If Eric DeCosta could’ve scripted the Baltimore Ravens’ goals and expectations in NFL free agency, it couldn’t have gone any better. Luke Jones joins Nestor to discuss Ronnie Stanley, DeAndre Hopkins, Mark Andrews, Ben Cleveland and the always expanding “zero tolerance” policy of John Harbaugh in Owings Mills as the April 24th draft appears on the horizon.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Ravens’ offseason moves, including the signing of DeAndre Hopkins and the retirement of Michael Pierce. They debated the value of the Cooper Rush backup quarterback deal, noting it was a two-year, $6.2 million contract. They also discussed the Ravens’ needs at cornerback, edge rusher, and offensive line, and the potential impact of retaining Ronnie Stanley. The conversation touched on the Ravens’ aging roster, with players like Roquan Smith and Mark Andrews, and the potential return of Calais Campbell. They also mentioned the upcoming baseball season and the Orioles’ opening day in Toronto.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens offseason, DeAndre Hopkins, Cooper Rush, Ronnie Stanley, free agency, backup quarterback, cornerback, edge rusher, offensive line, Mark Andrews, Calais Campbell, salary cap, NFL draft, player signings, team needs.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, AM, 1570 task, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively taking the show out on the road. You know it is. It was fun at CVP this past week, I do know that we got pizza. John’s coming up on Friday. It is our big baseball preview, there are all sorts of rumors. Dave shining is going to be joining us this week. Also got some confirmations from Jamie Costello and Mark Viviano. They’re going to be doing some other Maryland crab cake tours later on, because we’re going to be at fadelies on April 2, which sounded like a long time ago, until it’s two weeks from now on opening days next week, Luke and I will be in Toronto next week, and we convene on Friday together at Pizza Johns and Essex. We will have the magic eight balls to give away. Also going to give away some slices of pizza and have some fun on Friday. I’m excited about being about back down in Essex. My wife picked up a pizza on Sunday from pizza John’s, my favorite, the Hawaiian with pepperoni. Don’t do it any other way. You’ll thank me later. Luke Jones is here. We were going to talk some baseball, which we will do Zach efland, starting on opening day in Toronto next week. I’ve got my passport out. You have your passport out. I have some Canada stuff. I can lend you little things you can stick on your backpack so you look like you belong. You look Canadian. I mean, you wear a red hat, you could be Canadian, right?
Luke Jones 01:21
Okay, I didn’t know I had a look of being Canadian. I don’t
Nestor Aparicio 01:24
really know what that is, but, but, yeah, be a hockey player. Yeah, I’m looking at you. Yeah, I don’t, I don’t think so. The Orioles have a Canadian outfielder now, and nobody even realizes that that’s absolutely That’s right. We’re gonna do football here, because baseball is so next week, you know. And we got to worry about gunner and Grayson and kit bridge. And you want Mr. Ruben sign to spend even more money. He spent 2 billion last year. That’s not enough for you to buy the team. So will improve the baseball team, but on the football side, I don’t want to Sam scratch in my head a little bit because, like when I left you middle last week to Andre Hopkins. Made sense. You attended the press conference. But since then, the Cooper rush thing, little bit of head scratcher with money, and then on top of that, the Ben Cleveland thing over the weekend. So there has been some ravens news, maybe a little bit more than there’s been Orioles news. There
Luke Jones 02:15
has been, I mean, it’s the first week of free agency, and you get to the second week of March, even the biggest seam heads, even the most Die Hard baseball fans, are ready for the season to start. So you kind of have that going on, but a lot’s happened since you and I last convened. I mean, Michael Pierce announced his retirement, which was something that I think was always a possibility. It’s something that I mentioned, at least in passing, and trying to shape up the off season. As you mentioned, the DeAndre Hopkins press conference was Friday, that was about what I expected it to be. You know, lots of mentions of Lamar Jackson and rejoining Derek Henry as the two played for a year in Tennessee. But over the weekend, you mentioned it. I mean, a couple signings that you know, for me, I don’t think Cooper rush raised eyebrows when you actually saw what the deal was actually worth. I mean, you see Ian Rappaport and Adam Schefter say two years max value of $12.2 million well, yeah, that’s the worst case scenario if Lamar Jackson’s missing a bunch of games and Cooper Rush is playing as he had to play in Dallas with Dak Prescott hurt. But you know the ad at
Nestor Aparicio 03:21
that point, you would see the difference between a 4 million and a $50 million quarterback,
Luke Jones 03:25
sure, no question about it, no question about it. But, but the real, the real value of the deal, two years, 6.2 million, right? I mean, $3 million for a backup quarterback is still on the cheaper side. I i like it because, as you know me, Nestor, I’m not someone who subscribes to the idea of spending a bunch of money on your backup quarterback. I mean, I just it feels like paying for the extended warranty on a product that it doesn’t warrant it, because if Lamar Jackson misses more than a couple games,
Nestor Aparicio 03:55
I love that dude. You go to Best Buy and you buy a laptop for 499 and they want to sell you the $300 a year. Yeah, exactly,
Luke Jones 04:01
exactly. You just look at this, you’re like, is this really? What am I paying for here? I’m paying to for the the event of a headache, right? I mean that, and I don’t know if it’s really going to make things better for me. So, you know, Cooper Rush has played quite a bit the last couple, you know, the last three years. You look at the number of starts he’s made, he’s a, he’s a solid backup quarterback. I’m not going to sit here and, you know, say that he stinks or anything like that. At the same time, Lamar Jackson has to miss half the season. They’re in trouble, right? As you would expect. If Cooper
Nestor Aparicio 04:33
rush starts more than two games this year, the ravens are in in peril to some degree. I mean, I
Luke Jones 04:39
suppose it would mean, it would depend on when it happened. Oh, well, but yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 04:42
if they sit him and it’s weekend, I’m talking about, like, if, oh, it’s October, and they have two games and he has to play unless their defense is better than I think it is, or the running game probably is pretty good. But you know, like, on, I’m with you, they’re not winning games in January. With Cooper rush or,
Luke Jones 05:01
I mean, what team is with their backup core? I mean, how many teams can’t win games in January with their starters? So I’m not surprised by that, but
Nestor Aparicio 05:08
we get back to Matt Schaub, right? I mean, like the Ravens signed some guys we never heard of because they never walked on the field. You hope he’s that guy, but if he’s not, then they’re not going to win. I mean, and how much money you spend on your backup quarterback. Where are you on that? Would you have preferred them taking a six round draft pick on a quarterback and playing that game and saving money? I mean, I mean, I
Luke Jones 05:31
maybe, I think you have to aim higher than that. But for me, you know, 3.1 million a year, as far as the average annual value. That’s a that’s okay. You know that that’s not. Remember, the cap has continued to go up. I mean, this isn’t what when, when the Raven signed Matt Shaw, they, I think they gave him 4 million a year at that point in math. But
Nestor Aparicio 05:50
if the caps 300 million and they gave him 3 million, he’s about 1% of the cap here,
Luke Jones 05:55
right? I mean, you’re not talking about a major investment here. I mean, I’m certainly not, I’m certainly not hot and bothered when teams go out and give their backup 8 million a year or something like that. I mean, to me, that seems, that seems like money you could spend on a player that’s actually going to play for you, so unless you have Justin fields and Russell Wilson, well, right? And then you kind of say, well, what are you really doing as a franchise, right? I mean, that that for me, I and I think I made this comment to you last week, but when you see the number of signings over the four the course of the first couple days of free agency, and you see some of these teams who have cap space to spend, they have to spend it, right? I mean, you have a salary floor, you have to spend a certain percentage of the cap. But I look at it and I say, Okay, that’s a decent signing. Okay, that might be okay. These other six signings you made, like, what are you doing here? You don’t have a quarterback, so none of this matters, right? You get to the point where you just feel very flippant about it. Well, you could be
Nestor Aparicio 06:49
waiting on Aaron Rodgers, right, right? I’m thinking, if you’re waiting on Aaron Rodgers, your season’s over and it’s March. I mean, if Vikings are waiting on Aaron Rogers to what, to why, to show up and, I mean, are they wins? I mean, I mean, do we know that? Though, the way it
Luke Jones 07:06
sounds to me, it sounds like Aaron Rodgers might be waiting on them more. So I think the Vikings are much more in a position of they’ve augmented their roster. They decided to walk away from Sam darnold At that price point, and they drafted a quarterback very early last year. I mean, JJ McCarthy wasn’t a second round pick. So, you know, I think they’re certainly, I think they’re pondering Aaron Rodgers, and maybe they will sign them. But I don’t think they’re in a position where they’re, they’re, they’re depending on Aaron Rodgers. I think it’s more they’re trying to, trying to weigh where they are as a team, you know where they are as a roster, and try to figure out where JJ McCarthy is after missing his whole rookie year, but they loved him a year ago at this time, the
Nestor Aparicio 07:48
coach might be a genius, by the way. I spent time with that guy. I like him, and he knows quarter, but he wasn’t look what he did with Sam darnold, right? Genius there. So that’s something that to watch out for i i spent an hour with that guy, and I really liked him. I liked him more than I’ve liked most people, most football coaches just I sat and had a meal with him, and I’m like, I hire you dude, you know what I mean. And I’ve, I’ve met them all, so I like him, but I don’t know what they’re doing with Aaron. I mean, like, and again, the Steelers, these teams that, unless they’re going to create some miracle on draft day and draft a quarterback, that’s the miracle in sha door, Sanders, or whatever it’s going to be, I don’t know. I mean, I’m with you. When you don’t have a quarterback, this is a real tough eight months.
Luke Jones 08:33
Yeah. Well, and you know that, I think that again, I don’t think the Vikings are waiting on Aaron Rodgers. I think there’s some entertaining of the possibility. And I think Aaron Rodgers is waiting, waiting that situation out, because he sees what kind of roster they have so but, yeah, to get back to the broader point, these teams that don’t have quarterbacks, you mentioned Rogers for me, the the most hilarious one is what’s going on in Indianapolis right now. I mean, there’s lots of talk about Ballard being out, being gone after last year, and some of the, some of the miscues they’ve made, from a roster building standpoint, when he three, four or five years ago, he was regarded as an Erik de Costa, you know, he was kind of lauded to be in that tier, and they’ve been nothing but disappointing since then. So ursay basically said, Hey, this year, like we’re running it back, but head coach, GM, scouts, assistant coaches, all of this, you’re all on notice, and yet, everyone’s future is going to depend on a quarterback conference competition between Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson. I mean, that’s the epitome of dead on arrival from a quarterback situation. So I don’t know. I mean, you just look at all these teams, and that’s where you look at the Ravens. And how about the Ravens just compared to the rest of the division, which we’ll get to the Bengals in just a moment, but Steelers trying to figure out their quarterback situation. I mean, looks like they’re waiting on Aaron Rodgers, if it’s. Not Aaron Rodgers, I guess it’s Russell Wilson. They got DK Metcalf. I mean, great, but who’s going to throw him the football? Right? Who’s going to keep him and George Pickens happy? I mean, that’s a it’s a really big question there. What you’re talking about, too, albeit talented but mercurial wide receivers, who are going to want the ball and want the ball thrown to them in a competent way. So you have that the Browns are the browns, right? I mean, there’s not, not much else needs to be said about them at this point in time. Joe Flacco still unemployed. He is, he is, but, but, but then you go to Cincinnati, which, you know, this is the point I was making late last week, how up until late Sunday night, Jamar Chase and T Higgins still weren’t signed. Now they are for a lot of money, a lot of unbangles like money. It almost makes you wonder if something’s happening there in terms of some kind of private equity getting involved, or something like that. Because Mike Brown’s never spent money like that. Now he’s spending that kind of money on a quarterback and not one wide receiver, but two wide receivers. We’ll see what it means for Trey Hendrickson. They
Nestor Aparicio 11:08
are selling a lot of white zoo baths in Cincinnati. I’m telling you know, they’re making more money than they used to make. That all being said, the league prints money for them. So the fact that Mike Brown was pocketing hundreds of millions dollars over time is, you know, it’s his own thing. You know, no question,
Luke Jones 11:24
no question. But, but still, so out of character that you do wonder if, okay, is there another shoe that’s going to drop there? Because, you know, the NFL is dipping their toes into private equity ownership. And you know, for where someone comes in and gives these owners a, you know, get out of jail free card, even more so than they already had, and then you can spend some money, and, you know, you still have control of the team. So I don’t know, I mean, that’s, I don’t know that. It’s just spitballing, but you look at all these other teams in the AFC north, and yeah, the Ravens have some questions still, they still have some questions a corner and edge rusher, and certainly need depth at a number of spots, but I’d much rather have the Ravens issues in terms of a couple positions of need positions to address, rather than the rest of the AFC North right now. So you know, it still comes back to the default question at the beginning, who’s your quarterback, and when you have Lamar Jackson, or in the Bengals case, they they still need a defense, but they do have Joe burrow, so I will at least give them that much. And they have Jamar Chase and T Higgins, it sounds like for the next four years, but, you know, I still like where the ravens are much more than most of these teams over the last week that spent a lot of money. I don’t know how much of it was spent all that wisely around the NFL, but that’s the first first wave, second wave and third wave, sometimes of free agency. And you kind of see where you are at that point in time.
Nestor Aparicio 12:53
Lou Jones is here. He will be there with any breaking news, any time that the Orioles make a move, or the Ravens make a move, or the Terps play at 430 on Friday in Seattle against grand whatever their name is. We will be doing this all week long. On Friday, we’ll be at Pete’s Johns and Essex doing the Maryland crab cake tour. We’re going to get to some baseball at some point around it. We did a lot last week. You know, Luke and I kind of went at it about money and about like, Oh, it’s just that $8 million just a ten million relief pitcher. We’ve never had that before. We’re going to find that if we have that, but certainly on the football side, anytime we talk about salary cap, anytime we talk about CAP number, who we’re going to keep, this player that was last week, and then Ben Cleveland, happens. I’m going to be writing when I get a little bit of time, I’ve started to write my dear Roger Goodell note, because the Justin Tucker thing has just played out, right? We’re now into the middle of March. We’re into March Madness, and opening day football doesn’t do anything for five weeks, right? I mean, we’re five weeks out on the draft now, so this is kind of the well, there’s going to be pro days, and we’re going to poke and prod, and we’re going to talk about trading Mark Andrews to the chargers, or whatever these miracles are going to be, the bank Cleveland thing, dude, if Justin Tucker’s sexual, whatever it is, it was not a story the Ben Cleveland like, twice over the legal limit as a 350 pound lineman, what do you have? 28 beer? Was he drinking? Wade Boggs stash. I mean, what like? And then they sign him, and he doesn’t play. I I’m writing about the animal house that they’re running out there behind the scenes. What’s going on out there that has nothing to do with football players, but has to do with working in that building and the animal house. It’s become out knowing smells, and I’m happy to call it that. That’s what it’s going to be called, because when you have guys that are popping double league limit, and you’re going to give me this ish about zero tolerance. I mean, he doesn’t even play, and they signed. In that that’s the shocking part. Like that they would put up with this, with Tucker, and string this out. And by the way, I every person I talked to that brings Justin Tucker up to me. I was at the bar at Costas the other night. I had having dinner during the Maryland game, the one that they lost with the drive at the end. You know, the public doesn’t really want to hear what Justin Tucker has to say at this point, like when I run into people, I have not found anybody that says, Those rat bastards at the banner, how dare they take up fake dirt, fake news. No one’s saying that. No one so I mean, I think the Ravens realized that, but the Ravens don’t care if he kicks field goals because they didn’t care about Ray Rice. And they certainly, over the weekend, could have easily said, Dude, you sign more autographs than you’ve made plays you haven’t made it here. You haven’t gotten onto the field. When we jettison guards around here and need tackles around here, why would they sign him? I I’m befuddled as to where their zero tolerance policy is, as well as their backup offensive lineman.
Luke Jones 16:09
Yeah, well, I mean, it’s because they never had a zero tolerance policy. I mean, they talked about it and never really defined it. And as I’ve said to you before. I mean, kind
Nestor Aparicio 16:21
of like my press credential, right? Like, why you have one? And I don’t, they sort of talked about it, but they never define it, because it’s who they are. I mean, it really is who they are. And that comes from a guy that spent hundreds of 1000s of dollars on season tickets locally, millions of dollars on tickets and trips and time that this, it’s, it’s um, it’s a glaring indictment of who they are, and regard to zero tolerance, and in regard to their ethics, and in regard to the words not matching, like how it matches up. You know what? I mean, the words and what comes out completely different. John,
Luke Jones 16:57
Steve, I mean, it’s just for me. And look, I don’t, I still don’t know what’s like in a vacuum. I don’t know what Zero Tolerance means. I mean, that’s why I’m not really, I can’t say I’m really even a proponent of whatever that is supposed to mean, because cases do have nuance. But at the same time, you better, you sure better take things very seriously, right? And that’s where I look at this. And it’s just odd to me, from the standpoint of, it’s been a disappointing third round pick. I mean, this is a guy that, three straight off seasons, guys like me were talking up the possibility of Ben Cleveland starting for you, and he never won a job. He’s made seven starts in four seasons. He was a third round pick that they were really excited about at the time, and it’s just never materialized from a football standpoint. They they lost Josh Jones, they lost Patrick McCary. They were two of their most versatile offensive linemen. You know, mccarry’s case, he was starting in Josh Jones’s case, he could play guard, he could play tackle. So I guess there’s some merit to it from a football standpoint of someone who does have some experience in your system immediately is the most experienced backup that you have on your roster compared to your projected starting five. Right now, if we’re going to say Andrew Voorhees is the projected left guard to replace Patrick McCarry, which I think is what most people would say right now, if the season were starting in mid March. But
Nestor Aparicio 18:26
this guy’s never been as good as McCary, never been as good as any of these guys. Zeitler. I mean, we just he’s had every opportunity to step up, and then he’s out all boozed up in February, two weeks after the season ends. Why
Luke Jones 18:39
I wasn’t expecting him to return? It’s, it’s, you know, at best, the best way you could paint it is, it’s very surprising, right? That’s the nicest way you could paint that. So, yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 18:49
hey, Luke, I’ll tell you what to cost. Always told me when I called him, the players were drunk at our shows, which I know you’re aware of. Hey, they’re not all choir boys. They’re not all choir boys. Are they Eric? Are they? Steve, zero tolerance, well, it’s disgraceful. I mean, I, you know, it is, it’s, it’s disgraceful again and again and again. You know, when it comes back down to it, I’m happy that I left my PSLs over on the other side, because I really, really have a hard time supporting any ideological maneuvering of this franchise when I know how they’re operating, how they’re really operating, and it’s It saddens me. I mean, I’m dealing with the Orioles press credential people this week about whether I’m going to be credentialed in another country next Thursday or not. Where I go owning a radio station for three decades and covering the team, I have to question as to whether, I mean, there might come a point where have to question whether I’m a citizen if Trump keeps this up, or whether I get back in but they’ve the baseball team has is under new ownership and trying to, I guess, do things differently. The football team’s under the same old ownership and doing things the way they’ve all. He’s done it, and that’s good enough to sell 80% of their tickets, 80% of the time, and and they just have this flood of money that falls in and an incredible level of arrogance where they put themselves behind gated, you know, a gated community in a in a castle with a moat, and security people with guns all around. And no one comes in, no one goes out. They allow you in the side door, into a little room, and then they they bring people to you, and if you ask the wrong question, they throw you out. Example of that. So I don’t, I don’t think they can be questioned. In regard to Justin Tucker or Ben Cleveland, or Ray Rice, or anything else that goes on in the building that I might know about, that the world doesn’t know about, and there’s plenty of that. So I would just say they’re operating without any oversight. You know? I mean, that’s it. They’re they’re operating the way they want, saying whatever they want. And it’s been that way for a long time.
Luke Jones 21:03
That’s, that’s the NFL, that’s professional sports, largely at this point in time. I mean, it’s, you know, I’m not saying that’s okay, let me, let me be very clear. But you know, we’re, you know, you don’t have much of that. I mean, talking about multi billion dollar organizations and multi billion dollar sports, and they get nothing but public funding for stadiums across the country, right? I mean, and if it’s not your state, it’s not your community, someone else will do it, as Oakland found out, you know, as St Petersburg is going to
Nestor Aparicio 21:36
who’s going to do the commanders at some point. You know what I mean, like is, Maryland’s a blue state. We’re bad because we’re not with the Russians around here. We don’t, we don’t side with lying con men who should be in prison or under a prison. So Maryland’s not going to get, we’re not going to get the bridge rebuilt. I mean, they’ve, they’ve gutted Hopkins. I don’t know how the commanders are going to get a stadium here, or in Virginia from Glen youngkin, or in DC? I don’t know, but there does come a point where, like when civic funding starts to go away from all of these things, the Orioles and the Ravens should thank their blessings that they’re in a city like Baltimore, really, in a place like Baltimore of that is going to support them when they put criminals on the field.
Luke Jones 22:19
Okay? I mean, look, I had my questions about this too, and, you know, it, it is what it is. And, you know, I think you’ll find a lot of teams operate that way, and that’s why
Nestor Aparicio 22:34
a lot of success the last three decades. I mean, go.
Luke Jones 22:36
Look at Kansas City. I mean, look at the chiefs. Look at some of the, some of the players the Chiefs have employed in recent years, and then they’ve been the gold standard. Oh, and this is after the Belcher thing. Look, I mean, this is, this is where I kind of come back to as I get older. Don’t take moral cues, and don’t use, you know, professional sports teams as your moral compass. And say that about a lot of sectors, right? I mean, say that about a lot of politicians, a lot of people, lots of places. And to be clear, that’s not to say that I’m a perfect person by any stretch of the imagination, but you are trying. I know you in real life, so, but I’m not perfect. I’m not even close. I wouldn’t pretend to be, but, yeah, I mean, it’s again. I mean, you were wrong about Derrick Henry. Sure, I never said Derrick Henry was gonna stink or anything like that. Just be clear about
Nestor Aparicio 23:30
that kings, you know, with the crowns, it’s great, by the way, they
Luke Jones 23:35
didn’t even get as far as they got the year before without Derrick Henry. That’s a good point. That’s good. Wasn’t because of Derrick Henry, let’s be clear. But I be clear. But I’m just saying, like, listen the Orioles problems, all pitching until October. Then everything about everything, everything about it, though, comes back to, are you winning a Super Bowl? You get into a Super Bowl, right? I mean, DeAndre Hopkins,
Nestor Aparicio 23:55
well, I don’t know if Ben Cleveland’s The reason they’re getting to a Super Bowl. And, I mean, I don’t know that a 3637 version of Justin Tucker, who is maligned and probably lost his chicken deal. By the way, I’m gonna run for the Thera fried chicken of Baltimore next month. I think I’m gonna do that for all from because they need a new spokesperson. Lou Jones is here. Yeah, are we running out of things to say that we’re this board that we’re talking about jurisprudence, but it is serious thing. They’re not gonna play football for a while, but they have the draft coming up, and now the questions are, where are the holes? Rush, edge, need another lineman? How are they going to draft? How are they going to think? Because they thought differently about a backup quarterback than you and I may have thought, and I think they thought similarly about a wide receiver, like last week, they went in on that veteran wide receiver and DeAndre Hopkins. And I love that picture of the young Lamar and Henry and Hopkins all out together and saying it would be a dream team or whatever. Well, it’s here. Now, you know, I remember a lot of Dream Team offenses coming together. I’m still questioning the offensive line. What’s going to happen with Mark Andrews. There’s still a lot of things the Ravens could do that could force you to send the W, N, S T text today. Oh, no question about
Luke Jones 25:01
it. And because you mentioned him, I mean Mark, Mark Andrews the roster bonus like he’s got, he’s received it. So does that mean a trade is impossible at this point in time? No, do I feel like it’s less likely probably, unless we get to the draft and there’s a team that really, really, really wants Mark Andrews. But I kind of feel when they, when that team, be saying the same thing, right now, I don’t know, so I don’t want to say it’s impossible, but that was a major deadline in terms of Mark Andrews future, but you said it other than that. I mean corner, obviously. I mean I at this point. You know, if you’re asking me, What position is most likely that they draft late in the first round? Looks like corner. I mean, it could be an edge rusher, I suppose. But they have a need for a third corner. There’s no doubt, because your number three corner is a starter, basically. I mean, they’re going to play 70% plus. You know that? What kind of who is that player right now, for them right now? Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 26:03
who’s that? I’m trying to figure that out because of, I mean, our Darius Washington, not you know that he’s safety. He’s not a position, right? Kyle Hamilton, they ended the year with him as a true safety, but they don’t want to use him in that way. They want to use it more like a hybrid linebacker, right? Like, literally,
Luke Jones 26:19
you still need another safety to do that, though. I mean, I don’t think it’s just, I don’t think you’re moving Bo raid, well, there
Nestor Aparicio 26:24
ain’t no Marcus way. I mean, that’s my point. My point is they have some depth issues that they kind of heard that reared their heads in week eight of last year, that forced their hand to make moves that they didn’t want to make because of Marcus Williams. And then our Darius Washington stepped up. But Nate Wiggins, not so much. Brandon Stevens gone. You know, Wiggins, the first round pick. He’s gonna have to come in and play like that this year for them to be good. And he played well down
Luke Jones 26:48
the stretch last year. Yeah, he played well down the stretch. I was happy with Nate Wiggins. I mean, I think as the year went on, I thought he played better and better to the point where he was, I mean, go, look at the snaps. He was on the field. Almost everybody. He also had a slow start too. I mean, yeah, oh, no doubt, he had the car accident. And, look, he was a rookie. I mean, he didn’t know, you’re talking about a lot of these guys. You know that COVID changed things a little bit, because guys got extra eligibility. And obviously, n i L has changed some things, but you end up getting some of these guys that don’t play a whole lot in college, so there is a little bit of an adjustment. I mean, Nate Wiggins, for me, what I saw from a coverage standpoint, what I saw from an ability standpoint, is sealing all that I liked just get a little bit stronger. I mean, he’s just really, really skinny, and that was known about him. That’s why he went late in the first round rather than being a top 12 pick. I mean, he’s just really well, I think it should
Nestor Aparicio 27:43
be Smith. I think with Dwayne stars, I think of those other guys that weren’t Dion or, you know, Woodson, you know, top five corners. I mean, McAllister was much more of, you know, should have gone to the Hall of Fame, kind of talent guy. But I think about these corners that they’ve picked up during the course time. When you’re talking about them drafting a corner 27 you’re probably talking about, to your point, a third quarter and crossing your fingers on Marlon Humphrey, fine last year, lot of money, but they’re going to need that, especially since Cincinnati signed their wide receivers and they still have Joe burrow, right? No
Luke Jones 28:18
doubt. I mean, you know, you don’t want to be in a position where you’re having to beat them again 41 to 40, which both the games last year were kind of like that. So, but yeah, I mean, they absolutely need another corner. I mean, could they bring back a tredavius white to just be in the mix, you know, be a veteran to compete there? Sure. I mean, you could do that, but you’re certainly not counting on that, because the other guys you have in house are Jalen armor Davis, who can’t stay on the field, TJ Tampa, who missed most of his rookie season. So that’s what you’re looking at in terms of another number three corner right now, assuming you’re keeping Hamilton at safety, and if you do want to move Hamilton back into the nickel mix, which could end up happening, you need another safety so, of course, they have some work to do. But these aren’t, you know, these aren’t the kind of questions that lots of other teams have right now. I mean, these are still complimentary pieces, more so than anything else.
Nestor Aparicio 29:13
Well, Ozzy would say we could play this week if we had to. I mean, yeah, and that was kind
Luke Jones 29:16
of my point that I made, comparing the rest of the AFC north to where the Ravens were. I mean, look, if they had to play a game on March 18, would you feel great about every spot? No, of course not. But you look at their starting lineups for the most part on offense and defense, you’d say, All right, that’s okay. I’d like to add another guard to the mix to compete with Voorhees and FAU le lay. And certainly you’d like to add another corner, and, you know, you’d like to have another safety to be able to mix and match your sub packages a little bit more. But by and large, I mean, they’re they’re off. That’s why the that’s why the Stanley signing was just so huge for them, because everything else was kind of way. Thin the normal range of what you have to address in an off season. But if Stanley walked out the door, where were you pivoting? Were you going to go give what Dan Moore or Jalen Moore, or some of these other left tackles that got overpaid on the market? Were you going to pay one of those guys the money that you were going to give Ronnie Stanley? Or were you going to go into the draft and say, Well, yeah, I hope we can. I hope there’s a tackle there. I hope there’s someone there that can play right tackle and we’ll roll the dice playing rose and garden at left tackle. I mean, could they have done that? Yeah. I mean, you could have, because you might have had no choice if Ronnie Stanley wasn’t going to play ball and said, I’ll take nothing less than 25 million a year, right? I mean, there was a there was a price point where you had to say, Ronnie, we love you, but we’re not giving you that. But that’s why I said the 20 million per year ended up being pretty fair. Well, the
Nestor Aparicio 30:50
whole feeling of that press conference you attended, where they talked about, we feel like he’ll be back, they knew the price point they were at, but much like Bart Scott or even CJ Mosley, who they really thought, I think they were going to keep, um, it got out of hand. And in his case, he never got to mark, because I don’t think he wanted to leave, right? I mean, he didn’t really didn’t want to leave. He wasn’t going to go to New England for money. He didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want to leave. Lamar didn’t want to leave here, whatever thinks his legacy is, whatever, whatever they went through with your hurt, we’re still paying you. Hey, you might still be hurt. We’re paying you less. He went through that last year that they have a kumbaya with Ronnie Stanley, who has $120 million in the bank, by the way, too. So there is a factor. Yeah, that’s a huge factor. I mean, that’s a little different than where Ben Cleveland or or even Michael Pierce. So I looked up, he’s made $22 million and I’m thinking, you know, how much is enough? If you’re that old, you’re that big, and you just want to, like, night, do this anymore. In the case of Ronnie Stanley, that that’s, um, that’s a kudos to Eric the Costa, because whatever little cult they have going on out there, the No, no speak no here, the monkeys that are in the front of the of the castle, that they at least knew what they had there. And he didn’t get out the side door. He didn’t make it the free agency. He agreed to everything because, to your point, the apple cart might have gotten a little crazy week and a half ago, had he said, You know, I’m gonna go play for the bears. I’m gonna go whoever wants them, whatever it was that he’s going to get overwhelmed by money, or money was more important to him than it is, because he’s got $120 million by then, you sort of know how important money is to a guy. And if the guy’s been in your building a decade, you know him, so they felt like he was going to stick around. That’s a credit to them, because some organizations don’t have that. Jacksonville doesn’t have that kind of trust with their players, right? I mean, and agents having trust with players with him, it worked, and now it has to work on the field the next 1920 games, however many they’re going to play this year, to keep him healthy, but if he went out the side door, yeah, they would have $20 million in cap money, but they would have a diminished team right now. I mean, sure they would have you and I would be bullseye, like, what are they going to do there? Because we’re operating an offense without a left tackle. Is problematic,
Luke Jones 33:10
yeah, no question about it. I mean, again, it made everything else about their roster building process seem less problematic, right? I mean, it was your number one objective. So I think the only team that probably gave them some pause, and this is why they were willing to come up from, let’s say, 17 or 18, was Kansas City. But if he looked at Kansas City’s cap situation, they weren’t in a position where they were going to be able to give Ronnie Stanley market setting money right to give him 24 or 25 if he if he, if he wanted 2425 he’s probably gonna have to go to New England or one of these other teams that had, you know, I had money burning a hole in their pocket, but didn’t give nearly the same chance to win. So I think, really, that’s where the Ravens came up some and Ronnie Stanley left some on the table. I mean, this is how it worked out. And generally speaking, when you’re talking about a veteran player who you know very well, who knows you, you’ve been through a lot together. You’ve won, you’ve lost some heartbreakers in January, been through a ton from from a rehab standpoint, with him. They know what makes him tick. They know about the ankle, and you know whether he needs even though this past year, he didn’t have it, but veteran days off and managing his practicing that’s a union guy that gave them money two years in a row back. Yeah, so well and but it never happened to baseball, by the way. At the same time, he got paid a lot of money to not, basically not play for two years, two you know, and that happened two days after he signed the deal. So I think both sides felt not an obligation, but had some motivation to stay together, and they were able to work it out. And that’s why I said everything else now they do from this point, feels more manageable because you said it, yeah, okay, if you didn’t pay Ronnie Stanley, you. Had a much more cap space, but how are you going to proceed? Were you going to again? Were you were you going to go throw money at Dan Moore? Were you going to go do what Kansas City did and pay a left tackle who has a handful of starts under his belt, albeit, looks pretty promising in San Francisco, but that’s still a question mark, even at 15 million a year. So those were your alternatives on or you were going to go into the draft and say, well, we’ll hope and pray that someone’s there at 27 or maybe someone will be there at 23 and we’ll try to move up a few spots. Or we’ll move rose and garden and try to take a right tackle either in the first round or the second round and see if we can hit on that for a second straight year, even though that’s not typically a very likely outcome. I mean, you’re just talking about a lot that had to go right for that. So that’s where you know, as much as you and I talked about it leading into free agency and saying, hey, you know you have to, you have to be willing to walk away on anyone that’s not your franchise quarterback, basically, I mean, you know, and they’ll be doing a Lamar extension at some point here, whether it’s this off season or next. I mean, that’s coming, and it’s going to be whatever Lamar wants, basically, because that’s how it works when you’re talking about these. You know, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahoney, the
Nestor Aparicio 36:16
last time he wanted to wash the $15 million wide receiver, we gave it to him, right? Sure.
Luke Jones 36:19
Right? I mean, Odell Beckham was the Lamar tax. You know, if Odell Beckham had signed for what the Ravens gave DeAndre Hopkins, that would have been a perfectly fine signing, right? And that’s why I said, if DeAndre Hopkins has numbers similar to Beckham, I’m not going to sit here and say that that deal is a home run, but it’s fine. It’s totally fine, right? As a number three wide receiver, so, but again, this goes back to when the season ended and they were trying to sort out what they were going going to do. A big piece of that was either resign Ronnie Stanley, or, if you don’t, whatever the heck you’re going to do at left tackle. They figured that out. You hope he stays healthy. It’s not risk free, of course, because he is still getting 20 million a year. You know, for as much as we’re kind of patting them on the back and loyalty and all that, he’s still getting paid very handsomely here. You know, we understand that, and there’s a heck of an injury history there. So he has to stay healthy. You could say all you want that you like the deal. If he hurts his ankle, or, heaven forbid, hurts something else in week two, and he’s out for two months, then you’re right back where you would have been had you not kept him. So there’s always risk involved. But they felt that 20 million a year was going to be fair for him, and he felt that 20 million a year was enough to stay somewhere where I’m comfortable. And to me, when you have two sides that can compromise to come to an understanding like that, then, great, why not stay together? If you’re comfortable with each other and and you’ve got a chance to win if you’re Ronnie Stanley and if you’re the ravens, you don’t have to worry about left tackle, hopefully. So you know, again, it makes everything else about your off season less, you know, not, not less critical, because the still have some important moves they’re going to have to make, but they are counting
Nestor Aparicio 38:05
on a lot of older guys now, all of a sudden, you know what? I mean, Lamar hasn’t really been injured horribly during any of this. I mean, he had these injuries were costing the end of the year, but Derek, Henry’s older, Ronnie Stanley’s older. You’re just going through the Marlin, Humphrey roquan, you know? I mean, like, they got
Luke Jones 38:22
so young. Roquan Young. I mean, go, go. Look, that is always your thing. Yeah, okay,
Nestor Aparicio 38:26
I, but I I’m not noticing him the way I was when he was 25 he does. He looks like Ray Lewis. I noticed longer and forever. I don’t feel like roquan Smith The minute he walks out on the field. I’m like, oh boy, we got Dick Bucha the way I did maybe three, four years ago. I don’t, I don’t feel his presence in the way. So therefore I feel like he’s older. He’s not. He’s a highly paid player. I’m just saying that they, they have moved a little bit to signing some gray beards, Andrews being another one right that they have under contract, DeAndre Hopkins. So they, they’re a little veteran, and I was going to ask you about Clay’s Campbell. I Campbell. You know whose names out there? And you know when I think about other guys, leadership Guys, guys that aren’t going to get arrested twice the legal limit, you know, guys that aren’t going to be trying to nudge 16 different massage therapists into providing sexual pleasure for them. That’s probably not class Campbell. So Colace Campbell is one of those guys that there’s a thought that maybe they should never let him get out. Um, he’s timeless, ageless. Far better for me to bring a 40 year old back in here while the Steelers and Vikings are waiting on Aaron Rodgers. But there is a point where the ravens are a little a little more gray than maybe in signing older players. If they’re going to keep Mark Andrews around, it would feel a little older.
Luke Jones 39:45
That’s all, yeah. I mean, and look, with Mark Andrews, I don’t think they’re going to extend them, you know, I think it’s just they’re going to let the final year play out if, if, in fact, they’re not going to trade them, which, you know, with with the roster, but you don’t think
Nestor Aparicio 39:56
they’re going to trade him, if you have that, like right now, you think it’s, it’s. More. I mean, if you would
Luke Jones 40:01
ask me, two weeks ago compared to now, I felt it was more likely two weeks ago. But yeah, I mean, once you you just paid him $4 million and again, that doesn’t mean it’s prohibitive that you can’t do it or you won’t do it, but you know, as more time goes on, I feel like he’s going to be a raven, like, because the
Nestor Aparicio 40:20
deal, it was before you gave 4 million bucks, right? Yeah. I mean, generally,
Luke Jones 40:23
that’s how those things work, right? And again, we’re not talking about, this wasn’t a $12 million bonus. This wasn’t some crazy, you know, like, Kirk Cousins with the Falcons kind of, you know, like, like, some something like that. I mean, it’s still possible, but, but, yeah, so, I mean, I don’t know if they’re that much older. I mean, they’ve always had some veteran type guys on the roster. I mean, roquan Smith’s going to turn 28 in a couple weeks. I mean, that’s crazy,
Nestor Aparicio 40:46
okay. I mean, you stand really. I knew he wasn’t 32 but it does feel like, well,
Luke Jones 40:52
he didn’t have a minute. He didn’t have a great year. He didn’t have a great year, and I don’t even know how much of that was him, to be very fair to roquan Smith. I mean, we talked about all the issues they had with the over routes, with the linebackers and coverage or safeties were so bad. The first half of the season,
Nestor Aparicio 41:07
he had Patrick Queen great, and then Patrick Queen disappeared, and they never replaced him,
Luke Jones 41:12
like, oh, and that’s the thing. I mean, Trenton Simpson was next to him, and Trenton Simpson ended up getting benched in mid, in late November, right? So that tells you how they felt about how he was playing, so how much of that was trying to cover up for him, how much of that was the safety play. But I’ll also throw this out there. I you and I debated at the time, you know, what was roquan Smith, the guy that you want to give $100 million contract to? I mean, the first couple years, yes, year three, it was kind of like, I mean, it wasn’t terrible.
Nestor Aparicio 41:41
Well, year three is a 27 year old year. You feel like that should be, should be getting better, not worse. That’s
Luke Jones 41:47
all right, I certainly want to see him make more of an impact this coming year than he did last year. I mean, there’s no question about that, but to go back to class Campbell, just because I’ll give it 30 seconds. I mean, guy’s going to be 39 so he’s not 40 yet, but, I mean, he’s, it’s It’s unbelievable the to have the kind of career that he’s had, six Pro Bowls. I mean, was Walter, Walter Payton Man of the Year? What the year before, year or two years before, he joined the Ravens. I’m trying to think off the top of my head, but great individual, everything about him. I mean, you know, I don’t know him intimately well, but got to know him a tiny little bit.
Nestor Aparicio 42:21
It’s the last Raven player to ever speak to me, Blaze
Luke Jones 42:25
gamble. I mean, just well liked my teammates, does a lot in the community. Really thoughtful guy, and still, heck of a player. Last year, you know, played all 17 games at five sacks.
Nestor Aparicio 42:39
You know, Chris Canty being here at the end, was a very similar kind of guy and a similar kind of player. Glass a better player than he,
Luke Jones 42:45
way better player. Yeah, nothing against Chris K I mean, Chris Canty was solid at his best. I mean, class, Campbell’s been a pro bowl. I mean, he’s gonna be, I’m, you know, he’s gonna get Hall of Fame consideration. I, you know, I don’t know. I mean, five Pro Bowls, one, all pro he’s probably not going to be in the Hall of Fame, but he’s the kind of guy that a slam dunk for Hall of very good at the very least, when you consider the longevity. Mean, even if he doesn’t, man and maybe he will make the Hall of Fame, I think a lot of it’ll depend on, you know, does he play one more year? Does he win a Super Bowl before it’s before he leaves, you know, I mean, does he rejoin the Ravens? Who knows? I mean, but, I mean, yeah, it’s, it’s amazing to think of some players, even at that position, who get to age 2728 29 and you feel like you know they’re on the downside. Maybe, you know they might be done, you know, they might get one contract out. We’re talking about roquan Smith in that fashion right now. Yeah. I mean, not, not that he’s done or anything like that, but, but class camp. I mean, he’s, he’s only a few years younger than me, and yet he’s still playing in the NFL at a high level. I mean, it’s, it’s really a testament to him. I mean, he, he’s, he’s one of those break the mold kind of guys in a lot of ways as a player. You know, by all accounts, everyone who knows him, his personality and all of that. So, you know, whoever gets them. You know whether, whether he you know, because the Ravens had some interest in trading form. You know, before the deadline last year, Miami ended up saying, hey, we’ll hold on. We want to hold on to him. But, you know, we’ll see how it plays out. But it is amazing for all the veteran players and guys that are washed up at age 28 guys that are washed up at age 30 and that
Nestor Aparicio 44:29
they signed a 39 year old, uh, defensive lineman you’d be happy about Yeah, go ahead, bring him in. Be happy about
Luke Jones 44:35
it. So, yeah, exactly. So, I mean, well, and we’ll see where, where, it how it plays out, and where he winds up. I mean, I, I would think money’s not really much of an object, but he
Nestor Aparicio 44:46
wants to win and be with good people and go to work somewhere he likes so well, if he liked it that much here, he would sign back here and say, hey, they got Chuck Pagano and they, you know, it’ll be a fun room. I’m gonna be I get to go back and play with roquan and Marlo. And he was a big old Kyle Hamilton. He knows all. These guys, right?
Luke Jones 45:00
He liked, he was a Mata BK guy. He thought Mata BK was gonna be excellent. I can remember talking to him three years ago, whenever it was and he said, you know, at the time he was still just in mata vique, but he said that kid can, he’s, he’s gonna be really good, you know, so he was, he was in early and lots of people thought that about Mata BK, but you know one of those guys that you like, you like having in your building, you like having in your locker room. And you know, he’s chasing a ring. I mean, he’s still chasing a ring. So we’ll see. You know, I haven’t heard anything beyond just he didn’t want
Nestor Aparicio 45:37
in Atlanta or Miami, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know Miami, obviously
Luke Jones 45:42
he played it at the U so he had some local ties there, and so, you know, you can understand that play for Chuck. Chuck was long gone by then, right? I’m trying to he, let’s see Campbell. Was he?
Nestor Aparicio 45:57
He would, no, dude, it was 18 years ago. He was again, yeah, because
Luke Jones 46:04
chuck, chuck actually was there with Ed Reed, right, if you recall, yeah. So Chuck had been in the NFL for Yeah, so, no, he wasn’t there at the same time because class Campbell’s rookie year was horrible. His rookie year 2008 Well,
Nestor Aparicio 46:16
I’m sure Chuck had a reputation in Miami by the time he arrived. Anyway, sure Luke Jones is here. He’s Baltimore, Luke. He’ll be covering baseball, football and a little bit of basketball, at least. These Terps the crab five going to Seattle this weekend. All that’ll be out of Baltimore. Positive. We are doing the Maryland crab cake tour on Friday. Lucas is wearing his pizza Johns of Essex hat. I am still just befuddled by the fact that I meet people from Baltimore who’ve never been to pizza. John, so Friday is our day. We’ll be down at back river neck road. Take 702, come see us. We’ll be there probably noon to four, because I’m going to be eating pizza hanging out. I’ve decided I’m going to have cheese steak, double provolone. I’m going to have french fries and proper gravy. And I might even, you know, I might even get you a cannoli, or one of those little brown bottom, black bottom things that they had there, maybe a little scoop of Hershey’s ice cream. We’re going to be at Pizza John saw, brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. We’ll have the magic eight ball scratch offs to give away on Friday. The crab cake tour is suspended next week because what are the Canada it’s the poutine tour. We’re going to be in Toronto next Thursday and Friday, breaking out our American passports, hoping that our felon King allows us back in over the Peace Bridge, so we can come back and live our comfortable lives here in the United States of America. But the Orioles will start, and candidate will be uncomfortable, very, very uncomfortable for them next week. I don’t know how you feel about Canadian Alcohol, Luke, but you won’t be able to drink any American alcohol in Toronto. So I’m going to introduce you to the bats in Molson, in Moosehead and all these other things a so we’re heading up there. We will not be sorry that we’re going to Toronto next week. The Orioles open on Thursday. We will be there with Zach Eflin as well as Anthony Santander, north of the border. So Luke and I talked a little baseball, little baseball, a little football, a little basketball. We got a great week ahead here. I visited with Pat scary on Friday over at the CVP in Towson, talking about Towson basketball, more than just talking about n i L and money and coaching and Old World, new world and all that stuff. We also chatted about a place called the startup in Towson, where a lot of people are working these days. And I also had a really long chat about hot yoga, one of my passions in life, with Susan Selman, who runs up dog studios in Towson also had a chance to get over to sweat it out for class on Saturday. So I’m so tired because I went to up dog on Saturday. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, little baseball, little football, little Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.
