It was nearly three decades ago when Nestor dubbed the Baltimore Ravens’ Pre-Draft Press Conference “The Liars’ Luncheon.” So, it’s fitting that Luke Jones joins him here for straights truths about the Eric DeCosta “process” that began with Ozzie Newsome and will deftly navigate next weekend’s NFL Draft with owner Steve Bisciotti asking hard questions of his football people. The Ravens do this better than anyone.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Ravens’ preparations for the NFL Draft, focusing on their needs by position. They highlighted the importance of the offensive line, particularly at left guard and right tackle, and the potential for drafting depth players. On defense, they emphasized the need for safety and cornerback depth, mentioning potential draft picks like Malachi Starks and Nick Emanuelli. They also touched on the Ravens’ quiet free agency period, the potential for trades, and the importance of depth in various positions. The conversation concluded with plans for upcoming events and segments.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
NFL Draft, Ravens needs, Justin Tucker, offensive line, defensive line, safety, cornerback, quarterback, running back, wide receiver, depth, draft strategy, liar’s luncheon, pre-draft press conference, roster depth.
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
8
Nestor Aparicio 00:02
Welcome home. We are W N, S T am 1570 to Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We will be taking the Maryland crab cake tour out on the road. I will have some Maryland lottery scratch offs. I think I’m going to have the back to the futures by the time I get to Beaumont this week, on Thursday following, Wednesday, 23rd we’re going to be at Coke or Cooper’s pub north. Cooper’s north, I keep Cooper’s and then Coco’s. Try it go ahead three times, and then go to both places three times and get that gumbo up at Cooper’s north and get the delicious coconut shrimp at at Coco, I’m going to be doing both on the 23rd and 30th this month. So I brought to you by the Maryland lottery, in conjunction with our friends at Raskin global, our friends at Liberty, pure solutions making my water crystal clear, and we’re trying to make the NFL Draft crystal clear. I had Mike tenier on this week. I’m going to have some other NFL people on before the draft next week, Luke is about to join me. We have been knee deep into pitching and hitting and baseball and Mr. Rubenstein’s bobblehead and all this stuff going on. The obvious is that Justin Tucker still on the team. And I only point that out because I sat at the bar it cost us for eight hours on Friday, and other than my Orio press credential and the pitching itself, the Ravens thing has been very, very purposely back burnered. Mike tenier stood guilty as being at the Costa press conference in Indianapolis where he shoed the Justin Tucker things at that point. You know, this is a time where they’re happy to be picking lower because it means they had a good season. Their challenges are what they are. They have a lot of picks, as they always do, um, and Luke, I let you come in and sort of square the floor, because you wrote a great piece. All of the Justin Tucker stuff aside, all the drama, all the mark Andrews is making insurance commercials, uh, but can’t make a press conference after he drops to the ball in Buffalo. Um, all of that aside, they have a draft it’s a big deal. I mean, picking players is such a big deal that Bucha had some things to say about it two weeks ago on the website. But they’ve wanted all this to be a quiet time in the aftermath of the Justin Tucker thing, he’s still on the team, and they’re going to pick players next week, and you have did a beautiful job of sort of Dart boarding the draft board and looking and saying, Well, guys, what do we really need around here? We know we got a quarterback, right? Yeah, and
Luke Jones 02:32
let’s be clear. I mean, obviously, and we’re going to hear from the Ravens at the pre draft press conference a liar’s luncheon this week. There’s not going to be anything. Maybe there we come away with one or two interesting morsels or nuggets, but we know that by and large, they’re not saying anything. What they do? You take with not a grain of salt, a boulder of salt, and that’s just and that’s what it is that
Nestor Aparicio 02:56
everyone calls it the liar’s luncheon. Oh yeah, I’m the one who ever told the truth and I’m banned, and I am the one who named it the liar’s lunch. Yeah, so that’s hilarious, but nonetheless, Kevin Byrne echoed that, by the way, before they named the press box after him, so, but you know, it was off of just so everybody understands the alibi breakfast happens at the Preakness I started calling this the liar’s luncheon, so, and that was way back when Ozzy and art and David used to laugh about it, yeah. And,
Luke Jones 03:25
8look, it’s not even a criticism. I don’t I wouldn’t expect them to go out there and tell you the NFL free draft luncheon. I mean, that it’s called the pre draft press conference at luncheon. Yeah, but, in terms of, like, what you’re actually going to hear, yeah, okay, we really hope this guy’s available when we pick 27th overall. But you made a point. I do think all of the Tucker stuff aside, and that’s not to say that it’s not a major story going into the draft. That’s not to say that, you know, it is an interesting that they haven’t shied away when asked that, yeah, they’ve been scouting kickers. They’ve looked at Ryan Fitzgerald from Florida State, for example, some of the other kickers that potentially could be selected on day three of the draft. But until that happens, or that doesn’t happen, we’re kind of in this holding pattern, as the Justin Tucker thing goes, but everything else, everything else about this roster, everything else about the way the Ravens have gone through free agency. You know, even by Raven standards, it’s felt quieter than normal. And you know, I’m not trying to draw any connection to the Tucker stuff with that. It’s just it’s kind of where they are. And we’ve talked about this, when you’re a team that is a mark Andrews dropping fumble away from potentially playing in the AFC Championship and having a chance to get back, to get to a Super Bowl after you’ve come up short all these years, you know there, there isn’t a ton to change. Uh. You know, when you have a quarterback like the Ravens do, so that was part of you know, as you cited at what I worked on at Baltimore positive.com Last week, was nothing that was earth shattering, but just kind of going through position by position and saying, Okay, where’s your concern level? Where are you with quarterbacks? Well, they have one of the very best quarterbacks in football have had that, and you just signed Cooper rush to a two year deal, who I think is a very competent, capable, solid backup quarterback. So in other words, my concern level quarterback is done, right? I don’t you know, the biggest point of discussion now for that position is going to be when the Ravens extend Lamar Jackson, whether it’s going to be later this off season, whether it’s going to be next off season, because they’re going to have to do it. His cap number next year is around $75 million but as it pertains to on the field for 2025 it’s nothing to talk about with the quarterback. So you know, you kind of go down the list, and let’s just, we’ll start with the offense as a whole, running back. You know, they haven’t worked out an extension with Derek Henry yet, despite plenty of chatter that they’d be interested in doing that. He likes it here. Can you get Can you come to an agreement that makes sense, understanding he’s a 31 year old running back? Yeah, we’ll see, but he’s under contract, and they still have Justice Hill, they still have Keaton Mitchell, who’s now another year removed from the knee. They’re in good shape there, right? So there’s not a whole lot to talk about there tight ends. I have no idea what their tight end room is going to look like a year from now, but unless they have a draft day trade in their pocket for Mark, you know, with Mark Andrews involved. There’s certainly nothing to talk about in terms of, you know, it’s deep. It’s a good group. You’ve got your Pro Bowl fullback back to throw him back into the mix. So, you know, there’s not a whole lot to talk about there. So to me, there are two positions really on the offensive side that we can talk about, two position groups, to be clear wide receiver, they’ve added DeAndre Hopkins, good value signing. I think if you have appropriate expectations for what he is, I think he’s a good number three option behind Bateman and zay flowers. Think he can still win on the outside some with contested catches. I think he I said this to you when they signed him. To me, he is Odell Beckham two years ago, except at the more appropriate price point of $5 million rather than $15 million that they overpaid for Beckham. So could they still add another wide receiver to the mix to to fortify their depth their long term? Could they take a mid round swing and say, just in case something happens. As a flowers again, knowing he’s small, knowing how important he is. Could you do that? Sure, that wouldn’t surprise me. Is it a major need? Though, not really. But the offensive line, hey, check mark. Check mark on resigning Ronnie Stanley, that move has been lauded around the league, is one of the best signings. You know, not, technically, not at the start of free agency, but right before the start of free agency, they’re going
Nestor Aparicio 08:08
to pick three players next week, on the O line, right? I mean, it, it, and maybe two on the D line, yeah. I mean, I don’t know
Luke Jones 08:15
if three, but definitely two. And I think defensive line, and we’ll get to the defense because, yeah, that’s, that’s one of the this is one
Nestor Aparicio 08:21
of those years of playing Hokey Pokey with picks and thinking they’re going to move from 27 up to 19 because they find their next corner or, you know, or their next left tackle, you know, whatever they think. If you think this is a year they’re going to fire power out to do that, then you think they’re going to take less picks. I would hear that right? I’ll look, I can see a lot of things about Eric da Costa and I have and you can read them, and I’ll be glad to re recount all of them. But pick a football players. They’re good at this. They’re really good at this, and how they use these picks, they’re as good as anybody’s ever been at this. So whatever they do, they’ve thought about it 100 times more than you and I have that really no question.
8Luke Jones 08:58
And you know, for the most part, it works out. Sometimes it doesn’t, because it’s not going to work out 100% of the time for any team. But there is a play, sure, sure. And I think where you look at your offensive line right now, obviously, Stanley’s your left tackle, obviously Lindner bombs your center, obviously Roger Rosengarten is your right tackle. You assume file lay lay it right guard. And as things stand right now, you you’d like to think that they have a certain degree of confidence in Andrew Voorhees playing left guard, because, hey, they started last season with with him as their left guard before he got hurt, and they pivoted to McCarry, and they said, Hey, let’s just stick with this. So it’s not as though you couldn’t, if they had to play a game this week, you wouldn’t look at their offensive line group and say, Okay, I see a starting five there. But the big question one, you want to have competition for Voorhees? I think you want to have competition for falay, if we’re being honest, if, if John Harbaugh was given truth serum, I think they. Least want to have competition for Fall lately, because keep in mind, he’s entering the last year of his rookie deal. You know that he’s been with this program now four years. So I think you want competition, and at the very least, you certainly need depth. Because even though you did resign Ben Cleveland, which raised eyebrows because of the off field, you know, the DUI a few weeks before the zero
Nestor Aparicio 10:22
tolerance, zero
Luke Jones 10:24
tolerance, but that, but even with that, even putting that element of it aside, I mean, who are your other depth pieces if you have an injury to any of those guys that I project as starters, who’s stepping in? Okay? I’ll hear Cleveland at one of the guard spots, okay, but he also could be facing, he could be facing discipline from the league for a DUI, you know, he could be suspended a game, you know, I mean, whatever. And it’s not like he’s a slam dunk proven commodity, that that he’s even a sure thing to make the roster, you know, I right now he would, he would be because of their lack of depth, but you need to add, you know, there was, you know, recent report from the athletic about veteran swing tackle George fant, you know, talking with the Ravens. Maybe that’s a post draft signing, as we’ve seen them do some of that in recent years, especially. But they need inside and outside depth in their offensive line. So you said three picks. Excuse me, I don’t know if it’s three. I mean, it depends where in the draft. Obviously, you know, if you’re talking six, you know guys that are late day three picks. You know that’s that’s more inventory than depth. When you really think about that, late in the draft,
Nestor Aparicio 11:35
8do they have today? They have 11 picks, and how many are they really going to make? Are they really going to make nine? Are they really going to make nine? Are they really going to make 11? Or are they really going to make 13? Because they deal from 27 backward to 35 and pick something up and something something something else up, and then they start going into Wheeler Dealer mode. Yeah, I don’t look dude. I don’t know their temperature, and you would have to tell me, um, because they lie about a lot of stuff. They have a liar’s luncheon this week, as dubbed by me, who’s been thrown out and not allowed to ask questions anymore. But I used to do this as well as anybody, and get their temperature and knowing sort of how they felt about certain players and how they feel about certain sections of the draft and where the depth would be that would be my vibe in the next 10 days is to say, are they really going to make 11 picks? Yeah, they really just want to make eight or nine. Eight or nine picks, because they don’t feel like they have jobs available. I feel like they got a lot of jobs available. I feel like this is, it’s nice and tight around Kyle Hamilton and roquan Smith and Marlon, the people that are making money, sure, but I think of the people that aren’t making money, other than zay flowers, and you know, a couple of other positions that they feel great about. I don’t think they feel great about running back after Derek Henry, or how much higher they feel like as we watch Charlie Morton and you know, some other Kyle Gibson try to do it. People were making fun of Derek Henry this time last year, saying, well, too old. Going to slow down. I don’t know. I don’t saw him carrying chains up the hills about a month ago, so much so that I have his Oilers jersey, so I’m hoping to wear it for at least one more season to honor his Hall of Fame status, maybe with a ring and a parade that time will tell. But I don’t know that there’s any spot on the roster, and you’ve indicated all of them that they don’t feel some depth issues. But I know there have been times where they feel like, we don’t want to pick 11 players. We don’t have 11 jobs. I don’t know that they feel that way now. I feel like they can move backward and get 13 players and feel like, Hey, man, let’s get six. Let’s come out of this trap where Luke and Nestor in 2028 are talking about having three or four starters, and having some depth pieces and another Pat Ricard or another thing that they find, including a kicker, right? I mean, you know, aside from all of that, but where? Where is the next great draft for them? And Eric’s always trying to find that, yeah,
Luke Jones 13:56
and let’s be clear, I think it’s important when, when we say 11 picks. You know, where are those 11 picks? I think it’s important to acknowledge a couple things here. One, they only have three picks in the top 128 picks of the draft. So you have your first, a second, a third. You have two fourths, one of them being a comp pick. You have a fifth round comp pick. Four of those 11 picks are sixth round picks, and then they have a seventh round pick. Let’s call a spade a spade. For as much as you love the dream scenarios where you draft a starter in the sixth round or the seventh round, you never go into a draft expecting that a player that you’re taking that Luke, let me remind Davis
Nestor Aparicio 14:37
and Tom Brady were taking the draft.
Luke Jones 14:40
But my point is, look, you can find guys. And Dallas Thomas was a great example of that. Chuck Clark, in more recent years, was a great example of that, guys that you pick, that you like, that you like as depth pieces, and they end up becoming starters, but you’re never planning for that, right? So I think, more pragmatically speaking, you. Looking at this draft and you’re saying, Okay, we have a first, we have a second, we have a third, we have two fourths, we have a fifth. You know, you have six picks that you’re making when you draft guys in the first five rounds, you fully expect them to be on your roster. That’s kind of the line of demarcation. Yes, when you if they do make four picks in the sixth round as they’re currently scheduled to make. You’re hoping they make the roster, but we also know gun to your head. You’re not sitting there with extremely high degree of confidence in saying that a six round pick is definitely going to make the roster, because we just know how that works. And if a six round pick can’t play, he’s not gonna make the roster, he’s gonna get cut, and he’s probably gonna land on the practice squad then. So So I think for me, and look, I’ve made no, I don’t mince words about this. I have not followed college football intimately, closely in the way that the draft experts do. I’m eyeball deep in baseball coverage right now. But when you hear the Daniel Jeremiahs, the MEL Kuipers, the Todd mcshays of the world, who who break down the draft as their full blown livelihood, what you hear, first of all, what sticks out? There’s so much, so many questions about the quarterbacks, right there aren’t that even, even the people that really like these quarterbacks, there’s no generational guy that everyone universally adores, right? I mean, Cam Ward, okay, right, but, but he’s not viewed in the same way that some of you know, recent, top, you know, elite, of the elite quarterback prospects. So, so that always impacts things, and we’re seeing that right now. I mean, you know, are the Giants going to take
8Nestor Aparicio 16:43
a quarterback? Well, massive level, right? Or whatever those wacky I’m going to deal the whole draft for Ricky Williams, right?
Luke Jones 16:51
But I don’t know if anyone feels that way about any of these quarterbacks, right? So you have that and beyond the quarterback. So the quarterbacks always, you know, attract the most attention, because it’s the shiniest position. But you kind of look at this draft, and what you hear people say a lot is, this feels like more of a depth draft. It feels like this is a draft where you can find starters, but if you’re looking for superstars, and obviously we’re going beyond the top 10 picks, I mean, you know, you look at some of the guys at the very top of the board. Travis Hunter is an amazing, generational kind of talent in terms of a guy that could play two ways and but, you know, you get beyond those top five, top 10 prospects, I think you get much more into there not being a whole lot of differentiation. And you’re looking at guys over the next couple rounds that you’re hoping you can come away with, starters. I think if you’re Eric da Costa, he would probably tell you that with the picks that we have, knowing that we don’t have a ton of picks in the top 125 but can we come away with three starters? And that doesn’t mean three starters in 2025 mind you. But can we come away with three starters, maybe four in a long term, you know, looking at it with a long term view, if you could do that any year, that that’s a draft that you’re going to give a thumbs up to overall. You know, whether you hit on every single early pick or not. You know, you come away with three or four starters, or you come away with two starters and two quality backups. You’ll take that most years so but that sounds like, that’s the kind of draft This is. It doesn’t sound like you know beyond you get beyond the first 1015, picks, I think you’ll find a lot of noise in terms of mock drafts and where a guy’s kind of this
Nestor Aparicio 18:35
is where, for me, if you’re Eric and you were 27 and a tackle falls into the teens, or into something reachable between 16 and 25 Yeah, and there’s something there that you have to give, something backward away, that would sound like a backup linebacker or a debt piece on the D line or whatever. If you feel like you’re getting a starting player, if they feel like they can find the Kyle Hamilton kind of player, and that’s kind of along the lines of their mojo man, like that’s kind of the way they operate, to some degree in that space, is to say we love this guy. We think he’s the eighth best player in the draft. So now he’s there at 19 or 20. He’s a freaking starter. He’s a player we’re going to have to give a second contract to. We know we can get a starter there. I don’t like the corner. We’re going to get stuck with the 27 Yeah, they they’re out there today and the next 10 days. And one of the reasons they come and lie to you and buy you a nice lunch from the legend of Eddie Dobkin is because they’re practicing this, right, so that they don’t have one of those issues that the Vikings had that year, couldn’t get their card up, and the Jaguars had that you like, they they want to be rehearsed in all of this, because this is bashati’s Jam. Dude, like, Did you see his eyes light up in that video? Oh yeah. I mean this. So they sit and they do all of this to say, who is worth dealing for, who are we going to die for? Who are the 12 guys that we know are starters that we want on our football team? Can we get one of those guys? I want one of those guys, not one of the other guys. Get me one real player in this first round. And what did they say? F those picks in the Rams? Yeah, the F those picks back in the second and third round.
Luke Jones 20:30
8Well, I yeah, I don’t think you’re ever going to hear the Ravens say that, let alone, you know, actually think that. But I because you mentioned it, and this is where we can pivot to the defensive side. We’ve talked about the offense. I mean, offensive line is the big one right away.
Nestor Aparicio 20:45
They used to do this 20 hours a week for eight weeks leading up to the draft. Question. Fun, you know, well, but, but
Luke Jones 20:52
I think, and you mentioned his name, Kyle Hamilton, and that’s where I think this draft is interesting for the ravens, because on defense, they certainly need more depth at other spots. Defensive line, okay, you love Matt abik, I mean, you extended him last year. Travis Jones, you know, I think has very much at least proven himself to be a quality, starting caliber defensive tackle. But Michael Pierce is retired. Brent urban is still unsigned, so maybe he’s back, maybe he’s not, but either way, he’s on the wrong side of 30. You know, Roderick Washington right now, if you’re talking about your base defense, which they don’t play very much of anymore, you don’t play very much three defensive interior defensive linemen anymore, but Broderick Washington probably you’d like to be more of a depth piece than a guy that you’re saying, okay, he’s going to start. So they need depth there.
Nestor Aparicio 21:48
There’s no and who’s going to sack the quarterback is, no doubt, Well, Ed, you know, Edge look
8Luke Jones 21:53
on paper at, at, you know, if you’re looking at the Ravens from a 30,000 foot view, you’ve got two outside linebackers that had double digit sacks last year, you know, OA and Kyle van Noy, however, Van Noy is another year older, always in the final year of his contract. And I think he’s a really tricky valuation guy, meaning, how much do you really want to spend to extend him? You know, is he? Do you think he’s your next? Terrell Suggs, which I don’t think anyone actually thinks that, or is he your next match? You don who you liked, and you even tagged for a year, but you didn’t marry him, right? You didn’t extend him long term. Whether that was the right decision or not, that’s what they decided to do. So the point is, Judah was a better player, by the way, yeah, yeah, I’d agree with that, you know? Oh, we had a good year this past year. I’m not, I’m not dismissing that. But is he so good understanding all of the guys that you have to extend, all of your young players. You know that the Hamilton deal, the Linder bomb deal coming up, another Lamar extension, right? I mean all the guys that are coming down the pike, as far as needing to extend that you absolutely want to keep, I don’t know if always in that group, I just don’t just
Nestor Aparicio 23:01
a guy, and that’s what, you know, Eric the Costa and Phil savage would refer to that just a guy, you know, like, I mean replaceable part to me, not a key based on what the body of work for Me financial. Otherwise, I want to and need to, and must do better than him for me.
Luke Jones 23:25
I’m not. I’m not hearing you right now. Might be a bad connection, but you know, you mentioned, oh, you know we were talking about OA, and you know, whether you love him or not, it’s very much a case of, he’s in a contract year, and what, what’s the price point? Where are you comfortable extending him, and is he going to be amenable to that? Let’s face it, David ajabo is closer to being on the roster bubble than a breakout season at this point in time. I mean, it’s just what it is. I feel for the kid. He works hard. The injuries have been a major bummer, because I think he had some really elite potential at one point in time. But, you know, he’s in a contract here. You know that, you know, you look at their other options, these are more guys than got, than players that you think are going to break out so, so you look at edge, they could certainly stand a deal there. But the point I was trying to make, and we, you know, we’ve kind of gone all over the place here, but you mentioned Kyle Hamilton, if there’s one position that I point to right now where they absolutely need to add someone, it’s safety. We know the Ravens want to be multiple on the back end of their defense with their secondary. We’ve seen it. We’ve seen them play much more dime in recent years. We nickel has become the base defense in the modern NFL. I mean, that’s just the truth. So they added, you know, they added a corner in a woozy a couple weeks ago, who, I think, if healthy, can be a very rock solid number three corner to go with Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins. But certainly, you’re still looking at corner, but right now, it’s safety. You. Hamilton. I mean, it’s just a matter of when they’re going to extend them and when they’re going to make them the highest paid safety in the NFL, whether that’s now or later. That’s what’s coming presumably. Our Darius Washington is a restricted free agent. I don’t think anyone has sniffed around trying to sign him to an offer sheet, but that’s still there, at least for a little bit longer. But he’s also someone who had a great year, but he has quite an injury history. Are you going to commit to him? And even if you do, even if you feel really good about those two guys as your starters moving forward, which, if they do, that’s fine. Who are your other safeties on the on the roster right now? Beau braid, who was an undrafted free agent last year, and Sanusi Kane, who was a late day three pick. So I think where you look with the Ravens picking 27th the name that you’ve heard, two names you’ve heard a lot of people throw out there, Malachi Starks from Georgia and Nick emanui from from South Carolina. They are not just safeties by title, but they are very versatile pieces that can line up in the slot, they can play deep. They can play in the box. You know, the you know, especially even wary who you know, 632, 20, and runs like a corner. I mean, he’s, you know, he definitely has some developing to do. And, you know, you talk to people who watched his tape, I mean, just a little little more inconsistent than you’d like them to be for looking at the physical traits. But man, if, if it would work out where you could draft one of those guys at 27 I mean, you talk about another Swiss Army Knife kind of piece that you could put in the back end of your defense, and not even just the back end, but move around, move guys around. That allows you to move Hamilton around again, more so than you could at the second half of last year. You know, that’s the spot where, look, they could add defensive line, edge off ball, linebacker even I’m not looking to do it early, because Trenton Simpson needs to he’s got to figure it out. He’s got play he’s got to be able to play well enough. But you could certainly still add another guy at that position. You could absolutely add another corner. But to me, safety is a spot where I look at it in terms of how Zach or and Chuck pagano want this defense to run. You know, with the back end being multiple and kind of positionless, so to speak, they need another safety, and doesn’t have to be Starks or even worry, but man, the high end ability that one of those guys could bring to what you already have, and I mean, that would just make that defense, I think, on the back end, that much more formidable and dangerous, which in turn, could help you at edge rusher, which, look, they absolutely need to add another edge rusher. And, you know, I don’t want it to be waiting until the fifth or sixth round, obviously, but you can only pick the players that are on the board. And the reality is, even if they want to move up Nestor, it’s not going to be easy for them to move up, because, as I said, a lot of their picks are late. You know, those late picks, you might be able to move up a spot or two, you know, maybe three spots. You know, something like that. But you know to go from 27 you know, if you absolutely are obsessed with getting a player at any position, you know, to move up 10 spots, to move up a dozen spots. I mean, you know that that’s going to be expensive for them, because, you know, you’re probably talking about potentially having to trade, you know, future picks, and starting to get into that game. So not to say they won’t, not to say they can’t, but at the same time, when you look at how this draft profiles, I think there’s going to be a lot more, you know, it’s going to be a noisy it’s going to be a little more interesting to see how teams stack up their boards. You know, with their 16th through 4045, on their draft board, I think you’re going to see a lot of variation, team to team. So, you know, does that mean you move up, or does that mean you be patient? Because you’re thinking, who knows? Maybe there could be a scenario that’s not going to be quite the same deal as Kyle Hamilton a couple years ago, because the Ravens were picking in the middle of the first round when that happened, but it might be someone that you think is the 13th best player on your board, but because there’s so much very variance from team to team with how they rank these players, you know you might, You might have someone that falls like that for you, so it’s gonna be interesting in that on that front but yeah, for me, if I’m looking position by position, as I did in my look at Baltimore, positive.com I think you look at the defensive side of the ball, and you see much more need for depth, for guys that can be viable parts of your sub packages. And you know, whereas the offense, for me, really, the offensive line, is only this. That’s the one position group on offense where I say, yeah, they absolutely need to add depth. Whereas, you know, wide receiver, they could, but if they didn’t, I don’t think it’s the end of the. World, and some of those spots, like running back in tight end, it’s like, okay, you could draft one. How are you going to fit them on the roster at this point? You know that that that’s where you’re talking so. But defense, I think you could take a player at just about any position and justify it. I mean, like I said, I wouldn’t be crazy about an off ball linebacker early because you’re already paying roquan Smith, Trenton Simpson’s, you know, he was the third round pick, and I think you need to trust that he’s going to develop to at least be a guy that you trust on early downs. And then if you do take another safety, if you do take another corner relatively early, then I think you get into third down. You get into passing situations where you just play more dime then, I mean, this team comes away with Malachi Starks or or Eamon wary. They’re going to be in dime of when they get into second and long and third down. I mean, they’re going to be in dime where roquan Smith is going to be the only linebacker on the field at that point in time. So I think that’s what they’d like to do. They certainly need to add another safety. They really, really could stand to add another corner, you know, so, so that’s where we’re looking. But really, on the defense, they need depth, pretty much anywhere, which isn’t a that’s not an indictment on them, that’s actually kind of sort of what you want, in terms of they can go into this draft, and they’re not really in a position where, like, oh my goodness, we must take a starter at this specific position, 27th overall, or we’re in big trouble. I don’t think they’re there. Well, if Ronnie Stanley took 28 million and went played in Jacksonville, then you’d be saying, oh my gosh, how. Like, who’s playing left tackle, you know,
Nestor Aparicio 31:40
8because Orioles asking who’s pitching now,
Luke Jones 31:43
right? Yeah, right, right, exactly. So, so I think, I think they’re in a good spot. I mean, this roster is one of the very best in the NFL. It is, you know, it’s not perfect. They can certainly they need to add across the board defensively with their depth. But, you know, John Harbaugh made the comment at the owners meetings, and you hear coaches say this kind of stuff a lot, but this is a time where I agree with him. You know, he said, if we had to line up and play today, we’d feel pretty good about our starting 11 on both sides of the ball. And, you know, I agree with them. You know, compared to any team that’s going to have some positions of weakness, any team is going to have some positions that doesn’t have immaculate depth. I mean, that’s just reality with the salary cap. So I think this is a draft that, like I said, yeah, the Ravens don’t necessarily need to come away with a guy that starts day one. I mean, Nate Wiggins didn’t start day one, but I halfway through the season, you know, you felt good about him playing. And you know, I think you’re going to feel even better about him in year two. I think he’s going to be that kind of player for them. So you’re hoping, if you can come away with whatever position it is, you’re hoping it’s someone that maybe doesn’t have to play week one, but certainly if they you want them to be able to play sooner than later. And you know, you’re hoping it can be someone that that can do that. And like, going back to what I said at the beginning, you know, maybe it is a guard, you know, I mean, picking late, you know, Ben grubs back in, what, 2007 you know, someone like that. If it’s a guard, no one’s going to be excited about that, because that’s such a it’s not a a sizzle position. It’s not a position that is going to get anyone excited, but if that’s the best player available, then so be it that you make your offensive line better to protect number eight, you know, but sitting in the pocket, then that’s, that’s not a bad thing. So my point is, you know, they don’t have a ton of draft capital, even if, yes, they have 11 picks that, you know, a lot of them are later. But everyone that talks about this draft, who knows much more about it than I do, they say that, you know, this feels like a pretty good draft from a depth standpoint. And luckily for the ravens, that’s, you know, that’s kind of where they are. You know, they they don’t need to find three day one starters in this draft. If they do, then great God bless. I mean, he’ll be even better then. But for them, you know, they’re really in a position where, you know, depth is depth is okay year one, depth is okay. And guys that maybe they’re not ready to start year one, but if they’re ready to start years two, three and four, then great if you can come away with last year, right? Yeah, exactly so. And Wiggins looks like he’s going to be really good. And
Nestor Aparicio 34:21
you mentioned Trenton, Simpson, some other guys, whether they’re going to emerge or not. Fa lay, lay. Some other guys. Luke, I tell you what, man, enjoy the liar’s lunch and do me a favor when you’re out there. Um, because they’re football players and I’m an athlete, an athletic supporter, but not an athlete. Um, I always went to the yogurt thing over there. They always had this delicious french vanilla. It was either ice cream or yogurt, fresh, frozen. And I would always get to honor Eddie Dobkin, fresh berries. So if they have some pineapple, none of that goopy peach nonsense. I’m talking about fresh fruit here, some mango, not to slice it up. Right? I mean, you got some nice Blueberries, blueberries and French vanilla, perfect. And if they have a little granola there, maybe a little chia seed, something like that. Make the bone strong, throw all that in there for me, maybe a little honey on top, or caramel butterscotch, if they have such a thing, and just have a little extra dessert for me. Alright, that’s all I’m asking. I don’t ever ask you to eat an extra hot dog in the press box, or get that extra crab cake, because I know how bad the food usually was at the Ravens games. But this is particularly different because, you know, Eddie was a friend of mine, and it’s his place and it’s his kitchen, and I miss the food there, not really, but I do miss the the yogurt and the little dessert thing. So have that for me at the liar’s luncheon. Okay, that sounds good. That’s doable. And to me, by all means, ask a question to piss him off, just for me. For old time’s sake. I don’t even know what that would be. You know, something about the kicker, probably
Luke Jones 35:57
plenty of questions that they haven’t liked over the years. You know it, you know, I’ll stand up for myself a little bit there. I’m not afraid to ask a tough question, to be clear,
8Nestor Aparicio 36:07
yeah, I know you’re not. I mean, that’s why I wasn’t
Luke Jones 36:09
implying that you Yeah. I mean, you know,
Nestor Aparicio 36:15
why did they do this thing?
Luke Jones 36:19
8You want to know the very blunt answer. The NFL requires it. The league makes them do it. Yeah. I mean, like, across the board. I mean, all these teams, you know, one of the NFL off season media requirements is that teams have to do a pre draft process.
Nestor Aparicio 36:30
This is their way to hype the draft. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. And by the way, schedule. Anybody waiting on that? That’s so many.
Luke Jones 36:36
It’s gonna be, it’s gonna be, I saw something. I forget where I saw it, but it was from a reputable, I don’t know if it’s pro football talk. It was a reputable source, you know, to vary, you know, some, some degree they’ve moved this thing. Yeah, I think, I think they were saying somewhere in the neighborhood of, like, mid May, so that, so that’s what we’re talking about. There’s, there’s been a lot of speculation, because what the Ravens were assigned, you know that? What was it? Uh, was it the UK, as far as from a branding standpoint, or something like that? So there’s, there’s a lot of speculation they could wind up playing overseas for a game, you know, we’ll see about Christmas, three Christmas games this year. How about that? Right? Here is my
Nestor Aparicio 37:17
prediction, because you and I have baked up shuffling off the buffalo to see the end of I’m going to call it rich Stadium as proper name.
8Luke Jones 37:27
Go to Buffalo for Christmas. They’re going
Nestor Aparicio 37:30
to play Christmas night in Buffalo. Oh, it’ll be a foot of snow Thursday too. So they’re treating it like Thanksgiving, yeah. So, all right, all that drama ahead as I wear my purple curio a shirt and the O’s need to get some offense going, as well as some better pitching. But God bless on that. Speaking of oh, oh, hi, oh, in town all week, and that’ll be the the guardians and the reds in Luke will be at the ballpark on Thursday, Thursday, Thursday, we will be at the Beaumont. And in this segment, since you and I have been communicating, I have put together just a beautiful event at the Beaumont on Thursday. So I am I went from I always say to my wife, like, Monday mornings, I’m like, Hey, I wonder if the show is going to be good this week. And at the end of the week, I’m like, we kicked their ass again this week. So by the end of the week, I’m going to come up with something really good for the Beaumont on Thursday. Nothing better than sitting with beno ransom on Friday and talking basketball and having Greg’s Hispanic come by and honoring the great Costas. And I’m just allowed to say it like from Dundalk trinalos. I can. I don’t have to have the Greek pronunciation of that, because my Greek is Scott. We learned that last week, and it was just a beautiful day. We we honored Mr. Costas. I had Chuck from drug city come over, although he did not bring me any high balls. He has promised them to me at drug city. So had a really nice stunt doc experience last week. You’ll be hearing that out on the air this week, including Pino ransom, who Luke knows as the long time assistant coach to Mark Turgeon and sort of recruiter, guy whose kids over at Mount Saint Joe, and I know him as the 10 year old kid who was ambidextrous. He could go left and right for my basketball team. That helped us finish second in the in the Rosedale golden ring Middle School 8am league championship in 1989 in the gym league in the house league. So vino and I got together, and that was beautiful thing. This week’s going to be, don’t tell be No, I said this might even be better. Like I got something for the Beaumont. It’s going to be crazy. This week. We’re going to have some Maryland lottery scratch offs to give away. I’m going to have some Back to the Future scratch offs in the DeLorean. And then next week, we’re going to be at Cooper’s north, which is better than at DeLorean, hanging out with Ron Schultz and Nick Schultz and talking about LLS and saving lives and leukemia, lymphoma and all lots of things I know a whole lot more than I should know about that’ll be at Cooper’s North next on the 23rd next Wednesday, and then on the 30th, we’re going to be at Coco’s pub, and I’ve got all sorts of great guests, including Jamie Costello, who’s going to come out and. Talk. Everybody’s talking about Little League. They all kids in Little League. My kid came out and drank beer with me. Acosta, he’s not thinking about Little League, although every time I come through Pennsylvania, I think about Luke Jones’s Little League fence and make me want to go back and play bad news bears all over again. But I got to watch the Blue Jays play baseball on Sunday, which is better, and somehow they won. Luke and I go talk football. We’re going to talk baseball. He’s going to be doing both this week, the liar’s luncheon, as well as Oriole Park at Camden Yards. And as always, if there’s any breaking news, you get it first on the W, N, S, T, tech service, brought to you by Cole roofing and Gordian energy. My friends who are taking me as an ambassador to Las Vegas, I’m the designated driver in Las Vegas that says everything. We’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.
