 There's a lot going on with the Baltimore Ravens right now. You got Devin Duvenay returning, Dalvin Cook getting an extra warm welcome from his new teammates. Odell Beckham Jr. reworking his contract. Rashal Bateman letting us know about something that I personally had. No clue was even going on and so much more. Team keep it clean. Let's get into it. We got a lot to talk about with our Baltimore Ravens in this video. So sit back, relax, because this may take a while. But before we get into it, make sure you subscribe to the channel. Turn your notifications on. We have 72,000 subscribers right now. Let's get to 73K and also leave a like on the video because it helps out a lot more than you realize. Now, something that I had actually forgotten about, somebody who I had forgotten about was good old Devin Duvenay. We know Devin Duvenay went down with a back injury about a month ago. And John Horbaugh spoke about it. And he said, Devin Duvenay, he should be back for the playoffs. And I was like, okay, John Horbaugh probably telling the truth. But I mean, Tyler Wallace, that's his spot now. That's his return role now. But what is Devin Duvenay's role going to be if he comes back? But they changed that if to a win because Devin Duvenay has been designated to return and he returned to practice. So Baltimore Ravens got even more quality depth at the wide receiver position. Now, Ken McCusick, film study Ravens, he made a good point. He said, this is very good news. And he said, since the loss of Keaton Mitchell, which sucks, he said the Ravens have been down a speed option and Devin Duvenay can still take some of the gadget load off of Justice Hill and Zay Flowers. And that is a really, really good point. You know, for the end of rounds, the jet sweeps and whatnot, instead of giving them all to Justice Hill, giving them all to Zay Flowers, you got Devin Duvenay back now too. So he can share some of that load. He said, with the injuries in the wide receiver room, they will probably appreciate having a little substitution flexibility there as well. Because as we know, Zay Flowers, he's dealing with something. Odell Beckham, Jr., he'd been dealing with something all year. And Rashad Bateman, who we're going to talk about in a little bit, he's been dealing with some stuff too. But we'll get into that in a moment. We always talk about timing in the NFL and just life in general, but specifically with the league and how timing is everything. And it can be a very tricky thing. And that's exactly what happened with Dalvin Cook. Dalvin Cook, of course, he went to the Jets this off season. He was looking forward to working with Aaron Rodgers and really building something over there. But Aaron Rodgers got hurt. And Dalvin Cook quickly fell out of favor with them and just wasn't getting no burn. And a lot of people were saying and thinking that, man, he must have really fell off. But then when you really sat down and think about it, like, hold up, this dude just came off of four back to back, to back to back. Thousand-yard seasons. Does one just fall off that quickly? So it was a strange thing. And I talked about it recently that I feel like it's one of those things where it's all about situation. So now Dalvin Cook, he got released from the Jets. And now he has an opportunity to cling on with the Ravens. But see, the thing about Dalvin Cook, signed to the practice squad, but this is a different signing because this is not just some random running back or anything like that. This is Dalvin Cook, somebody who's had a lot of success in this league. And the way that he's being treated by Ravens teammates. First time putting on that Ravens Black, man. Put that thing on that noggin, man. Put that thing on that noggin one time. Running back? Put that thing on that noggin one time. Running back. Yes, sir. Not bad for that. Dalvin Cook. And the way that he's being spoken about by Ravens coaching staff, it says a lot. Listen to what John Hardball said. John Hardball said that Dalvin Cook, he looked really good in practice. And he called him a potential weapon in Baltimore Ravens offense and not an insurance policy. And I thought that was significant because you don't just talk about no practice squad running back that you just signed as a potential weapon. You don't speak a bit. But again, Dalvin Cook is not just some random running back like that. And I didn't offense to any other running backs out in the league because they in the league for a reason. But Dalvin Cook, you know that this man, he was once the truth. So now you're seeing if you can rejuvenate that on your squad. And now, Dalvin Cook, I do expect him to get a good amount of burn. Not too much because you got Justice Hill. You got Gus Edwards. But I do expect Dalvin Cook to get in there and get some work come playoff time. Now, Lamar Jackson, he was asked about Dalvin Cook. And this is something that I completely forgot. And I'm ashamed of myself for forgetting. But Dalvin Cook, he's a Florida Raven because Lamar Jackson said, he said, it's awesome. He said, the 9-5-4-3-0-5 combination going on. That's Miami and Broward County. He said, I'm really excited about the situation. I reached out to Dalvin Cook before the season and when he was signing with the Jets. But God works in mysterious ways. And he's here now. That's dope. And it is. It's a beautiful thing because the Baltimore Ravens, we just talked about Devon Duvenay. They got that much stronger. And they on a bi-week for playoffs. They just got Dalvin Cook. They get that much stronger. And this is just such a significant move for them. Because when you get that much stronger, that allows you to have that much more flexibility on your team. So that's only a good thing. Speaking of flexibility, Odell Beckham Jr., who was signed to what we always called a one-year deal. And we always had to put quotation marks on it whenever we talked about it. Because he had four void years on the back of it. And we all remember them. We all heard about like, all right, the Baltimore Ravens got Odell Beckham Jr. for this year. But if they choose to cut him, then with those four void years, then they will have an $11 million dare cap hit on their salary cap for the 2024 year. But they were like, hold up. No, we got to rework this deal. And they did just that. And shout out to Brian McFarland, Raven salary cap on Twitter. He broke it all down for us. He said, the Ravens and Odell Beckham Jr. have reworked his contract to remove the void years from the deal. This revision will allow them to use a post June 1st release if an extension isn't reached by March 14th. This way, and that's the start of the new league year. He said, this way they can spread the dead money out over 24 and 25, as opposed to all of it hitting in 24. So what that means, they reworked his deal. So all them void years are gone. But if the Ravens, if they can't get a deal, worked out with them and they got to cut them, then any dead money that they get, that they would incur, just use 8 mil for example. Like if you were to release Odell Beckham Jr. and you would get 8 mil in dead money, then that 8 mil, if you do a pre June 1st, if you cut him pre June 1st, and designated as a pre June 1st cut, then that 8 mil would hit in the year 2024. But if you do it post June 1st, if you do a release post June 1st, then you could spread it between the year 2024 and the year 2025. Hopefully I explained that clear enough. Let me know if I didn't though. He also said OBJ now has a minimum salary for 2024 and get this and a 50 million dollar salary for 2025. That becomes fully guaranteed if he's on the roster on March 14th. So again, you know, you know, that they ain't gonna pay Odell Beckham Jr. no 50 million dollars. They just doing this for the reworking of the contract. But anyway, continuing. He says, so if an extension isn't reached before then, he will be released with a post June 1st designation so that 2.767 and dead money will count in 24 and 8.301 and mill and dead money will count in 2025. So basically that's splitting the 11 mil and dead money that would have hit all this year if they would have kept the contract the way that they had it with the four four years on the back. But they change it to where they can split it up a bit and alleviate a lot of that dead money and spread it out between this year and next. Oh, and then he explained that in his next tweet. He said, this avoids the entire 11.068 mil hitting in 2024 pursuant to the void years under the terms of the original deal. So shout out to the Ravens and Odell Beckham Jr. for reworking that because they were like, look, if you ain't here after this year, we ain't trying to have all that dead money on our hands all at once. So basically what this rework contract does, it allows them to spread out any dead money that they get if they can't rework a deal with Odell Beckham Jr. But hey, maybe they will. Maybe they won't. We'll see. And just sticking with all wide receivers right now, somebody who really looked up to Odell Beckham Jr. That was Mr. Rashad Bateman. And we know Rashad Bateman. I expected him to be wide receiver one going into this season even after they had signed Odell Beckham Jr. After they signed Nelson Aguilore, even after they drafted Zay flowers, I still felt like Rashad Bateman was going to be wide receiver one. And then shortly after that, I continued expressing my feelings about that Lamar Jackson. He even doubled down on it. He said, oh, yeah, Rashad Bateman. That's why I receive a one right there. So I was thinking, oh, yeah, this is going to be Rashad Bateman's. Yeah, but it just hasn't been. And it's been a very weird year for Rashad Bateman. And I'm sure it hasn't been as productive as he had hoped it would be. But maybe there's a deeper reason that we just didn't know about it. Well, at least I didn't know about it. And he expressed that in this article on the athletic that Jeff Zribik just posted today and said that Rashad Bateman is fine. Acknowledging it now, 16 games and only a few missed practices later. The wide receiver has answered the persistent questions about whether he could make it through a regular season healthy. And he obviously hasn't been healthy this entire season, but he has reached this point where in the postseason and Rashad Bateman is available. And he is pretty healthy for the most part. But right here says, but when he reported to the Baltimore Ravens facility for the starter training camp in late July, Bateman wasn't sure whether there would be a season for him at all. And he said this, he said, nobody really knows that, but I think I can tell that story now because I made it this far, Bateman said last week. When I first got back here, me and the coaches and training staff, we didn't even know if I was going to be able to play this here. We thought I might need another surgery. I was in pain and I wasn't seeing the results. I wasn't able to physically run or cut or put pressure on my foot. Based on my rehab, I was supposed to be able to train this off season and show off a training camp in tip top shape. That was according to my surgery date and the rehab process. Unfortunately, my foot took a left turn this past off season. And you can check out the rest of the article for more, but I just, I was not aware of that. I did not know that he was still having issues with that same foot that ended up getting hurt last year. I think right before the Bucks game or right during, maybe it was hurt before and then it got aggravated during the Bucks game or whatnot. But regardless, I did not know that he was still dealing with that same injury. And with Rashad Bateman, it's been crazy. It's been crazy, unfortunately, because in Minnesota, no injury issues whatsoever, none squeaky clean. The man is healthy, good to go. But as soon as he got to the NFL, man, it's just been injury after injury every year. Every year, Rashad Bateman has been in the league for three years and it's been a lot of injuries throughout that's caused him to miss some time. Like remember his first year? His first year, first round draft pick, we all hyped. And he was the guy that I wanted the Ravens to get. I'm glad that they got him. But he ended up getting hurt. He ended up getting hurt in, I think, training camp. And then he missed a big chunk of the beginning of the season. And then in his second year, got through training camp, got through the beginning of the season. We remember that great player at week one. He caught the bomb against the Jets, then in week two against the Dolphins. He caught that, what, it was a 70-yard catch where he caught Xavier and Howard slipping. And he made Xavier and Howard probably think about retirement, but then shortly, a little while after that, he got the foot injury, ended up missing the rest of the year. And then this year, it just has been like sort of an up-and-down thing. Early on this year, he was dealing with some injuries, talked about it in that article. How training camp, some stuff went left with his foot injury. And then throughout, I know he had some back injuries and whatnot, and there was some other stuff too, but it did cause him to miss some time. Not too much time, but it did cause him to miss some time. But he's here now. So we're a shot, but it's just been an unfortunate set of circumstances for him. But hopefully now everything will be clear. Everything will be good to go. And there won't be any more setbacks because if we could get a healthy Rashad, but we see what he can do. Well, you see, it's there. It's there. And I know a lot of Ravens fans, I've seen the comments and whatnot. Some people are done with Rashad Bateman. A lot of Ravens fans are done with Rashad Bateman. I'm not one of them because you see it, man. You see it. It's just a matter of getting it out. And we know that availability is everything. Availability is everything in this league. If you're not there to play, then things will continue to move on without you. But with Rashad Bateman, man, I just know, because he can literally, he can do it all. He got good speed, underrated speed too. He got a good route running. It's just a matter of just putting everything together and being healthy, being available. And then just taking off from there. But we've seen little bits and pieces of it here and there throughout this season. It would be great if Rashad Bateman said, you know, I was saving it for the playoffs. And he just starts going off from here. And really hopefully in general, the Ravens just continue to go off from here and go off all the way to the Super Bowl. But first, it has to start with the division around. Now, the division around, it's not until next week. But the Baltimore Raven, they said they're doing some different things this go round, other than they did from 2019. And they said they're going to have three practices this week. One of those being a stadium practice, because they really just want to get into a better rhythm a lot earlier. Now, since they are having some practices, they came out with some practice reports. And we got some great news for the Baltimore Ravens, because Kevin Zeitler, Geno Stone, and Super Duper Kyle, they were all practicing. So that is a great thing, a great sign for the Baltimore Ravens that they're getting healthier. Now, on the flip side of that, I think that's some great news because there were six Ravens who were not on the practice field. Those were Zay Flowers, Malik Harrison, Marlon Humphrey, Del Sean Phillips, Charlie Kohler, and Adafi Oway. They say Marlon Humphrey was working out on a side field. Hopefully when Thursday's practice report comes out, we'll have better news. But I don't think it's anything to panic about right now, again, because they're on their bi-week, and they still got time where those guys can come back this week or they can come back next week. Those are some significant names, obviously. And you do want everybody on that practice field, because this is it, man. Like, this is it. I've been really thinking about the playoffs a lot. This like a lot. This has been on my mind a lot. And I've been just, it's exciting, man. It's exciting times. It's very nervous times. We're going to be going crazy, man. Come that playoff game. But just even watching the playoffs this upcoming weekend, it's going to be fun, because you're going to be looking at the different opponents and whatnot, seeing who the Ravens could potentially play. And then by Sunday afternoon at 4.30 PM, we'll know exactly who the Baltimore Ravens opponent is going to be. And then I know our whole mindsets will shift from there, like, all right, Ravens going to be playing them, or them, or them, or them. And we'll see. But we want the Baltimore Ravens to be healthy. Speaking of healthy, somebody's health who literally makes all the difference in the world with the Baltimore Ravens is Lamar Jackson. And something to think about as Lamar Jackson continues to get talked about as a potential MVP this year, if you all recall, like when Lamar Jackson is healthy, when he's healthy, he's always in the MVP conversation. And that's something that I have forgotten about. Because I remember in the in 2021 and 2022, he was right there in the mix in the conversation. But unfortunately, he didn't finish those years. So when you don't finish the years, you got to be removed from it. But when Lamar Jackson is playing, they always talking about him. It's an annual thing that they talk about Lamar Jackson as a potential MVP of the league. But Lamar Jackson, he did get voted by unanimously the MVP of the Ravens, by the Ravens. But he also got another award from the NFL. And he ended up being named the AFC offensive player of the month. So shout out to Lamar Jackson for yet another award. And they highlighted his stats. He has 1060 passing yards, 11 passing touchdowns, and 247 rushing yards. So Lamar Jackson again continues to get award after award after award after award. And it's crazy. Now, Kyle Hamilton, he receives an award. The media good guy, local media, they voted him the media good guy. And Lamar Jackson got another award again, the team MVP. So shout out to him. And that's a beautiful thing, man. And I mean, it's no surprise. We know Lamar Jackson is obviously the Baltimore Ravens most valuable player for sure. Because yeah, we ain't even got to get into it. Y'all already know. So these awards, they just, they mean a lot. But for somebody, just when you hear Lamar Jackson, when you hear him speak, you see the way that he carries himself. I think it's significant because for him to still always be humble. Like this dude is walking around with a $300 million contract. That's a lot of money. Got a lot of money guaranteed. Like Lamar, he got some bread. He, I'll tell you, he'd be breaking awards like every other week, breaking records every other week, getting all these awards or whatnot. But for somebody who's in his position to still continue to remain so humble, not getting cocky at all. You don't never get no arrogant vibes from him at all. That says a whole lot. At least it does to me. Now somebody else who was pretty unfazed from a lot of attention, unfazed from winning, it was Joe Flacco. And Joe Flacco and he was with the Baltimore Ravens. And I'm sure he's probably still that same way that he's with the Cleveland Browns. But Lamar Jackson, he has some comments on Mr. Joe Flacco. And he said that he said it's great to see Joe Flacco back playing because always felt like he was elite. Just from our rookie year, watching him in practice. He said it'd be great to play against him though. And that is a big potential matchup that we could see. It all depends on how everything else goes. And I think what most people expect is that the Baltimore Ravens end up playing the Cleveland Browns. I'm sure most people expect the Cleveland Browns to take care of business against the Texans. I'm sure most people expect the Kansas City Chiefs to take care of business against the Dolphins. I'm sure most people expect the Buffalo Bills to take care of business against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now, even though those are all the expectations, we know, we all know, if you've been watching football for two days, you know that sometimes what you expect, it don't always end up happening. So I'm looking forward to these playoffs more than ever, man. Expect the unexpected. But we'll see how things go. But Lamar Jackson versus Joe Flacco, it almost just seems like it's meant to be almost. But we'll see how football ends up working itself out this weekend when Flacco and the Browns take on the Houston Texans. Could it be an upset? Hey, we'll see. Speaking of upsets, something that a lot of Baltimore Ravens fans would be upset about was if we lost Mike McDonald, their defensive coordinator, or even Todd Monk in their offensive coordinator. But when your team has success, those are real, real possibilities. Those two have made an immediate impact and immediate turnaround with the Baltimore Ravens. And their presence was definitely felt last year and this year for sure. Obviously, Mike McDonald was here last year and there was some growing pains, but once he got it, things improved. And then this year, it's been lights out. It really has been. But NFL, they've taken notice. They see what's going on. Mike McDonald is no secret, Todd Monk, and he is no secret either. When you have a defense, that's the number one defense in the league. And on offense, when you produce the MVP, the most valuable player in the league at the quarterback position, and you see the way Lamar has just grown. Yeah, you're not a secret at all. And the Titans, yet another team who's in the coaching search, they requested to interview Ravens defensive coordinator, Mike McDonald for their head coaching job. So that will be something. And then the Falcons, they requested to interview Ravens deline coach and associate head coach Anthony Weaver for their vacant head coaching job. So these guys, they get interviews, man. They're getting requested left and right. And while these teams that have fired their head coaches, they're requesting other people too. Like Ravens coaches, their coordinators are hot commodities. So it's like we want them to stay. We hope that they stay. But it's like the expectation is like, I don't know, man. I don't know. And I know the same thing happened back in 2019 and both Greg Roman and Wing, they both ended up staying. But I don't know about this year, man. I don't know. We got to wait and see. But something that's significant. And it says eight coaches, eight head coaches. So that's about 25 percent of the league have been let go so far, so far. Pete Carroll, they said they moving him into a front office position. He said he don't even know what he's going to be doing yet. So to me, that seems like they forced him out. But anyway, that's the head coach opening Bill Belichick. He just retired today. That's another opening. Ron Rivera, he got fired from the commanders. There was also Mike Vrable. He got fired from the Titans. There was the Raiders coach, Josh McDaniels. There was the Panthers, the Chargers. And then the Falcons as well, their head coach. He got let go too. So that's a lot of spots open. Now, again, it's just eight. But yeah, that's especially the success that the Baltimore Ravens have had. You gots to feel like, you got to feel like it may be Mike McDonald's or even Todd Munkin. There's for the choosing. Now, one thing that would depend on really everything would depend on how Munkin and how McDonald felt. Eminem, I just realized that. But anyway, it would depend on how they felt because does Todd Munkin, does he want to be a head coach? Does Mike McDonald want to be a head coach? We don't know. But if they do, then I would have to assume that they're going to have the opportunity to. Now, somebody who they only just needed an opportunity to make something happen was my guy, hashtag JC 24, Jadavian Clowney. And this has been a resurgence for him this season. He has just had an amazing year. He's been such a consistent player and he's made his impact known on these Baltimore Ravens on this defense specifically. And Jadavian Clowney in news from PFF. PFF Baltimore Ravens, they put this out. They said Jadavian Clowney's 71 QB pressures this season are a career high. So shout out to Jadavian Clowney for breaking his own records. He, like I told y'all, man, he obviously besides Lamar, but he wasn't really no free agent. But Jadavian Clowney was my favorite free agent signing this off season. And he has just, he's come through in a major way. And I appreciate it so much because so many people, they didn't want a Jadavian Clowney. And I ain't knocking nobody for how you feeling, your opinion whatnot. But a lot of people didn't want one Jadavian Clowney. A lot of people thought and said he was washed. He was done. He can't do it no more. He's just a me player. He ain't no good teammate, all that stuff. And he shut all of that down all the way. Jadavian Clowney has been excellent for the Baltimore Ravens and what makes it even better is that he left a lot of sacks out there on the field. Because, you know, he missed like 20 sacks from not being able to wrap up the quarterback. But Jadavian Clowney has been excellent, man. Hoping Dalvin Cook could do the same thing. And speaking of defense, Mr. Roquan Smith, who has just been amazing since he's been with the Baltimore Ravens. I mean, he was amazing before the Chicago Benz, but now he's on a winning team. It's just a different atmosphere. And Roquan Smith has just been great. But he said something that I really, really appreciated in yesterday's press conference. He said about the defense getting the Triple Crown Award where they let in those three categories and that's historic. He said it's great, but that's the regular season award. And he said that what they did in the regular season, it doesn't matter anymore. It doesn't. And that's true. Regular season is done. That's it. This is a completely new season. You in the playoffs now. So all the regular season stuff is cool. All the awards you got is cool. All the records that you broke. Broke is cool. All the interceptions, the picks, the sacks, the defense holding teams down. All that is great. It's amazing. But that's done because none of that matters now. Well, I mean, it matters. But because that's your team's identity. But all that stuff is out the window. Because now everybody who's in these playoffs, oh, and oh, oh, and oh, they all got the same record in the playoffs right now. There's different seedings and different levels and whatnot, but everybody is oh, and oh, no wins, no losses. But if you get it on the wrong side of the column, then your season is done.