After hijacking the Coaches Breakfast press conference with John Harbaugh and the national media with a tweet outing his March 2 trade request, we wonder what happens next for the Ravens’ disgruntled former MVP quarterback. Luke Jones and Nestor answer the Lamar Jackson mandate for the Baltimore Ravens and opine on the few possibilities for peace and prosperity in this broken relationship.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
lamar, lamar jackson, ravens, john harbaugh, talked, trade, john, requested, otas, tweet, first round pick, year, standpoint, play, quarterback, point, agent, cincinnati, team, march
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
America w n s t Towson Baltimore and Baltimore positive I don’t know if this was gonna be positive I are gonna have a positive outcome around here at some point but we are going to be doing the Maryland crab cake tour yet again starting off April 5 Next Wednesday over at Costas so brought to you by the Maryland lottery the instant lottery scratch offs we’ll be giving these away to under 50 years of Maryland lottery playoffs are friends of winter nation 8669 D nation. I’ve got I’ve got Windows I’ve got screens now I’m just I’m this close to an exterminator away from a perfect spring in the woods. We do appreciate our friends at window nation for take great care of as 866 90 nation you buy two you get to free and it is 0% financing while it lasts. Hurry on that. Oh, look, Jones joins us looking I got up early on Monday morning. Luke noticed that I was not at the Biltmore in Arizona, where I have been for the last 18 years sitting next to John horrible asking questions. They picked a hell of a year to throw me out, didn’t they Luke I mean, of all of the absurd, ridiculous nonsense that John Harbaugh has ever babbled babbling in the babbling tone at a breakfast press conference where his quarterback, his handpicked quarterback, the revolution of Lamar Jackson. He and his people got together and decided to have a PR hijacking of John Harbaugh’s breakfast press conference at the NFL owners meetings. And apparently, everybody was in on the fact that Lamar requested a trade on March 2, except for John who refused to acknowledge it spoke like the tweet never happened, claimed that he’d never been on Twitter even though he has sent me tweets in the past on my text. And it was just it was such a lie. Athan, and I don’t know what they could do. But I know Kevin Byrne never would have advised John Harbaugh to go out there and pretend something didn’t happen. And I only think I could equate it to and this is a little macabre, which was the night that Mike Flanagan committed suicide that the television broadcast went on for two three more innings pretending it never happened. I think Masson has done that in regard to trades in the past that the reality of the internet and the reality of real time news and the reality of reacting to that with some sense of integrity, and it was lost on John it won’t be lost on the fan base. But Lamar Jackson has requested a trade and dropped it hot on John Harbaugh on Monday morning in Arizona for breakfast. Well,
Luke Jones 02:37
let’s be clear about this. The trade request itself was made according to Lamar Jackson on March 2, which I’ll remind you was five days prior to the franchise tag deadline when the Ravens placed the non exclusive tag. So I found that timing interesting. I found the timing of Lamar is a legend trade request. And I’m not accusing Lamar of lying or you know, I’m just going off of what he tweeted, I don’t know for sure. And John Harbaugh didn’t want to entertain reality with BNS, which by the way, Lamar requesting it. And John, being aware that Lamar was going to announce it when he did are very different things in terms of him reacting to it. So. But I also found it interesting that Eric talked to at the Combine on March 1, which was the day before Lamar says he requested to trade. So you know, just laying out the timeline here and where we are three and a half weeks later, look. Assuming horrible did not know that Lamar was going to tweet that when he did. And I really doubt Lamar gave them a heads up when he was going to do that. In the same way that I do know, he did not give the team a heads up when he announced his injury information at the end of the season. Now that was tweeted on a Thursday evening. I think it was and I know that was not something the team was prepared for. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 03:53
he has been so there’s that he’s been rogue, what can we say that? Right? Right.
Luke Jones 03:57
So Right. Sure, sure. So from that standpoint, I mean, look, is it embarrassing for John Harbaugh on the organization shored, but at the same time, what is he supposed to say in that spot? You know, I mean, if you’re putting up position, it’s probably gonna look bad, no matter how you try to approach it. But, you know, I think what’s fascinating about this is see this is new information for all of us on the outside. We’ve speculated about this possibility. I think we’ve asked questions as far as how much Lamar truly wants to be here in the same way that we’ve asked how much the Ravens truly want assign him because it both sides truly, sincerely, unequivocally wanted that then a deal would have gotten done at some point over the last couple of years, and it hasn’t. And here we are talking about it in late March of 2023, when he first became eligible in the offseason of 2021. As far as he is contract goes, but I think what’s interesting about this is This isn’t new for Lamar, this isn’t new for the ravens, because again, this was three and a half weeks ago if we’re taking what Lamar said at face value. And we presume this is not brand new information for other teams unless Lamar and the caster kept this as quiet as they’ve been able to keep other elements of this negotiation to their credit, as we’ve talked about different times, because it’s left all of us on the outside just asking and speculating and using conjecture instead of facts. But assuming other teams have been aware, this is now known public, in the public eye, but does it change anything? This would have been this would have been far more intriguing if the Ravens had announced they were trading Lamar Jackson to whichever team at 4pm on March 15, the start of the new league gear that would that would have been okay. This was something that was in the works for two weeks, we assume that this has probably been entertained at the very least by the Ravens. We’ve talked about that anyway, whether Lamar had requested a trade or not whether the Ravens have put out feelers whether it was at the Combine or whatever it might have been. So from that standpoint, does Lamar announcing this change anything? I don’t know. him asking for a trade is not the same as demanding. He did not say anything in his tweet that I will never play another game for the Baltimore Ravens, although certainly when you ask a trade, kind of going back to what we said, talking about the Pro Football talk report with Mike Florio, where, you know, fans were up in arms that Lamar had leaked that he was ready to move on from the ravens, which it’s a negotiation, of course. So that’s the big question here. Is this way more negotiation tactic? Or is he 100%? No questions asked. completely full conviction in saying I’m done with the Ravens. And that’s yeah, that’s where that’s where we are at this process. Now. The one thing I will say, and you and I’ve talked about this a lot going all the way back to last year, really, this is Lamar Jackson’s first, meaningful attempt to really put pressure on the Baltimore Ravens. I’m not counting OTAs. Last year one, players under contract, it’s voluntary. They’re not required. There’s no holding out from OTAs. Because you don’t have to be there. And we can, we talked about it at the time of it being a symptom that all wasn’t well, but it still was not that terribly consequential in the big picture. I don’t think Lamar Jackson, skipping OTAs, last spring, had any consequence of what happened during the regular season. That’s that’s just how I feel. And some people might feel differently. But if Lamar were truly serious about getting a fully guaranteed deal, what were we saying last summer? Why is he on the practice field during training camp? Why isn’t he forcing the issue? We’ve talked about the agent piece to this. But at some point in time, if you’re trying to push for something that is so extravagant from a negotiating standpoint, then sometimes you gotta force the issue. And we’ve talked about it. I mean, we talked about Ray Lewis years ago, now in 2009, heading to free agency. We also remember, in 2005, he wanted to be traded before they drafted Hello, De nada. So now it’s not as though a player requesting a trade or, or holding out or not wanting to practice during training camp, whatever it might be. It doesn’t necessarily mean that all was lost at that point. But we kept saying if Lamar was really was hell bent on getting a fully guaranteed contract, at some point, he was going to have to stop playing nice, so to speak. And I don’t mean just, you know, how he negotiates or how he hasn’t negotiated just in the sense of trying to force some action. And in the same way that the ravens, you know, at the time before knowing that there was a trade request that they put the nonexclusive tag on him. So from that standpoint, this is Lamar applying some pressure. What is completely different now, then you and I talked about this even earlier, earlier in the morning, on Monday or last week or a month ago? Well, we know that he’s requested to trade, but him requesting that trade was back in early March. So that’s where I look at this thing and say, does it really change anything from a team? You know, the other 31 teams looking at this? Nope. Did the Ravens keep this a secret? No, maybe they were. Maybe there was some still involved, but I’m guessing what we’ve seen to this point, is still going to come back to for a team to trade for Lamar Jackson, I’m guessing, looking at the compensation and also more specifically, the full guarantee that he wants, you know, the Deshaun Watson money is still going to be a major sticking point here. So I’ll say what I said in our previous segment that kind of got washed away by Lamar is announcement on Twitter on a Monday later in the morning on Monday but get comfortable will be an uncomfortable because just because Lamar Jackson says he would like to be traded in his asked for a trade one does not mean the ravens are guaranteed to grant that and to use, even if the Ravens say, All right, yeah, we think that’s probably what’s best, they still want to get good value, you still want to get the best value you can and based on all the other variables we’ve talked about with this whole franchise tag non exclusive to first round picks attached. Now the compensation level level that he’s asking for the injuries, you know, no age and all the different things we’ve talked about, you know, it’s still it’s still muddies the waters. So is there a different path in terms of knowing now with other teams that maybe they think a trade is more plausible or pragmatic? And you don’t have to worry about putting together an offer sheet that the Ravens just match, as we said that that could be a deterrent? Possibly. But again, the Ravens new Lamar Lamar asked for it on March 2, he said the Ravens knew then I would assume other teams, were getting wind of this, I would think I mean, maybe not, maybe they maybe they were able to keep it that much of a secret. And maybe we’ll find that out. So maybe it does change things a little bit. But at the same time, we’re still talking about all those other variables that work here that have led to what has been not just a tepid market, but a non existent market for Lamar Jackson to this point in time. So, you know, calling it a trade instead of the offer sheet process, does that change things? I mean, time will tell. But I’m still not convinced that we’re going to get a resolution to this thing anytime soon. And I’ll still I’ll also throw out there, the more asking for a trade is not necessarily the same as demanding it or saying, I’m not going to step foot on the field with ravens uniform ever again, guys have requested trades and come back, you know that that happens. But certainly when you look at this, you keep asking yourself over and over. What’s the resolution here, that’s going to be a happy resolution. And as each day that passes them with the new information on Monday, that’s where you look at this thing. And you just kind of wonder is this salvageable? In a way that’s going to make the two sides happy in continuing their marriage partnership, working relationship, whatever you want to call it? But we’ll see. But it’s definitely uh, you know, I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. And we haven’t fun yet as it pertains to this. We at least have a new chapter to talk about, so to speak. I guess we could say, oh, well,
Nestor Aparicio 12:38
new page. Yeah, let’s say a new page in this story. And the story has always for eight months, 10 months going back to the OTAs last year. Is Lamar happy here. This Lamar want to be here. Does Lamar feel like the franchise has his back? Do they have his future? Do they believe in his future? Is he insulted by $133 million, or whatever the offer was, it was a lot of money. Whenever the Ravens offered then the I think the Ravens felt like they offered a fair deal because they wanted to keep him now. I think that’s different. Now, I don’t know if the Ravens really want to keep him really believe in him believe he’s happy, whatever, but we now know he’s unhappy. And, look, man, there’s a lot of ways to do this. And if you’re an agent and you want to go to war with the franchise, things you would do their acts of war, I would think dropping a I was more injured than they said I was that’s an act of war, not showing up for a Cincinnati playoff game with your teammates when you’re the highest paid player on the team and trying to become the highest paid player in the history of the sport and not showing up for a playoff game. Probably not a good look that having people openly wondering whether you’re well enough to play whether you checked it or not. Openly wondering, I’m openly wondering right now over over these airways, whether he was shaking it or not. And I’d have I really don’t know, I will never know. But the fact that I’m wondering whether he would shake it on his team in the playoffs I know he Jake did enough not make Cincinnati. So I can take either side of this argument and play the hardball pro management side or I can play you know, whoa, the poor you know, forgotten MVP who’s been slighted and mistreated and not given enough love. I can play either side of that. But the reality is from a fan for our audience, for you doing the work you do and who we do it for there wondering whether he’s gonna come back here and play football and I gotta think calling hitting Twitter 30 seconds before the coach sits down. It’s clear Lamar was watching the online feed, put it out there as hardball sat down everybody saw it but horrible. Arbo was made to look like a fool in front of everybody left in the fake meat. I see. They threw Jim Trotter out too. They don’t want the real reporters around. They’ve excommunicated him silver how many more reporters they’re gonna make X reporters before we all get a lawyer. And all of that being said, real reporters, not Jamison and Jeff and a couple of handful of buddies that John can have Chad throw you out in the hallway, but like they were all in the room, every reporter in America every step me and you were in the room, when that I’ve been in that room, I know what that room looks like. I know what it looked like when Mike Tomlin had Ben Roethlisberger problems. I know what it looked like when, when any coach has an off the field issue. And they’re there and they have a problem in there. All the media is over asking questions. And Jeff’s riebeck Put up a half an hour before Harbach set down that he had the biggest crowd, and I’m like, oh, so John’s gonna get real questions. And the only one there to save him was his coworker. Click Brown was the only one his co worker with the question towards something else. Otherwise, he never would have had a question about anything other than Lamar. If it was just media, they’re just us. Puranas. So I would think that when John towels off, out at the Biltmore and they’re serving free drinks and shrimp cocktail Monday night that I’m not a part of, and on the lawn, they’re overlooking Camelback Mountain, it’s lovely. You just have a nice band, the whole deal families are there, that John Harbaugh was probably not having the greatest day being that this was the move of the most British agent. If I were his agent trying to be a dick, I would tell him to do it this way. And it was an act of war, Luke, you know what I mean? I don’t know what else to say. Lamar is now at war with a franchise. And he doesn’t need to say I’m not coming back. I’m not coming OTAs he said, I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be here. And I told him a month ago, I don’t want to be here. And now you know, I don’t want to be here. Unlike Hollywood, brown Hayden or some of these other guys that quietly made an exit. It’s very clear that Mars doesn’t understand the market doesn’t know much about being an agent doesn’t even know enough to not have his gym buddy calling league owners last week as a representative. And the league came down on that this is Lamar going to war with the league a little bit. Me Colin kapernick. And Jim Trotter may have some things to say to him about how that goes when you fight the Man fight the power, because there might not be another seat for him.
Luke Jones 17:17
Well, I think what’s interesting about this, I mean, you just said and look, do we know with 100% certainty, at least in the first couple hours after this that, that John Harbaugh and the organization? We’re not aware that Lamar was going to tweet this? No, we don’t. But at the same time I based on what happened with the injury tweet, as I mentioned. And I mean, there’s no reason for Lamar to give them a heads up about that, you know, because even if it’s even if he did, that still puts John in a very difficult position. And this is where I’ll he sought to
Nestor Aparicio 17:48
embarrass John, to embarrass point,
Luke Jones 17:51
right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And what I find interesting about that is think about the tone of the season ending press conference. I mean, I wouldn’t go as far as it was good cop, bad cop, because you know, the cost the certainly wasn’t being combative about it. But John was the one that was being overly optimistic and saying, we’re 200% committed to Lamar to be our quarterback and speaking in such high regard and praising him. And he continued to do that. On Monday morning, but I found that that part of it interesting, I’d like to know, how John hardball, the person that human being feels about are putting him in that position, whether whether he had any kind of a heads up whatsoever, which, again, my gut tells me No, it’s zero, or not zero. I wonder how he feels about that element of this? Sure. So but but my point is, I find I just find that fascinating from the standpoint of John’s not the one negotiating the contract. Now, does John know more than he leads on when he you know, says, when he’s talked about the negotiations and all that? I’m sure he does? I mean, of course he does. But he’s not the one sitting there talking numbers. That’s that’s been to Costa and Lamar has phone via text or whatever, you know, whenever they’ve been able to talk or the couple of times they’ve talked in person. So you know, that element of it. I do find very interesting. Again, what happens from here, we’re still talking about an impasse from the standpoint of unless another team is willing to step up. And there’s been no evidence of that from the from an offer sheet standpoint. Yeah, it still feels like if unless Lamar comes off of what his contract demands have been. I’m not sure how this is gonna play out. I mean, I just, you know, especially from a Ravens perspective of you still want to get good value if you’re trading him if you’re moving on even if you agree with Lamar and say, you know, that’s that’s what’s best. You don’t want to be the person Listen, when you’re settling for a late first round pick next year or something like that, I mean, you want to try to, I’m not saying you’re gonna get for first round picks, either. Let’s be clear. But, you know, I’ll kind of come back to what would be the best case scenario based on the information we have now knowing even with Lamar asking for a trade, it’s probably the Indianapolis scenario where you could get the fourth overall pick. And, you know, even if you don’t get next year’s, you know, even if you can get the fourth pick, and you say, you know, what we’ll draft, you know, or we’ll try to move up to three, and we’ll take the third best quarterback on the board, or however, you know, it shakes out so, but there’s no guarantee with that. And again, it comes back to Lamar having the contract demands that he has, and all the other elements at work. How eager is a team to jump into that situation? You know, I mean, that’s, that’s, that’s been the question all along. And that’s why I say, even what with us now, knowing that Lamar has requested a trade and did it three and a half weeks ago, I’m still not convinced that that changes anything drastically from where we already were, with this impasse or, you know, as I kind of talked about it flippantly, you know, hijacking the offseason, you know, some people have called it a hostage situation, however, you want to characterize it with whatever semantics you want to use. I’m not sure it changes anything drastically, other than this is Lamar for the the other some of those other elements you mentioned, you could still interpret it a certain way, right? I was too injured or he was sick to go to Cincinnati, or maybe there was a just a difference of opinion with the injury and Oh, OTAs Well, he didn’t have to that’s voluntary. You can’t really hide behind this or downplay a trade request. Right. You know, whether it is strictly a negotiating ploy, or whether he is absolutely hell bent on saying I will never play for the Baltimore Ravens, again, they could offer me everything I wanted, and I still wouldn’t play for them because that bridge has been burned. And I’m not saying that that’s the case. But, you know, we don’t know where he falls on that, you know, that range, that spectrum. But this is a very clear indication of Lamar, not kind of haphazardly, but trying to force the issue. Now, we can talk about whether it’s going to be effective or not. I mean, that’s a totally different story. But this is a little bit different than just some of the other things that you talked about that happened last season, where, you know, there was still ambiguity, right. Lamar tweeted this, this wasn’t Adam Schefter reporting it via source or anything like that. Lamar flat out, tweeted, I asked for a trade from the Ravens on March 2, because you know, they’re, they’re not valuing me in the way that I feel I should be valued. And
Nestor Aparicio 22:42
by the way, most of the time, that is my agent told the Ravens that I requested, this is him. This is him saying, Eric and Steve and John, I’m out. This isn’t a third party. They couldn’t be a third party, you know, and there’s no reason to doubt that Lamar Jackson asked for a trade now that he said he asked for trade their diet, I have no I can call. I can call any of these people bullshitters because at some point, they all are. And it’s my job to disseminate that I believe Lamar Jackson, because he said, I believe it. I believe he asked for it on March 2, I believe that he’s kept his mouth shut. I believe that he said, we’re gonna let the market play out. I believe he thought that everybody would want him, everybody. I think he is shocked at the Carolina Panthers and the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints and the Las Vegas raiders and the Tampa Bay book that none of them have asked for his services. And he’s gotten tomorrow, Smith and all the Players Association hawks are all saying they’re colluding. They’re colluding, they’re colluding. He believes they’re colluding. He believes there’s going to be a $500 million lawsuit at the end of all this. I’m sure he’s been told that.
Luke Jones 23:46
I mean, yeah, I mean, it’s certainly because you have a many people in the media and fans that have been shocked that they’re not all 31 teams, of course, but at least three or four, right, at least four or five, you know, that the teams that we talked about prior to the new league year starting Atlanta with all their cap space that they had before free agency open. And, you know, we’ve talked about Indianapolis, Tennessee has been mentioned. You know, just go to Washington has been mentioned, although certainly they don’t have that top five, first round pick that that was attractive. But you Carolina before they traded up to first overall, but it hasn’t played out that way. And, you know, again, him requesting a trade does not mean the Ravens have to grant you know, yeah, so we’re gonna see how it plays out. One thing. Another thing I do want to mention, because I’ve talked about this topic of him forcing the issue, right, you know, of him taking some action here rather than just playing last year on his fifth year option and showing up on the first day of training camp, and yeah, you skipped OTAs but again, OTAs aren’t that big of a deal in the big picture. I think now with him having done this At the very least, I can’t fathom and I had a difficult time believing it. You know, even before we found this out on Monday, can’t fathom that he’s going to step foot on the field. You know, it’s one thing to talk about him sticking around for another year because they don’t work out a trade and but not gonna be for $32.4 million. him him requesting a trade, I would think there’s no way that he’s going to just play on the non exclusive tags. So how does this play out? I don’t know. One thing I’ll talk about, though, and this is where we go back to the Raven side of this from a football standpoint is Lamar Jackson doesn’t show up and you can’t get fair trade compensation or even if you do, what do you do in a quarterback? What are you doing with? What’s what’s happening with the rest of your football team? In the meantime? I mean, is 2023 just gonna be a year that’s thrown away? And, you know, in a big picture sense, I don’t know. I mean, I’m, I’m being rhetorical recall and saying that I’m not saying that you have the answer, either. But, I mean, it’s just, it’s, it’s just not a good situation. It’s not, and we can kind of divvy out rape, which should have done this two years ago, they should have been more aggressive or give Lamar, what he wants. He’s a franchise quarterback, Gore, Lamar is up being unrealistic. He doesn’t have an agent, you know. So that’s been foolish. You know, we can go go back and forth, and all the different talking points that not just you and me, everyone has used, some being more valid than others as far as the talking points. But this is a mass and to sit here and say that I have confidence that the Ravens from their perspective, are going to ultimately find a solution that’s going to be something that they’re agreeable to. I don’t know. I mean, even if you get the draft picks, you still have to pick the right players, right, you still have to find who your new quarterbacks gonna be. And yeah, I mean, it’s just, it’s a mess. And it’s, it’s wild to think, where we were two years ago, three years ago, you know, three years ago, when Lamar Jackson was unanimous league MVP, and the tones to the town and all the different things we’ve talked about, for the better part of three or four years now. And how many people we proved wrong to think that it’s gotten to this point is just, again, regardless of who you want to blame, or who you like or dislike or rooting for aren’t rooting for in this position. It stinks. It stinks for the ravens, it stinks for Lamar Jackson to know I mean, but at the same time to sit here and say that I know how it’s all going to play out. I mean, we know he’s requested a trade but again, does that really change anything dramatically from all the other variables we’ve already been talking about? I just I really don’t know.
Nestor Aparicio 27:49
What Jones doesn’t know. I don’t know. I do know this can be very, very difficult for Lamar Jackson to come back into this town play football here and make peace with John horrible after embarrassing him earlier. On Monday morning. Luke Jones can be found at Baltimore. Luke, I’ll be writing columnist. We got opening day this week. We got a final for this week. We get them out of the crabcake toward next week on Wednesday. Beginning on the fifth, we’re going to be overcast this celebrating 50 years of the Maryland lottery, the scratch off tickets to give away from the Maryland lottery, the instant lottery scratch off old school or friends or window nation with us as well at 866 90 nation. It’s gonna be a week around here, Lamar Jackson, he wants out. What’s the next step? I don’t know. We are WNS da and 1570, Towson Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
