- 7 hours ago
Baltimore Ravens executive vice president and general manager Eric DeCosta joined Fresh Take with Cordell Woodland and Ben Hall to discuss free agency and the beginning of the new NFL year. He touched on Maxx Crosby, Trey Hendrickson, Lamar Jackson, and the upcoming NFL draft.
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00:00joining us now on the window nation fan guest hotline we do have eric da costa who is the
00:05executive vice president and general manager of the baltimore ravens eric really appreciate
00:11your time tonight man how's it going it's going good guys good to be on your show uh you know
00:17i've heard great things happy to be on been a busy week as you guys know and i'm uh looking
00:21forward
00:22to the weekend yeah really appreciate your time for sure let's jump right into it uh you you guys
00:27you bring in trey hendrickson he's been the big offseason signing free agent signing that is four
00:33years 112 million dollar deal obviously pass rush was a need going into this offseason for you guys
00:40but what was it about trey hendrickson that made you want him to be a raven well we've been playing
00:46against him for years now and i think the thing that you appreciate about him is his motor pass
00:52rush ability obviously stands out one of the best pass rushers in the league um you know just a guy
00:58that you know we felt like we needed a closer on defense who can make a big play for us
01:03in the
01:04fourth quarter of games and get the defense off the field and you know trey is uh has been one
01:09of those
01:09guys for the for the bangles um admire his game he's always been a challenge for us to game plan
01:15against and we feel like he fits our culture very well now this offseason we saw you pursue the max
01:21crosby deal then add the trey hendrickson it feels like there was a real point of emphasis on adding
01:26a proven elite edge rusher from outside the organization versus going through with it in the
01:31draft what made this offseason the one where you felt like you really needed to go outside of the
01:35draft or maybe more of a value plan go all in on adding that established pass rusher well i think
01:41that's a great question i think it comes down to a lot of factors this is probably one of the
01:45first
01:46years in recent history that we actually had a decent amount of salary cap room that we could
01:51carry over um we felt like that in in conjunction with the uh the salary cap deal that we did
01:58with
01:58lamar's contract gave us a little bit of flexibility to acquire some players i think the other part of
02:03it is just looking at the draft at 14 you know what's the player that's going to be available are
02:09there going to be any pass rushers there at 14 that we're going to feel are worth the pick
02:12you know obviously there are two or three guys that we could talk about that we think are probably
02:16in that range but as we've seen in the past those guys go quickly so for us to get a
02:22proven commodity
02:23i think this year with our team with players around them um that's that's been a point of emphasis for
02:29us this year i think is is getting after the quarterback and then also on the flip side i think
02:35you know building an offensive line that we feel really good about who can protect lamar jackson
02:38we're talking to eric da costa gm of the baltimore ravens he joins us here on the fresh take with
02:44cordell woodland and ben hall on 105.7 defend and eric of course you talked a lot yesterday when we
02:50spoke to you at the castle about the max uh max crosby trade falling through and i know this is
02:56still a
02:57touchy subject and there's not much that you can talk about with that don't want to spend a lot on
03:01it
03:02but i did wonder because a lot of people are still trying to piece all of this together right now
03:07and
03:07um i'm just curious was there something was there a variable that was thrown into this equation
03:14once max got into the building that maybe you guys weren't aware of before you got to bring him in
03:20and you know gather more information like you said and assess uh this trade well that you know i think
03:28you know cordell any time that you uh attempt to trade for a player there's got to be a very
03:35thorough process a vetting process and that starts before the player visits it's it's talking to
03:42people at that team trying to get as much information as possible but then also when the
03:48player comes in there's got to be an exam and you've got to uh rely on people in your building
03:55and out people outside your building to really present the entire picture um you know of the player
04:01and who he is where he stands you know obviously when you watch the player you can evaluate his
04:05ability as a football player but there are unknowns um that really do factor in an important part of
04:11this whole thing uh that you have to feel really good about before you execute the trade
04:17now part of what made it tough for the fans was going through the weekend and and how long that
04:23lasted fans see the reports about crosby you live it up and how tough is it for you with the
04:27amount of
04:28work that goes into a deal like that with other teams and the agents when something that close ends
04:33up you know falling apart at the end and is there ever a way that you could have been able
04:36to speed
04:37up the process for the physical like that or you just mostly at the the mercy of schedules um and
04:42logistics at that point right so typically what happens with a trade that is discussed now we can't
04:50even say a trade that occurs because as you guys probably know you can't actually execute a trade
04:56until the new league year starts so that's a little bit of a different thing than like say right now
05:02you know we could do a trade right now literally i could call another team offer them something they
05:08could accept we could send the trade papers and the trade would be um you know pending a physical
05:14the trade would be announced we could announce the trade pending physical uh in this particular case
05:20as you guys know a trade can't be made until the new league year starts so even as a club
05:26we
05:26can't announce anything which is which is why in this particular situation neither the uh raiders
05:33or the ravens could make any public announcement um since we don't have the rights to the player
05:40we've got to be granted access to the player by the other club that is unusual from the standpoint of
05:46typically that wouldn't be the case except for a trade that happens again before the new league year
05:51so they gave permission to bring the player in at a specific time before the new league year started
05:57for the purposes of examining the player um to potentially execute the trade if that makes sense
06:06eric and kind of uh going to ben's point you you guys have made it clear pass rusher was something
06:12that you wanted to target this offseason uh you even insinuated yesterday that there was a possibility
06:18or at least you guys were toying with the idea of getting both a max and trey hendrickson so i
06:23am
06:24curious even with trade now on the roster are you still looking for pass rush is that still a position
06:30that you're looking to add it is and that could be a free agency that could be certainly the draft
06:38um again we we feel like this is an opportunity for us we've seen what jesse mentor's defense can do
06:47uh with with pass rushers and also how he's able to um create a pass rush so we see a
06:54great opportunity
06:54for us to be a really really disruptive defense this year uh that's something that i feel that's
07:00lacking in last year's defense certainly um you know that that burden falls on me and uh i want to
07:07make sure that this year we can get after the quarterback now this organization has set such a high
07:11standard with the consistency of winning seasons and kind of going about things the way that you guys have
07:16in the offseason but after just one year of you know not meeting the expectations how does it change
07:23maybe the mindset at all going into the offseason in terms of being more aggressive or evaluating the
07:28roster a little differently compared to having a lot of success the way you guys have done it before
07:33well i think anytime ben you don't have success you've got to look at yourself and you know um
07:38i'm probably harder on myself than anybody else could be um we we feel the pressure to be a really
07:44good team every single year and to challenge for super bowls every single year and you know as i've
07:48said repeatedly this offseason we we didn't get it done and uh and that falls on my shoulders um you
07:55know that's my job is to build the best team possible to acquire as much talent to play together
08:00as a football team and win games and on the road at home in critical situations and big games
08:06um to get to the playoffs and be the best team we can be so that didn't happen yeah i
08:12i take that
08:13personally i think everybody does in this building um i've been here 30 years and i uh i feel i
08:21feel
08:21a lot of pressure to to keep pursuing the best possible team that team that our fans can be proud
08:27of a team that uh our community can rally around and our players can get a chance to win a
08:33ring
08:34eric this is probably the longest interview you've had where you haven't been asked about lamar jackson
08:39to this point in the interview uh but i'm probably about to end that right now we we know you
08:45guys
08:45did the restructure with lamar and we know you know that's a uh a negotiation you guys really like
08:52to keep under wraps but i am curious just your in your mind where is the sense of urgency to
08:59want
08:59to get lamar signed to an extension well i actually thought you guys were going to ask me about nambi
09:06first
09:06but you know i would have lost that okay okay yeah yeah yeah um well listen guys you know you
09:13guys have heard me say this i think lamar is the best quarterback in the league i think lamar is
09:17the
09:18best player in the league i'm biased obviously but um to me he's a special talent i see it every
09:24day
09:24um i see it every weekend in the fall uh i love having him here i love having him as
09:30the face of the
09:31club and um and and i would love to have him here for many more years um i want to
09:38win i think lamar
09:39gives us the best chance to win i think players love to play with him i think our fan base
09:43loves him
09:44and i'm going to do everything i can to make sure that lamar's our quarterback for a long time
09:48now you guys bring it bring back john simpson he's been a guy that fans gravitate to with
09:53the more edge and fire that he plays with a physical guy plays through the whistle and we saw it
09:58a bunch
09:58in 23 when he was here in baltimore how excited are you having him back with the ravens and is
10:03it
10:03something that is that you know those tendencies something you're actively looking when you're
10:07building the interior of the offensive line yeah you know i love john's makeup uh coach ledford
10:14watched him on tape and uh and was really really impressed and the fact that we had a relationship
10:19with john you know we brought john to us a few years ago joey's kukinas our uh vice president of
10:25player personnel brought him in and uh he started out with us i think he started out with us after
10:31he got cut from the raiders on our practice squad we bumped him up to the active roster and he
10:36ended
10:36up being a really really good starter for us uh i love his mentality i love his physicality i love
10:41his ability to get off the ball and get to the second level he really tries to finish guys and
10:46um
10:46we were really proud of john we went on and got a good contract with the new york jets
10:51and we were also very excited to bring him back and like i always say once a raven always a
10:55raven
10:56um i just feel he fits our culture you know the offensive line is happy to have him and
11:01he gives you just a certain amount of physicality that some guys lack well eric to the nom de matabique
11:07of it all and look i i totally respect his situation and him needing to be the one to really
11:14speak on the
11:15future of his career but i i am curious how that impacts you you have to put this roster together
11:20this offseason we know uh the the defensive line is a point of emphasis for you guys
11:25how are you approaching this offseason do you have to look at it as if you still have him
11:30or is it you are you approaching it like you don't yeah you know that's a good question but
11:36i think time will tell right now we're trying to find the best players that we can
11:40we we are looking at defensive linemen in free agency was certainly also in the draft i feel confident
11:46that we'll have a chance to add one or two guys throughout this you know upcoming what two months
11:52or so um as we continue to build our best team and i think we understand the importance of it
11:58um i will
11:59tell you this i'm i'm i am very very happy that we got travis jones signed uh late in the
12:05year i'm
12:06excited about travis um excited about the other guys too and um i think by the time we start playing
12:13games in september we will feel really really strong about our offensive line regardless of
12:18whoever's whoever it is we're going to have some really good players out there uh and i think our
12:22front seven is going to be very effective this year now at the wide receiver position that seems
12:27like somewhere that you guys are going to have to add this offseason whether that be through draft
12:32through free agency how do you feel about the way the wide receiver position looks right now i know
12:36you guys probably for now we're going to be losing deandre hopkins unless there is an extension
12:41done there um or re-signing done there in the offseason how do you feel about the wide receiver
12:44position for now and is that a possibility of 14 well i feel good about it obviously uh you know
12:51zay's a two-time pro bowler and uh a talented talented player who's going to continue to ascend
12:57rashad bateman has been a big-time playmaker for us the last couple years i think he's very very
13:02excited about this year can't wait to see what rashad does this year in this offense with
13:07coach deckland doyle you know kind of running the show and you know rashad has proven that in
13:12clutch situations he can make good plays the guy that i'm excited about is uh is tez and uh you
13:18know
13:18tez walker is a guy that showed flashes last year of being a home run threat uh made some really
13:24really
13:24nice plays for us and i would i would expect to see another jump this year i think in looking
13:30at
13:30free agency there are still some players out there uh i think it's a pretty strong year in the draft
13:35as
13:35well and there are some players that we would anticipate potentially be in there for us in the
13:39first round at 14 or if we trade back in the first round uh some really good football players scattered
13:45throughout all other rounds actually that will give us a chance to add somebody else into the equation
13:50eric last thing for you sticking on the offensive side of the ball we saw you guys sign durham smythe
13:55he comes over from chicago uh joining deckland doyle with you guys is are you still looking at tight end
14:03as an area you want to add to obviously you guys lose likely and kohler this offseason you gave the
14:08extension to mark andrews if you are looking for a tight end what would that profile look like in your
14:14eyes yeah so the answer is yes we probably are looking for a tight end or two and that could
14:22be
14:22again free agency and that could be the draft i think it's a pretty good year draft wise um we've
14:28spent
14:28some time on these guys and we'll do more work on them as well i think right now we're probably
14:34looking for multi-faceted guys you've got to be able to run routes and also be a good blocker so
14:39i would say i don't want to speak for the coaches but i would say guys that can do a
14:43multiple of
14:43things we feel really really good about uh mark andrews and and uh durham who we just signed and think
14:51that you know we're trying to find probably another guy maybe two more tight ends when it comes down to
14:55it
14:56um you know in the past as you guys have known that we've we've used a fullback and we're probably
15:00going to segue to um probably more of a tight end look than a fullback traditional fullback look
15:06and so uh i think the great opportunities i'm excited about it we had a chance to spend some time
15:12with some guys at the combine and there are still some pretty good proven players also available
15:16in free agency eric great stuff man we really appreciate your time this evening and you being
15:22open and flexible i know you just spoke yesterday and you'll be speaking tomorrow morning at the
15:27trade hendrickson press conference so really appreciate you uh making some time for us
15:31thanks so much eric hey are you guys coming out tomorrow oh yeah yeah you'll see us tomorrow for
15:36sure you'll see a lot of us this week man you're gonna be tired of us three days in a
15:40row i think i'm
15:41gonna lose my voice well we'll make sure that happens so that you can't answer any other questions
15:47this weekend all right guys take care thanks eric yes sir coming up next on the program we'll react
15:53to what eric da costa had to say we'll also start taking some of your calls 410583 1057 how did
15:59you
15:59feel about what eric had to say today or even yesterday the max crosby trade of it all
16:04trey hendrickson's in town a lot to talk about with the ravens next here on the fan
16:08this weekend
16:08you
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