Moving the Ravens press box – and kickoffs

After the second preseason sleeper with the Atlanta Falcons, our Luke Jones joins Nestor to discuss David Ojabo, the offensive line and scrimmage life in Green Bay. And the new media view of the field and the NFL’s new kickoff return strategy for the genius of John Harbaugh.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

game, kickoff, talked, ravens, preseason, xfl, field, returns, practice, preseason games, stadium, football, bit, onside kick, team, terms, fan, run, play, point

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones

Nestor Aparicio  00:02

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Welcome home. We are wnst. Am 1570 Taos in Baltimore and Baltimore, positive, positively, taking a show back out on the road. My goodness, I feel like you know, I was away for a month. I spent three days in Ocean City, drank too much, ate too much, talk too much, schmooze too much. You’ll hear it all, all week long, right here at am 1570 and on Friday, we’re going to be down at fadeas with our friends from the Maryland lottery. I have the Gold Rush sevens doublers to give away. On Friday, it’s my last batch coming out, because I’m going to have ravens scratch offs to give away after that liberty, pure solutions puts us out. It gets us the water in Ocean City wasn’t as good as the water in my house. I just want to say that. So liberty, pure solutions, making your water crystal clear, especially if you have a well. And we do, because I try to do everything well, as well as our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care put Luke out on the road. Luke has been the busiest guy around. He is the only one who has a press credential here at wnst, so he has to cover both teams this time of the year. I asked him how he was doing early Monday morning, and he said, exhausted. Let’s talk football. So he is here now after an exhausting weekend, Luke, did you do the doubleheader on Saturday? I

Luke Jones  01:19

did not do the Orioles game Saturday night. I did not. I wanted to see my family, actually, so I did the Ravens game. And Mark Viviano is

Nestor Aparicio  01:29

going to be here next week discussing that topic. He’s joining me at Cocos on the fourth because I heard him on Bal my wife and I got in a car to go get some food the other night, and he was on during the rain delay, talking to Hollander and Jeff Arnold and talking about being with his kids. So like, he’s like the demands that it takes to be a journalist. And I’m thinking, you don’t even know what Luke does. You know what I mean? Well,

Luke Jones  01:50

I In fairness, Viv has two young boys, and I don’t have any kids, so I’m not going to put myself

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Nestor Aparicio  01:57

in fairness the guy behind Viv, whether he’s black, white, young, old. Martian, doesn’t matter. Would have a press credential. Viv, can take Saturday night off, and, and, and I don’t even know who their number two is at 13, because I don’t know. But Stan Saunders, I’ll go back. Chris Ely, me if I would have won that competition back in 88 but nonetheless, yes, I’ll give that. But you were at the Ravens game. How’s the new press box? Have you been to the black wing yet? Luke,

Luke Jones  02:22

I have not been to the black wing. The new press box is up in the corner of the end zone. No, excuse me. Hold

Nestor Aparicio  02:28

on the Kevin, burn, I’m eating some Cook,

02:34

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yes, cookies

Nestor Aparicio  02:36

I got down at the ugly pie in Salisbury. Um, been locked out of that’s something that’s we’ll say that out loud. So anyway,

Luke Jones  02:43

yeah, so press box is what it is. Fans don’t care about that. I mean, they don’t care where, where our seat is, the field is. Was

Nestor Aparicio  02:52

it better than the Washington press box? We really can’t see the field. Oh,

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Luke Jones  02:55

it’s, yeah, look just for some inside baseball. And then we’ll move on, because people don’t want to hear people don’t want to hear about the press box. They want to hear what we think about a

Nestor Aparicio  03:06

fake football game, right? They really want to hear about this game, dude. Let’s talk about it now, instead of after the Rangers game,

Luke Jones  03:12

I will say, I will say this. They went from having the best press box view in the NFL to now just being like a lot of them, which is fine. Look, I get paid. I’m not complaining. People don’t want to hear a media guy complain about that, and I’m not going to complain not enough,

Nestor Aparicio  03:27

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by the way, get paid enough. I’ll tell your boss, but,

Luke Jones  03:31

but it’s fine when it’s when it’s closer to your end of the field. There is a different angle that you get that you didn’t get with the previous press box, where that was more the TV kind of views. So it is nice when it’s the opposite side of the field, when the action’s on the opposite side of the field, it’s a little bit further away, and you do maybe rely on the TV monitor a little bit more, but it’s fine. I’m not going to sit here and complain about that. It’s covering for the NFL for a living. And what I do want

Nestor Aparicio  04:01

to do is I want to hear the people that were in the black wing call me and praise it.

04:04

Oh, tell

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Nestor Aparicio  04:05

me how great the black wing is. So I don’t know anyone in the black wing. I was told when they took $600 million of civic money, that the beer was going to be colder and the hot dogs were going to taste better inside the perimeter. I was literally told that in a press conference that I was locked out of in a publicly funded facility that Brook Lehrman and I spoke about the other day that I was here pimping that they erect and paid for. PSL, so when I see these things being done and saying, How is it helping the football program? That’s a question I would ask the team owner if he weren’t running for me, as you witnessed on a deck in Florida, and hasn’t been seen in Baltimore to be talked to by anybody. So these are the questions I would ask if Sashi brown treated me like a human being, you know, like a person like, like, I’m a like, I’m a fan, like, I’m a like, I deserve respect. Um, so yeah, these are questions that the organization should have to answer at some point. And they won’t have to answer it the day after the Raiders see if you think I’m being a jerk for bringing it up. Today, it is the preseason, and they did play the Atlanta Falcons at 12 o’clock in the morning on Saturday to a 1312 final, you know. But like they do all of this, Chad Steele went down to Annapolis a year and a half ago with Sashi, claimed the check walked out, didn’t take any questions from Pam wood, like nobody’s ever gotten a question about any of this money and where it’s going or what it’s doing, let alone that it made the press box smaller so they could, um, lock guys like me out. This is their excuse for throwing me out. Was, well, you know, we only have limited space because of the black wing. And, you know, so throwing out media members is at the end of at the end of that rain, but purple rainbow as well. So I would just say that, because I’m not going to get a lot of chances to say it, and I’m not going to sit in either press box. But I find it, to quote Bob Costas, I find it rich with irony that the Kevin Byrne press box and the first guy here to greet him and help him sell PSLs and attended every game Kevin Byrne was ever in the press box for home, away and abroad would be blocked out of the new and shortened Kevin Byrne press box. So yes, are there really less seats in there? It must be right. Have to be but by a lot, right? Yeah.

Luke Jones  06:21

I mean, I don’t know. I don’t blame

Nestor Aparicio  06:23

you for asking you about the press box. They’re never gonna let me in pictures. Don’t know what to say. Yeah,

Luke Jones  06:36

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sure, and look as is the case with any of these stadium renovations that go on just about anywhere it’s, you know, public funding for privatized profit. I mean, that’s, that’s what it is for. We all know it goes on. And look, the ravens are no different than any other NFL city in that way. I mean, it’s very rare when, when owners are putting up, you know, a whole lot of money for their for, you know, their own stadium, renovations, new stadium, whatever. So, you know, I’m not going to sit here and defend it. I’m also not going to sit here and belabor it that it’s unique to it’s finally come. Here is what you’re saying. Yes, exactly, exactly, right? And, you know, it’s I the thing that strikes me, and this will be the last thing that I have to say on it, because we’ll get to what few headlines that actually respond from this game on Saturday? But you know, the thing that strikes me, whenever you have these renovations that you know, how few, how little, it actually benefits the Joe Average fan, right? You know, the person who has season tickets, and that’s their disposable income for the year, right? I mean, someone who, you know, like me right out of college. I mean, what little bit of extra spending money I had? I didn’t have PSLs, but I got season tickets off of eBay at the time with with my best buddy, and that was my biggest disposable income kind of expense that I had for the year. You know, those are the fans where it’s like, you look at all these big, you know, these new bells and whistles and black wing and all the different things, and you kind of say, well, how much of this is really for, you know, kind of the the middle class fan that that’s still going to games, and not so much. But again, not unique to Baltimore, not unique to Mt Bank Stadium. And it it is what it is. And, yeah, there’s all these, uh, shiny new areas. And, you know, the the top 1% I suppose, will be happy with that stuff,

Nestor Aparicio  08:29

well onto the field. Um, you and I haven’t talked about this wacky kicking game at all, and it was the first thing they talked about on the first preseason game with Rob Woodson, everybody talking about it and hardball, being a scientist of football, if nothing else, and certainly the special teams game. Which one time he got so angry at me at a breakfast at seven in the morning because I mentioned his background as a special teams coach, he bird up, he cursed at me, you know, like, even though I was like, John. It wasn’t an insult. You know, Steve liked you. He hired you because he thought you were special, not special teams. He thought you were a leader of men and a guy of high integrity and, um, but I feel like he has some special gifts and special teams that looking at this a different way. And I don’t know, because I don’t speak to John Harbaugh anymore or his lovely wife, but was he a part of this? Was he completely again? Somebody wrote these rules, and I’m thinking like he had his hands in the pudding, along with Dave tobe and a bunch of other special teams geniuses to figure out how to make this palatable for them on a coaching standpoint, dude, it’s really weird. I know we talked about it back during the owners meetings where I was you were in and I was locked out. We talked about all that, but we haven’t talked about it at all, because I don’t know that we really understood. We watched the video of it. I remember Joe Buck coming out to me and saying, Were you in that meeting? Did you just see that video? Like it? About the kickoff, is what he was referring to me, because he didn’t even understand it. And that was in March, or whatever we’re all. I don’t know how many fans. One out of 10 on the street knows what’s coming, because I don’t need people watch preseason. But when they line the ball up on the first night and everybody’s in the bar, and they’re going to be like, the hell’s going on in there, I don’t fully understand it. I know you can’t move to the touch, but I don’t understand the strategy of it. And I would think, if anybody can gain that, and this is my compliment for you, John, if anybody can understand it and maximize it for whatever it is, maybe the Ravens will have 10 returns for touchdown this year, and maybe the league, mean, will be four, I don’t, I don’t know, maybe,

Luke Jones  10:45

well, it will be that high. But, yeah, I think it’s an interesting first of all, the esthetics of it are very strange. The first thing that really jumped out at me, and obviously I knew what it looked like, because this is what the XFL, you know, this is something they basically stole from the XFL. Yeah, obviously there have been major concerns with kickoffs, concussions, too many touchbacks, not enough returns, wanting to make returns safer. So that was the genesis of what we now have. And obviously the XFL had adopted this. It’s not the first time we’ve seen the NFL adopt something from the XFL. If you think way back when, with some of the innovations that Vince McMahon’s original iteration of the XFL had, that the that the league stole from a production value standpoint, you know the field cam, you know being what you know sky cam being one of those things. But you know it, the esthetic of it is so strange, because I always think back to the old NFL films clip of kickoff of the Super Bowl, right? And you had the kickoff team lined up, kicker puts the boot in. You used to see the flash bulbs pop. You don’t see that anymore, because everyone has a cell phone rather than a camera in the stands, and typically they don’t have the flash on. So, so, so that’s kind of been lost, that aura, that scene, had kind of been lost in recent years anyway. But now you have over Justin

Nestor Aparicio  12:04

ties, a very rare game, yes, yes, but you

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Luke Jones  12:09

have Johnny Tucker kicking off, and the rest of the kickoff team is yards downfield. Yeah, way downfield. So

Nestor Aparicio  12:14

it’s Well, we’ve seen it done this way our whole life. So this is like different, it’s a completely different esthetic, I

Luke Jones  12:20

would agree, yeah, whether, whether it’s going to be kicked off from the 30, the 35 or the 40. You know, at some level of football, you’ve always been used to the kickoff looking a certain way. Now, oh, keep in mind, it has been tweaked, because it got to the point, however, many years back, it was where they remember, they put all the kickoff team a yard behind the ball, rather than being able to run up 10 yards the way that they used to. So we’ve seen this change, but yes, this is the most radical change we’ve seen in that way, I know based on how John Harbaugh has talked about this, and he’s been very careful in how he’s talked about it at the owners meeting and even how he was asked about it after the preseason opener, I don’t think it’s any secret, if you’ve heard his comments that he doesn’t love it. He doesn’t. He’s not a big fan of it. Now, do I know all the reasons why? No, not really. But my sense is there was probably another proposal out there that he liked better and did not get the necessary traction, and that is what it is. But I think where this is so challenging from a mechanic standpoint, for the officials in terms of judging ball being kicked, ball needs to land in landing area, touches the ground or hit, touches the returning player, and then they can take off, right? So you’re looking at this in terms of guys getting an early start. It’s not the same thing as just being offside on a kickoff. You’re talking about different areas of the field where officials have to watch. So there’s that felt, there’s that element of it, and there’s just the element of this is a very different play. Now, I think what we’ve seen through two weeks of preseason is, I think I saw at the end of business on Sunday nights. I forget who tweeted it out, so my apologies, and I’m trusting that they were at least close to being accurate. It sounded like we’ve had 80% of kickoffs returned, which is obviously a dramatic change from where it had been in recent years. So they’re getting what they want there. I do know from having talked to a couple people you know, just around the league that I think there is some concern about there being maybe some different kinds of injuries, not necessarily the concussion, where you have players running down the field and hitting each other full force after running 50 or 60 yards. But I think, you know, if you’ve looked at these kickoffs, they almost have a little bit of a rugby scrum kind of feel to them. You know, where you have obviously the kickoff team and the kick return team are both waiting to engage. They’re not that far apart, so you don’t have the high impact collisions that cause concussions. But I think there is some concern, perhaps, about some other injuries. You. There could be some hidden consequences there. Again, who knows? We’re gonna have to see how this plays out. I think so much of this is just unknown from a strategic standpoint, from a standpoint of, yes, we get more returns, but how many are exciting returns? Do we get more returns and a higher probability of kickoffs, you know, kick returns being broken for touchdowns. You know, I certainly don’t think it’s going to be as many as you suggested. And you just threw out a random number anyway. I wasn’t suggesting you were even serious there, but, but I

Nestor Aparicio  15:31

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don’t know. I don’t know how it’s going to get to I mean, it’s still rugby, and you got to get the guy to the ground, sure, in an open Scrum. And this was always a challenge on punt, a challenge on kickoff. And all about seem and all about quickness and ability to tackle like you can’t be an arm tackler and play special teams, um, and let me tell I will opine, because it’s the preseason, and I don’t say much around here. Um, I remember when I got my first press pass back before they called it the Kevin Byrne press box. And so 1996 the team comes to town, right? I had gone to a million football games, right? I went to football games as a kid with the Colts. I was an eagle season ticket holder, as you know, so I there was never a season where I didn’t go to several NFL games as a fan, as an oiler fan in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, when the Oilers would play on the East Coast, sometimes I go to six or seven that would drive to New England. I mean, I went to a lot of football games in the 80s, when this was silent and quiet here, right? We had no, no games here, other than the Terps Clemson game or North Carolina State over the Army, Navy at Memorial Stadium or whatever. Right? So I was at the paper during the 80s. Media member hockey practices right flying pucks at practice, ice, cold basketball shoot around. I covered basketball, Terry Truex, all of that. I covered sports all of my life, and I since I was 15 years old, and practices baseballs, flying around all of that batting cages, 9293 I talk talking about Greg B genies relationship with me at the hitting cage, watching Sam horn hit and Chris hoyles hit, trying to hit the warehouse at the ball as far as they could. So I’ve attended all of this stuff, and I famously tell the story. I found the piece back when I did the documentary that I covered boxing one night at the arena, and I had a notebook and the box, and the media members at the ring were right on the ring, right? Famously, you had a ringside seat. I was next to the ring, and, you know, next to the judges, literally, the judges of the fight are sitting in the same row as me. And Reggie gross heavyweight was fighting, and I saw him in a guy’s jaw, and the blood and the spit landed on my notebook. I went back to the office that night, and I said to Marlowe and Jack Evans Larry Harris is like, I don’t know that. I want to cover boxing this. This is like I never had blood splattered on my notebook. Now, I’ve seen hockey players fights like all that. When the team came to town in 96 there was an onside kick, and you can look it up. I want to say it was against the Rams. I think there was one against the Jaguars, maybe two earlier in that year, and the last two minutes of an NFL game, last five minutes. It used to be then it was two as a media member. Oh, the times have changed. You could go on the field so the last five minutes, they would pull an elevator at Memorial Stadium, or were even psi net, whatever, and we would go down the field and watch the last five minutes on the field. And that’s when you realize that sitting on the field is a really bad seat. Like, you don’t see the game well, but you see the game viscerally, and if especially when it’s between the hashes, because as a media member, you couldn’t get between the hashes. You could only stay between, like the 25 and the end zone, right? So I was always down there because I wanted to get the action, and I was grabbing a guest for the barn. So I was always on the field at the end of games, right? Look at any of the film. You’ll see me down there, usually wearing purple. So in 96 I went down onto the field, I walked out of the first base dugout, behind the visitor’s bench, and I walked to the 1520 yard line, and I walked up as far as they would let me, because I didn’t even know the rules. So before the Kevin Byrne press, Kevin Byrne was still like teaching us all how to be media members in 1996 and I stood on the field for this onside kick, and it happened 12 yards from me. It happened in front of me. It was the most violent thing I’ve ever seen in my life, dude. It was more violent than the boxing match, like from a from a pure human hearing, helmets hit helmets and collide, which I did, boom, boom, boom. It wasn’t shoulder pads. It was just get on the effing ball, right? I mean, it was mud. It was Memorial Stadium. It was what it was I looked at that. The only thing I had to compare that to was the time I was behind the cage when I was 18 with Louis aparic. See you’re watching Eddie watt throw BP when he was 52 years old and say, I can’t hit that. I’ll never be able to hit that, you know, but so stunning things that you see as a media member, but the onside kick, the violence of that. And every time I would have a Chris Nowinski on, or anyone in regard to head trauma and the game itself, I would all, I’ll never forget seeing the first onside kick I saw, and thought this might not be a good idea for humans,

Luke Jones  20:29

sure. I mean, I’m not arguing. I was more so focused on, you know, what’s this going to look like? And I think that’s where it’s unknown. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  20:36

that’s never going to look like that again, I guess. I mean, that’s what’s been sort of, they’ve stopped that, and that’s not a bad thing. I guess 30 years later that I would say that, well,

Luke Jones  20:46

I mean, you can still have an on site kick at the end of a game. There’s no longer any element of surprise like Sean Payton doing it with the saints against the Indianapolis. That’s the thing of the past, obviously, but, but

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Nestor Aparicio  20:58

I think on everything they can do to get rid of that, to get rid of that kind of contact in the game.

Luke Jones  21:03

Sure, you know, I don’t, I’m not arguing against the I’m arguing with more. So like, what’s this going to look like from a strategic standpoint? I think there’s a lot of unknown in terms of, you know, okay, John Harbaugh. But John Harbaugh, you know, not a master of this play, but someone

Nestor Aparicio  21:21

will be, well, I guess that’s a million computer simulated models like the little Mattel game with the scramble to figure out like what lanes look like and what gaps look like, because they have been studying it for 100 years. And Harbaugh was a genius at that, certainly at one point in his career, you know, right? But, but, I

Luke Jones  21:42

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guess my point is best practices is going to be a moving target in the same way that when the forward pass became legal way back when, you know, you didn’t see the optimal use of it that

Nestor Aparicio  21:53

first year. If you can exploit it twice in one game, you can win the game with it. Sure,

Luke Jones  21:56

sure. So, you know, but, but the early results I’ve kind of said, Okay, more returns. I don’t know if it’s necessarily been that much more exciting, but sure, it’s better than touchback, right? I mean, it’s better than the touchback. So, so, you know, I that’s kind of a milk toast answer to you. I know that, but I don’t know what it’s going to look like exactly. I do know that there’s definitely concerns the right word, but maybe curiosity in terms of, are there, do there end up being some unintended consequences of changing up a rule and okay, maybe you cut out concussions. We’ve talked about this a lot with what’s happened with the defense. Okay, you don’t see the kill shots to the head, but do we see more lower leg injuries, more knee injuries, because defenders go low and okay, we can talk about that in terms of long term viability for people’s health. But at the same way, you know, someone has their knee taken out, that takes the that might shorten their career, you know now, is that better than a head injury like we can debate this in terms of the different you know someone, someone who says their career gets short circuited in year three and they don’t get to play 10 years would say, No, that’s not better than a head injury. Now someone talking about quality of life 30 years down the road, then, sure, so. But the point is, you’re, you know, this is a different play. We’re going to see how it works, how it plays out. Early data suggests absolutely more returns, and that’s what the league wants. So the league is getting that, and we’ll see exactly what they look like. Are they going to be these dynamic, unbelievable plays that are thrilling, or is it going to be just another football play? You know, within the scope of, you know, the 150 plays that occur over the course of a game, or whatever it is,

Nestor Aparicio  23:40

you essentially have the shiftiest guy on the field with the ball in his hands in a different kind of space at this point. And I would think that early in the season you’re going to see bad things happen, you know. And you need to make sure that you’re not a part of the backside of the bad things, and you’re the perpetrator and not, you know, not the victim, right? And I, I look at it and think this is what really screws coaches up, because they don’t have as much data on it. They’re more afraid of it, in the case of Harbaugh, than they are. Oh, this is a weapon, and I’m figuring once it happens, somebody like Harbaugh will turn it into a weapon because he’s good at it to begin with. But that being said, nobody really studied how to be good at it. To your point, computer models would be the only thing I could think of in the modern era to say, if I’m coaching it, how do I coach it?

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Luke Jones  24:25

Well. And look, I don’t even think it’s computer models just yet, because I don’t know if there’s enough of a baseline to go off of. I think what you’ve really seen, and you’ve seen teams do that, do this, whether it’s players or coaches, they’ve solicited opinions and feedback from the XFL, or what, I guess it’s UFL now, or what, whatever it’s called now. I can’t keep it track.

Nestor Aparicio  24:44

I believe nobody watches.

Luke Jones  24:46

Can you tell I don’t watch spring football? That’s the big takeaway, and hearing me talk about it. But the point is, they’ve solicited feedback from either players or coaches who have worked in that league to kind of see what it’s like. So I think it’s, yeah, I’m curious. I think there’s been see a part of this. I have some fatigue from it, because in the spring and summer, believe it or not, you know, for anyone listening, yeah, US media guys, you know, we can’t just ask about failing in the AFC championship every day, right? I mean, you don’t talk about that every single day, I

Nestor Aparicio  25:20

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was never given a chance to ask one question, right? But, but the point is, you

Luke Jones  25:25

have these big picture questions in the spring and summer that you don’t necessarily have in the in the season, because in the season, you’re talking about that week’s opponent. So yeah, the the kickoff has been asked about at length, ad nauseam. And I think there’s just still a lot of unknown. Now, the early signs are, yes, more returns, fewer touchbacks. It’s interesting, you know, Justin Tucker missed the landing zone, you know, for example, in Saturday’s game. And, yeah, there’s a lot of experimenting going on right now. So I do think it’s going to take a while, if not a few years, here to figure out best practices, assuming the rule isn’t, you know, the rules in the format isn’t tweaked between now and then, but, yeah, whether it’s John Harbaugh, where it’s Dave tob, whether it’s, you know, take your pick of which special teams coach you want to name, there’s going to be some team out there that does find a little bit of an edge. And they’re also, I think the other part of this that’s interesting is, how do you construct, construct your special teams units, you know, for kickoff and kick return. You know, there’s always been a type. And when I say a type, there’s been multiple types, of course, but in terms of how many linebackers, how many wide receivers, you know, how many safeties and defensive backs do you want on your kickoff team or your kick return team? So it’ll be interesting to see how that complexion changes. I don’t think it’ll be dramatic, you know. I don’t think this is going to be an extraordinarily radical change, but I think we are going to see the return become part of the game again, and because it is a different play, you know, because it is a different format, it is going to be interesting to see. I think as teams get more comfortable. That’s to me, that, to me is when you’re going to see more experimentation that goes on where, you know, whether it’s a reverse or, you know, some the newest version of home run throwback. You know what? That what the Titans did years ago against the bills, you know, something along those lines. But right now, it’s just a matter of, how do we execute this play without screwing it up. And I think that’s the big thing right now, once teams feel comfortable looking at it through that lens, then maybe that’s when the creativity will start to play it factor in. But for right now, it’s led to more returns and fewer touchbacks. And hey, that’s what the league wanted, so I guess you call it a success. And yeah, we’ll see where it goes from there. Dude, you

Nestor Aparicio  27:42

gave a home run throwback reference. I was at that game. Frank wycheck was a great part of our show over the course time. And you know, a lot of cast of characters of Jim Schwartz was on the sidelines for that one. So Luke Jones is here. He’s Baltimore, Luke. Why are we talking about press boxes and kickoffs? Because it’s freaking August, and Lamar hasn’t been seen anywhere except the practice field. Um, let’s reset the team itself right now, right? Because we talked a lot about a job. Oh, we talked a lot about the pass rush. We talked a lot about the offensive line in Cleveland and Voorhees, and you know where Rosengarten is in all of this. Look, man, I don’t again. I’m 30 years into this trying to make sense of this slop in August. And quite frankly, I was crossing the Bay Bridge when the game was going on. Listen to a little bit on radio. But I’m thinking only Morrison watching on TV is listening on radio. And I thought it was interesting that the Orioles players went to a preseason game. And I’m thinking, you you do know you did practice the other day. That’s good. You gave it to take your pictures there if you want to go to a game. Good, real NFL games are cool. No one goes to Saturday morning. Like, I thought it was kind

Luke Jones  28:49

of weird, I guess. I mean, I to me, it would have been weird if, like,

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Nestor Aparicio  28:52

if they did, if I had a game that night, I’m just saying, okay, nine or 10 Orioles players probably would have slept in. Yeah.

Luke Jones  28:58

I mean, I don’t know, but you also have to remember, I mean, these guys, you know, depending on where they live, depending on the time of the season, all that. I mean, most games are played on Sunday afternoons in September, and you hope October, you’re necessary.

Nestor Aparicio  29:12

Once they win the World Series, they’ll get to come to a real game. Let me look whatever. That’s early November, yeah,

Luke Jones  29:18

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but it’s, but it’s as simple as, hey, I’m going to be at the ballpark. I need to be at the ballpark by three anyway. Why don’t I just go downtown. I’ll park my car early. Hey, the stadium guy set up a golf cart for me to ride across Raven’s walk, and I’ll go over there and check out the first half for the first three quarters. You know, I I didn’t think too much of it. I mean, maybe one thing, if they’re sitting there crushing beers that you’d have questions. But just

Nestor Aparicio  29:43

to make sure people know, I have it. Game seven is November the second. So I would think that, you know, the Ravens play at home twice that week. They play on Sunday and Thursday. I would think that, well, the Election Day is the fifth. You better have the election. I guess the parade. Eight would be on Monday, the fourth so I would think they’ll get they’ll be on prime time for the Cincinnati game, and the Ravens will be eight and one. Then the bangles will be seven and two. The honor them at halftime, right there on the seventh of November, is when every Oriole player should attend a Ravens game. There you go. You have it for me, headlined

Luke Jones  30:16

by Craig Kimbrel, who had three saves in the World Series, right?

Nestor Aparicio  30:21

But I dream a little bit. Yeah, that no hitter, that Frew in game two, perfect. You know,

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Luke Jones  30:26

there you go. There you go. And look, we’ve talked about it, Craig Kimbrell, we’ll see, we’ll see. Anyway, back to the Ravens. I mean, at 1312, I mean Atlanta, looking at, you know, I’ve got, I’ve got the game book, right?

Nestor Aparicio  30:43

Sure you don’t want to talk about the press box or the kickoff more Atlanta,

Luke Jones  30:48

you know, full, you know, just the caveat here before I get into mentioning a couple things that I actually thought were relevant from the game. But Atlanta rested more players than the Ravens did, so that being said, offensive line, I think Voorhees given up the sack on the opening drive. Aside, I thought the pass protection was pretty good overall. Didn’t have too many concerns there. Run game would have liked to have seen better against you know, what was the the backups for the Atlanta front didn’t move any people. I will point out, and I’ll continue to point out, offensive line is so dependent on being synchronized and being on the same page and building chemistry. And now you throw into the you know you and I haven’t had a chance to even talk about this. Joe Dallas Andres, their offensive line coach, a wave indefinitely, you know, with an acute illness, and we wish him all the best. But there’s another factor, but want to point out, Tyler linderbaum hasn’t played a preseason snap. Ronnie Stanley hasn’t played a preseason snap. Patrick Ricard, who’s their best blocking tight end by far, has not played a preseason snap. Uh, Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry, who are both both force multipliers as it pertains to even a front, how they’re going to approach and rush and play defense, and know their assignment, alignment and technique force multipliers. They haven’t played a snap. So all of that being acknowledged, I’ve been underwhelmed with the lack of movement of at the line of scrimmage with creating a little more running room. I’d like to see more on that front. You know, Voorhees has been a little more disappointing in past protection than I think I would have liked. It doesn’t mean I don’t think he’s going to be the starting left guard. That doesn’t mean he won’t improve, but definitely, there’s room to grow there. Rosengarten, it feels like it’s trending in the right direction for him to be the right tackle. I don’t think that’s completely decided yet. You know, McCarry is still in the mix there, but we saw McCary start at center on Saturday, so perhaps a sign that Patrick McCary is going to stay in his utility role and Rosengarten is going to get the nod in week one. Rosengarten still struggles a little bit with physicality. I think his functional strength, which that was the knock on him coming out of Washington, needs to get better. Is that going to get better in season? Probably not so physicality, bull rush, that kind of, you know, those types of pass rushers, I think will give him a little bit of trouble, but I think it’s trending in the right direction. Overall file, a lay it right card. We’ve continued to kind of look at that and say, All right, well,

Nestor Aparicio  33:24

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who’s he’s big, but

Luke Jones  33:26

who’s actually going to be the right guard, right? I think there’s been a waiting of, okay, it’s going to be Ben Cleveland, right? Or it’s going to be a veteran that they trade for, right? Or Paul Le’s done okay there. I mean, if you go and look at the tape, look, are there some deficiencies with his feet and the fact that he doesn’t move well, and if you’re asking him to pull and move his feet and get out in space, does he struggle with that a little bit more? So of course he does. He’s 380 pounds at the same time, if he gets his hands on you, and he’s in good position, and you know you’re talking about past protection, it’s looked pretty good, so it’s been some good, some bad for all three of those guys. I’m not going to sit here and say I don’t have my concerns, but I’m also not going to sit here and say that I know that it won’t be okay, right? I mean, there’s still a lot of unknown there, and, yeah, a lot of it is you need to get Linder bomb back at center, and you need to get need to get Ronnie Stanley back at left tackle, and tell me how it the group looks collectively and again, understanding that Lamar is a major aid to anyone is blocking, because you can’t rush the passer in the same way when Lamar Jackson’s in the pocket, you know you just can’t. Compared to teeing off. If it’s Tom Brady or Joe Flacco in the pocket, it’s a different, completely different animal. And you know, Derek Henry, they’re counting on him to help. You know if their run blocking isn’t quite up to snuff the way that you’d like, at least early in the season. So there are a lot of factors that are still unknowns as it pertains to that group. But you know, I’m not sure if you. If they make a move, you know, if there’s a veteran addition, whether it’s a trade or a signing or something like that, you know, I’m a little more inclined now to think that it’s probably going to be a guy that’s a backup that maybe helps raise the floor a little bit, and if one of these guys really struggles, then you can pivot to that guy. But you know, this week is going to be telling because keep in mind, they’re going to go to Green Bay, the starters are going to third the joint practice that’s going to be in Green Bay on Thursday. That’s their preseason game that’s become that’s their regular season audition at this point. So it’ll be interesting to see what the offensive line looks like. Do we see any changes? Do we see any changes for Saturday’s game, you know, from in terms of, you know, is it a different left guard? Is it a different right guard? Is it a different right tackle? I mean, you know, you’re looking for those clues, but it’s been pretty consistent. You know, it’s not as though faul Lele has been rotating with someone all summer. You know, he’s been the right guard. You know, Rosengarten. The last couple weeks, it’s been mostly him, and Les McCary there, uh Voorhees has been the left guard since spring. So, you know, we’re down to, you know, this is the nitty gritty in terms of making those decisions, as far as who’s going to start week one. You know what? I think this is the week where you try to drill down on, okay, this is what the O line is going to look like in week one. Doesn’t mean that’s going to be what it is in week 18, but at least to start the year, this is what it’s going to look like. And, you know, that’s what we’re seeing. You know, it’s been a mixed bag. I’m not going to sit here and say that I’m completely down on it or I’m completely confident in it, right? You know, the truth is somewhere in the middle. And again, there’s still unknown, big commodities that haven’t played yet, that you have to add into that picture. But you know what was a question mark going into camp is still a question mark now, and that’s not a big shock, right? Anyone who understands how this works is preseason, is what it is. You go out there, you evaluate it, you see what it looks like, and then you say, Okay, well, that happened. It probably wasn’t all that consequential. You know, some good things, some bad things, and you know, we’ll find out. So, you know, that’s kind of where you are with the offensive line. And tell me about the scrimmage

Nestor Aparicio  37:03

in Green Bay. Is that open to the fan? Because there’s a game this is goofy, right? I mean, they charge people for crap, yeah, and then they run Lamar Jackson out there with a special helmet and and will fans be there? My understanding is they will be, I believe so you know. I

Luke Jones  37:23

mean, I’m not intimately familiar with the Packers training camp schedule, but yeah, that’s typically how this works. I mean, it’ll be fully open to any reporters who make the trip out there. But yeah, this is why you’ve heard me say this, and I’ll continue to say it until they make a change, or they eliminate the preseason games entirely. I don’t know for the life of me, when you see how empty the stadium was on Saturday, why they do not reimagine these games. Call them preseason showcases, and you have your starters do a controlled scrimmage with the starters for the opposition quarterback in a red jersey. You know, they play. They thought they play. Thud, you know, put them in their game uniforms. It’s fine. Put some spice it up a little bit, but you give the starters a chance that way. I mean, these first two preseason games, Nestor that were in Baltimore, Lamar Jackson, didn’t even suit up to go through warm ups, let alone play. So why not do this? Because all these teams like doing these joint practices now, and I get it, it’s a controlled environment. You can keep guys out of harm’s way compared to being worried about some teams, you know, backup defensive tackle falling into your franchise quarterback’s knee, right? I understand it. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but why not reimagine the preseason to do the joint practice basically at the game instead, and then just play half a game with whoever you want to play in the game. Then that’s that would be my way of trying to fix the preseason as much as it can be fixed, right? It’s not going to, we’re not going back to the days of six preseason games and the starters all play because they have to get in shape, because they had, they had off season jobs at the mill and all that we you know, it’s a different it’s a different it’s a different sport. It’s

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Nestor Aparicio  39:02

generation as Alan, I would say. But I

Luke Jones  39:05

think that would absolutely be the way to do it, because what we’re going to see in Green Bay this week, you know, that joint practice is going to be the tune up for Lamar Jackson and these other veteran players. You know, it’s a controlled setting. You know, they’re not going to go live to the ground, most likely. I mean, it rarely ever have since they’ve done these things over the last decade or so, but it gives you a chance to go up against an unfamiliar opponent, right? You know, part of one of the dirty little secrets about practice, and that’s why you don’t put too much into training camp in terms of performances, is Adolfo li lining up at the edge. Knows exactly how Ronnie Stanley plays, or how Josh Jones plays, or how their third string what Julian Pearl you know? He knows how each of those guys plays, and knows their tendencies and vice versa. Those guys know exactly how adafeo A likes to rush the passer, and these guys know all their teams plays right on the other. Side of the ball. So when you get into this joint practice setting, there is a little more of an unknown, you know, not saying there’s game planning for it, per se, but there is a little bit of intrigue in terms of going up against someone you’re not as familiar with, to see how you react to that. So point is, if there’s value to that, why not bring that value to the preseason games. Stop calling them preseason games. Call them preseason showcases, and let the starters do something on the on the field, and do it in uniform. And you know, you can hype it up and do all that, and then play a 30 minute game for all the young guys that you want to get a full live game setting for. To me, it makes too much sense add some charitable elements to it. And I’m not saying that’s going to pack the stadium, but you sure as heck will attract more fans than you had on Saturday, which, look, you know, on paper, the idea of getting to go to a preseason ravens game and then stay in downtown and, you know, go to visit a local establishment or a restaurant in between games, and then stay for the Orioles that night. Yeah, that sounded pretty good on paper, but then you see it rained. Well, there was that, but you also see just how few meaningful players actually suited up for the ravens and the Falcons for that matter. And it’s a bad product. It’s entertainment at the end of the day. And I don’t say this to be disrespectful to the players that are trying to earn jobs. We all understand that when we call it fake football, it’s stick, but at the same time, it’s entertainment. Inherently, there’s no value to you playing football if people don’t want to come watch it. And the crowds speak for themselves. At this point, regardless of what they

Nestor Aparicio  41:36

announce or regardless of people have spoken. You know, people say but they’re buying the tickets, and I look it’s because I have to 3000 right? 63,000 people paid for it, yeah, because they had to that for their season. 63,000 people. And if I came and took $200 out of their wallet, siphoned it, they would come with me with a gun, yeah. I mean, like, literally, everybody’s getting ripped off by it. So,

Luke Jones  41:58

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so that’s why I said, let’s make it less of a ripoff, at the very least, like I said, add that element in there where, at the very least you say, Okay, it’s not Lamar Jackson playing in a game. But you know what? I couldn’t make it to Owings Mills. I struck out on the lottery to to be able to go to one of the 20 practices in Owings Mills that were open. So at least with my preseason ticket, I’ll go there. I’ll get to see him scrimmage, and I’ll get to see Lamar run around a little bit, and I’ll get to see roquan Smith and Kyle Hamilton and all the stars on this team. They’ll practice. They’ll sign autographs. For Kids, it’ll be fun do fireworks at the end of the night. And then for the young guys, yeah, play a half of real football. To me, it seems way too It seems way too simple not to do that, which means they won’t. And, you know, no one cares what my opinion is, but in terms of a way to at least add a little more value into what’s become something that isn’t even as good as it was six or seven years ago, let alone 20 years ago or 40 years ago. You know, is there a way to reimagine this a little bit to incorporate what they clearly do like, which is these joint practices to why not? Why not bring that to the stadiums? Why not bring that to the actual preseason games and make this thing look a little bit more, little bit more entertaining, at the very least? But you know, again, if you’re okay with 25 or 30,000 people being in a 70,000 seat stadium for for these fake games, then, you know, the joke’s on everyone who has to pay

Nestor Aparicio  43:29

for it. Jalen Hurts throwing the ball, and Lamar Jackson throwing the ball two weeks ago with helmets on for the Eagles fans and the Ravens fans that want to come down there and pay full price for concessions and just deal, you know, to deal with all of it. Um, yeah, enough said, football, real footballs in a couple of weeks, fake football ends this week. Luke will have you covered. Luke’s going to be with us all week long. We got Orioles games. Orioles in New York, cheatstros Friday. We’re going to be down at fadelies with our friends from the Maryland lottery. Have the Gold Rush sevens doublers to give away. Uh, lots and lots and lots of political talk here this week, lots of things about making our state better. It’s not really political talk. I don’t think I talked to one or two people even running for office. These are people in seats that I had tough questions for what they do, how it affects us? From controller and it’s comptroller. She made me say it’s not controller. Pronounce that M, pronounce at M, P, M, P, comp, troller. So I’m going to say hump troller Brooke clearman, as well as Senator Ben Cardin, as well as Chris Dan Holland, Johnny o stop by Odette Ramos, stop by just lots and lots cool people, great conversations, Republicans as well as Democrats. Julie Giordano, who runs Worcester County, as well as my buddy cornbread, Carl Anderton, who just was appointed by Wes Moore to work on rural Maryland. So lots and lots of cool conversations, as well as fake football, as well as real baseball, as well as semi real bullpen. We’ll get to that whenever we figure it out. Look, we powered up by our friends at Jiffy Lube, getting him out to practices this week. And then we get on to the real thing. We’re two weeks away. From Labor Day. We’re two weeks away from real football and the purple birds flying out to Kansas City see how they match up against the world champions. I had to remind my wife that the Texas Rangers of the world champions too. I had to say that baseball, football, great political conversations, cool stuff ahead. I’m Nestor, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive i.