 You ever have one of those situations where it just sucks to be right? And this, this is just that. And I'm not saying that in a braggy way or arrogant way at all, trust me. Cause we've all, all together, all of us have experienced this several times and it's almost become an expectation. It's almost become an expectation when it comes to the trade deadline. So a couple of days before the trade deadline this year made a video about Raven's potential trade targets. And in that video, we both discussed and in the thumbnail, we used dolphins cornerback Xavier and Howard. And in the video, like, all right, while I didn't think it would happen, I thought that the only chance that it could happen would be if dolphins were like, you know what? We won in six or one in seven, whatever their record was at the time. You know what? Fire sale, fire sale, we're doing bad. Let's just, all right, we're willing to listen to offers on anybody simply because that's what a lot of teams do, especially a team like the dolphins who's they don't have their franchise quarterback. Tua is not their guy. They're gonna get rid of Tua. They're gonna, they're gonna offload Tua this off season. Tua will not be a dolphin after this year. We all know that. That's obvious. And one of the things, the bigger thing that I actually care about being right in that video for was not that the Ravens could possibly try to make a move for Xavier. Nope, don't care about that. Well, I care about it. But something that we talked about was that watch like a day later. It ended up being a couple of days later in this case, but I said, watch like a day later. We ended up getting, getting these tweets from these reporters, probably like Adam Shepter, Ian Rappaport, Michael Ruffalo, from somebody saying, the Ravens tried, but they came up just short. I said, why watch for that? Because it's happened like every year. The Ravens tried, but oh, they came up short. Because if I take you back, we remember when DeAndre Hopkins, oh man, that was the worst one. That's always the worst one. That one almost made me cry. Y'all remember. But when we try, they said, after DeAndre Hopkins got traded to the Cardinals. Said, the Ravens tried, but they weren't successful. And I know people be like, oh, whoa. Well, they, they wanted them out of the AFC. And yeah, I'm sure they did. But with DeAndre Hopkins, I would love to know what the Ravens did or did not try be willing to give up in that offer because that's DeAndre Hopkins, man. I don't want to hear no, oh man, they better had not tried to give up a first round pick. That's DeAndre. That's not just any player. That's not just any player. And the Cardinals didn't even give a first round pick for him. So it's like, think about that. Like, if, if, if, what, what the Texans? Yeah, you had to play the Ravens, but you only played them once every four years. Now, what the Texans, think about this. What the Texans be like, you know what? Cardinals only gave us a second and change. They gave us like a second and four, a second and something. Do you think the Texans be like, all right, Cardinals only giving us that. Ravens, oh, they, if they are, they are, we, yeah, we're gonna have to face him soon. But if they give it, they will us to give us a first round pick. It'll be a low first round pick cause they usually do pretty good, but it'll still be higher than a second round pick. Even if it's a first round pick and change. But anyway, that was one of them. There was another one a couple of years ago when it was like, oh, the Ravens, they try to get Jamal Adams. Now I'm not mad in the long run. Not mad that that one didn't happen. But they tried to get Jamal Adams. He was like, oh, oh, they tried. Okay, okay, okay. And what was another one? Adam Thielen was a little, oh, Yonikan Gakwe. That was another one that they tried before, but they ended up coming back around to it, came for a second and it ended up working out the following year. But he was another one that they tried to get and it didn't happen. And then of course, in free agency, you know, this year, this year was off season of trying. This was a, even in the past couple of years too. Justin Houston was when it came full serve because a couple of years ago, before he signed with the coast, they tried to get Justin Houston. And I know not every deal that you try is gonna happen, but it's just Ravens just, they are the ultimate tryers. Now I just wish, I wish all this information wasn't so confidential because I wish we knew how hard they tried. I wish we knew how much they were willing to give up in their efforts. Cause we know that it's been times when it's been said that Ravens tried, but they weren't willing to give up something. They had to hold back something, even under Audrey Newsom too. It's not just Eric the constant thing. And I'm not saying that every single trade attempt that you're gonna go try and get, you're gonna make happen. I'm not saying that at all. But I also do know that with the Ravens, the draft picks, they like, mm-mm, are we not giving that up? No, you're not getting our draft picks. No, no, no. Like, to get Marcus Peters, that's crazy. But they got him for crazy cheap. Cause Rams were, they were unloading Marcus, they're like, man, we don't want this dude about to get Jaylen Ramsey. We don't want no Marcus Peters. So Ravens, all they had to get give up was Kenny Young and a fourth round pick. So they got Marcus Peters for crazy cheap, crazy cheap. So for that one, they didn't even have to try. Like, Kenny Young and a fourth round pick. Oh, go ahead, man. Our linebackers, they struggle in any way. Y'all to have them. So they didn't even have to try for that one. But we just, we always hear about this trying and it's frustrating. And I think this year is very frustrating because for me, I was thinking, and I said it before in a lot of videos, I'm like, what on defense? What would be something that would really take Ravens over the top? What would help them really like, what would help them that much? What would help them be that much better on defense? And I felt like it was more schemed than anything. And I still feel like that. But when you think about an Xavier and Howard type of cornerback, you know Ravens are missing Marcus Peters. You know, they're missing Marcus Peters. They're for sure missing Marcus Peters. And Anthony Avery overall, he has not been bad. He's had some bad games. Like, you really just won against the Colts. Other than that, Anthony Avery's been solid, especially for the role that he's been put in. But to have an Xavier and Howard, ooh, and then have Anthony Avery, and Anthony Avery probably would have taken a step down. But to have Xavier and Howard, and then have Anthony Avery as your next best cornerback after that, it would have just been nice, man. It would have upped the secondary. And if Wink could scheme them the right way. Now, and that gives, that does also give you respect, more respect with your cornerbacks. Because, and then it's not a shot at Anthony Avery at all. But with Xavier and Howard being a more established cornerback, teams respect him more than they would in Anthony Avery. So with Marlon Humphrey, it could help make him better too. But he ain't gotta remember how to tackle first, but anyway. Oh, I'm trying to laugh through the pain. Cause this one does hurt. This one does hurt. It hurts. Because the Ravens, I just feel like this year, let's just read the article from Ian Rappaport. He said, the Ravens didn't make a trade last week, but it wasn't for lack of effort. So that shows that, hey, they were trying. And then it says, listen to the wording here. It's important that you listen to the wording because it's extremely important. He said, among the high profile targets, you heard that? Not among the high profile target, among the high profile targets. So that S makes it a plural. So that means they tried for a couple of people. Now I wish all of those people were listed so we could really just really have this pain together as a unit. As teamkeeper clean, we could all experience this pain together because it hurts. It really does. But among the high profile targets was Dolphin's star cornerback, Xavier and Howard. Though the complicated trade never materialized. So what I hope this does, I hope this trade talk, it has that Chuck Clark effect because with the Ravens, and I think it's like, it's one of those things that works both ways. They, I remember the year that they tried to get Jamal Adams and it didn't fail through, I mean. That was the first year that Chuck Clark was really, he was really taken over and he was really getting a lot more playing time. So when that deal didn't happen, Ravens could have used that. They could have used that though that it fell through to be like, oh, we just trying to motivate you. Show us why you deserve a role here. Show us why you deserve to be here. Show us why you deserve to be our safety. Cause we could have got Jamal Adams, but we was like, you know what? No, we got Chuck Clark. Show us. And then that following year, he ended up earning an extension. I mean that same off season, he got an extension. So hopefully it can be that same type of impact with Anthony Averett. We'll see, even though I think he's gonna end up catching in a free agency. Cause he's gonna end up being able to make more in free agency than he would with the Ravens. But we'll see how everything works out. Anyway, let's read this. Let's just go through all this pain together because we're not done going through the pain. Sitting in first place in the AFC North thriving despite a slew of early injuries. The Baltimore Ravens didn't end up making a trade leading up to last week's trade deadline, but it wasn't for lack of trying. In fact, here we go. Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta was among the most active last week working the phones in effort to bolster his roster. So it doesn't just say, again, that gives us another reminder that it wasn't just about Xavier and Howard. He was trying for different people, but I don't see no new Ravens. I don't see no new players. I don't see no new people. Anyway, said according to several executives around the league, they're making aim at a handful of positions. DeCosta tried it all. So that's what makes it even more frustrating now. And this is not a video taking a shot at DeCosta at all. So please don't take it like that. But this is what makes it frustrated that DeCosta tried. He tried to get this guy, that guy, that guy, and we don't know who those guys are, but I said he tried at several different positions, but nothing happened. Ravens got, he got a lot of draft picks. He's got a lot of draft picks. Whole lot of draft picks. But, and you obviously got some players on your team. Now you probably don't want to come off of nobody, which I can understand, especially depending on what player it is, but you got a lot of draft picks. Anyway, let's keep moving. Most notably, the Ravens tried to make a run at Dolphins all pro. Cornerback is even Howard, so it's a say aiming to add a marquee player to their secondary for the second half. That's just, oh man, it's so annoying. So that's just one of the major deals they discussed. That's just one of them. That's just one of them and major deals. That's just one of the major deals they discussed. That's just one of them. That's what makes it so frustrating because they apparently tried for a couple of major deals. Obviously they wouldn't have executed all of them. They probably would have just been one, but nothing, nothing, nothing. Yet Howard is in the Raven now for a variety of reasons. For one, Miami won a premium picks for a player of Howard's caliber, likely a first rounder and more. If it was me, y'all know me. I'm more the aggressive type. If it was me, I would have sunk it. I would have sent it on me because something ain't even a word. I think that's just a little Florida thing that we'd be saying. We've been making up all our words down here. But anyway, I would have sent it straight up. I would have sent that. Reason being because this team, I know some people say, oh, the Ravens are on the Super Bowl team this year. I feel like they got as good of a shot as anybody, especially in the AFC. Who's the dominant team in the AFC right now? What team is just rolling and just killing it? What team is that? You let me know what team that is. And then tell me, oh, Ravens ain't got a shot. And y'all, trust me, y'all know me. I ain't got on no purple glasses at all. No purple glasses, no purple shades. I don't be drinking none of the Kool-Aid. Actually, you know what? I haven't had no Kool-Aid in a long time, man. My son, we'd be getting the little Kool-Aid bottles from Wawa for Carter. He loves those. They not purple, they be green and they be red and they be blue. So he not even drinking purple Kool-Aid. In fact, Carter, oh boy, I hate to say this, man. I gotta have a talk with him. He likes the Dolphins. Carter talks about, he said, I'm a Dolphins fan. I like the Dolphins. Every time you see the Dolphins on TV, oh, look, there goes the Miami Dolphins. I'm like, man, Carter, what's wrong with you, man? Anyway, gotta talk to my guy. I would have sent it. If it's the first round, even if it's the first round, I'm gonna chant like a first and a fourth. First and a fifth, first and a third? Yeah, I would have sent it because he would help. He would help and deal with all the other stuff later. Deal with the, yeah, then I know people gonna quit. Oh, if we would have got a Graven Howard, then we would have had a Graven Howard, Marcus Peters, what are we gonna do with all those cornerbacks? Figure that out later. Try to win now. And then I know there's gonna be the people. Oh, but you can't just do that. You gotta think about the future. You don't wanna be less neat in the rhymes. Try to win now. I feel like the Ravens have not taken full advantage of trying to win now. I feel like they haven't simply because of the way that they've constructed the offense with Lamar Jackson under his rookie year. After his first year, well, after his rookie season, then you could have been like, how much do we really wanna add around this guy? Cause we don't really know how he is as a quarterback. All right, get your pass for that one. 2019, we saw what he did. It was crazy. It was wild. And you saw what he did that with. After 2019, it's like, okay, hey, give this guy some real deal stuff, man. Let's really, let's go all in for Lamar. This is our guy. 2020. 2021. I mean, it's been working out, but I just feel like they could have done a better job of building around him, but you obviously have a quarterback that you can win with, that you have one with. So why not just really, really go in? And I feel like if this was the case with the Dolphins, they wanted a first, likely a first rounder and more. Send it. Send it. I would say send it. But anyway, to make that happen, Baltimore would have wanted the Dolphins to eat some of what's left of Howard's 13.785 million dollar salary. Yes, I'm sure they would have. Got no problem with that. And if that was a deal breaker, and Dolphins were like, no, we're not eating none of his salary. I ain't taking that off for you. Who do you think we are? The Browns? Nope. Who do you think we are? The Texans in Broncos? Remember when Brock Oswala got traded? Remember Brock Oswala? Oh, that seems so long ago. But I cannot, oh no. Who do you think we are? The Broncos were trading Vaughn Miller? Where the Rams only got to pay like 700K something, 900K something crazy. It's something extremely low where the Rams, they ain't got to hardly pay anything to Vaughn Miller this year. But now they already talking about an extension. They ain't got to pay nothing. But if that was the deal breaker, then I would understand. Cause Ravens, they obviously can't afford that. So they may have wanted the Dolphins to just take off some astronomical amount of money. But at the same time, the Dolphins might have been like, okay, we take off that money, you give us a first rounder. Okay, here, take it. But that would also mean, if you give up a first rounder, then you're keeping Xavier and Howard. He ain't going nowhere. But that would take some figuring out. Cause you obviously still have Marcus Peters. So, but again, I would say, cross that road when you get there. You have ways of figuring stuff out, but then another thing that goes to, and again, we've only got the report. They said there was multiple guys that the Ravens tried to get, multiple guys. But I just, I wonder if, I'm not trying to start a pot, but it's something that I'm thinking about because you know Ravens, they, it's always defense. Defense is what they really, what they really tried. All things, they be like, oh, we tried. We gave it a shot. You tried our best. You had a bad day. You zonanana nanananana nanananana. Oh, we tried guys, sorry. It's like that song is playing in the background after they tried on offense. But defense, oh man, we tried, y'all, we tried, y'all. Hey, we tried to get, hey, defense, you know how we get down on defense, man. But defense, they tried harder. Cause again, you need King Gakway. They tried and they failed. Then they like, oh, circle back around. Justin Houston, they tried and they failed. Yup, circle back around. You get guys like Kaleis Campbell, Derek Wolf, somebody who they wanted before, who he thought the Ravens was gonna draft them. Circle back around. But offense, we tried for Adam Thiela. We tried for DeAndre Hopkins. We tried for Juju. Then Juju ended up taking less. We tried for T.Y., he didn't end up taking less. People thought he did, but Ravens, they were giving him a longer deal, but it was less money. I'm glad that one didn't arrive. That never was a big T.Y. guy, especially with the Ravens. But anyway, we looked at Kenny Galle. Well, Kenny Galle, he was wanting too much money. He was like, nah, we good on that. So in offense, they try, but they don't try. So that's something right there to just think about. And again, we don't know, cause this last paragraph says, as for the Ravens, they look for reinforcements in part because of their assortment of injuries early on. Running backs, J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards, cornerbacks, Marcus Peters and left tackle Ronnie Stanley were among the high profile injuries. Yes, he said Baltimore explored potential deals in a few of the areas where they had injuries. I mean, that last sentence ain't really saying much because they got injuries literally everywhere. They got injuries everywhere. But it does let you know that they tried, but how hard did they try? We'll never know. We'll never know. So with that being said, I mean, it is what it is, right? It is what it is. So, hey, they rolling with what they got down. And so I know there's a lot of people, oh man, Ravens aren't going to do nothing. They ain't going to try nothing. They, what's they going to do? What are they going to trade for anybody? That's been shut down. It's been shut down. Cause again, they tried, but we know that they are the ultimate triers, but just didn't work out. So, yeah, man, yeah, like I said earlier, man, I can't lie to y'all, man, that does upset me a bit. It does, it is a bit frustrating. Straight up, it is frustrating. Especially when you just, when you know like, when you see you, and especially with seeing the advancements of this team, seeing the advancements, especially of the passing game, how the passing game has taken, we knew Lamar could pass already, but the entire passing game has been taken to another level. And the thing about that is that it still has its deficiencies too. It still has its problems. Despite how good it's been going, it still has its problems, but it's still on a whole another level than it was last, and it's like level, level levels above what it was last year. And it's crazy. So I just, it's just frustrating to know that and to see Lamar Jackson shown, hey, we can come back. We can come back. We can come back down one score. We can come back down multiple scores. No, we don't want to be down. We want to always be up, but he's shown that they can do it. And with the defense, again, my biggest thing with defense, I think is scheme and fundamentals. I think that's what's been holding this team back, scheme and fundamentals. So I feel like those are not easy fixes, but they're easy fixes. Because you know exactly what it is. Tackling, wrap up, that's it. Fundament with the scheme, I mean, like let's dial it back a little bit. Let's stop putting these guys on the island so much. Let's give them help. So I feel like if you added something, you added an Xavier and Howard, then that makes your personnel that much better. And then if you even fix the scheme and improve the fundamentals, oh man. Oh boy. But, and then of course, like I said, there were other guys that the Reagan's tried to trade for too, but it is very, very frustrating. Very, very frustrating. And I know we went on a while for this one, but we had a whole lot to say. So team keeping clean, I love y'all. I appreciate y'all. I will see y'all for the stream for the Ravens and the Dolphins game. And like Xavier doesn't have to tell the Miami Dolphins. I'm out.