of just saying Oh, All right, well just let you go. Do that. Because there’s 45 million involved in it for him to do it on the exclusive tab projected 45 million involved. And that would be, what? More than double what his career earnings are
Nestor Aparicio 25:15
grown ups told him not to play last year. Right. I mean, more Smith would have told him don’t play last year, right. Like, I there’s just so much. I want to say this is fun talking about this, but this is the only time in 31 years on the radio that I’ve had to have this kind of it’s certainly 26 years with the Ravens 27 years with the Ravens. And we’re at this spot with this player this position at this place in the world. It’s it’s a fascinating 60 to 90 days here for the franchise and for how they’re going to go about this.
Luke Jones 25:48
8No question. And it’s like I said, I mean, this is an inflection point. I mean, it really is for the organization and why the NFL pa has taken such an interest in this is it’s an inflection point potentially, for franchise quarterbacks, the cream of the crop, the franchise young franchise quarterbacks that are getting that first real contract post being drafted. I mean, that’s, that’s where we are because you can keep saying Deshaun Watson is an outlier. outlier, outlier, outlier, and you can say, oh, Kyler Murray, okay. Kyler. Murray is not Lamar Jackson, or Joe burrow, or even look at Justin Herbert in terms of the raw ability that so many talented valuators just love or Jalen Hurts with what he did this year, where before he got hurt looked like he might have been the MVP, you know, although mahomes certainly would have said had something to say about that over the last few weeks of the season. But the point is, if you’re the NFLPA, you want Lamar to hold firm here? Because if he does, and whether it’s the Ravens blinking, which I don’t think is happening at this point, or it’s just one other team that says we’ll give them a fully guaranteed deal, whether it’s the Falcons or whoever you want to dream up, as far as being a scenario, look, take your pick, there are a ton of teams desperate for a franchise quarterback desperate for someone like Lamar is going to sell tickets and revitalize a fan base. And well,
Nestor Aparicio 27:12
you know, right that we saw everybody go crazy for Deshaun. Watson, we saw it and it took Ria, those teams don’t have quarterbacks,
Luke Jones 27:18
one team was willing to step up and give a fully guaranteed deal at that point in time. So that’s where if you are the ravens, or anyone that’s hoping that the Ravens can work this out. You say, Okay, is there another one? If there isn’t, then Lamar will find that out. And it might be that there is a stalemate. But if Joe burrow then ends up signing a non yet fully guaranteed deal, or Jalen hertz, or both of them, or Justin Herbert, who, let’s face it, the chargers, you know that that’s not that’s a family owned operation, they’re that Paul Brown or not Paul Brown, Mike Brown, the Bengals family owned operation there, you know, the
Nestor Aparicio 27:59
Bengals, by the way, about their money as to what they could guarantee burrow because of how not rich they are, right?
8Luke Jones 28:09
I mean, it’s cat cash rich, right? I mean, the whole thing about keeping the money in escrow and all that, I mean, all those things. And let’s be clear, I don’t even want to use the term can be, because we’re talking about billion dollar operations here. willingness, right willingness to do that. I mean, that’s really what it comes down to. And you look at how the Bengals structure deals. Historically, the Steelers for a long time were in the same camp until TJ watt came along and they enforced their hand and they had to change how they do business in terms of how much guaranteed money they give
Nestor Aparicio 28:39
out. Well, that would be something that Brown family guarantee and given Pearl 240 million guaranteed that them would set the chart out that the Brown family would do that, that that would be incredible that they would set a market,
Luke Jones 28:52
right, no question, but that we’re back to this game of chicken right, where everyone’s trying to wait it out, and these quarterbacks are all going to wait it out. And look, that’s not even to say that burrow and hertz, and Herbert are all going to sit there and demand a fully guaranteed deal in the same way that Lamar does. But if Lamar gets one, that changes everything, then because now you can’t if you’re talking about two guys that have done that in a year’s time, or let’s say it’s a month or two months, you know, right before the draft, you know that that would kind of be your pseudo deadline for a trade right in terms of how the ravens are going to approach this and the draft and potentially drafting the bars replacement if there is a trade all that so we’re roughly two months right? You know, what would be your kind of your deadline there but obviously, it’s complicated by the cap and everything else you want to do in free agency. But those guys are definitely rootin for Lamar Jackson, you know, quietly to get a fully guaranteed deal because then it it’s not nearly as outrageous for them to ask or demand the same thing, right? I mean, that’s why I said this is such an inflection point notch As for the ravens and how they do business and how they put together their roster, and again, it’s easy to say you’re gonna move on from Lamar, but then Who the heck is gonna play quarterback? And how are you going to get that guy and you just said you’re not sure they can beat mahomes and burrow and, and Josh Allen with Lamar, well, then don’t talk to me about Derek Carr and Ryan Tannehill then because those guys sure as heck aren’t, they’re not doing it whatsoever with those guys. So, to me, it’s more than you’re going back into the draft and you’re trying to find the next guy, Lamar 2.0, so to speak, you know, for lack of a better description. But, you know, all of those quarterbacks that I talked about that are up for potentially getting getting an extension this offseason, you know, they’re eligible for it. Now. They’re all route, they’re rootin for Lamar, there’s no question about it. So that’s where there is so much. I don’t know if pressure is the right term out. I’ve seen some people characterize it that way. And look, the end of the day, Lamar Jackson is 26 years old, he’s an adult, you know, he’s making business decisions, right? He’s, he’s a grown up. You can agree or disagree with how he’s gone about doing it. But, you know, this is not the NFLPA manipulating him. the NFLPA is empowering Lamar to seek the kind of deal that Deshaun Watson gotten some so whether that’s going to happen or not? No, doesn’t feel like it’s if it’s going to happen. It’s gonna be with the Baltimore Ravens. But again, how do we get to point A to point B, and that’s where this continues to be complicated. And we can all say, oh, it’s gonna be a trade or tag or they’re going to work it out eventually. I don’t know. And that that’s not the sexy thing to say on the radio, I get that. That’s not what gets clicks and, and ratings on ESPN. But I don’t know because there are still so many moving parts to this. And at the end of the day, there still needs to be cooperation between the two sides to get to any of those potential outcomes that we’ve talked about now for weeks and weeks and weeks.
Nestor Aparicio 31:54
Combine ahead the underwear Olympics this week of spring training, baseball, the Terps are making March Madness magic happen. And you find Luke out of Baltimore, Luke out on the Twitter thing of course, we’re out on social media, Instagram and LinkedIn and all those places at Facebook. We will be at drugs city on Friday, we Calvin state and my dear friend will be there from two to five, all brought to you by the Maryland lottery to win the Maryland crabcake tour at the fountain and drug city. That’s this Friday. And then of course on Wednesday of next week. We move to fade these Lexington market in the old Mark it’s also brought to you by our friends at window nation 8669 donation, I’m gonna have new scratch offs in the lottery with me over the next week. I’m back sort of in the cockpit doing things around here this week. And you can always find me next at Baltimore. positive.com He is Luke I’m Nestor we’re still doing plenty sports around here plenty great conversations. We are wn S T am 1570, Towson, Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
