 Whenever you think about the potential of a football team getting better, does it ever cross your mind to where you're like, you know what, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's too much, you know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We already said we don't need to add more. We're good, we shouldn't get even better than we already are. Does that ever cross your mind? Cause if it does, it's okay. But I'm here to talk to you about why you should forget that thinking. Should always look for ways to improve. You should always look for ways to get better. And that's even a personal thing. You don't ever want to feel personally like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm good enough. No, no, no, no, no, I'm set with how I am. I don't need any improvements. Cause think about that. That's not a really healthy way of thinking in my opinion. We should always be looking for ways to improve ourselves. But it also translates to our favorite football team. But I couldn't explain it to you myself. I mean, I could, but it'd be more fun if I brought on a very special guest to help me explain it that much further. Yeah, this feels like a dream. Oh, just what I made. You two team, keep it clean. You see my boy, he like, I done made it. Boy, that's my homie. Ain't that right engraving? All right, so team keep it clean. Very special guests in the building. My guy, KO, Kevin Ostrichka from Locked on Raven. Let me stop talking. Let me let you introduce yourself. So everybody, even though they know who you are already, frequent guests to the show, but introduce yourself to everybody. Yeah, I appreciate you and Graven for having me on. I am Kevin Ostrichka. I'm the host and producer over at Locked on Ravens. Also managing editor for Ravens Wire. So, you know, Locked on Ravens do daily Ravens content five days per week. Ravens Wire, we write content seven days per week. So definite Ravens content oriented guy over here. And look, it's exciting. Lamora signed. They've got a bunch of weapons around him now with Odell's a flowers. Obviously, Rashad Bateman and those guys can't forget about about Mark Andrews. But I know there's a lot of conversation about the potential another addition of that room, which I think could take him over the top. Yeah, it sure could. And that would be very, very lovely. But before we get into that, let them know what they can find you at as far as Twitter, YouTube, all that good stuff. Yeah, for sure. So you can find me over on Twitter at KOstrichka 34. Also Locked on Ravens. You can find anywhere you get your podcast. So Apple podcast, Google podcast, Spotify and audio form. Also in video form on YouTube, you can subscribe to that channel over there. The Ravens wires is, you know, we write over there seven days per week. That links in my Twitter bio, so you can find me over there also. Cool, man. Appreciate it. And just to make it easier for everybody, I have all that stuff linked down below in the description. Now, a title of yours that you just talked about, you said you're a producer. I didn't know that. Well, so shout out to you for producing. Appreciate it, yeah. Now, production is important. Production is something that is necessary, especially in a production-based company. And we know the NFL is exactly that. And we know nowadays the NFL, it is a passing league. It's about putting up points. It's about scoring. That's what the NFL wants. They want teams to put up points. And nine times out of 10, your team will be put in more primetime games based off of the offense, not the defense. So with that being said, the Ravens, there's been a lot of talk on if there's a such thing as too much talent to add to the Ravens, especially specifically on offense, especially with the conversation centered around DeAndre Hopkins. We'll see where he ends up going. Maybe even by the time you see this video, his decision will have already been made. Hopefully he'll be with Baltimore, but we'll see. But do you think like there's a such thing as having too much talent when it comes to offense or even defense, but let's start with offense? No, I don't think so. I mean, we know in Raven, this is a physical game. People get injured every single season. No team comes out of any NFL season unscathed. People get injured, people go on IR. And look, I mean, we can take an example like recently from last season even, where the Ravens trusted their young guys. They went with the shot. Bateman is a number one. Devin Dufone is a number two. On paper, you looked at it and you said, well, if Bateman goes down, the whole room is kind of sunk. If both Bateman and Dufone go down there, they will pretty much a point and no return at that point. And unfortunately, the worst case scenario happened where both those guys went down and they relied on DeMarcus Robinson as their number one guy. I do give credit to DeMarcus Robinson for showing up, but again, you want him more as your fourth guy, not necessarily your number one. Then it was to Sean Jackson and Sammy Watkins and James Perche. And that's just in this league with the way the league is turning to be this high flying, throwing on everything. You need to have more guys than that, especially in the event that someone goes down. So what do the Ravens do? They go out, they sign Odell Beckham. They sign Nelson Aguilar. They drafts a flowers, just that at all. Even with not even factoring in DeAndre Hopkins in the situation, whether he comes to Baltimore or not. Some people I've seen said, the room is too deep. They can add someone at like corner or edge. You can trade Devin Dufone away and maybe get somebody there. I've seen that take a couple of times. To me, my whole thing is, there are a lot of what-ifs with this room. I think they've definitely constructed the top 10 unit. Now, a lot of that does hinge on health. Odell Beckham Jr. we know is coming off that torn ACL on the Super Bowl in 2021. Didn't play last season. Rashad Bateman has had two injury. Well, for him, he had a season ending injury last season and then also got injured during his rookie year. So can you rely on those two guys to play each a full 17 game season? I wouldn't necessarily bet on it. Could they? Sure. And it could be great. But if those guys have to miss a couple of games, if they get dinged up here or there, if there's a multi-week, multi-month thing, you're not in the situation where you have to bring back Sammy Watkins for a third go-around at this point or bring in what would be a 37-year-old to Sean Jackson. Devin Dufone is your number four option. Behind Zay Flowers or Shah Bateman, Odell Beckham is a lot better option than having him as your number two. And I'm not saying Devin Dufone is not talented because we saw it. I think that the gripe with Dufone is, I think the fact that his contract, his cap, it has inflated because of the pro bowls that he's made. And so that's been an issue. But to me, I think he's a talented player. And to me, no, I don't think you can have too many weapons. I think for Deondre Hopkins, if we're just having that quick conversation, he's still one of the best wide receivers in this league. So to have him in there, if a guy goes down, would you rather have Devin Dufone stuff up or would you rather have Deondre Hopkins there for insurance? I think Deondre Hopkins is a pretty good insurance policy in my opinion and obviously would be the number one receiver on that team. So to me, long story short, the answer is no, I don't think there are too many weapons for sure. Yeah, man, because somebody, I forgot who it was and where it was, but they phrased it like, if you had a million dollars, do you not want another million dollars? Is that too much money to have? Do you not want to add to it? I was thinking like, oh yeah, what a great, simple explanation because why not? Who wouldn't want more? So with what the Ravens have right now, it's great, it's looking good, but like you talked about the health, the health is a really, really big concern. And I know for me personally, it's not one that I've been thinking about enough because I've just been so excited by thinking about the potential on what these guys can do. But it is something that is a realistic concern because like you mentioned, all day back in junior, he hasn't played since Super Bowl two years ago. He missed last season. With Rashad Bateman, he, the last game we saw him in, I believe was the Bucks game on Thursday Night Football last year in late October. We hadn't seen him, he hadn't played since and he really didn't even really play in that game much. So for the Ravens, they are putting a lot more into those guys. They are sort of putting their eggs into those baskets, but at the same time they did draft as a flowers. So we expect him to have a significant role. They brought in Nelson Aguilore, like you mentioned. And then yeah, it is Devon DuVernay as well. And for now, still James Proshay and Tyler Wallace, you got some undrafted guys that they brought in too. So they certainly have their options. But one thing that I've been thinking about, especially with the Baltimore Ravens, I think when it comes to the offense, it's almost like when you hear people say, oh, that's too much, it will be too much. I think it's sort of a Ravens thing because for years the Ravens, I mean, they've known as a defensive franchise. Now, obviously when you got guys like Ray Lewis and Ed Reed and whatnot, and then, I mean, the list goes on. We could be here forever talking about all the star defensive players that they've had. That's what they were built on. They were built on defense, having an amazing defense and the offense was like, but the defense, they got it done. But now with this sort of shift, I think a lot of people in their minds, they just may not have been prepared for that shift because we've seen a lot of times when Ravens, they'll have a good defense, but then they'll add more. They'll add another player, they'll add another corner, another linebacker, another safety, another pass rush, another edge guy, another defensive lineman, they'll add another something. And people will be like, oh yeah, we got it. Let's go. You never hear about, oh no, that's too much on defense, but for offense, that's when that too much conversation, that's where it really gets started for a lot of people. So hopefully this can be a nice change in the right direction of actually not being too much, it being just enough. Now me, one thing that I learned a while back at an old job that I had, is where we got paid a base salary, but we also got a bonus for sales. But I had an issue to where I wasn't getting my commission for the sales. I don't know what was going on, but there was a couple of weeks where I didn't get commission for the sales. So talk to my manager, talk to supervisor, people in charge and whatnot. They were like, all right, you know what? Since you didn't get paid for it, that was a mistake on our end. We're gonna give you retroactive pay. And that's where they pay you for everything that you miss. And then you get everything moving forward too. That's what I think the Ravens should do for Lamar Jackson. Give him retroactive pay when it comes to the wide receiver talent in that room. Because those first five years will really fall and change, because I can't really count the first year because I was still Joe Fleckles team. But Lamar Jackson first four years in change, they could have done a lot better in the wide receiver room form. But this year, it has been a lot better. And if you add more, whether it's DeAndre Hopkins or if it's somebody else, maybe if you wanna dip into the Bucks wide receiver, but anyway, whoever it may be, if they do decide to go that route, I will love to see them sort of give Lamar Jackson that back pay for everything that he missed out on. Now, how are you feeling about this wide receiver unit compared to years past? Oh, I think by far this is the best group Lamar has ever had by a wide stretch. And this is a guy, again, who won MVP in 2019 with guys like Seth Roberts, Willie Snead, obviously Marquise Brown was on that team. But again, notice respect to those guys, but you have so much more depth this year. And you made a great point when you were talking about the fact that like, look, let's talk about the straight deadline last year. Everybody wanted a Brandon Cooks. Everybody wanted a wide receiver. You know, they were talking about all that. And I thought that would have been a fine move for him. I was on the Brandon Cooks train for sure, but they bring in Roquan Smith, who was inside linebacker the biggest need on the team. I don't think it was, you know, Patrick Kuhn was playing the way he was playing, but Roquan Smith was a luxury addition for them who made the defense better for DeAndre Hopkins. And again, we're not necessarily talking about him on the team right now, cause he's not. But if you brought in DeAndre Hopkins, it'd be kind of, I don't think it's the exact same situation, but it's kind of similar where it's a luxury situation. It would make the whole offense better. You have Odell, you have Rashad Bateman, you have Zay Flowers. So even if they don't bring in a DeAndre Hopkins, with those three Odell, Rashad Bateman and Zay Flowers, they are all, they're similar in the way. Like they're all great route runners, very savvy. You know, many ankles will be left on the field at Empty Bank Stadium this year. The defense of backs will be grasping at era. I'm excited to see what those guys do. But you have the ability now to be, we saw Rashad Bateman really do wreak havoc in the deep passing game, especially early on last season against the Jets. And obviously took a slant, well like 70, 80 yards to the house against the Dolphins. However long that touchdown was, maybe it was 50, but he turned on the afterburners there. Zay Flowers is a three level player, short, intermediate and deep game. And the fact that you can play him both in the slot and on the outside, I'd probably more lean towards the slot that you can put them on the outside if you need to. And then Odell's another player. The Ravens, and the whole NFL, honestly, is going to this like positionless type, you know, it's more defense. Like we talk about positionless defense. The Ravens are doing it. Kyle Hamilton, obviously Trenton Simpson is someone who kind of fist that mold too. But on the offensive side of the ball, you don't necessarily have to pigeonhole these players into while they can only play in the slot, they can only play outside. Mark Andrews, we see get put in the slot is a tight end. We see these, we even saw a Patrick Card last year, which I hope we do not see this, but regardless, it's a situation where the Ravens now, he mentioned, are there too many weapons? This is where the depth comes into play where if Beckham has to miss three games and Bateman has to miss, I don't know, four. Let's just put those numbers out there. Devon DuVernay can step up and then you have Odell, Zay Flowers and Devon DuVernay or Nelson Aguilar. And then if Bateman has to miss some time, that's what you have. Odell has to miss some time. It's a shot Bateman, Zay Flowers, DuVernay Aguilar. So this group to me, I like the fact that one, there is talent there. Like these guys are talented players, but two, that they now have the options as we've talked about where it's not just, well, Bateman goes down, you gotta go out there and sign a veteran where you gotta allow an unproven rookie. Stuff would have to go extremely catastrophically wrong health-wise for the Ravens to be in the situation they were last year. You know, it only took a little bit last year. We knew that too, going in where Bateman went down, that was pretty much it. If DuVernay went down, it was definitely over and both did. So to me, this group is, I think, the best by a pretty wide margin. The best group Lamar Jackson has had to throw the football to wide receiver-wise and then factoring in Mark Andrews, factoring Isaiah likely. And I think the run game has been pretty forgotten about here, honestly. Because again, I don't think we're gonna see as much of it this season with the way that the personnel is. And even going back to, you know, signing Odell, signing Zayflour, or drafting Zayflour inside Nelson Aguilar, it just makes more sense with Todd Monk and then it did with Greg Roman. We knew that offense was a tight end-centric pass offense. Receivers won't get in targets. And it was never a Lamar issue, I think, of why receivers weren't coming to the Ravens. It was the fact that they knew that if you go to a Kansas City, if you go to an Arizona, if you go to a Buffalo, you go to a Philly, you're gonna get more targets there as opposed to a Baltimore. So now with Todd Monk and in with the offense shifting, I think receivers are more confident in the Lamar thing is just a cherry on top. Because I think players do wanna play with him. We literally heard DeAndre Hopkins say it in these other guys as well. So I'm excited for what Lamar can do with this wide receiver group. Yeah, man, it should be really, really fun. Like, man, I get excited for every Raven season. I mean, it's football, we love it. But this season, just thinking about the potential that they have in the passing game. This is not even just why I receive it, but the passing game. Cause I got to throw Mark Andrews in there too. The passing game and throwing the running backs too. The passing game can be a beautiful thing. And we saw the thing about that, that makes it even more promising too. We saw glimpses of it with Greg Roman. We actually, we did. And he brought up last year early on before Vashar Bateman went down, before Devon Duvenay went down. We saw glimpses of a nice passing game with the Greg Roman. So just imagine even more focus and energy being put into the development of the passing game. And like you mentioned too, with better weapons, more quality weapons, and just more quality depth. It just makes the, it makes their worst wide receiver the worst pass catcher that much better. So anyway, KO, I appreciate you coming on as always. One more time before we get out of here, let everybody know where they can find you at. Yeah, I appreciate you having me on. You can find me again over on Twitter at KOStrucker34. So host and produce the Lockdown Ravens podcast. So five days a week, we do Ravens contents. You can find me over on YouTube and subscribe to that channel. Also subscribe for free at Audio Forms. So again, after podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, wherever else right for the Ravens wires, you can find my written content over there. Appreciate it, man. Thank you for coming on, Team Keep It Clean. Make sure you go check out all his stuff, both Lockdown Ravens and Ravens Wire. Appreciate you, KO, Team Keep It Clean. We out. Feels like a dream. Ain't no chance, what I mean. You see my boy, he like I done made it. Boy, he's a fan, and he like the Ravens. And my boy's a savage, and no been challenged, you mad at him. Let's go. Making rage quit, exit out the door. Use his favorite team with up all the money.