Because we know you miss football and need the best insights and analysis of the Baltimore Ravens offseason and a look ahead to this week’s Indianapolis circus and combine. Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio go a little deeper tissue than just Justin Tucker for Eric DeCosta and John Harbaugh as the national media comes asking questions about Ronnie Stanley and, maybe, even Mark Andrews. Let the NFL season begin!
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Ravens’ offseason, focusing on key issues like the combine, free agency, and the future of key veterans. They highlighted the importance of the combine for the Ravens, with key positions like left tackle and edge rusher being areas of interest. They also discussed the potential trade value of Mark Andrews, given his contract year and recent performance. The conversation also touched on the off-field issues surrounding Justin Tucker, including allegations of misconduct, and the potential impact on his trade value and future with the team.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens offseason, combine week, free agency, left tackle, edge rusher, salary cap, Mark Andrews, Justin Tucker, roster questions, draft needs, offensive line, player contracts, franchise quarterback, NFL investigation, player trades
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. If my voice sounds a little deeper, I got a new mic. I’m just working it out, trying to figure things out. We are going to get back out on the road doing the Maryland crab gate tour. I promise. I have, like, tons of dates, a couple things I’m doing, actually, on the anniversary of Bruno Sammartino beating Superstar Billy Graham. We’re going to be celebrating Yankees Orioles at Cocos pub. That’s April the 30th. We’ll be doing that next Thursday, March the sixth. We are going to be down at fadelies at Lexington market. There’s a rumor that Mark Viviano is going to be coming back and visiting again, and we’re gonna talk some media, because nobody can fire him anymore. So it’s gonna be good. We also are friends, I think, from American Cancer Society and oak Lodge, as well as preparing youth for tomorrow, because I kind of screwed up a couple Super Bowl magic eight ball tickets. I’ll have a handful of these. At some point. I’m gonna get the monopoly tickets. And then we had the old um, ravens grand prize winner. And I can’t wait to meet her, because she’s, like, a real Raven fan. Had a great story. So, uh, Luke Jones is here. Uh, speaking of ravens, I want to let everybody know we’re going to do Orioles, Orioles and more Orioles. This segment is going to be Ravens. And not so much Justin Tucker, endurance, Prudence and massages and Steve Smith, or any of that stuff. Because, like, it’s combine week, and Luke, first off, how are you everything? Good family. I haven’t heard from you. It’s MSU, I feel like I saw you a month ago, but we don’t like get together and hang too much on football related issues since the mark Andrews incident, right? Yeah,
Luke Jones 01:36
yeah. Things are good. And we’re just about at that point now where business is going to start to pick up combine this week, and we’re going to hear from John Harbaugh and Eric the Costa. They’re going to be asked about Justin Tucker. Whether they say anything or they don’t say anything, it’ll be news. And certainly, now we’re counting down to, we’re about, you know, roughly two weeks out to the start of free agency. You know, March 12 is the official start of the new league year. But as you know, you have that 48 hour period that is the tampering period, legal tampering, which is an oxymoron, but anyway, but we get to the point where we’ll start to have some tangible information. We’ll have some substance to what this off season is going to look like. There’s been a lot of speculation. This is a football team that, roster wise, is still in really good shape overall, but you do have some big positions as far as question marks. What’s going to happen at left tackle? Are they going to look to add an edge rusher? Are you going to look to add another guard to you know what sure to be another competition come this summer, but and Ben Cleveland’s not gonna be part of that mix, sure. And, and I would have said he wasn’t going to be part of that even before he got popped for DUI down in Georgia. But certainly not a, not a very good decision on his part, as he’s getting ready to become. Well, you
Nestor Aparicio 02:53
never know about it if you follow W, B, A, L or ravens.com so I get my chance to shoot my arrows at them. 35 years into this, when news is happening, it’s not even reported anymore. It’s really, we’re in a different place, dude, we really are, like, just all of it from Trump down. We’re just in a different place about news and things. But the football side of this is, you know, the combine, you and I used to get on the plane and fly out there. I saw har ball and his dad running around Florida this weekend. They’re out there, poking, prodding, doctoring. The signing bonuses aren’t thanks to Steve Bucha and the Sam Bradford era. Not all the same, but the amount of money, the amount of investment, the amount of guys that are getting tawdry massages is their sophomore years of college. We’re now in the era of the n, i l player, right? So we went through the Twitter and the Instagram and the Tiktok era. Now we’re at the era of I got paid last year in the year before that, and so we’re just at a different point of professionalism for the game. And then all of these new teams of football evaluators showing off their gym wear that says jets, or name the front office that is turned over. I mean, it’s really the beginning of the calendar year, you know, on the streets of Indianapolis, from agents, money, people, salary cap negotiates with all of those things all converge in this thing where you pick up the pieces of being maybe the second best team last year, if you’re the ravens, and you want to position yourself as better than you really were, or how close you are, because you have a quarterback or whatever. But they’ve got they’ve got it all right. They got controversy. They have question marks. They have a left tackle issue. They have a losing issue. They have a losing a January issue. They have, they’re really, really good. They have a bad draft pick issue. So like all of those things that the National writers and all the kids that they credential out in Indianapolis, the blogger kids that all show up to make the thing look, you know, vibrant and all that, it is a, it’s a carnival this week out there, and there’ll be. Be all sorts of news, right? Like, they’re just going to be all sorts of the NFL is going to, like, jump on spring training for a couple days. Yeah,
Luke Jones 05:08
no question about it. I mean, especially with what the draft has become in terms of social media, draft, Twitter, all that, all those types of things, you know, what, what kind of event it is. I mean, the fact that, you know, it’s a headline when a mock draft comes out two months before the draft, right? I mean, for every Todd McShay and Mel Kuiper and Daniel Jeremiah and look speaking no ill will towards what they do. I mean, there’s, there’s absolutely an audience for it. But you know, you mentioned it, it’s very much a football convention. To your point, new jobs, new coaches around the league, new executives around the league. There’s very much a lot of business that goes beyond the on field workouts in Indy, and beyond even the medicals and all that. Free agency, I just kind of contradicted myself. I mentioned that free agency officially starts in a couple weeks, but this is really when things start to pick up. And I think when you’re talking about players that you know have might have a higher salary cap number, players that might be a little bit older, players that you know there might be a replacement for behind them. You know, we’ve talked a lot about Mark Andrews. How about the fact that Mark Andrews is entering the final year of his contract. How about the fact that Mark Andrews has a salary cap number and a salary that you know if you were looking to make a move. And let me be clear, not buying for a second that the Ravens would release Mark Andrews, but he’s in the last year of his contract. He’s four and a half years older than Isaiah likely, who’s also entering the last year of his rookie contract. Could Eric, might Eric da Costa talk a little business with another team out there that maybe is looking for a tight end, a veteran tight end, and maybe you talk about the possibility of a trade, right? I mean, these are the, this is very much the kind of setting where some of this can be done. And look in this day and age, there’s zoom, there’s text. I mean, so, so it’s not like all these people need to get together in the same room to conduct business. We understand that. But when everyone is in the same city, executives, coaches, agents, some players, even beyond just the potential draft picks. You know, there’s a lot that goes on. There’s a lot of business. So these last few weeks are, you know, these last couple weeks are about as slow as it gets, other than what late June, early July, for the NFL. You know, there are very few times where the NFL has any semblance of a dead period, but the last couple weeks have been quieter, I suppose, maybe not specifically for the I’m talking about League business.
Nestor Aparicio 07:44
I’m just saying, like, I’m kidding, because, like, it has been anything but here, because, I mean, and I’m talking about
07:52
football, though,
Nestor Aparicio 07:55
100% sure, nothing has happened football wise, but everything’s happened football wise, sort of, yeah, well, I
Luke Jones 08:00
mean, when you when you when you’re talking about one of the greatest players in franchise history, dealing with the accusations that have been brought forth against Justin Tucker, then, yeah, that’s going to be a big story. And then, you know, you throw in Ben Cleveland, whatever this Steve Smith social media thing is, which, you know, I’m not really getting into at this point, right? Like, yeah, well, even Terrell Suggs, right. Oh, right.
Nestor Aparicio 08:21
Oh, my God, play guilty. He was, if there was a yearbook for the Ravens that I was writing like a grease yearbook, most likely to plead guilty? Terrell, Suggs, I would have that would have been my thing. And you’ve known that all along. I want to get back on the field for a minute, because I know you prefer that anyway. Lucas, here, Baltimore, Luke, he doesn’t want to talk about jurisprudence. And quite frankly, this is going to be kind of a quick week, because the cost and harbor are going to get cornered by people like us in Indianapolis and have to answer questions on Tuesday afternoon. So this is going to be kind of down and dirty. Mark Andrews. Let’s talk about him for just a second, because, um, and looked at his stats, dude. I mean, and like, Listen, I’m not an anti Mark Andrews guy based on anything, right? I haven’t been at locker room three and a half years. I don’t owe any of them anything. I’ll make that really clear. You know, I owe Justin Tucker enough that when I was royal farm sponsor, did not come on and talk about how I felt about him when I felt it. But the mark Andrews thing with stats and numbers, and I always ask you this, and you’ll laugh at me, and certainly, after a third MVP year, I’m just going to give Lamar the asterisk of the MVP last year, is that I would always say they don’t want to throw the ball. They don’t want to throw the ball. They and you’d say, of course, they want to throw the ball. Lamar throws the ball. And we’ll go back and forth on all that. But then the stats happen at the end of the year, and if you’re in this offense, other than Lamar or maybe Derrick Henry now, because he’s special, as pointed out by my Houston Oilers jersey. You look at the stats and Mark Andrews, 55 reception, 673 yards, 1111, touchdowns. Important touchdowns, red zone, I got all that year before. 45 receptions, 544 yards. Missed some games, six touchdowns, 73 receptions and 20 207 receptions in two. 21 but that was when you were writing off season, like your tight end can’t be your wide receiver. So they fixed that, right? They brought other guys in. They’ve drafted, they’ve done all that. I always think of Mark Andrews for the Ozzy and and Eric the Costa era. He’s a pile diver. He’s a fundamental with Lamar guy along with Stanley Humphrey. Now roquan imported, but fundamentally, a part of what this last three or four years is represent that the M the Lamar era, the Lamar era, whatever that would be, Mark Andrews, is fundamentally tied to that. But we’re getting to the point right you, you’ve just year left big number not going to catch 110 pay. He’s not going to be the focal point of much, and now has to come back and answers for dropping the ball. He can be a guy behind closed doors. They can say, Hey, man, he dropped balls in the biggest game. Enough like not the pile diver. We thought he was like, we can make that anti Mark Andrews case. I’m going to allow you to make whatever case you want to make. I just made the case of looking his stats up honestly 30 seconds ago, when you started talking about one year left on the deal you’re talking and I’m typing and I’m like, Hmm, I wonder how many receptions he had, because off the top of my head, I would have said 60, and that would have been generous, because he had 55 Yeah.
Luke Jones 11:22
I mean, I look, I mean, I think it’s complicated, complicated. I don’t necessarily want to lead with the drop in the playoff game and the forced fumble in the playoff game, which, hey, those were, you know, as much as we talk about Lamar Jackson’s January performance, it would be unfair to not talk about other star players on the team and their performance in January. And look, go, look at the Career numbers. Mark Andrews has dropped a lot of passes in January. You know, Lamar is the headliner because he’s the quarterback, and understandably so, he makes more money making a
Nestor Aparicio 11:55
change in his department. No, and they shouldn’t, right? But so in the interest of fairness, players, where we get to this might be a little bit of a transplant off season, in a way that I didn’t think about that when Andrews fell backwards and the ball hit the ground before the press, before any of that, right, like at that moment, I didn’t think he’s expendable, you know, against salary cap or whatever, Ronnie Stanley, they might not have a choice. Somebody else just might love him more, you know. So they’re, they’re going to be fundamentally doing something, and they’re, Look, man, this is how the cost is, live longer than the cockroach and and Ozzy and hardball. They’re good at churning over everything but themselves. I mean, they really are, which is the credit to why they’re coaches and the players play, um, but they, you know? I mean, I wouldn’t write it off. What we’re saying here is getting a six round draft pick, you know, or whatever Eric would do to dump salary to just say it’s his time, you know, because we’re getting to be it’s just time with a lot of these cats, yeah,
Luke Jones 12:54
and it, for me, it would need to be more than a six round pick. And let me be clear, I’m not saying a first rounder either. Let’s be realistic. But you know, you’re talking about a three time Pro Bowl tight end. You’re talking about someone who still had 11 touchdowns, and that was even after you just looked at the stats. Go look at the stats in September. Remember how slow the start he had in this offense this past season, and then what he did after that look, I think Mark Andrews can still play. I think he still plays at a high level. I think he proved that however, he’s going to be 30, Isaiah likely is going to be 25 presumably you’re not going to keep both of them long term, right? I think we can all agree on that, that you’re not going to keep both of them beyond the 2025 season. So that’s where you look at it, and say, Alright, do we explore a long term deal with Isaiah, likely, who has been a very good understudy. And every time Mark Andrews has been injured or missing, we’ve seen Isaiah likely step up. I mean, keep in mind, Isaiah, likely the is the one who caught the touchdown that could have been the game tying touchdown had Mark Andrews made the catch 30 seconds later, right? I mean, that’s what we’re talking about here. So I think when you look at it through that lens, and you understand that you’re talking about a tight end who’s going to be 30 has had some physical concerns the last couple years. In fairness, he worked his way back from the the awful ankle injury to the point where he actually was able to play in the postseason, albeit on a very limited basis. You know, talking the end of 23 but you know what? What kind of market is there if you don’t want to trade mark Andrews, are you content to just letting him walk as a free agent and understanding that probably would still be a nice deal for him and a comp pick? So there’s always that to consider. That’s why I wouldn’t trade him for a sixth round pick, for example, because you presumably would get more than that as a comp pick. Him walking as a free agent a year from now, dude, you
Nestor Aparicio 14:48
can make a case for me that he could sign with a lousy team with a decent offense and catch 80 balls next year. Sure. I mean, sir, so I’m not anti Mark Andrews, I’m and. I’m not playing devil’s advocate to get phone calls and, you know, back and forth on it. I’m just saying, like, realistically, the things we don’t want to talk about Justin Tucker, nobody wants to talk about Steve Smith, nobody wants to talk about Ben Cleveland. Now you I mean free agency. I don’t even know what that even represents, because they’re not going to be a buyer either, going to be a holder honor to whatever they are, what they really have been when they had their kumbaya moment in Jupiter last month. And I don’t know if that was before or after, Justin Tucker, quite frankly, probably before now, probably after, after, yeah, so I don’t even know when they escape and do all of this, because I don’t follow Lacey de Costa on Twitter, but I would just say whatever they were talking about over cigars down there, above and beyond legal and HR with their kicker, their goat is the team, and everything we’ve been talking about from the beginning, which is offensive line still unsettled, yeah, you gotta throw tight end in you gotta throw salary cap in general, like, Where’s our money going? And by the way, here’s another headline, and this would be something we’d be talking about all night in Indianapolis over chips and salsa, our favorite Latin restaurant out there, the salary cap, 280 now ish, you know, give, give or take. It’s going up up up. They’ve all talked about it going up up up. They all just keep making money and print money and peacock this and paramount that, and like, just all of it. 18 games coming down the pike. So all of that’s going to be happening this week. But you know, beyond that, the ravens are a team that won’t have a lot of CAP money, drafts, low all of those things. And I don’t want to say heart transplant, because they have too many great players in various places, but they got decisions to make here. Sure,
Luke Jones 16:38
sure, no question. And when you look at the cap space, to your point, you know, the NFL set the 2025 cap, or Dave, at least, you know, they put out there what, what, you know, the range is, it’s two $80 million it’s higher than what a lot of the projections were. But that said you’re still talking about a Ravens team that roughly, when you look at like, over the cap.com, or some of the other projections, you know, kind of puts them in the the bottom third of the league in terms of cap space. Now, the good news is the bills and the Chiefs have even less cap space than the Ravens. So, you know, look at it through that lens and you say, it’s not so bad. But when you Yes,
Nestor Aparicio 17:14
when you’re four and 13 and you have space, like
Luke Jones 17:17
the Cleveland Browns, for example, browns Right, exactly who you know, or the saints on an annual basis.
Nestor Aparicio 17:23
Well, when you have a franchise quarterback and no franchise quarterback, that’s a problem, exactly.
Luke Jones 17:26
And that’s why, you know, people have said over the years, how did the saints keep making it work? It’s because they have so much dead money every year, and their ceiling has been eight and nine, right? I mean, that’s where they’ve been for years now. But, you know, but you look at the ravens, you look at the the makeup of the current roster. There aren’t a lot of moves to be made to save big time money, other than basically two avenues. One, you do look at Mark Andrews, and you say, again, I don’t for a second believe that they would just release Mark Andrews, and I am not for a second saying that I don’t think he’s going to be back. I think you at least explore what other teams value him as right now, in terms of acquiring Him, knowing he’s owed $11 million knowing you could save $11 million on your cap and then divert, you know, pivot to signing Isaiah likely to an extension, right, but knowing he’s going to be a free agent. So that’s the one player that you kind of point to, other than Justin Tucker, obviously, right? That’s the big one here. And from a football standpoint, that would have to be a post June 1. And you know, you would save $4.2 million after June 1. But beyond that, it’s Marcus Williams, it’s Arthur millet, it’s Michael Pierce, Broderick, Washington, I mean, and I’m not saying you’re cutting all those guys, but those names I just mentioned, it’s kind of minimal savings. They’ve already redone the Marcus Williams deal to the point where they’re already realizing a lot of those what’s not going to be the reason
Nestor Aparicio 18:54
you win the Super Bowl, the reason you win the Super Bowl is going to be, you know, Marlon home free, and figuring out Kyle Holton, figuring out Tyler Linder bomb, right? I mean, and they have a couple of real dudes that they drafted late in the first round that they’re gonna have to pay, like they drafted him in the top of the first round, the Ray roquan Smith, they they stole him, but they had to pay him, you know,
Luke Jones 19:12
sure, no question. So I made mention of some of the potential names, potential names that you could explore, releasing, trading, pay cut, right? So it’s kind of limited options beyond Andrews and obviously the Justin Tucker thing is that its own entity in terms of off field and on field fallout. So the other avenue, of course, would be looking at Lamar Jackson, looking at Marlon Humphrey, looking at that tier, you know, your top tier of talent, as you mentioned, it’s not really cap savings by any means, but you want to explore Kyle Hamilton and Tyler linderbaum, because you made the point. The salary Cap’s gone up and continues to go up. The prices of those players are going to continue to go up. So you’d much rather do it now, rather than. A year from now, or, you know, let alone talking about a franchise tag in a couple years. So, so there’s that. But you know, when you’re talking about Lamar, when you’re talking about Marlon Humphrey, talking about the guys that have a big cap number, right now, you start to explore the possibility of an extension. I mean, at this point now, with Lamar Jackson, he’s played at an MVP level, and he’s played at an MVP level since signing his 200 you know, his big contract a couple off seasons ago. So, yep, you’re going to extend them right? So now it’s just a matter of whether you do it now, or do you wait till next off season and do it then. But that’s how you can clear cap space. Marlon Humphrey all pro season. You look at his cap numbers the next couple years, is there a way to parlay that into, you know, attack on a couple years on his deal, and you can lower the cap numbers. So there are ways to do it. But every time you do that, there’s always the the hidden cost. There’s always the thought of, okay, if you extend Marlon Umphrey now, you’ll lower his 2025 number, which will be convenient, and would certainly be cap space that you’re going to need, you know, to make some other moves here and there, not colossal moves, but moves. But you know, the the other side of that is you’re committing money to him two years from now, three years from now, where he is going to be closer to 30 or on the wrong side of 30 by then. So, so you’re always asking these questions, but you know, I think the good news is, you know, as you weigh all these and you mall all these options, is still a really good roster. They have an MVP quarterback, and they have all pro talent on both sides of the ball. Yeah, they need to figure out left tackle. And yeah, we’ll see what else they might do with the offensive line. And yeah, we’ll see what happens with safety. I mean, it’s not like the cupboards bear there. They’re going to have our Darius Washington and Kyle Hamilton both back. We’ll see what happens at edge rusher. To me, that’s a position. I mean, let’s face it, annually, we’re talking about that, right? Van Noy is another year older. Ways in a contract year, are you going to try to extend him? What else happens beyond that? I mean, David ojabo is still not looking like any kind of a meaningful answer. Where’s the decisaac who was hurt most of his rookie year? So that’s a position so they have positions of need, positions they need to address, but that’s every team. I mean, Kansas City. Big question that I think is obvious for them, after watching the Super Bowl and watching the Eagles front get after Patrick mahomes, what are they doing at left tackle? Because Joe toonie is a guard right? He’s an All Pro guard. He’s not a left tackle. I think the Super Bowl made that painfully clear for them so and I don’t think
Nestor Aparicio 22:39
they would want Ronnie Stanley as an example.
Luke Jones 22:41
Um, they might, but, but that, but that right there lends itself to the complications of what’s going to happen with Ronnie Stanley, because all it’s going to take is one team. I’ve seen some patriots reporters opine about, hey, maybe go after Ronnie Stanley to give Drake May a really, you know, give him the kind of left tackle and of the Blind Side reliability that a young quarterback needs. So all it takes is one team viewing him through that lens, viewing him through the lens of, hey, this guy’s a former pro bowl player, and he played every game last year, and he was good. You know, even if he wasn’t great, he was good, and he’s the best that’s going to be out there, most likely. So, yeah, it’s complicated on that front, and that’s why the ravens, you know, they’re trying to weigh it too. You know, is Roger Rosengarten an option to play left tackle for you. I mean, if he is, that makes this conversation and your your different paths that you can take, that makes it way different, right? I mean, if you think Rosengarten can move to left tackle, then, yeah, you need to get find a right tackle again, but you have a little more flexibility in finding someone that might be able to play both, rather than, you know, needing a franchise left tackle. So, you know, all these questions are, what the brain trust have been mauling, you know, even before last season ended. But a lot of that starts to come to the forefront now, because we’re getting close to that time where, yeah, you’ve got to make sure your ducks are in order from a salary cap standpoint. And you know, you look at what Draft Draft capital you have, you look at how much cap space you’re going to have, you know, you look at your long term planning it, you know, as we mentioned, Kyle Hamilton and Tyler linderbaum. I mean, these are going to be, Hamilton’s going to be, I’ll say it right now. I have no doubt my mind, whether it’s the Ravens or, heaven forbid, someone else, barring something bizarre happening this year, like a serious injury or something like that. Kyle Hamilton’s gonna be the highest paid safety in football. I mean, would you, would you disagree with that? I mean, I think he’s going to set the mark, reset the market. Linder bomb is going to be right up there, right? I mean, I don’t know if he’ll be the highest, but he’ll certainly be second or third, if he’s not first. So these are big time financial. Commitments they’re going to have to make. So what are you, I don’t want to say sacrificing, but what are you perhaps needing to forgo, or what are you going to have to abstain from? Or, you know, because you have to pay Tyler linderbaum. Is that another reason why you kind of say with Ronnie Stanley, you know, is that really the best thing for us to commit more money to someone that’s has an injury history, and he’s on the wrong side of 30 at this point in time. So, you know, these are the questions you have to to answer. And you know, to kind of go back to the four to the beginning of our discussion, talking about Mark Andrews. You know, anyone sitting there say, How can you even suggest the possibility of trading Mark Andrews? Well, if you traded Anquan bold in a month after he was a big reason why you won the Super Bowl, you know, all bets are off in terms of at least that being a possibility. Do I think it’s going to happen? I don’t know. Well, this
Nestor Aparicio 25:57
is, let’s wrap with this, because they’re going to, like, wind up doing an Indianapolis thing to cost. Oh, and we’ll have, we’ll actually have more substance. Luke and Luke Jones is here. We’re going to do a lot of baseball this week. I’m back on the beat. Big appreciation everybody for a couple Super Bowl last thing on the Tucker thing. And this is nothing to do with massages or He Said, She Said, the banner, I’ve invited Julie sharp or Justin Fenton, Chris Corman, the banner team on. I even invited Pam wood on to talk about what’s going on Annapolis, with budgets, and Wes Moore and all that too. So just in a general sense, we’re gonna be doing a lot. I have Hank Azaria on this week, all sorts of committed guests. In lots of ways, we’re gonna be talking things. But the Tucker thing from a football perspective, um, I talked to a friend of mine over the weekend, and they said he they’re gonna trade him. And I’m like, is he even tradable right now in that way where the leagues investigate, like, all of this, like, I don’t know. I don’t think that’s I don’t think they’re going to do anything other than cut them or not. And right now it’s not. And if the press release gets issued as Harbaugh and to cost to take the podium in Indianapolis, and we’ll have the W, N, S, T tech service out. If you’re on it, you’ll know. If you’re not, get on it, just text us to join. Join to 410-821-9678, Luke, I don’t it’s weird. It’s weird. Water with the money, the kicker, the greatest kicker ever. He wasn’t very good last year. Would they want to move on anyway? If none of this had happened, just all of that, but the devalue, if that were the case in this massage thing weren’t happening, they probably could deal, let me get a fourth round pick or something to somebody, if there were such a thing. But I don’t, I don’t think that’s even possible, given the cloud over him, how much money is involved, possible suspension, like all of those kinds of things that could be up in the air, because it’s very nebulous. Yeah. I mean,
Luke Jones 27:48
I I’d have a tough time seeing a trade, right? I mean, I agree. And look, people will say, well, the Texans traded to Sean Watson, the value of a franchise quarterback who, at the time, was perceived as a superstar, right? Regardless of how he’s performed since arriving in Cleveland and being terrible. But at the time, he was viewed as, you know, he was viewed as a top five kind of quarterback, right? I mean, he was viewed in that tier, or at least very close to that tier. So, so it’s, to me, it’s apples to oranges on that
Nestor Aparicio 28:19
front. I don’t think you can deal with with Tucker or or trade for him without talking to him first and at least having some questions. I mean, they’re out there poking and prodding kids the next couple days with all these questions and stuff like that. I can’t sign Justin Tucker deal for Justin Tucker right now, if I’m in Jesus without talking to him, his agent, what’s going on? Because, let’s be honest, he had the yips last year, in a general sense, and all of this nonsense. It’s just not something you want to like, as they would say, he’s a kicker. Yeah, well, I’m not dealing with this. I don’t think any franchise will want to touch this, but I do think you’ll kick this year. I’ve made that right now, from a trade standpoint,
Luke Jones 29:00
I’m in agreement with you. I just, I don’t see and again, this goes back to how bad he was free by right? He came back after the buy, and he made every kick. We pointed out, however he was, it’s not like he was making 56 yarders at the gun when you’re down two or anything like that. There wasn’t really that scenario for him, but he made every kick to his credit from a, you know, on field performance standpoint. But yeah, there are questions there. And I mean, look, even if, even if the the allegations weren’t even part of this discussion, how much is a kicker really worth in a trade, right? I mean, Justin Tucker five years ago. Okay, I’ll hear you a little more on that, but not like someone’s trading a first round pick for him, though, either, right? I mean, I I don’t think you’d see anything resembling that. So, so I don’t think you see that. I think if the Ravens move on from him, and at this point, who knows, because they haven’t said a word. Since the initial statement, he’s
Nestor Aparicio 30:01
innocent until proven guilty, and he’s got years left on his deal. And that’s the official line is, which I wrote to Steve Bucha,
Luke Jones 30:08
and behind the scenes, you obviously are doing lots of homework on kickers right now. And look, I think that was the case. I’m guessing, last November, they were starting to do homework on kickers with the way that Justin Tucker was looking in terms of, all right, who’s coming out of the draft? Who could we get as a priority free agent who kicked in the UFL this past spring that actually looked at, and we talked about, there was actually some accomplished NFL kickers who were in the UFL, which is what the USFL and the XFL merged for anyone who’s confused. I don’t watch it. I just know that that’s happened. But, you know, I think, I think you have to prepare as though he’s not going to be on your team, in terms of the prep that you’re doing. And you know, the NFL, you know, this past week, you know, the NFL is working on an investigation. You know, we can certainly debate the merits of that, knowing how the league has handled I just let me laugh out loud twice. I hear you, but there, there’s at least something going on, right, whether it’s legit or whether it’s eyewash or very superficial.
Nestor Aparicio 31:10
WBA reports it in WJZ and all the other media companies have been hiding from they’re hiding from it. The NFL is investigating it, and nobody’s speaking and, I mean, it’s an amazing thing when you’ve got a billion dollar company, it really is, and they’re gonna go to Indianapolis this week. And I mean, I can see the cost of saying something completely flippantly. We’re not going to talk about it. Boom. And then, and then just burn hardball to get that thing going with his jaw that he gets going and, you know, like, I don’t know, but they got to do something. And I’ve talked to women this week that are like, watching this from a women’s point of view and saying, This isn’t cool, sure,
Luke Jones 31:52
sure. And you know, we’ve talked about this. I mean, on one hand, you say, Okay, it’s a kicker, right? And again, that’s why I said that. The comparisons to Sean Watson, I mean, you’re talking about even, even as an accomplished, potential Hall of Fame kicker, there’s only so much value to that, compared to what Lamar Jackson does, right, as your quarterback, as your franchise. So, so there’s that. But you know, you just look at it, and you know, if you’re the ravens, all right, if you’ve taken the stance that you’re at least going to let this play out, see what happens, see what the league finds. Of course, they’re presumably investigating on their own behind the scenes, trying to figure out make heads from tails, with everything that’s been reported, and even everything that hasn’t been reported necessarily. But you know, at the end of the day is it, is this really worth continuing because of what you just said in terms of, hey, he’s 35 and he’s coming off the worst year of his career. And you know, plenty of people have speculated. I mean, we we’ve mentioned it in passing with his struggles, even though he got himself righted and he kicked much better the last month of the season. Was any of that stemming from knowing that this was boiling beneath the surface? I don’t know. I have no idea, right? I mean, only, only Justin Tucker could answer that, and he might not even know, right? So you just look at all this and you say, is it worth it, right? Is it truly worth it, understanding the fallout off the field big time, and what that could mean in terms of your brand and PR backlash, and to your point, understanding what percentage of NFL fans are women, right? We understand that. But you know, on the flip side, much like the Ray Rice thing a decade ago, this is a player that’s been with you a long time. You feel a certain way about how he is as a performer, you feel a certain way about how he is what you thought he was off the field. And look, I’m not going to sit here and and say definitively whether the Ravens had ever heard whisperings of the whispers of this behind this the scenes. But, you know, it does make it kind of hard to believe that they wouldn’t have heard some semblance of smoke about this the way that you know people you know that are in the wellness and spa network around the the area, that would tell you that this wasn’t, wasn’t even that much of a a secret, right? You know, in terms of the conjecture and, you know, speculation as far as him, but you know, you just look at it, and you take a step back, you say, Is this really going to be, you know, sticking by him and sticking with him and saying, yeah, he’s our kicker and He’s our guy. Is that really going to be what’s best for you off the field, big time question there, right? But even on the field and understanding that, yeah, I mean, this is actually a time where you can, kind of, you can kind of hide behind the fact that he wasn’t very good this past year, even if you had, had heard whispers and, you know, smoke about him. I’m kind of being this kind of individual behind the scenes years ago, right? So, you know, I think it’s one of those that I’m kind of with you. In fact, my prediction right now would be that we’re not going to hear John Harbaugh or Eric the cost to say anything of substance about it, and they’re going to lean, you know, they’re going to defer to the statement, and they’re going to defer to the league investigating it, right? That’s it. Right? That’s my prediction as far as what will happen. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong or or that’s the right play or not. I think that’s what’s going to happen. You know. I don’t think we’re going to get some lengthy statement, you know, from them about, you know, dressing down Tucker or speaking out about these accusations one way or the other. I think they’re going to say as little as possible about it, I guess, because if they were going to get on the podium and and pound the podium and speak about disappointment and outrage about it or anything, if that would be the message, I think he already would have been cut a couple weeks ago, right? Or they would have announced their intentions to release him a couple weeks ago. So I
Nestor Aparicio 36:02
guess I wrote the letter to Steve Bucha. I’m not reading it on the air or whatever, but he’s the one making hundreds of millions of dollars off of this. He’s the one sanctioning all of this. He’s the one who was evaporated and put all of these other less than perfect humans out in front of it. And for that, that’s just that’s just an unconscionable dereliction of being in front of your brand, and it just speaks a lot about who they are, how they’re conducting business these days. And that doesn’t stand to shock anyone. In regard to the NFL questions for Eric to cost the questions for John Harbaugh, there will be some in Indianapolis. Luke and I will have answers and maybe questions on the back end of all that this week, let’s get to some baseball. We’re going to training hope springs eternal. I’m going to let Luke make fun of me in the next segment for actually thinking about booking a spring training trip right in the middle of the tampering period. He is Luke. He can be found at Baltimore, Luke. We’re out on Instagram, here, there, everywhere, with hundreds of 1000s of you following us. No one listens. Everyone hears my hate mail is just up, up. I’m getting, I’m gonna give a whole segment to my hate mail. What a world it’s baseball season. Next, I promise. On Baltimore. Posit.
