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Nolan and Vinny debate whether the pressure for the 2026 falls solely on Eric DeCosta or if there is wiggle room for the GM if the Ravens fail to reach the postseason.
Transcript
00:00it's friday the 13th no that's not good i didn't see any black cats but business today a lot of
00:07more ravens and more coming as the show continues because right now as we speak trey hendrickson
00:13being officially introduced at the castle so we'll have that later in the show but for now
00:17eric da costa on with fresh take last night ben and cordell a lot of good questions asked and
00:23as is typical when da costa speaks or really any gm any prominent coach figure in sports you got
00:30to read between the lines a little bit very rarely are they going to come out and say something
00:34you know juicy that grabs the headline at least da costa he's pretty good about being tight-lipped
00:39knowing what he wants to reveal and what he doesn't want to reveal but we'll do a lot of reading
00:44between
00:44the lines today we'll start with him individually because he's talking a lot about his team obviously
00:50some more follow-up on the debacle of a week with the crosby thing the hendrickson thing
00:55the lamar thing there's so much to this but for him as gm his job security started popping into my
01:03head
01:03really earlier this week as soon as i saw him trade two first round picks for a prominent pass rusher
01:11and
01:11change his stripes even though the trade didn't go through it he was a willingness they wanted it to
01:17happen he was doing something wildly different and outside the box compared to his tenure and the
01:23ravens really franchise history that was the first kind of alert to me that okay something why what's
01:31different this year that made you want to do that what's special about a max crosby that made you want
01:38to do that for him versus another player in years past and everything's different things change year to
01:43year but i ultimately come away thinking that sure he says he puts pressure on himself every year
01:50sure you know he says that we have super bowl aspirations every single year that's the ravens
01:55kind of mentality but i think this year's a little bit different based on how bad last year was and
02:01i'm
02:01speculating here but i think there is a little hot seat factor here i think there was a conversation
02:07with steve basciotti not on insider information this is just me fan speaking here that you move
02:14on from an 18 year head coach entire coaching staff gets turned upside down it's a new era for the
02:20franchise the cost is the only other constant from this last seven years it was hardball for all that
02:26time and everyone said well all the assistants changed but hardball's the constant well now the only
02:31constant left is to costa and all the roster moves he's made so i think naturally there was a
02:37conversation between him and basciotti not necessarily a hey get it done this year or you're
02:42fired but sort of uh i'm watching right there is a you're on notice type of thing it doesn't
02:49necessarily have to be an outwardly negative thing but it's just kind of a little kick in the rear end
02:55where the ravens have long been viewed as this uh franchise of stability loyalty saw it with 18 years
03:02for hardball you saw it with all those years with ozzy the costa was here with ozzy they groomed him
03:07to take over for him that's been the mo of this organization but things can change and they have
03:13changed here in the last year so with the costa where are you with the hot seat thing is it
03:18real
03:19should it be real um no i i don't i don't i don't think that you know i know basciotti
03:26a little bit
03:26i know eric okay you know i don't think and i know kind of how owners act you know i
03:35mean i've
03:35i've been fired um they don't they don't because if they come out and tell you you know you're on
03:46the
03:46hot seat why wouldn't they just replace you then you know i mean that that's the thing i mean
03:50because with harbs you know was there any thinking at all you think in basciotti's head when the season
03:59because when the season started they had the best roster you know i mean they were favorites for the
04:04super bowl all that stuff not even in his mind you know about harbs you know and then as you
04:11know
04:11kind of what went through and and it kind of played out throughout the year and everything that
04:19you know what change might be something they need and eight and nine and and it worked out good so
04:28eric on the hot seat i don't see that you know the only way that basciotti may like if all
04:35the moves
04:35that eric made this year or whatever stink and and they have a bad year and the coaches think and
04:41everything yeah then maybe you know i mean if it but i mean right now they're they're you know
04:47expected to be win the division and be a good team you know and expectations for the ravens are always
04:53high so if there's a losing season then who are we looking at because it seemed like during the year
05:04throughout fans are calling ripping who harbs harbs was the guy who you know
05:11the finger was pointed at and if it goes bad this year the only one to really point it at
05:17is there's only two you could point it at eric or lamar right you know so unless yeah it's we
05:25don't see
05:26it happening but if minter ended up being one of those coaches that's like wow this guy's completely
05:30out of his depth we don't see it but you know it first time coach it's a possibility yeah i
05:36i i just think that um um you know why did eric make that i mean that's what baffles me
05:44a little
05:44bit too um because basciotti has to okay that you know and then you got ozzy sitting there too who
05:53he's bouncing stuff off of and ozzy's never done that so what made i would love to because they didn't
06:01ask right what made him go break yeah ben asked yeah if he said why why this year what was
06:08different
06:08about this year and he you know as expected cited the shortcomings of last year and particularly
06:14with pass rush they only had 30 sacks and that was like a franchise worse mark so he focused
06:20specifically on the results but that's i agree i mean that's the the genesis of my argument is that
06:26yeah it's results driven you're absolutely right harbaugh was the main guy to point the finger
06:32at last year for the fans but i think that there it wasn't like the costa went without there's quite
06:39a few people that called in that said well no i mean i'm i i blame the costa more than
06:43i blame
06:44harbaugh he built the team and that's where i think that it doesn't have to be this outward hey get
06:50it done
06:50this year or you're fired where i'm using the specific words hot seat but i think it is a
06:56conversation like look last offseason you did this that the other thing chose not to do abc over here
07:04and these were the results you know what is your plan for this offseason you know we got a lot
07:09more
07:09holes than we did a year ago i mean i think i think there was a conversation there just had
07:14to be
07:15like you can't separate you can't move on from the coach and then view the gm as completely independent
07:23you know not responsible in any connected way i just think it's a natural thing and it doesn't
07:30necessarily like i said it doesn't have to be this big negative dark cloud hanging over you i think it's
07:35just a kick in the rear end all right but you know like i mean eric you know took the
07:40blame or
07:41whatever but um what did like he had you know like who was gonna know that everybody on offense
07:54would take a step back and it's the same guys fair you know all those types things and i think
08:00a lot
08:00of the problems you know and i think a lot of the stuff what killed them i hate to say
08:06it but it was
08:07i mean and and here is the biggest reason why i say that no one is dafeo way yeah you
08:17know i mean
08:17you know you talk about you don't have any sacks all right and you got this guy who has no
08:23sacks for
08:24you then boom he goes out to jesse minter and he gets 10 and a half sacks to hell you
08:30know you know
08:31if i'm steve bishotti i'm like uh you know why uh why is this happening and then well i i
08:41think
08:41probably what would have upset me if i'd have been steve bishotti when i was talking to harbs
08:48and harbs said that he and i'm not sure he did but you heard that he wanted to bring all
08:53his coaches
08:54back and i got no problem bringing the offense coaches back um but bringing zach or back that was
09:01to me that's a game changer that ain't happening you know that would not happen and and uh even
09:09changing you know the whole defensive staff i mean he did it in uh new york he had a chance
09:14to bring
09:15any of those guys he brought denard wilson period right that was it on defense and then still claim
09:22that he'll be right about zach or in the long run but like you said doesn't trust him enough to
09:27have him now and and classic horrible todd munkin had a d coordinator job open too
09:34and you know he wouldn't he didn't even interview him no you know so i just think that uh that
09:43was
09:43that was a big problem a big problem and and i don't know why no one i don't know why
09:52like
09:53the offensive line took a step back see i if coach yeah yeah if it would have been
10:00you know like if everybody stayed and i was eric i would have said all right harbs let's uh
10:05let's get rid of the defensive coordinator you know and he can bring in some guys and i got to
10:11replace the old line coach too you know they took a step back somebody's got to take the blame for
10:16that he's got to go you know and that's that's what i would have done and here's the other thing
10:21you know eric or um no one that's different this year too is all right eric was second in charge
10:32you know to ozzy and harbs was here and then eric comes in you know and then happy that he's
10:42the boss
10:42and harbs kind of oversaw him my opinion you know i see what you're saying so like hierarchy
10:51yeah tenure yeah yeah maybe not as much as maybe as he has with the giants but probably had more
10:59clout than eric did just because you know he was here longer and everything and all right so now
11:06eric's got the juice he hired all these coaches so these coaches look to him kind of like he looked
11:14to harbs so to your point about the pressure then yes he would be the guy that if things went
11:23wrong
11:23that you'd have you'd be pointing the finger at and ultimately i mean look you can say all this
11:31stuff's unfair i mean you you've lived it oh yeah so i did and when you say i dealt with
11:36owners i
11:36i'll push back a little bit and say you know big difference between a bashotty and a dan snyder i
11:41i
11:42would hope i would certainly hope uh but you know it's even if it's unfair it's not right you know
11:48to
11:48say that he's on the hot seat i think it's just the reality of pro sports well oh yeah and
11:52for
11:52da costa in particular like you say okay who could have foreseen the regression across the board last
11:59year i agree with you but somebody's got to wear it and when it comes to a move like say
12:04the cooper
12:04rush thing which didn't end up being important because lamar got hurt and you actually needed your
12:09backup quarterback i don't know i mean did that cost you one of those games that if huntley was
12:14starting there that maybe they could have beat the rams if huntley started from the beginning i i
12:18don't know i don't think they were beating the rams well it was close it was like yeah but houston
12:24was a blowout nobody that that was they didn't even show up um but yeah the rams game was
12:29close anyway we're reliving history here
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