Nestor Aparicio joins WHBC-AM 1480 hosts Kenny and J.T. in Canton, Ohio to discuss disgrace of the Browns and what has made the Ravens so consistently competitive. A better radio guest than a host. Tune if you wanna hear unfiltered Nestor on the state of the Baltimore Ravens.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Browns struggles, Ravens dominance, Kevin Stefanski, Jameis Winston, Wyatt Teller, offensive line, Ronnie Stanley, Lamar Jackson, defensive issues, Roquan Smith, trade deadline, Patrick Mahomes, Todd Monken, offensive line adjustments, mobile quarterback
SPEAKERS
JT, Kenny Roda, Nestor Aparicio
Kenny Roda 00:00
8Our next guest, JT, I was on his show earlier today, and by the time I did an interview with Nestor Aparicio from wnst in Baltimore, a lot of things changed with the Cleveland Browns as they’re getting ready to play the Ravens. At the time, we didn’t know Kevin Stefanski was giving up play calling to Ken Dorsey. We didn’t know that it was going to be Jameis Winston starting in place of DTR or Bailey zappy. And we didn’t know that Wyatt Teller was possibly going to be able to play in this game. So three big news makers, if you will, since I last chatted with him. So let’s bring in Nestor from W, N, S T in Baltimore, a lot has changed since we last chatted this morning, and it’s still all bad for the Browns taking on the Ravens Nestor.
Nestor Aparicio 00:49
You know, I do radio in Baltimore, and I would say, if anything really changed, I don’t know that that changed the conversation a whole lot on this end to say what we’re going to encounter there. I, you know, I feel for you guys. I really do. I mean, Kenny, I’ve known you a long time, from when we sold the team the first time and living through all the learners. And, you know, I would come in every year and sit in the press box and see the same dudes who were just pissed year after year after year. And they had the jerseys where they would strip off couch and then put on, you know, the next name and the next name, Jeff, Garcia, whoever would be. I mean, with the salary cash situation and you and I thought, and by the way, I apologize for calling your station 1430 I just want to throw myself on the mercy of everyone in Maslin and parts beyond that. I got that all wrong on my podcast today, but you know, the part where the Ravens look like the best team on Earth and show up there, I mean, quite frankly, 30 years later, right? And find you guys in a situation where I don’t even know that the franchise can really compete over the next year and a half to two and a half years, based on where the draft would be and whether they could potentially get any quarterback that but I don’t know what an $80 million cap is going to look like, right? Like, that’s where my mindset is in talking about your football team, not whether it’s going to be Winston or DPRK. I mean, I think either way, the ravens are going to win by a couple free touchdowns, right?
Kenny Roda 02:14
I do too, yeah, and JT and I were talking about, no matter who the quarterback is, who the play caller is, they’re just not a very good football team, and Baltimore is hitting on all cylinders. It looks like now. Nestor what? What changed from the early portion of the schedule to now? Was it just the schedule, or did they get that much better overall?
Nestor Aparicio 02:36
I love that. Getting better in regard to much other than the offensive line didn’t really exist. Like, right? I mean, you didn’t see it in the preseason. Nobody knew who was going to play left guard. The right guard and right tackle situation were a little bit plus, because Patrick McCarry is their sixth guy. He’s been a swing guy for years. Like, as long as Lars been there, he felt to be maybe a starting caliber center, but that wasn’t going to happen. And you know, he’s been playing left guard for he’s the guy that they got the draft, that they were trying to medically get right onto the field. And one thing that’s really changed, and you can see a lot more football seven hours in than you do two hours in, and when your first hour is you’re seeing Kansas City, you know? I mean, the whole thing is a little bit skewed. That loss to the Raiders is still incredibly perplexing, and we do, but the last five weeks, Rodney Stanley is ALS and, I mean, he was a lottery pick, we got high standards, like you guys with Joe Thomas, right? Like we had John Austin here forever, and he wasn’t John Austin, but he started to remind you of that. And literally, you can go back and look it up the weekend he got the big contract. He got ripped up on that Sunday’s game, and was never right and wasn’t right for three years really, like, couldn’t get on the field, wanted to get on the field. He’s a Notre Dame guy, you know, high IQ, high motor, soft spoken sort of dude, and couldn’t get out there and do what he was capable of doing. And a lot of us just wonder, like, when you’re that big, when you get to be 30, how good is it going to look on its best day? He’s been really, really good, and that’s helped them on the offensive line. Tyler, Linder, bomb is great, so I would put it on the offensive line, and then obviously Derek, Henry right like figuring out how to utilize him, figuring out how Lamar doesn’t have to run the ball 1416, times in games where he gets injured, he gets a hit pointer. He gets a pull this, or a bang up that, or herniated this, and then all of a sudden you see this open, because everything they do is built around the mark. So I mean, he has to be there or else, right? So keeping him upright and having him be the better pocket faster than you think. He is be the guy that can scramble and dirt the ball, get rid of the ball, or, in last week’s case, have Mark Andrews run back to him and hit him open. But the defense is a mess. I mean, the defense has given up a lot of points, lot of yards. I mean, they’re not this isn’t a Ray Lewis every was hard on them on the Manny cash the other night, and they just squandered late leads. They had royal communication problems in the back end. They brought back Dean Pease, who was obviously a part of their Super Bowl winning thing. And Google him. He was the central figure in the fleet gate and leaving Phil Belichick, and you know, all things that happened during that period of time, but they brought him back to help Zach Gore, who was the defense supporters or rookie defense coordinator. They lost a lot when they lost Mike McDonald. They lost a lot when they lost Judy and clown. He was playing far better than he did when you knew him and and they also lost Patrick wings running around for the Steelers. And guy named Gino stone picked off a lot of balls. He’s in Cincinnati. You saw him the other day. So you know the success of hosting the AFC Championship Game and all that Lamar brings, and these gaudy victories where they go on the road the NFC, they’re 22 and one against the NFC with Lamar. I mean, it’s an insane embarrassment of riches. But that being said, Patrick mahomes Is their kryptonite, and their defense will still let you down in a close game, and they don’t have the pass rush they need. So they’re not a perfect team, but they’re really playing good football right now. It’s coming together.
8JT 06:34
Nestor, you talk about that defense, and I watched the game the other night against Tampa Bay, Bucha nurse, and obviously everyone in these parts is like, Oh no. Baker Mayfield, strong for over 300 yards. Lot of junk numbers on that defense late in that game. I mean, is there really a weak spot on that defense? And if so, will they address it before the trade deadline?
Nestor Aparicio 06:54
Well, I mean, here you go. They brought in Rust with two years ago, right? Like in my hour of genius and Kenny, you’ll appreciate this as an old schooler now that we have social media right. A year ago, this time, I spent an entire segment during Halloween week with my partner, Luke Jones, East Baltimore. Luke, he does a great job of covering the Ravens. You need to get any ravens information this week before the game, and we got into a long debate about the value of the running back position. Josh Jacobs, Agent is a Baltimore guy. He’s a buddy of mine, and we were talking about running backs not getting paid and what the real value is. And they’re like, well, what’s the real value? And when J K Dobbins can’t play, when Gus Edwards can’t play, when Gene Mitchell gets hurt, and you have a running back and you’re bringing in, you know, Latavius Murray, or whatever name, the running back was not good enough to do this in any offense, even with Lamar Jackson. And I said, if they had Derek Henry, if they had Derrick Henry, if they had Derek Henry, well, this time last year, the idea was, well, that’s a lot of cap space or running back. And how much is the running back worth? Is there really a 10 million running back? And I know like she would be perfect here. So a year later, they didn’t make that move. Last year, two years ago, they made the roquan Smith move. And, I mean, he was a heart transplant for their defense, quite frankly, and made everybody, including they got pastor Queen paid Pittsburgh, but, but I would say this for trade deadlines and where they are in cap numbers, and they stopped the run really well. They brought in Yannick and gockway last week. Was a Maryland guy, local guy, grew up a Ravens fan, little longer than the two. Who knows they thought? We thought that about van Noy last year, right? We thought that about cloudy but all that being said, they get out to the passer a little bit better, and that’s a lot harder to do with quarterbacks, to get rid of the ball really quickly, you know? And I would think in the case for them, anything would be open, because if they find a situation, they’re not afraid of pulling the trigger. But the back end and the secondary and Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Williams, who they gave a ton of money to, they’ve been disappointed. They’ve they’ve really been susceptible to the big play. They really and they don’t tackle Well,
Kenny Roda 09:08
Nestor Aparicio, our guest right here on the Kenny and JT Show, w n s t, all things Baltimore. You can follow him on Twitter. W n s t, radio and Nestor, when you look at this team compared to the chiefs. That’s who, like you said, that’s their kryptonite, and they played them already this year came up short. Is there that mind game going on? Do they just think they can’t get over the hump no matter where they play them? Or do they feel they’ll get better as this season goes along, they’ll win this division and will be the top seed or the number two seed, and meet them in the AFC Championship Game and beat them this time. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 09:49
8I mean, the chiefs need better skill position players, right? Like, I mean, just through all of their best skill position players down in Miami, and this is where you are when you get into cap problems and you you’re paying 10. Swift’s husband, you know, money and just all the things that the Chiefs have brought on. But I would say for the ravens, at this point, with the chiefs, it’s not as much mind game as it is just S’s and O’s. They’ve been out playing. They’ve really been out coach strike like, like, hardball, hearing the Tony Robo saying he’s a top 10 this and he’s going to the Hall of Fame. I don’t know. Man, I you know, there’s things about our ball that I would make a case for him in your homeland of Canton, Ohio, there for him. And there’s some other cases where I say, I don’t know. I think he still needs to win. I think Lamar needs to win. I think getting to AFC Championship games isn’t good enough. The fact that they only ran the ball three times last year. And you know, you ask me, what is better about the team, or what’s going to derail them? Todd monk, it has been outstanding for Lamar and I was not a hater of Greg Roman running their offense. I’m not the guy beating up the coaches. I mean, they’re all a lot smarter than me. That’s never been my gig. 33 years on the radio, I spent too much time around coaches to know how vested they are and when they’re playing players or not playing players, or if Jameis Winston’s the number three quarterback on your depth chart, there’s some reason for that. You know, there’s this, and they don’t need to tell everybody around the campfire. And the fascina call in place is an interesting thing from your perspective. It’s up for you to talk about. But over here, monkey has been an artist in regard to allowing Lamar to feel in control, giving Lamar reads at the line of scrimmage that can get them at a good place and into better place. Lamar is moving into that space now where the Bradys and the Mannings and the really good quarterbacks and league Aaron Rodgers one of the reasons they were so good, even Romo at the end of his career, you could hear this broadcast, he gets up to the line of scrimmage, identifies things and says, no, no, no, we don’t want to run. We want to pass. No, no, no, I don’t like that matchup on my tight end, or I’m going to get crushed because I see the linebackers. You know, they got six and we got five. Who’s my hot where am I getting rid of the ball? And all of those things did not I mean, go back and watch Lamar, the offense that Lamar was running back in 19 that was so effective when Marshall yonda was around, the aforementioned Ronnie Stanley was a younger man, and they were steamrolling teams in 19, and they had Mark Ingram, and Andrews was coming on to his own. You know, it’s been an uphill climb in that because they haven’t had their wide receivers be as good as they’ve wanted them to be. They’ve used number one picks on Hollywood brown take flowers abatement. Perryman, before that, you guys got familiar with I would say for them, they’ve always wanted to pass the ball the last six years. And I’ve always said to my partner, Luke, how much do they really want to pass? What they really wanted to do is run, run, run, run, run, Dick dunk, little bit of this, little bit of tight end. And at the end of the day, Lamar throws the ball. What? 2024 times. They never really wanted to be the offensive through it. 3842 45 times, your Pat stats, and they’ve never really controlled the ball much, even the other night, they didn’t have the ball much, and they don’t run a lot of plays because they have this quick strike ability to, like, cut your heart out in five plays or six plays because you can’t tackle the local mountain. So Todd monkin has figured this out with the personnel, and Lamar has become better at the line of scrimmage. But the whole thing starts at the beginning with the offensive line. The offensive line is managed to be very good, and it really wasn’t very good against the Raiders. You go back and look at max Crosby just ate them like a like a lunch box, and that hasn’t been happened in the last five not
JT 13:40
worried about the first five weeks of season. Kenny and I get the opportunity to host a pro football hall of famer every week in the residency program. They all to a man, tell us, you don’t know how good or bad your football team is until after maybe the first five or six weeks. Well, here we are, in my opinion, I’m almost embarrassed to talk to you, because this game is going to be a blowout. Baltimore heads and tails better than the Cleveland Browns. But Nestor, I want to ask you, you mentioned this offensive line, and I want to know from having what we considered anyway as mobile quarterback, what’s the philosophy there? How do you how do they coach the offensive line to be good? Or, I mean, how do these guys adjust to a mobile quarterback personnel? Or is it coaching?
Nestor Aparicio 14:23
Well, I mean, you don’t have the big fat bodies that, let’s say the Tennessee Titans always wanted to draft to put in front of Derrick Henry, right? And the thing about Lamar, and the underrated part, and the weird part for defensive coordinators, is having to figure out what to do when he has the ball, and when the ball is in the mesh point, right? And the idea for them, and using Pat Ricard, who really is their sixth offensive lineman, who lines off, sometimes H back, full back, sometimes as a tight end, he’s caught passive. He dropped the pass. It opened it open. So he was a defensive lineman that John Harbaugh, I tell. Five as a ball player, and has gone to Pro Bowls now, and all of that that if you’re at the mesh point and you’re a linebacker or safety moving up on the defensive line, you’re just trying to play your man right and play your gap to make sure that if they do hand the ball to Derrick Henry, he doesn’t run it over you, right? But the linebackers. You can see on all of the film how they have to freeze when the ball is in lamar’s hand and it’s in the gut of Derrick Henry, and it looks like all the world the patch or Ricard is going to take out your edge linebacker, and they’re going to go that way. Lamar can then eat the ball and find safe flowers matched up on a safety and roll left and run it because there’s nobody there. You can say, well, I can run at eight or 10 yards. Nobody’s going to touch me. Or I can throw it. And defenses are dead. They’re just dead. They don’t have enough personnel, they don’t have enough speed guys to be able to contend with it. Over 50, 6070, plays over four hours, and they have managed to figure this out. And I’ll say this voice, they’re really healthy, and I know how you feel about Deshaun. Watch and consider about that booing and Cleveland fans. I mean, I saw Kyle bowler get booed, get carried out on a stretcher here 18 years ago. You know, awful. I mean, what fans do the players I saw in Kansas City with Matt castle. I mean, I’ve been in the house when all those awful things have happened, but injuries, injuries, injuries, the Ravens have been really healthy. Man really, really healthy this year, seven weeks in, and that’s been a big differentiator in their ability to get personnel on the field and get their best play makers, their best plays, the best version of themselves is what you’re seeing right now. I was making coffee my wife this morning, she’s going away for a week and a half, and I said, you know, they’re the best team in football today. And she said, yeah, it’s October. That’s the problem. And I’m like, that really is the problem, because they’re not playing the Super Bowl and Halloween,
Kenny Roda 16:56
that’s great stuff. Hey, Nestor, we always appreciate the time and the info. Enjoy your victory this weekend over the browns, and we’ll talk again for further on down the road. Alright, 1480
8Nestor Aparicio 17:08
1480 1480 I’m practicing.
Kenny Roda 17:11
There you go. Nestor Aparicio W NST radio in Baltimore, follow him at W NST for all things Baltimore, sports and.
