 Man, oh man, nostalgia can be a beautiful thing. Just thinking back to when times were great or different epic moments in your own personal lives. Me, for example, 2012, oh boy, that was a wonderful year. That was the year that me and my wife, we got married and then the Ravens, they just so happened to win the Super Bowl that year. And we actually got to go to her first Ravens game which ended up being the Ravens and the Raiders and that thing was just crazy. Ravens blew them out, but speaking of nostalgia with the Baltimore Ravens, a lot of Ravens fans, they love to bring up old memories of 2019 to when that offense, they were just steam rolling everybody in their way. Ravens went 14 and two and it was just like we were living in a dream world and then that dream turned into a nightmare in the playoffs. And then this off season, the way that the Ravens have moved in some areas and not moved in others, things that the Ravens have done, the way that they've moved in free agency, guys that they have drafted, it almost seems like the Ravens are trying to make 2022 a nostalgic season and take it back to 2019. But is that a good idea? Would that be a smart strategy? Would that be the wise decision to take it back to what they did before in that nostalgic act? Let's talk about it. Yeah, this feels like a dream. You too, team, keep it clean. You see my boy, he like, I done made it. I done made it. Boy, that's my homie. All right, so team, keep it clean. Joining me today is a very, very special guest to cover this very, very special topic. This is Bas from Baltimore Beach. You know what? I'm not gonna, I'm gonna let you introduce yourself. Let everybody know where they can find you at, what you work on, what you do. Talk to team, keep it clean. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. First of all, I am the co-managing editor at Baltimore Beatdown, the Espionation Ravens blog. And I write there on a daily basis, as well as Twitter. You can find me at Vasili's Beatdown, V-A-S-I-L-I-S Beatdown. And do some podcasts here and there with our crew, the Baltimore Beatdown podcast. Also with Cam Cusick and some other folks. We're happy to join you here for sure. I appreciate that. And the link to his Twitter and the link to Baltimore Beatdown it'll all be down below in the description. Now, to jump straight into it, we have seen how the Ravens have moved in free agency. And then we definitely saw how they moved in the draft and it has gotten a lot of people wondering like, man, it just seems like with the moves that they made and a lot of moves that they didn't make that the Ravens may be trying to get back to that 2019 style of offense. That helped them to 14 and two, one, 12 straight games. But then just like I dropped my phone on the floor just now, they dropped that loss at home. Number one seed, they dropped that game against the Tennessee Titans in the playoffs. But regular season they did their thing. So how are you feeling? Do you feel, first off, do you feel like they are going back to that 2019 style of offense? I hope not. I really hope not. You know, it remains to be seen. That's kind of the idea once they took those two tight ends in the fourth round, traded away in Hollywood and people are looking at it like, what kind of personnel package are they going to run primarily, predominantly? I think the 2009, I think it's risky if they do choose to go that route. And I'm not saying they will, but I think it's a worthwhile topic to discuss if they could or what that would mean. And a couple of reasons why. I think that 2019 season is hard to replicate. I'm not convinced that the offensive line is necessarily the same caliber as it was then because Ronnie is coming back from injury and Morgan Moses is very solid, durable, but he may not be the same type of player as the same caliber player as Orlando Brown. I also think defenses have had time to adjust to great Roman scheme since then. And we've seen some teams try some different things. And also, I think importantly, they had a really strong run of positive game strips. They never trailed by double digits in that entire 12-game winning streak. And then once they got down in the playoffs, we saw that as efficient as they were, as powerful and high-powered and unstoppable as they looked when they were winning, when the pressure was put on them to pass the ball that defense knew a pass was coming, it didn't work out quite so well. Okay. Now, we did see last year, there were multiple times when the Ravens were down and they had to come back using the pass. Do you think a possible mix of what we saw last year and a mix of 2019 offense could be a successful recipe? I absolutely do. I absolutely do. We saw last year, Lamar, I can believe he has five game-winning comebacks on his resume. One was the Cleveland game where he had to use the bathroom and came back on, I think it was Monday night, two years ago, and the other four were all last year. And the offensive line was abysmal. It was terrible last year. The rushing attack was not as good, although it was still fourth best in the league. It wasn't dominant-setting records like it was the previous two years. But what they did have was that passing offense with three or four targets and receiving threats. And that's what allowed them to make those comebacks. So I would like to see a continuation of the 2021 offense with a better offensive line, can combine it all together, put it all together, the playmakers and the blocking scheme and Lamar, and I think that at that point they'd really be cooking. Okay. Now, do you have any concern that, because this is a concern that I have myself, but do you have any concern that with the Ravens passing offense from last season that it only was what it was because of injuries? Or do you think that there's actually a shift that's happening right now? I think there's certainly part of that. And again, it goes back to game script a lot. The defense, especially the pass defense last year was not very good. I do have some numbers. They threw 611 passing attempts last year, which was the 21st most in a neutral game script. Yes. And then the year of previous 2020, they only threw 406 passes in neutral game script that was 31st. And in 2019, 440 passing attempts, which was 32nd in the league. So that's I think really what my concern is being imbalanced. I don't want to be imbalanced. I think they can continue being a tremendous dominant rushing force. And a lot, we've had this discussion on Twitter a lot with people and we're all speculating, but I think not only is it efficiency that wins in the playoffs, I think also passing volume ends up helping you in the playoffs, just pure volume. Yeah, and that's important too, because if it's something that you don't do in the regular season, then all of a sudden, if it comes where you have to do it in the postseason, I just wouldn't expect this drastic change. Like, all right, we're going to turn on the pass now, even though we haven't really been doing it too much in the regular season. So my hope is that they can do a continuation of what they started doing last year, but this time with more quality. But speaking of quality and speaking about the passing game, we saw this draft, we saw in the first round, they ended up taking Kyle Hamilton at 14. And then all of a sudden, we all got this alert that the Ravens made a big trade and they got back into the first round. Again, I was like, okay, they got another first round pick, but how did they do it? Well, they traded away Hollywood brand. And they got picked 23, then they ended up trading down two spots, picked 25. And I was thinking, okay, it's receiver time. They're about to take a receiver, but they didn't. I was like, okay, cool. Maybe second round came around. Oh, they gonna take a receiver? Oh, nope, they still didn't. And they didn't take a receiver. So right now, right here right now, Rashad Bateman, James Brochette, Devin Duvenay, Tylen Wallace, Benjamin Victor, and all the undrafted rookie free agents is what the Ravens have as their pass catchers. That's why I receive. How do you feel about that group right here, right now? I'm a little concerned about that group. It's just, they don't have the depth, the proven depth especially that they had at pretty much every other position group on the entire team. I like what the Costa did in the draft. I think he did a great job of stocking the defense to prepare the defense to match up against every team in the league. They had the players to match up against Cincinnati week one week, a team that runs 11. And then they can turn around the next week and use different players to match up against Cleveland Browns who runs a ball a lot with 12 personnel. They don't have that on offense right now. I don't think they have it. And God forbid, if there's an injury to Bateman, I think they're in trouble. That's where they need that depth. They need to add somebody, I think. And it's just, I prescribe to Daniel Jeremiah, former Raven scout, his theory of championship roster building, and he basically identifies cornerstone pieces, foundational pieces that every team needs. It includes quarterback, three good blockers, three playmakers in the passing game. And even though they're a run first offense, I don't think two is enough. The AFC is just two loaded. You're bound to run up in that game script at some point where you need the pass, they know you're gonna pass, and you need that third guy to stretch the field, to stretch the field horizontally, to stretch the field vertically. And if anything, just to open up the run game because we gotta get their safeties out of the box. That's my concern. Now, what would be your strategy as far as getting another playmaker, another wide receiver, whoever it might be? I think at this point, you're probably looking at a trade. And that may be a pre-season trade. That could be an in-season trade. That could be before the trade deadline. They see how the guys are coming back from injury, how healthy is Stanley, how healthy is Bowser, is this year to really make that push. And I think they're in good position to make that push. But at this point, it does seem like a trade is the way to go. A lot of teams have been picking wide receivers and paying wide receivers, and there's a lot of receivers on other teams that could be available. Now, do you have any specific names in mind? I think a burner would really be ideal to directly replace Hollywood. There's Darius Slayton of the Giants. There's Meekle Hardman of the Chiefs. I'm not sure how available those players are. But I think a player of that skill set would be the ideal guy, also Jalen Rager of the Eagles, who I'm not a huge fan of. But at this point, I wouldn't be upset about it either. Okay, okay. And now, just to get back to this whole 2019 thing. Mark Andrews, we know that he was one of, if not the best tight end in the NFL last year. Now, they also have Nick Boyle coming back and there was initially some speculation that Nick Boyle could possibly be on the outs, especially when they drafted Collin and likely, but he recently restructured his contract so he isn't going anywhere. They also do have Josh Oliver. I'm not sure what'll happen with him, but he's probably going to be on the outs. But how are you feeling about this tight end room right now? It's a good room. It's a really strong room. I like, I think likely has a lot of potential. I'm not sure he's an ex-receiver or something like him not to be, but he could definitely make some plays. And obviously when you have an all pro tight end headline in the group, it's a strong group. Oil should come back. And if he just serves his role as a really good blocker, that's a good player to have, especially at a discount now. And Colar is also an exciting guy. I just don't want to have it so easy on the defense where you're a run-based team that targets the middle of the field and they don't have to, they don't have to respect the boundaries because it's all a numbers game. And what Lamar does with his rushing ability and what Roman does with his scheme puts the numbers in the Ravens advantage. But once that defense is not fearful and doesn't respect that wide receiver too, then they can put the numbers back in their favor and put safeties in the box. And we've seen it in the playoffs four times now. Teams that have good safeties can slow down the rushing attack. Powerful right there. You spoke about wide receiver too. Right now, who do you think would be that guy? Because a lot of people got Rashal Bateman Pencil then as the number one guy. But who do you think would be that second guy to really step up this year? I think it's Tyler Wallace. I think it's Tyler Wallace is the one that I'm most excited about. We've seen what DuVernay can do. He's a nice complimentary player, a gadget player. He makes plays with the ball in his hands. But being a starting Z is not something he's shown as far as stacking DBs and getting deep and stretching the field. And Prochet is a really nice, I think, slot guy. He's 80-20, to me, Jarvis Landry. But again, he's not the guy that's going to be stretching the field. Okay, that's a really good point. Now, you brought up earlier how you're not sure if this offensive line that we have right now could be better than the 2019 offensive line. And one of the reasons he stated this because Ronnie Stanley is coming back from injury, which does make sense. We hope that he can bounce back, but we'll just have to wait and see. But after the draft free agency, Morgan Moses, Failele, Lindenbaum, how do you feel about this offensive line as a whole and what their potential could be? I think it's a strong offensive line. I think, especially the left guard position, you know, they have four guys, capable guys competing there. They have a lot of depth. They're too deep at every position with quality players now. So I definitely think they have a high floor. I'm just not convinced quite yet that they have necessarily a higher ceiling than that 19 offensive line with Marshall Yanda at playing at an all pro level and Ronnie Stanley playing at an all pro level and Alina Brown playing at a pro-bow level. Yeah, good point, good points. Now, the guy behind the offensive line, well, one of the guys behind the offensive line, but Lamar Jackson, what do you feel Lamar Jackson needs to do or needs to improve on to really take another jump forward? I think it's just being more consistent with his deep ball passing. He could certainly throw the ball deep, but he's not the most accurate, you know, it's not consistent every single play. You know, he overshoots guys sometimes. His mechanics break down sometimes. And to me, that's an area where if your quarterback maybe needs a little bit extra help there, don't take away his guy, add to it, don't double down on what you're already good at, don't help where you're not at your best. And that gives you the most well-rounded balance. And I also think Lamar, you know, his pocket presence was really deteriorating the last two seasons and he was getting, you know, just not trusting his protection and kind of getting a little bit nervous and frazzled back there. And that's certainly a product of not having the blockers up front. So improving the line, at least getting a baseline of solid play should help that. One last thing I would note, you know, Lamar is an exceptional athlete. And I think the best thing he has that no other player has is the elusiveness, the ability to break tackles. But last year, he didn't break quite as many tackles as he had the previous two years. So I think I don't want to rely so much on him, not only being the quarterback, but also having to be the primary playmaker at the same time. It's too much pressure on him. Mm-hmm. I agree. I agree. So that would lead me to my next question, which I guess you may have kind of already answered with the previous answer. But what do you feel like coaching could improve on to help just take the Ravens to that next level? Well, I think a lot of it's play calling. And it's obviously route combinations and how, you know, I think they gave maybe too much freedom to Andrews and Hollywood at the same time for some option routes and things of that nature where the spacing wasn't proper. But I also just think it just comes out to volume and how much passing versus rushing are they doing? Because they literally are doing something different than the rest of the league. They are the outlier. There's a long track record. And I talked to Daniel Rees, who's one of the best numbers guys in the Ravens flock. And he did some charts. And teams that win the Super Bowl and make the playoff runs just flat out pass more often than the Ravens do. And I do think there's a correlation there. So I do think an ideal game script, you come out in the first quarter, chucking the ball around, put some points on the board, and then you turn it over to Russian offense and pound the clock and salt away the clock and let that pass defense hunt. So obviously, that's not the game script for every game. But I just think the volume of passing needs to be more balanced. OK, OK. And just to flip it on the defensive side of the ball, we see what the Ravens have done with their secondary. We see with the draft and free agency to Michael Pierce and Travis Jones what they've done bringing Kalea's Campbell back, what they've done with their defensive line. But right in between those two at linebacker, how do you feel about this group? Because that is one group that, in my personal opinion, I feel like they obviously tried to get an upgrade there. They tried to get a Bobby Wagner there to play with a Patrick Queen. But it obviously didn't happen. But how do you feel about that group as a whole? Because I'm a little bit worried about that group right now. I'm not too concerned about that group personally. I'm trying to be forward thinking. And I think inside linebacker is becoming maybe the least impactful position on the defense. The Ravens history with Ray Lewis sues the perspective. But in the modern NFL with teams, just I mean, Nicholl is base. And really, the Ravens could run big Nicholl this year or Dime as a base. And that's what I really like to see the Dime with less inside linebackers on the field, more safeties on the field. Because if you look back through their history, that's what produces more takeaways, more interceptions, and more sacks. They have safeties that could cover better than their inside linebackers. And I think what the guys that they put on the defensive line to bolster the Rundee, the Rundee will be fine. The Rundee will be great. Even Wink against the 49ers, the 19-year we're talking about, which is one of the best games they played, he went to Dime intentionally to entice the 49ers to run the ball. Because just at the end of the day, passing is more efficient than running. And he wasn't scared of the run. So I feel fine about the inside backers. Queen will be an added bonus. If he can take a step, I have confidence and fines. I'd really like to see what Malik Harrison can do. I was high on him coming out. But the defense is loaded to the gills right now, two lockdown corners, the best corner of tandem in the league. The best safety group in the entire league. And then once O'Jabbo comes back, you have three athletic freaks on the edge with O'Way and Bowser, all three of those guys and a deep rotation, a defensive lineman that can penetrate. It's really exciting to see what they're going to be able to do under McDonald. OK, perfect. Now the last question, before we get out of here, what do Ravens need to do right now to become a Super Bowl team? I would like to see a little bit more talent brought in on the boundary at wide receiver, a guy that can stretch the field and to make defenses respect the passing game, for no other reason than to help open up the rushing game. And I'd also like to see one more depth player brought in as a boundary cornerback. I think they're going to dominate the middle of the field on offense and defense. But when the going gets tough sometimes and they're in the playoffs against these teams in the AFC, the ball goes game script bounces away the wrong way on you. I like to have a little bit more firepower there. The playoffs are very unpredictable. So why not not only have an equal team to these really good consumers? Why not have maybe even a little bit better team give you a little bit more margin for error? OK, I like that. I like that. All right, I appreciate you coming on again before we get out of here. Let everybody know where they can find you at. Yes, at Baltimore beatdown and at Vasili's beatdowns by Twitter handle VASILIS beatdown. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Oh, yeah, for sure, man. And links to all of that will be down below in the description. Team keep it clean. Appreciate y'all watching and we out.