Nothing more fun than when Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio legitimately disagree on a trade or a player acquisition. As the Ravens go to summer break, the duo discuss the legend and lore of Derrick Henry and what will make the Ravens’ offense Super Bowl worthy by February. The #RavensFlock will love this one…
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
derrick henry, running, year, lamar, ronnie stanley, ravens, plays, january, offensive line, draft, talking, willie taggart, good, football, week, ball, player, thought, work, training camp
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are W N S, T, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we hope that you set a spot at am 1570 on your radio dial draft are listening right now. We do appreciate that. So to all of our sponsors, many of them annual and reopening and recurring including our friends, wise markets, big appreciation to them for all they do for us and these wise conversations, as well as royal farms powering up the coffee in my coal roofing mug here this morning Bill Cole has been AWOL ever since he and I went and got roughed up in Vegas couple weeks back, can’t find him anymore. Maybe get him down to a ballgame. Thought I was going to head down to some of the Braves games this week up. I am not doing the Phillies this weekend, but I am doing Fleet Week we’re going to be at Coopers in Fells Point on Friday. I am wearing my caster shirt. We’re going to be a Costas in Dundalk. They were established in 71. I was established in 68. We’re gonna be over there on Thursday afternoon Jessica valus. from Hartford designed to just redid our entire websites. If you’ve been to our website lately, you’ll see lots of things have changed around there all are brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. We’ll have crabcakes we will have the Orioles in the Yankees on the television on Thursday, and the Gold Rush sevens doublers that have been a lucky batch. We had some winners over Coco’s, if you heard any of our programming, Microsoft Liano came by I love to have and Max Weiss and Ellen McCallum talk music and movies. And we did very little sports in that segment and then Tom Pearson classic five, who was a Philadelphian by birth a Baltimorean by choice. Talking Phillies and Orioles all weekend long and Marcela gave me crab cakes and ribs and Korean food and who knows what you can get and laurelville were Costas on Thursday word Pappus. On the 25th. We’re getting out into the community making our way around. I’ve got a Coco’s crab cake. Sit down in the fridge right now that I got to put under the fryer and the football players have dispersed. So as much as Luke is Mr. Baseball here, all I can think about is Tom Selleck. And you having wha when I think of Mr. Baseball, you’ve been football all week. And as we all know, as I will be writing about later in the summer, only one of us is credentialed, not the Venezuelan at either place. I’ve been a bad boy. But you like double duty. And Thursday’s a great example. And I will use this for Chad’s deal and for Greg Bader to say, when there’s only one of you and two of them, you have to pick one. So you did ravens camp, they’re about to depart for oh, good six, eight weeks here. You tell me when camp starts again, I’m not on the email list. But Quiet Kind of exactly what you wanted, right? I mean, you missed a couple of baseball games out of this, but good football practices, people showing up the Marlon Humphrey news on Thursday. Boy, they always keep a little something up their sleeve, just to let you know, they’re not honest. And they’re not upfront, and they’re not going to offer things like the Marlin Humphrey thing.
Luke Jones 02:53
Well, I mean, the Marlin Humphrey thing wasn’t, I assume wasn’t that big of a deal? I mean, hardball, said he’s just dealing with some little things. And look, he was out on the field. It’s not as though they’re hiding, like a torn ACL or anything like that. But he’s been limited with something. Is it? Anything, you know, the remnants of some of the injuries he had last year? I mean, I wouldn’t think so. But it’s kind of continues to concern about Marlon Humphrey and his availability and know your dad played football
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:20
in six months. That’s not good.
Luke Jones 03:23
Sure, sure. Wow. Again, no, I mean, he’s gonna be ready for training camp. I don’t think there’s any reason to doubt that I, you know, to me, the, the one of the stories of mini camp was that they’re in, relatively, not even relatively, they’re in good shape health wise. I mean, they are, there’s one guy that I fully expect, not fully expect, we know will not be out there, the first day training camp, and that’s Keith Mitchell. As he’s continuing to recover from the ACL. We know that he injured his knee in mid December. If he plays, if he’s ready to come back at Thanksgiving, that’s a bonus. Right? I mean, that’s where we are with him. And, you know, if he can be a change of pace for Derrick Henry in December in January, then great, you know, you’ll welcome that. But beyond him. You know, I think there’s some other guys like Nick, same act, the seventh round center that they drafted for Michigan State who broke his fibula at the end of last year, you could tell he’s still limited. So does he begin the year on begin training camp on one of the NFIB lists or something like that? Maybe, but other than that, they’re really healthy. And the good thing the best news about as you pointed out, a pretty uneventful mandatory minicamp week, let’s compare it to last year, Odell Beckham Jr. had arrived in Owings Mills. And that was a big deal because he hadn’t been there for OTAs. Two years ago, it was Lamar showing up after skipping of all of OTAs and not knowing what his contract situation was going to bring this this year. This week. It was quiet and that’s a good thing you want uneventful in mid June, and the best news was they navigated the week. And yeah, I think got the work done that they wanted to get done? How much? Is it really worth? You know, how valuable is it in the big picture? Probably not all that valuable. You know, I think even coaches privately would say that they kind of just want to be able to keep tabs on these guys and get some work in and build, start building your foundation. But the worst thing that can happen this time of year is if someone suffers, heaven forbid, a season ending injury or an injury that’s going to keep you out through all the training camp and disrupt what you want to do on either side of the ball. And they didn’t have any of that. So if you guys banged up here and there, Marlon Humphrey, Michael Pierce, by the way, did not do very much at all during mandatory mini camps. So, you know, is there a conditioning issue there? We’ve seen that in the past, but you know, Mike appears, do you really need to see him running around in mid June probably not, you know, gives us a chance to get more reps for guys like Travis Jones working with the one. So I, I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and say that I thought it was all that consequential. And in terms of news and headlines and all that. We saw some different offensive line combinations, you know, a few clues here and there in terms of what the pecking order might be for three open spots. But beyond that, you know, you got some highlight plays here and there. Some plays that need some work, you know, some pre snap penalty issues, but nothing that changes the trajectory of this football team, which we expect to be really, really good, even if they’ll have a tough time matching the six regular season success of last year. But when you’re in the position that the Ravens have been in here in recent years, we know it’s all about January. So nothing that happened in June feels like it will be remotely consequential unless someone gets hurt. And they did not sustain any serious injuries, anything along those lines. So with that being said, it was a successful week, even if it was a pretty uneventful week. This will certainly not be one of those mini camps that I’ll be thinking about even in six weeks as they’re reconvening in Owings Mills starting off training camp. I don’t think I’m going to be thinking back to anything that happened a week of mandatory minicamp,
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:09
that, and that’s good. That means it hurt. That means nothing catastrophic happen. All of the good things we could talk about at the beginning of the week that the organization hoped to accomplish. I came really close to buying that Derrick Henry Oilers jersey, I didn’t buy it, it got away, it was the right size, I was afraid it must have stunk or something for 20 bucks, but I should have bought it. Um, the Derrick Henry thing for you. And you and I are going to We’ll reevaluate this every Monday for you know, 18 weeks. I don’t say you were in the other camp. But this is fun. This is what makes our conference like we feel differently about Lamar, I get beaten up on the YouTube comments every day about that. I think you and I felt differently about Derrick Henry, I am much more bullish on this being a tack for them to take to win a championship, that having that kind of guy in January, when the weather might not be good here there anywhere. And he seems to be happy here. And Eric seems to be like, we got a guy. Not a maybe. But the whole thing about running backs is they’ve been so devalued that anybody can run the ball, we can draft anybody in the third or fourth round, we can keep Mitchell it out unless he gets hurt. Or we don’t have to say Quan Barkley our running back situation, from a draft perspective, draft collateral perspective. Where are you on the Henry thing now that it’s marinated a little bit because you and I are gonna talk about football for six weeks, eight weeks, whatever. And we’ll get together and it’ll be all this pitter patter in August and fake football and injuries and nags and all that. And then Kansas City is going to happen. So we’re three months out on that. I have not had the full monty Oh, Derrick Henry with you, other than your way more worried about the offensive line? I’m sure you’ll bring that up. Where are you with Derrick Henry in regard to this being a successful acquisition. And we look at it not in week 10 or 12 or 14, because as you’ve pointed out, we’re not going to judge this team and thanksgiving. We’re going to judge this team at the last hour of their existence in January, or when there’s a parade in February or not a parade in February, but that is the expectation. You know, getting to the second round of the playoffs won’t mean much around here. We had Derrick Henry who ran the ball well, great. We got beat. Um, where are you with Derrick? Henry?
Luke Jones 09:27
You just took the words out of my mouth. I mean, look, I’ve I’ve never been down on Derrick Henry thinking that he’s washed up or any of the kind of silly things that you hear although 2000 You know, 2000 career carries his 2000 career career carries. I mean, that’s a lot. You know, he’s going to turn 31 In early January. Yeah, that’s, that’s old. That’s really old for running backs. I mean, it is that said, I’ve watched the same guy everyone else has. It’s never been that I just I love the player. My point over and over again was you were first in right rushing last year, you were first in rushing in 2000 to 2020, you were first in rushing in 2019. In the aggregate, I just don’t know how much better you get. And that’s why it goes exactly to what you just said. I’m unmoved by what the statistics are going to look like, in September, October, November and December. Again, they have never had issues running the football. Is he gonna help you win games in January? You know, he, he might not have his best regular season, you know that there is the possibility with him being 30 years old that he does slow down. So and it wasn’t all about the Titans offensive line just stinking last year, although I still think when you really peel it back, I think that was the main reason why he averaged a career low, you know, for yards per carry. But I think, you know, again, it just speaks to how high the bar has already been for the running game. You know, I hear people say over and over that Lamar is not going to run as much. I just is that really? I don’t know. Let me let me be clear about this. I’m not talking about the extreme example like the Minnesota game a couple years back where he ran 22 times or whatever it was, on average, though. I look at Lamar running the football and why do you want to discourage that? It’s amazing what he does. So I understand the whole
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:21
you want to discourage because you get 200 million more into them, and you need. But that’s part of the reason why you paid him $260 million. This is why the whole thing felt like a bad idea to me that night and can’t and by the way, like, because this is a crazy, it’s not a bad idea.
Luke Jones 11:36
You’re wrong about that you’re gonna
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:38
run that you don’t want him to run, then. And that’s what you’re taking away what he does, but what he does is dangerous.
Luke Jones 11:47
And what I’m saying is, I don’t think that’s going to go away. So look, Derrick Henry is going to, he’s going to be very successful, right? I don’t know if that means he’s going to run for 2000 yards like he did a few years back. I don’t think that’s going to happen. But he’s going to be successful here. But again, in the aggregate, they’ve been amazing running the football. And, you know, Gus Edwards was a heck of a back for them for multiple years. So there’s been some of that going on. Look, Gus was not as good last year. And I think part of this was the Ravens recognizing that Gus Edwards probably isn’t giving us what he gave us pre knee injury. And we need someone with a little more clout. And obviously Derrick Henry does that. That’s the understatement of the of the day as we’re talking about this. So nothing’s really changed me. What did you want me to say like, oh, he looks great. In mandatory minicamp I’ve completely changed my mind. Like, this was never me saying I hated it, or anything like that. It was, you’ve got a lot of roster needs. Going into the offseason, my thought my biggest thought wasn’t giving up running back $9 million.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:46
But there is a thought that if you would have spent that money on let’s say, Ziglar. And Moses, let’s say they’re a year younger, and you feel better. And you’ve got an $8 million guard and a $7 million tackle that that’s better spent than 12 million on a running back, like in your mind. But that is that’s you reading all of these websites, and all all the analytics that we can just draft a 23 year old, that’s going to be better. We’ve done that we tried that right. Or the Mark Ingram theory, which I liked him more as a player than apparently you did. And you spend more time in the locker room than I do. But I don’t think they’ve been the same offense without a horse. Now they thought they had a horse. They drafted a kid out of wash. They like all of that. But it didn’t work. And now they’re going with this way. I look, I got a lot of problems with Eric d’acosta. He knows this. Everyone around him knows this. But I don’t have any problem with the football side of this. And I’ve always been down with this. And I think, dude, if they win the Super Bowl, I’m gonna be the first one. Locked out while you’re having a good time. We’re spoiled this year in New Orleans.
Luke Jones 13:52
I don’t even know think I’m not even sure. Yeah, well, you’ll be there.
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:57
And I’ll be the one on zoom with you. And when you’re hung over after the parade, nuancing I told you so that to me, I love this move. I I’ve loved everything about it. Because I don’t love Lemoore run it. Like I don’t want to back running into linebackers. So I have the exact I don’t dislike Lamar. I dislike Lamar when he runs 16 times in week eight, and then can’t play the rest of the year, which we’ve seen happen to win last
Luke Jones 14:24
week got hurt as a passer both times he got hurt, but go ahead.
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:28
I love when you retort with that. But the risk is its facts. Fair enough.
Luke Jones 14:34
That’s fact. Go ahead. I’m sorry. I didn’t. I’m not trying to be. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:39
just we’re gonna have this argument. This debate the rest of the year. I like Derrick Henry better at running back as I go to bed in June. And I think Eric the cost is he goes on vacation with his family. He sleeps better than he would with a rookie or a banged up rookie or a guy who was hurt last year. or, or, like, Now that being said, he’s going to sleep not knowing who was right, guard my tackler, right. I mean, but he drafted for that and they believe in that we’ll see how that works out. But it is it’s whack a mole, you only have so much money. And they’ve decided to spend it this way after doing it the other way. And as Lamar gets older, I want him to run less. But to your point, if he runs less, he’s less valuable to some degree.
Luke Jones 15:26
I mean, look, I mean, the truth is somewhere in the middle with that, I mean, when you and I’ve, and we’ve had this general debate slash argument for the better part of six years now, seven years at this point, the truth is always somewhere in the middle. No, I don’t want to see him run 22 times. But no, Lamar becoming a pocket passer and only running two times the game is also like, what why would you do that? Why would you do that? So yeah, there’s middle ground here. And I guess my point has always been in Keaton Mitchell was the latest to prove this is because Lamar Jackson is there. My thought was always Why do you need to spend and have that luxury of a high profile highly paid back because just Lamar is a mere threat to run makes everyone better. And keep Mitchell is the latest example of that. Gus Edwards was an undrafted free agent who averaged five yards per carry year after year after year. You know, other than the year he was hurt? Well, let’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:24
try it with a Hall of Famer and see how it goes. Right. But I just you know,
Luke Jones 16:28
how much better does Derrick Henry have to be for that to be justified? And again, that goes back to what happened in January,
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:34
right? He ran the ball four times in a game if they do that with Derrick Henry, he won’t be very effective.
Luke Jones 16:40
And part of it is also Lamar Jackson had a number of opportunities in that game to take off and he didn’t. And do you think
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:46
they look back at that game specifically and said if we had Derrick Henry in that game, we would have run the ball more and more effect? I mean, I do wonder about that, because Sure, I’ve had conversations, the last two trading deadlines about whether adding Derrick Henry and going all in in in October when maybe the Titans wanted to give him away a couple of times, and dump his salary. And lo and behold, they clearly coveted him, dude, clearly, Eric cost, of course, the wn St. Or at least subscribes to my theory in regard to Derrick Henry, because I’ve been pimping Derrick Henry from the beginning. So no one’s more could be more all in now, it is a little late in the game, it would have looked better last year, I don’t know that they’re gonna get to the champion, you know, a lot of things are gonna have to go right for them to be 13 and four again this year, and be hosted championship games. To have that, that opportunity. But and look, they don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to talk about the championship game and run. I mean, last thing they want to do is have chance to give me a press pass and go back out there and say, John, about that championship game in the running. Like he’s been thinking about this for six months, because they pooped the bed, dude. I mean, and when you look back at the gameplan, around the country, when I talked to JT, when I talked to football people, when I do their shows in other markets, and they talk to me about the ravens, it all comes back to what the hell were you guys doing in a championship game, not running the ball. And they have to pound on that whether you’re asking questions, or whether it’s not cool to ask, that’s last year, we’ll talk about the pay, like whatever John would say. They didn’t talk a lot about that, you know, like, as much as the fan base was pissed off about it. But they’ve alleviated that because they have a guy who can run. I mean, and I don’t know that they had the right. Build for doing this six months ago.
Luke Jones 18:36
Fair enough. And let me be clear, I am not at all suggesting when I when I’m not doing cartwheels over that signing back in March, I was not at all suggesting that the Ravens were completely fine at running back either. Let me be very clear about that. There are multiple ways to address that. And my thought was, you know, through something like the Bengals did, for example, which Bengals got rid of Joe Mixon and Zach moss, the guy from Indianapolis, who by the way, ran against the Ravens really well early last season, who signed for a fraction of what Derrick Henry got, I thought that was one way to okay, you address the running back position you look drafted back like the Ravens ultimately did although I’m not sure machina Lee is going to really be much of a factor as a running back this year. Who knows, maybe we’ll be depending on what happens on because they’re gonna need someone else besides Derrick Henry. And, you know, it’s just to sell that guy he will be if he’s healthy, but we also know Justice Hill has had a career of getting nicked up from time to time last year was the healthiest he had stayed in a film like that. Can you count on that two years in a row? So so let me again, I can’t be more crystal clear. This was never Oh, Derek. That signing was terrible. They were fine. No, it was never that it was okay. I agree. You need to do a dress running back. Is that the way I would use my limited resources? You know, I’m not so sure and And it’s more than that. And also Derrick Henry at some point in time now it might be when he finally retires, that he’s sitting on his couch on Sundays. But at some point in time, he is going to slow down. And it’s a lot of wear and tear. I mean, 2000 career carries we’re talking about, so it’s a lot. It’s a whole lot.
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:18
I love how you look at him as a used car. It’s great. We’re gonna be so flippin a lot of fun with I hope he stays healthy. And I hope they’re good. Because I hope he’s part of it. Because it again, it was fun watching Jamal Lewis around the ball here.
Luke Jones 20:31
Absolutely. And again, I love Derrick Henry as a player. I don’t just, you know, this isn’t like, oh, but it’s also you have three spots on the offensive line? To how’s this gonna look? No. So we just spent 15 minutes talking about the running backs that you have, there are still some questions about the pass rush or the number three, safety or whatever. And look, none of that is me sitting here saying that this team is in major trouble. Now this team’s going to be really good again. And then we’re going to be really good again, whether Derrick Henry was running the ball for them or not. All of this is about what happens in January. So Derrick Henry is going to run for a buck 50. At some point, you’re going to spike the ball. And I’m going to say, okay, is that January, if he runs for a buck 50 in the AFC Championship Game, and that’s a major reason why they’re going to the Super Bowl, then absolutely, you’ll look at this move and say, Well done, it was great. But at the same time, I’ll continue to go back to you know, you need your quarterback to play his best football in that spot. And Patrick mahomes outplayed, Lamar Jackson, and other players on that both sides of the ball, you know, whether we’re talking about early in the game for the defense or those penalties at the end of the first half that allowed Kansas City to get an extra three which loomed large in that game, you know, they all need to step up. So yeah, the running game was part of that. And yeah, they could have run the ball more. And they didn’t have a great deal of trust in Gus Edwards and Justice Hill at that point in time. But I would also point out and I, I’ve written about this, I’ve talked about this, this team was not nearly as run heavy, especially in early down situations, if you go back and look at the numbers, over the course of the season, they threw the ball a lot more than they had, in those situations. With an undergrad, Roman, you know, when you look at their early down passing rate, when, you know, it’s called a game neutral scenario, in other words, when you’re either not way ahead or way behind, you know, when it’s a close game, they throw the ball a lot on or on early downs throughout the year, and the running game had really been when they established leads, and they were grinding out. So you know, now, that could be an argument for Derrick Henry, one way or the other, or the other, whether you’re talking about that, or whether you’re talking about just, you know, the fact that they only ran the ball, you know, running backs had what three carries or whatever it was six carries. So, you know, I mean, it’s, we’re gonna see how this plays out. But I’m not never down on this in the sense that I think Derrick Henry’s washed up or that this was a dumb move or anything like that. It’s just in terms of, okay, you have X number of salary cap dollars available to you. How do you want to spend them, and
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:13
as the offensive line gets them blown up? If it gets Lamar blown off? Oh, sure. Henry can’t run the ball. We’re gonna blame Derrick Henry and say he thinks he’s old. We’re also going to look at the offensive line of young, unproven players getting beaten and saying this is holding the team back in week six. So we’re gonna have that opportunity. Sure. And this is the opportunity for them to settle and we could also have Derrick Henry’s washed up and the offensive line is fine, or Derrick Henry’s finally injured or Father Time has caught up to him. But the question marks to me aren’t about Derrick Henry, the question marks are about the offensive line. I think Derek can reason is totally I’m with you. And you’ve already said I love the player, Derrick Henry will be successful. I’ve got I’ve got you on tape saying that. So I can’t give you any more ish about not loving Derrick Henry, because you’re but what I should say about you don’t want the offensive line right now. Maybe that’s what I’ll start with. Well, and part
Luke Jones 24:05
of what I just said is he’ll be successful because Lamar Jackson is there. Just like every other running back. They’ve had an including guys that they brought up, you know, look at the Latavius Murray Devonta Freeman year, you know, they brought those guys in off the street, and they still had a good running game that year. Why? Because the Lamar Jackson. So I guess again, for me, it’s, you’ve always been able to do something at a really high level. So that to me was a thought of maybe I allocate my limited salary cap resources elsewhere. And that’s that was always the gist of my argument. That’s simple. You know, it’s not all Derrick Henry stinks or anything what
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:41
what would make you better team in January for me and what makes me a better team in January is Derrick Henry getting off the bus? And I I’ve said that from the beginning. I want to see Derrick Henry get off the bus and I want to have another weapon back there. That’s not eight.
Luke Jones 24:54
Fair enough. Fair enough.
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:56
But when I need to run the ball
Luke Jones 24:59
I We’ll say this, that to me was never an issue for them prior to this past January like, I’ve never, I never thought in the GUS Edwards years where he was really productive, or the years where JK Dobbins was productive, or, you know, to your point Mark Ingram, you know, and it’s not like they spent major money on Mark Ingram either.
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:19
Well, they weren’t a lot of games here. It’s not like we could pick on anything. And when it’s the end of the day, would you rather have Derrick Henry or them I’d rather have Derrick Henry, it’s like, Would I rather have, you know, Travis Kelce. That and I’m not that Mark Andrews. I mean, that’s a bad example. But would I rather have a really good wide receiver or, you know, what we have here right now, you know, that that. And
Luke Jones 25:39
I guess, my point, and you know, as I’m saying this, and I don’t want to belabor this. And by the way, I want to bring up something that Willie Taggart said, you know, the running backs coach this week, which was really interesting. And we haven’t talked about that element of the Derrick Henry addition as much. But you know, I guess my point is, if the ravens are breaking through this year, I’m not convinced it’s because of Derrick Henry, even though I think he’s going to be in is and you know, I think he’s gonna be perfectly good and all that. I wonder if it’s more Lamar hitting another level as a passer or I think this is a really interesting element, integrating both Mark Andrews and Isaiah likely on the field at the same time, can it become an I don’t say this in terms of any of the off the field stuff? But can it become something that resembles what Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez was worth for the Patriots a decade ago, where you go look at their numbers, and you had, you nearly had 2000 yard tight ends? I think it’s better to well, and though and those elements to me are still more compelling for me in terms of this team, finding that level to get over the hump. And
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:47
that’s why you’re pissed about the offensive line, because all of that is going to take great offensive line play.
Luke Jones 26:51
Right? So So again, I’m not it’s and I’m not even tick, like it’s more. This may not have been the way that I would have done it. And no one cares what I think I’m not a general manager and Eric Decosta success speaks for itself. You learned from Ozzie Newsome, and his success speaks for itself. So So you know, it’s just that but Willie Taggart one thing you and I haven’t talked about a lot, which is actually a really interesting element. And I’m still curious to see how it fits perfectly. The Ravens, we know they’ve run so much shotgun and pistol formation from the moment Lamar Jackson took over. I mean, that’s evident, right. I mean, that that happened overnight, because Lamar ramp almost exclusively from shotgun and Louisville. So that’s how they’ve run Tennessee. However, Derrick Henry did not run from shotgun a whole lot. So I think that is an interesting element that more than a few observers, you know, whether we’re talking fans or you know, Film Junkies on Twitter, or even some media, Willie Taggart, the Ravens running backs coach this week acknowledged. That was something that was a question in his mind when they were scrimmaging, the possibilities of what they were going to do. And bringing in Derrick Henry, who, by the way, you mentioned this, and I meant to throw this out there. Eric Decosta, confirmed they tried to get him at the trade deadline last year, that’s been confirmed that’s out there. That’s, that’s no longer speculation. That’s, I mean, that’s just the truth. So he was listening to the show. Yeah. So he’s been on the radar for for at least a year, you know, let’s say, but Willie Taggart flat out acknowledged that was something that he had some questions about now. He said all the right things as far as when I’ve seen the big man come in here, and I see the way he moves and how quick he still is, and all of that. And look, Derrick Henry. So that’s why I said, I mean, I didn’t expect even if I have some skepticism about Phyllis, the philosophical decision here. It’s not like I expected Derrick Henry to look washed up in the spring or anything like that. I mean, you know, it looks like Derrick Henry. He’s amazing. He’s, he’s an amazing specimen to watch up close. I mean, it. Guy has the longest late legs. I mean, it’s like watching a racehorse. So it’s amazing. But Willie Taggart talked about this. And I do think it will be interesting knowing that when you watch Derrick Henry, he can’t. And this is where you make the Jamal Lewis comparison. It does take him, you know, a second to really get going and accelerate, you know, and that’s why he’s been such a good outside runner where he hits the corner and man, he just hits another gear. So with it being more shotgun and pistol, and I’m sure, yeah, the Ravens will say, Well, we run under center, some and they’ll probably do that a little more than they did last year or the year before that. But I do think that’s a fair question in terms of how it fits how smoothly that transition goes. And that doesn’t, again, that this isn’t me saying it will fail or it’s not going to work. But it is different because Derrick Henry’s used to running, you know, with a quarterback under center. I mean, that’s mostly what he did. Now, the little bit that Tennessee did it last year, or in recent years, he’s been successful. So but if the Ravens running backs coach even acknowledges that that’s at least a fair thing to point out there. So that’s just one element of the of the discussion and the debate that you and I have had that we haven’t necessarily brought up a whole lot. But yeah, that it was very interesting because as you know, Nestor IV these, most of these assistant coaches are very much trained to not say a whole lot, or encouraged to not say a whole lot. And Willie Taggart admitted that, that he had some questions about that. He said, I’m not gonna lie I, I was kind of wondering about that, because Derrick Henry has not been that, that running back that’s played next to a quarterback and shotgun or behind a quarterback in the pistol. So, but he also said that his questions or concerns about that have been alleviated. So again, I’ll go back full circle to what we said at the beginning. It’s all about January, Derrick, Henry rushes for 1500 yards and all that, but then gets stopped, or they don’t use them in the playoffs, or whatever happens, where he’s not much of a factor and they get beat, then we’re gonna look at the move and say, not necessarily that it was a bad move, but we’ll say, didn’t really move the needle. Everything they do now, it’s about January. I mean, it really is. And that’s what’s tough. I mean, you don’t want to wish the season away or wish the regular season away in this. We talked about this with the Orioles with what’s going on right now with playing the Phillies and the Yankees and the excitement of this week, that everyone’s focused on ramifications for October, but enjoy the journey. But when you’ve been on that journey, so many times and you’ve thought that this is the year, and we’ve talked about that, especially in 19. And last year for the ravens, you know, you got to break through, and if Derrick Henry helps them break through, then who cares how much money they paid them, then it is well worth it. But if it ends up being much of the same in January, then we’ll look at it and say not that it was a bad move, but you’ll say didn’t really move the needle at the end of the day, because XY and Z still needed to happen and didn’t so, you know, we’ll see how it plays out. But again, Derrick, Henry’s a blast to watch. I’m not, I’m not down on the player. It was always for me about allocation of limited cap resources and questioning whether I would have done it a different way. But again, I’m not a NFL GM. So I’m not saying it’s wrong. It’s just I had an opinion and a thought about it. And my I’m on the I’m firmly in the camp of not paying running backs, you know, the 40 Niners just paid Christian McCaffrey a whole month a whole bunch more money. And I I suspect in a couple years, they’re probably going to regret that. But for right now, Christian McCaffrey is the best running back in football. So he’s gonna help you win games, and he’s helped them go to Super Bowls and everything. So I
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:38
think they’ve all accepted that money in the cases of this and I think the Dodgers accept dead money in baseball and the Yankees do too. It’s just they look at that 3040 50 million off the top that it doesn’t matter to them matters a lot to you know, the Royals and the Orioles or the pirates. And it matters certainly in a football sense of opportunity cost. You know, the money sunk into Derrick Henry is not going to be sunk into a right guard or right tackle that becomes available.
Luke Jones 33:05
Well, and in fairness, Eric, the cost would say okay, Luke, what what guard? Did you want to? What guard? Do you want to sign? Did you want to bring back Kevin Zeitler? And I’m guessing privately, I’ve never no one’s ever said this. But Kevin Zeitler had a bulky knee at the end of last year now. I think he’s still played well. But I’m guessing there was probably some doubts in terms of how he was going to age with that being an additional concern of Ronnie Stanley as
Nestor J. Aparicio 33:31
like you like to meet? There’s no bigger question mark. Well, maybe Marlon, but maybe not. But Ronnie Stanley has a bigger question mark than anything I can think of with a team to say, Are we really getting 20 football games out of him this year? At whatever caliber? You need to get it out of him? And what’s the backup plan? And that’s the problem with the offensive line to, to my way, thinking it’s a little bit of a house of cards. Like I love the center center. I don’t. And I don’t know enough about the rest of it to be enamored with any of it or to have if I’m a better, you know, to bet on the ravens to win or not to look at their offensive line and say I can’t bet on that. I don’t even know what it is. Yeah.
Luke Jones 34:16
And to go back to what we were talking about with the Derrick Henry in January argument. There’s another thing if the Ravens breaking through, I’m guessing they’re getting a healthier, better version of Ronnie Stanley than they’ve gotten in recent years. I mean, I would
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:27
not bet I would bet against that. I would bet against Stanley before a bet against cycler. Yeah,
Luke Jones 34:34
I mean, it’s Yeah, look, I’m not gonna sit here. I respect Ronnie Stanley for the fact that he was in the building all spring, and he was out there for all the OTAs I think he’s really from a preparation, dedication, self awareness standpoint, has really risen to the moment of understanding where he is in his career at this point in time, but I think you’re right. I think one of the biggest factors that will determine this offensive line. And and I’ll I’ll push back on one thing that you said, I don’t even need it to be 20 games Nestor, it can be 15 or 16. But among those 16 games, those need to be the games are playing in January, right? He can have, he could miss three weeks in October with when he tweaks a hamstring or something like that. But as long as he comes back and is playing in healthy and effective in January, that’s what matters. But will we see that and to your point, you mentioned the House of Cards. You feel great about Linder. Mom, we’re kind of viewing Ronnie Stanley as an is we’re kind of assuming Ronnie Stanley is going to be. You know, he doesn’t need to be the 2019 Ronnie Stanley, and he’s not being paid like that anymore, mind you. But he needs to be a better version of what then what we saw in December and January last year. I mean, he absolutely does. And he flat out admitted this week. He said it was killing him on the inside, even as they were playing so well down the stretch last year. He he knows he wasn’t playing up to his potential. He knows he was struggling. He knows he was not very good. But at the same time, they don’t need him to be all pro just be a dependable version of himself. And if he can do that, then yeah, it’s way easier to have confidence in whoever is going to be left guard which I think is going to be Andrew Vorhees. mini camp. It felt like they’re confident and Vorhees at left guard now right guard and right tackle? I’m not sure at this point in time. Yeah. I already said to you a couple days ago, the Ben Cleveland hype train, I feel like is slow down for a third straight spring. So we’ll see. And, you know, with Rosen garden, it’s just a matter of him getting reps and whether he’s going to be ready week one, you know, to be the starting right tackle. I don’t know that’s a lot to put on a second round pick. And I like him, I like to pick. But yeah, if Ronnie Stanley becomes a concern, in addition to those spots, then we’re not gonna be talking about it’s not going to be the current concern. It’s not going to be Derrick Henry running the ball. And they’ll still be able to run the ball. Because even when they haven’t had great offensive lines last few years, the Lamar effect still helps them so much. But we’re going to be concerned about the O line. And, you know, no concerns or solutions or anything like that are going to come out of mandatory minicamp but they’re playing around with different combinations. Right guard and right tackle I think is still very much up in the air. I think they want more he’s at left guard, I think he’s I’ll say this the leader in the clubhouse at left guard more distinctly than right guard right tackle feels right now. But if Stanley becomes a big concern, or isn’t out on the field, or he’s not playing well, or whatever, yeah, yeah, the O line is going to be the topic of conversation and Derrick Henry, or whoever, whatever running back is running the ball or guys you could assign or whatever, we’re not gonna be talking about that. We’re gonna be talking about Lamar Jackson been running for his life and worried about his health and worrying about this offense being able to function at a high level. So yeah, hey, it’s a quiet, it’s a calculated risk. They said, You know what, we’re not betting on Kevin Zeitler. We’re not betting on Morgan Moses to fight off Father Time for another year, especially with the money they’re gonna make. We’re gonna go younger, we like some of the guys we have we drafted, you know, Rosengarten, will, they could still go out there and acquire someone, I think that’s still very much in play between now and the trade deadline, let’s say not even week one. So, you know, we’ll see how it plays out. But a lot of spots to fill on the O line, you know, I mean, one spot, that’s kind of annual cost of doing business, right. I mean, they’ve generally they’ve gone into training camp, having one spot up for grabs, it’s been left guard the last few years, but to be in a position where you have three. And one of the other two, that’s a known commodity is a guy who hasn’t been as good and has been on and off the field and had the chronic, you know, terrible ankle injury four years ago. By the way, it’s crazy that that was four years ago at this point, you know, Ronnie Stanley, but now they’ve got to figure this out. And I’m not saying that at all. But these are very real serious questions for a football team that has Super Bowl aspirations. I mean, no, dare I say in the in the history of football, and Super Bowl era. You know how many Super Bowl winners had three new starters on the offensive lineup? I’m sure it’s happened. But yeah, that’s not an area that that you want a lot of turnover necessarily, unless you’re talking about a really bad Oh line and it wasn’t bad last year. It’s just it was getting older and a little banged up down the stretch. So we’ll see how it plays out. But yeah, I my focus has been way more on that than how Derrick Henry’s look, because it’s Derrick Henry’s look perfectly fine in the spring, you know, but how’s that all going to come together in September? We’re all intrigued because there are lot of new moving parts to this operation as they try to grow in year two under Todd Monken.
Nestor J. Aparicio 40:05
I love the player Derrick Henry will be successful quotes Luke Jones. So you can find Luke at Baltimore, Luke, He will be out on the interwebs muted little conversation there about the Ravens. And then we’re gonna put the Ravens away for a little bit here. It’s baseball season, Phillies, Yankees, guardians, Astros all like around the corner around here, but a great summer ahead. And hopefully the Ravens players stay out of jurisprudence, out of the headlines and off the Instagrams and the interwebs. And what when do we, when will the next appearance be July 27? What is it? It
Luke Jones 40:42
is not set yet? They usually send out the training camp schedule in the next week and a half or so. But I’m guessing, you know, I think somewhere around July 23 24th, you know, that feels about right, they start the season September 5, you know, it’s early or September start, you know, because Labor Day is so early in September, you know, as we look at the NFL calendar, on an annual basis, so we’re about five, five and a half weeks out five and a half weeks out, and it’s not quite as long of a break as we think feels like and heck if if the NFLPA gets its way there’ll be reconvening in early July the way it sounds like in the future years, but they get some some time off and yeah, they’re gonna go away for a little bit and as I’ve said throughout the spring, that’s okay. You know, you want quiet you know, you don’t want any players getting arrested or guys getting injured working out, you know, on their own, which happened a couple of times last year to other long snapper tore his Achilles before training camp started last year, if you remember, so, those kinds of things can happen. So yeah, quiet go away. respite, we’re a baseball standard shape have crap and watch baseball if you’re a fan,
Nestor J. Aparicio 41:48
and Luke becoming it but next time we meet will be an uncle Deuce by the weekend so Oreos all weekend long and all week long. We’re doing the Maryland crab cake tour, courtesy of our friends at the Maryland lottery had the Gold Rush sevens doublers with the top price is 10,000 bucks. We gave 20 bucks away Coco’s on Wednesday. At Cooper’s on Friday. I’m wearing my Costas shirt will be a Costas in Dundalk on Thursday before the Orioles hopefully sweep away the Yankees in the Bronx. And then we’re at Papist on the 25th which is the Tuesday all it brought to you by our friends at Liberty pure solutions keeping our water clean, as well as Jiffy Lube, multi care. New Website up we got lots of things happening around here. We got great summer baseball, and really good weather. Enjoy yourself. Play all these fun games responsibly. He’s Luke I’m Nestor we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
