The first “instructional” part of Baltimore Ravens training camp is over and head coach John Harbaugh loves when the pads come on and the thumping begins in Owings Mills. Our Luke Jones gets you ready for some defensive wrinkles and offensive weapons as the Super Bowl march begins in July for #RavensFlock.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the Baltimore Ravens’ training camp, highlighting the transition from OTAs to full-contact practices. They emphasize the importance of pads in revealing players’ true abilities, citing examples like Aeneas Peebles and Patrick Owosso. Jones notes the return of all three coordinators, which provides stability after last year’s coaching changes. They also discuss the integration of DeAndre Hopkins and Rashad Bateman into the offense, the potential of young defensive players like Nate Wiggins and Malachi Starks, and the need for better pre-snap cadence to reduce penalties. The conversation concludes with anticipation for the Ravens’ upcoming season and playoff potential.
- [ ] Evaluate young players like Nate Wiggins and Malachi Starks as the pads come on.
- [ ] Incorporate Deandre Hopkins into the passing game and look for ways to optimize the offense.
- [ ] Continue working on pre-snap cadence and communication on offense to reduce penalties.
- [ ] Identify ways to “squeeze a little more” out of the offense and defense to be better positioned for the playoffs.
Ravens Training Camp Kickoff
- Nestor Aparicio welcomes listeners to WNST AM 1570, celebrating 27 years and planning a month-long celebration of favorite foods.
- Nestor mentions the Orioles’ trading deadline activities and Luke Jones’ presence at the Ravens’ training camp in Owings Mills.
- Luke Jones describes the initial stages of training camp, emphasizing the transition from OTAs to more contact practices.
- Luke notes the difference in playmaking between spring practices and full-contact training camp, highlighting the impact of pads on player performance.
Impact of Pads on Player Performance
- Luke Jones discusses the increased physicality and contact during training camp, using Aeneas Peebles as an example of a player who needs to showcase his skills in full contact.
- Luke mentions Patrick Owosso, an undrafted rookie linebacker who made a significant impact once pads were introduced.
- The conversation highlights the importance of pads in revealing players’ true abilities, especially those who excel in physicality.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the significance of the first few days of training camp, noting that while some players stand out, others may need more time to show their potential.
Coordinators and Playcalling
- Nestor Aparicio shifts the focus to the role of coordinators and playcalling, emphasizing the importance of scheme and player fit.
- Nestor mentions the integration of DeAndre Hopkins and the use of tight ends, particularly Eric Ebron, in the offense.
- Luke Jones notes the return of all three coordinators, which provides stability and continuity compared to the previous year.
- The discussion touches on the impact of coordinators like Chuck Pagano and the importance of playcalling in shaping the team’s strategy.
Secondary and Defensive Line
- Nestor and Luke discuss the secondary, highlighting the addition of Jair Alexander and Uzi A, and the potential of young players like Nate Wiggins and Malachi Starks.
- Luke emphasizes the importance of the secondary in the Ravens’ defense, noting the need for solid play from the young players.
- The conversation covers the potential impact of Kyle Hamilton’s role and the need for a third safety to complement Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey.
- Luke mentions the importance of cross-training players like Jalen Armor Davis to provide flexibility in the secondary.
Offensive Strategy and Player Development
- Luke Jones discusses the Ravens’ offensive strategy, focusing on the integration of DeAndre Hopkins and the development of Rashad Bateman.
- The conversation highlights the importance of pre-snap cadence and reducing pre-snap penalties, which have been a challenge for the team.
- Luke notes the potential for Hopkins and Bateman to create mismatches, particularly in three-wide receiver sets.
- The discussion touches on the importance of Todd Monken’s influence on Lamar Jackson’s decision-making and the offense’s overall performance.
Team Dynamics and Expectations
- Nestor and Luke discuss the team’s overall dynamics, emphasizing the importance of player development and coaching stability.
- Luke highlights the need for the team to navigate the regular season and position themselves for playoff success.
- The conversation covers the importance of reducing mistakes and improving communication, particularly in critical situations.
- Nestor and Luke express high expectations for the team, noting the potential for significant success if the team can stay healthy and execute their strategy.
Community Engagement and Announcements
- Nestor Aparicio announces the Maryland Crab Cake Tour, celebrating WNST’s 27th anniversary with 27 favorite foods throughout August.
- Nestor mentions upcoming events and giveaways, including Maryland lottery scratch-offs and rock and roll guests on the show.
- The conversation touches on the importance of community engagement and the team’s connection with fans.
- Nestor and Luke wrap up the segment, expressing excitement for the upcoming football season and the team’s potential for success.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens training camp, pads on, Owings Mills, Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio, Baltimore positive, DeAndre Hopkins, Todd Monken, Kyle Hamilton, Malachi Starks, Nate Wiggins, offensive line, defensive coordinators, playoff contender, Super Bowl favorite.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:02
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 task of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, celebrating 27 years this weekend, and we’re looking forward to getting out. I’m not going to have 27 crab cakes. I’ve already done that. We’re going to do our 27 favorite foods throughout the month of August to celebrate our 27th anniversary. And also get ready for those, those buffalo wings we’re going to be having on September 7. The Orioles are amidst trading deadline activities. Lucas is out in Owings Mills, where they’re putting pads on. I will be giving away scratch offs in the Maryland lottery, the lucky sevens, the pressure Lux. I have them both. It will begin next Thursday. Will be at Beaumont and Catonsville, beginning a month of celebration around here. My logo is going to change to the 27th logo, and I’m going to be eating fun things all month long while the Ravens play fake football and try to remain healthy and try to remain a Super Bowl favorite, if not a contender. Luke Jones is here. He will be there as they buckle up the chin straps and go past, thud, I guess. I mean, they’re gonna put jerseys on and shoulder pads, Luke, this is the most wonderful time of the year. It’s July in the NFL. Yeah. I mean,
Luke Jones 01:13
this is when training camp actually starts first week. Look. You can check out my observations at Baltimore positive.com and I offered some, and there were some good things. And what’s
Nestor Aparicio 01:23
flag football
Luke Jones 01:24
the first couple days, right? I mean, it’s, it’s really, it’s really a continuation of OTAs. I mean, it’s really what it is. I mean, they’re still in helmets and shells, you know, they’re still in shorts. I mean, there’s a little bit more contact in terms of just hand fighting between the offensive line and defensive line. But when the pads come on, no, they’re not tackling to the ground. Maybe the young guys, they’ll do a little bit of that at the very end of practice, but they’re hitting, as cam Cameron famously said years and years ago, things change a little bit when you introduce the threat of contact, right? Knowing throughout the spring when guys are in shorts and there’s no pads, and you have wide receive, young wide receivers making plays over the middle, even though going over the middle isn’t what it used to be when Ray Lewis was roaming the field, and the rules were way different then. But it’s different. It’s just different. I mean, John Harbaugh even was asked about it, I think it was what Friday, I guess it was. And he flat out, said, it’s exciting. And obviously you have guys that they’ve been out there doing a lot of football where they can’t really play football. I mean, that’s coming directly from the head coach. So, yeah, business picks up this week. I mean, they’re not going to go nuts. We’ve already talked about it. We’re we’re a long ways away from the even the beginning of Joe Flacco, his career, where you still had two a days in Westminster. So you’re, you’re not going to see that. I mean, these guys, they’ll, they’ll go a day or two with pads on, then they go shells and shorts the next day. You know, might go shells and shorts two days, then the pads come back on. So it’s still a ramp up. You’re not going to go full go here, but this is where, okay, especially young guys, you know, newcomers, guys that you’re trying to really get a read on. I mean, I’ve mentioned in passing, and this is just one example. Aeneas Peebles, the six round defensive lineman that they drafted. They really like this kid. He’s He’s undersized, though, that’s why he was a sixth round pick. So he is flashed some some pass rushing ability and some moves, but it’s a little different doing that in his in a setting where the pads aren’t on and you’re not going full contact, compared to now, and it’s like, Okay, let’s see how it looks when you are going, not fully blown live tackling to the ground, but at least going thud. And that’s where you want to find out. You want to find out about your young offensive lineman. You want to find out about your guys in the secondary. You want to find out about everyone, right? I mean, again, other than Lamar, because the quarterback’s wearing the, you know, even though they don’t wear red jerseys, but the red non contact Jersey you think of when you think of quarterbacks, but other than Lamar, everyone else now is subject to contact. So it does change the dynamic a little bit. And I would say that that also goes for guys who maybe haven’t stood out to this point in time I can think back to I’ll give you an example right off my the top of my head, Patrick Owosso, who was an undrafted rookie linebacker. They got to the point where it was, I believe, the second week of training camp, they put the pads on, or whatever. They put the pads on, third day, fourth day, whatever it was. And he absolutely, I think it was Kyle use check. I think, you know, I could be mixing up my years a little bit. He absolutely walloped whoever it was in a special teams drill, and that put Patrick Owosso on the radar. I don’t think I had even mentioned his name or written his name once, and he ended up making the team, and ended up having a nice little three, four year run with the Ravens then. So, so there’s an example of a guy who didn’t necessarily get to make his mark in the spring. Uh, or the first few days of camp, when you don’t have the pads on, and then suddenly someone pops, you know, someone flashes. So it goes both ways. We talk about the the spring, all star types who do really well with when they’re in shorts, and then the pads go on and they kind of wilt. But it also goes the other way, where you have some guys who maybe the physicality is the best part, best element of their game, or the most underrated part of their game, and then suddenly they can showcase that a little more. And you say, hey, where did this guy come from? So there’s, there are always some surprises in that way as well. So I think you can tell, you know, I’ve been, I’ve been, this is my 17th training camp, very little the first week to really, of any real note. I mean, Tyler loop made a 63 yard field going practice. Great, you know, good. So fun headline got out high five from the head coach. But it’s practice, right? Everything that happens the first few days. It’s not terribly different than the spring, but now pads get Come on. It’s hot. You’re going to be going for two, two and a half hours now, compared to hour and a half, you know, the first couple practices, where they’re ramping up, so business picks up now, and you start to see what exactly is real, you know, who, who can answer the challenge, and who kind of comes out of the woodwork, so to speak, that you haven’t necessarily talked about. And then you say, hey, where did that guy come from? I I need to start paying attention to him. And inevitably, there’s, there’s a guy or two like that as well. When the pads come on,
Nestor Aparicio 06:27
we talk so much about players and so much about the Costa in the off season, and so much about draft hopes, and not necessarily free agents around here, maybe losing one or two or picking one or two up, or the Patrick mccaries that have left the building, or Patrick queen that left last year. You know, these, these players that come and go, the coordinators, are something we don’t talk about much in the off season. We don’t mention their names, we don’t mention scheme. We don’t mention much of that. Then we get into this part of it, and it really is all about play calling, all about what wrinkles are they? You know, where’s the Andre Hopkins fit in this thing. How can they drive zay flowers better? Where are they really? What the tight ends? And use of the tight ends, how much do they really want Eric Henry to carry the ball early in the year, in his 33rd 34th year on Earth, whatever it is at this point for him. So a lot of that, I think, doesn’t get baked out at all in these preseason games, for sure, or what they really want to do against buffalo, but you do see them calling plays, moving plays along, and scripts through the next five weeks of practice as they get ready for all of this. To say, what are our good plays? What’s Lamar comfortable in? How does Hopkins really fit in this offense on second down, third down, base package versus whatever the defense is? There’s no such thing as a base package, but down in distance, situationally, what Zach or wants to do what Chuck pagano sees, right? And you know, whether it was Dean Pease last year or not, he’s gone, right? Pagano is back or around now, right? So has taken that role. So seeing the pieces all run around out there is sort of the inspiration for this is how we’re going to play buffalo on the seventh of September, this is what we do well. And I don’t know if they know what they do well, because I don’t even know what they know what their offensive line is right now, or what it can be. I would think with Linder bomb and Rosengarten and Stanley aside, because that’s its own animal. We talk about that a lot, emerging players, players that are getting better, not necessarily where roquan Smith is or Marlon Humphrey to say we’re not expecting them to emerge. We’re expecting them to survive, thrive, be healthy, be healthy enough for 30 something year old football players. But the emergence of certain players, I mean, when Kyle Hamilton got shot out of a gun two, three years ago, right? Like you didn’t expect that, but it certainly made an impact. And I want to see who these impact players are, because this team is so loaded with veteran players and MVP candidates and guys who got screwed out of the MVP and the running back who’s going to the Hall of Fame they’ve got. They check all the boxes in the way that the oh one team, in retrospect, when you look back and say, well, they had Rob Woodson, they had Shannon sharp. They had to add some great football play to trick do for a side. They had some great players. Jamal in his prime, you know? I mean, just great football players. This team has that certainly with Lamar. But I also think the coaching part of this and dreaming and scheming the offensive coordinators and all the work they’ve done the last six months. I mean, pagan has been running around here for four months getting ready to say, here’s how we’re going to deploy Kyle Hamilton once this kid Starks can play safety. Yeah.
Luke Jones 09:54
And, I mean, the other thing I’ll point out, since you mentioned the coordinators, you have all three of your coordinators returning. Right? I mean, at this time last year, you were trying to get acclimated, not just with Zach or but keep in mind the other brain drain that they experienced with some of their other assistants, Anthony Weaver, right? I mean, guys that went and took took coordinator jobs elsewhere, so there was a lot of that going on. And let’s face it, we focused a lot on two elements. And you already mentioned one, Dean Pease, which, you know what I’ve gathered. I think we probably overstate the role that Dean Pease had, you know, from what I’ve gathered, talking to people within the organization, but certainly he helped, and that was something, he came in at a time of crisis, right? I mean, at a time where their secondary and their past defense was kind of a disaster early, you know, the first half of the season. So you had that element. And we also talked a lot about the Marcus Williams benching and what that meant for Kyle Hamilton, what that meant for our Darius Washington. So, but this year, you know, fast forward to summer of 2025 as we’re into the last few days of July into early August, still very much in your install mode in terms of what you’re doing, offensively, defensively, all of that. And to your point, there is a lot of I don’t know if experimenting is the right term all the time, but you are trying to flesh out the stuff that maybe you don’t do quite as well, and you’re trying to really identify everything that you do at a really high level, because that’s what you want to do, right? I mean, you don’t want to overthink this. The idea of being an offense or a defense isn’t necessarily to be the most complicated outfit that you can imagine, because that don’t that sounds great if you can do all those things really well, but you can be really complicated, and if your guys don’t really know what they’re doing with certain plays that you call or certain packages that you call, doesn’t make any sense.
Nestor Aparicio 11:51
So Ryan needed 11 really smart guys out there, because 1f up and the ball went over everybody’s head.
Luke Jones 11:56
Yeah, well, and again, on the defensive side of the football, we saw this last year, and by the way, we didn’t talk about this a ton. We talked a lot about Pagano, but they replaced their inside linebackers coach, who was in his first year. Last year, they replaced two of their secondary coaches with Chuck pagano coming in, right? Well, this
Nestor Aparicio 12:16
just speaks to Marcus Williams being pissed off, and whatever Trevor Trenton Simpson is, and whatever Patrick queen was, and whatever the middle of the field looked like, you’re only as smart as your most confused football player in an 11 man set, whoever the most confusing remember Billick in the video 24 let’s pick on the little guy over there, whatever it is. Sure that guy doesn’t know what he’s doing. Let’s confuse that guy with our tight end. And if it’s Travis
Luke Jones 12:40
Kelsey, you lose. Yeah. So. So I think in hindsight, when you kind of look at how it played out the first year assistants that they had coaching some of those positions, mainly secondary and linebacker and and in fairness, you know, Doug Mallory was in his first year as a defensive backs coach, but Chris Hewitt had been in their coaching their secondary for years and years but regardless, it didn’t work. It was made very much problematic. And I think, you know, having just kind of sniffed around and talked to some people just kind of reflecting on last year, if anything, I think the perception was much more that maybe Zach Gore was too trusting of some of his assistants and didn’t take full command of, hey, you know, make sure this needs to be better. This needs to be better. This needs to be better. More so than Zach or was in over his head or anything like that, right? And I think with the way that things played out down the stretch and the changes that they made, I think that reflected very well on Zach or so now he’s in year two, right? He’s more comfortable. He’s got Chuck pagano on the back end as secondary Coach, obviously, another set of very experienced eyes and experienced voice that should hopefully clean up any of the lingering issues they had from last year. They feel that they’ve upgraded in their secondary Of course, with Jair Alexander being added at the end of mini camp, obviously health is a question with him and Uzi A, but these are accomplished. You know, in the case of Alexander, a two time Pro Bowl cornerback, in the case of a woozy a, when the Bengals were kind of at their best in making their Super Bowl run a few years ago, a woozy was a really nice player for them. In fact, some of the downfall their defense, you could probably point to his his knee injury and his lack of availability is one of the big things that hurt them. Go back three, four years ago, so so they have those guys in the mix now. But you mentioned this time of year. You know whether you’re talking about coaching, whether you’re talking about testing things out from scheme. You mentioned all the established players that they have, and of course, in their secondary. And I’m sticking with the secondary right now because I think it’s the highest profile change that we’ve seen, you know, even going back to last November. But you have Hamilton, it’s one of the very best defensive players in football, not just best safety, but. Best defensive players in the league. You have Marlon Humphrey, who’s a Pro Bowl corner, four time Pro Bowl corner. You have Alexander added to the mix now. But you know two guys that I’m really intrigued to see, Nate Wiggins, who I thought had a really nice first week, and you know, is entering his second year. And as someone they were over the moon to get at the end of the first round last year, played a lot. Last year, had his ups and downs, but I think was trending in a good direction at the end
Nestor Aparicio 15:27
of Jimmy Smith, sort of, yeah, I mean him being
Luke Jones 15:31
an outside corner for the next you hope the next 567, years, you know, of second contract, if he’s that good, then you hope he can be that guy. Because, you know, Marlon Humphrey. You know, Marlon’s not, you know, that old. But you also know Marlon Humphrey is probably not going to be a top shelf corner for the next five years. You might have a couple more years of that, and then you’re going to be deciding, where do we go here? Do we let him go and we pay Nate Wiggins? You know, we’re gonna have to pay Hamilton, right? You it’s always a shell game when it gets to some of these veterans at a certain point compared to your emerging young players that you think are going to be young stars for you. I’m not calling Wiggins a star yet, but you’re hoping he has a chance to be that guy in the next couple years. So there’s him, and then the other guy and I talked about this in the spring, and this kind of goes back to my point about, okay, the pads are coming back on. You want to see it translate. But Malachi Starks is really impressive, man. I mean, he really is, and he’s starting to make more play. He was starting to make more plays on the ball this past week compared to how he looked in OTAs. He didn’t look bad in OTAs, let me be clear about that. But you can always tell when you have a young player that maybe he’s not flashing quite as much. But the good thing was, he was always in, seemed to be in the right spot. You didn’t hear coaches constantly say, Malachi, that’s not what you want to be doing there. Malachi, your alignment was right. Was off there. He seems to be in the right spot. And now, over these first few days at camp, you’re seeing a progression even from back what he looked in OTAs. Let me be clear. I’m not saying he’s gonna be the next Ed Reed. Not gonna say he’s gonna be the next Kyle Hamilton, but I think they really like what they see. And I think a big part of that, I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to hear him speak at the podium or go back and hear some of his interviews at the University of Georgia, you can tell why he’s a red star guy. I mean, he just, he’s smart. He has a confidence to him without being cocky. You know, Kyle Hamilton said the other day that he thinks Starks is kind of miles ahead of where Hamilton was as a rookie at this point in time, and Starks was not Starks was asked about that. He said, Look, I think Kyle’s being generous. And then he went on to say, look, I think I know football at a pretty high level, but then I talked to Kyle Hamilton, and I talked to Marlon Humphrey, and I talked to Jair Alexander, or I talked to chuck Pagano, or Chuck Pagano, and he’s talked a lot about pagano as well. And then I realized how much I have to learn. And I just think that recognition from someone who’s 21 or 22 years old, that that they know that they don’t know everything, but they’re being a sponge, and they’re soaking up everything they can from their teammates and their coaches. And you know, his reputation coming out of Georgia was he was really smart player. They could line him up anywhere. He played slot, he played safety, you know, he could play in the ball Georgia. You’re getting instruction too. It’s and that’s the other thing, too. I mean, you’re talking about a national championship program, you know, you know, especially over the last 10 years, what Georgia has been so with Kirby smart and everything. But, I mean, I just, I think they’re really excited about him, and that doesn’t mean he’s going to make the Pro Bowl as a rookie. Let me be clear about that. But I think there’s an optimism that that spot is not going to be a problem, that that spot is going to be solid, even with having lost our Darius Washington, even with the thought that I still think they need to bring in a veteran safety, because I think you want to be able to run some three safety sets. And I don’t know who that number three guy is right now. I’m not sure it’s Sanusi Kane or beau braid or anyone like that that’s on the roster. You know you’re talking about unproven young guys there, but I think Starks is in a good place right now. Look, is that not to say that he won’t have a hiccup at some point in the Buffalo game or the Kansas City game, Kyle Hamilton had hiccups his first six weeks in the NFL, right? I mean, we remember Miami throwing the ball over his head in that week two shootout. So that’s not to say that Starks won’t have some some hiccups early on, but I think they’re really excited about him. So
Nestor Aparicio 19:30
all the better he is, the better it’ll make Hamilton for what they want to do with Hamilton. It’s pretty clear they don’t want Hamilton playing a base safety role. They didn’t feel like they thrived in that, that they did everything they could do, including losing football games. Yeah, trying to put him up on the line of scrimmage with Mark, Mark Sweeney in the back, starting the season this year with knowing that you want to get him to that role and figure out how you get 10 other, well, four other players in the back end, maybe five, if you go nickel. Time, yeah, and say, All right, where then, does that put Kyle Hamilton into whatever that role is? Eagle? There’s been all sorts of names, yeah, whatever that loose role of play with the Rex Ryan, 46 positionless. You’re, you’re the 11. You’re 46 plus one. That’s you. Yeah,
Luke Jones 20:21
I mean it. And look, we all, and we all talked about this late last year, Kyle Hamilton did an excellent job with what they asked him to do, right? I mean, he and ardarius Washington settled them down. They were a really, really good defense over the last seven or eight weeks after they made those changes, but it didn’t allow you to optimize your usage for Kyle Hamilton, it didn’t allow him to be the same kind of game wrecker on a Down by Down basis. So that’s not to say he won’t play deep, deep safety at all. I mean, I think you’re still going to see him, and he did that before, right? It’s not as though he was at the line of scrimmage every single play. You just want to have the the freedom and the flexibility to deploy him in that way whenever he wants. So that’s where I said, I still think they’re going to need to add another safety, you know. And maybe, maybe the answer is that they move one of the corners to safety on certain plays. I mean, you know, quietly, you know, Marlon umpre will sometimes line up at safety, you know, on a couple plays a game. You know, I don’t know if you maybe you lean into something like that a little bit more. I mean, I know they, they’ve cross trained Jalen armor Davis as a safety a little bit more this spring, so, you know. So that’s a little bit to be determined. But to go back to your original point, when you were asking me about the coaching and trying to kind of flesh out what you like, or augment what you like, flesh out what you don’t like quite as much. So much of that does come down to these young guys. And for as much as we have these big name players, when we’re talking about this ravens defense and this Raven secondary, I think you look at Wiggins and Starks, where you say, man, if those guys, you know, if Wiggins takes a big step in year two, and if Starks is a legitimate, very worthy, first round safety, and can, especially, you get to October and November, and he just feels like, you know, he’s humming along, and he knows what he’s doing and starting to make more plays, Man, you’re talking about a secondary that. I mean, where’s the weakness, right? I mean, last year the weakness was, find Marcus Williams, find Brandon Stevens, you know, so early on this year, I’m guessing Josh Allen in Buffalo, Kansas City, and Patrick mahomes and Andy Reid, they’re going to be looking at Starks, right? They’re going to be looking at Nate Wiggins, you know. So they’re going to be looking at those guys. Not to say that they’re bad players, but they’re the least proven of those guys on the back end of the defense. So so, you know, that’s what you’re looking at defensively. You mentioned the offense. So give me 30 Seconds to touch on the offense as well. You know, Todd monk in year three, I think they’re still trying to work on pre snap cadence. You know, we know they had issues with pre snap penalties last year, they’re trying to vary, you know, have a little more variance in their cadence, and, yeah, a byproduct of that, when you’re working on that, is you’re going to have a few more false start penalties, especially in a training camp setting. So I’m not necessarily phased by that as much, but you mentioned DeAndre Hopkins, and I do think something that you could see come to fruition, more so for this offense than maybe we saw the last couple years is you now have DeAndre Hopkins, who even at this stage of his career, and obviously he’s not a number 113 100 yard kind of receiver anymore, and they’re not paying him to be that. So I think it’s important to understand what the expectations are for him, but I think he’s someone who can still make contested catches. He’s someone who can still win on the outside, more so than other receivers they’ve had here in recent years. And you have Rashad Bateman, who has emerged so now, I think you’re in a position, not that they’re going to be in three wide receiver sets all the time, because they still have Mark Andrews and Isaiah likely. So you’ll still see them run plenty of two tight end sets, but I think when they are in 11 personnel, and when I mean 11 personnel, one tight end, one running back, three wide receivers, I think you’re now in a spot where you can put Hopkins on the outside on one side of the field, Bateman on the outside on the other side of the field, and I think you could probably play zay flowers in the slot a little bit more. And I think that’s an intriguing mismatch, right? Yeah, I think that’s an intriguing option that not that he’s never played in the slot, but I think you can do that a little bit more, and you might be able to identify, like you said, a few more mismatches, or a few more vulnerabilities and coverage, where that might take zay flowers to the next level. And maybe we’re talking about him, not as 1000 yard receiver, but maybe, and I don’t want to go too high here, because you still have Derrick Henry and this amazing running game, but maybe zay flowers is more of an 1150, 1200 yard receiver this year. I mean. And again, I’m just That’s one example, but that’s all. Also what you have when you have the benefit of now being in year three of the Todd monkin Lamar Jackson partnership. And you know, we talked about this a lot the last couple years, if there’s something that’s been different about Lamar Jackson under Todd monkin, compared to Greg Roman, beyond just talking about, okay, the passing numbers, the passing game in general, but I think a big part of it, Monk and talked about this from the moment he arrived, was giving Lamar ownership of the offense to more specifically, more ownership of the offense, pre snap coming to the line of scrimmage and assessing, is he audible? Is he doing the amount of audible type stuff that that Tom Brady did or Peyton Manning did in in his prime when those guys were 33 probably not, but he’s doing a heck of a lot more of it than he did under Greg Roman, let’s say. And I think that’s been something that has really taken, helped take this offense to another level. So now it’s year three, getting
Nestor Aparicio 25:59
you out of a bad play exactly, you know, whether it’s, I mean, five, six times a game, if that happens and you get out of a bad play, that’s how you keep the
Luke Jones 26:08
ball. I mean, that’s the difference between second and 11 and maybe a touchdown or a 40 yard gain, right? I mean, it really goes a long way. So, so a lot of what this this offense, and let’s face it, I mean, this offense was incredible last year, you know? I mean, they they had over 3000 rushing yards and over 4000 passing yards. You’re doing some, a lot well when you have those kind of numbers. So really, it’s not necessarily you’re going to find ways to be dramatically better, because I don’t think you can be dramatically better. I mean, Derrick, Henry’s not going to run for 3000 yards this year, he almost ran for 2000 this past year. You know, I think you mentioned an interesting point. I mean, Derek Henry’s 31 do you want him carrying the ball 25 times a game in September? I mean, it depends on the game situation, of course. But yeah, everything about, everything they do, is about trying to optimize this thing for December and January, and you hope early February. But I just think with monkin in year three, now it’s, you know, you’ve installed so much. You’ve established an identity. You returned all but one starter, right? I mean, Patrick McCary is the only starter gone from the end of last year on the offensive side of the ball. So and he was a guy that didn’t want to be a starter, yeah, I mean, like, don’t miss him from a versatility and depth standpoint. But he’s not Marshall yonder. He wasn’t Marshall yonder or Ben Grubbs at guard. But, you know, so you’re really in a position of, you have such a base to work off of, you have such a foundation to work from, that it’s now, it’s just, how can we augment? How can we enhance? How can we tweak? We have DeAndre Hopkins now, great. We have Isaiah likely in year four. Great. How can we incorporate those guys a little more into the offense? Rashad Bateman, last year, we finally saw Lamar Jackson and and and Bateman have this chemistry that they started hitting those vertical plays. How can we do even more of that? Because if we do that, my goodness, teams aren’t going to be able to play eight in the box. Then, if you have Bateman going deep and making big plays, and then so they have to move someone out of the box, well that’s part of the
Nestor Aparicio 28:15
mismatch that you have Henry and Lamar. No one in the history of the game, of course. So has had that. So
Luke Jones 28:22
you have all that already. So now it’s just, how can we squeeze a little more out of that? How can we squeeze a little more out of Bateman in the vertical I mentioned zay flowers, maybe he played, he can play in the slot a little more because you have Hopkins on the outside too now. So it’s just, you know, none of this. I mean, there isn’t a whole lot to fix with their offense. I mean, okay, in an ideal world, yeah, they’d have a better offensive line. I get that. You know, I’m not going to say they have the best offensive line in the NFL. If they eliminated the penalties last year, they would have been better, right? I mean, their offensive line. I mean, that was the worst thing you could say about their over line last year, is the penalties. The performance overall was, was pretty darn good most of the time. So how can you get a little bit better? And that sounds like a coach speak thing, right? But we’ve talked about this. I mean, this team, on paper, in the regular season has been as great as it can be, right? When it’s healthy, they’ve been that great. It’s all about one. You have to navigate that, and you have to be good enough to make it to the playoffs. But once you do that, it’s all about, what can we do in January? What can we do to better position ourselves for January? How can we make our offense a little more dynamic? How can we force a few more turnovers on defense? How can we just eliminate mistakes? Right? I mean, we’ve talked about it with Lamar or mark Andrews with the not just the drop, but the fumble in Buffalo’s a flowers two years ago against Kansas City, reaching over the goal line. Some of it is just slow, the heartbeat maybe be a little more boring in some of those spots. You know, Lamar, he had to fumble in Buffalo. It was a bad snap from linderbom. He dropped it and then picked it up and then fumbled it again. And maybe it was just, hey Lamar, in that spot. We love you, man, but it’s January. Just just take a two yard loss there. We will live the fight again. It’s okay, instead of trying to do too much in that spot, and then it turned into a disaster. So, and I’m not picking on them like they’ve had that with guys on both sides of the ball making critical mistakes in those spots. So I don’t know if you can really practice that in July and August, right, because you can’t replicate the heartbeat and the nerves and just the urgency of the of the situation. But those are the things you have to try to preach So, but you know, to bring it back. And, you know, there’s a long rambling answer to your question about the coordinators and what you’re doing this time of year, but they have such a great foundation to build off of here that it really is just trying to get a little bit better with pre snap cadence, or getting a little bit better with communication on the back end of the secondary, you know, being able to deploy Kyle Hamilton in a more of a wild card role, like like they were able to do before last year’s problems set in. So, you know, I have very high expectations for this team. I think they’re going to be better coached this year than they were last year. Again, that defensive side of the ball had some problems with some of the position coaches, as you see, guys that were one and done, you know their linebackers coach, you know a guy of the secondary, I mean, so they made some changes there. So, you know that it sounds so cliche, because you hear, you’ll, you’ll hear this 100 times from players over the next five weeks. The sky’s the limit, right? The sky’s the limit. The sky’s the limit. It really is for this team. But it only matters come January, right? And they have a long way to go and between now and then, and they’ve got a lot of work they have to put in. Luke
Nestor Aparicio 31:55
Jones is putting in a lot of work in the heat, out in Owings Mills this week is the ravens, put on the helmets, put on the pad, stretch it out a little bit. Lots of fans out there yelling safe management, yelling at Luke, sometimes me not getting yelled at at all. I hated this part of the season, which is one of the reasons Chad Steele threw me out. But nonetheless, all of you running after there is a rumor that Leonard Raskin is inviting me out as part of the important people this weekend, so I may be making my I’m probably banned there. It’s probably like Trump getting into Scotland or something like that. I’m not sure, but I will try to go to Owings Mills this week, if I am so invited. But Luke was invited every day on behalf of w, N, S T and his media pass. I’m just one of those guys that can’t ask John Harbaugh What the hell he was doing with Donald Trump two weeks ago at the White House. At the White House. It is a football week around here. It is a baseball trading deadline week. It is not a crab cake week, although they’re all crab cake weeks. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tour next Thursday, kicking off our 27th year in Baltimore radio. Our anniversary is August the third. We’re proud of that. We’re gonna do 27 of my favorite things to eat in 27 days. Because people ask me all the time who’s got the best crab cake? And I almost wanted to tell them, crab cakes aside, go out to Costas and get the crab Imperial, because it’s delicious. I did that on Friday night. I also spent a little bit of time down in Delaware this weekend with uh, Tommy comwell and the young Rumblers. But I will be at the Beaumont on the seventh of August. We have dates throughout the month of August. I’ll have lots of winners to give away. These pressure lucks are the $3 tickets. They have bigger winners. So I like that also. This week, we’re going to get to the heart of rock and roll a little bit too. I got some great rock and roll guests coming up later on in the week. Trading deadline. If you’re on the wnst tech service, brought to you by coal, roofing and Gordian energy, you’ll get it first when Cedric Mullins disappears, or Ryan o’hern, maybe by the time you hear this, but it is football season here. We’re excited about that happy summer to everyone. I am Nestor. He is Luke. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
