 one subject that gets spoken of a lot when it comes to NFL franchises is the window of opportunity. And what most people are referring to when they speak about that window of opportunity is the team's chances of winning a Super Bowl with their best rosters because they can maximize the potential that those rosters have before they pay their quarterbacks to big money. Because once you pay your quarterbacks to big money, not that you can't win, not that it makes it impossible to win, but it does get a lot harder because the quarterbacks take up so much of the salary cap. And again, it's not like you can't do anything, but you just can't move how you used to be able to move. So one team whose window of opportunity a lot of people speak about is the Ravens. And I mean, why wouldn't they? Ravens a very young team. And right now Lamar is still on his rookie contract, so they are able to maximize this roster. Of course, we had hoped and expected them to maximize their potential last year, but they came up short. But now this year, the team, they seem to have gotten even better on paper. But one thing that this team, one problem that this team seems to have, that it is maybe bigger now than it may have ever been when you think about it is a lot of contracts coming up. And we've talked about this extensively, this offseason. And just to give you a recap, and let's try to really think about everybody whose contracts are coming up. You have Matt Judon, you have Ronnie Stanley, you have Marlon Humphrey, you're getting ready to have Mark Andrews, Orlando Brown Jr., you have Tyus Bowser as well, you have Gus Edwards, you have Matt Scurra. So there are a lot of guys that, and of course Lamar Jackson, how did I forget him? So there are guys whose names that we've heard repeatedly. And there's some guys names who you don't hear of too often when it comes to Raven's talented players contracts coming up. The guys like Scurra, Gus Edwards, Tyus Bowser, you don't hear people talk about them too often. But their contracts are coming up. Tyus Bowser is in his final year. Gus Edwards is a restricted free agent this year. So he could be an unrestricted free agent next year, Matt Scurra. He's a restricted free agent this year. So he'll be an unrestricted free agent next year. So Ravens have quite a bit of decisions to make. And again, like I said before, I am not envious. I'm not jealous at all of Eric D'Costa in the spot that he's in with that. But today, John Harbaugh had a press conference where he was asked about the Ravens and all their young talent and whatnot and how he feels about the Ravens chances of keeping that young talent. And he said that he was optimistic about it. And initially, because again, with Harbaugh, sometimes I mean, I myself sometimes I have thought that or think that sometimes Harbaugh sometimes he'd just be running his mouth and whatnot. But recently, especially over the past couple years, I've got to be like, hold on, wait now. So Harbaugh may really be saying something. So he said that he was optimistic about the Ravens having better chances of being able to retain their young talented homegrown players, like a Judon, like a Stanley, like a Lamar, etc. And then when he said that, I'm like, okay, yeah, that's that's the politically correct answer or whatnot, you hope to retain your guys, you're optimistic to retain your guys. But he did actually make a very, very good point. Because he said for the last like six, seven years, the Ravens have not been in the best spot financially. But when you think about it, they still Ravens have always been a team for the most part. After they won their first Super Bowl got a little ugly. But for the most part, the Ravens have been a team that's been financially restricted. But at the same time, they have still been able to make move after move after move after move after move. And some very quality moves to been some less quality moves as well, some bargain moves. But they have still been able to put together really good teams. A lot of it will not a lot of it was some of it came through free agency, a lot of it came through homegrown drafting and development, more so on defense than offense. But Ravens have been able to put together some special teams, despite always being tied up against the cap, because Ravens have never been a team that's been able to just splurge, splurge, splurge. Oh, we want that guy. We want that guy. We want this guy. We as fans, we mentally splurge. Like, oh, this guy would be a good fit with the Ravens. That guy would be a really good fit. He'd be a good addition. Oh, yeah, we should sign him. We should sign him. We should sign him. We should trade for him. Shout out to Jamal Adams, Jadavian Clowney too. But anyway, Ravens have never been that team to be able to get this guy, that guy, that guy. But what Hardball said is that they've been sort of financially restricted for the past six, seven years. But he said this, this offseason that they're currently in, it did get a little better. But then next offseason, it'll be even better. And we've all seen a lot of the different salary cap situations for the Ravens. And a lot has changed. I know there was, there was a one point during this past season, there was one point where they were predicting, oh, Ravens gonna have like a 80 mil, maybe 50 mil salary cap spaces coming off season. And a lot of us were like, no, that's not, that's way too early to predict that. And then you got all these contracts coming up, franchise tag, restricted free, no, it's, it's going to be more than they usually have. But at the same time, it's still not going to be that much. But for next year, again, it should be better. And one of the big things, obviously flakos contract was a big part of that. And the money that that that carried, the weight that that carried, and the dead money too, because they had some dead money that they had to get rid of. Now that's gone. And obviously through the years to Ray Rice contract was a huge part in dead money. When they traded away, got like Lodi Nada. That was a little small bump, but still, and there's been many different guys that added to the equation of the Ravens being tight and also building competitive teams. When you build like when you think about it, because some people they some people like complaining about Ravens never have any money. They never got any salary cap space. But you got to realize like these dudes put together a competitive team, like every year. And again, something that we've talked about too, every year, every year since 2008, Ravens have been competitive. There's only been a size 2015 when everybody got hurt. But even the team was still competitive because they only lost two games by they only lost two games by more than one score that year. They did go, um, well, five and 11. I think they were five and 11. But only two losses came by double digits. Every other game, every game besides those two losses. I think one was to the Seahawks and one to the Chiefs. But every game besides those two losses came by eight points or less. So one score. So even with a beat up banged up team, Ravens was still fighting. But anyway, seven since 2008, Ravens have been competitive every single season. And the only time that the earliest that they've known that they would not be in the playoffs was in was after week 16. That's the early every besides 2015 season. The earliest that they've known that they would not be in the playoffs was in a week 16. In states, 15 years last year, I think it was 2016, I believe. But that's the earliest, because then the week 17 game, it didn't mean anything. It didn't have any implications on anything. And they, they, I mean, they could have rested everybody if they wanted to, but it was a meaningless game. So they, they continue to put together these teams, they build these, these rosters and whatnot, but they, they, they low on money. But then you see the, the teams that have the most money to splurge, their rosters aren't really that good. But anyway, when hardball made that point, it was a very, very good point. And that could lead to some optimism for the Ravens retaining more of their guys. But at the same time, let's face it, Ravens still can't keep everybody. And he did again, with his point, it was a very good point that the Ravens, they're gonna have, they're gonna have more money than they normally do. But at the same time, Eric DeCosta said, when he took over one of his biggest things that he wanted to make sure that he did as the GM of the Baltimore Ravens was to be financially responsible. And being financially responsible, it, it means just because you got it, don't mean you spend it. And I'm not saying that the Ravens are going to be cheap and whatnot, blah, blah, blah, but being financially responsible as a GM, you got the players that you want to, that you want to keep. But then you got to, you got to prioritize that list. Who are the top guys we want to keep? Who are the guys that we absolutely cannot lose? Who are the guys that we can afford to lose? How much are we willing to spend on this player? What type of contract agreement can we come to with this player? How much are we willing to give this player per year? So you still have to make some tough decisions, even though your pockets are going to be, they're going to be a little more full. But you, they still not going to be able to keep everybody straight up. So still, there will still be hearts broken. There will still be people that get upset. Cause again, us as fans, we get invested. We get very invested and we, we want the Ravens to keep everybody. We want our team to keep everybody. We want our team to get everybody, but it just can't happen like that. And it doesn't happen like that. So I just, but still, Hobart did make a very, very good point about the Ravens actually having a little more bread next off season. So having more money does not make those decisions that easy, easier. But anyway, and he did talk about how with, with any guys that they lose, hey, they'll just have to continue to draft well and draft replacements. And that's what the draft is all about. Young guys. It's about filling holes. It's about that next generation of talent coming in and doing that thing. So that was cool. Some other notes is that Harbaugh, he said that despite everything going on with the pandemic, he does expect there to be a season. And he said he hopes that there's a season. Me, I know I've talked to a lot of y'all about this whole thing. I still think there's going to be a season. I know they said more players have been coming up with it and whatever, even in college and whatnot. I still think there's going to be a season. I do. Some people do. Some people don't, but I do. Well, now this, this was probably one of the most interesting things that I saw from that press conference. It was about the Titans. And Harbaugh made his comments on Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson said that he feels like the Ravens look past the Titans and they underestimated the Titans. But Harbaugh said that he doesn't think that we took the Titans lightly, personally. We just didn't play well. So I mean, hey, I mean, you could understand both points of view, but you can understand both sides. And it could be that both sides, both sides are true because Lamar could be speaking more from a player standpoint. Harbaugh could be speaking more from a coaching standpoint. So just because they have different answers, it doesn't mean that one answer is wrong and one answer is right. They could be both speaking their truth. So, but I just thought that was very interesting to see two different viewpoints on the Titans. And honestly, I think it was just really a mix of everything, a mix of everything. So anyway, because it could have been like, well, maybe the coaching staff, now they definitely didn't execute good. The coaching staff didn't execute good. The players didn't execute good. But a lot of the players, they could have been feeling themselves, they could have been like, man, we just won 12 straight. And the 12th game, that was like, it was like a bye week for us, a bunch of backups played and we still won. And we beat a really good defense in the Steelers. So they could have been feeling themselves been on a high horse or whatever. Oh man, we got an extra by way. We got two by way straight. Well really three or two, two, two, excuse me. So they really could have been feeling themselves and been like, oh yeah, we're cool. We got it. We're straight. Oh Titans. Yeah, they beat up the Patriots, but we beat up the Patriots and we beat them worse than the Titans did. Titans only ended up beating them by I think like seven or eight, something like that. We beat those dudes way worse than that. And the Titans, they got to come to our crib at night, man. Please, man. We ain't worried about no Titans. Boom. Titans smacked them in the face. Then again, the coaching staff didn't play how they normally play, didn't use the game plan that they normally use. And again, just a mess. So hey, again, both, both parties, both Lamar Jackson and the hardball, they both could have been right. And they both were right. I mean, we saw the results. And hardball also talked about the ski incident. Because they asked me if he talked to Lamar about that. He said, hey, that's between him and Lamar. Next question. And then, then he talked about Earl Thomas and he said, the whole thing with Earl Thomas, he said, that's between him and his wife. Hardball ain't one, no parts of that. No parts of that. So he, he stayed out of that. And let me see. Oh, about Scurra, he also talked about Mad Scurra about how he's ahead of schedule. And yeah, we've been talking about that on here for, not forever now, but for a while now, man. But that, yeah, that was pretty much it, man. That was pretty much it. He said that he expects the team to go into training camp whenever that is. He expects them to go into training camp healthy. So that's a beautiful thing because you, I mean, you, I mean, you can't, you can't write it out. You can't like plan for stuff, but you just see what's going on with the 49ers. And it's like, man, geez, even though like they're not season-ending injuries, but still, man, you just feel for them dudes, man, like yikes. And you know what's going to happen around a league. And my God nitered, he made such a good point in a video from, I think yesterday about how with a lot of these players who've been getting hurt with them, with them training on their own and them not being with actual professionals and whatnot, a lot of them, it's going to be a lot more injuries that you hear about too. With them not having the mini camps, with them not having the OTAs, with them not having training camp for now, with them not having that stuff like they usually would have been having around this time of the year. There'll be a lot more injuries. Now, I hope, I mean, I hope this every year, but I certainly hope that, I hope for football, say that that's wrong, but it's like, again, worst part about football, man, worst part about football is the injuries. Those things are rough, man. So it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. So we'll see how everything plays out, man. We're going to see how everything plays out. Shout out to hardball because this new hardball, I like this, again, I told you all about this before too, this new hardball. Again, a hood hardball. If you're still here this part of the video, put hashtag hood hardball, especially for those of y'all that remember. Remember? Remember hood hardball? Oh yeah, because I do. I certainly do. But hardball, I like this hardball because this hood hardball, he like, hey, or Thomas, that ain't none of my business. That ain't got nothing to do with me. I'm staying out of it. That's it. That's between Earl, his wife, ain't got nothing to do with me. As far as my boy Lamar, we talked what we talked about, that ain't got nothing to do with you. So that's between me and Lamar. So we ain't going to talk about it. Just leave it alone. But the hardball recently over the past couple of years, he has been more straightforward. Now, there was sometimes where he was dancing around some of the questions during this conference call today, but it wasn't anything that he could really answer like that anyway. But this hardball recently over the past couple of years, he's been a lot more straightforward. So I do like that. And I respect that and appreciate it. I think we all appreciate it. Because we love to see when coaches coaching staff, I mean, we see it from the players enough already about transparency. But when we see it from coaching staff, it's like, oh, okay, yeah, I love that. So when hardball gives us transparency, me, myself, I certainly appreciate it a lot. So anyway, I appreciate y'all a lot as well. Thank you for rocking with us. Thank you for supporting. Thank you just for everything, man. Y'all are great people. Team Keep It Clean. Y'all just keep doing what you're doing, man. Keep doing what y'all are doing. And thank you. So I love y'all. I appreciate y'all. And we out.