 Team Keep It Clean, welcome to another episode of Questions From Subbs. But before we get into it, I gotta say real quick. This, this, this, all that good stuff. It's not a green screen. There was somebody in the comments section, she was like, oh, how did you get your green screen like that? And I appreciated the compliment, but it's real back there, it's real. It's not a computerized image or anything like that. That's real. But I appreciate you for sure. Anyway, first question. Well, more so comment too. Came from my guy, Zachary, who's been a patron for just a short amount of time. So I appreciate you, Zachary. He said, Rashad Bateman wants out. What's up, Engraven? I've been watching you for years and it's good to have someone that truly appreciates the Ravens. I live in Virginia Beach and it's just commanders, Steelers, Cowboys and Eagles fans everywhere. Hey, I appreciate you. And I think we all appreciate the Ravens for sure. We appreciate them in so many different ways, but nonetheless, we appreciate them. But anyway, continuing, he said, anyways, look at Rashad Bateman's Instagram. Only two pics showing any Baltimore affiliation and his stories are hardly ever about Baltimore. It's been noted before that he's had issues with the team's decision making, but maybe they should go after Deha because he might not be all in for Baltimore. What do you think? Now initially, when I first started reading this question, I was like, because at the beginning, he just said, Rashad Bateman wants out. And I'm like, what? Like, then I went to the Instagram and I saw like, yeah, you wouldn't even know he played for the Ravens by going to his Instagram. Now again, that could be his own personal Instagram. He just like, you know, I don't know, nothing would work there, but I don't know. Instagram has told a lot of stories. Social media in general has told a lot of stories about how players feel. So should the Ravens chill on why receivers now just to keep everybody's feelings intact, just to keep everything the way it is? I don't think they should. If there's an opportunity, and John Hubba always talks about it. He always talks, Eric Dacas always talks about it too, how if there's an opportunity for them to improve their team to get even better, then they wanna take that opportunity. They wanna make the most of that opportunity, right? So whether that was DeAndre Hopkins, most recently it was Laquan Treadwell, and they felt like he could make the team better. Competition is gonna bring out the best. Only the strong will survive. And I know that, hey, if they just chilled out at wide receiver right now, they could be straight, but if they added more, they could be even straight terror. But it's crowded there right now. It's very crowded right now. But in my opinion, I think it's a great problem to have because Raven's having had this problem like ever, like ever. So it's very exciting for me personally. But with the Raven, should they stop? No, I don't think so. Because it's like, if you, again, I understand feelings can be involved. I get it, trust me, I do. But with your feelings, you can either take those feelings that you have and they can bring out the competitor in you and you're like, you know what, I ain't backing down. Somebody want my job, they're gonna have to take it from me. Hey, they might take it, but what they may not. I mean, look at Chuck Clark last year. Chuck Clark said, hey, okay, they drafted Kyle Hamilton. He gonna have to take my job from me. And I mean, now Kyle Hamilton probably will, but last year he didn't. He didn't. Chuck stood 10 goals down and he stayed and stuck around and he did his thing. But with the whole wide receiver thing and Rashad Bateman, because it's a great question to think about, how would Rashad Bateman feel? What would Rashad Bateman do if the Ravens were to add somebody else of significance at the wide receiver position? Well, I mean, they already have twice this offseason. Even twice and a half, certainly twice. Add an O'Dell Beckham, Jr., but then Drafton Zay Flowers too in the first round. Rashad Bateman, he was a first round pick when Hollywood was still here. You see what happened with Hollywood. But not because of Rashad Bateman, but because of the scenario, the offense. And just saying it wasn't feeling it. So with Rashad Bateman, like it's been a double dose this offseason, they added O'Dell and Zay. And again, I say two and a half because they added Nelson Aguilera too. Another first round pick. They had a Laquan Dreadwell, another first round pick. So they just had all these first round picks and wide receiver this offseason. But again, I do not think the Ravens should stop just because of potential feelings because you got to try to put those feelings aside when you think about the potential of the entire team. It sounds like a dream, that's what I mean. You too, team, keep it clean. You see my boy, he like, out of made it, out of made it. Well, that's my homie, ain't that right engraving? Team, keep it clean. Welcome to another episode of Question From Subs, where you can ask any question you want to. If you want to be a part of it, for the team, keep it clean. Patrons, you can send it directly on Patreon. If you would like to join the Patreon, you can go to patreon.com slash engravingbiz. And if not, you can send your question to teamkeepitclean at gmail.com. Now, next question also came from a patron, my guy, Gareth, who's been a patron for two years. He said, ain't engraving, timing is everything. I've been going through a really bad time. I was nearing this too. That's why I haven't sent a question in. You really got me through a really tough time. I hope I'm man enough to share what it is. Hey, whenever you ready, you take all the time you need. If you want to share, great. If you don't want to share, that's fine too. But it ain't got to be with me, but with your family, your friends, share with somebody so they can know what's going on so you don't keep yourself isolated or anything like that because you never want to do that. And not that you want your business all out there to everybody, because I get it. I'm the same way. But you want to have somebody, at least one or maybe two people you could talk to and let them know what's going on. But anyway, he said, do you think we should trade for the honey badger? Once again, thank you for getting me through this hard time. I wouldn't have said anything if not for you talking through your beard. Love you man, you do so much. I don't do anything crazy, man. I don't do anything crazy. We all just normal people going through normal things in this life. It's an unfortunate part of life when we got to go through stuff. So hopefully whatever it is that you're facing, you can blast right through it. And you can look back and be like, man, I was going through that and I didn't know how things were gonna turn out but I made it. So hopefully that is it. But as far as honey badger, no Ravens as safety, they pretty good. They got Kyle Hamilton, expect him to move around a lot. They got Geno Stone. Hey, don't sleep on Geno Stone too. And they got Marcus Williams who, I thought last year he was amazing. I thought he did a great job. They got Brandon Stevens. We'll see if they have him playing safety in a corner this year, how early this officer even says safety. So we'll see what happens with that. So they got a lot of guys there now. If honey badger was a free agent, I mean it would be another DeAndre Hopkins situation where you got an opportunity to get even better, to add even more quality depth and a possible quality starter too. But no, I don't think they should trade for honey badger. The next question came from my guy Jason EG who'd been a patron for 10 months. So I appreciate you. He's saying, Raven, hope all is well with you and the fam. You, especially now with the initial rush of off season free agency, noise has been quelled. I personally had to take a mental break from it all. Hey, I feel you man, that's how it be sometimes. He said, I came across a YouTube video. Raven's 200 Greatest Plays. See, I seen a lot of people talking about that video. I came across that video too and I started watching it, but then I started having to do something else so I never got to finish it. But anyway, he said question, isn't it far past time to put Chris McAllister and Jermaine Lewis in the ring of honor? And he said, quiet side note. Yes, I recall Lewis had a couple of instances a few years back that may be a PR red flag, but those dudes deserved it as do many others. Oh, I didn't know Jermaine and Lewis had anything off the field. I don't even know what you're talking about with that. But I feel like with the ring of honor, it's like, to me, it seems like it's for players that are like almost borderline hall of famous, if not hall of famous, but obviously it's for those huge, consistently impactful players for the Ravens. That just did it year in and year out. As far as Jermaine Lewis, we know he was a big part of the Super Bowl, so that is obviously huge. That's a tricky one, man. That's really, as far as Chris McAllister though. Chris McAllister, like, hey, that's a really tricky question, man. That's tough. Chris McAllister, he used to be my favorite quarterback. Number 21, he used to be my favorite quarterback, man. Chris McAllister, he was from, I think, Arizona state. Probably because I felt like we looked like a little bit too. Cause we both got the big guys. Sometimes I'll be having a ball here and whatnot, but he had hair sometimes too, but now I had always liked Chris McAllister a lot. And I remember, he was a beast of Madden too for me. He was a monster, man. He used to take care of business for me on that side of the field, but for Ring of Honor, I don't know, man. I'm gonna leave it up to the comment section to answer this one for both Jermaine Lewis and Chris McAllister. Next question came from Jaime. He said, title, hot wide receiver to take. All right, let's see how hot it is. He said, I wanted to thank you for every time you have given our team, keeping clean family, short pauses to be thankful. It is in these small pauses that we truly stop and realize all the love that is around us. Yeah, that's important, man. That's important. I was just talking to one of my guys today and just telling him about how love is so important, man. And it's so important because there's so much negativity that's out there in the world that we see on a daily basis all the time, whether it's on the news, whether it's some people we know, whether it's this social media, whether it's this, that, whatever. It's so much negativity that we see all the time. Constantly seeing negativity, all the time. But that's why it's so important to try to be as positive as you possibly can be. Obviously you can't be positive 24 seven. It's impossible right now in this system. It's impossible. But try, to really try for us to give more effort to show people love, show people positive, positivity and whatnot is just to try. It can make such a big difference. Anyway, he said to the question, this year we'll bring a new challenge to our organization. This is the first year where we can smell the competition in every wide receiver position from one to six, hopefully seven. Due to his pedigree, there is no doubt that OBJ will be wide receiver one until further notice. What are you gonna see? What are you gonna see? Cause that could be Rashad Bateman. I mean Lamar Jackson gave his endorsement and everything. He slipped it in there. He tried to be slick with it, but he slipped it in there. He said, oh yeah. He said Bateman, Bateman wide receiver one. He slipped it in. He slipped it in. It's so smooth during his last presser. But anyway, he said wide receiver two might be the most controversial and potentially problematic. Let's see what he's talking about. I've been nothing short of excited to see what Zay Flows can bring to the table. It is not a question of what he'll bring, but a question of when. However, I've been growing a bit worrisome with his seemingly large ego on his interviews. While confidence can be a positive, cockiness can be deceiving. On the other hand, we have Bateman. I'm not sure of the last time that I've heard of him this off season. In my opinion, I'd rather have quietness than smoke and mirrors on social media in the press. I would not be surprised to see a huge jump from our man especially with his idol giving him pointers along the way. He talking about Odell Beckham, Jr. Bateman has a very high potential that could finally be tapped into with a more traditional modern offensive scheme. That right there. I understand it is hard to ask for a team mentality from a YRC room, but this is the only way everyone may shine. I believe Zay and Bateman will work as a team and winning will cure some of the potential locker room tensions. There's a lot of first round picks in that room. Hey, that's what we were just talking about. Let's hope the veteran presence balances out in experience. Thank you so much for all that you do for this family. I'm proud to have for you come while staying humble. Hey, no, I appreciate you. Like crazy, man. So thank you, Jaime, for this. And I don't think this was a crazy hot take or anything like that. Now, I think Bateman could be YRC with one. Odell could be YRC with two. But as far as the battle between, because it seemed like you insinuated like a YRC with two battle between Bateman and Zay Flowers, I don't think it would be that. I don't think it would be that. At least not now. Right now, I, me, I think like the primary outside Y receivers, Bateman and Beckham. Bateman and Beckham, maybe. And then Zay as the slot guy. But with Zay, like, I expect for them to really move him around, like have him in motion before the snap and whatnot, maybe use him like sort of how they use Devon Duvenay, but in some different way, because he's shiftier than Duvenay. Duvenay got some good speed and Duvenay like a little pit bull because he low to the ground, but Zay is shiftier than him. But Duvenay is straight line speed, Zay, shifty. So I think they could sprinkle in some different things to do with him. Not all the time. You're still going to use him as a traditional YRC with two, but I feel like you could do a bit more with him. So we'll see what Tom Monke has in store. So I don't think this was too hot of a take. Next question came from my guy Nova. He said, what's good in gravy? Here with two more questions for you. Thank you for all that you do for us. And definitely enjoyed the Lamar Jackson interview. Appreciate that. Never change or settle and appreciate the outlet you provide for us fans hoping you and the fam. Oh, well, I appreciate that Nova. Thank you, man. So I need to start this with my apology to Eric D'Costa. I've been critical of him for the past two years and this offseason is I had him written off for the mishandling of Lamar. But my opinion is this was less from him and more of Lamar using the leverage of a contract to get what he wants. But needless to say, we can count this offseason as a win based off of that alone. The Ravens get that much needed cap relief and we all know who will line up behind Linda Baum for the foreseeable future. That is a beautiful thought to have, right? We know who our quarterbacks gonna be. And with that said, I think the second biggest win this offseason has to be Todd Monke and taken over for Greg Roman. My opinion, of course, but even if the Ravens has signed OBJ and Agilore and drafted flowers, none of that would have had the same impact if G-Row or Steele are OC. So my first question is, what should we expect from Todd this year in regards to our offense? I expect actual usage and routes of our receivers and less predictable play calling, but my fear is that we want something so different that our offense basically becomes buffaloes these past few years. But the quarterback throws 50 times a game and is also the leading rusher on the team. What I'm hoping for is just, it's on like a game by game basis. It's not like set in stone, like I'm not one of them people like, oh well, 50% pass and 50% pass, 50% Russian. I think it should be game by game basis. Like there gonna be some games where that pass game is working aid. And if it ain't broke, don't fix it. There gonna be some games where the run game is taken over. But I'm just hoping that they can go into games and not just have a set game plan. And I don't want them to be like, all right, this is our game plan, and we're gonna stick to it no matter what. Now, obviously you're gonna have a game plan. You're gonna have a game plan against different opponents and whatnot. And you're gonna wanna execute that game plan. But hey, sometimes that game plan needs adjustments. Sometimes the game plan ain't working. So I'm hoping that Ravens have a plan A, obviously, the game plan, but then have a plan B, plan C, and just really try to make stuff happen. Make, try to make stuff work if it's not working. Go to something else. And I hope that with Todd Monkin, like he can be a lot more in the flow of the game than Greg Roman was. And again, Greg Roman was not all bad. So I don't want people to think that or people to say that like Greg Roman was all bad. He was just this terrible offensive coordinator that couldn't do anything right. No, no, no, no. He did have a lot of stuff that he did right. But the stuff that he did bad, it was just so consequential for the Ravens and it has such a big impact. Again, the situational stuff. That's another thing we're hoping that gets better. The situational play calling. Oh boy. So yeah, those are just some of the things. He said, my hope is balance, along with modern wrinkles of the offenses doing, keeping a few G-Row things that actually worked. See, he talking about stuff with G-Row that worked. But anyway, he said, for example, let Lamar work on the cinema but keep some of the pistol formation as well. Just not any QV design runs. Or more hurry up offense when we have the defense out of position but keep something like a fullback dive in a playbook for short and goal line situation. I guess the ball to G-Row's favorite receiver, Project Pat LLL. Love to hear your thoughts on this. Yeah, so we pretty much covered that but I do love that Lamar being under cinema. Because if you add under center plays and just make that a regular thing, that opens up the playbook so much. That's something that G-Row talked about. He's like, oh yeah, this year Lamar's gonna be under cinema. We ain't hardly see Lamar in the center at all. So that's something that can really expand the playbook a lot. He also said, second question is now that we have OTAs going on, there's still free agents there that we can sign. I have some free agents in mind so love to hear your thoughts on these players. Keep in mind, I'm sending this after the Sioux video you made so I won't include him. Number one, Justin Houston. Things are no brainer here. As a vet, I hope he can come back when we start mandatory camp. I think so far that's probably what it's looking like. Ain't nothing set in stone, obviously, but ain't heard nothing else about Justin Houston, so we'll see. Kyle Fuller, ooh, cornerback. We never got to see him in meaningful action and I feel like we can get another one year deal from him and we can run this back assuming he looks good after his surgery. That's a good one, some more cornerback depth. Jarvis Landry. This could be overkill, but with the health issues we could face is staying ready so we don't have to get ready. Also, we've seen this tandem with OBJ and Munkin before except there's a bit of quarterback in place so maybe we can make this a match especially since our doubt DHOP, oh, this is before DHOP got released. He said, especially since our doubt DHOP will get released and come to be more. So we'll see about that one. Dalton Ryzener. We can use some competition at Guard and he was the best O-Line for Denver last year. That's not saying much. He wrote that, that's not me saying that. That's not saying much part. He's also still young, so maybe a change of scenery could do him good. He's been good, albeit not great for his career similar to Powers. Mark Ingram. Loved Mark Ingram, loved his energy, loved his vibe, but to Sino, I don't know. Anyway, let's continue. He said, Mark Ingram, so this isn't really for playing as I know our top three backs will get more play time than him but that 2019 season felt different and Ingram had a huge part in changing the vibe around. Okay, see, he said the vibe too. Changing the vibe around Vimo with the revamp we've made. Why not bring our hype man back to Charm City, LOL. Hey, hire him as a coach then. That's what the Ravens should do. Hire Mark Ingram as a coach. And he said, as usual, appreciate what you do and hope nothing but success for you and yours. Hey Nova, I love you man, I appreciate you. Next question came from my guy Dominic. He's been a patron for eight months. He said, what's up in Graven? Hope you're in a family doing well. So I've been thinking with the additions of the new receivers Lamar and the contract and the new position coaches. I think there's not just a lot of pressure on Lamar but Todd Monkin as well. Oh yeah, for sure. For sure, it's pressure on both of them. Pressure on Lamar to deliver after the contract and with a new offensive coordinator and actually like legitimate wide receiver core. Yeah, pressure. There's pressure on Todd Monkin to orchestrate that as offensive coordinator. So for sure there is. Even with Monkin coming off a high with Georgia in his stand in the NFL, are we just saying he is automatically going to be a good coordinator? Are we underestimating the amount of pressure that he has on him? This is a team that must make it to the AFC championship at least in my eyes. What do you think? I love that. I love your expectations. I love the bar that you set for this team. I think with health, they could definitely make an AFC championship. I do with health. Health is the biggest thing right now. But yeah, I've been guilty of that. I've been guilty of just really just assuming, like, hey, Todd Monkin here, this thing going to be great. And I think it can be great because with Greg Roman, the offense, they did pretty good overall. Now again, situational stuff. But for it being a limited offense, they did pretty good overall. And it's crazy to think about that, just how limited they were. Jameson Hensley brought that out recently in his article. But there's a lot of pressure on him. And one thing we have talked about on here that they could be growing pains. So it may not be clicking right away, but eventually once this thing gets rolling, it could be dangerous in a good way. Last question on this episode came from my guy, Martin, who's been a patron for two years. He said, this happens every year and it annoys me to know in the Ravens media put out these hype videos every year for certain players. This year is due. Last year, it was, I'd say, likely. Last year was due a lot too, but then due, he started delivering. But then when Bateman got hurt, they just, they were mishandling dove and it just, but anyway, but they do this every year. And I don't want to blame the fans of the media, but it happens every single year where they unfairly hype up these players. Then when they don't meet the hype, fans unfairly criticize these players, calling them nothing. But preseason hype, that ain't their fault. People place these unrealistic expectations on them. And I'm saying don't hope for them to be the best they can, but don't hate because they fail to meet your expectations. I've been guilty of this in the past, but I have been working hard to change my mindset. I no longer like calling players busts or failures. They are people too, with the whole city's worth of weight on their shoulders. He said, heck, I struggle when one person puts expectations on me. I can't imagine tens of thousands of people. Let's cut these guys some slack, but I hope for the best while still being excited. So yeah, that's real right there. That's real right there. He said, no rush. I know you're super busy with everything going on. I appreciate you giving me a platform to voice my thoughts on. No man, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts. So thank you for that. But that's real right there. That's real right there. And I appreciate you just really showing that respect for the players. Because yeah, they do have a immense amount of pressure on them. And I can't really blame the Ravens. I think Ravens are a team, I'm obviously from us watching the Ravens for years and stuff, all of us. I ain't just saying me, but all of us watching the Ravens and stuff and really watching just other NFL teams, they want you to be excited. Like it'd be one thing, like think about it the opposite way. Like what if Ravens didn't put out any hype videos or any highlight videos or OTAs or anything like that. Everybody would just be sitting there like wondering, hey, what's going on with OTAs? We ain't heard of it. We ain't seen no video. People love those videos. We love those videos. We love seeing that stuff because it gets you excited for the mini camp and training camp. It gets you excited for pre-season. It gets you excited for the regular. It gets you excited and it keeps you engaged. It keeps you wanting more. So that's why they put out those videos. And hey, sometimes the players that they hype up meet expectations. Sometimes and a lot of times they don't. It just happens, but it's not really, I wouldn't change anything. I wouldn't be like, all right Ravens, don't put out no hype videos on any players because then people are gonna get upset. Like, oh man, why are we not seeing the video on this guy, that guy, that? Why we not seeing anything? So, but I do really appreciate the part with just not even necessarily 10 back, you could temper expectations, but just have respect and try to put yourself in the player's shoes and think about all that pressure that's on them. Like in the NFL, like this is the big boy league, man. I mean, college is tough enough. But then to the NFL, it gets that much tougher. And this is where you get in paid legally. Well, now in college you can get paid too. But I mean, years ago it wasn't like that. But now you can get, you're getting paid the big money. Well, in college you can make big money now too. But anyway, in NFL, like it's cutthroat, man. It's cutthroat. And as soon as you get into the league, you can get out even faster. So it's tough. It's really, really tough. And you don't get many chances either. You do not get many chances. So I really appreciate you talking about cutting the players some slack. But Team Keeping Clean, I love y'all. I appreciate y'all. Shout out to Martin for our last question on this episode. Thank you all who participated in the question from Sub. Thank you all who watched it. I love y'all and on that note, we are out.