While all eyes have been on Lamar Jackson and his search for a guaranteed contract, Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta and the organization have been hamstrung by all of the uncertainty. Luke Jones and Nestor bring The Lamarathon into focus as the Ravens offseason has been hijacked by quarterback negotiations and salary cap implications of the non-exclusive franchise tag.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
lamar, years, ravens, lamar jackson, point, nelson aguilar, kid, deal, people, owners, agent, national football league, week, play, talking, player, team, money, guaranteed, quarterback
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
What about W and S T Towson Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively into the owners meetings. It’s opening day this week at least on the road becoming back in what are some plans for everybody at wn St. Baltimore positive but our big plan is next Wednesday we’re going to be a cost this in which is I’m wearing the new costs they got it in white for me. I feel so pure in the white Costas and Dundalk. Oh, we’re gonna be giving away the 50th anniversary lottery tickets. The instance scratch offs. It’s the 50th anniversary cost. This was an original seller of lottery tickets back in 1973. It says 71 But the lottery started in 73 of us are friends and winter nation 866 90 nation into a new monsoon. So what take advantage of that 0% financing by to get to free all month long, 866 90 nation. Well, the Lamar Athan continues by the way, I’ve I’ve I’ve coined it now. Luke Jones, it is a LA Marathon. You like that?
8
Luke Jones 00:57
Yeah, you just need to get the entire gym as an official sponsor of the LA Marathon. How you like that?
Nestor Aparicio 01:03
Well, I mean, if you would have told me opening day would be up. And you know, final four would be up, not just the teams that are in the Final Four, but that we would be to this week, and we would still be sitting here like twiddling our thumbs. You know, watching the internet, seeing Lamar do gym commercials, seeing the National Football League issue statements that say we can’t talk to this other guy who is this guy? This is really quite the menores show much more. So we always wonder when Brett Farve and Aaron Rodgers and these dramas come to your hometown where it is. It’s here and it’s ours. And it’s Eric, the cost? Is it his best shot he’s hiding from everybody at the owners meetings. I mean, it’s it’s an embarrassing time for all of them because of the uncertainty. Yeah, it’s
Luke Jones 01:53
completely hijack their offseason. I mean, let’s face it. The Ravens just now over the last few days made their first outside addition to their football team for 2023. And it’s Nelson Aguilar. That’s not fixing your wide receiver position. And I’m not suggesting that the Ravens believe that that’s all the work they have to do there either. Although, if there’s one position, I am leery of giving them the benefit of the doubt it’s wide receiver, but you do want to see them try. If Nelson Aguilar is trying then great. Sure why not? And again, I’m I digress on him specifically, but when that’s the only outside addition you’ve made, and we’re now two weeks into the start of the newly year, it’s clear that Lamar Jackson, you know, this situation, whoever you want to blame whoever you want to look at. It’s holding up their offseason and it’s hindering their ability to get better for 2023 Whether Lamar Jackson is on the roster or not ultimately. So it just leaves you in this holding pattern. And that’s where the Ravens find themselves right now. And I think it’s incredibly frustrating for everyone involved. And, you know, you mentioned the entire gym, the mobile suitcase, free weight gym invention that Lamar Jackson posted the video of what less than an hour after word had leaked about the NFL is memo, about teams not talking to Ken Francis. And I just look at it. And it’s just bizarre. I mean, this whole thing is just so bizarre at this point in time. What however you want to explain it collusion or not. Lamar is injury history, you know, go down the list of all the different things we’ve talked about, we don’t need to keep rehashing it everyone knows at this point. And quite frankly, everyone has an opinion at this point, that’s probably not going to be swayed by you or me. But when you just look at this thing, and the thing that really struck me, when you see Lamar Jackson post this video, we can debate about what his value is, what he feels his value is compared to what the Ravens or what any other team thinks it is. If Lamar had an agent, if he’s seeking a fully guaranteed deal, there’s no guarantee that he’d have it right now. Right? The one thing I look at, however, and we’ve talked about this in passing, but it just it really struck me big time when he released that video. With all due respect to any player who tries to promote a product, that entire gym. That’s something you expect to see a former player promoting to make a few bucks. You know, they don’t have the football checks coming in. And it’d be totally fine, right? I mean, if Jared Johnson was promoting something like that, you just kind of shrug your shoulders and say, Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, double Jays hasn’t played in a number of years. But it just strikes me. You’re talking about a guy who’s only a few years removed from being unanimous NFL MVP, a guy that you go out to training camp and you hear kids literally shrieking over him. The idea that Lamar Jackson has not had his choice or his pick of name it Nike Gatorade, whatever, whatever big brand you want to throw out there. And he hasn’t had those, those endorsements. He hasn’t had those how, how literally. And look, we you know, we can talk about, there’s
Nestor Aparicio 05:17
8nobody to call no one for Coke or Pepsi or but listen, the National Football League doesn’t want to do business with this kid right now, because he’s not professionally represented. Like, literally, that’s a fact. So why would why would Under Armour want to do business with him? Who would Under Armour? Who would Kevin Plank people call?
Luke Jones 05:36
I mean, it’s but but my point is, that’s a darn shame. Because regardless of where this ultimately goes with Lamar and his contract, and wherever he’s going to be playing, whether it’s in Baltimore on the tag for another year, whether a trade gets worked out, whether he sits out the season, I don’t know, you know, maybe we might be talking about this a year from now, as I’ve said to you over and over, and I don’t know how this is going to shake out. But the one thing that we we should all be able to agree on, is, it’s a shame, and it’s a shame. Furthermore, I’m not saying this to bash him. It’s a shame that he hasn’t cashed in to a far, far more lucrative degree on his name and what he’s accomplished to this point in his career already. And people will say, Well, you know, he’s not the most eloquent with the media or whatever, forget about that. You see the appeal that he has had with kids out at training camp again, Nestor, I’ve told you over and over, it’s like a rock star. It’s like the Beatles, the way kids just shriek over that the fact that he hasn’t cashed in on that to a much more meaningful degree to this point, regardless of a long term contract, whatever that number, ultimately, is. That that’s an utter failure. That’s an abject failure, that that hasn’t happened for him. And that’s where anyone who’s close to him and advising him that has not not spoken up or and maybe people have, maybe there have been people in his inner circle who have spoken up and Lamar or others in his inner circle, just kind of brushed it off. But you just look at that and say, like, what is that? I mean, again, that entire gym promotional video, I joked with it, that’s something that Masson would err in lieu of an Oreo spring training game, quite frankly. I
Nestor Aparicio 07:17
mean, that’s, that’s what that looked like, in the middle of in the middle of guys with low covered hats and glasses dealing cards. Exactly. And that would run Yeah,
Luke Jones 07:25
yeah. So So you know, and again, how much is that relevant to Lamar and the Ravens and football? You know it in the big picture, it’s not, it’s not all that terribly relevant, but it is a glimpse to the inner workings of how he and his brand have done their business. And that’s where you’re embarrassed for him. And you’re sad for him, quite frankly. I mean, there, he’s literally left millions on the table. In that regard, forget about the contract. And look, at the end of the day. It’s Lamar Jackson’s life and my life. I’m not going to profit one way or the other, my life’s not going to change dramatically one way or the other. So I don’t have a fight in the dog are already
8Nestor Aparicio 08:06
30 million, and he’s online to make double his career earnings this year, just by making the 33 million. He’s not starving. And that’s the point. The point is, he’s not starving. But if a lot of this is about money, go get yours. They didn’t get yours professionally, like every other guy before you did it. It is sad. I mean, I look at it and I look from afar, and I went I really I went for the kid, and I went for the organization and you by the way, Luke Jones is here you can find in Baltimore, Luke, neither one of us are at the owners meetings, because the owner decided to not go to the owners meeting so and show up. But Dan Snyder might be there for all we know, we’ll be monitoring that with a little ROFO coffee in our CO roofing mug here use the word hijack. Well, that’s a great one, dude. I mean, it’s only only almost April 1 Here. It’s opening day, right? Like it has hijacked their offseason because of the salary cap situation because of their inability to do anything. I don’t know that there really is a trade partner, because the trade partner which said we got to make love of Lamar, and we got to get him contractually happy. And you people couldn’t do that. And who are we talking to? Anyway, him his mother, like, we just got a memo that we can’t talk to anybody else. So Lamarr now has to pick up the phone and get on the phone with general managers or owners personally, and figure this out. And oh, by the way, none of them have any money and fewer of them have a true interest in in doing business with him not having him be their quarterback on opening day, having MP there 2345 years from now collected $50 million a year guaranteed. And when they want cap relief, they can’t get it because He clearly doesn’t even understand what’s happening here. I mean, I don’t think he has a full scope of what has happened here. And I think we talked about that in a vacuum all wet offseason, last year into OTAs into the coach texting me and pissed off that he’s not there. Like all of that that happened last year and Dennis and I think well, at some point, he’ll probably get represented right like at some point, he’ll find the right drew Rosenhaus the right Leigh Steinberg, the right Jay Z. Somebody, you’ll listen to somebody listen to Dion, you’ll listen to Ray Lewis who listen to shit, he’s somebody will pull him up and he will respect and say, Dude, call my guy, you know, call my guy. And that hasn’t happened. He doesn’t trust anyone, man. But he does trust the entire gym guy, which to your point is even worse, because it’s not that he’s unrepresented. He’s dealing with snake oil salesmen. I mean, I don’t know what else to say, who else would put him up to do that video? Yeah, I
Luke Jones 10:45
mean, and look, again, trying to get inside anyone’s head is challenging. I mean, Lamar, we’ve said it over and over, he’s got a very small inner circle, and not many people are well connected enough to, to know what truly makes him tick. And, you know, as I said, Before, I don’t have a dog in the fight here. Lamar can do what he wants at the end of the day, but when you look at it at just looking at it from afar, and now how it is having such a profound impact on the football team, it really does put the Ravens in a very, very difficult spot here because of what you just said. And like I’ve said over and over, I think the Ravens have done a good job at or as well as they possibly could expect to do to this point in time of trying to separate their feelings about Lamar, the football player, Lamar, the human being, compared to Lamar, the agent, Lamar, the businessman, and the cost of alluded to this, even at the season ending press conference where, you know, he kind of made that point, but then never really shared how he felt about Lamar, the agent, which I thought was telling him what he didn’t say, at that point in time. But you just look at this, and you keep asking yourself, what’s the resolution here? You know, what’s the long term solution here? How is this going to play out? And to your point when you’re talking about? I don’t know, Ken, Francis, from Steve Francis, you know, let’s, let’s be clear about that. But no, I mean, he’s, he’s a guy from Florida, he’s got a company, that’s a mobile fitness product. I mean, anyone will tell you that are connected to player investments and things of that nature, some of the worst things you can invest in our restaurants. And, you know, from a player perspective, you know, and we’ve seen this play out with a number of players locally, you know, when they talk about restaurants in fitness equipment, you know, and again, that’s not, you know, that’s not pointing a finger at any specific entity. It’s just, you know, that there’s risk involved for players compared to doing the kinds of things that Lamar could have done easily three years ago. You know, you can’t tell me that someone didn’t want him his pick. Right. Exactly, exactly. So you just look at that. And again, I don’t want to make fun of I mean, I’m not someone who’s
Nestor Aparicio 13:04
crazy. Three got big time commercials. Yeah. And I mean, Justin Herbert’s all over commercials right now, right? Like, I didn’t even I don’t know anything about that kid. Other he’s great. Because we never get to watch the Chargers play, like in that way, but that kids on commercials every right. And, and What’s odd about this playoff game, Justin Herbert, no. Want to play off game?
Luke Jones 13:29
8Right? If we’re gonna get to the Jags, right? We’re
Nestor Aparicio 13:31
gonna give it to somebody. Let’s give it to him. Right. Trevor? Lawrence has commercials, right?
Luke Jones 13:35
But so that’s where you would come back to that. And a couple years ago, when Gatorade wasn’t calling, you know, he wasn’t doing Gatorade commercials or whatever. And I’m, again, I’m just using examples. I want to give too much free publicity to entities that don’t need it.
Nestor Aparicio 13:51
It may mean that you know, as Kelly and Oda and Pappas, as Oprah somebody should get Lamar to sell crabcakes okay, you know,
8Luke Jones 13:58
right, right. So, a couple years ago, what was the rationale that outsiders tried to give? Okay, well, maybe he’s not, maybe he’s not all that terribly motivated by the money and steeper shot, he said as much about a year ago, right. Which obviously was very foolish to say, because of course he does, because we’ve seen how it’s played out since then. But the juxtaposition of that, compared to wanting a fully guaranteed deal is just kind of wild, isn’t it? Right?
Nestor Aparicio 14:26
I mean, like, negotiating tax of, I’m going to hold out at OTAs I don’t have an agent. I’m going to hold that everybody’s gonna want me. I’m gonna hold that I’m gonna play. I’m gonna play well, I’m gonna win Super Bowl, and then you’re all gonna want me and none of this happened. Right? None of the dream scenario that any agent would have said alright, Lamar, you don’t want to sign now. Like what what? Joe Flacco is Agent Joe, give me his last name, Linda. You know, I’m sure Joe Linda was saying the Flacco like Hey, dude, you’re turning down 90 million trying to get to 100 money like what? What are you doing? Take the 90 million take care of your family. Kiko Alonso may send you into, you know, into a nursing home anytime like, take the money. I’m sure Joe Linda and Joe Flacco had some serious arguments about that. And I could see Joe said, well, as long as I’m here, somebody may do it the Viking somebody wants me, you know, there’s always somebody that wants me. Well, Lamar probably had that same people saying, they’re not just gonna want you, they’re gonna want you Did you see how bad they wanted to Sean Jackson, or Deshaun Watson last year? So all of that, in his mind was this amateur? Where am I going to sit? How would I look into dolphins jersey? What would my tax situation be like in Buccaneers jersey? And well, I could go play in Tennessee and you know, we’d have a running back there and except the coach doesn’t want you and the owner doesn’t want you and nobody wants to pay you. And nobody wants to guarantee the money and nobody wants to deal with your agent. And but I think to some degree, and I, if I were at the owners meetings today doing my job, like I’m supposed to be doing, I would be going around the room over drinks, talking to people just off the read. This is what I’ve done for 31 years. Mike Tomlin, what do you really think of Lamar as playing like a second drink, tackling him stopping him? Where do you think you’ll be three? Would you really want him to be your court like, like, these are easy things when you have relationships in the league to talk to other people. And when you work around the pool, and every person around the pool says do didn’t get on the plane for the playoff game. He didn’t he didn’t wait a towel, kind of teammate to see. Like the first thing if he’s in my office, and I own the team. Lamar, you weren’t in Cincinnati, why weren’t you there? And I’m sure he’d say they didn’t want me there. They told me not like, I’m sure it’s he because it’s easy to do that right? It’s easy to say, I wasn’t there because they didn’t want me to be a distraction. They told me to stay home. And I was hurt. And my doctor told me to say like, I don’t know what it would be. But my first question and I’ll go on and on. It isn’t about him running into linebackers, the money the gear at all. That’s a problem. All that’s problem. But the real problem for me is, dude, you’re on their team, you’re the highest paid player, you’re their highest product, you’re the leader, you didn’t, you didn’t have a little tablet, with a beanie cap on in Cincinnati trying to help Snoop win a game like that to me. If I were out at the owners meeting, that would be the thing I would sniff I’d be sniffing why he wasn’t there, how he wasn’t there. And what that means, because I think that that means a lot to owners. I think when owners see that, when the general manager and the coach come in and say, well, well, Eric and John are reasonable guys, they’re trying to win. Clay is Campbell was that, you know, all these leadership pieces that they put around him? How did somebody not? At least let him know that that wouldn’t be a good look going into free agency that you weren’t there with your football team? Yeah, I know, you don’t think it’s a big deal, right?
Luke Jones 18:03
I don’t want to say it’s nothing. But that’s way lower on the list for me than all the other things you spell out. I
Nestor Aparicio 18:08
8mean, for me, I think it just comes back to it’s everything. It’s everything. It’s all encompassing. It’s all of those variables together, that make this much more complicated. And it’s not a case of the 31. Other teams don’t want Lamar Jackson, I don’t believe that if Lamar Jackson, were an unrestricted free agent today. And there wasn’t this thought, if it’s not just common knowledge at this point that he either wants the Deshaun Watson deal or at least wants that much fully guaranteed into a seven year deal, or whatever it is, that just give him more money than the ravens are willing to give him. I mean, that’s all you have to do at this point and give away next year’s one. Like if you really believe he’s your if you believe he’s your savior, if he’s your Messiah, give it up. The two ones shouldn’t be that big of a deal. It really, if you want him to if your quarterback is Taylor handke. You know what I mean? If that’s who your guy is, and you really believe in him, I just haven’t seen anybody really believe in him. And I didn’t see anybody believing him five years ago, when it was draft time. That said, we’re going to turn the team over to him. And we’re going to assume this high risk quarterback at any price at any price. So the fact that there’s no bidding on him is just it’s insane. It’s incredible.
Luke Jones 19:18
You just made a point that I’ve alluded to a little bit, but it’s anchoring bias. You know, you go back to what kind of what your original opinion is and look that’s five years old at this point. That’s ancient history if and it should be from an evaluation standpoint. His kids absolutely proved so many of his doubters wrong. You know, from Bill Polian suggesting he worked out at wide receiver, you know, absurd stuff, right? I mean, not talking about constructive criticism, but the most absurd criticism that you heard five years ago, which by the way, and people way smarter than me when it comes to things like this, people have said that if he had an agent then probably would have done a better job combating those His narratives because he didn’t have anyone that was advocating for him,
Nestor Aparicio 20:02
he wouldn’t have been there 30 seconds for the race. I mean, it’s it was he was better talent than that obviously.
Luke Jones 20:09
Right? No, no, of course. But it really does reflect how dirty the businesses in general and where an agent can become really handy there because they’re not, you know, they’re willing to get their hands dirty, so to speak with some of this. So I think that’s part of it. But I just I think it’s all the I don’t think it’s just one thing. I think it’s all of these things combined. But I think so much of it just comes back to if it were as simple as just giving Lamar $1 More than the Ravens have offered. I think some teams absolutely would do that. But there’s also the factor of Oh, yeah. If it’s $1 more, or if it’s a few million more, as long as it’s not the full, lucrative, fully guaranteed deal that Lamar seeks that the ravens are unwilling to give him at this point. I think there’s very much a sense of, for another team, why am I going to do a deal with Lamar Jackson that the Ravens will just match? I mean, if they’re willing to give him x, and we offer x plus one, they’ll probably match that. But if we’re willing to give what Lamar wants, which is why then that’s a different story. But oh, wait, we’re not as comfortable with that, because of all the different factors that have been laid out. So you know, he’s not free. You know, he’s not a true free agent. So that’s complicated all this. And then when you have the fact that he doesn’t have an agent, and you’re having a guy named Ken Francis, calling teams on his behalf, and I mean, Lamar can argue about the semantics of it, whether he was negotiating or not, I mean, it’s it’s semantics and, but it’s how it is. And I will throw out there that this happened. Last summer, I guess it was with Saint Romney, who was representing ro Quan Smith, when he was trying to get out, get out, get away from the bears at the time. So it’s not unprecedented. But it’s just another variable to throw into the mix of just looking at this thing. And you just shake your head. I mean, a year ago, certainly two years ago, no one could have possibly fathom that the Ravens would be in this position with Lamar Jackson. And look, it’s not to say that they’ve been perfect through it. Could they have shown more urgency? Should they have shown more urgency a couple of years ago, and trying to get this done? Hypothetically, or theoretically, maybe? Did they lowball them a little bit in the way that you never give a player you never give an agent your best offer first? And did that turn Lamar off? I don’t know. I mean, again, it’s conjecture, right? Because we’ve known so little about this, but just the idea that we’re where we are at this point. And the ravens are two weeks into the offseason and they’ve signed Nelson Aguilar and oh, yeah, they’ve lost players in the process to this is a worse football team than it was at the end of at the end of the season. And the ravens are rarely massive players in free agency so I’m not trying to make too much of that. At the same time. They don’t sit it out entirely in the way that they essentially have to disappoint. I mean, Nelson Aguilar is not an answer. If he can be your number three or number four wide receiver then great but if he’s lining up, lining lining up opposite Rashad Bateman, then something’s gone terribly wrong. So you know, it’s just and even with that, they sign him to a one year deal, go look at the structure, avoidable years, they’re trying to maintain as much cap flexibility as they can. And I mean, the ravens are doing that to give themselves protection, because they don’t want to be in a position where a team offers Lamar a deal that they would be willing to match, but it would have some problems structure wise from a cap standpoint.
8Nestor Aparicio 23:37
Everyone thought that would be the that would be the steal, right. The steal would be create a structure that the Ravens can’t and won’t match. I’m not convinced the Ravens want the kid around longterm. I’m not convinced that this that they don’t want they’re done with this drama. Like I don’t they don’t need more of this. They don’t need they don’t need him winning the Superbowl and then hold now, like I don’t, and I don’t think they really I don’t know that they believe he’s gonna win a Super Bowl for them. I don’t I bet that would be the question now. Do we really think this kid’s heart and soul is in this building is a part of this organization that we’re going to be able to mend whatever fences are broken? And only they know, to? There’s no question fences have been broken here. Right? Like, there’s a problem here. There was a relationship problem between Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens and there might be a relationship problem became Lamar Jackson, a lot of people given trust, right. Like, we’ve talked a lot about this, but I’m wondering out loud if the Ravens really would just say God bless him or say, Let him give him 160 mil whatever you gotta give him we’ll take the pigs. We just are going to do something different. We just are tired of the uncertainty the rock star thing at the at the facility he hasn’t played at the end of the last couple of years. It’s just you know, he’s the pretty girl he just can’t marry like I you know, I don’t know what else. I don’t know how else to equate it to my audience other than To say, how could we let him go? I, I just think as they gather here, they don’t need five more years of this as an organization. And it’s divided the fan base and awful way because it’s racial. I mean, there’s no doubt about that, amongst other amongst other things, but you’re there Lamar fan or your raving fan, or you hate John, you hate Eric, or you hate the man or you hate the league, or you want the kid to get his or you hate agents. I mean, you can have a lot of opinions on all this. But I am really wondering how excited the Ravens would be, to offer to give him 148 million guaranteed and have him accepted, have a press conference for some of the media like you and not like me. But if I that’s an amazing thing for me, if he’s out there throwing football six weeks from now, in an OTA situation, happy, happy, content, validated, feeling like he’s the man his ego, but statue in Louisville, that’s, I get the feeling that he’s lived a life of you to man, you’re the man, you’re the man, and he needs to be the man. And being the man means you can pay like the man and unless he gets paid like the man, he’s not gonna feel like the man. And he’s got to be back here. Kids, autographs all that in August make it 32 million worst case. Like I don’t know how that could possibly be tenable to this notion that he’s gonna come back and play for $33 million. I don’t know how the organization could be comfortable with that.
Luke Jones 26:28
Yeah, I mean, it’s just everything you just lay out is fair. I mean, every question you just pose is fair. But even if you are ready to move on, you still want to try to maximize this asset that you have to the greatest degree that you can. Now that might not be what you thought it might have been at the start of the offseason, or a month ago. But you also don’t want to just, you know, you don’t want to give it away either. I mean, I’ve seen some people say, Oh, they should just move on, you know, I mean, no, no, they shouldn’t just move on. Like, you know, the idea that you would just rescind the franchise tag would be insane. Because then you’re getting nothing but at the same time, what is realistic? And if you are in a position where you are looking at no offer sheet coming in, and I’ve heard some people talk about after the draft, I just think it’s very difficult if you look at it from a cap standpoint, yeah, I would Miami pull that off. I mean, you just you look at it, they don’t have the cap space anymore for it. I mean, yeah. Could they restructure a boatload of deals? Could they cut a bunch of guys after the draft and do that? Theoretically, sure. But I just I don’t think that’s realistic. I just don’t and I mean, how would
Nestor Aparicio 27:43
that things we thought November have turned out to be not realistic. Right? Whatever our thoughts were he’s gonna go here he’s gonna go there. They’re all gonna want him. It’s that’s not reality that that that’s Twitter world. Lamar, Lamar, you demand you demand that they are Lamar can’t get along with his own team. Lamar doesn’t have an agent. Lamar hasn’t played football in December in three years, Lamar has won one playoff game, Lamar is gonna get slower, Lamar has to throw the ball back, great. He’s fine. He top 10 quarterback or whatever, but he’s not the greatest quarterback in the history of the game. And we have to change our whole oral team around for him. And we have to make $50 million a cap room for him. And we have to turn the whole organization like that’s, I don’t know back in October, November. We didn’t talk like that, like the reality of what this was going to be when he’s 31 million while 30 Because the Snyder probably won’t show up either. But out in Arizona, these owners are all going to be together. And that’s the guy you have to appeal to when you want $200 million of unprecedented guaranteed money that pisses everybody else in the room off. That’s, that’s how you have you have to win that person over you don’t win an Eric to cost or Nestor or John Harbaugh, you have to win over the owner.
Luke Jones 28:52
8Yeah, sure. And I mean, what is the difference is back in September in October, he had only had one season where he didn’t finish because now it’s two. So again, if it were only one or two of those variables you just laid out there absolutely would be teams going after him. But it’s all of those things together. Where you just look at this insane I don’t know. I don’t know. I mean, again, this isn’t the same as him just being an unrestricted free agent and he goes and signs a deal the best deal the best offer and that’s that and the Ravens get their third round calm pick and you know, that’s not this you know, it might you know, if he wants to try to go the franchise tag route and go the Kirk Cousins route. Could it come to that two years from now? I mean, my goodness, I hope we’re not talking about this two years from now and to your point. I do think the Ravens at some point in time and I don’t think it’s right now, but they’re gonna want a resolution for this. I agree with you. I don’t think playing on the tag is certainly not ideal. I don’t know if it’s tenable or realistic whatsoever. In terms of him being happy him showing up him playing and all that. But I think as I wrote a Baltimore positive comment, I’ll leave you with this. I said to Ravens fans at the time, get comfortable with being uncomfortable about this, because I’m just not sure the resolution is coming next week or at the draft. I mean, this might be something that drags out all summer. And it might still come to it that if there is not another reasonable resolution for this, that he is on the tag, and they’re trying to figure that out for one more year. It’s not ideal. But none of this is ideal. So why would I suddenly start imagining of an ideal scenario because it’s been two years plus of this and, unfortunately, it still feels like there’s no end in sight until maybe either a mystery team or Lamar Jackson realizes a mystery team is not coming, and then is willing to talk to the Ravens on more reasonable terms, at least their terms that they’ve offered him
Nestor Aparicio 30:55
hijack the organization. Now you did you come up with that on your own or just use that when I’ve
Luke Jones 30:59
heard? I’ve heard people say that, I mean, it’s, they haven’t done anything. I mean, they’ve signed up, they’ve signed a number for wide receiver. I mean, that’s what they’ve done it and they had to use voidable years just to do a one year deal. I mean, that just speaks to where they are, you know, Chuck Clark’s gone class Campbell’s gone other free agents could or could not be you know, may or may not be gone I mean, it’s just hurry up and wait, that’s what it’s been right. New league year already. And well, nothing. And the Lamar situation, whether he you know, whoever’s fault it is that’s holding everything up.
Nestor Aparicio 31:34
Every time you’re talking to people about it, because like everybody around them, it’s the biggest story in the sport, right. So Peter King had an opinion. Last week, I had JT the brick on from from Las Vegas, and he thinks Lamar is going to Miami. I had a variety. I had Bob Kravitz on from Indianapolis who’s very, very close to the cold situation he thinks Jim Mercer is crazy enough to do it like just that it will just one day it’ll just happen. Like, I don’t know how you sneak Lamar around. I don’t know where the planes go. I know all planes this week are out in Arizona in it the Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona. We are not there because the National Football League has rescinded my credential and blackballed me but it’s the first time in 18 years during normal circumstances that I haven’t been an NFL owners maybe we can only hope that there’s some news out of all Raul John and Largo before the weekend is over as well. We’ll be monitoring that it still is the state of Maryland I tried to convince the National Football League people that you can find look at Baltimore look, anywhere the good internet is traveling social media. You could find me all week long. Right here today in 1570 wn St. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery in conjunction with our friends at window nation next week. We’re going to be a Costas on Wednesday in the afternoon. We’re going to be fadeless on Friday to open the new CFG Bank Arena and obviously on Thursday, Luke is going to be at Camden Yards. I will continue to be locked out for the 18th year by the Baltimore Orioles. I will be drinking beer somewhere on the streets as long as weather permits. On the morning of the sixth of April opening day is this week I’m working with our friends at Hollywood casino and the Barstool Sports restaurants and pick up their watchable Red Sox and Oreos are here the Red Sox think this year so I won’t get a little piece of that. I am Nestor. We are WNS TA and 5070, Towson Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive
