Clearly, the Baltimore Ravens didn’t expect to be a 5-3 team on Halloween with hideous losses to the Raiders and Browns on the mid-season report card. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the Ravens’ deficiencies and pass rush needs after a wretched Cleveland loss as trading deadline looms for general manager Eric DeCosta.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens deficiencies, pass rush needs, trading deadline, DeCosta, Marlon Humphrey, Michael Pierce, Travis Jones, edge help, safety issues, Marcus Williams, Kyle Hamilton, penalties, special teams, Denver game, Cincinnati game
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
8
Welcome home. We are W, N,
Luke Jones 00:04
S, T,
Nestor Aparicio 00:05
A, M, 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore, positive. We are into the week here that these are the weeks. I’m glad I don’t take phone calls, because I don’t really. I felt bad for Keith mills in the post game when I was driving over to Pizza John’s on Sunday. Like, what do you say when they’ve won five games in a row? They’re obviously a very good team, um, but there’s sort of a pedestrian five and three here as it turns Lou Jones going to join us right now. We are going to get the Maryland crab gate tour back out on the road. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery. I have Raven scratch offs to give away our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care, always powering us up, getting us back and forth to where we’re going. And of course, our 26th oysters in 26 days for our 26th anniversary all brought to my curio wellness, and far and daughter, all that was out on the front of w, N, S, T and Baltimore positive.com it’s the way to find all that liberty, pure solutions. Fire us up. Keep my water absolutely clear, man. I mean you, have a well, you need people like liberty, pure solutions, one 800 clean water, they could take care of that as well as all of your plumbing needs. I don’t know if the plumbing in the Ravens offenses, what happened to that, and certainly the defense is a question mark. But look injuries, and the thing I talked to Cleveland radio about last week that I put up at Baltimore positive I was on Kenny roadshow. I was like, they’ve been a very, very healthy team until now. Last week, it started hit the rocks a little bit. Did a couple of injuries. You lose a bad game on the road, where you drop balls. All sorts of things are happening. We’re going to sit here and pick apart every Marcus Williams decision, every decision to run or throw at Derek, Henry, why are we running this play and with these gadget plays? And can’t anybody on either side of the ball catch the ball for us? But the injuries are concerning. They’re they always need to be concerning. But when you start taking elements off the field like Marlin, Humphrey, things change here and change sort of rapidly for what Jameis Winston can get away with on a Sunday afternoon.
Luke Jones 02:06
Yeah, and I’ll go back to what I said in our previous segment, that they’re not concerning in the big picture sense, in terms of, like, these specific injuries they’re dealing with. You know, I expect Marlon Humphrey to be back this week. I would assume Nate Wiggins will be back this week. You know, the way it sounded was he was under the weather. I mean, because he had come back and it seemed like the shoulder wasn’t an issue, and then he was added to the injury, or illness was added to his injury designation, and he ends up not traveling. So that sound felt like more of an illness thing than the shoulder. But I think what it is, and Michael Pierce is the one we’ll see. You know, a calf is tricky for anyone, let alone a guy who’s 350 pounds, right? So that’s the one that I have a little more concern about in terms of going forward and what that means. You know, Travis Jones dealing with an ankle. Going back to last week I, I was kind of surprised he even played, but it spoke to, you know, kind of where they are. But I think, for me, the bigger of concern. It’s a reminder, however, that they have been extremely healthy up until this point, when you consider who was missing from their first seven games, and they had some guys miss a game here or there, right? But by and large, when Arthur millet is really your only long term absence of consequence, that’s you’ll take that and nothing against millet, right? He’s a, he’s a nice, solid veteran nickel player, but he’s not the integral, critical part of your defense. You know, he’s not one of your tent pole players on your defense. So I think it’s a reminder that it is a long season, and if you do have some more substantial injuries along the way, which inevitably, they’re going to have a couple, every team does, it is a reminder that, and that’s part of why I was so disappointed in the defense, not that I expected a shutout. I didn’t expect them to blank the browns or to hold them to seven points. But it’s a reminder that when you are a little less than 100% that happens quite often, and you can’t just have everything go to you know where, right? And that’s what happened on Sunday. I mean, they let Cleveland scored 29 points. They let Jameis Winston throw three touchdowns in the second half. He went over 300 passing yards. So yeah, the injuries were part of that, but at the same time, you’re going to have some injuries over the course of the season. So it does speak to one of the points that we talked about Nestor, and you know, as we were talking about the attrition that they endured in the off season, and, you know, the coaching right off the bat. But more specifically, when we got into March and jadavion Clowney is out the door and Geno Stone’s out the door, and Ronald Darby is out the door and Patrick queen is out the door, right? We didn’t talk about it in terms of, oh. Well, their starting defense is terrible. Now we didn’t think that, but what the point we did make was they’re not nearly as deep at some of these positions as they were a year ago. And Sunday was a great example of boy. It really caught up with them big time, because their defense even against a backup quarterback and against a group that hadn’t had any success offensively to this point. I mean, they they got gashed, and they gave up the yardage they did, they gave up the second half points that they did. I think for me, the disappointment was in once again, getting worse as the game goes on. You know, I could almost deal with this what they’ve done if they were a team that started out shaky in games and then played really well after that. That’s why, to me, the Tampa game was so encouraging until the fourth quarter. I mean, they blanked The Buccaneers in the second and third quarter, and you thought, hey, they figured this out. And then even though it was garbage time, they still gave up too much so, but, but speaking, speaking specifically with the injuries, again, I don’t think these, this set of injuries they’re currently dealing with, are a bunch of long term things, but it is a reminder that they were really, really healthy through the first seven games, and their defense still wasn’t particularly Good. So that’s where you look at this thing and say, Boy, you better stay healthy. And more specifically, you better find some reinforcements. And specifically, I know people will talk about safety, and we’ve talked about Marcus Williams and where they go from here with that situation, but they need more edge help. You know they need more from an edge rushing standpoint. And I know they brought in in gauquet. I think in gauque is fine as your number four, number five guy in the rotation at this point, but right now he’s their number three in the rotation. And I just think they’re they’re needing to rely too much on van Noy and too much on OA. Heaven forbid if something happens to one of those guys, then you’re really talking about your pass rush being in a bad place. So I think Sunday is just a reminder of what we knew all along, but hadn’t really come into play as much to this point in the season. It’s they’re not as deep as they were a year ago, and you saw what happened when the injuries did mount a little bit on Sunday mounted a lot, or in the case of the defensive line, with just how short they were, I
8Nestor Aparicio 07:24
think it mounted a lot in the secondary and missing those guys back there when they did. And the Marcus Williams thing is curious. John’s going to get questions about that trading deadline, and we’re going to talk special teams for this is all over, because we’re not going to let Tucker off, because we got to figure that out. But and even decisions on special teams for the pass rush, and when you’re like, well, they could trade for this or trade for that. They traded. They’ve had no problem going out roquan Smith in a year where they feel like they can win the Super Bowl, it like draft picks won’t matter, as you know, F those picks, as they said one time in LA,
Luke Jones 08:02
they’re never going to do that. They’re never going to say that. Yeah, I
Nestor Aparicio 08:05
understand you. Go ahead. Sorry, I got that. I got that. But I think if there ever is a time to say if something’s available, zadarius Smith is available, and he’s going to markedly make this team better in an area where I still think they have enough pass rush, you know, I mean, I’m halfway through the year. I don’t think the personnel they have, or if you’re waiting for Kyle van Noy to find the fountain of 28 because he’s not, and where you are with roquan Smith and pass coverage, I think What You See Is What You Get right now. Um, I think they’re asking Kyle Hamilton to do a lot, right? Like a whole lot, including catching the ball sometimes, but the pass rush. And as I look at Eric, and I look at the franchise, and I look at the way they sort of want to wheel and deal, and where they are, and cap numbers, and like all of these other things, I have a feeling this will they’ll be on the phone this week, because I think Eric’s looking at this and saying, This might not be good enough, but we have even healthy if we we get there in January to navigate, I don’t know, a home game and a couple of road games. You know, a game in Buffalo, a game, and then winning that, and then having to go to to Kansas City, if that’s what you think you’re going to do, if that’s where your pathway is. And, yeah, we beat the bills up a couple weeks ago and all that wake me in January, when you got to win three games in a row and you have to have a pass rush, and you have to run the ball, and Lamar has to be protected, and guys have to catch the ball, and Tucker has to kick the ball, and John has to not have his little red flag looking up and throwing goofy time, just situationally, they’re going to need to be. I don’t want to say flawless, but I’ll use impeccable. There’s another synonym for you. They need to in big games. I don’t mean January, and they’re going to need a pass rush that’s no no offense to away or even what Matt abike was last year. I’m not, I’m not seeing it in the here and now, and maybe it’s Zach. Four. Maybe it’s the back end being depleted, but Jameis Winston beat your ass. You get whatever you get from us this week and from the fans, I mean, like that. That’s below the bar, as you said a little while ago. Yeah. I
Luke Jones 10:13
8mean, I it just needs to be deeper. And again, it’s it’s not about Kyle van Noy. It’s about not putting too much on Kyle van Noy, because he’s 33, years old. Kyle van always had a really good year. You know that when we talk about these things, it’s not, it’s not even the indictment on the starter. It’s needing to be deeper, right? You can’t just have one guy doing it. You can’t just have two guys doing it. I mean, okay, if it’s max Crosby, then fine, maybe he can do it, because he plays every snap right.
Nestor Aparicio 10:47
Miles, Garrett plays most snaps right? Well, Kyle Hamilton playing a couple of snaps in a row that had you calling him a superstar and putting them in all the fame in the second quarter, right? Like Kyle Hamilton’s being asked to be that guy. He’s 24 years old. I guess he can be, right?
Luke Jones 11:03
Well, I mean, they need to clone him. I mean, if you could clone Kyle Hamilton, you’d be fine, right? I mean, he’s that good. And again, that him dropping the interception was agonizing. It was excruciating because he had played a really good game, but in that one instance, they had the chance to win the game right there, and he dropped the ball. But, but, I guess, you know, to what you just said, and this speaks to the injury question. This speaks to depth and they need to be sharper across the board. You know, there’s just even in their best performances this year, we talked about this with the Tampa game, you know, I mean that that was a really good performance overall, even with the defense doing what it did in the fourth quarter, and, you know, had Ed Reed taking a shot at him, which wasn’t unfair, even it felt a little harsh in that context. But they’re still prone to dumb stuff. And I’m not calling any individual player dumb, but as a football team, they’re still prone to some stuff where you just scratch your head. You know that? I mean, they had a kickoff where they had two different guys commit a penalty on Sunday. You know they whether it’s a weird play call from monkin, right, who, who’s done such a great job with this offense, but they’ll still line up and do something where you’re like, did that come from? Like, what the heck was that? Or someone commits a penalty, and you’re like, what were you? What was that guy doing there? There’s just, there’s still a little too much of that than you’d like from a team that fancies itself as a serious Super Bowl contender, right? We’ve talked about this so much, and fair or unfair, it’s the standard, because that’s what who everyone else is chasing Kansas City, right? One thing that they have perfected, and maybe, maybe I didn’t see a second of their game against the Raiders on Sunday, so maybe, maybe that was an exception, because I know it ended up being up, you know, relative, you know, close game, but they have seemed to to have perfected working smarter, not working harder, in the sense that so rarely do they truly beat themselves now they play with their food. Going back the last couple years, they’ve got, they got to the point even, even towards the end of the the Tyree kill era, of the chiefs, with that explosive offense that they had a few years ago, they got to the point where you almost felt like they get a little bored, and they just let teams hang around a little bit. And again, they don’t blow teams out, necessarily, but when it comes to crunch time, you don’t see them do dumb stuff. I mean, the AFC Championship game was a perfect example of that. I mean, we, everyone would was dwelling on the on the run game, but remember the penalties from the default goal before halftime? How huge was that field goal in that game? You know, obviously the zay flowers taught and then fumble at the goal line, right? You just don’t see Kansas City do those types of things, even though this ravens offense is much more talented across the board than the Kansas City offense at this point in time. And Lamar Jackson, in terms of how he’s played in the regular season, has played better than Patrick mahomes in the regular season, but Kansas City recognizes high leverage better than anyone, and in crunch time, they don’t beat themselves, and we see the Ravens still beat themselves too often, and that’s what’s so frustrating, because you said it, and I don’t disagree. You know, you can do this with a lot of teams and a lot of games in the NFL, because there aren’t many blowouts. Most of the games are close. But you know, you look at this team and they’re five and three, and there’s a path that they could be eight and all right now, and it’s not like this pie in the sky unbelievably unrealistic sequence to be. Eight. No, it’s you’re talking to play, you know, one play in any of those three games. Now, on the flip side, by the
Nestor Aparicio 15:06
way, that was the same, by the way, too, right? So again, just the second season in a row where you could say the losses they had were all these goofy, crazy things. You’re like, they were losing for a minute half and had three losses somehow. Yeah, you know, yeah,
8Luke Jones 15:22
yeah. And the lesson, and the lesson here isn’t that they need to go 17 and Oh, or they should go 17 and Oh. What we’re talking about here, though, is as it pertains to what you need to be in January, which is you need to be tight around the margins. You got to be really good around the margins. You got to run a clean ship. You can’t be committing penalties, you can’t have issues with the clock. You can’t have substitution problems the way this defense constantly has them, because you might get away with it in one playoff game. But if you need to win three or most likely, it’s looking four in a row. If you want to, you know, at least three in a row to get to a Super Bowl. Can you do that three times in a row and get away with it? No, because, and this is part of my frustration. I get it. They were banged up on Sunday, but we talked about it. Their past defense hasn’t been very good, even when it’s been healthy and all right, I get it. They’ve played a tough schedule, but in terms of opposing offenses Sunday aside. But who do you think you’re going to be playing in January? You know you’re not going to be playing lousy teams in January. So you’re going to go up against good quarterbacks. You’re going to go up against good offenses. So you’re going to go up against good teams. You’re going to go up against teams that can defend and and do what Kansas City was able to do against the Ravens in week one. So you got to be cleaner. It’s got to be a tighter operation. You can’t have these meltdown periods that they’re all too prone to doing. And again, that’s not that they clean it up to the point where they go 17 and oh, that’s not the goal. But if you’re trying to project this out, and this team from a talent level standpoint, absolutely is more than talented enough to win a Super Bowl and to get to a Super Bowl and make a deep January run, but you got to play smarter. You know, you can’t have these breakdowns in ways where you just look at it and say that was more of a self inflicted thing than anything that the opposition did, and that’s what’s just that’s what’s still frustrating about this team, because, my goodness, they go through these stretches of time where they look almost invincible, but then something happens, and you’re just like, the heck was that? I mean? And then, and that happens even in some of these performances where they win. That’s still happening too much for my for my taste, and I think John Harbaugh to a man, he might not spell it out in a press conference, but I’m guessing behind closed doors, that’s still frustrating to this coaching staff. But what I would say to that is the coaching staffs had played a part in that, whether we’re talking about a weird challenge or a play call that just makes you scratch your head or not managing the clock properly, or not getting a substitute in, there’s just, how about Charlie
Nestor Aparicio 18:05
COVID center, right? I mean,
Luke Jones 18:11
yeah. I mean, it’s just, it’s just weird, like weird stuff. And again, I like creativity. I am never going to say that you have to line up and play it straight every single play. I love creativity, but creativity that takes Lamar Jackson out of the picture as a run threat on fourth and one, or a run threat on third and one, and he doesn’t even have to get the ball. Mind you, I’m not saying Lamar must carry it in that situation, but he must be a threat to carry it in that situation, and that’s going to make the play better, whether it’s Derek Henry or whoever’s getting the ball. I mean, heck, handed the Patrick Ricard even on a fullback dive, but at least there. So you know, it’s just, there’s still just too much weird stuff that just makes me scratch my head with this team, because they’re so talented, they’re so good, this offense is has a chance to be historically great, and that’s saying something on the heels of what they’ve done over the previous five years, right when Lamar has been healthy, their offense has been great, or at least really good. It’s been rare, you know? I guess maybe the very end of the Gregor Roman era. Aside, their offensive output has been excellent since Lamar took over his quarterback. But in terms of some of these things we’re talking about that can cost you in a close football game, they just, they’ve got to be smarter and cleaner, you know? They’ve got to, they’ve got to be better in that way. And that’s where it’s just frustrating, because you just look at some of these things that happen, and even in the games where they’ve won, there’s still a handful of plays where you just say, like, what was that? It’s like they lose their mind temporarily in some of these spots. You know, whether it’s coaching or mistakes on the field. I mean. It’s everyone. It’s not just one thing. It’s across the board. But those are the kind of things that Doom you when you’re trying to win three or four straight games in January and early February. And those are the kind of things that when we get to that point in the year, Kansas City doesn’t do. And you can say, well, that’s Kansas City, but hey, if you ever want to get over the mountain, you want to get over the hump, get to the top of the mountain, you’re gonna have to beat those guys, most likely, unless, unless buffalo or Houston does it, or time with given their schedule or their record at this point,
Nestor Aparicio 20:35
8Luke Jones is here. He is Baltimore, Luke, but I’m sorry. Go ahead. You’ve got
Luke Jones 20:42
sorry. I was just, I was just finishing up. You’ve got to have a clean operation three or four weeks in a row. And this team on a weekly basis, even when they’re playing really, really well, there’s still too much of that that’s going on to expect that that’s not going to bite you against other good teams when you’re playing in January. Go ahead,
Nestor Aparicio 20:57
we got a little delay in the line. Luke’s here. All are brought to you by our friends at Jiffy Lube. He Baltimore, Luke. We’re into it hardcore. You can find everything out of Baltimore positive. We’ll be talking about all of this. It’s an election week around here. It had a great show at mamas on the half shell on Friday with Finn McCusker as well as my, one of my dearest friends, Howard, share. We did a little skip Jack’s throwback, little hockey talk some some ravens and some Orioles as well. He’s big Oriole guy. He’s a Birdland member. Gave me a lot of information that I don’t think I’ve ever put on the air in regard to season ticket holders. So you can check all that out. All of that brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery, as well as Jiffy Lube, multi care, and, of course, Curia wellness and foreign daughter, as well as liberty, pure solutions, putting us out in 26 oysters, 26 days, 26 ways. We’ve been at this for 26 years here at W, N, S, D, it’s still on the morning after you lose to the browns in Cleveland, and you drop balls and you miss kicks and you miss a line and you get beat by Jameis Winston. I mean, almost like a punch line. I for me this next 10 or 11 days. Now, I would say it’s treacherous. If they’re on a six game winning streak in their six and two, they drop a game now. They’ve dropped the game now. Now they’ve they’ve had the bad beat, the loss. They shouldn’t have the one that when the schedule comes out, you’re like, they’re one and six. I mean, I know Lamar is a little different, but when he stands up on the podium and says, I know everybody thought they were a sorry team, and I’m like, sometimes there’s a little bluntness going on there about how sorry they were or not. Um, Denver’s coming in. I thought Denver was a sorry team all off season. I I felt sorry for Sean Payton taking that gig and the whole Russell Wilson thing feels like yesterday’s news. He’s Pittsburgh issue now, and his wife’s making sexy videos for his birthday was all nice, but Denver’s better than we think. And then Cincinnati, which looks like a pushover, like Cleveland did like they look like they’re not very good. It’s a little tretchy. Get two games in four days coming up. You have all these injuries. Where are we with Wiggins? You’re pretty confident that Marlon’s going to play or whatever. We know nothing about Pierce, Brent, urban, obviously. So there’s going to be some rotational issues, there’s going to be some depth issues, and there’s going to be when he Anthony Richardson tapped out of the game saying, I’m tired. What’s quarterback running around? Just being honest. Wide receivers do it all the time. When they run sprints, they’re going to have to, like, go play two really hard football games, division game. This is not an easy little stretch for them at all. And all of a sudden, now five and three doesn’t feel like a whole lot of daylight to me at all. It feels very I said pedestrian. I mean, let’s go. Bill Parcells, you are with your record. It’s five and three. Five and three like or that’s 10 and six. That’s ordinary, um, that’s scuffling. If you take more injuries on and Lamar can’t play for a week or two or anything. They have not bought themselves any rope at all here, certainly not in chasing Kansas City, which, you know, get the barbecue ready if you can get there in late January. Now it’s how do you even figure out a way to get there? How do you figure out how to beat Denver this week and then get ready for Cincinnati, and then you get a little mini buy? But seven and three sounds really good. Six and four sounds and I, you know, I don’t know where it is, but, dude, I just watched them lose to Cleveland and Jameis Winston. There’s no automatics here.
Luke Jones 24:36
Bet it. I mean, as much as you lean on your priors and look, I mean, a week ago, we were talking about this being the best team in the NFL, right? And I still think they have the best offense in the NFL, I do. I mean, I really do. But when you have a defense that even hasn’t looked great when you’re fully healthy, and then you’ve mixed some injuries into that equation. Now I’ll say this with Denver. I. Uh, they’re, you know, you look at them, I agree. They’ve absolutely been better than anyone would have expected. In fact, what’s kind of wild? And I’m just looking at this now. This is real time. Me looking at the standings. They are five and three. Kansas City is seven and oh, so they have played one more game. Okay, so this loses a little more steam. But you look at them, they’ve scored the same number of points, and they’re almost the same number of points allowed one more game. So I get it, it loses a little bit of steam. So that’s why I don’t look at something like this in real time. But point is, they played pretty good defense. You know, they they’re not, they’re not a a pushover. To your point, I think the ravens are very clearly going to be favored, and they’re going to be favored by more than a couple points, and should be, but this is not a team that you just roll out the ball and expect that you’re going to sleep walk to a victory, especially knowing that Cincinnati is coming to town four days later, and There’s going to be a lot of attention paid on that, knowing it’s a division game. And on the flip side, this is a Bengals team now that is three and five, and they’re in must win mode. They must if they’re going to make the playoffs, they have to beat the Ravens on that Thursday night game. So and the Ravens know that too. So you need to fight the urge to look past Denver. And they shouldn’t be looking past anyone to your point when you lose the Jameis Winston and the browns, you should be looking past anyone. Because, you know it can happen to anyone at that point, no matter how great you look in some of these other games. But it is a team that is better than I would have thought. If you would ask me back in early September what Denver’s record would be coming into Baltimore, the first, you know, the first Sunday in November. I certainly wouldn’t have said five and three, that’s for sure. So you gotta play good football. And again, this goes back to some of these things are not it’s not that complicated. That’s what’s so maddening about this. Catch the ball. Don’t do dumb things that draw you, that draw penalties. Don’t lose your mind as a play caller. Get your operation cleaned up that you sub players in and out. Like, that’s code. High school coaches have to do that, right? I mean, like, think about how long these coaches have done that and these players have done that. This isn’t like, you know, it’s at some point in time you got to remember. And you know, you say, on the flip side, you hear the expression, they’re playing chess, not checkers. Sometimes it is checkers, and it’s not chess. And you just need to keep it simple. And so with some of these things that they’re having issues with,
8Nestor Aparicio 27:33
well, when Martindale didn’t have these problems that, quite frankly, Zach or is having, right? And when you’ve done it for 25 Jim Schwartz doesn’t have these problems because he’s been doing it for 25 years. It’s a different it’s a different deal you really is. I mean, especially the Christmas of the operation that you want, um, making those decisions in real time when you haven’t done it and the bullets are flying. I mean, you were alarmed three weeks ago when they brought Dean Pease in, right? You were a little alarmed and you saw him sitting up in the booth next to Monken as well.
Luke Jones 28:05
Yeah. I mean, it’s just, and again, it’s not an anti Dean peas thing or that. Oh well, you know, he would have gotten fired if he didn’t retire back at the end of 17 Dean peas
Nestor Aparicio 28:14
has done that in his sleep for 50 years,
Luke Jones 28:16
8but, but that said doing that five games in. If they had done that in early August, you say, hey, that’s that’s a pretty shrewd move to bring them in. You do it five games into the season. That’s a that’s a tell that all was not well with your operation in some way. And again, that doesn’t mean Zach or is going to get fired, or should get fired, or he won’t become a good defensive coordinator, but right now, there are concerns. Right now, it’s not good enough, and he’s in charge. And I say that as someone who’s a as a great personal fondness for Zach or and his story and his ascent, you know, transitioning from a player whose career was taken away from him because of a neck issue to becoming a defensive coordinator, and a guy that may have went very well, wound up as Seattle’s defensive coordinator if the Ravens didn’t promote him. I mean, this wasn’t just some No, it’s not a charity case. Or just because he was the only guy left, they they really liked him and they didn’t want to lose them. And other teams were, well, they liked
Nestor Aparicio 29:16
him more. They liked Anthony Weaver, right?
Luke Jones 29:20
Yeah, yeah, so. But that said, put all that aside. That’s that’s January, February and March stuff. It needs to be better. And he’s in charge. And whether you’re bringing in Dean peas, or whoever you want to bring in, or whoever you want to add at the trade deadline, they need to get better. And the buck stops with, really, the buck stops with John Harbaugh and Eric da Costa, but specifically for the defense, he’s in charge, so you’ve got to figure this out, and whether that’s whether that is benching Marcus Williams, or putting him back on the field, or benching someone else, or playing other guys more and other guys less. I mean, we talked about David ajabo Being a healthy scratch. I mean. Look the bench
Nestor Aparicio 30:00
of Marcus Williams is curious, dude, like, if this were true normal time, and they had normal answers out there, and there moles in the organization, it it feels like there’s a little turmoil. I don’t want to use the word turmoil, but you’re five and three, and your defense is scuffling in a defensive building, in a building where defense has always been there, and they’ve always done things from within. And Zach Gore is a within guy, you know, benching your $18 million safety and then losing when you already had two corners out. I mean, I’m going to write that as as there’s turmoil. Turmoil would be the word. I want to make sure I got the right word. I’ll look the definition up, but I’m going to go with turmoil for now.
8Luke Jones 30:46
Yeah, it’s very telling when you make a move like that. And again, I’m not even saying it’s the right move or the wrong move, but just the fact that you make the move itself on the heels of knowing that two of your top three corners were going to be out and let’s face it, Nestor, it’s not as though their other safeties haven’t been on the field. They’ve seen plenty of Eddie Jackson, even at this point, they’ve seen plenty of ardarius Washington. We know Kyle Hamilton’s a dynamic, fantastic player that they like to move all over the place. So it’s not as though this was a case of, oh, let’s play bo raid, or let’s play Senussi Kane, or let’s play some random guy that we just got off the practice squad that we think is a diamond in the rough. This was they just said, We don’t want Marcus Williams out there. And that’s where I still wonder if there’s more to this. Because, as I said, Zach Gord, less than two weeks ago, had said that Marcus Williams was practicing at a really high level, and they were feeling really good about him turning the corner and getting back to the player he was the last two years. And he it’s not like he individually did all these bad things in the Tampa Bay game. Right to warrant, oh my gosh, the guy needs to be benched. You know, it’s not like an offensive lineman who you can clearly see gave up four sacks, and then you’re benching that guy. So between that and the fact that he was fully healthy, the fact that he was active and did not play a single snap, even on special teams, I mean, that was very telling to me, very illuminating, and very much that feels like punishment. If that feels like this behind the scenes, yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know. And again, I don’t want to draw that conclusion, but it’s a question, right? It’s and I don’t know for certain. You know, you hear things over the course of the week, and I know on Wednesday he didn’t take a bunch of he didn’t take his normal reps. But I can also say with full disclosure, Nestor veteran players not taking their normal assortment of reps on Wednesday. Like for example, I’ve seen times when we’re heading into the practice field, not not this week or last week, but I’ve seen times where Chris boards lining up in roquan Smith’s position, not because Chris board’s going to play. Obviously, it’s because they’re trying to get roquan off his feet a little bit more and give him a little more of a blow. So when I had kind of gotten winded that last week, that’s what I assumed it was. Because, again, it’s not like Marcus Williams played so much worse against the Buccaneers than he had in previous games to say, oh, now’s the time to bench them. You know, I thought, I thought, I don’t think it was his best game of the year, but I would venture to say it was one of his better games of the year, but which might be kind of damning him with praise, because he just hasn’t been very good. But it’s just weird. It was weird, especially considering they still had issues on the back end. And you could have, you could have said, you know, you could have benched Eddie Jackson at some point, brought Marcus Williams back in the game. I mean, Eddie Jackson dropped two picks in that game. So maybe, I guess maybe the bright side would say he got his hand on two footballs. But it’s just safety has been a problem all year, and we thought it was going to be one of the biggest strengths of this team. Kyle Hamilton’s outstanding. So it’s not him dropped interception aside, but the rest of these safeties, it’s a major problem.
Nestor Aparicio 34:07
And when you couple that with roquan Smith and their inside linebacker pass coverage issues, I mean that over middle portion of the field has just been a sieve. I mean, it’s it’s a problem, and teams know it, and they’re going to throw it and throw it and throw some more. And even when you’re in a position where you think, Oh, they might run, they’re going to throw because they know that you stop the run, but you can’t stop the pass as the day goes on. So Oh, and then they get gassed, and they can’t pass rush. So, and then they Oh, yeah, it gets worse as the game goes on. By the way, look turmoil up, Luke. Just so you know, it all adds up a state of great disturbance, confusion or uncertainty. Well, the disturbance was the loss. The confusion is evident on the field, and the uncertainty is we’re sitting here guessing all sorts of things. So turmoil. There you go. See I am a professional writer. After all, Luke Jones is here. He is Baltimore. Luke, He will be out in Owings Mills for. Four regular week than super duper short week next week for Cincinnati. So we really are getting ready for two games here. We’re watching the World Series and all that, um, last thing for you, and you can pile on anywhere you want with the Zach or the defense or any of that, but the trading deadline and the trading thing and the state of the Raven salary cap trading situation. Look, when you’ve traded for roquan Smith and given him $100 million in Halloween Week, I don’t rule anything out in regard to the franchise. And I guess I use examples. Would be like a Minka Fitzpatrick going from Miami to Pittsburgh, because they just blew things up there, or whatever, years ago. You can get a roquan Smith would be that kind of player for the ravens, the kind of player that they would have to go five and 12 to draft, right? So when those kind of players are available, I don’t know what’s out there in that way, or where you would want that kind of a player. You got a lot invested in safety. Got a lot invested in corner. You got a lot invested in D line. You got a lot invested in linebacker. To your point. You know you’ve spent money everywhere. So I don’t know what the trading deadline would hold for them, but I know the fans are going to hold on to say, well, they don’t for roquan Smith. Can they get a game changing pass rusher, especially after watching the dairy Smith play a little
Luke Jones 36:20
bit, yeah. I mean, I think that’s going to be the big question. I mean, look, Eric, to cost his reputation. Now last year, it was not a lack of effort. Obviously, they were in on Derek, Henry, we’ve talked about that. You’ve talked about that a lot. It didn’t happen at that point in time, you know. And you I wholeheartedly am fine with not being too hasty, and, you know, giving up a first round pick for something that’s not warranting a first round pick, and they’re not going to do something like that. But you look at the history under Eric, the Costa and the league in general, I think we’re seeing the trade deadline has become much more of a thing than it was even 10 years ago, where it was almost I mean, you think about the Ravens over their first 20 years of their history, I can think of one consequential trade at the deadline, Eugene Monroe, right in 2013 so. But over the Eric de Costas tenure, you had Marcus Peters in 2019 you had unique and gauque, even though it didn’t work out to the level that they hope in 20 it roquan Smith in 22 right? So it’s not as though they pull off a trade every year, but they’re certainly in that market. And as I said in a previous segment, you know, kind of just joking around with, you know, my best friend, who’s a very knowledgeable, passionate Ravens fan. He’s the one who said they could literally trade for any position on defense, and probably justify it at this point. You know, could they, you know, defensive tackle, if everyone’s healthy, if Marcus, if Michael Pierce isn’t, you know, if this isn’t a long term injury, they’re probably okay at defensive tackle. But edge, yeah, out, you know, whether it’s an outside linebacker or more of a, you know, just true situational pass rusher, yeah, inside linebacker. You know, I don’t want to give up on Trenton Simpson, but if there would be some off ball linebacker that you could rent that is really good in pass coverage, that could ease some of the burden on roquan Smith, it wouldn’t be my top choice. It wouldn’t be my top priority. But I’m not saying I’d necessarily even turn my nose up to that. Certainly you look at safety, I mean, safety is near the top of the list. And, and I would even say, with safety, you could even think about it in terms of a rental, or is there someone that is signed beyond this year, knowing that Marcus Williams probably gone after this year, especially now, I mean, probably gonna be a cap casualty in the off season, and Eddie Jackson isn’t signed beyond this year anyway. So you could even say, and go, go out and find, and I don’t know who it is off the top of my head. And, you know, having three wild cards is kind of like what we see in baseball now, who are the true buyers? Who are the true sellers? You know, it’s a lit the water’s a little muddied, you know? I mean, unless you’re talking about Carolina, for example. So is there a safety that shakes free that you might say, hey, we like this guy right now, and we like this guy to be our starting safety for the next couple years. He under contract through next year. Well, hey, dude,
Nestor Aparicio 39:10
8you mentioned Trenton Simpson. This is where you trade him to another team, because they believe in him, right? I mean, there’s also that part. I just want to wake that up to the trading standpoint to say, you know, this is where you trade John Simon, or you trade some guy that is going to work out somewhere else, that has has tread on the tire, to get a rental right, to get to get rid of a guy you’re saying, you know, maybe not, and he’s a second round pick, third round pick. That happens too this week, maybe not for the ravens, but that happens. That’s part of the trade deal too. It
Luke Jones 39:44
can be, I’ll give you a name, not Trenton Simpson. Might David ajabo be that guy? I mean, some other team that really loved him pre draft and says, you know, we’re going to lose this guy anyway,
Nestor Aparicio 39:57
or we want to rather have them than. Fourth round draft pick, right? I
Luke Jones 40:01
mean, maybe and again, and I’m not saying that that will definitely happen, but you know, you’re thinking outside the box. Because yes, they can create cap room, but not unlimited cap room. Yes, they do have a nice set of draft picks projected for next year, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to go trade your first round pick. So sometimes you need to get creative, and sometimes it’s a pick swap. We’ve seen the Ravens do that kind of stuff as well. Well, I
8Nestor Aparicio 40:24
mean, if somebody thinks Ben Cleveland is their starting guard right for next year, like a bad team thinks that way, right? Like, hey, we haven’t. We have to draft in that position anyway. And that guy’s got two years of seasoning in The Raven system and a couple years left on his contract, that’s, that is the creativity that never existed 20 years ago in billix era, right? And really didn’t exist much in Ozzie’s era. That has become much more of a modern thing with cap, money, years, manageability and draft picks. And I need help right now, yeah.
Luke Jones 40:57
And I think, you know, you may, you may mention of that. I mean, a lot of times we’ve thought about these deals in terms of picks for a player. If you look around even some of the deals that have been made, you’ve actually seen now there’s usually a pick involved, but you’re actually seeing some instances of player for player. So do I think that’s the most likely thing they’ll do? Probably not, because I think it would probably still come down to, you know, you trade a fourth round pick or whatever it is to to get player x, it at position y. But, you know, I think, I think there are a lot of options on the table here, because, again, pass rush and safety. I mean, that’s a pretty wide net right there. And then again, I don’t think it’s their top priority, because I do still think that they believe Trenton Simpson is going to be a good player, you know, I don’t think he’s been awful, but it’s clear they they’re having issues just in general at that position with pass coverage, including rope lawn. So, you know, is there a guy that you could add to that mix in the way that maybe you have a little more of a rotation in the way that they kind of handled their their inside linebackers when it was, you know, Patrick queen, Josh binds and LJ fort, for example. You know, they kind of had three guys for two spots that they would kind of mix and match how they did it. I don’t know. But when you have a defense that is in the state that this defense is in right now, you know, and even putting it, putting the injuries aside, I think there are a lot of options on the table right now. I think there, there, there’s a lot. There are a lot of proverbial, you know, hoop, you know, balls in the air, in terms of, like, trying to say, Okay, well, they could acquire a safety from this team, or that team might have an edge rusher that shakes free. I mean, you know, and again, will Cleveland trade Zaria Smith to the Ravens specifically? You know, maybe not, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a comparable player that won’t be available over the next week or so, but better hope it’ll change. That’s all I’m saying. That’s very true. But if you’re gonna ask me to rank their top thing they need. I think I’d be inclined to say, go get another edge rusher. I think they can still try to figure out this safety thing. Maybe they can get Marcus Williams back on track. Maybe they maybe are Darius Washington gets more comfortable there. I don’t know for sure. It’s not I’m not comfortable with that spot, but at edge rusher, I just see a group that needs more. They need another legitimate guy to add to that equation. Because, you know, they did the NGA way thing, and that was fine, but I like him way more as my number four, number five guy, than my number three pass rusher in the rotation, which is what he is right now. And you know, I just don’t think that’s good enough, especially when you’re trying to keep you’re trying to keep Kyle van Noy as fresh as possible at 33 years old, as you get into December and January, two games
Nestor Aparicio 43:47
in four days coming up, beginning on Sunday. Luke’s out knowings Mills all week long. We’re monitoring the World Series, also monitoring the American elections. This week, going to be some election coverage around here as well. I am Nestor. He is Luke. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, we never stopped talking Baltimore positive.
