Speaker 1: Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass podcast. The Ravens held
Speaker 1: their season review press conference today with general manager Eric
Speaker 1: Acassa and head coach John Harball. Here's what they had
Speaker 1: to say.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks for coming in guys. Obviously, you know it's
Speaker 2: a long season. We appreciate you guys covering the team
Speaker 2: every day and being out here and writing about our
Speaker 2: team and our players, and I think it's great for
Speaker 2: the community. And so if you guys have questions, offer
Speaker 2: them up.
Speaker 3: John and Eric, since you guys come back to Buffalo,
Speaker 3: have you talked to Mark Andrews?
Speaker 4: What's kind of his mindset right now? And Eric, I
Speaker 4: think Andrew's going into this filent year.
Speaker 5: Can you talk about the future for Mark as well?
Speaker 6: Mark is We communicated, and.
Speaker 7: I'm gonna tell you what like, Mark Andrews is one
Speaker 7: of the very best football players, one of the most
Speaker 7: committed football players. Nobody cares more about the success of
Speaker 7: this football team to Mark Andrews, and that's why. And
Speaker 7: he made numerous plays in the game up until the
Speaker 7: plays that everybody's talking about and in the season, and
Speaker 7: one of my messages to him was we are not
Speaker 7: where we're at Throughout the course of the season or
Speaker 7: in the game without the contributions to Mark specifically in
Speaker 7: the game and the plays that he made spectacular plays
Speaker 7: all season, and then the unsung aspect of all the
Speaker 7: blocking he did in line and on the perimeter. So
Speaker 7: Mark Andrews is a great football player, and he's also
Speaker 7: a very tough minded individual. So yeah, he takes it
Speaker 7: heart and he because he cares so much. But I
Speaker 7: love Mark Andrews, Eric loves Mark, All of our players
Speaker 7: love Mark. Mark is a huge part of our future
Speaker 7: and we love him, and you know we're there for him.
Speaker 7: But if anybody can take a tough circumstance like that
Speaker 7: and handle it with class and grace and dignity and
Speaker 7: mental toughness, it's most definitely Mark Andrews.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with John and Mark and I have communicated.
Speaker 2: I'll leave those those thoughts to myself. But as far
Speaker 2: as Mark's contract goes, you know, he's He's no different
Speaker 2: than a lot of guys. In fact, I think all
Speaker 2: of our tight ends are in the last year of
Speaker 2: their contract coming up in twenty twenty five, so you know,
Speaker 2: we'll have some decisions to make moving forward, not as
Speaker 2: many I think, you know, tough decisions this year looking
Speaker 2: at it, which I'm thankful for. But obviously, as we
Speaker 2: look out, we'll have some tough decisions after next season.
Speaker 2: So a year from now, we'll have some tough choices
Speaker 2: and decisions to make regarding players. But yeah, so that
Speaker 2: room right now, all three of those guys are in
Speaker 2: the last year their deals. Ironically, Charlie and Isaiah and
Speaker 2: Mark were blessed to have, in my opinion, the best
Speaker 2: tight ends room in the league, and and.
Speaker 8: We'll be will be blessed this year on the field
Speaker 8: as well well.
Speaker 9: Eric, obviously, you know another bigger guys have a really
Speaker 9: good regular season, you win a division, your time team,
Speaker 9: Unfortunately you fall short and you have ultimate goal. How
Speaker 9: do you equit this season? How do you view this
Speaker 9: season as a successful season.
Speaker 4: In your lot?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, perspective over what you know, twenty nine
Speaker 2: seasons and we've had twenty seven seasons like this.
Speaker 10: You know, I think my math is right. But I'm
Speaker 10: I'm very proud of the team this year. It was
Speaker 10: a successful season.
Speaker 2: Not gonna sit up here and say it was not
Speaker 2: a successful season. It wasn't just about every way of
Speaker 2: looking at it. But I'm disappointed, and John's disappointed. We're
Speaker 2: all disappointed. Our team's disappointed. You know, we had higher
Speaker 2: aspirations and we didn't achieve those aspirations and goals. But
Speaker 2: I think it was a successful season. I'm very proud
Speaker 2: of the team, the players, the coaches, support staff, everybody,
Speaker 2: and and I've already moved on. I've started watching tape.
Speaker 2: I'm immersed in college and pro scouting right now, talking
Speaker 2: about contracts, negotiations and different things. And that's one I
Speaker 2: think for me, that's one of the blessings of my
Speaker 2: job is it's very seasonal, and I'm in now one
Speaker 2: of the one of my most favorite seasons, which is
Speaker 2: the off season, which is not I it's it's a
Speaker 2: it's a misnomer because it's my busiest time of the year.
Speaker 2: But I love I love being a part of the solution,
Speaker 2: and that's what we'll be Eric.
Speaker 9: Have there been any conversations with Lamar or will you
Speaker 9: kind of keep his hand down the road as far
Speaker 9: as his contract and perhaps eventually restructuring something.
Speaker 4: To get a little bit more calf friendly, whether it's
Speaker 4: this season or next.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we've seen teams do that, and uh,
Speaker 2: you know, Lamar and I We've had a lot of
Speaker 2: discussions about contracts over the years, and at some point
Speaker 2: I'll probably talk to Lamar. I'm just really happy, blessed
Speaker 2: to have watched him play football this year.
Speaker 10: You know, we just finished the season.
Speaker 2: I want Lamar to relaxed little bit and kind of
Speaker 2: think back on what we accomplished as a team and
Speaker 2: what he accomplished individually, you know. And so I will
Speaker 2: have those conversations probably at some point. And I think
Speaker 2: Lamar's you know what I've seen just with Lamar's He's
Speaker 2: just grown so much, even just over the last couple
Speaker 2: of years in terms of, you know, his game as
Speaker 2: a player, as a leader, as a person. I love
Speaker 2: talking with him. We communicate all the time, you know,
Speaker 2: and as I said, I've been blessed to be with
Speaker 2: him for the last seven years.
Speaker 11: Speaking of about Lamar is for both of you guys,
Speaker 11: how does he change the narrative from what he's done
Speaker 11: to the regular season as opposed to the postseason, you know,
Speaker 11: changing what people think about him after the regular season
Speaker 11: adds is there anything more he can do?
Speaker 8: And what do people think about him?
Speaker 12: Well, there's the difference with the numbers and the way
Speaker 12: he performs between the postseason and regular season. So I
Speaker 12: didn't think he played poorly the other day, but that's
Speaker 12: perception out there at all falls seams.
Speaker 4: On the quarterback.
Speaker 2: I can say there's no player I'd rather have on
Speaker 2: my team than Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 10: He's you know, I think he's the best quarterback in
Speaker 10: the league.
Speaker 8: So that's my answer to that question.
Speaker 13: Or website everyone both read is what you guys you
Speaker 13: know the rind thirty long you know would have been
Speaker 13: injured and have right years this year.
Speaker 4: You know, what are you hoping to do there?
Speaker 2: Well, I think Vinny, you know, our goal is to
Speaker 2: always have the best line that we can have offensive line,
Speaker 2: and we made a tough call last year to to
Speaker 2: go younger and bring in and have some younger guys play.
Speaker 2: And we knew we'd have a few growing pains. I
Speaker 2: think we had a few, but looking back on and
Speaker 2: I think it was absolutely the right thing to do,
Speaker 2: and we start our guys improving, get better and really
Speaker 2: meshes a unit in Geil. You know, Uh, we are
Speaker 2: aware that we have some you know, guys that contracts
Speaker 2: are up, uh, and we'll look at that and certainly
Speaker 2: have some discussions with players, and we'll look at potentially
Speaker 2: bring back our guys. We'll look at the draft, we'll
Speaker 2: look at free agency. We'll unturn, overturn every rock to
Speaker 2: find as many good offensive linemen as we can. And
Speaker 2: I think we have some good young players on the team.
Speaker 2: They've shown that. And one thing that we've seen over
Speaker 2: the years with that position is guys get better as
Speaker 2: they get older and more established and get in the
Speaker 2: weight room and get stronger and play better. So that's
Speaker 2: gonna be the case with the guys we have. We're
Speaker 2: blessed to have really good coaches and some young, good
Speaker 2: young players, but also we realize that we're probably gonna
Speaker 2: have conservatively ten or eleven draft picks this year, a
Speaker 2: free agency and still the chance to get some deals
Speaker 2: signed with some of those guys.
Speaker 4: Especially with long status in mind. What did you see
Speaker 4: from Roger Rosing?
Speaker 3: The first ball is an NFL player, But see someone
Speaker 3: that you could see moving to the other side.
Speaker 9: I final is.
Speaker 10: Back just wait thought the via, Well, he's played both
Speaker 10: sides of that. You know, he's played left and right.
Speaker 2: I mean this year is it's a very hard thing
Speaker 2: to come in as an offensive lineman as a rookie
Speaker 2: and play well, and Roger honestly just got better and
Speaker 2: better and better and better and mature guy beyond his years.
Speaker 2: I think a year in the way room's gonna really.
Speaker 10: Serve him well, as it will all of our guys.
Speaker 2: But I think that we were very I can speak
Speaker 2: for myself and say I was very happy with what
Speaker 2: Roger did.
Speaker 8: It's a very tough.
Speaker 2: Position to play as a young player. I think his
Speaker 2: future is very bright, as are the guys that he
Speaker 2: played with on the offensive line this year, and we're
Speaker 2: excited to see what he looks like next year.
Speaker 5: I know there's always moving pieces on the coaching staff
Speaker 5: and Todd's interviewed, what is your last year? You basically
Speaker 5: had to overhaul your almost entire defensive snaff staff. Do
Speaker 5: you expect your staff back or are you you still
Speaker 5: anticipating there could be some departures.
Speaker 6: Well, it's not for me to really know. I don't
Speaker 6: know for sure.
Speaker 7: I think it's awesome and great that these coaches have
Speaker 7: gotten an opportunity over the last for years. You know,
Speaker 7: I'm kind of proud of that and the fact that
Speaker 7: guys are getting opportunities now whatever those might be. I'm
Speaker 7: not exactly sure because it's still pretty early, but you
Speaker 7: might have a better beat on that than I do sometimes,
Speaker 7: you know, in terms of following up on what's going on.
Speaker 7: But whatever chances, they get the most deserving of And
Speaker 7: I'm happy for him. Of course, I'd love to keep them,
Speaker 7: you know. And if I tell him, I say, you know,
Speaker 7: I'm rooting for you, you know, and I'll definitely tell
Speaker 7: people how great you are because you deserve it. But
Speaker 7: if it doesn't work out for you, I'm really happy
Speaker 7: that you're staying with us. And I think our players
Speaker 7: We've talked to a lot of our players, and I
Speaker 7: know our players feel the same way.
Speaker 4: Have you talked a Dean about that? Obviously that's a
Speaker 4: little over a situation.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I have, and a little more nuanced things. Just
Speaker 7: appreciative of Dean and the job he did. I know
Speaker 7: Zach feels the same way. Defensive coaches. It just helped us,
Speaker 7: you know, it was a good thing to have to
Speaker 7: have Dean come back and experience that reconnected us to
Speaker 7: you know, our roots in terms of the structure of
Speaker 7: the defense, because Dean was a big part of that
Speaker 7: for you know, from twenty twelve and twenty eleven, twenty ten,
Speaker 7: even as a linebacker coach and on through as a
Speaker 7: coordinator through seventeen and and you know, it's kind of
Speaker 7: good to get reconnected to a lot of that. And
Speaker 7: I think he was a good eye and ear for
Speaker 7: the players and coaches, and he's interested in, uh in
Speaker 7: continuing in some sort of a role. I do think,
Speaker 7: you know, he's, uh, he's at that stage of his
Speaker 7: life where it's probably not going to be that full
Speaker 7: time thing like he he did the second half of
Speaker 7: the season.
Speaker 6: Uh Mel. His wife is amazing.
Speaker 10: She was here.
Speaker 7: You know, she'd come by and be in the cafeteria
Speaker 7: and and be around, and it was great to have
Speaker 7: her around. But you know, they're at that time of
Speaker 7: their life where that's they got some different priorities with
Speaker 7: the grandkids and stuff. But he is going to be
Speaker 7: still connected. He'll still have a role as a consultant,
Speaker 7: uh for us, that's my plan, that's his plan, And
Speaker 7: and that's great.
Speaker 9: Where any responsibilities as an consultant And how do you
Speaker 9: elevate the back forwards regression outside of the ways that.
Speaker 4: You have it?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 7: Dean, Well, I mean Dean was a like I said
Speaker 7: he was a sounding board in an ear and he's
Speaker 7: he had ideas and he he he functions as part
Speaker 7: of the staff. The thing about coaching staff, and I
Speaker 7: think it's really important people you should understand this. I
Speaker 7: guess because you're you're you're working different organizations, but it's
Speaker 7: always a collaboration.
Speaker 6: It's a team effort.
Speaker 7: And the Dean was part of the team, you know,
Speaker 7: and brought his his ability, his abilities and experience knowledge
Speaker 7: to the table. And it was just a great teammate
Speaker 7: that way and helped I think he helped it. Sure
Speaker 7: it helped Zach. I mean, Zach's great young coach. First
Speaker 7: year as a coordinator, there's there's things you have to
Speaker 7: learn only by experience. Again, Dean been a coordinator for
Speaker 7: probably thirty of the forty or forty five years he's
Speaker 7: been a coach, and he learned all these things sometimes
Speaker 7: the hard way for Zach to be able to tap
Speaker 7: into that knowledge and experience right away fast was really
Speaker 7: really positive. And think Zach would tell you the same thing.
Speaker 7: So that was a big part of it.
Speaker 3: Eric.
Speaker 14: Every year, not end, but a lot of years, you've
Speaker 14: brought in a quote camp leg to kind of give
Speaker 14: Justin Tucker some breasts. Do you anticipate bringing in a
Speaker 14: kicker that will legitimately compete for that kicking job or
Speaker 14: do you perceive that Justin Tucker has a kicking job
Speaker 14: next year?
Speaker 2: Well, I think Justin's going to go down this in
Speaker 2: my opinion as if not the best kicker of all time,
Speaker 2: one of the best, and I think he finished.
Speaker 10: The season strong.
Speaker 2: Will have those discussions, but I think, you know, I
Speaker 2: have every expectation Justin's going to be a great kicker.
Speaker 10: For us next year.
Speaker 2: At moving forward, We're blessed to have Randy Brown and
Speaker 2: Chris Horden upstairs and Sam Cook awesome coaches, special teams coaches.
Speaker 8: They'll be a part of the discussion.
Speaker 10: But you know the way that.
Speaker 2: Justin finished, he finished strong this year towards the end,
Speaker 2: had a little bit of adversity midway through the season,
Speaker 2: But you know, I think Justin is a tremendous competitor,
Speaker 2: very very talented. He works his butt off, and I
Speaker 2: would expect him to be the kicker for US next year.
Speaker 4: What are you thinking about Trent?
Speaker 15: And he started off in the middle and then he
Speaker 15: kind of drifted as Monique and Chris Ford took over.
Speaker 15: Is he still in the mix or do you go
Speaker 15: with one or both of those guys going forward?
Speaker 2: Well, I think he's an exciting young prospect. I think
Speaker 2: he's a really really good young player, developmental guy, and
Speaker 2: I think he's you know, obviously, like a lot of
Speaker 2: our young players, they have their ups and downs and
Speaker 2: their growing paints.
Speaker 8: But I think his future is very bright.
Speaker 2: We've seen guys like him, you know, have have their
Speaker 2: moments and then end up being really really good players.
Speaker 2: And I would expect that this guy's a young, very athletic.
Speaker 2: He can run, he's very explosive. He has a huge
Speaker 2: care factor, and it's our job to get that out
Speaker 2: of him, and I think we will.
Speaker 16: Eric for the twenty twenty two draft class is now
Speaker 16: eligible for a contract extension. How much of a priority
Speaker 16: is it for you this offseason to ink some of
Speaker 16: those guys too extensions?
Speaker 10: Well, we'll work on that.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, we've I think I sat up
Speaker 2: here in twenty nineteen and said we're going to try
Speaker 2: to retain as many of our good young players as
Speaker 2: we can, and I think we've done that. I'm proud
Speaker 2: of that, and I think you'll see that continue this offseason,
Speaker 2: went into the.
Speaker 9: Thought process with the Deontay Johnson tree and how disappointed
Speaker 9: whether that didn't probably work.
Speaker 2: Out when ye work, Yeah, I think you know, we
Speaker 2: looked at it as a chance for us to strengthen
Speaker 2: a position group. Potentially a guy we've played it asked
Speaker 2: a lot. I think we did our homework. We understood
Speaker 2: the risks and the rewards. Didn't look at it as
Speaker 2: cost prohibitive. It was a relatively inexpensive deal for us
Speaker 2: to make. In many ways. We knew that it wasn't
Speaker 2: one hundred percent going to be a slam dunk and
Speaker 2: it didn't work out. So, you know, we are trying
Speaker 2: to mitigate our risk. One of the jobs of a
Speaker 2: general managers to mitigate your risk and look at the
Speaker 2: downside and the upside and see how it works out.
Speaker 2: In that particular situation, I really didn't see a lot
Speaker 2: of downside. I think we understood what the downside might be,
Speaker 2: that the guy would would be unhappy with his role.
Speaker 10: Potentially it was a total.
Speaker 4: Hit for you.
Speaker 15: You have to feel good about that when you put
Speaker 15: yourself out for a guy like that and he really
Speaker 15: shows up for you, and there's been a couple of
Speaker 15: long way this last year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it comes to mind. I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: Kyle and Will.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're bringing up those guys, and I think I'm
Speaker 2: very I'm very proud of a shod Bateman. You know,
Speaker 2: this guy has had some adversity with injuries along the
Speaker 2: way that he's overcome some serious injuries and some bad luck,
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, I think he's he's taken some
Speaker 2: criticism and he came back this year with a vengeance
Speaker 2: and just kept stacking and stacking and stacking and fighting
Speaker 2: through some nagging stuff and playing and getting better every
Speaker 2: single week.
Speaker 10: And you know, uh, it's a great story. And I
Speaker 10: think he's just getting started. I think, I really do.
Speaker 10: And so he's a great person. He works hard.
Speaker 2: Again, another guy that really loves football and loves the game,
Speaker 2: and I think his future is very bright and I
Speaker 2: can't wait to see what he looks like next year.
Speaker 2: And those other guys are Dafa another guy. You know,
Speaker 2: I think he also had a lot to prove this year,
Speaker 2: and we made the decision to pick up his fifth
Speaker 2: year option. I'm glad we did. Finished with double digit
Speaker 2: sacks this year and had some big plays and big
Speaker 2: games for us, and again a sending player, a good
Speaker 2: young player. I think he's gonna build off this year
Speaker 2: and be a better player. And then the other guy
Speaker 2: he mentioned is Kyle van Noy, and different from those guys,
Speaker 2: this is a guy that's really I think he's living
Speaker 2: his best life as a player right now. And he's
Speaker 2: an older player, and so that's exciting for us to
Speaker 2: have a guy with that experience that he's had. He's
Speaker 2: played in multiple cities, he's been in multiple places. I
Speaker 2: think he really appreciates the Ravens, which is great. This
Speaker 2: is a guy that's he's played in what three or
Speaker 2: four teams. He loves this place and our young players
Speaker 2: see that and that resonates and that's a big deal.
Speaker 2: And he comes to work every day with great attitude.
Speaker 2: He's the leader and he's a fun storyline this year
Speaker 2: for us.
Speaker 3: Eric the Derrick Henry signing work about as well as
Speaker 3: I possibly could have know. He's under contract, but the
Speaker 3: deal that's kind of waited a little bit for the
Speaker 3: second year. Is that a guy that you would also
Speaker 3: be talking to maybe about an extension or something.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, what's the planning going for with there?
Speaker 10: Yeah? Well, some people.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think Jerry thought he was over the
Speaker 2: hill last year, but I think he proved that he
Speaker 2: had a lot left the tank. And I'm sorry, Jerry,
Speaker 2: I couldn't resist wrong before.
Speaker 10: Uh, you know, we'll look at that.
Speaker 2: I think it's it's a good question. I just I'm
Speaker 2: just so grateful that Derek chose us last year, came
Speaker 2: in and just I can honestly say like his attitude
Speaker 2: and and the way that he played was uh, it
Speaker 2: was was was amazing to watch and just his relationship
Speaker 2: with his teammates, his humility as a player, his work ethic.
Speaker 10: I can't wait to see him next year. You know.
Speaker 2: I know it was tough on him to end the
Speaker 2: way it did, tough on all of us, but I think, uh,
Speaker 2: we we have a chip on our shoulders to come
Speaker 2: back next year with a vengeance to start faster than
Speaker 2: we started this year, to not start alling two next year,
Speaker 2: to get out of the gates faster and uh, and
Speaker 2: I think Derek will be a big part of that.
Speaker 10: I think.
Speaker 17: I just I think I just mentioned about whether he
Speaker 17: had something I was the question for you and co
Speaker 17: coach of what he said starting on too and the
Speaker 17: way you guys rebounded.
Speaker 12: Had he characterize this year compared to what the sixteen
Speaker 12: or seventeen you been the head coach of this team,
Speaker 12: and then Eric for you, what does Steve have to say?
Speaker 11: Since you don't get any chance to your program and
Speaker 11: you speak going directly.
Speaker 7: You know, every season stands on its own. And that's
Speaker 7: the great thing about this whole adventure, just like life,
Speaker 7: and this season was an awesome season in so many
Speaker 7: ways the ways it really matter. You know, you don't
Speaker 7: live in the narratives. You live in you live in
Speaker 7: the reality and the relationships and that's been fantastic. And
Speaker 7: that's the thing that I really treasure about this team
Speaker 7: because this was a football team that was singularly focused
Speaker 7: on one another, the team and being the best team
Speaker 7: they could possibly be and doing the best they could do.
Speaker 7: Isn't guarantee that you're gonna every outcome is going to
Speaker 7: be the way you want it to be in every circumstance,
Speaker 7: and that's why it's so hard to go all the way.
Speaker 7: That's why what the Chiefs have done the last two
Speaker 7: years is so impressive and that's what we're shooting for.
Speaker 7: But they did everything they could do in terms of
Speaker 7: I felt like every single day now our job is
Speaker 7: to do everything we can do in the off season,
Speaker 7: like Eric said this in season off season, to improve
Speaker 7: our football team in every way, coaching staff, scheme, players,
Speaker 7: how we operate, everything we can do, every single thing
Speaker 7: we can do to try to be better next year,
Speaker 7: and what we present to our guys and then then
Speaker 7: take another step forward individually, you know, whether it's all
Speaker 7: of our players you know from from Lamar and Row
Speaker 7: and every single player we have. What can you do?
Speaker 7: What can I do? What can I do? What can
Speaker 7: I do to be the very best I can be
Speaker 7: right now going forward? And that's what you do in life.
Speaker 7: And our guys tried. Our guys did that this year,
Speaker 7: and I think we'll take that to another level again
Speaker 7: next year.
Speaker 12: Can you I heard he was leaguer out there making call,
Speaker 12: grasp it and then you know, once the season.
Speaker 4: Started, you know, home watching.
Speaker 13: The field, we try him and the end per gat
Speaker 13: you know, and well physical, you know I mean, and
Speaker 13: then you guys you play off the side.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was a tough season for UH, for Marcus,
Speaker 7: and but I admire the way handled it. Faced a
Speaker 7: lot of adversity that UH just kind of came with
Speaker 7: the production, you know, at the end, and also you
Speaker 7: know the way the performance and.
Speaker 6: Never never pinted on any one thing.
Speaker 7: There's no way to pin it on any one thing, Vinny,
Speaker 7: You know that you got to kind of look at
Speaker 7: it as a whole and and there's a lot of
Speaker 7: factors in there. But I know this, I was impressed
Speaker 7: by the way Marcus handled himself through all of that,
Speaker 7: because sometimes the tougher thing is how you responded to
Speaker 7: the to the disappointment and the adversity that he faced
Speaker 7: as a result of maybe not playing as well.
Speaker 6: And he did a good job with that. He was
Speaker 6: a team guy through and through. He's probably added to
Speaker 6: his positive right to the end.
Speaker 7: He supported his teammates. That's kind of the measuring stick
Speaker 7: for me as a man. I'll probably handle it and
Speaker 7: I'll be forever proud of him and grateful for that.
Speaker 16: Eric that opened the door for our Darius Washington instead.
Speaker 16: Then he made several impact plays for this team down
Speaker 16: the stretch.
Speaker 4: Just you your thoughts on this season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Ardarius got a chance, and I'll credit
Speaker 2: the coaches, you know, I mean, we had a point
Speaker 2: in the season where we were looking for solutions to
Speaker 2: play better, and John and Zach and Chris, they all
Speaker 2: kind of got together and had had a game plan
Speaker 2: and I give the coaches a lot of credit for
Speaker 2: doing that.
Speaker 10: It really turned our season around. And our Darius is
Speaker 10: a great example of a guy that got a chance
Speaker 10: and ran with it. We knew, you know, I'll go
Speaker 10: back to his draft class year.
Speaker 2: You know, he went undrafted because he's a step slow,
Speaker 2: he's a couple of inches smaller.
Speaker 10: And we got him and we were excited when.
Speaker 2: We got him as an undrafted free agent because he
Speaker 2: was a great football player. And the question really becomes,
Speaker 2: Kenny do the same thing and at our level that
Speaker 2: he did at the college level. He got hurt a
Speaker 2: couple of years, unfortunate injuries, a lot like Rashaden that way.
Speaker 2: You know, his early first couple of years got held
Speaker 2: back a little bit. This year he stayed healthy and
Speaker 2: he became that guy that we saw in college, you know, tough, physical,
Speaker 2: a playmaker, instinctive, smart, a leader.
Speaker 10: Great story.
Speaker 2: Just another one of these undrafted guys over the years
Speaker 2: that we've had that's developed into.
Speaker 8: Being a really good football player.
Speaker 10: We're proud of him.
Speaker 2: He's going to be a restricted free agent this year
Speaker 2: for US and uh and we're fortunate that we have
Speaker 2: him back again next year.
Speaker 14: Eric, in a similar thing, how would you assess the
Speaker 14: season of your first round technique with it?
Speaker 4: And what do you think each year?
Speaker 10: You know, we knew Nate was a great athlete and
Speaker 10: a great cover guy. He's young.
Speaker 2: I mean when you look at him, I mean, I've
Speaker 2: got two sons, and you know I'm getting older, but
Speaker 2: I look at him and he just seems young to me.
Speaker 2: He's a tremendous athlete.
Speaker 8: He's got a very bright future.
Speaker 2: We want to get him stronger, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: you've all seen his body. I think an offseason is
Speaker 2: going to really serve him well. Had some nagging injuries
Speaker 2: and things that he fought through, handle some adversity, I
Speaker 2: think pretty well. You know, he had the unfortunate car
Speaker 2: accident earlier in the year, which probably derailed him for
Speaker 2: a few weeks. But he's got a very very bright
Speaker 2: future because he can do some things that other guys
Speaker 2: can't do. And I think, you know, eventually, like how
Speaker 2: far he develops is really going to be up to him.
Speaker 2: His future is unlimited because he can do some things
Speaker 2: that just are very unusual and unique at his position,
Speaker 2: and I can't wait to see what a good offseason
Speaker 2: does for him. Everything is fast forward, full speed ahead
Speaker 2: with him. I mean, he's he had a good year.
Speaker 2: He can be great next year, but it's gonna be
Speaker 2: up to him.
Speaker 18: Going back briefly to the position, you know, I'm sure
Speaker 18: was a tough decision to carry so many safeties on
Speaker 18: the roster once it was kind of kind of apparent
Speaker 18: that ourdiers would be the answer there of what happens
Speaker 18: with Eddie Jackson. You know, when John mentioned sort of
Speaker 18: the positivity that Marcus carried through, you know, his tough struggles.
Speaker 18: Was was there a different situation with the Jackson that
Speaker 18: led the team to cut ties with him.
Speaker 2: I would say that's probably more of a roster decision
Speaker 2: in terms of us needing a spot at that time.
Speaker 2: I think Eddie is a veteran player, and sometimes when
Speaker 2: you add veteran players, it's you've really you know, as
Speaker 2: a GM, you've got to look at the player and
Speaker 2: you've got to figure out is this player going to
Speaker 2: be happy in his role? This is a guy that's
Speaker 2: I think Eddie is a two time pro Bowl safety
Speaker 2: earlier in his career, and you know, it really comes
Speaker 2: down to you know, probably I failed because this was
Speaker 2: a guy that didn't really want to accept his role
Speaker 2: as a backup safety and a special teamer.
Speaker 10: And I understand that.
Speaker 8: I really do. It was a good value for us to.
Speaker 2: Get him the way we did, and I think sometimes
Speaker 2: if I'm guilty of mistakes, it's finding value but not
Speaker 2: always considering how that player is going to handle the
Speaker 2: situation he's being forced into. And uh, you know, Eddie
Speaker 2: just he just wasn't happy with his role.
Speaker 8: He wanted to play football.
Speaker 10: He got probably distracted at times. But I appreciate Eddie.
Speaker 2: He's a great player. He's been a great player in
Speaker 2: his career. He's played well against us in the past.
Speaker 2: I think he's got a lot of football left and
Speaker 2: I wish him the best.
Speaker 10: I enjoyed being around him.
Speaker 2: Uh, it just didn't work out for him as well
Speaker 2: as he wanted it to, and it probably didn't work
Speaker 2: out as well for us as we wanted it to.
Speaker 2: But I think he can play football, and hopefully he
Speaker 2: has a good situation next year where he flourishes.
Speaker 4: What have you learned about?
Speaker 18: You?
Speaker 6: Guys?
Speaker 4: Are gonna have the spread season. Everyone was completely focused
Speaker 4: on getting the where you want to get.
Speaker 3: So you do all the things that comes down to
Speaker 3: a couple of inches y or a bottle there, and
Speaker 3: it doesn't go away.
Speaker 4: What do you learn about.
Speaker 14: Handling the part that you can't hand, you can't control and.
Speaker 4: Dealing with that, And is your growth as a head coach?
Speaker 7: Well, I think you know you're going to be a
Speaker 7: coach in this profession, and last you're going to have
Speaker 7: to understand that you know and and put things in perspective.
Speaker 7: You know, there's a lot of perspective that goes on.
Speaker 7: So you know, we we we emphasize, we talk about,
Speaker 7: we practice, we drill, we train.
Speaker 6: The guys talk about it all the time. And then
Speaker 6: a football game is played.
Speaker 7: And that's what makes it so interesting because you really
Speaker 7: can't predict anything that's going to happen. And like you
Speaker 7: want to draw correlations and you want to draw you
Speaker 7: want to find the one reason for this or that,
Speaker 7: But the reason is that it's a football game, you know,
Speaker 7: and and you try to learn from it. And that's
Speaker 7: why I said, individually and collectively to to to try
Speaker 7: to be better the next time and to try to
Speaker 7: mitigate anything, every anything that you can control in your favor.
Speaker 6: And that's what we work so hard to do.
Speaker 7: And when you get into these situations and these circumstances
Speaker 7: in the playoffs, and we've had numerous opportunities now because
Speaker 7: you've earned our way in. You want to put four
Speaker 7: good games together, you know, or three good games together
Speaker 7: if you get the number one seed, and stack them
Speaker 7: back to back, and they need to be more so
Speaker 7: in the playoffs than anything. They need to be as
Speaker 7: positive centric as possible. You can't really afford too many
Speaker 7: negative plays because they can make a difference. If you
Speaker 7: look at our team this year and in the past,
Speaker 7: for the past seventeen years, you don't see us getting
Speaker 7: blown out. You don't see us falling apart, either in
Speaker 7: a game or in the season. You always see us
Speaker 7: fighting back. I think that is the real measuring stick,
Speaker 7: not the narrative that, oh, you can't do this, you
Speaker 7: can't do that. And you keep striving forward to put
Speaker 7: to stack those games together, you know, and put three
Speaker 7: or four really good games together, air free games together
Speaker 7: and go ahead and win a Super Bowl. And when
Speaker 7: you do that, it's really a great accomplishment and so
Speaker 7: we're capable of doing that. We put ourselves in a
Speaker 7: position to do that, and we'll keep striving for that.
Speaker 7: So if I've learned anything, I've learned that John John.
Speaker 9: Want to the last year of your contract he planned to,
Speaker 9: or having had any conversations about your age.
Speaker 7: You know, I talked to Eric every day, talk to
Speaker 7: Steve every day, not every day. Can't do Steve wouldn't
Speaker 7: talk to me every day, talked to Sashi about every
Speaker 7: other day. But uh, you know, I'm I'm happy, man,
Speaker 7: I'm happy. And however that goes, I trust God, I
Speaker 7: trust I trust the people I work with every day,
Speaker 7: who I love, who are my friends. But more importantly,
Speaker 7: we're on a mission together and as long as that goes,
Speaker 7: as long as God permits that to go, that I'm
Speaker 7: I'm all about it, you know, I'm fired up for it.
Speaker 6: And not worry about those kind of things. They take
Speaker 6: care of themselves.
Speaker 18: Eric, to go back to the secondary for a minute,
Speaker 18: you know. Marlon talked to us at various times.
Speaker 4: About his approach his last season.
Speaker 18: Obviously, getting healthy was a key thing for him based
Speaker 18: on the way he played. I mean, did you see
Speaker 18: anything different in Marlon's prep for this season and what
Speaker 18: you know, difference doesn't make for his defense as a whole.
Speaker 18: With Marlin as effective as.
Speaker 4: He wasn't secret.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you know, Marlon is It's a great story. I
Speaker 10: love Marlon.
Speaker 2: We spent a lot of time talking together different things,
Speaker 2: usually about life stuff, not so much football. I think
Speaker 2: a big thing for Marlin was just staying healthy, you know,
Speaker 2: his offseason, how he trains, what he does, how he eats,
Speaker 2: how he runs, how he works out his mindset. He
Speaker 2: came in, he was focused day one. You think he
Speaker 2: felt like, you know, Marlin's the type of guy he
Speaker 2: wants to he wants to challenge, he wants to be challenged,
Speaker 2: he wants to have a chip on his shoulder. And
Speaker 2: I think, you know, he would probably say that he
Speaker 2: heard some of the criticisms and some of the complaints.
Speaker 2: You know, he's a highly paid player, and he came
Speaker 2: back this year and he proved everybody wrong.
Speaker 10: And made plays.
Speaker 2: Attitude was great, a leader of physical like he's always been,
Speaker 2: big play guy.
Speaker 10: Uh just I mean outstanding.
Speaker 2: I thought it was great and it really helped our defense,
Speaker 2: you know, through the tough times, and his performance really
Speaker 2: never wavered from game to game.
Speaker 10: He was very, very consistent.
Speaker 2: I think he's in a great place and he's another
Speaker 2: guy that we're very fortunate that we have under contract
Speaker 2: next year.
Speaker 9: Stevenson and how long are.
Speaker 4: You do with his bus Tucher?
Speaker 2: You know, b Steve is a great pro, awesome attitude,
Speaker 2: he's a great teammate.
Speaker 10: He'd probably say.
Speaker 2: Didn't have as good a year this year, but his
Speaker 2: attitude never waivered.
Speaker 10: He's out there very very.
Speaker 2: Dependable, good practice player, tough physical guy.
Speaker 10: He's a free agent, so there's a lot of pressure
Speaker 10: on him.
Speaker 2: I think in his mind, you know, he was a
Speaker 2: great pick and I'm proud of him. Just a guy
Speaker 2: that's really only been playing dB for about four or
Speaker 2: five years and he's grown a lot, and he's been
Speaker 2: a good player for us over the years. And we'll
Speaker 2: have to see what happens with him. You know, he's
Speaker 2: probably gonna have a chance to test the market and.
Speaker 8: See what his value is.
Speaker 2: But he's helped us win a lot of games over
Speaker 2: the last couple of years. UH, he's been a big
Speaker 2: part of our success and UH and am proud of
Speaker 2: him for that.
Speaker 14: Go back on the Bills game, one of the key
Speaker 14: sequences was you guys had a first and goal of
Speaker 14: the two and got held to a field goal. And
Speaker 14: a lot of people are critical of the fact that
Speaker 14: Derek Henry had a one touch in that. What do
Speaker 14: you say about that sequence and do you do you
Speaker 14: think of that once.
Speaker 4: The season is over?
Speaker 14: Do you kind of put that game off more more than.
Speaker 4: A week to week?
Speaker 6: No, No, we look at it very closely.
Speaker 7: And when when you when you don't you're not successful
Speaker 7: to play calling is going to be in question.
Speaker 6: You know, we question it too. We look at it
Speaker 6: really hard, and we.
Speaker 7: Ran it the first time and they ran it all
Speaker 7: out pretty much on all our blitz and stopped it.
Speaker 7: You know, you can you can definitely run three times
Speaker 7: into and all a blitz if you want, but that's
Speaker 7: probably not very smart.
Speaker 6: We had a play.
Speaker 7: The second play was an idea to get to get
Speaker 7: kind of sneak Ronnie out and you got to give
Speaker 7: the the you know, you can say, well it's a
Speaker 7: bad call, but if it works and he's wide open,
Speaker 7: it's a great call, you know, and it's it's a
Speaker 7: little bit of a trick play probably, So we tried that.
Speaker 6: Sure, I'd like him both back, I'd like to throw it.
Speaker 7: I would like to have thrown it on first down
Speaker 7: and not run the trick play on second down.
Speaker 6: And then now we're now we're you know, in.
Speaker 7: A situation where we're we pretty much in a passing situation.
Speaker 7: They again were pretty much loaded up and they got
Speaker 7: pressure and got a sack. So I think that's football.
Speaker 7: That's the way it goes. Sometimes disappointing. The play calling
Speaker 7: is not good if it doesn't work, you know, that's
Speaker 7: the bottom line.
Speaker 6: And that's how you look at it.
Speaker 15: Joe, Justin Tucker, he did finished and seems like coming
Speaker 15: off the buy, you know, he got everything on the track.
Speaker 4: What did you see? What? What did you see that
Speaker 4: change that all of a sudden everything seemed like it
Speaker 4: correct and sold.
Speaker 6: You know the thing about the Justin Tucker thing.
Speaker 7: And we had a great conversation yesterday and really long,
Speaker 7: honest conversation and it was it was great because we
Speaker 7: talk all the time and he's really a good guy,
Speaker 7: and he's a mature guy and he's a thoughtful guy.
Speaker 7: You know, maybe we all saw that Justin Tucker is human.
Speaker 7: You know, maybe we've got a chance to see that.
Speaker 7: It's hard to be a great kicker in this league
Speaker 7: and be as consistent as he's been and and he
Speaker 7: ran into that this this adversity, probably a lot later
Speaker 7: in his career than most of these guys do, but
Speaker 7: it's something that had probably had to happen in terms
Speaker 7: of his growth as a as a as a player
Speaker 7: and even a even as a as a as a performer.
Speaker 6: You know, it's a it's it's like golf.
Speaker 7: It's like making a great driver, great put time and
Speaker 7: time again. And he went through this thing that was
Speaker 7: really more here than it was here because he was
Speaker 7: kicking so well in practice and he knew exactly what
Speaker 7: the what the format was, stay and balance, follow through,
Speaker 7: hit it clean. And that was kind of his his
Speaker 7: his swing thoughts that he would make he would make
Speaker 7: he would make him practice and then taking those to
Speaker 7: the game under the duress of having those misses. When
Speaker 7: he didn't do that, you know, when he didn't get
Speaker 7: himself somewhat in the right frame of mind to be
Speaker 7: able to make that that type of contact on the
Speaker 7: ball that he wanted to pull himself out of. That
Speaker 7: was going to be the test. And the fact that
Speaker 7: he went through that pulled himself out of it because
Speaker 7: there's only him. Only he can do it. He's the
Speaker 7: only one in his mind that can do that. If
Speaker 7: you're a high level performer, maybe you understand that more
Speaker 7: than those of us who aren't athletes at that level.
Speaker 7: And that's the thing I was proud of them for
Speaker 7: and I think that's going to serve him well going
Speaker 7: forward in his career.
Speaker 18: John, you dealt with a bunch of injuries to Deantay
Speaker 18: Hardy and obviously Keaton Mitchell coming back in the return game.
Speaker 18: At being said, cycled through a bunch of returners this year,
Speaker 18: there were a couple of games where it seemed like
Speaker 18: some of those judgments were tough or you know, there
Speaker 18: were muffs. How do you kind of look at the
Speaker 18: whole of the return game this year and where it needs.
Speaker 4: To get better?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, I think from a personnel standpoint, we'd
Speaker 7: like to get settled there. You know, we do kickoff
Speaker 7: returns different than part return Eric kind I talk about
Speaker 7: this a lot. You know, you can find kickoff returners.
Speaker 7: Running backs seem to be really valuable in this new
Speaker 7: return game thing. And we have really good running backs.
Speaker 7: Who are you know, we have three guys that are
Speaker 7: really good at it as running backs, and so I'm
Speaker 7: pretty excited about those guys. Going for pump return is
Speaker 7: a whole different thing. You know, how many guys have
Speaker 7: done both. I had Brian Mitchell, Brian Westbrook was able
Speaker 7: to do both. James Trash was only a kick returner.
Speaker 7: The guys who've been here over the years have been
Speaker 7: kind of like that. Some have been both, some have
Speaker 7: been more pump return oriented. But we need to get
Speaker 7: settled at pump returner. You know, that's a huge.
Speaker 6: Role on the team.
Speaker 7: Whether it's one of the guys here right now or
Speaker 7: someone that we are able to bring in, that's an
Speaker 7: important position for us. I think you're making a good point, Eric,
Speaker 7: would you.
Speaker 4: Say to Kyle Hamilton his role changed this year.
Speaker 18: He did an excellent job in the new role, but
Speaker 18: would you prefer to have him do more of when
Speaker 18: he did a year ago?
Speaker 4: And does that make finding another safety priority for you guys?
Speaker 10: Well, we'll look at that.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think we definitely saw a different type
Speaker 2: of performance from Kyle this year.
Speaker 10: But I mean, if you look.
Speaker 2: At overall how our defense blossomed with him back there,
Speaker 2: I think it was worthwhile. Did he make as many
Speaker 2: splash plays. Probably not, But I take the improvement in
Speaker 2: the defense rather than Kyle making splash plays not being
Speaker 2: very good on defense. So you know, if we can
Speaker 2: add another safety, you know, obviously it would be really
Speaker 2: good for us. Gives us that, you know, multiplicity on
Speaker 2: defense and the ability to do a lot of different things.
Speaker 2: Kyle becomes that sort of jack knife again. But listen,
Speaker 2: we're blessed to have Kyle and oar Darius back there.
Speaker 10: We've got good young corners with Marlin. You know, I
Speaker 10: think we'll see hopefully.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would anticipate our secondary is gonna play
Speaker 2: like they did over the last eight nine ten games
Speaker 2: of the season next year.
Speaker 10: And that's a comforting thing. I am.
Speaker 2: I am actually ironically looking out of safety upstairs right
Speaker 2: now in the draft, So you know, no, but we'll
Speaker 2: go through it and we'll we'll look at all the
Speaker 2: players and we'll rank the board like we always do,
Speaker 2: and if the best guy is a free safety at
Speaker 2: that pick, then we'll take him.
Speaker 8: We'll be very happy with it.
Speaker 4: John, how did you like hard Knocks being in the building.
Speaker 4: Was it a distraction at all? I thought I thought
Speaker 4: that made you look great. I thought it made the facility.
Speaker 10: Yeah, he's a way you know, it looks like, you know,
Speaker 10: he mad who wants to workout?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 4: Were you aware that it.
Speaker 15: Might be a selling point to free agency and how
Speaker 15: the Ravens do things.
Speaker 4: I thought it was a really good piece to be
Speaker 4: on it.
Speaker 7: You know, it's a great question and point. We didn't know,
Speaker 7: did we We didn't know, and it wasn't like we
Speaker 7: had a choice. But I will say credit to the
Speaker 7: Hard Knocks people in NFL films that were here.
Speaker 6: They were first class.
Speaker 7: They were non intrusive, you didn't even know, you didn't
Speaker 7: even know what you forgot. They were around so many times,
Speaker 7: which they probably wanted, but you know, they they were great.
Speaker 6: They were great to work with, They.
Speaker 7: Were professional, They respected the guys and the space, and
Speaker 7: I thought they they portrayed it in a way that
Speaker 7: was was really pretty accurate and pretty true. You know,
Speaker 7: it felt it felt right the stuff I saw, So
Speaker 7: I don't know I would I wasn't a big advocate
Speaker 7: of it before, you know, I'd joked I never watched it.
Speaker 7: I did watch these just recently, you know, And and
Speaker 7: I give those guys a lot of credit their pros
Speaker 7: and they deserve they deserve whatever credit they get for
Speaker 7: what they put out there, that that was a really
Speaker 7: good series, and they handled the.
Speaker 8: Infestation pretty good.
Speaker 7: Well there, that's crazy because the trailer, you guys got
Speaker 7: to hear this.
Speaker 10: The trailer was infested with crickets.
Speaker 2: The entire time, and they you know, and they handled
Speaker 2: it really well. I mean they had they were surprised
Speaker 2: that crickets could actually thrive in winter conditions.
Speaker 8: But they did.
Speaker 6: Well, it's a warm trailer.
Speaker 2: It was a warm trailer, but I mean it was
Speaker 2: really tough for them to handle that every single day,
Speaker 2: the chirpping of all the crickets.
Speaker 10: So I'll give them a lot of credit for that.
Speaker 7: They did discover the cricket infestation though, event they did
Speaker 7: find some credit, and they did find the.
Speaker 6: Root cause and they pinpointed the culprit.
Speaker 8: And they found about twelve crickets.
Speaker 4: Who places crickets in there?
Speaker 7: Right, well, we know they they they did find out
Speaker 7: who placed the crickets. The cricket place were actually they're
Speaker 7: taking credit for it. At the end, it's like.
Speaker 4: How many people would get or anything.
Speaker 6: What was the first part of it?
Speaker 4: How many people would get a money back and.
Speaker 6: Get him back?
Speaker 4: What was.
Speaker 6: How meaningful, meaning is there anything that.
Speaker 18: You want for this twenty five offense that you know
Speaker 18: this year's em didn't know so accessful.
Speaker 7: That's two very different questions. It will be very meaningful
Speaker 7: if and when we get Todd Monk and back.
Speaker 6: I'm very hopeful that we will. Have you heard something
Speaker 6: sounds like you're tapped in pretty good? Was there any
Speaker 6: jobs open yet? Are all the jobs closed? Jaguars Raider Raiders?
Speaker 7: So that's not a done deal yet. But Todd Munk
Speaker 7: will be a great head coach. I'll just say that
Speaker 7: he's he's uh, he's a he's a really he's a
Speaker 7: really good football coach. He's an old school football coach
Speaker 7: with kind of a new school and a creative mind,
Speaker 7: always always creating. He works well with the staff. We
Speaker 7: have a great staff around him. So because of that,
Speaker 7: it will be very meaningful if and when we get
Speaker 7: him back and we can continue forward. And I really
Speaker 7: am excited about, you know, three point zero, that iteration
Speaker 7: of this offense going forward, because we found ourselves through
Speaker 7: the last offseason and into this season in terms of
Speaker 7: how we wanted to organize the offense and tie it
Speaker 7: all together and use the different the different platforms that
Speaker 7: you can use. We're kind of in every world offensively,
Speaker 7: and it's not easy to do that.
Speaker 6: But we can do that because of our quarterback.
Speaker 7: Because our quarterback is capable of living in all those
Speaker 7: different offensive worlds, and that's tough for a defense to defend.
Speaker 7: How we can continue to evolve that so we can
Speaker 7: operate it more efficiently, more effectively, more quickly, with less
Speaker 7: verbiage and all those kind of things. But everybody's on
Speaker 7: even more and more on the same page. That's what
Speaker 7: we'll be striving for.
Speaker 4: I wanted to ask. I know it's been a lot
Speaker 4: of noise arm more hands online, but recently a Buffalo
Speaker 4: fan they created a GoFundMe and they raised I think
Speaker 4: sixty four thousand dollars to donate to March's charity.
Speaker 9: So I just wanted to ask if you all had
Speaker 9: heard about that, in which you will think about that.
Speaker 2: I hadn't heard about it. I don't have any thoughts
Speaker 2: really on it. It's nice, you know, John, to.
Speaker 4: Go back to Todd for a second.
Speaker 18: I want to ask a question about age, so I
Speaker 18: want to be delicated, but I think you know the
Speaker 18: archetype that a lot of people think of for offensive coordinator.
Speaker 18: So the hot young wonder kin his thirties or forties
Speaker 18: was great new ideas.
Speaker 4: This is just something to be said based on success.
Speaker 18: Todd has had the ravens for a guy who I
Speaker 18: mean you called them an old school coach kind of
Speaker 18: putting the work in a bunch of different places.
Speaker 4: And has that experience.
Speaker 7: Yes, there is, and you know, don't underrate experience, right,
Speaker 7: You know, there are no new ideas in football. There
Speaker 7: are new iterations, new ways are organized, new ways are applied,
Speaker 7: great ways they're taught or not taught. Creating a vision
Speaker 7: for your for your team, getting everybody on the same
Speaker 7: page so they can execute and operate together, making the
Speaker 7: best use of your ability and your talent. But the
Speaker 7: challenge for our coach has been around over the years
Speaker 7: is the ability to get out in front and stay
Speaker 7: ahead of the fact that it's always moving and you've
Speaker 7: got to keep moving. I keep staying ahead of the
Speaker 7: the what people are doing. You know, there's split safety
Speaker 7: coverages changed over the last three years, and people caught
Speaker 7: up with them this year again. So what's our next
Speaker 7: iteration of that going to be? Across the league? This
Speaker 7: is always an ever moving kind of a game, a
Speaker 7: chess game, but it's a higher level than chess.
Speaker 6: There's more to it.
Speaker 7: And Todd's one of those guys that can apply his
Speaker 7: experience along with the fact that he's always thinking ahead,
Speaker 7: He's always trying to come up to the next idea.
Speaker 7: And then he's also very much a collaborator. You know,
Speaker 7: you've got Tea and George Goatzei and George Warhop and
Speaker 7: Travis Sweitzer and Greg Lewis and Willie Taggert, those guys
Speaker 7: all bringing all these ideas to the table and those
Speaker 7: guys working together. To me, sometimes a young coach does
Speaker 7: a good job of that. Sometimes the experienced guy understands
Speaker 7: the value of that and he is able to utilize
Speaker 7: his people really well around him. And it's the guys
Speaker 7: that last. Those are the guys that kind of prove
Speaker 7: themselves over time, I think. And Todd's one of those guys.
Speaker 4: Two hour job that warm Off did because that.
Speaker 6: Was the team into the top and those.
Speaker 12: Offenses, I mean, where they went from you know, being criticized,
Speaker 12: the leading you know Pro Bowl guy you know and.
Speaker 4: Call George did an awesome jobs. Agree.
Speaker 7: You know, George is known as one of the best
Speaker 7: offensive line coaches in the league and everybody respects him.
Speaker 6: And for him to be available. I've told you this before.
Speaker 7: I've known him since we were twenty five years old
Speaker 7: when he was working for Mike Godfred at the University
Speaker 7: of Kansas and we spent a week together talking football,
Speaker 7: you know, and Mike came to one and spent a
Speaker 7: week with us this week during the season and spent
Speaker 7: time here. So you know, those are those are the
Speaker 7: connections that you make. And he's he was a great
Speaker 7: coach then and he's a great coach now. How many
Speaker 7: guys could have come in that circumstance. I mean, Joe
Speaker 7: Dee has loved respected, did an amazing job. Here, we
Speaker 7: have the Joe, we have a Joe Dee Award, we.
Speaker 6: Have a room named after him. We love him.
Speaker 7: And for for a coach to be good enough to
Speaker 7: to to adapt to the things that that the offense,
Speaker 7: the way was built, the calls, the way they were made,
Speaker 7: the way the techniques were taught, and still put his
Speaker 7: imprint out it because you got to coach it the
Speaker 7: way you believe in it being coached and doing a
Speaker 7: seamless way where the guys it makes sense to the guys.
Speaker 7: You know, you got to be really good to do that,
Speaker 7: and that's to me, that's George Warhopper.
Speaker 6: I think he deserves a lot of credit for it.
Speaker 6: To your point, sure, Eric.
Speaker 14: If you we talked without patri Gard yesterday or whatever,
Speaker 14: he said he wants to.
Speaker 4: Retire at the Raven, have you had a discussion. There's
Speaker 4: only so many teams that you.
Speaker 14: Can use a fullback, and this team seems ideally shooting
Speaker 14: for one.
Speaker 4: Have you had discussions about bringing back and what's what's
Speaker 4: his future here?
Speaker 10: No, we haven't had those discussions yet.
Speaker 2: His agent's a good friend of mine, and you know,
Speaker 2: I think I think pat knows how we feel about him,
Speaker 2: and I would love for him to retire as a
Speaker 2: Raven too. I mean, he epitomizes everything that we're all about.
Speaker 2: And he's another undrafted guy who just became, in my opinion,
Speaker 2: the best at his position.
Speaker 8: So you know, we'll have those discussions.
Speaker 2: This is not the first time that he's been a
Speaker 2: free agent, and so I think, in fact, I think
Speaker 2: he's signed at least two deals with US after his
Speaker 2: rookie deal, so this is probably his fourth contract now
Speaker 2: with US. If we can get him signed and uh,
Speaker 2: and I would say that would be the goal.
Speaker 4: To work with with John.
Speaker 3: With John, uh, w has kind of stood out to
Speaker 3: you about him as as headcouter seventeen years.
Speaker 2: Man, that's a deep question. I wish I had more
Speaker 2: time to reflect on it. But I think coach has
Speaker 2: changed a lot. I think John has changed a lot
Speaker 2: over the years in different ways and mostly all good ways.
Speaker 2: I think he he he But that's but that's but
Speaker 2: when I say that, I think.
Speaker 6: Uh, that was your next question.
Speaker 2: I think that, Uh. His passion for the team, for
Speaker 2: winning is never wavered.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 10: He's resolute in his beliefs. He's a man of faith. Uh.
Speaker 2: He comes to work every day he uh. And that's
Speaker 2: inspiring because he has a passion that practice every day
Speaker 2: that's probably unmatched amongst anybody players coaches.
Speaker 10: I know.
Speaker 2: I what I appreciate about John is you might have
Speaker 2: a fight with him, you might argue, you know, it
Speaker 2: might be a bad argument, and the next day is
Speaker 2: gonna come in and he's gonna put his arm around
Speaker 2: you and he's either gonna say, you know what, I
Speaker 2: still think him right, or he's gonna say, you know what,
Speaker 2: I was wrong, But he has those conversations with you,
Speaker 2: and that's why you always gonna be a friend with John,
Speaker 2: because he doesn't hold a grudge. He's willing to consider
Speaker 2: the other point. He's not stubborn. I mean, he can't
Speaker 2: be stubborn, but he's always gonna come back around. And
Speaker 2: it's about making the right decision. Not his decision, not
Speaker 2: my decision, not Ozzie's decision, not To's decision. It's what's
Speaker 2: the right decision for the Ravens.
Speaker 9: Was he able to confact if you're still going and
Speaker 9: this is something that just needs rest and off season.
Speaker 7: Form, or yeah, I think you had a great chance
Speaker 7: to play in this next game. It was doubtful was
Speaker 7: a good designation for this game. They want to work
Speaker 7: him out before the game and just just in case,
Speaker 7: but I wasn't counting on it, honestly, and I'm not
Speaker 7: gonna rule him out until he's out. Uh, this next
Speaker 7: game would have had a real chance, so it should
Speaker 7: be fine going forward. I don't think it's gonna be
Speaker 7: a surgery in the end, but they haven't determined that
Speaker 7: for sure yet. If they do it, they'll probably just
Speaker 7: do it to kind of be sure. But Yeah, that's
Speaker 7: where it was at alum mine.
Speaker 16: Are there any minor being surgeries operating you expect.
Speaker 7: From I'm not aware that, Eric. Can you have anything anything,
Speaker 7: I don't think we have any Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, if we get to that point, we'll be able
Speaker 2: to share some information with you guys, probably at the combine,
Speaker 2: But right now everything's still kind of in flux. We're
Speaker 2: still doing in our eyes and X rays and different things,
Speaker 2: second opinions and all these different things, and so it's
Speaker 2: it's too close to the end of the season for us.
Speaker 8: To really say that definitively.
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