The concerns of the ankle, knee and hamstring of Lamar Jackson

It’s another Wednesday and another missed early week practice for the Ravens’ two-time MVP quarterback. Is it rest or a lingering injury? With two games in four days coming during Thanksgiving week, Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the health of Lamar Jackson and what it means for the running game against the New York Jets on Sunday.

Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discussed the Baltimore Ravens’ preparations for their upcoming games against the New York Jets and Cincinnati Bengals. They highlighted Lamar Jackson’s ongoing ankle issues, noting his absence from Wednesday’s practice. The conversation also covered the Ravens’ recent injuries, including Kyle Hamilton’s shoulder problem and Rashod Bateman’s ankle injury. They emphasized the importance of managing practice reps and maintaining health for the quick turnaround games. The discussion also touched on the Ravens’ offensive line struggles and the need for a more efficient running game, particularly with Lamar Jackson’s reduced running.

• [ ] Monitor Lamar Jackson’s ankle injury and manage his practice reps as needed.
• [ ] Evaluate Kyle Hamilton’s shoulder injury and determine his availability for the upcoming games.
• [ ] Assess the status of other injured players like Rashod Bateman, Roquan Smith, and Ronnie Stanley.
• [ ] Emphasize improving the offense’s red zone efficiency and consistency in the running game.
• [ ] Manage player workloads and rest opportunities, especially with the quick turnaround to the Thanksgiving game against the Bengals.

Ravens’ Season Progress and Upcoming Games

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the Ravens’ progress, noting they are looking to go over .500 for the first time this year.
• Luke Jones mentions the quick turnaround for the Ravens, playing the Jets on Sunday and the Bengals on Thursday night.
• Nestor and Luke reflect on the season, noting the Ravens’ resilience and the importance of the upcoming games.
• Luke highlights the Ravens’ recent injury issues, particularly Lamar Jackson missing another Wednesday practice with an ankle injury.

Lamar Jackson’s Health and Offensive Struggles

• Luke Jones discusses Lamar Jackson’s banged-up status, noting his reduced running and the team’s struggles inside the red zone.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the Ravens’ need for a healthy Lamar Jackson to improve the offense’s efficiency and consistency.
• Luke mentions the Jets’ recent trades of their two best defensive players, making the upcoming game less daunting.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of managing practice reps for injured players, especially with a quick turnaround to the Bengals game.

Injury Management and Upcoming Opponents

• Luke Jones emphasizes the need to manage practice reps for injured players like Kyle Hamilton, who has been favoring a shoulder injury.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the Ravens’ upcoming opponents, the Jets and the Bengals, and the importance of staying healthy for the playoff push.
• Luke highlights the Ravens’ need to win both upcoming games to maintain a strong record and position for the playoffs.
• Nestor and Luke reflect on the Ravens’ recent success with Lamar Jackson not running as much and the team winning games without him being a major factor.

Offensive Line and Running Game Concerns

• Nestor Aparicio raises concerns about the running game, particularly with Lamar Jackson being gimpy.
• Luke Jones discusses the inconsistency of the running game and the need for more contributions from Keaton Mitchell.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the offensive line’s struggles, noting the lack of physicality and winning at the line of scrimmage.
• Luke mentions the potential for Emory Jones, a third-round rookie, to factor into the offensive line situation in the future.

Preparation for Quick Turnaround Games

• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of starting fast in the upcoming games to avoid giving opponents hope.
• Luke highlights the need to manage practice reps for injured players and the importance of winning both games to maintain momentum.
• Nestor and Luke reflect on the Ravens’ recent success with gadget plays and the need to improve inside the red zone.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of staying healthy and managing practice reps to prepare for the quick turnaround games.

Final Thoughts and Upcoming Games

• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of winning both upcoming games to maintain a strong record and position for the playoffs.
• Luke highlights the need to manage practice reps for injured players and the importance of staying healthy for the playoff push.
• Nestor and Luke reflect on the Ravens’ recent success with gadget plays and the need to improve inside the red zone.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of starting fast in the upcoming games to avoid giving opponents hope and to prepare for the quick turnaround games.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Ravens, Lamar Jackson, Jets, Bengals, Thanksgiving, injuries, practice reps, offensive line, running game, Kyle Hamilton, Joe Burrow, Aaron Rodgers, Derek Henry, Keaton Mitchell, John Harbaugh.

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones

8

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 to Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive, positively, getting ready for football. We’re going to talk some trades with Luke Jones and the Orioles offseason, off to a bang, at least. I mean, there’s something happening. But Meantime, ravens looking to go over 500 for the first time this year. Luke Jones joins us now. He’s been out in Owings Mills all week long. We’re getting ready for the Jets and then quick turnaround Cincinnati on Thursday night. Happy Thanksgiving, my dude, hope your family’s got your turkey all picked out. Dude, yeah,

Luke Jones  00:34

getting ready for that. It’s hard to believe we’re already just about at Thanksgiving. I mean, it feels like you wait so long for football season to begin. OTAs training camp. Hurry up and wait. Hurry up and wait. And then the season starts, and it goes quickly. I mean, it really does. It

Nestor Aparicio  00:48

feels like five minutes ago they were one in five and the season was over, right? But, yeah, we knew better, you and I didn’t throw dirt on them. We knew. I mean,

Luke Jones  00:55

8

look, I’m not going to sit here and say I was overly optimistic at one in five. You know, you’re not going to be a Pollyanna about it, but you could see the path, especially with the schedule that they had, knowing that they weren’t dealing with a ton of season ending injuries or anything like that. And to their credit, they’ve gotten up off the mat. Now, what does that mean for January, their prospects for making a January run? You know, I think that’s far more, you know, in the category of to be determined. Well, my mom would say, We’ll see about that in January. Sure. No question. In the meantime, they are dealing with another week where guys are banged up, as we said a couple weeks ago, when the injury report was clean, literally no one on it. A couple weeks ago, we said, enjoy that while you can, because inevitably, there’s going to be some guys that are banged up, but Lamar Jackson missing another Wednesday practice, you know, now with an ankle, you know, not, not to be an alarmist about it, I don’t necessarily think it means he’s not playing or anything like that, but

Nestor Aparicio  01:52

we never know what anything means. That’s, that’s the beauty of the John Harbaugh press conference, you know, it’s a bunch of chocolates, you know.

Luke Jones  01:58

But also, just in the reality of we know he’s been banged up, right? I mean, he missed three games with the hamstring he had the knee last week. I mean, it’s, it’s evident he’s running less than he ever has, right? And I don’t think that’s necessarily, I think some of it’s by design, just in the sense that we’ve seen him run less and less the last couple years. But when you look at the overall state of the offense, the issues they’re having inside the red zone, the down to down consistency and success rate of the running game not being what it’s been in the past. All of that in an ideal world, you’d have a healthy Lamar Jackson practicing with the rest of an offense that needs to get more efficient, more consistent. Lamar is coming off of a game where certainly the pass protection wasn’t there to help him out very much, but he didn’t play a very, very good football game. But it’s just where they are right now. The good news is, when you are playing the New York Jets, who are less than a month removed from trading their two best defensive players, you can afford to be on the cautious side at the beginning of the practice week with some of these guys when they need a day. I mean, it’s late November, right? I mean, they’ve already had their bye week. John Harbaugh is going to have to manage practice reps for some of these guys when they’re banged up. You know, Kyle Hamilton was one of the guys that you and I talked about in the aftermath of Sunday’s game in Cleveland with the way he was holding his shoulder at a few different points. I wasn’t stunned to see that he wasn’t out there for Wednesday’s practice, right? We’ll have a better idea as we get closer to Sunday, whether any of these guys are truly in jeopardy. Well, there

Nestor Aparicio  03:30

is no practice next week. That’s another thing to point out, right? No question. So you know, like, let’s let Lamar rests. Like all these guys rush two football games in four days. No

8

Luke Jones  03:39

question. And say what you want about the Bengals and their lack of defense, and it is a horrible defense. Joe burrows practicing fully this week. I mean, that’s sounding like a guy who has a chance to play, and I’m not saying that that Joe Flacco has been the problem for the Bengals. We know their defense, but it’s still a different dynamic if Joe burrow is back for that Thanksgiving night game. So I’m glad you brought that up. It was going to be my next point. When you are talking about looking ahead, not not in the sense of looking ahead that you’re looking past an opponent from a competitive standpoint, but from an injury standpoint, from a health standpoint, managing guys practice reps. If someone needs a day, maybe two even, you need to give them that extra rest, because you do know that you have a quick turnaround next week, and you want to win both these games, right? You have a great opportunity here to go into Black Friday and the other side of that Thursday night game with the seven and five record. You know, knowing that, yeah, business is going to pick back up come December with a schedule that’s going to get tougher again after this respite in the month of November that they’ve been able to take advantage of to this point. So you know, it’s not to be disrespectful to the jets or to the Bengals for that matter, but we see what those teams are. The ravens are clearly favored this week. They’re going to be favored next Thursday. Day Night, and they should be, but at the same time, you want to try to be as healthy as you can be, and you are trying to manage this from a long term standpoint. I mean, I’ve said it, I know you’ve talked about it. We’ve We’ve sparred about the general issue for years, but I see the Ravens having a really tough time getting this offense to where it needs to be and consistent enough and efficient enough without Lamar Jackson becoming a bigger part of the running game. However, you’ve got to try the best you can to get him to that point for December, and especially January. So if that means he needs to sit out Wednesday practices for the next few weeks, so be it. I mean, that’s what you have to,

Nestor Aparicio  05:40

and if you can win games without him having to run Sure, right? Guys in there hiding or and they’ve been doing that, and, you know, they they’ve won a lot of football games the last month with him not really being him.

Luke Jones  05:52

Yeah, exactly. So now the flip side of that is, how much healthier Can someone get in season knowing that you have the past protection issues that you have, knowing how many times he was sacked and hit in Cleveland on Sunday, knowing that, yes, even the Jets, even without Quinn and Williams being part of that defensive front, they do still have Jermaine Johnson. They do still have will McDonald and they have some guys that can get after you a little bit. You know, they certainly don’t have sauce gardener on the back end of their defense anymore, but you look at it in those terms, and you kind of ask, okay, it’s great if you want to give Lamar Wednesday’s for you know, they’ve done it the last two weeks. We’ll see what happened next week. They’re not going to practice much to your point, but how much healthier Can Can he get? Can he get to 100% can he get to 95% with his legs? That’s that’s the ultimate question. But in the meantime, you still have to win games, and you have to prepare, and you have to do what’s necessary for that week’s game. And you hope that you stay healthy, you hope that, I think I said this to you in the aftermath of the Cleveland game, or maybe it was before that, but knowing you have a Thursday night game, this is one of those games where I’ll say it, they’re not gonna the Ravens aren’t gonna say it, and they can’t think about it in these terms. But boy, how great would it be if you could play the kind of game you need to play through three, three and a half quarters, let’s say. And you could actually have Snoop Huntley go out there for the last series or two,

Nestor Aparicio  07:20

8

or have Ronnie Stanley come off Exactly, exactly, but whatever Kyle Hamilton is that will either get him to post on Sunday or not. I mean, these are important football players. I mean, yeah, in any football game, and certainly in the season, right?

Luke Jones  07:34

And let’s, since you mentioned that, I’ll go down the list very quickly. You know, again, as we’re speaking, earlier in the practice

Nestor Aparicio  07:40

week. I brought you by GBMC, by the way, because my colonoscopy is here this weekend. So if we’re going to have injury reports, we’re going to leave with me. So you know, you know, so I’ll be ready for game time on Sunday, according to Dr oscari.

Luke Jones  07:54

You should be, you should be so but, but, you know, we talked about Lamar Jackson, Rashad Bateman, still out with the ankle, as I alluded to Kyle Hamilton, and we saw that. I mean, three or four different points in Sunday’s game in Cleveland, Hamilton was favoring that shoulder, so I wasn’t

8

Nestor Aparicio  08:09

he’s the key concern for me, more than Lamar, because he didn’t physically look right. Lamar looked like, you know, you know, maybe he’s banged up. And Lamar doesn’t look incapable of going out there. I would think Hamilton, at some point is going to be incapable of making a tackle with a tackle with

Luke Jones  08:23

a shoulder like that? Yeah. I mean, you never know. I mean, and look, was it more of a more of the stinger kind of an issue, or is there something structurally going on there? And look, we’ve seen, I mean, Ray Lewis, multiple times in his career, played with a harness, right? And so it’s not as though there’s necessarily this

Nestor Aparicio  08:40

great. We got to get some of that. Deer Antler spray. Yeah. Deer Antler spray, yeah.

Luke Jones  08:45

8

But, but yeah, Kyle Hamilton, and you said it. I mean, look, there is no position on the field more valuable than the franchise quarterback and elite franchise quarterback for any football team. However, what Kyle Hamilton has become for this defense and his versatility and the way he can line up at six different spots on any different play and make a major impact. I mean, he’s the Lamar Jackson of the defense at this point. Well, they’re play calls they will not have in their book with Kyle Hamilton, no doubt fields, no doubt, or the calls just aren’t as dynamic, right? I mean, it’s one thing to say, Okay, you have someone lining up at edge rusher, but if it’s Kyle Hamilton, it’s a different story. You know, if you have someone lining up at linebacker, like he does at times, that’s fine, but it’s not going to be as dynamic as Kyle Hamilton. I mean, you go down the list of the positions he plays, but so certainly, keep an eye on him. Isaiah, likely dealing with the calf roquan Smith, hamstring is that? Is that more of a rest thing from the hamstring injury he had a month ago, where look, I mean, guys come back and they’re still going to be tender and sore from time to time, or is that something new? Remains to be seen. I did see him in the locker room, walking in the locker room. Didn’t you know, he didn’t stop at his locker to talk to reporters, but that. Generally, is a decent sign that it’s not anything overly serious. But you know, and Ronnie Stanley was dealing with a little bit of an illness, and Andrew Voorhees with a foot, so they do have a pretty extensive list of starters and Pro Bowl players that are banged up this week. Good news, Marlon Humphries back on the practice field. Justice hills, full go. That certainly makes an impact in terms of their blitz pickup and third down and passing situations. So they do do look like they’re going to get a couple of those guys back that missed this past Sunday, but we’ll be keeping an eye on those names. But, and this is the one thing John Harbaugh said that I completely buy. He said, Look, it’s week 12. Guys are banged up. Some guys are going to miss Wednesday practice. Some guys are going to win Miss Wednesday and Thursday, but they’re still going to be okay for Friday and and game day. So you have to manage that, because, you know, you don’t have your bye week, right? I mean, your bye week’s already, you know, that’s that ship has sailed. So you don’t have your your you know, you’re not going to be the number one seed. So you don’t have that target date where, okay, can we get to this point in time and then everyone can rest

Nestor Aparicio  11:02

up? Well, the target date, Sunday at one o’clock. And, you know, week to week at this point, at least until they get out of the jam, they’re in where they can afford to lose a game, right? I mean, yeah,

Luke Jones  11:12

well, I mean, but even there. I mean, you just you, you don’t even want to think in those terms. But I’m just talking in terms of a target like, When can you rest? And the closest thing they have left is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, after this, this two day two games and five day stretch. But it feels different being one and one than two and Oh, on Friday, yeah. I mean, they still need to win, right? I mean, absolutely. And, you know, the since you and I, you know, we’re reconvening for the first time since hearing about the the Aaron Rodgers thing doesn’t sound like, even if he misses this week, it doesn’t sound doesn’t sound like he’s going to miss much time, right? That doesn’t sound like that wrist is going to be a multi week thing. So point is, ravens need to keep winning, right? I mean, they can’t let up. I mean, we talked about one of the biggest takeaways from finding a way in Cleveland on Sunday, as ugly as it was, as as much as they needed to rely on a, you know, a little bit of a gadget play to take the lead, you know, with just a, you know, inside the last couple minutes, they got the job done, and whatever margin per error they have, which is, you know, they don’t need to win out to win this division. I don’t think they don’t need to win out to make the playoffs. But you also know you have a much more formidable schedule the last four, five weeks of the season than looking at Sunday and even that Thursday night with Cincinnati at home now going to Cincinnati in a few weeks, that’s a little bit of a different story. Point is you don’t want to drop these two games now and then you’re in a position where you say, oh my gosh, you need to win out anything like that. So you know, not, not to sit here and say that I have these major concerns about the Jets game, because I don’t you know Tyrod Taylor is going to start. Does he do a little more with throwing the ball then Justin fields? Sure. Does he have the same legs as Justin fields at this point in his career? No, of course not. But the Jets are where they are, right? There’s a reason why the Jets traded their two best defensive players at the trade deadline. It’s because they’re terrible, right? So there’s no excuse go out there and take care of business, and it doesn’t need to be by five touchdowns. But to the point we made a few minutes ago, knowing you are a little banged up, including some of your best players, boy, it’d be nice if you can go out start fast offensively, which they have not done in quite a while, and build a lead. Build the kind of lead where you can at least John Harbaugh can look up at the clock and say, Okay, there’s, there’s seven minutes to go. We lead by, I don’t know, three scores, whatever. Can we get Lamar out, out for the last series here? Can we get Lamar or get Ronnie Stanley out of there for the last series here. Can we give Kyle Hamilton a blow because that shoulder he’s dealing with? So you know, we’re going to see, though, because this, this is also a team that hasn’t necessarily blown out many opponents, right? I mean, Cleveland in week two, and Miami back on October 30. I want

Nestor Aparicio  13:57

to go through the way back machine right now for all the listeners and do the Wayne’s World. They need to blow more teams out two years ago.

8

Luke Jones  14:10

Yeah, and when I say something like that, obviously it’s it’s not to be disrespectful to the rest of the league or to suggest that that’s something that’s simple to do. But yeah, when you are dealing with two games in five days, and you know that third next Thursday night, it’s looking more and more possible, if not even likely, that Joe burrow is playing in that game. And look, the Bengals aren’t going to make the playoffs. Their their defense is terrible. That said they you know that if Joe burrow is coming back, he’d love nothing more than to wreck you and the Ravens a loss or two, right? Mess up whatever teams they’re facing that’s in the playoff hunt the rest of the way. So you know that that’s just where you kind of look at this game and say, Can you start fast? Can you convert inside the red zone? I mean, that’s been such an issue for them. You know that that’s some. And they have to get better at they have to you are not going to beat playoff teams kicking field goals inside the red zone, kicking field goals from the 35 yard line, that’s a different story. But when you’re getting inside the 20 and especially even the Ravens with these goal to go situations where they’ve had to settle for some field goals, you cannot do that in the modern game and expect to beat playoff teams. You can do that against the browns. You can do that against the Jets. So this, it’s not necessarily critical for Sunday’s game, but in a big picture sense, it’s something they have to get better with, but you need to be more precise and fine and efficient. And part of that deals with practice, and that’s where we kind of go back to the beginning and say, Yeah, that’s where it’s not ideal that Lamar is not out there for Wednesday practice. But if he needs a day to get right physically or to get better physically than what he is, then then you have to do it right. I mean, you have no choice. So that’s where you kind of just look at this team, and they have some nagging injuries right now that don’t appear to be anything like overly serious, you know, at least the early indication, but yeah, that is going to impact your preparation during the week, and may not matter against the Jets, but like we said, some of those issues that they are dealing with, and they are things they need to clean up and improve as they get into the month of December, When the competition that will pick up and those issues will become more crucial. Luke

Nestor Aparicio  16:24

Jones is here. He is Baltimore, Luke, we’re going to be doing the Maryland crab cake to represented by the Maryland lottery after Thanksgiving, getting back and again, I want to thank GBMC for being hospitable in the hospital for me on Friday, taking good care of me. We’ll be talking more about men’s health issues and all sorts of health issues. It’s certainly ravens health issues at this point. You know, go off the beaten path here, because we doing a little preview on the Jets, but just more like where they are in the season. Where are you on Derek Henry and the running the ensemble, whatever the ensemble is. I mean, he got the quarterback blown up in a pass set. We you know, we’re all like, hey, get him out there on different downs. Get Justice Hill off. We see Justice Hill being an outstanding blocker picking up blitzes for his size and all of that. I just where the running attack is when Lamar is gimpy. If Lamar is going to behave like a real quarterback on Sunday and only run the ball 234, times and scrambles, or wherever they are, then that running game needs to be what we thought it was going to be two years ago. And you know, I’m not down on Derek Henry, and certainly I’m probably down on the offensive line, and that’s probably the answer you’re going to give me, but you would like to think that at some point the running game could win a game right against the bad team, and not have to have Lamar go in any phone in a phone booth, or even Lamar be anything more than what Stu puntley is, you know, through the course of four quarters this week to get them there, and that involves the running game. Somebody, I mean, it not named Lamar, by the way, who’s still their best play. Is Lamar running? Yeah.

Luke Jones  18:08

I mean, it’s look. I do. I think Derek Henry has been as consistently explosive or breaking tackles to the degree that he did last year. Probably not, do I but that’s not to suggest that it’s this dramatic, like I’m suggesting he’s washed up or anything like that. I mean, for all the hand wringing about him, he has 807 rushing yards through 10 games, right? I mean, he’s already, you know, he’s well on his way to having a, you know, 13, 1400 yard season, something like that. So, no, I’m not concerned with Derek Henry. I think you know, of as I said, is he breaking as many tackles as he did last year? Is he quite as explosive? I don’t know. I mean, go look at some of his max speed numbers. You know, with next gen stats that that track, that stuff, says he’s still plenty fast, right? I mean, he’s still freakishly fast for some of his he feels more tackle a Bowl this year, well, and but that, that, to me, is still where I go back to the offensive

Nestor Aparicio  19:06

8

line, he doesn’t have six yards space between him and the first defender, right? I think

Luke Jones  19:10

the piece here to look at when you know, to your point, and as we’ve talked about, Lamar, is not running as much, right, whether that’s partially by design, and I think in a big picture sense. We’ve seen that trend that way the last couple years, right? I mean, last year, he didn’t run as much as he did the year, you know, year before go down the list. So that’s part of it. But we also know that he’s been banged up. And I would think, I mean, even go back to the scramble early in the game that, you know, his one good run that he had against the browns, you know, he got tripped up. I mean, that looked like the kind of run that Lamar at 100% and as explosive as we’ve seen him be scores on, he didn’t, not the end of the world. But I think for me, the piece that that needs to bridge the gap, so to speak, here, for their running game, is, I don’t think it’s necessarily more Derek Henry, i. It’s a little more Keaton Mitchell. And I think, you know, not, certainly not you know if Keaton Mitchell’s going to contribute to a turnover the way that he did, you know, with a pass going off his hands in Cleveland, you know, leading to a pick six, you don’t want that. But I think, you know, they’ve had their issues running between the tackles. We know that, right? And that’s primarily going to be Derek Henry’s job, you know, as far as carrying in those spots, but if you’re looking at it in terms of replicating, not that it’s going to be the exact replica, because it’s not like he’s taking the hand off. But if there’s someone that’s going to test teams on the perimeter a little bit more, and we know Derrick Henry can take a sweep and run outside and all that. So I’m not saying that that’s not, that doesn’t continue to be part of what you do, but I do wonder if it’s involving Keaton Mitchell a little bit more. And, you know, it’s not to say that it becomes an even split. You know that he gets 15 carries, and Derrick Henry gets 17. Like, I’m not suggesting that, but does it mean Keaton Mitchell maybe gets a few more? You know where we’re talking. He gets six, seven touches, maybe eight touches, if things are really going well for him, and that, you know, that cuts into a little bit of Derrick Henry’s workload. I have no problem with that. Because, to me, it’s, it’s diversifying your running game a little bit more so. But in a in the larger picture, you know, looking at this, you know, from the 30,000 foot perspective, it’s the offensive line. I mean, it’s not physical enough. They’re not winning at the line of scrimmage consistently enough. And that shows up in these goal to go situations that’s shown up in short yardage where there is no hole, literally, yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, it shows up in those situations where a team knows that you need to run the ball for two yards here, and we’re not gonna, can you do it? And now they did it on the hurricane play with Mark Andrews. And look, people can call that a trick play, a gadget play, whatever. The Ravens executed that so well, right? And they blocked, I mean, go, Look, go. Look at the blocks that Charlie Kohler and Patrick Ricard, you know, laid out there on Andrews, you know, for his ability to score there. So you can do that when you need to. But in terms of, just like your conventional, regular running game, so to speak, their offensive line is left a lot to be desired. And, you know, I know that was a hot topic again this week, and John Harbaugh, earlier in the week, you know, kind of stuck up for the offensive line, said that they’re playing pretty darn well, and I know fans lost their mind over that, and I will just say this, har ball rarely is going to dress down a player unless it’s an issue of effort, or if it’s something where someone is blowing their assignments mentally, right? That’s generally where you’re going to see John Harbaugh take a player to task otherwise, if he feels guys are playing hard and they’re the best option they have, you’re not going to hear him just say, Oh, our offensive line stinks, right? As much as fans might want to hear that, he knows that his players are listening too, right? And there’s always an element Well,

Nestor Aparicio  22:55

it really speaks volumes also to where Ben Cleveland and so, you know, we could sit here and beat up the Costa about all that, and we’ll get to Mike Elias and trading off Bracey Rodriguez as well. But you know, these are the kinds of decisions they made in the offseason that

Luke Jones  23:10

I won’t say come back to haunt them, right? Unless you’re going to go deal for Kevin Zeitler with the trade deadline and give up a fourth round pick or something, you know, and we and we saw how few offensive linemen actually moved during the trade deadline. I think what Trevor penning might have been the only one white, maybe one other one. So but, but this is just the reality. The one guy that I’m keeping my eyes on, you know, over the next few weeks, who maybe could factor in is Emory Jones, the third round rookie. He’s been practicing now for over a month, but he missed his entire spring and summer. I mean, he’s the third round pick. Is he going to be? Can he unseat Voorhees or VA lay? I mean, let’s say it’s impossible, because the bar is not that high. That said doesn’t mean he’s going to be ready to challenge for that job. So, you know, it kind of is what it is, and that’s why, as I said, in a big picture standpoint, it’s tough for me to see this offense really getting to a place that it’s been in the past, you know, previous years, where this offense is just humming without Lamar becoming a bigger factor of their running game, which right now is not reality. Now, can that be the reality come January? You hope so. I mean, you hope that that can be more of an option for you, but I also understand you’re not going to do it right now if he’s not 100% right, as he’s dealing with some of these minor ailments, but the ailments nonetheless. So we’re going to see how it plays out. I certainly don’t think it will hinder their ability too much to win a football game against a woeful football team on Sunday in the Jets. But you want to try to start fast. You know, you don’t want to be in a position like what happened in Cleveland, where you turn the ball over a couple times and give a team hope. You know, the thing the Ravens need to do on Sunday is not give the Jets any hope whatsoever out of the gate. And then we can talk about potentially resting a few guys in the fourth quarter as you get ready for that Thursday night game in Cincinnati. Or. Against Cincinnati in Baltimore. He’s

Nestor Aparicio  25:02

Lou Jones. He will be ready for game time on Sunday. He’s been at knowings Mills all week long. Get ready for the Jets. I would say he’ll be out there all week long next week, but there ain’t no week next week. Thursday Night Football. Raven’s taking on the Bengals. Will all be watching the Joe burrow forecast as well. Our Maryland crab cake tour gets back out on the road. We’re gonna have some new locations for you before Christmas time. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. Again. Big appreciation to our partners at GBMC, all of our partners, curio wellness and foreign dodder, as well as our friends at Toyota, all of them for supporting us. Here it is a happy Thanksgiving week. It’ll be a little happier than before o’clock if the Ravens get can get themselves to above 500 he’s Luke, I’m Nestor. We are W, N, S, T, A, F, 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.