Luke Jones and Nestor discuss all changes in Ravens front office and coping with the upcoming on-the-field losses in free agency at Koco’s on Crab Cake Row on “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl Week” for the Maryland Food Bank.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
year, coach, ravens, john harbaugh, play, zach, good, ronnie stanley, coaching, told, team, calling, maryland, defensive coordinator, left, jerry, draft, baltimore, coco, week
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:00
Come back. We are live at Koco’s pub. We are in Lawrenceville, there’s a sign right on the door only nice people allowed so they let Luke in he just made it in under it’s kind of like at the at Hershey Park you know just under the the right height to get in here. I just get his Baltimore positive gear on. He is I don’t know that five bites into that crab cake then he put a dent in it really delicious. We’ve destroyed the coconut shrimp around here. You know we’re sick as my co host for the K. I’m at eggnog by the way just let’s go. Let’s go. He told me was off the menu. I got friends here loop. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery 10 times to cash we’re giving these away. I have a stack of these rods drop these off this morning. She was my first guests morning Mayor lottery. So I have a stack of these to give away will be at State Fair all day tomorrow nine to five and Catonsville Friday, we’re moving up to Pappas and Cockeysville. I thought we were going to have a little purple pep rally. I didn’t know Luke would thought he was going to be in Las Vegas. And in the inclinometer there overlooking the Excalibur in the strip, Mandalay Bay, I’m sure you’ve seen some radio row stuff and some media row stuff from the first couple of days out there. And the game. Let’s talk some ravens here. I want to do that I want to say hello to Jiffy Lube. And you can do multi care as well as our friends window nation. 866 90 nation, we’re putting this out. We’re gonna have a whole bunch of new sponsors. This year, we’re doing the crabcake tour, we’re doing all this stuff. I don’t know at what point football becomes. Like the thing we don’t talk about for a week or two, when baseball becomes that because we’re on the precipice of massive change in baseball. And you and I did a long first segment here. We’re six gonna join us later on about baseball, but I want to talk about football with you. Not necessarily the game this week, but just Raven stuff. Since the last time we talked, Anthony Weaver left. Bill it many, many times would say to me sort of flippantly, I’m not gonna let them just bring a U haul back here and take Rex and Mike and Jack and Marvin, again more of it, but they aren’t getting the rest of these guys, you know what I mean? And they’re not getting, you know, what just happened out there was a bloodletting in a coaching sense. You know, like, and I don’t know, what the plan was Zach, and a fresh start and all that where John’s head is after losing a championship game and the offensive Monken. But changes are blowing. And maybe it’s good change, right? I mean, Jack were bred to do this.
Luke Jones 02:29
I mean, it’s this is the cost of success, right? If you’re a good organization, and you have good coaches, and you have good players that you want them, so this is going to happen. I mean, it’s Tony
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:40
Bharti was here with us, either way, but yeah, in a big,
Luke Jones 02:44
big picture sense. It’s, you know, it’s, you know, this, this, these are good things. If no one ever wants your people, chances are you’re probably not doing things right. So from that standpoint, I mean, everybody wanted their we’ve talked about Mike McDonald for even going back to last offseason, I think there was a growing sense that their defense is as good or better than it was the year before. It’s gonna be tough to keep him. You know, and we’ve seen that head coaches are trending younger. I mean, Bill Belichick didn’t get a job. Mike rabl Didn’t get a job. You know, some veteran coaches Yes, landed somewhere else. But you’re seeing this trend younger. So the Ravens have a lot of young coaches Mike McDonald, Anthony Weaver, Denard Wilson, I mean, it’s this is what happens. But it’s an opportunity for someone like Zach or who, it’s wild to think seven years ago. In fact, I even had a chance to chat with him for a few minutes after his press conference on Tuesday. He said, we’ve come a long way since doing the live radio shows way back when and I love it. Yeah, you can just love love loves it. And I think a couple things. This is fascinating first, after years of fans talking about Ed Reed or Ray Lewis or any former player being a coach, you know, being not head coach but assistant coach, first former ravens player to become a Ravens coordinator. There have been some former ravens players who’ve been a coordinator elsewhere, Mike Caldwell comes to mind right away. But first former ravens player to become a Ravens coordinator. And also, and you’ll appreciate this as someone who’s very close with this individual, first ravens defensive coordinator since Marvin Lewis, who had not been a defensive coordinator anywhere else prior to that. I mean, now Marvin had what 1516 years of experience as a linebackers coach, I think for different colleges and of course with the Steelers, but Zach was calling plays for the first time and I mean, I asked Harbaugh about this last Friday. I know Zach was asked about this when he spoke with the media on Tuesday. That’s that’s part of this. It’s going to be what?
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:45
Where’s the green.at? Any point what would would be considered to be a guy who is at least chatting the plays out in his own mind? This is a good player a bad play, right? I mean, if you’ve been that guy, you’re thinking if you’re a catcher, this is a good pitcher a bad pitch for Your pitcher, you know, what are you gonna call in this circumstance? Somebody’s got to make that call at any point.
Luke Jones 05:05
But until you’ve done it, there’s there’s going to be some unknown there. So I think Zach was asked about it. I think he answered it really well, you could check it out. I wrote about it at Baltimore positive.com. This morning, just touching on it. But he had been told, and I don’t know the individual who told him, I’m guessing it was a collection of some of the veteran coaches, he was told three or four years ago said, Look, if you have aspirations of being a defensive coordinator one day and you’re calling the plays, you need to start thinking about that now, because you don’t want to be wait until the bullets fly, you’re like, wait, well, what alignment do we want to be? What personnel grouping? Do we want to have coming in here and everything? So it’s something he’s mentally been preparing for? It’s something that he was asked what makes him so confident that he can do it, he’s like, I’m going to prepare, I’m going to work my tail off, and I’m going to be ready. He said, You’re not calm. If you’re not confident, chances are, you’re not prepared. So I think it’s a little more magnified, considering the exodus that they just had with some of their veteran, not even veteran, just their defensive coaches that are highly
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:04
regarded only could those guys have been defensive coordinators here. They’re all defensive coordinators. Sure. Exactly. You John had to pick the one he wanted. Yeah. You know, I mean, that to some degree to the real degree, because once McDonald’s stepped up, he had three guys, he had an associate coach, also a raven alum, who’s further along the food chain, of being that guy and Anthony Weaver. And when Weaver didn’t get the gig here, it really told me how Jon’s heart was on that. And then I thought, well, we’ll hold on maybe Steve will give Anthony Weaver a couple million bucks and say, you’re gonna be John, in the way that whatever the Bella check deal was there. That’s always weird, as you can ask James Franklin and Marilyn and like, but that rarely
Luke Jones 06:48
works. I mean, we’re I think it can work. Hey, worked with the caster knauz worked out great. But there are lots of times you can see something like that not working out very
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:57
well, George. He’s left too. So we talked about other guys leaving and other coaches leaving to take promotions. It is. It’s an exodus unlike anything we’ve ever seen out there. I would say that.
Luke Jones 07:09
I mean, it’s it’s definitely up there. I mean, there have been some years where they’ve lost multiple assistants, not after they do the AFC Championship game. But I think when you look at this, I mean, let’s face it, Zach Gore is a cup a few years younger than Mike McDonald was and Mike McDonald had the one year apprenticeship in Michigan, right. So it is a little more magnified. Look, I don’t think it’s a deal breaker that Zack Ward can’t be a great defensive coordinator because he hasn’t called plays before. But until he’s done it, that’s an unknown. I mean, it is it was for Marvin in 1996. We saw Mike McDonald have growing pains early on last year, before obviously became one of the you know, if not the highest regarded head or defensive coordinator in the NFL, it’s wise coach in Seattle now. But I think when you look at some of the losses, I think it certainly stands to reason that probably want to bring in a couple veteran assistants, maybe with some play calling experience. Not that they’re gonna step on his toes, but to guide Zach or a little more and say, okay, when you’re calling plays, you know, the bullets are flying, think about this, and don’t lose your head about this. Don’t be focused on this. Here’s what you want to do. And I, I’m sure he’s scrimmage some of that. And he’ll do that this offseason. But that’s why I you know, there’s a report that they’re bringing in Doug Mallory, you know, he was at Michigan most recently has some connections with the hardball family. Looking at his resume, he’s been a defensive coordinator for different college programs. Now, you know, he’s older, it’s not gonna be a threat to Zach war. But he’s someone who’s been in that chair before so to speak. So I think it makes sense to bring in a couple coaches who have called plays at some point in time just to
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:43
add, appears brought in Marvin Lewis. Yeah, exactly. So
Luke Jones 08:46
I mean, I think that’s gonna be something they’re gonna have to work through, as John Harbaugh said, But you just said it, the fact that, okay, there’s nothing you’re gonna do to keep Mike McDonald other than
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:59
be asked to him, right, the press conference, by the way, but I mean, but it’s fancy face or anything you could have done to keep offensive coordinator from getting
Luke Jones 09:07
and that’s where, and that’s where, you know, you just kind of say it, was there a coaching waiting scenario, like Eric with Ozzy years ago. But you know, you can ask the question in a roundabout way there, but
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:16
the fact that you know, what, I’d like to ask that question to Steve Ashada.
Luke Jones 09:20
Sure. That’s fair enough. Yeah,
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:21
that’s fair enough to really deserve. We
Luke Jones 09:23
haven’t heard from him knowings mills in six years. But that said, I think it was very telling what John in the organization thought of Zack, because that could have been Anthony Weaver. That could have been Denard Wilson who hasn’t been in Baltimore long but has more experienced coaching than the Eagles shot so yeah, yeah. I think talk that Eagles fan they, they made the mistake. They should have promoted him last year and not uh, you know, hired the CHE to say, but you know, I think it speaks to how highly they think of him because he is lacking experience. He’s 31 years old. He played with Michael Pierce. Right. Zach Moore’s Law. Last year was Michael Pearce. his rookie year as an undrafted. Rookie so joked about Zach with that after the press conference, but, you know, he’s, it took him hardly any time at all to really embrace the coaching life. I think I shared this with you last week when we talked about this, but I remember running into him at the facility. Probably a few weeks after he had started, he started like late training camp of 2017. Because remember, he, he was trying to play elsewhere, no one would clear him with his mind condition. So he officially announced his retirement, I think, July or August, whatever it was. And then it was the end of August, he was in the Ravens building as a personnel and coaching assistant, basically an intern for lack of a better term, but running into him a few weeks later, I said, What do you think so far? He’s like, Luke. I knew coaches worked hard. I had no idea. No idea. And it’s a common refrain, by the way, always. Tony Jefferson. I remember talking to him not long ago and him saying the same thing. But but he’s, he’s embraced that. And I’m thinking I
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:59
remember being with Jim Schwartz and Martin Lewis in 1996 in them saying, These guys have no idea. Exactly. It has no idea. I mean,
Luke Jones 11:06
I flat out kind of joked with him, I’m like, you’ve just embraced not having any other aspect of life. And
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:11
Lewis told me that 10 o’clock on the office line, yeah, at night. Like, really, it’s like when I go home, have dinner with my wife and see Marcus and my daughter, and then I come back to work at nine o’clock they go to bed. Yeah. And I go back to work. And you know, I worked 1130 Go home, sleep, get back up at five and come back to work. Yeah.
Luke Jones 11:28
Yeah. I mean, I live close to the way of life. It really is. And I mean, so many coaches, so many players. Try it. And they realize that’s not for man read. And I know, there have been, I think Zack even said this, when we were just talking, you know, this was nothing, you know, it was just off the record, but it’s harmless. He made the comment that he thinks if you’re a former player, and you want to go into coaching, do it right away. Because if you take a couple years off playing golf, it’s like holy cow, I have I can’t do this. So but you know, getting back to what this means for the Ravens means can be interesting in the sense. I mean, if even if we’re going to call it save Zack, or is going to be as good as maximum, Mike McDonald was, which is a total water might be Donald’s really good. You know, you saw what five or six different teams interviewed him to be a head coach. So he was very, very highly thought of, but losing these other assistants, I mean, it’s very clear that the Ravens on the defensive side especially had a cast of stars as far as their defensive assistance, and we know that the they’re going to experience some attrition on the free agent side, you know, with players so I don’t expect this defense to drop off dramatically. But are they going to lead the league in scoring, takeaways and sacks again, the first time in NFL history someone had done that, probably, I’m gonna use
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:47
the word all summer long, they’re gonna be a diminished team this year. And perception. Now in reality, they go play in perception, we’re gonna look at their team. And think, that look as good as last year in the same way, we looked at 21 Yuanda went away, and we’re like, you know, they’re gonna madmen, Ronnie Stanley got hurt. Yeah, they’re gonna miss something. They’re gonna, they’re gonna, first off, they’re gonna lose queen, they’re gonna lose a lot. This can lose a lot of guys. And whatever the perception is of whoever’s gonna play linebacker and whoever’s going to play left tackle, I guess. I mean, I’m thinking the positions where there’s going to be change, maybe.
Luke Jones 13:24
I mean, there’s, there’s still a lot to sort out there, including the cap. Not as, but it’s also not as simple as just releasing him in February. And that’s that
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:34
told me to deal with him what I mean, he told me to do, really,
Luke Jones 13:37
and I don’t have the number. I don’t have the numbers memorized, and they’re not in front of me, but probably have to do a post June 1. So that right off the bat, okay, you can clear cap space, but that’s not available to you until June 1,
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:49
when you draft the left. So with the 30th, pick, right? You can
Luke Jones 13:53
and look, you can draft a really good tackle 30th Overall, that’s usually not a year one left tackle though, right, generally Fair enough. So I still think the best course of action and probably the most realistic course of action for them if they are set on we need to move on from this as reasonably quickly as we can. is probably one more year with Ronnie Stanley. See if he’ll take a take a haircut because chances are, you know what his cap picker is, which I think is 26. That’s the overall number but he’s given us.
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:26
I mean, why would he get on the mark? Right? I
Luke Jones 14:29
mean, that’s, I mean, he get money but not what the ravens are gonna pay him this year.
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:33
If you’re afraid of Lamar get hurt. Right? Right. So I
Luke Jones 14:37
think what you’d be looking at is, can you work on the deal, take a cut, maybe it’s even a case of he takes a pay cut and then you do what they did with gusset I think it was Gus Edwards this past year where then you made the remaining years of the deal, avoid years and basically it’s okay, we’ll take a cut, but if you bounce back, you’ll hit the market and you’ll have a chance to bite bite at the apple you know as a free agent If you’re healthy and clean. was sort of the guy you were four years ago compared to what he’s been. You and I look at each other and think probably not a great chance. Right. Right. So you know, his salary looking at it, I think it’s a Levin, I think he does have a roster bonus that’s do that’s four or 5 million more. So, you know, it’s easier said than done. It’s easy to say you want to replace him, but you got to go do it. So I think the most realistic scenario is one more year with Stanley, you try to work on the deal to alleviate some of that cap, create some cap flexibility, draft his replacement, and his replacement plays. Left Guard like Jonathan Ogden did in 1996 or right tackle and you let Morgan Moses go what, however you want to do it, that’s probably the way I foresee it, playing out the most realistic way. Because again, even if you release them, you’re not gonna get that cap flexibility right away. And you’re drafting 30 And you’re not drafting six liquids when you drafted him. We’re gonna sit
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:57
here and go back and read six is going to come on a little bit. He’s here drinking water, he’s hydrating properly. For the for the events here, we’re Coco’s pub. We’re doing all this on behalf of the Maryland lottery and our friends weathernation and shifting the multi care wise markets royal farms, they’re all with us. Rep. Raskin global is with us in spirit, but he’s on the beach in LA right now. And we’re doing canned goods for the Maryland food bank. If you bring them you get a cup of soup or bowl, we’re calling this crabcake row. Every single thing you’re talking about, I’m going to keep going the word is going to be diminished. Yeah, diminished is going to be my word there gonna be a diminished roster next year and what they can do with that what the coaches can do with that with the Mars magic can do with that with the passing game really takes another step next year, there’s not going to be any Beckham. There’s not going to be any queen or Mata BK is going to get a phone number, Ronnie Stanley is not going to be better left tackle no matter how you bake this, whatever you do with this, he’s gonna go play the way he’s gonna play. And Linda balm and Kyle Hamilton are moving into a place where you’re going to they’re going to earn some money. I mean, they’re earning money
Luke Jones 16:59
and still get better. So there are sending players. No,
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:02
no, no, they’re really good players, but they’re going to start costing you money to
Luke Jones 17:08
24, though, fairly, you’re right. I’ll say this, they’re not gonna be in the free agent. But I’ll say that at all. I mean, they’re always in it with someone of value.
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:18
You’re not first a free agent stupid. Anybody let somebody else Wow. Patrick, queen, right point. Take
Luke Jones 17:22
it Yeah. But I’ll also I’ll present this where has been 14 and two or 13. And three gotten them in January over the last five years. So participation for this kind of goes back to what we’ve talked about in terms of where they go. If they go 14 And three, everyone’s gonna shrug and they’re gonna say what Okay, I’ll see what happens third week of January. I mean, that’s where they are right now. So in some way they can’t win a game or we could do away there this what you just presented about them being diminished and look I’m not disagreeing with your overall point but a lot can happen. Look, you’re gonna have to draft well which is
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:03
a hell of a year to fix but right for the Bengals will be 13 and four, and you’ll be playing on the road in Buffalo week one and Cincinnati and week two, and maybe you maybe you do at Kansas and that’s why i never thought i If you were to give me $1 I’m gonna bet on Lamar winning the Superbowl or not. That would have been my prescription. Until such point the burro got hurt. The charger stunk turn. They were really good. The Kyle Hamilton’s in the Linder, bombs ascended. Beckham performed good. They stayed on the field. Right. I mean, they had they were great this year. I mean,
Luke Jones 18:33
I’m not that I want to belabor that it was the best regular season team in the history of the franchise family
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:38
sat on Monday.
Luke Jones 18:41
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So look, it’s over. That doesn’t mean they’re going to fall apart. If you have a healthy Lamar Jackson in the regular season, it has proven over and over and over again, you are going to win a lot of football games, and you’re gonna be in the playoffs, whether you’re the division winner and the number one seed or your wildcard, you know, so that’s, that’s understood at this point, they’re not going to be so diminished that that’s not going to be sitting there, assuming you have a reasonable set of expectations in terms of injuries, things of that nature. So, so that’s what, but that’s the challenge. This is the NFL Not for long, right? I mean, the chiefs were a diminished version this year of what they had been a year ago, two years ago, years ago. So there you go. I mean, that’s, that’s where it Flacco was planking. This doesn’t make for great radio. And look, we’re going to talk about every element of the offseason. We’re going to talk about preseason, while we won’t actually talk about the fake football games, but we’ll talk about training camp. And we will talk about every game week in and week out. But we will all will be understanding at this point that none of it really matters that much to the big picture narrative and
Nestor J. Aparicio 19:51
they win the AFC Championship game next year. And this current
Luke Jones 19:56
era of ravens football including the second half of John Harbaugh, halls legacy set their have their own bar. And look, I’m the guy that constantly remind you it’s important as sports fans to not just be so focused on the end result and to enjoy the journey because if not, boy, it is an effort in vain to be a sports fan. If your validation for for it is winning a championship every so many years, but it it that is what this team is facing right now. From top on down, and the fan base, it really is a case of you’ve got to break through how are you going to figure out how to break through? And I don’t think the answer is easily in 2019. You know, when that happened in January of 21. We’re talking about the passing game, the passing game, the passing game, okay. Their passing game was markedly better this year. Lamar Jackson played from the pocket at a much higher level this year than he had earlier on in his career. But still, they’re still third week
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:52
of January. Yeah. So that’s,
Luke Jones 20:55
that’s a tough, that’s gonna weigh on them mentally. And I don’t say that in a doom and gloom way that they won’t overcome that. But that’s a challenge. That’s a challenge for John Harbaugh. Right now. That’s a big challenge for Lamar Jackson right now who’s about to accept his second MVP award in five years, which is a tremendous honor. He’s worth his lucrative contract. He’s worth every penny that everyone not named Patrick mahomes is getting paid right now. But he, he and they, they need a Super Bowl. And until they get that there’s going to be this constant. Yeah, but and some of the criticism is unfair. Some of its over the top, there’s no question about it. Even a lot of it’s over the top. But at the end of the day, people are saying you can’t win in January, and you’re not winning in January. What are you going to say back so it’s tough. And again, they just kind of have to keep plugging along. And in the meantime, to you’re going back to your original point, they are going to experience some attrition, and they are going to need some young guys to step up. I mean, you mentioned Patrick queen, it’s gonna be a big offseason for Trenton Simpson, the guy they drafted in the third round back in April to be the heir apparent. I think he can do the job. But just like Zack, were calling plays until he’s out there and we see him doing it. There’s some unknown there, there is unknown. There’s always unknown about all these guys. Well, there’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 22:09
like a first round draft pick like Patrick Queen blossomed into well, he’s the
Luke Jones 22:13
third round pick, you need them to like the first round, you look like a starter, you know, if that’s the case, then they’ll be okay there. You know, I mean, they The thing I’ll say, yes, they’re losing. They’ve lost some coaches, they’re gonna lose. Some players still have a lot of really good football players on this team on both sides of the ball that are coming back. And guys that you hope are going to be healthy like Marlon Humphrey, for example. But yeah, it’s tough not to look at this season as a major missed opportunity, because of all the variables Kansas City being down buffalo having to scratch and call just to get to the playoffs the way they did. Cincinnati not being in the picture, because it burrow. I mean, the chargers, right. I think Justin Herbert’s a good, really good quarterback, I think I think the Chargers could be a sleeping giant, they have Jim Harbaugh now and Joe Ortiz, and we’ll see are sleeping just so you know, so it’s not going to get any easier. That’s for sure. You know, it’s only going to get more challenging. That said, the ravens are a team to be reckoned with to all those other teams are talking about Baltimore in the same way other than Kansas City, you know, because they become the new patriots and everyone’s chasing them. So, you know, it’s it’s tough not to, and I think that’s where fans are struggling. Thank goodness for the Orioles. Good News to kind of distract people and we
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:27
might not. There’s a whole lot I mean, 25 minutes, we have talked about Jerry Rosberg at all or anything. You know, I was weird. I mean, there’s all day weird. There’s
Luke Jones 23:35
anchors, they were hush hush about this. Look, I don’t know. I’m not gonna sit here and say I know what happened there. I’ll say this. John Harbaugh and Jerry Rosberg have a great relationship. Jerry Rosberg his daughter works for the organization works for John. I suspect, maybe whoever you know, and what Tom pelissero of NFL Network was? No, no other reporters that confirmed it or anything like that. I mean, I hadn’t gotten confirmation from anyone about it. My gut tells me, Jerry has been retired. You know, he retired in 2019. With the ravens, he did have the five minutes as with the Broncos and being their interim head coach, I’m guessing there was dialogue. And I wouldn’t be shocked and maybe something will come out and I’m completely wrong about this will be the first time I’m wrong. I’ll be wrong again. I think it could be as simple as Jerry had a change of heart that. I don’t know if I really want to get back into this to that degree. I don’t know. Well, John Harbaugh will be asked at the Combine or the next time he talks probably won’t give. Maybe he will, maybe he won’t, because maybe it is as simple as Jerry just slept on it and said, You know what? I don’t want to devote that much time to it. But it was interesting from the standpoint of Jerry Rosberg has a lot to offer an organization we saw that with how he did kind of stabilize the Broncos at the end after what was a disaster. Kind of a season for them to think
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:57
about the cost of standing behind hardball on the sidelines every week. Unlike where the strategy is where it comes from, and, you know, I think wet the bed on several times as good as the team was, John made mistakes. You know, John John made mistakes, Shawn had some breakdowns, like and in a way you don’t want your head coach to have a great special teams coach catching that ball with two minutes left and lose that game. I mean, crazy
25:19
gets cold. Yeah, sure. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:21
mean, crazy stuff.
Luke Jones 25:22
I will say this, as far as because a lot of people were taking the Ross Perot taking a game management position. And look, there was no official he wasn’t even hired. So we don’t know what the title
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:32
will be the special teams coach, he was gonna be assistant head Kai, and it’s sort of in the Anthony lever,
Luke Jones 25:37
he certainly would have still been involved with special teams because what he’s been out there as a guest for them the last couple years, he’s involved with special teams. But I do think that was a little overblown, because I have said this to you in defense of John Harbaugh, which is also a criticism of John Harbaugh. Every coach in the league has their occasional struggles with those issues. So I think the idea of a game management coach is a great idea. Why wouldn’t you want more people involved with your process and improving how you do things? There is no coaching salary cap? Like there’s no you don’t get a medal for? Well, you shouldn’t get these things wrong in the game. I agree. The organization what if you have if you have someone who’s at a 30,000 foot look, sitting up, you know, in the press box and the coach’s box away from the sideline in the chaotic nature that the sideline can be? I mean, I’m there on the sideline and training camp training camp. I can’t imagine what it’s like in week 17. When you’re playing for the division, it’s chaotic down there. So I think every coach in the league, not just John Harbaugh could benefit from that idea. However, it would look and look their teams have people that focus on that, including the ravens, but you can always get better at that, but it was definitely strange. Again, the team did not put it out. So you know, whatever happened there was someone was overzealous talking to Tom pelissero. He was overzealous based on what he heard, who knows, or maybe like I said, it could have been as simple as Jerry Rosberg woke up the next morning and thought, You know what? I’m done being a full time coach, I don’t think I really want to do this to that degree. Maybe we’ll find out. Maybe we won’t. But certainly it was. It was strange, because like I said, it’s not. John Harbaugh and Jerry Rosberg are very close. You know, this isn’t some I can’t fathom that it was a falling out that got contentious or anything of that nature. But the
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:23
weird thing is he retired to kick back and didn’t retire again. Yeah. And that that all led to speculation that John retired him. Yeah, I mean,
Luke Jones 27:35
I never got that sense. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:36
think he’s been back a million times. Right. So I mean, that’s the thing. I
Luke Jones 27:39
mean, he’s come back plenty of times, like I said, his daughter works for the ravens, you know. So it’s not as though there’s a bad relationship there. I think it very truly could have been there was dialogue, there was talk, maybe there was even an assumption that, that they reached an agreement. And for whatever reason, decided not to, and doesn’t necessarily mean that something wrong happened, or someone did something they shouldn’t have done or said something they shouldn’t have done, but it’s not going to happen. And well, here we are talking about, uh, who they’re going to hire to replace inside linebackers coach and a defensive line coach. And, you know, it looks like they already have a defensive backs, coach, Chris Hewitt, my understanding is going to stay. So he’s been on the staff for a long time. But now they’re definitely going to have to fill some gaps there, you know, probably promote a few from within, which is not a bad thing, but also bring in some people from the outside, which is also nice to have a fresh perspective, you know, especially when you’re talking about a team that’s been this close. I mean, it’s been right there and slipped through their fingers multiple times now in January. So, you know, I don’t think there’s this overriding clear cut answer at this point. I think they just got to do it. And, you know, we’ve talked a lot, you know, we don’t need to belabor that the details of the AFC Championship. Yeah, they should have run the ball more. But it also comes back to it also comes back to we can’t bury the lede when it’s as simple as one all world quarterback outplayed. The other outwork, all world quarterback and Patrick mahomes Is the guy that has done that against everyone. Not named Tom Brady, and what Joe burrow wants in a Title D be
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:13
watching him again. This weekend. I’ll be at Hollywood casino on Sunday night, my wife and I are gonna go off and just roll the bones, but a rush reference there for you and get some beer and cheer and Taytay and Kelsey, and I wait for receipt to do the Kelsey Justin Tucker thing and you know, you’re gonna need tape from my mouth for that segment. Maryland Food Bank, please donate today. We’re out here. Oh, five o’clock at Coco’s they’re back here like preparing the evening meal here. I don’t know what I’m gonna get some more food. I’m gonna take a break we’re serious here. I’m gonna get a beer I think I’m gonna get a beer sounds good yeah, I’m gonna get a beer and we’re gonna have a crash game rules against that right yeah, we have a three o’clock guests coming on wait, Brian Pierce is gonna be here with you talking about brain trauma brain injury. And that’s usually thing we talked about the radio Are we any way it’s true this radio room week? This is crabcake row we’re not in Las Vegas. We’re here in Baltimore actually laurelville We’re gonna beat state fair on Thursday all day long nine to five and then on Friday at Pappas and cookies Ville from nine to five we were at. We were Costas on Tuesday. We were at fade these on Monday. That’s what we’re calling the crabcake row. Great local businesses. Marcel is back here we’re seeing we’ve had everybody on this week. Given some love out to the Maryland Food Bank, people are bringing canned goods, dry goods, and we’re giving you a cup of soup or bowl for free Maryland crab cream crab 5050 Luke likes 5050 Yet you know what I’m gonna get to 5050 during the break, we should eat a little soup and lipstick talk a little bit. Sounds good. I am past the halfway point of this marathon of 40 hours radio brought to you by the Maryland lottery in conjunction with window nation as well as Jiffy Lube. MultiCare Lucas hanging around resik is here. They’ve never done radio together. I’m expecting this to be stupendous and momentous. We are wn st am 5070, Towson Baltimore. And we never stop watching the kitchen and Coco’s and the crabcakes come out. It’s like I’m telling you, it’s like Willy Wonka. It’s like a factory. It’s like it’s Oompa Loompas make the crab magic that comes out. Back for more for Koco’s right after this.
