 Marcus Peters, Marlon Humphrey, Audarius Washington, Chris Westry, Anthony Averett, DeSean Elliott. Oh man, the last year was just so rough when it came to injuries with our corners and our safeties. So this offseason, the Ravens front office made some significant investments in fixing up that secondary in more ways than one because they addressed it in free agency and also via the draft. So to talk about this new and hopefully improved Ravens secondary, to talk about how they hopefully lock things up, I brought on a very, very special guest to simply answer the question, who passing the ball against us? The team keeping clean. We got a very special guest in the building. My guy, Kevin Ostryker from Lockdown Ravens. So Kevin, before we get into it, tell everybody where to find you at on Twitter, your YouTube channel, the podcast, all that good stuff. Yeah, definitely. It's great to be back on here with you and Graven and you can find me on Twitter at Kostraka34. I host and produce a Lockdown Ravens podcast. You can find that on YouTube itself and also anywhere you get your podcast and audio form. And also the Lockdown Ravens Twitter is at Lockdown Ravens. I appreciate it. And I have everything down below in the description now. Speaking of Lockdown, let's talk about this Raven secondary that hopefully locks up. How do you feel right here right now about the Raven secondary as a whole as a unit? Well, I feel a lot better than I did about their 2021 unit at the end of the season. I mean, that unit last year, we've talked about it before where it seems like every year the Ravens start with 50 million corners and then they end the year with probably two healthy ones. And they have a lot of depth this year, at least where we're standing right now for this team. And I know it's only the middle of May, but by the time 2021 or 2022 rolls around the actual start of the year, maybe the Ravens add another veteran. But you have Marlon Humphrey, you have Marcus Peters, obviously the two stars of the cornerback room, at least, you obviously pair them with Star Safety and Marcus Williams. You have Chuck Clark, where at the time of this recording, he's still on the team. But again, you never, you never know everything's fluid. And we know the rumors with Chuck Clark. So I think for now, you have the safety duo of Williams and Clark, and then you throw in Kyle Hamilton. That's a really nice top five. When you're talking about actual depth, not to mention the two rookie corners, General Moore Davis and DeMarion Williams, you also have safety depth veteran depth like Tony Jefferson, Geno Stone. So I think that this team that they pride themselves on their secondary, they have for a while, they invest big money, big draft capital in their secondary. And they showed that again this offseason, I think they did a pretty good job of retooling after a year where they saw that position get hit so hard with injury. That's true. That's a really, really good point. Now, we were sitting at pick 14, and Jordan Davis, he was the previous pick, he just got snatched up by the Eagles. How did you feel when the Ravens selected Kyle Hamilton? I was over the moon. I thought the Eagles actually traded up to take Hamilton. I thought that was the player they were going for. And it felt like if that was the case for months, we were hearing about how Jordan Davis would be fit for the Ravens. And he would have been. He's a great player. I think he's going to do well in Philadelphia. But Hamilton, after the way the draft started, where it was not a lot of receivers were going, not no quarterbacks were going, it was a little difficult because all these top prospects that you kind of envision maybe the Ravens could trade up for, Kavon Thibodeau, Les Salsos Gardner, all those guys, they're going off the board one after the other. Then the run on wide receivers happens, and you have a player like Kyle Hamilton, who we know this Ravens team is all about the best player available. And this was a pure best player available pick. And for me, it's a situation of going and taking the talent and figuring it all out later. And now the Ravens are figuring it all out later because you have the Clark situation and what was that going to look like. But a player like Hamilton, who can play multiple positions on a defense, who you can really, the Ravens love their versatility lineup all over the place. And someone who can be a 10, 12 year starter, really, really high quality, high level starter, that's someone, if you can get it 14, I mean, you take that 10 out of 10 times, you know, he doesn't play offensive tackle, you know, he doesn't play, he can't rush the quarterback like an outside linebacker can, but he is somebody who can really help this defense out. And really, when you can plug and play him anywhere, I think that's some of the Ravens value. All right, perfect. So you spoke about some different things that Kyle Hamilton can do. In your opinion, what would you say probably his biggest strength is as a safety or really just as a player as a whole? Yeah, yeah, the versatility is huge for him. And I think as someone who can really come and play up in the box, you can put him at the line of scrimmage. And just a high football IQ player overall. And it's something where when I watch his tape, I just I get the sense every time that, you know, he knows what he's doing. He's not a player that's out there guessing, he can lead a defense obviously with everybody in this defense. Now, I think Chuck Clark still holds the green dot, right? He's still the blue guy that holds him together. But I think maybe if Clark ends up not being on the team week one, maybe Hamilton, somebody who even as a rookie can contend for the green dot. Now, I don't think he'll actually have it. In that case, I think they'd go with a veteran option over Hamilton. But the football IQ is huge. You also have a player that again, can play deep, play in the box. He can play some corner as well. I mean, all over the place play up as a blitzer. And that's really where a chess piece from Mike McDonald, the Ravens, they got him somebody who, you know, on Sundays, he can put anywhere on this football field. And I think overall, that's one of his biggest strengths overall, because we know just how much the Ravens like to do that. And especially with guys like Tyus Bowser, you don't really know that time frame in terms of when he's coming back. David Ajabo is the same thing. You have somebody who can maybe fill a void, not necessarily as, you know, a guy who's lining up rushing the passer on every snap of someone who can help that and just do different things. Okay, good points. Now, on the flip side of that, what would you say is something that you, in your opinion, feel like he can get better at? Yeah, I don't know if this is only he can necessarily get better at. But I mean, in terms of his speed, I know this has been a big conversation in terms of, you know, his actual 40 time. And to me, like 40 time, they're important, but they're not the be all end all. Like to me, if Kyle Hamilton fell to 14 because of his 40 time is straight line, 40 yard dash combine time, I mean, I don't think that's really indicative of what he brings as a player. And I think teams will regret that decision if that ends up being what it is. But when I look at the tape, he plays faster than his 40 time. And so, is he the fastest for two safety in the world? No, he's not. And that's maybe one thing where you maybe would like to have him have a little more speed, but he plays faster than the time he put out at the combine. And I know a lot of people are talking about, well, he's not worthy of a top 10 pick because he can't run that 40 fast. And there's so much stock put in the combine, I think now. And a lot of people, a lot of teams value it differently. And it depends on just where they put that as an organization. I think the Ravens, they made the right call here by kind of throwing out that 40 time and saying, Hey, look, this player has done so much on the football field. But, you know, maybe you'd like to see a little more speed out of Kyle Hamilton. But at this point, I'm not knocking them for that. I feel like he just, he makes up for that in so many other ways. That was absolutely worth this bit. Yeah, man. That's true. That 40 time can change the game for literally anybody. Now, you spoke about it briefly earlier. Ravens, of course, got Kyle Hamilton. They signed Marcus Williams to hold down that other safety role. Chuck Clark is to be determined on if he remains with the team or not. Marcus Peters, Marlon Humphrey, Brandon Stevens, Ardarius Washington. Of course, the two rookies at the Ravens drafted Tony Jefferson, Geno Stone, who you mentioned earlier as well. Who's throwing on his Raven secondary if they're healthy? Like it because it just if Ravens can just be healthy, if they can remain healthy. And I know that's a big big if, especially like you mentioned earlier in the secondary, because like you said, every year they start off, they have so much depth in the secondary. It's like, okay, let's go. We got it. And then every year it ends up being something that last year it ended up being a too much of something. But who's thrown on the secondary if everybody stays healthy? Yeah, you know, I don't I don't think a lot of people and when looking at it, I think a an extension of the secondary is the past rush and that's going to be key for them as well this year because obviously, when you're an NFL secondary or just a football secondary in general, being asked to cover for four, five, six, seven seconds each second you're asked to cover, there's a more likely percent chance that the quarterback will find somebody someone will break loose or something will happen. So for the Ravens, I think having a good pass rush this season will help out so much. And you know, we've heard of the term covered sacks will also that there's a lot that goes into I think not having completions happen in I'd say a two, three second span when literally the past rush gets to the quarterback and if a secondary can cover for a solid two, three, four seconds every time, if you have that quality pass rush on top of that, it just makes life so, so difficult. And I think the Ravens have done a lot to address that past rush. Now they haven't done everything right, the outside linebacker position, they're still kind of wondering what ties Bowser and obviously David, a job, do they bring back Justin Houston? It feels like with that tender being applied to him, it feels like you, but you never know, you know, nothing is set in stone. Travis Jones, I think will provide an interior past rushing presence, hopefully Glace Campbell will be able to come in and maybe with the snaps kind of manners a little bit more. He played so many snaps last season. If he has a snap manage, you can do that as well. But I think if you have the Ravens secondary fully healthy, if you have a great past rush, this defense will be able to bounce back in a big way. But again, it does come down to health. A lot of stuff, a lot of stuff around success comes down to health. You look at the two teams last year who made the Super Bowl, was the Rams and those the Bengals, two teams that overall, I mean, they definitely did have a couple injuries. But when compared to the rest of the league, they were in the top part of health. So I think the Ravens, it takes a little luck, every team takes a little luck to get to the big game, get to the Super Bowl. But I think the Ravens have positioned themselves a lot better this offseason. They still could add a veteran corner if they wanted to, you know, obviously outside of Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters, you're looking at young guys, you mentioned Brandon Stevens and there is Washington, the two rookie guys there as well. But I think overall, the secondary is something that I think healthy is a force to be reckoned with. Yeah. And I think really, if you compare any teams to the Ravens last year, then they were super healthy. Well, minus the Titans, because I know they went through it as well. With that being said, the pass rush, talked about the pass rush because he had a pass rush, they would make, they make the secondary's job so much easier. But that fair way, heading into his second year, Justin Houston, it's expected that he's back. It's not 100% certain yet. But I wouldn't expect anybody to give him a bigger deal offer than that tender that he got from the Ravens, which is this is literally the first time that I've ever heard of that tender before for an unrestricted free agent. I have never seen that ever before. So this was the first for me with that. I wouldn't manage a David and Clowney, but I know it's not going to happen. So that's just a little part of your dream right now. But as far as the pass rush, are you confident that they can really take that next jump? I am. I do think it's a position where you look at the depth right now. And the Ravens, they brought in Vince Beagle, and he's someone to me who's not, he's gonna play inside and outside. I don't feel him as a pass rusher, though. I think he's more of a special teamer. You have Adafi always mentioned, I predict a huge second year for him. Daylan Hayes, I think, can be relied on a bunch. You know, even at this point, Jaylan Ferguson, it feels like is going to have a decently big role. But I think a sneaky player at the pass rush, or who could pass rush a lot more than people anticipate is Malik Harrison. I think someone who I don't think you have maybe in on every single third down situation. But in terms of John Harbaugh saying that he's going to be cross training at the same position, maybe you have him in there on first down, and you're able to have him. And he's a player that I think he, even going back to Ohio State, he did play up a lot. And he has that versatility, not just to play inside linebacker, but also to play down a little bit and have an impact. So while I don't think, again, he's going to be this 15 sack guy with the Ravens depth right now. Again, you just, you never know with the Achilles injuries with, you know, all these lower leg injuries in general is when guys will come back. So while you'd like to have Ty Spouser back week one, while you'd like to have David Ajabo back, you can't rely on that if you're the Ravens. Because again, we saw them get burned by that exact thing with Ronnie Stanley, where you kind of anticipate like, oh, we'll be okay because we're getting the star player back, but then if the star player is not ready to go, you're kind of in a hole. So I think bringing back Justin Houston knows the system. I think I should be underrated last year by a lot of people just because the sack totals weren't necessarily there. I think he'd be good. You have OA Hayes Ferguson, who obviously, you know, admittedly hasn't shown a ton since being drafted, but I don't know. Maybe this is the year it took Ty Spouser a couple of years to get his legs under him in the league. So you never know. It just comes later to some, but I think a big he is also on the interior. Obviously talking about Travis Jones, Derek Wolf, you know, what's his status going to be this year? Is he going to play for them? Clay's Campbell, you have players there just meant to be gay as well. Someone who I anticipated was going to have a huge second year. It didn't really turn out that way, but you had, I think another year under his belt. They even brought Washington to know I thought impressed me in some different aspects. So I think the depth is there for the past rush to be successful. It's just matter of executing and maybe bringing in one or two more guys, whether that is Houston and somebody else. But I think bringing in at least the Houston is pretty important for them at this point. That's true. Now we talked about the front end, the front seven. We talked about the back end with the corners and the safeties. But what about the nucleus of the Ravens defense right now? How are you feeling about that? I think they're, I think they're good overall. The defense as a whole. I know there is a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths based off of just the huge games that they gave up, especially later in the year. And even later in the year, talking about the blown leads, you know, the failed executions in the fourth quarters. And a lot of that did have to do with injuries, but we have seen some turnover on this defense. You know, you're bringing in guys like Marcus Williams in place at the Sean Elliott Kyle Hamilton coming in there. But you have veteran leaders in there too. And I think obviously assuming Justin Houston is back, that's one of them. But you have Clays Campbell, you have Josh Bynes, who's back as well. But you also have young guys who are starting to learn their roles at this league, Patrick Queen, someone who had a very, very up and down year in 2021, you know, but I think improved over the course of the season and bounced back in a big way. So that's a player that, you know, I anticipate to keep growing and growing and growing. But you have Marlon Humphrey and obviously the guys I mentioned earlier, Campbell Bynes and others as well. Chuck Clark, someone who's a huge, huge leader on that defense and someone who, again, I personally hope stays in Arabian's uniform. I think having three safety looks with Clark and Hamilton and Williams is just so, just so amazing to think about. But I think when looking at the defense as a whole, I'm confident they can bounce back. I think last year, again, just injuries, poor execution, they understand. And we saw some of the things that they weren't good at early in the year get a bit better now, admittedly, other issues popped up. But the tackling huge issue early on, I think it got cleaned up a little bit as the season went on. You know, we kind of saw that go kind of better for them, missed communications. There were still a couple of them throughout the rest of the year. But I think we saw them get cleaned up a little bit based off of every week early in the year it was. How many missed communications are going to be this week? Because it was like two, three, four. So it got a little bit better towards the end of the season. So I'm confident they can bounce back. I'm obviously very confident in Mike McDonald as well. Someone who I think will be a nice, nice change of pace thing. I think there will still be things from Don Martindale's defense that will continue to be there. But I think overall McDonald was a great hire and someone who I think will be able to excel this defense further than where they were last year, which I know is in a very high standard, based off of what happened. But yeah, I'm confident what this defense can do. Mike McDonald, new defensive coordinator like you mentioned, if healthy, do you think this Ravens defense is top 10? Oh, that's a good question. You know what? I'm going to say, let's go, I'm going to say yes, top 12 at the very lowest for me. Let's go with that. I think people forget how good this Ravens defense was when it was healthy. And I know obviously this is a what have you done for me now lately league. And people do forget. And I understand that, you know, this team last year, the defense wasn't very impressive in a lot of different aspects, but fully healthy. You have time to gel with your teammates. A lot of it also was just like guys were playing with new guys every week. It was in practice, they were like meeting guys for the first time and like figuring out everything. So I think continuity would be huge. But yeah, I'm going to go bold. There are a lot of great defenses across this league. There are a lot of good defenses, but I think Baltimore can be one of them, especially if they can stay healthy. Yeah, for me, I think they would definitely be top 10. And I think the biggest thing is just health. If they're healthy, they have their markets, Peters, they have their mall and Humphrey, they have their new safeties and whatnot. And yeah, like you said, continuity. That's that's one of the biggest things, because it was just a rotation like everywhere all year long. And that doesn't help anything. Speaking of defense, one of the biggest helps to a great defense is a great offense. Ravens, of course, have Lamar Jackson expected to get J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards back in Justice Hill. They drafted Beatty, they signed Mike Davis. We know not all the running backs are going to make the roster, but right now they have some depth heading into training camp and tight end. They of course have Mark Andrews, who was probably the best tight end in football last year. They just redid Nick Boyle's contract to get a little salary cap space. So he obviously isn't going anywhere. And they drafted a collar and likely offensive line. Daniel Fah Lele, they drafted him. They also brought in Tyler Lindenbaum at center. Hopefully Ronnie Stanley, he's back fully healthy. They retained Joanne James, which I was surprised about, but I'm not mad at it because the more the merrier, especially on a long offensive line, Patrick McCary, he's still going to be around. And of course, Tyree Phillips, he goes into another year. Hopefully he continues to improve. And they signed Morgan Moses as well. But then there's one position. You know, I could talk about this position all day. There's one position where Ravens, there's a lot of divisiveness right now amongst Ravens fans on exactly what they should do because they traded away Hollywood Brown. They released Miles Boykin, Sammy Watkins became a free agent. And we knew like, before the season was over, we knew Sammy Watkins wasn't going to be back. But how do you feel and what do you feel? Because I love getting different people's perspective on this. What do you feel that the Ravens should do at the wide receiver position? Because the draft is gone. The first wave of free agency is gone. What do you feel like the Ravens should do at wide receiver right now? Should they roll with their guys that they have? Should they add a veteran as a free agent? Or should they trade for somebody? What do you think they should do? It's such an interesting question. And there are so many different opinions on it because there are so many routes they could go with it. But you made a good point in the fact that this isn't the first wave of free agency anymore. This is in March. You don't have those top end wide receivers who are on the market in March, on the market now. It just doesn't work that way. But I think that, me personally, I would have the Ravens sign a veteran wide receiver, but without the expectations that all right, this is going to be the number one guy. This is going to be a guy for a thousand yards. And I think for how young the room is right now with the wide receiver position for the Ravens, you have two third year guys and two second year guys at the top four, obviously being Rashad Bateman, Devin DuVernay, James Pershey and Tyler Wallace. I think those four guys are right now. If the Ravens don't touch anything and they roll with the guys they have, those four guys, I'm confident in them. I think they can all do really great things in this offense. But I think to have a veteran presence in the locker room at that position, someone who has a lot of experience, who's been around the league and veterans too. They know how to work back to a quarterback when they're in trouble. They know how different cornerback matchups work because they've been in the league for a while. They've gone up against some of these top flight defense, top flight coaches. And again, I'm not saying that Rashad Bateman can't work back to Lamar Jackson when he's in trouble, right? He's a receiver. He can do that. He's a good player. But I think another thing to this whole part is right now, if the Ravens were to, again, not touch anything is enter the year with the guys they have on their roster. The question to me is how many running backs, how many wide receivers and how many tight ends the Ravens keep on the roster? Because you mentioned a little earlier the running back depth they have and they have a lot of it. But in the offense that I feel like with the personnel they have, they take two tight ends and no wide receivers in the draft and they're kind of rolling with their guys, it seems like if that's the case, maybe the Ravens keep four running backs, four tight ends and five wide receivers and go back to more of that bully ball type offense, which I do think the Ravens, a team that in 2019 and 2020 had the both, both years, the least amount of pass attempts in the NFL in both those seasons, 2021 they went up to ninth and obviously a lot of that I think had to do with injuries. But I think what we saw over the first part of the year before obviously the collapse happened was the pass offense looked better. It looked improved than it did in 2019 and 2020. So if they can build off of that, you're bringing a guy like a Julio Jones or Will Fuller, T.Y. Hilton, all players that I think you have to account for missed time with, much like I think a lot of people did with Sammy Watkins. A lot of the concerns surrounding Sammy Watkins and his signing when it first happened was, well, he's going to miss games and he ended up missing games and I think really impacted his ability and I know the Miami game, the catch where he was going to run into the goal post, a sore topic I know and it is, it is for me. He's like, not, not today. I think for me, if you can bring in still, if you can get a lot, I don't know, 13 good games out of Julio Jones or 10 good games out of Will Fuller and you know that's what's coming. If you can prepare for that, you have guys on the practice squad, the Ravens also brought in talented undrafted for agents, guys like Benjamin Victor and Jaylen Morris still there. You know, these aren't necessarily household names and the fact that, you know, DK Metcalf, it's not, it's not him, it's not Devo Samuel. I think they could look for a trade option as well, but I think having a veteran in that room is very important for experience and also just for somebody who can help Lamar Jackson out, but I think the talent that they have at the Y to C room now with those top four guys, I like all of them and I'm excited to see what they can do. Now, that's funny you mentioned Julio Jones and Will Fuller T. White Hilton. Well, I've seen some suggestions that say the Ravens, they should sign like three of them. They should sign all three because that could guarantee that you get a full 17 game season out of them as a combination of one, because you know that he's going to miss some time, but they're not all three going to be injured at the same time, so might as well. But anyway, to my guy, KO, appreciate you coming on, appreciate you joining us. One more time, let everybody know what they can find you at. Yeah, for sure, man. This is always so fun having on talking football with you. For me, you can find me on Twitter, chaos tracker 34. And also the Lockdown Ravens podcast is on YouTube and also anywhere you can find your podcast in audio form in the Lockdown Ravens Twitter is at Lockdown Ravens for show updates. All right. And hopefully like he's locked on Ravens, hopefully these will be the lock up Ravens. All of his information will be down below in the description and we out.