Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the NFL Owners Meetings and the Ravens’ roster issues and spring needs in the NFL Draft from Florida as the rules change and the television money pours in.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
ravens, john harbaugh, talking, sashi, questions, lamar, baltimore, draft, terms, week, win, january, move, year, derrick henry, nfl owners, lost, jim harbaugh, games, coaches
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:02
Welcome home we are wn S T A and 5070, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive in his opening day week around here, we have opined about the life and legacy of Peter G Angelo’s if you happen here the Peter principles around here. It’s not me spiking the ball. It’s me finishing the legacy in history. We expect the David Rubenstein to take over on Thursday. It is a momentous week, Luke and I are in Florida right now we’re back to a segment here. Discuss the NFL owners meetings that are going on at the JW Marriott here in Orlando, right outside of Lake Buena Vista, am I see? See you soon we’re gonna be doing the Maryland lottery crab cake tour, beginning at fade Lee’s on Fridays this month. We’re also going to be at Costas on the ninth of April. I’m working on a Coco’s date for later on in April as well. We hope to see you out we’ll be giving away the 10 times the cash scratch offs. There are PacMan scratch offs now, so I gotta get some Walker Walker’s. Look, Joe joins us now we’ve discussed Baseball, baseball, more baseball, watch a lot of baseball, we’ve gone to baseball, we’ve been rained out of baseball. We’ve had text from baseball, we’ve had Jackson holiday, not make we that Peter Angelos die on his trip. We haven’t made it home yet. And we’re really here for the NFL owners meetings. Your first NFL owners meetings Well, now, by the time people hear this, they may be in progress, different things. I’ve been about 18 of them, Luke. So I can tell you a lot of things about these owners meetings, but you are going to see opulence on the lawn on Monday night. And unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, and I hope you enjoy being behind the velvet carpet and the little red rope while I’m outside drinking from the other water cooler. But my beers will be just as cold on the outside, I assure you.
Luke Jones 01:43
So yeah, you’re you’ll be outside the perimeter. I guess. That was a lot about the stadium. Right. So not to make not to make light of that on your on your part. But yeah, I mean, it’s it’s a unique experience for me. I’m looking forward to that. I I hope I’m not underdressed at the festivities on Monday night. But I think you know, as it pertains to the Baltimore Ravens, I think it’s a very interesting time in terms of where they are roster, building wise and what they’ve done to this point, what they have not done to this point, who they’ve signed whom they have not signed. I mean, it’s, it’s very much to incomplete. I think the best way to put the roster right now is very much incomplete. In terms of upsets, guys, they’ve lost in positions of need that they have right now. Now, since the last time you and I met in this forum to discuss we talked about it over the course of the last week in private conversation, but they’ve added some depth pieces. You know, Chris board, a veteran inside linebacker bringing back you know, someone that came came up as a raven as an undrafted, rookie free agent and, you know, his cut his teeth here in Baltimore went elsewhere. And it’s a good special teams player a little bit of an insurance policy, I think, as it pertains to replacing Patrick queen as we expect Trent and Simpson to ultimately get that job. They brought in Josh Jones, formerly of the Houston Texans, a versatile offensive tackle has some positional flexibility, I think, you know, so I think he’s an interesting piece, not someone, I’m ready to just pencil into the starting lineup, but certainly a name of interest. And even just getting a quote a little bit closer to last weekend, you know, they talked, I’ve met with Josh Reynolds, you know, they met with Michael Gallup. So there, they’ve been looking at some veteran wide receivers. So they’ve been casting a wide net. Now, I’m not saying that any of those names I just mentioned are quote unquote, answers for them for 2023. But they certainly could be depth pieces that ultimately helped them out. But you know, the biggest thing I’m looking to see from John Harbaugh with the coaches breakfast, which is always first thing Monday morning, the AFC side and FC the following day is, you know, where is he with some of these young offensive linemen? You know, we can talk about drafting a tackle or a guard at 30th. You know, we can talk about drafting a second lineman on day two or early day three or whatever it is, but we’ve talked about it for a while chances are given the the attrition that they’ve experienced with Kevin Zeitler out the door and Morgan, Moses out the door, and John Simpson out the door, replacing three starters. I have a tough time thinking that it’s going to be three brand new arrivals, veterans or draft picks, you know, I feel like at least one of those spots is going to be filled by an incumbent. So is it done Cleveland at right guard is it Jason Vorhees or not? Jason? It’s Friday the 13th right there. Andrew Moore he’s the guy they took in the seventh round last year out of USC tore up his knee at the combine is it him maybe it left guard you know, is it Daniel fall lay lay even though I Have I was gonna say it’s not him?
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:01
I don’t think I don’t think so. I don’t think so you were the left tackle the future, they wouldn’t have given Stanley the money. But I’ll give you seriously right they would have, they would have said, Alright, we’re done with you. We’ll we’ll keep the Yeah, he
Luke Jones 05:12
wouldn’t be left he would be right to do right tech. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But, but I think that the name that could be interesting, you know, it might be the Patrick McHenry does start the year as a starter, you know, after being there, super utility guy, you know, there’s six linemen that can play any of the five spots. So, you know, I kind of want to see where John Harbaugh is with that. And look, he might say that everything’s great, because they don’t really know what to say otherwise, right now. And that’s that, but you know, I want to hear what where he is within Cleveland, where he is with vor. He’s where he is with big Salah who started training campus, they’re starting left guard last summer before they put the pads on. And then it was like, Oh, he’s not close to ready. But maybe he will be ready this summer. So you know, that that’s the big position for me, because you have some, you have some internal candidates in House candidates that I have a tough time believing that they’re going to find all their answers from out from outside, you know, whether it’s, you know, they brought in the guy from the Texans or, you know, whether it’s drafting a couple, I feel like one of those incumbents, you know, one of those backup incumbents are probably going to have to fill up one of the starting roles, if not two of them. So that’s where that’s probably one of my first questions. John Arvon, I’m sure others will be thinking the same thing. But, you know, it’s, it’s an interesting time, because this League meeting, compared to last year, at this time, or certainly the year before, you know, on the heels of the Watson contract and the shotty speaking and, you know, kind of stepping in it, so to speak, in terms of some of the things that were said that ruffled some feathers, you know, kind of either other teams around the league, or Lamar or whatever it was, you know, they are in a quieter spot in terms of, you know, they’re not dealing with a franchise quarterback that is unhappy and tagged and, you know, at this point, was requesting a trade at least privately, or actually, that’s when when we found out right, that was officially when Lamar had tweeted out that he had requested a trade. So it’s gonna be way quieter on that front. But steam does have a lot of a lot of question marks right now. And that’s not to say that they won’t figure it all out come August in September. But there there are a lot of holes and a lot. There’s a lot of uncertainty here. So we’ll be interesting to see what John Harbaugh has to say, but just overall looking forward to kind of being in this atmosphere, at least personally, for me the first time that I’ve been around it.
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:43
I’ve been at a lot and this is a time of the year where when somebody gets arrested, or when a quarterback, big quarterback change or even a franchise moving. Like I was there the day they moved to Los the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas, they made the announcement front of me out in Scottsdale a couple years ago, as well as a whole bunch of raiders protesters that were outside of the Biltmore. So all those kinds of things. I don’t think global there. I was gonna say to you the biggest story in the world of sports this week will be Shohei Otani. And if that sort of thing happened in the NFL, if it was Jared Goff, who was gambling or whatever, everybody would be at the Detroit Lions, you know, like whoever it is. I saw Mike Tomlin when Ben Roethlisberger had his problems down in Georgia. And he was the one where everybody was Bill Bella check after deflate gates where everybody was right. I don’t know that there’s any thing like that. But they’re certainly for Mike Tomlin at his table, let’s say, talking about, you know, two new quarterbacks, right? One from Chicago, one from Seattle, young guy, old guy who’s going to play we’re going to start the starter all like all of that. I think it’d be actually made the cold stable talk about Joe Flacco. Right. So quarterbacks and drama, and new coaches, coaches that have never done this before. General Managers have never done this. Or in some cases, owners who have never done this before, including Josh Harris.
Luke Jones 09:05
Yeah, no question about it. And what’s what’s interesting, you know, with what some of what you just mentioned, I mean, John Harbaugh, and we saw this at the combine, I think, at the combine, I want to say his first want to say the first four questions he got, were either about Jim Harbaugh, or one of the coaches that had just left the Ravens have become a head coach somewhere else, that it might have been the first seven or seven of the first states to
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:28
be no doubt that the Seattle Pete John’s table asking him everything, that’s the way this works. You’re gonna see that
Luke Jones 09:35
no doubt and okay, I mean, the Chargers might be a little bit different because Jim Harbaugh will be talking at the same time but anyone that has forgotten
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:43
Jim’s gonna be there too. Exactly. So do my best tell him I said hello. I forgot that so there’s so much going to be here and Jackie and like they’re all gonna be here.
Luke Jones 09:53
I have not heard one way or the other but it’s very well possible. So so but but we He saw that at the combine. I mean, Eric got those questions about the attrition. You know, John got the questions about the coaching attrition. So, you know, I think there’ll be they’ll definitely be some of that, to the chagrin of us local reporters that are here wanting to try to maybe find out about some of the roster building questions but
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:16
we did the Where’s the owner thing because that it’s the owners meeting. It’s not the head coaches meeting. It’s the owners meetings. And people like us get on planes and fly down here to chase billionaires on behalf of the citizens who just gave him $600 million and apparently they’re gonna make Sashi brown avail I hope you’re allowed to get a question and I hope you follow that in with Chad to get your question and edits on but Sashi Brown is going to speak to which is that’s also a unicorn citing it? Yeah,
Luke Jones 10:44
yeah. I mean, I you know, I’m you ever talked to Sashi Brown? I have other than the opening years you’re the biggest said hello
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:51
for the team. He should know you. He does. So we talk about things that Rubenstein is going to try to get right. Let me let me ask people Sashi brown don’t know anybody in his city. He’s an outsider. Why? Why would you not want to know Luke Jones? Who knows everybody?
Luke Jones 11:07
Let me ask you this because I was going to ask you this off the air so I might as well do it now because I think it’s your very relevant person to ask this. What would what would be your top three questions for Sashi brown
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:19
money money in money. stadium renovations why why why is the beer really colder inside the perimeter? Are the hot dogs really warmer? What does that really mean? Sachi? I gotta report your says your your playoff tickets were the lowest sales of all the playoff teams, the prices were the lowest. You’ve had 10,000 empty seats and a lot of games last year. I can show you the Seat Geek and the StubHub and the tickets were $10 on game nights for six of your your nine home games last year. Well, Wembley, not Wembley, Tottenham being one of the other row games they did that drew a lot of people over there. So for you with commitment to down I would ask Sashi brown about his commitment to the city and where he’s been and what he’s been doing the last two years and what he’s learned about the ravens, what he’s learned about Baltimore, and what he’s learned about our community and what he’s learned about the local government, and like all of that, oh, Oreo game, where does he live? What’s his favorite restaurant in town? Like, what does he has even seen out? I mean, I like give me
Luke Jones 12:19
like more than three. Here you go. You got I wanted, but I wanted your top three. Top three.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:24
There you go. Okay, money, money and money. The stadium renovation. I
Luke Jones 12:28
can’t just say Sashi money. Uh, you know, I’m, I was trying to do a little bit of sass
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:34
you were Steve, where’s the owner? There’s the question one, that’s one on one A, where’s the owner to answer these questions? Where’s your owner? He has to answer questions in a couple of years. Where’s he? We just gave him $600 million. We’d like to see him available. Yeah, that’s all you got those. All right. Good. Looking out here. We’re in Florida, he will be hanging out with John Harbaugh, and Jim Harbaugh. You hit the Arbol Daily Double at the breakfast, we’ll be following him out on social media, we’ll be tweeting out stuff, I will probably be at Epcot drinking some avocado Margarita or something like that, and enjoying the flower festival and the sounds of ELO. The league issues and television and money. And I mean, I feel like I was in a private conversation Saturday with a couple of friends that live in Tampa went to a pool. And we started talking about football, because that’s what I do for a living. And that’s how they know me, even though I try not to talk about football at the pool. And we’re talking about the peacock thing, and about the streaming thing and they’re just regular people who like football. You know what I mean? And they’re bucks fans and whatever. And he mentioned it to me. He’s like, what’s that peacock playoff thing? We can’t get games like what are they doing? This is a guy who owns a business, right? So he’s talking to me about it. But he doesn’t really he’s not a big time football fan. He’s just a football fan whose father in law upstairs one of the chiefs dolphins game, and couldn’t get it that night? Like literally right? So he was asking me about it. So I think anything from the owners meetings that involves the voice of what fans think, just to ask those questions, is an important thing. Because I think at these things, and I think you know, how douchey the media can be in a general sense. These things wind up being questions media guys want to ask instead of questions the fans want answered.
Luke Jones 14:20
Right? Fair enough. Fair enough.
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:23
And I’m a media guy. I’m a douchey media. Luke Jones is here he’s the opposite of that. He is a Baltimore look. You can find him anywhere the internet is served doing ravens stuff. Certainly the Death of Peter Angelos the life and legacy of him this week the ownership of David Rubenstein opening day but from the Ravens perspective for you with with this and seeing it against the room and against everybody else in the room. They’re all chasing the Ravens at this point, dude, and you’ll hear that for the next two days, right? I mean, number one C 13 For MVP. Jon’s kept his job. Eric’s kept his job. There are model oriented everybody in the room. Doesn’t really want to they want to be Jerry because he makes money but they don’t want to operate nor Steve idolized Jerry Jones, but does not operate like he operates.
Luke Jones 15:06
Yeah, yeah, I mean, there. There’s a lot to like about the ravens and they’re not all chasing the Ravens or chasing the chiefs. I mean, but certainly the ravens are one of the teams at the top there. And, you know, I think it’s not at that, going back to what I said a few minutes ago, I think this is a fascinating offseason for them, because they are in a position where they’ve lost a lot of players. They’ve lost a lot of coaches, you know, I mean, they, they lost an executive, you know, I mean, Eric Decosta, lost his right hand, man, Joe Ortiz. So, you know, he, he’s down here, you know, as the General Manager of the Chargers now. So it’s a lot of ravens fingerprints, with some of these other organizations that are going to be present this week. But at the same time, all of that being acknowledged, this is a team that’s still in a really good position. They’ve made some really good moves, you know, beginning with keeping Justin Mata BK. And, obviously, they made the big move with Derrick Henry, and we’re going to see how that plays out in terms of how lucrative and how fruitful that’s going to be. But they’ve got some question marks too. But they always do this time of year, this isn’t the time of year where the ravens are at their best in terms of perception from a football standpoint, right. I mean, last year was a great example, this look at all the guys that at this time last year, weren’t on the roster. I mean, Hector didn’t even have to Lamar sign. I mean, he wanted to be traded at this time last year, and to the point that you just made, they were 13, and four and the number one seed in the best team in the NFL during the regular season. So I think that’s where it’s always, it’s also important to maintain some levity and understand where things are right now for this team. And you know, where they’re going to be going. And they got a lot of work to do. I think John will acknowledge that when he speaks to coaches breakfast, but you know, I think they’ve got a really strong core in place that’s going to continue to put them in a position to win. And we’ve seen it over and over for going on year seven. Now. Lamar Jackson’s healthy and upright, the Ravens win a lot of football games to get the January, but But you know, what’s going to what’s coming next, because we’ve been talking about that for two months now, since the AFC title game, all comes down to January all comes down to whatever moves are going to make between now and then what’s going to position them for January, you know, Derrick Henry, you and I had great debate on that, you know, in terms of you love it, I’m I don’t hate it, let’s be clear about that. I’m a little more torn a little more uncertain in terms of uses of the resources and what he’s going to bring compared to what they’ve already done running the football and what else they still need to do with their roster.
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:47
He figured out the offensive line, he’s a great piece, if they don’t figure out the offensive line. You’re right, and I’m wrong. But part of that
Luke Jones 17:53
was also what you spent on him. Could have helped you with the offensive line. Anyway, point is Derrick Henry. If he helps him win games in January, it’s a great move. But if he runs for 1500 yards, and they still fail in January, and I don’t want to say fail, they lose they come up short. They don’t get through
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:13
the ball four times in 60 minutes, then.
Luke Jones 18:17
Yeah, sure, sure. But, but you know, so I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s both a great place. And it’s a lousy place to be. Because it’s great, because you’ve had all this success and you know, the expectations are high, and you have ever yet expectation that you’re going to continue to be really good. At the same time. I’m not sure what else they could possibly do in the regular season at this point that is really, truly going to matter from a legacy setting a legacy defining standpoint. It’s all January 16th in one
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:54
and losing the third week of the playoffs, it’s over. It’s even worse, right? Nobody’s chasing them. They’re chasing the chiefs. I’ll agree to that at some point. But then that report card came out that the chiefs are making their own players happy to some degree, but I would agree with you but I think from a stability that every team in the league would like to have what the Ravens have every year where they’re in the room and in the conversation that’s all and sure a compliment to the Ravens always make it a compliment a munch down your well you ever press pass and I don’t
Luke Jones 19:23
Sure sure. I mean look and I I would also but I would also say it’s I mean the Ravens didn’t get all A’s in that either. I I have feelings about that report card in terms of how the grading actually works. And my thought is beyond the overwhelmingly glowing A plus grades and the F minus like the Orioles got for their strength coach grade lat or Orioles. Ravens got for their strength coach grade last year was Steve’s on the heels of Steve Saunders being fired. I think most of the grades in the middle most of the rankings from whether your fifth or or 25th? I think that’s a lot of statistical noise at the end of the day, I think I think it’s worth it’s worth an ear. Like it’s worth at least considering it. I don’t think it’s necessarily, you know, because you’ve ranked 17th And something rather than fifth, that that makes necessarily a major difference. But, But your point is well taken. And look, I wasn’t, I was only disputing the fact that you have a team that’s won the Super Bowl three times in the last five years or whatever it is. But beyond that, I mean, the Ravens they’re one of the class organizations, we know that and they’ve been right there. They’ve they’re consistently getting to January here in recent years. And the Lamar era they absolutely have they’ve gotten there every year, he hasn’t been hurt. But they’ve got to break through so everything they do now, you know, whether we’re talking about backup corners, or who’s going to play right tackle, who’s gonna be there? Who’s gonna rush from the edge? It’s all about January, all about January all about January night. That’s tough. Because we’re talking we’re gonna talk about it a whole lot between now and then. And that doesn’t mean we don’t you know, Pete fancy and enjoy the ride but in terms of the legacy, you know, the the regular season accolades at this point, it’s been there done that. I mean, Lamar is one two Mbps he’d be the first to tell you that I’ve won two Mbps. I need a Super Bowl. He’s won in two playoff games. So I mean, it’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:27
right two and four and playoff games, correct?
Luke Jones 21:29
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, not. I also throw out something at least the acknowledgement of you’ve been so great in the regular season, you’ve had to byes also, you don’t get credit for wildcard wins when that happens, but we should at least acknowledge that but due to playoff wins, two playoff wins for John Harbaugh since 2014. Two playoff wins for Mark Andrews are for free in there. Yeah. Like yeah, Marlon Humphrey. I mean, you know, Ronnie Stanley, I mean, that’s, you know, they’re all They’re all there. You know, they’re, they’re all chasing that, you know, this, this team has done so much in the regular season. But it’s the truth. January, I mean, this, it’s where it is right now that I don’t say that the regular season means nothing. I mean, my goodness, of course, you have to play well to get there. But everything they do now, that’s why the Derrick Henry thing it comes down to this, does he help them win in January? He runs for 1500 yards and they lose in the divisional round again, or not the AFC Championship, then? It’s not doesn’t mean it was the wrong move to be clear. But was it the was it the move that put them over the hump? No, it wasn’t. So you know, that’s just kind of where they are right now. And, you know, they, I think it is worth noting, they’ve made some depth signings here, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, they are in a position where they can restructure a couple of deals here or there and create some cap space. I don’t think there are a ton of players on the open market at this point other than like, resigning, Jadeveon Clowney, for example, that are moves that necessarily are moving the needle dramatically, especially at some of their positions of need. But yeah, we’ll see what happens. I mean, we’re, we’re about a month out from the draft, believe it or not, which, you know, feels like it’s, you know, feels like the season just ended in some ways. But, you know, before we know, it’ll be draft time and see where they pick, you know, what, who they pick 30th Overall, and they’ve got a number of other picks. As they get deeper into the draft that they’ve got to hit on some of those, it’s, it becomes that much more important. We saw this in, in the post big contract Joe Flacco era with Lamar, it becomes more and more important now for them to nail their draft picks, you know, they get a couple more drafts like they had in 22, or you get Hamilton and Melinda bomb. You do that one or two more times over the next three, four years, then you’ve got some more superstars coming onto this team at a cheap rate. And that’s, you know, that’s what they’re going to be hoping to do here. Come next month. Gotta
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:53
keep up with all these Jackson holidays and Colton cows are out on the baseball. So it’s opening day week. It’s also NFL owners meetings. Luke and I are in Florida. We’ve been in Florida the last five days. Run around with the orals now we’re gonna run around with the Ravens for a little while, and we’re stoked about the baseball season and certainly a couple of weeks out on the draft and we think we’re gonna do football wise here for a little while is what we’re doing. We’ll be back at Baltimore on Wednesday. In the meantime, keep enjoying us keep following the lookout on social media. I am Nestor he is Luke we are wn sta and 1570. Tasha Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive
