 So YouTube team keep it clean last, but certainly not least. In the press conferences from this week, we had one Ravens general manager, Eric DeCosta, who spoke to the media today. And he started it off by thanking literally everybody from top to bottom within the organization. And my favorite was that he even thanked people outside the organization, specifically people who cover the Ravens and provide a different aspect to the fans of the Ravens. And I really appreciated that. So Eric, thank you, thank you. But from the jump, you know the question. The biggest question, well in my eyes, going into this press conference that somebody needed to ask Eric DeCosta was about one Lamar Jackson, about Lamar Jackson's contract status, where they at? Because of course we've heard the rumors and stuff about Lamar turning down a contract offer from the Ravens and that's not a bad thing. That's how negotiations work, it happens. You don't take the first offer. You learn that from Michael Scott from the office. But anyway, we heard so much about it but we wanted to hear directly from somebody who would be in charge of these contract talks that being Eric DeCosta. And let's look at what he had to say. So he said that it's an unusual negotiation cause he's been dealing with a player and obviously instead of an agent. He said that he won't talk about specifics but that him and Lamar have had five to six conversations over the last year. So what that led me to believe, cause obviously he's talking about Lamar and his contract, that leads me to believe that they have been going back and forth on this thing. That is not necessarily news, that is not anything new, that is not breaking or anything like that. They've talked about that. They've talked, Eric DeCosta has come out and said that before. So that's the expectation. So that means that, hey, they're trying, they're trying. Both parties are trying, they're working on stuff. And he said that they're working at Lamar's pace. That's where things kind of took a little turn when he said that, I said, ooh, okay now. And he said, he feels like we have a lot of unfinished business. Then he said that about Lamar. He and I share that same vision. Lamar knows he can call slash text me at any point. We will operate based on his urgency. Right now we wanna see Lamar get healthy. We have a lot to work on as a team, especially on offense. So, Eric DeCosta publicly let it be known like, hey, Lamar, big dog, it's on you. It's on you, it's on you. And that allows the perception right now of where the Ravens are at when it comes to the contract that the ball is in Lamar Jackson's court. And when Lamar Jackson wants to make this thing happen, hey, he can make it happen. Now, something to keep in mind, this could also be a negotiation tactic. Put a little pressure on Lamar from the organization, from the fan base and whatnot, from outsiders looking in like, hey, Ravens are trying Lamar, what's up with that? But, hey, you never know, you never know. So, Lamar, like we talked about before, Lamar does have plenty of leverage as to what happens with this whole thing. And whether he signs or not now, when Eric DeCosta spoke about that Lamar feels like the Ravens, him and the Ravens have some unfinished business, to me, that sounded like Lamar really wants to let this thing play out. That's what it sounded like to me. And I know to a lot of y'all, you have been in the comment section saying a lot of the same thing, that you wouldn't expect Lamar to re-sign right here right now because you wanna see what the Ravens do for him. You wanna see what he does for the Ravens as well. It goes both ways. So, and of course, we know everything that he's done for the Ravens already. But you just wanna see how this thing goes and if they really build that offensive lineup, like we'll talk about in a little bit. But again, with this press conference, it really sounds like Lamar's like, ah, we'll see, let's wait on it. But anyway, that was very interesting. Now back to Eric DeCosta. He also talked about when they were in the Caribbean in Bahamas that they talked about some possible contracts and free agency and deals and stuff. He said he brought up the whole right player, right price thing. You know, that's the Ravens motto. And he said they're excited about having nine picks in the first four rounds. And all of those picks should be within their top 80 players. So of course, they got the draft boy with their top guy. So he said that all of those picks that they got right now, they should be able to get a lot of those guys. And throughout this press conference, he was throwing some hints about the draft and about moving around and possibly moving back in. We'll talk about it though. Now back to Lamar Jackson again. He talked about, somebody asked if his mom is still repping him and the fact that he endorsed Antonio Brown had his Eric DeCosta feel about that. Eric DeCosta said he hasn't seen anything from Antonio Brown on social media. Really, I didn't believe that at all. I'm sure, cause I know, cause you know, Lacey DeCosta, you know, she on Twitter. I know, you know, she's unseen everything. You know, Lacey got to be so tired of so many Ravens fans. She like, oh, I'm sure there's been so many times where she wanted to just press deactivate cause she probably tired of hitting it, probably getting, tired of getting tagged and people being like, hey Lacey, tell Eric to do this. Cause it's like, I don't know why people do that. Anyway, he said that he spoke into Lamar Jackson and he said he actually got anxiety when it came to dealing with the players from day to day since he's a lot different from Ozzie Newsom. Ozzie Newsom, having been a player and whatnot, but Eric DeCosta said, it's all about just talking to people. Now as far as Antonio Brown, he said they're comfortable where they are at wide receiver. And something else that we'll talk a little bit about again, remember last year, remember last year when Eric DeCosta was also comfortable what they had at wide receiver and he was actually insulted. Y'all, I know y'all remember that. And what he turned around and do drafted not only Rashad Bateman, but drafted Tyler Wallace as well. So he took not one, but two wide receivers after being insulted of the Ravens and the media saying, asking him about wide receivers. But this year he said they're comfortable where they at. So I would expect them to sign a veteran, not no crazy price veteran, anything like that. But I would expect them to, but we'll see. He also talked about that he anticipates picking up Hollywood's fifth year option. So shout out to Holly. We'll talk about that in more detail a little later on. Now he was actually about the Bengals and how they've been having all this success and going into this off season, how they have over $56 million in cap space. So they already are a, not even a good team, but a great team. They're in the Super Bowl. And I know a lot of Ravens fans don't like hearing that. Oh, why would you call the Bengals great? They're in the Super Bowl. And you could talk about the cakewalk of a schedule that they had, the last place schedule, but they beat the Raiders. And they go, oh, okay. Then they beat the number one seeded Tigers. And they're like, oh, okay. Then they beat the Chiefs. And they beat the Chiefs twice in a month. So you gotta give them their credit. But anyway, he's, Eric DeCosta said, we look at all the best teams and have to figure out how to beat them. Said things are always evolving and changing. And yes, that's certainly true. Now this is, this was a really good question. He about Ronnie Stanley. They asked, how does Ronnie Stanley and his, him coming back, how does that impact what you do? He said that he thought about it a lot. Said it was his mistake, expecting that Ronnie Stanley would be back at full strength. And I appreciated that so much. I really did. I really appreciated how he owned up to that. Because it being his mistake that he thought Ronnie Stanley was gonna be back at a hundred, his mistake for really not addressing it like he probably should have addressed it. But anyway, let's keep going. He said that that was a big setback. Oh yeah, it certainly was. He said he can't comment on Ronnie's rehab at this point. Said he's optimistic though. But the way that he said it, he didn't sound like he has a lot of confidence in Ronnie Stanley coming back at full strength this year. It just didn't really sound like he was, he said he was optimistic, but he did not sound optimistic. Something that I've been saying this off season, Ronnie Stanley right now, as sad as it sounds, Ronnie Stanley is a bonus. Getting him back is a bonus. We want it to happen, we hope it happens, but it's a bonus. And I feel like Ravens have to treat it as such. And he said as far as one of the emphasis, the points of emphasis is the offensive line. And he said that happens through the draft and also with guys that they have already. Said for us to be the best offense we can be, they have to have a strong offensive line. Oh yeah, you're right about that one ADC. Somebody else asked him, how much harder is it to assess where you are heading into next season with all these injuries you had? He said they have a process, a challenging process, but a process. He brought up Gus, JK, and Justice Hill. He said, we're in a situation where it's when do they come back? He said situations like this, they complicate things, but you gotta trust your medical team. You also have to be flexible enough to look for players that can help the team at any positions. You don't wanna be content at a position. He said they're always looking at value and talent. One of his regrets this year was when the salary cap went down, that hurt their ability to be flexible during the season. And he said with all the injuries, they put a hit on the cap and said that they had opportunities this year to pull the trigger on some trades. But he said that do you mortgage the future to make a short-term trade? Y'all know my answer, but I'm greedy. So, but I ain't no GM, but anyway. Said the idea of taking on dead money each year isn't an ideal situation. And he said, I don't want that to be us. And he said they try to do responsible deals for the team and for the players. So that was interesting. And of course, we hear the stories every year about all these almost deals that went down, all these almost trades that got pulled off, but the Ravens just came up short. So, and I appreciated that he did address that. He spoke on that. Now earlier in the presser, he had mentioned how the Ravens are running team and somebody asked, well, what does we are running team mean? And he said it means that they're physical teams. Said he likes the idea of always keeping the other team guessing. Being able to push people off the ball is a good thing. Keeping other teams off balance is what you aspire for every play. You know what's funny though, when he spoke about the offense? Well, no, yeah, I guess it is more of a hardball thing because hardball, he said it the other day, he makes the decisions on the coordinators and the staff and all that. But yeah, nobody asked him about any coordinators at all. Not one question about the coordinators. Maybe they got like a little cheat sheet before the presser that said, no questions about you. We don't talk up, you already know. Anyway, he said, how much change will there be on the offensive line? All right, this is where Eric DeCosta started playing the games, them draft games, them trade games. He said, if the right player becomes available, we'll make a move. If a guy is there at 14, we'll take him. If we can trade back at 20, we'll take him. And he just started naming all these different scenarios where they could get a player. And he said they just looked to get someone that fits. But when he said that, if they available at 14, okay, if they available at 20, like... And he said, he mentioned picking at 20 again. He mentioned picking from 14 to 20 again. He's like, oh, yeah, there you go, putting it out there to these other GMs. Like, hey, if y'all wanna make a trade, y'all wanna trade up to 14, talk to me. Cause you know I love me some draft picks. Now, something that I feel like the Ravens need to do this year and really moving forward. Quality over quantity. Quality over quantity. Having a million draft picks. Hey, that's great, but let's do quality over quantity. But anyway, moving forward. Somebody asked if, I think it was Jeff Zuribic, but if somebody asked, has anything happened with Lamar over the last four months that impacted where you guys stand as far as contract negotiations? But he said, no, nothing has changed. And somebody else asks how much influence Lamar has when it comes to bringing in players. And Eric DeCosta said, I'm all ears. Said veterans will come in and talk to him whenever they have suggestions. And he said, it's good to listen to people and consider other ways of doing things. And he said he appreciates the opinions of other players and coaches. And I appreciated that because that's true. That's true. In my opinion, any great leader, they are willing to listen to the people that follow them. Because a great leader, they may have a great plan in place, but sometimes things happen, sometimes things change. So it's nice to get input from people that follow that leader because they have some great suggestions as well. So shout out to EDC with that one. Somebody asked, are you comfortable with the pass rush you have? He said, it's always a priority to improve the pass rush. He said, Tyus was doing good before the injury. And yeah, he was doing better as the year went on. He said, Owe did good and said, we'll be able to pick a good pass rusher since we're picking in between 14 to 20. So again, he put it out there again that he's willing to move in the draft. So shout out to EDC again. He dropping him little hints to people like, hey, talk to me. I'm ready. Ronnie Stanley, they asked about him again and asked if he was able to get, I had never heard of this before. Somebody asked if he was able to get disability insurance with him having just got paid and then he got hurt. But Eric said, he said, we don't talk about the specific contract details like that. And he said that we'll do whatever we can do to protect the club, but we do what we can to protect the player too. But he let it be known, like, hey, we protecting the Ravens first and then the player after. As far as Kaleas Campbell, somebody asked about if Eric had talked to him, he said they have conversations and they'll have more conversations. He said, we need to get younger them. So him and Kaleas, they've talked, but the D-line is something that they have to address this year. Somebody also asked him about special teams being number one in the league. And he said, Chris Horton is very important. Said he's great. He's detailed and passionate. He said the only thing that Chris Horton can do, a special teams coach, is beat him in a peloton. I said, okay, well, Eric D'Costa in some shape. Maybe he should have went out there and played some corner force last year. Because if he could get down in a peloton, that means he got some good stamina, he got good energy, and he should have suited up. Anyway, Bishadi, somebody asked, what does Bishadi think about everything? Where is his headspace right now? But he said he doesn't want to talk about their personal conversations. Well, okay, we could understand that. But he said that we're concerned. The only thing they concern with and consume with is how they can get better as a team. How can we protect our players? Is it technology? Is it the way we practice? Said they'll look at everything and own it. And he said they've done a lot of reviewing, like looking back at everything that they've done, looking back at the good, and looking back at the bad, looking back at everything, and really assessing it and seeing how they can get better. And that's what anybody has to do. You have to look at places or times when you were successful, like, okay, how can I capitalize on that? How can I do that again? And you have to look at where you were unsuccessful as well. To see, hey, what did I do wrong? Well, why didn't this work out? So that's something that just has to happen. They also asked him about Hollywood and what his thoughts were with Hollywood's development. He said Marquis was my first pick. I love his talent, his personality, like his energy. For his skill set, for what he brings to the table, the fifth year option looks like a bargain. I gotta look up the details of what the fifth year option, like how much it is. But anyway, he said hopefully for this year, he doesn't get as many questions about wide receivers. But he said, here we are, still getting a lot of questions about wide receivers. And he said it in one of those kind of like joking ways, but it wasn't really a joke. But that was that. He said Hollywood hasn't played his best football, but he would say that about a lot of his guys. He talked about the development of players, how different players develop at different stages. He said, and this wasn't about Hollywood, this was just about players in general. Because somebody had asked him a different question. I forgot exactly what the question was, but he said as an organization, they have to push players to develop as quickly as they can. But so much factors into how a guy plays. When building a team, one of the worst things you can do is bring in a guy, but then someone behind him ends up developing quicker than him. And that can be a tricky situation, depending on draft status, depending on the contract, because money talks, it can make stuff very tricky. But I think it's a good problem to have. Well, kind of. But anyway, somebody brought up Anthony Averett, Pat Ricard, Bradley Bozeman, and they said, do you have the cap room to make a good one and keeping your top unrestricted free agents? He said, we do. We can sign anybody we want to sign. But it takes two parties to get a deal done. Said they've done 22 extensions for over two million a year over the past, I think three years, he said. But he said that only the Eagles have done more, which is frustrating, but said you can't resign everybody. And I think that was just like, they technically can. They can sign whoever they want, because look, with the cap, you can get it done. If you want somebody, you want to sign something, you can get it done. But with this part, I think he was just, he's just saying, yeah, we can sign him. Are they gonna sign all three of these guys? I don't anticipate it. I do not think Anthony Averett comes back. Pat Ricard, I don't think they'll sign him back initially, I think they could let him test the market and then see what happens after that. But I don't think it's gonna be crazy market for a fullback. And for Bradley Bozeman, I think he'll test the market and he'll be gone. I think he's out of there, because somebody, and usually it's like this all the time, but it's always somebody who will pay more than the Ravens. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but that's just is what it is. It's always gonna be somebody that will pay more than the Ravens. And Bradley Bozeman, you trying to get some bread? You trying to get paid? Okay, go test the market, get your bread, man. Can't never be mad at nobody for getting their bread. So we'll see what happens with that. Somebody's talked about with John Harbaugh, how he expressed confidence, can't even talk. I was Marcus Peters being on a roster next year. And EDC said that he loves Marcus Peters. Said he talked to him a lot and he said that he is a Raven. And he's one of those rare guys that have played for other teams, but come in and really change the culture. And he would expect Marcus to be here. And with Marcus Peters, he is one of those guys, like, excuse me, there are some players to where they have played for other teams. They've come from other teams, but it's like, oh yeah, you should have been here a long time ago. And he brought up Anquan Boda. He brought up Marcus Peters. He brought up Steve Smith, Senior. There was somebody else, I forgot who else he brought up, but he brought up a couple of guys' names. And it was like, oh yeah. Somebody asked about Jimmy Smith and Sam Cook, what their statuses were, but he said he hadn't talked to those two. He did talk about Anthony Levine though, who did officially retire. And he said that Anthony Levine had been thinking about it for like the past two years. But he said that Anthony Levine started his coaching already, because they did say when he retired, that he would make that transition in the coaching right away for the Raven. So it's like, man, like, that's like, that's great, man, for Levine. You two-time Super Bowl champion, by the way, got to go out on his own terms, but he retires and right away, he got a job, working with the team that you've been playing with for a long time. And boom, you get to be a scout right away. Like, that's something right there. He talked about Zach Orr and Anthony Weaver. And he said, somebody asked him that, or told him that it must be fulfilling when you see players make that transition from playing to coaching. And he said it's nice to see players do that. And he said that sometimes they're shocked at what we as coaches in front of us, what we do and how we do it. And when they make the switch from players to coaches, he talked about, he gave a shout out to Bill Belichick. He said he gave appreciation to him for giving Ozzie Newsom a shot at working in the front office. And obviously, his work out kind of great. He talked about Eric Guero. Say he ain't surprised at what Eric Guero did. Being at home chilling for two years, then come out leading the team and tackles in the NFC championship, like what? But he said that Eric Guero does everything the right way. And he said that he actually expects him to be a scout for the Ravens one day. He said he coached his son's team to a championship. And he just talked about, he just really loved Eric Guero. One person asked about the philosophy. Said the philosophy has usually been to keep an eye on what the Steelers do and draft accordingly. But he said that that's changed now. And said the Bengals have done a great job at drafting. And they've been doing that for a while. I've always said, I said it for years, the Bengals always have these super talented teams, always. But just they seem to be a lack of leadership from the top. And cause they've always had guys that could ball, man. Always. They've always been loaded with wide receivers, always had good running backs. The quarterbacks, they've been straight. Obviously, Joe Burr was doing this thing. Annie Dolan was straight. He was straight. But it's just, it's been something that had been missing like off the field. But they seem to have, I mean, they obviously got it right now, they're in the Super Bowl. So they asked him about the safety position. Where do you feel like you are at safety? And how do you, how would you feel if a playmaker came available or what? He talked about Brandon Stevens having a great year. He brought up how he was running back three years ago. Then the year before last, how he was a cornerback and played a little bit of safety. Alrighty, he said that we expected him to make a jump. But he also talked about how their inability to create turnovers was an issue. Said he wants more picks, more force fumbles and for the Ravens defense to be more disruptive. And yes, I think we would all agree with that one. He said it was his fault that they just didn't have enough corners or enough guys. He said, when you lose the quality of players, it takes a toll. He said, going into the season, it looked like they had a lot of depth and said they had a lot of players that they cut that were in training camp, but they ended up playing on other teams. Also talked about, speaking of safety, he also talked about the early time the situation, said they haven't really heard anything about that, said it's ongoing. He said, maybe this year they have something to say, but as far as right now, nothing. He also talked about the draft. They asked him if the draft is gonna be remote, if he gonna do it from home or if they gonna do it from the facility. And he said, yeah, he ain't doing it from home no more. Cause he said his boys, his sons, they were playing Fortnite and they knocked out the wifi. So he said he ain't going through that again. He also talked about John Harbaugh's extension, his contract extension. He said that's not something that he's involved in or that he would talk about, but he said there isn't a better head coach in the league. Said he couldn't imagine any situation where he wouldn't wanna be with John Harbaugh for years to come. Moving on, he also talked about JK Dobbins and Gus Edwards returning from injury and said we are optimistic, but there's always gonna be an unknown when it comes to injuries and how guys respond and get back. And he said they will assess all of that in free agency and in the draft. So, Eric DeCosta had a lot to say. And he addressed the things that we were thinking about the most obviously, probably number one being Lamar Jackson and his contract status. So again, just the biggest thing that I took away from this press conference was with Lamar Jackson's contract status that he's really trying to put it on Lamar. It's like, hey Lamar, it's on you. It ain't on me, I'm ready baby, it's on you. So we'll see what happens next. I don't, right now I don't envision anything, a contract happening this off season. Eric DeCosta talked about how they could work with that. I think it's 22.7 million or 23 million that Lamar's cap hit. Obviously they would want that to be lower, obviously. But if it's not, if Lamar don't wanna do a deal yet, okay, but based off of what Eric DeCosta said and just based off of the way he said it, to me it just seems like Lamar is going to want to stand and stay right where he is. Okay, I'll play on the fifth year option. All right, cool, no problem. I'm getting about 23 million. Okay, cool, I'm straight. And I know somebody brought up in the comment section yesterday that, oh, that the Ravens, they have all the leverage because they could franchise tag Lamar Jackson the following year. They could franchise tag him again. I said, yeah, that's true. They could do those things. They certainly could. And the only bad thing about the franchise tag is that it's not a long-term deal. So you have all this commitment for just one year. But if they did that, then I feel like Lamar would still have leverage because he would still get paid a lot of money. The average of the top five salaries of the top five quarterbacks, what they getting paid in the league. So he would be getting a lot of braver for those one or two years if they franchise tagged him. But then at the same time, that would eat up so much of their salary cap. So you really think Ravens would want to do that? They're like, think about that. Like Ravens always tight to the cap as is. So if they put the franchise tag on a quarterback, ooh, yikes. That would be something. And that, so again, I still think Lamar, he has more leverage in this whole thing than the Ravens do. But it's gonna be an interesting situation with the whole contract talks, how these whole things play out and how it goes down. Now, with Marcus Peters, that was something that was interesting as well. And again, he spoke about Marcus Peters like he does expect him to be on the team. Now, and really with Marcus Peters, with Lamar Jackson, when he talked about Pat Ricard, Bradley Boseman, Anthony Averett, when he spoke about Kalea's Campbell, when he spoke about Jimmy Smith, Sam Cook. When he speaks about everybody and everything, when it comes to people being here, people, whatever, something that I said it before with the other press conferences. Well, more so with John Harbaugh, with Mike McDonald, we gotta see in order to really assess if everything that he's talking about comes to fruition. But with these press conferences, more so with John Harbaugh and Eric DeCosta, they can say anything up there. They have plenty of experience with public speaking, obviously. They got a good talk game. They got a great talk game, but it's now it's about to follow up. It's about to follow up. So we can't get hung up, too hung up on what they said. Oh, they said this is gonna happen. Okay, so I expect that to happen. Oh, they said this is gonna happen. Okay, so I expect that to happen. Oh, they said this is gonna happen. Okay, so that's gonna go to, you can think that it's gonna happen, but it still has to actually happen. So, and again, action speaks so much louder than words do. So we'll see how it goes. I love y'all so much. I appreciate y'all so much. And we out. See y'all soon.