 Good morning, Baltimore Ravens fans. Today's a special day for the Ravens. Did you realize? I think maybe some of y'all missed it. No, I don't think anybody missed it because today is the day that we finally, for the first time ever, hear from new offensive coordinator, Todd Monkin. His first press conference with the Baltimore Ravens is today scheduled at 2 p.m. That's not why today's a special day. I mean, that is special, though, because it's his introduction to everybody. You can hear what he has to say about what he wants to do, how he wants to do it. And I know the question is gonna be asked, well, hopefully it will be, somebody gonna ask him, hey, what made you still take this job with the uncertainty at the quarterback position? Because right now we know that Ravens are talking to Lamar Jackson but we don't know if he'll be back or not. You don't know if he'll be back or not but you still took the job. What made you choose the Baltimore Ravens? But, and I'm sure there'll be a lot of other great questions asked to him. But anyway, that's not the only reason why today is a special day. Another reason why today's a special day is because this morning I was watching film on Jordan Addison. And I was watching film and I'm like, man, the speed is there. The route running is there. I feel like he struggles a little bit with physical corners. But anyway, no, that's not the big news. The big news today, as you all already know, today is the day that the franchise tag window officially opens. And like we discussed briefly earlier, Ravens are sort of in a showdown with Lamar Jackson. And as many of us have always expected, especially recently, but it's almost like it's just a matter of time before that franchise tag is applied to Lamar Jackson. We are hoping that they can reach a deal. We can hoping that they can reach a contract extension. But I'm just, I don't think that it's likely over these next two weeks. Of course, anything can happen. And we've been wrong before. There'll be times when we're wrong again, but I just, I don't see it. So we'll see how that goes. But a lot of us are expecting the franchise tag to be applied to Lamar Jackson. But today is the very first day that they can apply it. Now, with the Baltimore Ravens, even though it is expected that the Ravens do apply the franchise tag to Lamar Jackson, I think that they're gonna take their time with it. I know I was talking to one of my guys the other day and he was like, oh yeah, they gonna tag Lamar right away. And I was like, no, no, I don't think so because you know what the Ravens, like with Ravens, when it comes to deadlines, they like pushing whatever it is that they're dealing with, whether it's a contract, whether it's picking up a fifth year option, whether it's this or that, whatever it is, they like pushing it all the way to the deadline. Like even y'all know when the 53 man roster comes out every year, when they have to cut down, when they have to go from 90 men to 53 men on the roster every year, we hear of all these teams making all these moves, days ahead of the deadline, but the Ravens usually every year, we don't hear about their moves. We hear about like all of them at the same time right at the deadline, every time. Because that's how the Ravens do things. I guess they wanna think about every single possibility that there is, every single scenario there is, and they push it to the limit. So with Lamar Jackson, even though the window officially opens today, I don't expect them to actually place the franchise tag on him until the deadline, which I believe is March 7th by 4 p.m. And with that deadline, and again, I know y'all are all familiar with all of this information because it's been talked about a lot, but just to reiterate it with the deadline, with the franchise tag, not even a deadline, we'll see which franchise tag they applied to Lamar Jackson, because they, of course, they have their options. They have the exclusive franchise tag, which will be worth about $45 million. And all of that $45 million, it is right on the cap, right on the salary cap. So with that being said, if you apply the franchise tag to Lamar Jackson, then, and you only have 28 million salary cap space right now, you got some moves to make. You got some moves to make, you got some things to do, you got some decisions to make. So with the exclusive franchise tag, I really do think that, I think that this will be the year that we get a resolution with Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. Because I just feel like they need to rip this band-aid off because I feel like it's a band-aid with this whole situation right now. And what I mean when I say that is they either need to sign Lamar Jackson to a long-term deal. And again, we've heard the reports and the stories and whatnot that they've been offering them some significant money. We don't know what the exact money is, but we've heard it's been significant. So either they sign them to a long-term deal, but if they see that it's not gonna happen, if they see that it's not gonna go down, trade them. Don't prolong this thing, don't make it go on another year. Just whatever it's gonna be, in my opinion, I feel like it needs to be that this off-season. It needs to be done so both parties can move forward, and they can just make it happen, whatever's gonna happen. Hopefully it's that Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, they can come to an agreement. But if not, we get it. So, because I just, this thing has just been going on. It feels like it's been going on for forever. But it's only been like a couple of years, but it feels like it's been like forever. But I just, I hope that this is the off-season. But I just, I hope that this is the off-season, where everything becomes official. So, hey, Ravens have agreed to Lamar Jackson, contract situation with Lamar Jackson, or hey, Ravens, unfortunately, they traded Lamar Jackson to here, there, everywhere, wherever it may be. So, both parties, both Lamar Jackson and his camp, the Ravens and their camp, they can all decide how they're gonna move forward. Now, I would hope that they reach a resolution before the draft, because that would just, that has such a big impact. If Lamar Jackson is with the Baltimore Ravens, then they would draft accordingly. If Lamar Jackson is not with the Baltimore Ravens, then they would draft accordingly. And of course, whatever new team he was with, they would draft accordingly as well. But back to the franchise tag, yeah, there's that $45 million, there's that exclusive franchise tag. And again, just to give you a reminder, that's the one where he cannot talk to any other teams. He can't do it. He can't talk to no other team. The Ravens can, of course, but he can't. And then if the Ravens agreed to a trade with a team, of course, Lamar Jackson, he would still have to sign the franchise tag to facilitate the trade in the first place. So it's like both with the franchise tag, the exclusive franchise tag, both the Ravens and Lamar, they both have their own set of leverage. But in the end, I feel like with the exclusive franchise tag, Lamar has the most leverage because nothing can happen without his approval. If he says, nope, I don't wanna go there. I'm not signing a franchise tag. Ravens could have the best offer in the world. It can't happen. It can't happen. Now, the leverage that they have is, of course, that they can be the one that's talking to these other teams. They can come up with the trade package and whatnot with these other teams, but again, if Lamar doesn't approve, he can't do anything. They can't do anything. Now, there's, of course, the non-exclusive franchise tag. That's the one where there would be the two, if he agrees to terms with another team, there would be the two first round picks that the Baltimore Ravens would get now with that one is very interesting when you think about it, because if they applied that one obviously before the draft, if he came up to an agreement with a team, then the Ravens will probably want something for this draft. And then, of course, next year's draft, two first round picks from this draft for next year. But what if they did the non-exclusive franchise tag and maybe he didn't sign it until after the draft and they didn't facilitate a trade until after the draft? He didn't, because like if a team signed him to an offer sheet after the draft, so then they would give up a 2024 and 2025 pick instead of a 2023 and 2024 pick. You get what I'm saying? So, and I still gotta look at all the background and stuff to see exactly how that works, but I believe that that would be the case because with the franchise tag, the deadline to sign a contract extension, I know it's the middle of July, I wanna say it's like July 15th, I believe that's the deadline, this year's either the 14th or the 15th, it's one of those two, it's right in the middle of July. So that is the last day that teams can sign their franchise players to contract extensions from the franchise tag. And as we've seen over the years, sometimes this thing, it gets worked out, then other times it doesn't. I remember Ravens, their most recent franchise player, Matt Judon, Matt Judon. And we all remember like in his last year, I didn't think he was gonna get a contract extension. I didn't think he was gonna get it, then he didn't get it, then he placed him on the franchise tag and he was like, okay, I think it was worth about like nine meals. Then there was that whole little battle, there was that whole dispute, whether he was a, I think a outside linebacker or a DN, cause the money was different. And him and the Ravens, I believe they met in the middle. They met in the middle. They were like, oh, well, you're not quite an outside linebacker, well, you're not just an outside linebacker, but you're not quite a DN. So they met him in the middle. But anyway, and I respected, that was cool by them. But anyway, they placed him on the franchise tag, he played on it. And he was like, hey, okay, all right, what's up? But I think most people felt like he wasn't gonna get a deal from the Baltimore Ravens. And he didn't get a deal from the Baltimore Ravens. And he went and got a deal from New England. And he went and did this thing. He'd been doing this thing over there with the Patriots. So shout out to Matt Judon. Then there have been other guys that have been franchised tag, I think it was Terrell Suggs, but I think Terrell Suggs was franchised tagged. Who else? Well, Chris McAllister, it's just like way back. Did Ray Ray's get the Justin Tucker get it? I mean, forgetting a lot of people who got franchised tagged, man. But it's been quite a few over the years. But Ravens, usually they've gotten the deals done when they do use the franchise tag. Obviously minus Matt Judon, but with Lamar Jackson. This is just completely different territory for them. I've seen people say that with the Ravens, like this is new territory for them as far as having a superstar player. And I said, well, they've had Ray Lewis's and A.R. Reeves and whatnot, but this is different. Because this is a superstar at the quarterback position. This is a superstar on offense. So this is definitely brand new territory. Uncharted territory. Shout out to Drake. You know the Uncharted games, Naughty Dog. Anyway, this is Uncharted territory for the Baltimore Ravens. And it's just seem like, they're like, oh, what do we do? Well, what do we do? And again, they trying. They trying, but obviously they ain't coming with the right numbers because a hundred people, they been saying no. Because obviously they been saying no because they ain't no deal reach yet. So, hey man, that's what I say. Just, I just really hope that this is the year where I, hey, whatever it's gonna be, is gonna be. I have seen some Ravens fans. And I mean, we saw this already. We saw it last year. We saw it this past. I mean, we saw it two seasons ago. We saw it this past season. Had there been, I've seen a lot of Ravens fans sort of turning on them more. Turning on them because the weight, the weight for a resolution is really starting to bother a lot of people. And I've seen some Ravens fans that are just been like, all right, you know what? Just, I don't feel like waiting it out no more. This thing has taken too long. Just get rid of them. I'm like, I mean, I can't tell nobody how to feel. And everybody's, of course, entitled to their own opinion, which is the great thing about opinions. We all got them. We all got them, which is fun. Love sharing. Of course, y'all know we love sharing our opinion on here. Love hearing y'all opinions as well. Do that with questions from subscribers and everything like that. And then of course in the comment section too. But yeah, I've seen that quite a few times from people. I've seen it in the comment section. I've seen it on Twitter, Facebook. Yikes, that's a scary place and I'm like going there too often. But we have seen it. But yeah, people are like, oh yeah, just get rid of them. Just take it too long. He doesn't want to sign a deal, just get rid of them. So it's like, it's crazy out here. But I get why people are frustrated. I don't agree with taking that route. Like I said, I do want whatever's gonna happen to happen. But I'm not one of those people that's like, oh man, since it's taking so long, just get rid of them. I want the Ravens to keep them. But I do want everything to be resolved this year. And cause it would be best for both sides. It really would. Because think about this, if Ravens and Lamar, they went into another off season and there was no contract and it was like the franchise tag, it would be all of this, everything from last year just all over again, all over again. Then there could be the threat of him holding out. I don't think he's not gonna sit out the season, but it could be the threat of him holding out. Then every week after every game, oh, Lamar, the contract, it would be to talk of every game more than it was last year. Cause this year it would be the franchise tag. And it would just, yeah, it would just, it would be a lot of drama again, but it would just be more. It would be more cause this would be Lamar Jackson in his sixth year with, still no deal, still no deal. And then you would wonder like, man, will him playing on a franchise tag, will that change how he plays? Will he be thinking? Will he be like second guessing stuff and whatnot? And deciding, you know what, I'm not gonna do that. You know what? I really don't wanna do, you know what? Nah, no thanks. Or you could just go out there and just be loose too. But would he be fully loose without that, with the lack of commitment from the Ravens financially? Cause one year is great. Hey, one year 45 mil, oh, that's a lot of money. But long term, if it's not there, how would that make him feel? So, and then on top of that, like what would the Ravens do in, cause again, the last year was the fifth year option. And y'all know, I was hoping like, all right Ravens, you didn't do it the first three years, I don't count the first year, because he was a rookie that was still Flacco's team. But you didn't do it, his first three years starting, to where y'all really went all in, especially on offense. I was hoping last year, like, all right, fifth year option, y'all obviously in contract talks, surround this guy, surround Lamar Jackson. Surround him with the best weapons that you could possibly get. Really feel the fire offensive team form. Fifth year option, like you, you want him to prove it, right? You want him to prove why he deserves the money, even though you already did, but you want him to prove it, right? All right, hey, do your thing Ravens. No, they didn't, they didn't. And I kept saying all off season, hey, this is the cheapest, this is the cheapest Lamar is ever going to be, ever. Ever, he will never be this cheap again, ever. Take advantage, it's 23 mil, it's at least doubling next season. At least, they didn't do it, they didn't do it. So yeah, man, so we'll see how it goes. But today, like today is a special day, it's a significant day for the Baltimore Ravens. It's a significant day for really the NFL with Baltimore Ravens specifically because this is the day where everything can officially start, where we can finally start to get some questions answered. I don't expect them to be answered right away. Like I said earlier about the franchise tag, I expect them to really push it to the deadline, really push it, because that's what the Ravens do. So I wouldn't expect Lamar Jackson, if he does get franchise tag, which I expect him to, I wouldn't expect it to happen until the last day of the deadline to be franchise tagged. So yeah, man, just thought I shared that with y'all. I love y'all. Team Keep It Clean, I appreciate y'all. And yeah, we'll see how this thing goes. Please take care of yourself, take care of your people. Be good to people, be nice to people. Even, ooh, even it's tough when people ain't so nice to you. I really love y'all and I respect y'all. Team Keep It Clean, like Lamar Jackson hopefully won't be by the end of this off season, but we'll see. We out.