Oh, we always have fun with those guys in Indianapolis! It’s been 42 years since the people of Indiana pilfered the Colts away in the middle of the night. But the ESPN Indy guys still ask about the legend of Beanie Bob (via Ricig) and Nestor still reminds them that there have been two Ravens parades in Baltimore. But does the next one down Pratt Street begin with Lamar Jackson heading to the friendly heart of the Midwest to start the season? He offers a full preview of what he thinks of the new Jesse Minter operation here to the good people of Indy.
The discussion previewed the Ravens-Colts matchup, focusing on Baltimore’s coaching transition, roster age, offensive-line uncertainty, and high expectations.
Ravens Outlook
- Nestor said the Ravens’ offense has been substantially redesigned under new coordinator Declan Doyle, with new terminology and a different approach to Lamar Jackson.
- The offensive line is the primary concern, particularly after Tyler Linderbaum’s departure and with Ronnie Stanley’s health history.
- Baltimore faces significant pressure to reach the Super Bowl; a divisional title or playoff win alone is no longer considered sufficient.
- Open question: Will the new coaching staff and aging core produce a sharper, healthier team than recent Ravens squads?
Colts Outlook
- Nestor views Indianapolis as potentially formidable if last season’s early defensive performance was representative and the team can pressure the quarterback.
- The Colts’ offensive line remains an unresolved concern, with no preseason evidence available to evaluate the matchup.
- Open question: Which version of the Colts—early-season contender or injury-affected late-season team—will appear?
- Send ESPN Indianapolis a picture of Baby Bob for the audience to see. (@Nestor Aparicio)
Ravens Changes
- New head coach and coordinators after John Harbaugh’s departure.
- Declan Doyle leads a redesigned offense for Lamar Jackson.
- Offensive-line turnover and veteran roster age are major concerns.
Competitive Pressure
- Baltimore is expected to contend immediately because of its roster and schedule.
- The organization faces heightened expectations after repeated playoff disappointments.
Colts Evaluation
- Nestor assessed Indianapolis through conversations with Mike Chappell and Kravitz.
- Defensive disruption and the offensive line were identified as key factors in the matchup.
- The Colts’ position in the AFC South remains difficult to assess without more evidence.
ESPN Indianapolis 0:00
On the game day men’s health guest line, he is from Baltimore, Maryland, a returned guest to the program. We’ll let you know everywhere that you can hear and see him on the regular basis. Nestor Aparicio, nasty Nestor, as he’s known, joins us on the show. Nestor, how are you?
Nestor Aparicio 0:14
Yeah, I mistakenly wore Colt’s blue. I didn’t even realize I was doing that as I come, I said I’ve almost fit in with y’all out there these days. You know, I did wear this all all of my childhood in the in the 70s and early 80s. Yes, listen,
ESPN Indianapolis 0:28
I’m a Blue Jays fan, and they’re taking on. And I’ve always kind of liked the Orioles as well, right? So I’m wearing my Baltimore Orioles shirt today, and didn’t even think about the fact that this is the week that the. Oh, see, this is nice.
8
Nestor Aparicio 0:38
I mean, I remember. Look, dude, I’m so old. This is my 35th year on the radio. I’m so old that I remember. I mean, I did some dastardly things. I mean, I called the hospital in Indianapolis to make sure Bob was dead the day he died. I mean, I played schtick back in the 90s. I was nasty Nestor. This is 30 years ago. But just in a general sense, the indie thing for for most people here. And again, I’ve done sports radio. I haven’t taken a call in 12 years. I do podcast. I do, you know, long form. Matter of fact, I just had a fellow named Jeff Gordon, not the race car driver, but the St. Louis sports writer, who was my colleague in 1984. He was at all the drunkers press conferences at the airport back in the day. So I’m doing some throwback kind of stuff and franchise moving stuff with some St. Louis people and Howard Balzer, who’s moved a couple of franchises as well. You know, I I harbored no animosity to the Ursays after I got to know Jimmy a little bit and Pete Ward and some people. And once we won the Super Bowl in ’01, and I buried the hatchet when I got there and it had like a million views on it at the time. The Super Bowl in Indy, the week I was there, I I don’t know. I sort of maybe some the Angels of the Ursay Ghost followed me to the JW Marriott there in downtown Indy. But I woke up one morning at four in the morning. I swear to God, I had all my reporters. I I own a radio station. I had like six of us piled into three hotel rooms doing live radio there, and I went over to that that media center in the the hotel, and I inked out this. I’m just done. I just I don’t want to be angry anymore. I I’m tired of being pissed off about it, and I kind of let it go. And I just I I loved your Super Bowl. You had the best Super Bowl. There’s, I went to 27 Super Bowls. The Super Bowl in Indy was the best one because the weather was great, and it was like a town fair. I mean, there were really corporate events everywhere else. Your place was more like the whole state of Indiana loaded into downtown Indianapolis, and and and got on the gondolas and stuff. I mean, it was fun. I I I dug it. It
ESPN Indianapolis 2:40
was fun. You had the little baby Bob doll. You’re walking around with. It was all. You want me get it? I still have it. Oh yeah. If you’ve got, do you have it? Yeah. If you can get it, take a break. I’ll.
Nestor Aparicio 2:48
You should have. You should have prepped me. I. If you would have prepped me, I would have worn purple, though. You know.
ESPN Indianapolis 2:52
That’s right. Well, like I said, I’m. It is. It is bizarre. You got on the Colts blue. I got on the Ori. I mean, like, what in the hell are we doing here? All right Begin with this, and then how far away is the doll? Like, do you have it like on the other side of the estate?
Nestor Aparicio 3:07
I touched it the other day because I’m I’m doing this 28th anniversary thing for rock and roll because baseball’s going on striker. You know, there’s problems in Indianapolis. You don’t have baseball team. We’re gonna not have baseball to talk about here, so better go really well for Lamar, not just this Sunday, but for the next 17 to 24 Sundays around here, because baseball’s so I I’m cleaning up all my old ticket stubs and stuff like that. Like I found my u2 ticket stub from seeing u2 and Beck at the Dome. So I’ve been you know I come out for concerts. I’ve I’ve seen Mellencamp in Indiana. Indiana. I’m a big concert guy, but baby Bob’s still there. I mean I touched his hair. I rub the dollar bills in his shirt, his little boots. Yeah, I, I, I still have it. Yeah. The funniest thing is when I go through old pictures and he’s sitting with like Don Shula. You’re sitting with Chuck Pagano. That is great. That’s when it’s funny. Yeah.
ESPN Indianapolis 3:57
If you can find, if you have a picture of Baby Bob with Arch Sleister, you can probably get top dollar for it. All right, let’s begin with this, Nestor. Just in terms of this Ravens team, new coaching. You know, obviously, you’ve got when you’re analyzing the Ravens, we’ve got to take a look at the fact that John Harbaugh’s not there. You’ve got a new coaching staff, you have new coordinators, but the faces of who they’re they’re moving around on the field are the same. What is different, or could be different, about this Ravens team than what we have seen in the last handful of years?
Nestor Aparicio 4:26
Wow, that’s a great question, and we’ve been talking about that for the last nine months because we don’t know what we’re going to see either, right? Like, the coach is Harbaugh Jr. Right, like he worked for both of the Harballs. He was even dusted up in the Michigan scandal with with Jim. Worked for John. They opted for some part of status quo in regard to how the operation runs. Now that being said, it’s not going to be the same, and it hasn’t felt the same. The offense completely has been blown up, right? So the Greg Roman were going to run and be in a box car and run Lamar 14 times. A game and you can’t catch him. That’s over with. And then the next thing that happened after that, well, we shipped him out. That’s over with. Now he’s going to go run the the Browns with Deshaun Watson. This is a 29 year old when he was hired offensive coordinator Declan Doyle. You can look him up. Grew up in the shadows of Iowa and in football. His dad worked for the Iowa football team forever. I mean, all these guys are coaches’ kids. I mean, Jesse Minter’s father was the longtime Cincinnati Bearcats coach who really gave Rex Ryan and John Harbaugh, and to some degree, Mike Tomlin starts in life. I mean, all those people knew Jesse Minter when he was a little boy on the field. So these are life for football people, Declan Doyle, and he’s 29 years old. He’s Lamar’s age, running the offense. He comes out of the Ben Johnson and the Sean Payton school, so there was a whole new language for Lamar to learn. And no Pat Ricard, right? So some changes. The offensive line certainly Tyler Linderbaum going out to Las Vegas for all that money. I mean, they have a center, and they they’ve they’ve got a new offensive line coach in Wayne Ledford who brought a center from Atlanta with him that is going to start for them because they the offensive line’s the biggest story for the Ravens. So first and foremost, Ronnie Stanley, aging left tackle, had a lot of health issues over the years, but more stout the last couple of years. But the offensive line and what that’s going to do for Lamar, for Derrick Henry, for Zay Flowers, and opening up the offense. The fact that Mark Andrews is aging-they got a lot of aging, guys. Like I mean, that’s been my story. My story’s been the offensive line and where that is. Lamar’s health, Lamar’s health. Well, I hear that all day long, but then Roquan Smith, Marlin Humphrey, the guy’s making all the money. Quite frankly, Nambe Matabike is a defensive tackle who sacked quarterbacks, kind of like Warren Sapp and John Randall, who had a neck injury that’s been very mysterious. He’s not going to play this week, but he’s going to play soon, and he’s a big $25 million cap number for them. They’ve got Derrick Henry, Lamar’s turning 30, right? So Mark Andrews, they have veteran guys. Ronnie Stanley making top dollar. If you look at the top of their salary cap number, Kyle Hamilton aside, they got a lot of guys over 30. Colleagues Campbell’s back. He’s 40, so they’re playing with old guys, man. They really are. This is this is
8ESPN Indianapolis 7:22
what happened to the Colts, and not to go on the way back here, but to make it relatable for people in Indy, when when Ryan Grigson first took over and Bill Polian was on his way out, you know, it was not a popular move, but they cleaned house because they had the Dwight Freeneys. The I mean, they they they kept Robert Mathis for two more years, whatever. But you know, Dallas Clark, Ryan Deem, Rick Demoling, they were aging players, and you could have probably gotten another year or two out of them. But you have a whole new regime, and so it’s just easier to kind of rip that bandaid, right? So I’m not saying that that’s where Baltimore is right now, but are you anticipating that perhaps we are a year or two from this being, you know what, new sheriff in town. He’s going to want his new own deputies, and this could be as a result the introduction to a change of man force in Baltimore.
Nestor Aparicio 8:12
Well, you mentioned changes here. The biggest change is the coach comes in with unlike John Harbaugh that they gave $100 million. I have a quarterback that I see all over the billboards as I drive into New York City hadn’t won anything. I mean, they got a two-time MVP quarterback here, a running back who’s already popped off this week, saying, “If I don’t win a Super Bowl here with Lamar, we failed. Well, that’s good that they acknowledge that. I used to have a press pass for 27 years till the corporate jerks that run the Ravens now took over. I’ve stood at Marlin Humphrey’s locker after they’ve been a 10-point favorite at home and lost playoff games, and said that they choke, choke, choke. That’s their word, not mine. I don’t use that word so much. But if you’re talking about choking, Mark Andrews dropped the ball that would have taken them to an AFC Championship game, and then dusted the media. Never even showed up in the press room to ever answer a question, shut up for the USAA commercials. But like, this is a very unaccountable group. They had a kicker chasing women around in this city. Google it. It’s a real thing that was ugly. Who thought he was going to the Hall of Fame and now is going to the Hall of Fame, and they’ve covered it up. That this is after Ray Rice. So this is a breath of fresh air to get rid of John Harbaugh to some degree, who was not the most popular cat around here, but to your point, John Arbaugh didn’t win with any of these guys. All of these guys, Lamar down. Lamar has not played well in January. Mark Andrews, Ronnie Stanley, Derrick Henry had had a lot of chances to play in January. But if you’re talking about Humphrey, Roquan Smith, all these guys have been a part of of losing big playoff games, and now it’s not well. Can we win the division? Which is easy because who else is going to win it? Cincinnati, you know, like they got to win three playoff games and go to a. They lost an AFC Championship game here at home to the Chiefs, so there is no more like. Well, Jesse, good job. You won a playoff game. That that’ll be nice in Indianapolis. No offense to y’all, but you win. You get to a championship game this year. They’ve done something. Everybody will get re up there. Carly will be a real happy on her headset, and everything will be good. But like here, that won’t that ain’t gonna fly here for Jesse Minter. That’s not gonna fly for Lamar Jackson or losing to the Colts at home, 31 to 27, because you win your division and come in here, and and they they lose january 18 here. That would not, that’s big time fail here. So the stakes are just huge here, and everybody suspects they’re going to roll the ball in and just beat a team that was eight and two last year at one point. Your team, I mean, there’s a lot of confidence here that the Ravens are going to be six and one, seven and one, because they have a lousy schedule. I want to, to your point, first question. I want to see them roll the ball out on Sunday and play well, because they didn’t do a lot of that under John Harbaugh lately. Really, they have.
ESPN Indianapolis 10:54
WNST.net, by the way, is where you can catch Nestor and his work, including his beautiful looks like some beachfront background there on the Zoom on YouTube. I’m assuming, by the way, is that now? What is that behind you? Is that Hawaii or is that the Maryland shore? I mean, you Baltimore through and through. That’s got is that the Inner Harbors,
Nestor Aparicio 11:13
dude? Come on, man, that’s Orbitzburg. Oh my God!
ESPN Indianapolis 11:15
Okay, now I can see. I I
Nestor Aparicio 11:16
lived on the 23rd floor downtown at the Inner Harbor for 19 years. I’ve lived a very incredible, fortunate life in a lot of ways, and this was my view. So I have all sorts of sunset and sunrise views, but I moved about four and a half years ago, so I don’t have any recent ones. So some of the buildings have changed, but this is still this is still the place where they finish in last place every year. No one goes to the games at the end of the year. By the way, the 20th anniversary of my walkout, Google Free the Birds and Pied Angelos was 20 years ago. Next Monday, the 21st, and I’m doing the what have we learned here 20 years later? You know, because it’s been you know it’s been a it’s been a house of sadness. Camden Yars has been, and we kind of eat off the football team around here. You know, kind of like you guys have the basketball team, you have women’s basketball, you have Indiana, you have Indiana football now. I don’t know, man. Around here, we got the Ravens. This is what we got, and it’s it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal, and we’re looking forward to the game on Sunday, man.
ESPN Indianapolis 12:08
Okay, Nestor, let’s wrap it with that. And that is your impressions of. And I realize you’re focused on the Baltimore Ravens. Nestor Nestor Aparicio is my guest. WNST.net, where you can hear and see him. But your thoughts on the Colts from what you know at this point? I’m always curious of outside market perspectives and perceptions of both the roster and an anticipation. Your thoughts on where the Colts slot in the AFC South?
8Nestor Aparicio 12:32
You know, I learned like you learn reading on the internet. I had Mike Chappell on for an hour this week. I had Kravitz on for an hour. These are old friends of mine, and you know things that they would say to me about the team, and and I’m always, especially with your franchise top down. I mean, I will go get beat. I will send you a picture of Baby Bob. I’ll give you a greatest hits if you want. I mean, I there’s 50 pictures of him in all sorts of ways. I think of new ownership, right? Female ownership. I think of Jimmy being a guy who really understood the game and knew the game where most owners don’t. I think our owner Steve Bashati understands football at a more than a base level. I mean, enough. This he’s been around it long enough that there’s not a lot of that. And how she and the girls are going to run the team and how that’s going to go. And these really tough decisions on general managers who’ve now survived several coaches. I mean, GM’s back when my my boy Pagano was running the team, right? Like so, and whether you’ve got the quarterback or not, and I keep going back to the the gaudy start last year and getting that like if that’s the real team that Steichen’s put together, and you could get after the quarterback a little bit and be a little bit disruptive, I’m telling you, the offensive line here is a mystery. So for me, first three or four possessions on Sunday afternoon, seeing how the Colts get after the offensive line, seeing how the lines are moving up front, because we don’t have any preseason look at any of this. I see the Colts as formidable based on what I saw at the early part of last year. I’m going to assume that’s the real Colts, and when they fell apart and got injured, that’s not it. I don’t know who the real Ravens are. I really don’t know. I don’t want them to look old, fat, and tired, and I need Lamar to look like happy and sharp with this new offense. And apparently, he is. And this whole turning of the page and new-we had the same coach here for 18 years, right? So there’s a whole lot of oxygen. Boy, there’s a lot of pressure on this team right now too, because they don’t sort of want to win like you guys, and it’d be nice to win a little bit, dude. Around here, it’s on fire that they got to go to the Super Bowl.
ESPN Indianapolis 14:32
Nestor, you are always full of oxygen, and you do not look old, fat, and tired. I can assure you of that. I love turn 58
Nestor Aparicio 14:38
this month, man. Come on now, I’m on a yoga mat,
ESPN Indianapolis 14:41
I like it. Always a pleasure, man. Hopefully, these two teams run into one another again soon, so we can do it again. You know why I’m still
Nestor Aparicio 14:48
young? It’s it’s Baltimore, not Baltimore, Indianapolis Colts veteran Brian Baldinger, who was my one-time co-host. Baldy got me on the yoga mat 26 years ago, so I am indebted. For my health, literally, and my longevity, to Brian Baldinger, friend of the Ursa family. So there you have it. All right,
ESPN Indianapolis 15:06
it’s never a stretch with Nestor on the air. I can tell you that though.
Nestor Aparicio 15:10
I love Goose too, but don’t tell anybody.
8ESPN Indianapolis 15:12
Sarah Goose was great. All right, WNST.net. Nestor, appreciate it, man.
Nestor Aparicio 15:16
We’ll always have Brandon Stokely.
ESPN Indianapolis 15:18
Go birds. Go birds. Beat those Cleveland Guardians today. All right, we’ll take a recess. We’ll come back. Nestor’s got to send me a picture. I’ll have them text me a picture of Baby Bob so everybody can see what I’m talking about. Nestor’s the best. We’ll take a break. Zach Keap are going to join us later in the program as well.
