00:00From USA Today, it's the Ravens Wire. He's on the Window Nation guest hotline.
00:04He is Kevin Allstraker. Kevin, first of all, good morning. How are you feeling?
00:09Feeling good. Yeah, Eric DaCosta spoke to the media. Lots of stuff there.
00:13Hearing from Jesse Minter soon and, you know, excited to see what Combine Week brings.
00:18Why would Eric DaCosta, something we were talking about, Kevin, a couple minutes ago,
00:23be guarded, shall we say, in regards to talking about Lamar Jackson's contract,
00:30but appear to be very open in admitting that the Ravens offered Tyler Linderbaum market-setting money.
00:37Why the difference in philosophies here?
00:40Yeah, I guess, like DaCosta said, I guess it was just the agreement factor that he and Lamar have,
00:47and that's something that both Lamar and DaCosta have been vocal about.
00:51But, yeah, I mean, definitely did not hold anything back on Linderbaum in that whole situation.
00:58I feel like with Lamar, those negotiations are, I guess, every negotiation is different, obviously.
01:08But, you know, I think it's the respect that those two have for each other to keep all that stuff
01:13internal,
01:13like we've heard from both guys.
01:15And, you know, for Linderbaum, I guess, you know, there's been a lot of stuff that has come out about
01:22him,
01:23and, you know, with Lamar, too.
01:25But, in my opinion, I just think that it comes down to the fact that those two have an agreement,
01:31and I guess DaCosta and Linderbaum don't in terms of whether they're going to talk about it or not.
01:35So, I think that's what it comes down to.
01:37Kevin, the only thing I see is we'll be waiting now to hear from Linderbaum's agent to get the response
01:43from what Eric just said.
01:46I mean, to me now, like you just said, the one negotiation is private.
01:51The other is becoming a media event.
01:55Yeah, yeah, it's a lot.
01:57And, you know, the more that this goes on with Linderbaum and, you know, the more stuff comes out
02:02and the more it gets talked about, you know, it feels less and less likely that he does come back.
02:09Now, again, that doesn't mean he's not coming back at all.
02:12But, you know, there's been all this conversation, and there's smoke around this, and there's smoke around that.
02:17And it's just gotten very weird to me.
02:20So, I don't know what's going on with it.
02:22And, obviously, you know, Linderbaum is going to set the market, in my opinion.
02:27I think that's set in stone right now.
02:29It's just a matter of how much.
02:31And, you know, I think that probably Linderbaum's agent and Linderbaum know that if he goes and hits the open
02:36market on March 9th, March 11th,
02:38when that new league year starts, that money is going to be unbelievable in terms of what he could do
02:44in terms of setting that market.
02:46So, you know, obviously, I think Baltimore is a place that has been great to him over these last couple
02:51of seasons.
02:52As he gets his NFL career started, and hopefully he's able to continue that in Baltimore.
02:56But, again, I guess there's only so much each side can do, I guess.
03:01And the longer this goes on, the weirder it gets for me.
03:04What did you think of Eric's comments about the offensive line?
03:10Yeah, I mean, there's obviously work to do there.
03:13And there's stuff that he said even just on the podcast.
03:18He went on the Inner Circle podcast about him being pretty confident in the young guys.
03:22Mentioned Emory Jones there, obviously.
03:24And, yeah, it's something that I think I'm okay with them believing in their young guys and bringing in other
03:34guys as long as there's competition.
03:36Right?
03:37That's the big thing for me, where I believe that they have to do work there.
03:42They have to bring in players.
03:44But at the end of the day, last season, they just handed those jobs out.
03:49They didn't have competitions.
03:50It was just, okay, this is Falev's job.
03:53This is Voorhees' job.
03:54And so, again, if those two had earned those opportunities, I would have been okay with, you know, those two
04:01earning them and having those jobs.
04:03But they didn't.
04:04So, there's no problem for me with believing in guys.
04:08There's no problem with me having them say, okay, we're going to bring in guys, too.
04:11But at the end of the day, there's going to be change on that line.
04:15And some of those options may be internal.
04:19Other options are going to be external.
04:21And I'm excited to see what they do there.
04:22Now, Kevin, a lot of mocks are having the Ravens with a receiver, which, you know, I'm not crazy about.
04:30They have a lot of needs, you know, much more, I think, you know, pass rusher, O-line, corner, much
04:35more so than, say, a receiver.
04:37What's your opinion?
04:39I'm more open to it.
04:41But, like you mentioned, it would have to be after they address those other needs first.
04:47So, you know, if you're going in the draft and you haven't addressed your offensive line, you haven't addressed your
04:52pass rusher, and there's a receiver that comes to you at 14, then that's a different conversation.
04:58But if you use free agency and maybe a trade or something to bring in a pass rusher, bring in
05:04some offensive line help, that, to me, opens up your board a little bit more.
05:08Now, I would be curious to see what that would look like.
05:12Do they still bring in a veteran wide receiver at that point?
05:15You know, is that like a re-signing DeAndre Hopkins or, you know, bringing in somebody else?
05:19I think Tez Walker will probably get more opportunities this next season.
05:22So, if it's a first-round wide receiver and you don't make any other, like, trades or anything, if that's
05:28Flowers, Bateman, whoever that rookie first-rounder is, Walker, is that the room you're going to go with that's a
05:36young room?
05:37Or are you going to maybe move on from Bateman in that situation?
05:41Do you get an extra draft pick there and spend that on a need?
05:44So, I mean, I think that with the Ravens free agency, as it always does, right, it'll dictate a little
05:49bit of what they do in the draft.
05:51But we know this team is a BPA team.
05:53I don't necessarily expect that to change.
05:56And, you know, even during that draft with Kyle Hamilton, there was a run of receivers right before the Ravens
06:03took Hamilton.
06:04And obviously that worked out for the Ravens.
06:06But there's something to be said about this team just being able to look at their board and say, hey,
06:13this is the top-rated guy on our board.
06:17And if there's a guy at a need that is ranked, I don't know, if they're at 14 and there's
06:22a guy on their board that's ranked 15, and then there's a guy that's ranked 12th, and all of a
06:29sudden you have to choose between those guys.
06:31One is it a need?
06:32One is it maybe not so big of a need?
06:35The Ravens might take that guy who's at the not so big of a need and then just kind of
06:39work it out from there.
06:40They take the talent and figure it out later.
06:42But in my opinion, I'm more open to a wide receiver, but, yeah, they have to figure out the rest
06:47of their bigger needs first before doing that.
06:49Kevin Ostryker, USA Today, the Ravens Wire, Vinian Henney, 105.7 The Fan.
06:53Kevin, last thing for you.
06:54Speaking of need, does Lamar Jackson, Nolan's favorite subject, does he need to be at OTAs more than just one
07:01time with a brand-new offensive coordinator and a new staff here?
07:05Ideally, it would be great, but it is voluntary.
07:08So, you know, I'm not going to bash anybody for not being there, but it would go a long way,
07:14I would say, if Lamar was there and everybody, right?
07:16It's not just a Lamar thing, but it's a new system, and for everybody to show up, and, you know,
07:24I think it would go a long way if Lamar was there.
07:27So, yes, more than one time I think would be great.
07:29What's going on, Ravens Wire, as the Combine is this week?
07:32Yeah, just figuring out who's going to potentially be a good fit for the team, winners, losers, and hopefully identifying
07:41some new Baltimore Ravens over the next week or so.
07:44Kevin Ostryker, have a great Turn It Up Tuesday, and we'll talk to you next week.
07:48Yeah, you too, guys. Thanks so much.
Comments