Maxx Crosby

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Hi folks, welcome to another episode of Film Study.

This is Ken McEusek.

We are having a cut the line episode of Film Study today.

Talk about the, I think, fairly surprising acquisition of Max Crosby from the Raiders

for the Ravens 2026 and 27 number one selections as it's being reported by Adam Schefter.

We don't know if there's more involved.

But joining me to talk about that is Alex Pouley-Anne.

So Alex, how are you doing?

I've been better, Ken.

When I first saw the news, it did not have any details.

So I was surprised and knew it was going to be a lot.

And then when I saw it was as kind of reported, as expected, that it would be too first or

I was disappointed to say at least I didn't think that that was the way we would go about

things.

So it's definitely a very surprising start to a free agency period that I've really had

and I was really positive about the trajectory of the off season so far.

And now I'm like, it's cooled my horse a bit, but there are some positives of this trade

for sure.

So we gotta just live with it now.

All right.

So let's talk through that and we'll get to a lot of your thoughts on this.

I'm sure as we go through Crosby's made five straight provables.

Twice he's been named AP1, twice to other times AP2.

He was second in the defensive rookie of the year, standings in 2019 is working season

obviously.

He's twice been in the top six in the defensive player of the year voting, sixth in 22 and fourth

in 23.

That does often go to an edge player with a big sack total.

He has 69 and a half career sacks.

That's an average of 9.9 sacks per season since entering the league.

There's no shortage of outstanding credentials, certainly in terms of what he's done with the

Raiders.

On the field, we'll talk about this a little bit more in terms of what the Ravens get

out of this.

A lot of interesting components, but credentials wise, he's certainly has been a very durable defensive

lineman, really played mostly defensive end in his career and not left outside linebacker,

which he has played some of, but kind of an interesting scheme fit as well for the Ravens.

Right.

I definitely, I guess one of the big things I was surprised about with the move two is

that I guess I almost anticipate they would invest less on the defense and lean on to

mentor scheme and his expertise to generate, I mean, we already have a lot of defensive

weapons.

It was my thought.

I didn't think you need another, so to speak, but so this is, that was another surprise

to me, but on the flip side, you know, you give him that, you give him, hopefully, a

healthy, um, out of BK, and this is going to be a very interesting pass rush.

Yeah.

We certainly hope so.

I think we've certainly got questions at corner that they have to address.

They have questions at, questions at defensive tackle.

They need to address, and they have questions in inside linebacker.

They mostly need to address due to the Teddy Buchanan injury, but they've, they've, they've

got the, the, the, the bones certainly of a great defense here.

Let's see if they can put the pieces in around it.

I'll just remind Raven's fans, we, we're talking about this being one of the best secondary

he's ever, um, before last training camp after the acquisition of the great Jaiere Alexander.

Right.

And now we have to see how that worked out and, you know, obviously in terms of age and

whatnot, we're talking about players who are, um, up there in both cases, Crosby, obviously

he's been playing recently at a higher level than Alexander, but, uh, but this is that sort

of thing.

Let's talk about the contract a little bit first.

So he's under contract, first of all, through 2029.

The Raiders made this deal, and it is a very flat contract structure.

That has significant portent for the Ravens.

Um, he'll make 112.9 million over the next four years.

That'll be 8.5% to 9% of the cap over that period.

It'll be a little bit more this year.

It'll be a little bit less by the end of the period.

Um, so that's on average for the next four seasons he'll make about or as a percentage

of the total cap over the next four seasons, he'll make about 8.9% of cap.

However, the Raiders front loaded this contract in a way that will allow potential restructuring,

from the highest salary of 30 million in 2026, by the way, that, that 2026 salary is fully

guaranteed, but it doesn't mean it can't be restructured.

I assume into, say, four years or per-rations throughout the life of the contract.

Correct.

Uh, and yeah, there's plenty of, uh, tweets going around of what that would look like.

Uh, they can open up a lot of space to make more moves, um, if they're trying to go all

in on this window.

And it certainly seems like they are given the, uh, the traffic, uh, they given up the

traffic.

All right, let's talk about what this means for the defense, because I think this is

by far the most positive thing.

We want to spend some time on this and how does Crosby really fit into the Ravens defense

as it is?

I think the past Russia immediately becomes deared, uh, Crosby has an outstanding pressure

rate and close rate both, uh, lots of, lots of sacks and quarterback hits both in, in,

in total, and as a percentage of total pressures.

So as pressure rate is high and is, is close rate is high there, um, comes with a great

bull rush.

He's very slippery.

We've seen him do it against the Ravens numerous times, uh, stunts a lot, uh, bull rush

has a lot.

Uh, he can win on the edge a lot, um, a very quick out of his, uh, out of his stance, um,

extremely positive on Crosby the player.

So I don't, I don't have any, any, Ravens are getting a great player, no doubt, um, in

this, it comes with other risks, but the, but I think there's no question they're getting

a great player.

Yeah.

Um, definitely, you know, a feared past Russia, um, I guess like my, my hesitation is, how

much more do we like curls me than some of the bridge and options that we had, right?

Cause I mean, it calls those two picks.

That's the part that, uh, that I keep thinking about is, uh, you know, these are dollars

that are getting spent, right, and their strap picks, like we could have just spent the dollars

and got a guy, um, I, I guess like, maybe this is, you know, I hope I'm wrong.

All right.

Let's save this for a little bit later.

I do want to go over this because I think there's a huge downstream implications.

I think he's used questions about how they did it.

I think it's a departure from team philosophy.

But Max Crosby is here.

Let's talk about how Max Crosby fits into the defense first of all before we complain

about how much I, well, I guess like, honestly, I, I'm a little bit more down on Max.

I feel it than, than the average person, you know, a lot of people are, are, are heralding

that he doesn't miss much time.

And I just think that's the last snaps, right?

Like, you know, and like, you know, uh, past results aren't an indication of future success.

But like, uh, I guess I'm enough to like get used to it, right?

Like I, I, I, I'm not saying I got, you know, in a vacuum, Crosby makes this team much

better.

It's a guarantee, uh, that is higher.

I would say that anyone in pre-agency, so I'll give him that, right?

Like I think he's better than anyone that was in pre-agency.

Um, I think that it's, uh, expected,

performance, not a guarantee, but expected, yeah, it's higher than anyone else.

Okay.

Yeah.

I would say so.

I would, I would admit that I would also just say, like, I'm probably a little bit

lower than, than the average fan.

Um, I don't think of them in the same tier as, um, malgared, for instance.

Now, obviously that's, that's, that's a, that's a crazy person.

But like, it's a lot of capital.

I don't, I don't consider them the same as Michael Parsons.

All this, all this is true.

Oh, okay.

I'm going to relate this in a different way and I want to, I want to redirect this

conversation a little bit and be as positive as you can about this thing,

because we have plenty to talk about later in terms of the risks associated with

this.

But let's think back to draft, not draft night, 2020, and it's out there,

by the way, folks, if you'd like to watch it and see just how frickin upset I was

about the Ravens, um, selecting Patrick Queen over Xavier McKinney, um,

go take a look.

It's, it's out there.

If you can't find it, I'll send you a link, um, and, and, you know,

it's basically I, I was beside myself about this in terms of, of the thing,

I thought the inside linebacker position had been overvalued and there

are a bunch of risks that came with Queen.

It was new to the position, even though he's young, he maybe wasn't completely

physically built out to play that position.

He didn't know how to play linebacker at that point, uh, even though he,

he made some splash plays at LSU.

Um, there were a bunch of reasons why I hated it.

Okay.

But the fact of the matter was he was there and, you know, the only thing I could

really say at the time is, you know, I don't like to pick, but I hope it makes

the whole thing.

And that's, that's where I am with Max Crosby.

I, I, I don't like this trade, you know, in some sense.

And we're going to talk about some of the risks.

I'm not completely soul, but maybe that's a better way to put it.

But I certainly hope he makes the Ravens ring of honor.

I mean, this is, this is a, you know, like, I mean, that's an opportunity, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I mean, I mean, okay.

So he's on a contract right until, uh, he said 29.

Yeah.

And, um, you know, uh, it was, he'll be, what's math, like 32, 32, 32 and 29.

So they could sign to another deal.

If, you know, he's still doing well and that'd be, you know, six, seven years of,

a production with the Ravens and whatever, the second deal, whatever it gets

there is just a market value extension.

No, I know, I know, I know what I'm saying.

There's enough time here to have a legacy player, right?

Like, so like, kind of like you were saying, like, you know, ring of honor.

Like, there's, there's time for that and, um, people can remember him, maybe

as a, a Raven, more than a, a Raider, that'd be kind of cool.

Um, so there's, uh, there's that potential for sure.

Yeah, and it, and it could have four great years with the Ravens potentially.

And that would be, um, enough for a ring of honor career.

We saw it was enough for, uh, some players of the past.

I think one, one of the really good ones who's not in yet, who had a great four

year career, but it's not recognized is, is Matt Burke.

Um, what an acquisition that was in terms of that, what a signing that was in terms.

Correct.

What do you got?

All right.

So crossby, extremely slippery.

You got this great bull rush.

Can win the edge, um, he's just, typically is, is much quicker and a better

athlete than the, than the right tackles he's gone up against.

That's an important point, by the way, um, he's played almost exclusively on

the offensive right side opposite the right tackle in his career.

I very much expect that to continue, but it's a little unusual for that to be

the case with the Ravens with a player who doesn't drop the cover.

And he almost never drops the cover less than 2% of his career past snaps.

Has he dropped the cover?

So, uh, no, it's, it's not totally atypical of an edge that, you know, sorry,

a four, three end that you wouldn't see him dropping the cover very often.

But he's going to be asked to play a slightly different position and ball to

more, although a lot of the snaps are on the field.

It'll be a four man front, um, on, on an obvious passing down.

Right.

Yeah.

I mean, I guess everything's on the table now.

Um, who knows what, uh,

when Minter has a mind for the defense, like with the personnel that he had,

and now with the personnel he's acquiring.

Um, yeah, it could be a big change, uh, as far as how we expect the Ravens defense to go.

Yeah.

I think the, you know, if you look at who the Ravens might have across the

Lannis Grimidge and you want to be as optimistic as possible, I think it gets

pretty damn optimistic about their pass rush front now.

Oh, yeah.

They have from left to right going the offensive left side to the offensive right side.

I always can make you careful about that.

I think we'll see Mike Greene at that rush spot, um, more on third down.

I certainly hope so because, you know, the world has changed.

Tavius Robinson and Greene are the, are the starting point for the, for the edge position.

Max Grozby now is the new anchor for, um, and, and now, you know, I hope this means they

don't need to go after a player like Dream Out Jones to fill out the line.

Maybe they can fill it with a draft deck.

Um, and, and, and get it cheaper that way.

So that's a, that's a, you know, downstream potential benefit from it.

But start with my green over on that side.

Hopefully he fulfills his potential next to him.

You have Travis Jones at the nose spot, um, who would, you know, be a one tech, uh, on that

side who is where the pass rush always has been generated from is, is how teams choose

to double team him, slide to him, whatever it might be, because if you block,

Travis, you know, trying to block Travis Jones 101, you do so at your own peril.

And we really saw that a lot in the second half of 2025.

Yeah, I mean, very nasty, um, I'm already excited about those two players.

And I, and honestly, the best is yet to come from what I'm about to say.

Well, let's, let's, you go ahead and go ahead.

Maybe I'm just easily excited.

You know, I see, I see Mike Green in Travis Jones.

I think that's pretty good.

But then, uh, the next two, it's like, well, that's, that's outstanding.

So, uh, hopefully a healthy, madameek, uh, the workout video, you know, and, uh,

it's, I would, I would assume he's not just doing that for, like, a fashion, you know,

career, like, probably trying to play football.

He's a new clothing line or something.

He's, he's trying to work it.

No, I, I don't, I, I, I can't only take that positively.

And yet, I think, I think it may still be a case that Matt at BK wants to play.

And he hasn't had the come to Jesus meeting with his doctors about it yet.

And that's what I'm concerned about.

Is that, yeah, they can, they've had the, um, they, they've had all the talks.

And Matt at BK wants to play, he wants to take whatever risk.

He's willing to sign whatever waivers are necessary.

And, uh, he hasn't just really talked to the Ravens doctors about what this,

you know, what this might mean for him and, and the, the risks in entails.

So hopefully it's not a, uh, hopefully it's not a mirage and he can play again.

I, and hopefully he's not taking any significant risk with his long term health.

Yeah, that's all I want.

I honestly, like, that's all I care about at this point is his long-term health.

I, I wrote it all for a while ago, uh, and if he comes back, that's, that, that's just gravy.

Sorry. Yeah. Well, then they, they would have Crosby at left defensive end slash left outside

linebacker. We'll talk even about a three, four situation.

So on early downs, he'd be an outside linebacker probably playing standing up.

He may still play with his hand in the ground a lot of the time,

just because he's very comfortable getting out of his stance quickly like that.

But he could also spend some time playing standing up.

He's done that some in his earlier in his career, not in recent years.

So I had to go back to about 21 or 22 where he'd actually played some significant amount of stand-up

snaps, um, but he, but he has done it in his career. I'm not saying that he, uh, he is not.

Do you have, um, his snap percentage, uh, left and right, uh, just, no, not left and right,

just in general, like maybe, oh, very high, the down split.

Um, I don't have that, but he's played almost every snap for the Raiders.

So he's played 6496 snaps in seven years. That's over 930, 925 snaps per year.

And for a, for you, I mean, take 925 over maybe about 1100.

And that would be like every snap.

Yes, it's 57 a game if assuming a 16 game schedule, which I know is not,

hasn't always been the case, but he's lost a few games to entry.

That's, that's a lot. That, that durability is, is, is very exciting.

It's very exciting because they were asking like green to play about 65% last year.

And he, and he was really overworked.

He needs to be a situational past pressure.

Crosby, you don't have to worry about as much.

But then again, we're buying into later years in his career.

So you probably have to manage him the Ravens way and reduce his snap count from 900 per season

to, or 925 per season to, I don't know what it might be, 825 per season.

Let's share all those big leads, you know.

No, he had last year that we wanted to talk about.

All right.

We guys told me to be optimistic and I'm being optimistic.

We're, we're being optimistic here.

We are being optimistic.

So the next guy then outside of Crosby, who could really benefit from Crosby's

presence Hamilton, you know, they've got, I, I'd really be even more excited about this in some

ways.

If Maddie BK, I'm not, I wouldn't be more excited if Maddie BK is not back.

But I would be almost as excited if they got a nose tackle who could get some good pocket push.

And Travis Jones moves to three tech next to Crosby.

That is a devastating pairing.

And frankly, it's probably a more devastating pairing than whatever can be expected of Maddie

BK at this point next to Crosby.

Maddie BK also has kind of a history of a lot of penalties that have negated a fair

percentage of his sack value over his career that's, that's an unfortunate byproduct of,

of being as good as he is.

Yeah, I mean, I guess like, now I'm like, I'm encouraged to go watch his highlights or something.

It's a better understand everything that he brings to the table and try to, you know,

get more excited about him.

I mean, I always know he's a good player.

But I guess like, yeah, it's, it's, it's now time to, uh, to play and brace it.

Well, you know, I have a fair amount of experience from watching him torment the Ravens over the

years. I mean, he certainly has, I remember this, like the 21 season opener there that was just a

miserable, uh, trip to Las Vegas. I can tell you that.

Just that was a, it was a kind of a surreal experience, by the way, because they, they let the

play occur that got the ball down to the one yard line. We actually walked out of the stadium at

that point. All of a sudden, we're walking on a bridge back across towards the strip in Las Vegas

and we're watching into the outside. The game's still going on and the Ravens had the ball back

after an interception that occurred in the end zone and then they lost anyway. But a crossby went

off that game and that was when the Ravens had their big 2021 left tackle, um,

shurning, including the Lanova that, uh, it was awful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

honestly, like you mentioned with, um, with Hamilton, I imagine, you know, he's not going to play

any edge this year. You know, yeah, you did a lot of versatility. Uh, and we, we asked a lot of them

and I think we'll put them in positions that are a little bit, uh, easier for him, so to speak,

physically. And, uh, that's a nice downstream benefit as well. I'll, I'll take the other side of

that. I think he's going to play very much a Durwin James-esque role of heel rush the passer

on a, as frequent as needed basis and the, and the thing that I think will facilitate that,

I mean, crossby is one thing and he could really benefit from having crowds be locking up that,

that right side of the offensive line. Uh, and potentially, you know, it could be a tight end

out there that ends up getting that assignment, depending on how those assignments roll through

Travis Jones eventually. Um, and then, and then you, you know, you've also got the possibility of

having Marlon Humphrey at safety, which I would, I really hope is the end result of this, um,

that would allow him to jump right in on top of that slot player, um, or slot tight end even,

and allow Hamilton the freedom to do more pass rushing and not less. So I'm, I'm really excited

to see how the pass rush is deployed this next season. For sure. I will, I will say, um,

one of the other surprises I guess about, about this is that I, I was in the assumption

seemingly incorrectly. So like, I would maybe, like, could you problem out Marlon? This is what,

what, what struck it to me. I had a feeling that the Ravens were going to like just stick it out

with the old guard as far as their season goes and just see like what happens before making

any decisions about like, uh, extending or, you know, whatever with, uh, with these players. But

it seems like, you know, maybe they're more comfortable with some of these players than I thought,

or they're more comfortable with, I mean, getting crossed doesn't really implicate that they're

comfortable with, with uh, Rogue One or, or Marlon, but I guess like, they're willing to not just

see what they have, right? Like, they're already adding to it in a very aggressive way. So they might

be aggressive with, um, with Marlon and Rogue One. In, in the, in the situation of Rogue One,

I don't think there's ever a doubt that they were going to keep him for 2026. In the case of Marlon,

I think there is a question of whether or not he stays for 26. And I think it's, it may relate

to a position change and it may relate to a cut in salary that facilitates it for the team. Um,

but I do, I, I, I, you know, the chance of, of Rogue One being back is near 100%. But the chance of

Marlon being back, I would say is at least 75. I think they, I think they, I think they have a plan

for him. I hope that they, you know, they, they figure it out. And I hope it involves a position

change. And as I've said many times on this show, even if he changes positions, I expected to be

back at corner at some point this year for the Ravens out of necessity. I mean, I just, I,

I would expect that to be the case because they, they tried to move Jimmy Smith to the safety,

you know, a couple of different times. And it always ended up him, him back as the starting

outside right corner at some point during the season. Right. Yeah, just like Collin Mayo is going to

be a first baseman now he's playing third every day. Yeah, a little bit like that.

Okay. Um, uh, what else to talk about? Let's talk about the philosophical change for the Ravens

because this is, this is where you get into some of, of the apparent negativity. So Alex is

probably going to dominate, sorry, is probably going to dominate this. But the Ravens have never

traded in number one for a player, never, ever, ever in their history. So in 30 years, uh, and this

is, it's 30 full seasons that they've already played. They never did it. Now they had some times

where they traded back or they, or they traded a number one pick from a future year one other time.

We'll go through those, but they've never traded a number one pick for a player. It's been one of the

anchor points of the philosophy of this team and now they've traded two for a single player.

Right. And they also, they, they, they traded a lottery, well, not a lottery pick, but like a,

a non, uh, we don't know what it is, you know, a, uh, a surprise box first round pick. That's a,

that's the one that got me the worst. I think if, if the trade was a first and a second this year,

and it's like, I knew what it was, um, which apparently was being offered by another team. Um,

like how boys I think, um, I would have been like, okay, like, I, I, I honestly think my,

my Tanner would completely have changed. I think like, just because you don't know what's

going to happen in 27 is the part that kills me the most about the trade. Um, you know,

if you look at it from a JJ point perspective, even if you assume they win the Super Bowl,

everything's on the Dory, it's like giving up the fifth overall pick this year. That's right.

And I'm like, that's like so rich. Like I just can't imagine like when you put in that terms,

I, I like, I'm like, that's so crazy. Like that you would do that. And that's like the best case

scenario, you know, and then the, um, you know, the worst case could be even worse. If that's

actually what makes me, you know, I know it'll come in the downstream of locations. We'll talk about

that a little bit more later. But like, I feel like this might not be it. Like, it might be more

coming to make this to be more aggressive. It's almost like, protect the value.

Like it's already been traded away. It's already been traded away. Like they're trying to like,

uh, really hedge their bets that they aren't going to look stupid. Like, um, so I, you know,

it's as increases exponentially with every move is all I can say about that. Because all it's

going to take is one injury with this to go wrong. So if you're giving your chances for two injuries

to, to, to let you make you look stupid, then you're, you're, you're, you're that much worse off.

They've traded away about 55 to 60% of their draft capital for the 26 and 27 drafts in one trade.

At the very least, this changes the tenor of draft night significantly, or the draft watch party

significantly over a three day period. I mean, well, I, you know, one of the things I really

love to do is watch, you know, all however many hours there are the draft, 13, 14, 15, 16 hours

of the draft. And it's, it's kind of depressing to think about, um, having only 45% as much

draft kept. I think it's about 57% this year, uh, that they had round one. And that's despite the

fact, they have a bunch of picks, a bunch of compensatory picks. It's still 57% is tied up in that

number 14 overall selection, which they no longer have. Right. Yeah. Um, oh, yeah, you have

an unit to support their fifth. So there you go. Yeah. So I, yeah, I did an app before the show.

And I guess like, like I said, that's, um, that's always, I guess the most scary part to me. Like,

I mean, just look at the, the rams when they got the first round pick of the Valkans,

who's out there being so slick when they picked up peers, uh, and then they would never be

picking that high again or whatever. And then it's the eighth overall pick, right? And, um,

and I, and some of them were like, how we got, um, Jamal Lewis, yeah, they traded, they traded for

the number five pick overall, because the Falcons had just made the Super Bowl and one of the Raven's

number two selection at number 34, 35, something like that. They, they traded them that. And,

and it ended up being the number five overall picked the next year. Right. Right. Like in, like, we've

seen the horror story and benefited from it. So like, uh, that's like the, that's the part that,

like, kind of kills me. And it, it just puts so much like pressure on this season that I didn't want

to have, you know, from like a fan perspective. Um, yeah, I don't know. It's just, it's a, it's a,

it's a very interesting, um, departure. And I just don't know what this means.

It, it's me, it's now makes me think that anything's possible, derogatory. Right. Like, uh,

who knows how it comes as much wider. Right. Yeah. It's not a, excited anything is possible.

It's like, oh boy, like, I really appreciate the, um,

the quiet, calculated side of things. And this just feels so, so splashy that it,

it just seems so different. Like, I'm, I got it, uh, I'm email the damn sure you did too

about the flock forum. And I'm like, it just completely changes like the way I, like,

I have so many questions. I wish I could ask, you know, at that, at that forum. And maybe they'll,

they'll, they'll talk about it some, but, uh, it just seems so, so out of character and just so

interesting that, yeah, we'll see what happens next. All right. So, um, you already, you're,

you're kind of got to this already, but it's a, it's approximately equal to the number four,

number five selection. Let me give you the map on how I got there. Get the number 14 pick

overall this year. Then, uh, if you assume that the Ravens are not eliminated prior to the

divisional round, so they, they, they're out of the playoffs this year, any of the divisional

round, the AFC championship, or, or they play in the Super Bowl, either one of any one of those

three results. Then they'll pick no better than 25th next year. Sorry, they would have picked

no better than 25th overall next year. And that, that pick would then go to the graders. And, um,

as such, it's, it's 1700 and changed JJ points to 1800. I think is the number four pick and,

and 1700 is number five pick. Yep. Those numbers aren't cast in stone. They can be more,

with more or less, obviously, if you're, if you're, uh, if you have one of those top picks,

because there can be quarterbacks involved and whatnot. But, um, and I did not, this is important.

I did not discount the 2027 value at all in that thing. I'm assuming a divisional round exit,

supposedly. So I think it's, it's a very rosy picture is that it's only worth the fourth or fifth

pick, um, still, because I think you, you, you, you, you could end up, you know, not making the playoff

is a, is a possibility or certainly, um, losing, um, in the first game in the wildcard round, say,

on the road might be a possibility. Though, it certainly looks like the Ravens, the Amwell better

when the AFC North with the, with the roster they've assembled at this point. Sure. It seems

reasonable. I mean, it's one of those things, Ken, um, where if the Ravens had done something like

trade their first round pick, uh, and, and the, the future pick to go and select the guy like

Bayley or Reese, right? Like, how we have felt in a way, right? Like, we would have liked it a lot more

because you don't pay the 30 million per year to cross be if you do it that way. I, I agree.

I'm just, I'm just, I'm just saying that for the audience to hear. You know, like, it's like, uh,

you know, worst case you get like a guy like styles, maybe I don't know, which is like an interesting

pick at that point, but I, I, I don't know. Like, that's just such a, that would have been more

believable, I guess, that the Ravens would do something like that, uh, than, than what they did. So,

yeah, very, very, very surprising. Um, and I, and I agree with your point about with draft 92,

I mean, like, obviously, uh, something I also enjoy a lot and, um, it does change, it changes it,

and I'll just change the map. Like, you just have, there's not going to be two calls controlled

players that you hope to be pretty good, uh, in this team anymore. And, and then you just

became more stars, uh, you know, uh, studs and duds and, and hope for the best there. Um,

we're star-dependent that they, that they even were before. And, you know, this is a team that has,

you know, a superstar quarterback already, um, which obviously is part of the reason that they

did it, but they, but they have a superstar quarterback already. They're dependent on not getting

hurt. Um, and we've, we've seen that play out in ways that, that, um, when the Ravens have been

eliminated, it's largely been, been due to a Lamar Jackson injury. Now, again, they point out,

Lamar Jackson is my favorite Raven of all time. He's, he is the guy, he is the straw that stirs

the drink. But the times that the Ravens have not advanced in 21 in 22 and in 25 again, um,

Lamar Jackson has basically been the problem with injuries in each of those years. I'm not blaming

me and on Lamar. I'm just saying it's the consequence of the injuries was the Ravens are no longer

the team they were with either a missing Lamar or a Lamar on the field who was, you know, playing

at a fraction of himself as it was in 25, right? Right? Yeah. When you're, when everything hinges on

keeping him protected, um, and, and healthy, uh, yeah, it, it just makes it all, all the more difficult

to, uh, yeah, like it just, it reminds you how like, you know, uh, easy things can go downstream

or downhill. So yeah. Yeah. So let's look at, uh, um, we've talked about some of the other

departure from philosophy elements, but let's talk about the past trades of the number one selection

in team history because they've, they've never traded. As I said, the number one pick for a player.

So if you go back in 2003, okay, they traded their number one pick in 2004 plus their pick in the

second round to move up the number 21, uh, sorry, move up into the back of the first round. I think

it might have been 22 and take Kyle Boller. Obviously that trade did not work out. That's the only

other time they've traded a future number one selection was to, to move up and take Boller.

Um, not a, um, not a great precedent. Obviously, um, Billick, uh, in a lot of ways may have been

really riled up about not getting the, the quarterback he wanted, he wanted, uh, reportedly, he wanted

by wearing a left which in the time 10 and left which, uh, one of the other teams traded away to,

to get that pick from Minnesota and then Minnesota failed the pick for a while and they ended up

with a, with a good player, but the Ravens had it up after they drafted Williams in getting

Sugs, um, at that number 10 pick. Great pick for the Ravens, by the way. That first round, I, as a whole,

didn't work out so bad with sizzle being the other half of that, but the kind, you know, trading for

Kyle Boller is not something any Ravens fan is happy about. Yeah, not, not with, uh, uh, seeing what

happened is, is literally the terror read of, of, of, of first round graphics and that's, uh, he

was dating her for a while. Uh, okay, we go to 2010 when he traded, but when they traded back

into round two at the 25th overall pick, there were people who wanted him to move up the 24 to

take Des Bryant. Uh, don't know that that was ever potentially in the cards. Um, they traded the

25th pick and I believe that was one used on Tim Teebo, if I recall correctly, but I may be

on it slightly off, but it was that, that was the, uh, that was the year. And that number 25

pick they traded back in around two, uh, 18 spots ended up with Sergio, fall down the stale's

stairs, Kindle. Right. Oh, Sergio. Yeah. Hopefully he's doing all right. Yeah.

So, you know, trading back hasn't always worked for the Ravens either. In, in 2012, they traded

back to number 35. And 2011, I'm trying to remember whether they had the 29th of the 30th pick,

because they lost in the conference championship on the, on the condit miss and the Evans drop,

or the Evans getting stripped of the ball in the end zone. But, but, so they either had 29th or

number 30, but then they, they ended up trading back to 35 and selecting Courtney Upshaw,

who I think we'd have to say didn't work out as a first round pick yet eight personal fouls.

And I think seven sacks in his career with the Ravens, even though he did have a very big

forced fumble in the Super Bowl. Right. Yeah, I feel like his last that, if I recall correctly,

that was his last, or no, that was, that was a rookie year. But he, I think in his last year here,

if I recall correctly, he played a little bit better, but it was, you know, not obviously didn't

love to the 35th pick. So they, so they didn't, they didn't get value there in 2018. They traded

back from number 16 in one of the, really most upset points I've ever been in draft history as

people know. And they traded away out of the option to, to draft Erwin James at number 16.

They traded back again at 22 when they could have had to believe DJ Moore would have been the guy.

Right. That they could have taken and eventually they got Hayden Hurst at number 26. Now,

the draft went fine otherwise, but this is a case of two wrongs don't make a right or, you know,

a bigger right doesn't overcome a really bad selection. And the Hurst selection, the, the trade

down twice to get the Hurst and the additional draft capital, I think it's still very hard to defend

as opposed to getting to Erwin James. Sure. I think also something that just came in mind when you

talked about trading back for DJ Moore. He got traded, you know, or second round pick. I am

wondering if we're going to see more and more trades out of this draft with people maybe being

down on what the draft looks like. And yeah, but that's, that's like, that's the kind of, it seems

like maybe the cost of acquiring a player is higher this year because people don't value this year's

draft. Thanks as much. I think that's possible. And I want to, I want to talk about that in the why.

So we'll, we'll get down to that because I mean, Eric's a cost is a very rational man. And the Ravens

almost never make a mistake as an organization. They are absolutely top of the top of the

heap in terms of player personnel decisions and using draft capital wisely. And whatever you

think about the Ravens and, you know, that the there's always going to be a lot of people point

to it and say, well, they haven't won anything. And, you know, I've been a fan for 10 years and I've

never seen them in a super bowl kind of thing. It's just, it's, it's not reflective of how outstanding

this organization has been in managing the assets that they have. Let's, let's keep going on this

in terms of the past trades here because I want to get through this. So in 2018, also they,

of course, traded back into the number 32 selection. They didn't trade the number one pick in this

case, but they traded back in and got Lamar Jackson for two number twos and the best trade in Ravens

history without a question. It is, is that. And then in 2022, it wasn't a big trade back. And they've

had a couple other real small trade backs that I didn't include or trade ups. They traded up one

spot to get a loady nada for that with that one spot going to Cleveland and being a sixth round pick

unbelievable heist to get a loady nada obviously there. And they traded back and then they traded

forward again in when they pick up Joe Flacco. So they traded, I think they traded back from

something like six to 25 and then back up to 18. Was that sort of thing?

Yeah, I do remember, I remember, I didn't remember being from six, but I believe you on that.

I do remember they went back and then came forward. Yeah. Yeah. That a terrible year in 2007.

So I think it was, it was a high, it was a high pick, but, but I thought six, but maybe I'm wrong.

No, yeah. I will take it. It's good. Okay. And so in 22, they, of course, traded the marquee's

brown, got a, got a draft pick in return that a number one pick among an exchange of selections.

So the true value of that trade was quite top of the second round or near the top of the second

round. And then they traded back from 23 to 25, took Tyler Linderbaum, who not a bad four-year pickup,

but not a, the kind of player you want to put a first round draft pick into because of the lack

of market frictions, which we are now see playing out. Right. It's like we know. Yeah, but that

that was, that was a crazy trade. I was, I remember, be very surprised with you on draft night

with that incredible haul, in my opinion. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I recall correctly. It was like just

a fifth round pick. So I think it was still like the 26 or 27 pick in total value. Still first,

I mean, brown was good, but not great, in my opinion, and be able to basically, like,

redraw his pick. It was incredible. I couldn't believe it. They got it done, frankly.

It doesn't go into my, my, my prediction, my prediction for this off season that we were going

to see outside of like AJ Brown. And I guess, I mean, I want to say DJ Moore quite is, you know,

gives me a checkmark here, but I was expecting a couple wide receivers to go for high draft capital

because people are realizing like, you know, when Alec Pierce is getting, you know, all the,

you know, all the dates to dance or whatever, just because he's the best wide receiver,

you kind of realize you need to acquire why receivers even in the draft or trade for them.

Like there's no other way. The good ones don't reach free agency. So yeah. Anyways, very surprised

that we got that pick back then. All right. Yeah, it was, it was one of those, and then those

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But you used to be on the you know the draft tech chart or the JJ chart and really

predicting what do you think was traded. It's a remarkable how the league still trades entirely on

that basis. And you can occasionally see something in the top 12 or 13 picks maybe where you get

a little bit of a premium paid on that. But it's very rare. You had a weird trade last year with

the Ravens moved back five spots in round four and up five spots in round six. Didn't seem to make

any sense. But they just apparently weren't prepared to to to make their selection.

Nurse Anders turned down and then they didn't know what to do.

Probably exactly the way it occurred. And it's just I just just a middle fingering from the

Sanders family. I'm not happy about I got to tell you pretty pretty absurd. And now for

me, I'm looking to be there just so wild. But anyway, it's not the show.

But all right. So let's let's let's talk about the downstream implications of the crossbeat

thing. Because I think there's some good ones and some bad ones. And probably the best one

is that this almost certainly means that Lamar Jackson will be extended. Why? Because the Ravens

have to wait till next week to make this deal. And they have to create 30 million roughly.

They don't have to create all that. But they have to create a portion of the 30 million

that they'll need for crossbeat as soon as the trade is made and the only realistic way to get

that is by a Lamar Jackson extension. I also don't think you even want to go through with this.

If you can't extend Lamar Jackson, be sure that he's going to be here for all of these

crossbeaters. Sure. I mean, we get we get here about this as early as tomorrow, right? Like

definitely feels on the rise. I mean, you know, we're all playing. Maybe you weren't playing.

I don't know. I was somewhat playing the whole like, okay, you know, he's having these tweets

or his Instagram posts or whatever. And you know, people were speculating that he was about to get

extended. And that might be true, right? That could be true. But I think it was now in retrospect,

it's probably about at least also the deal for crossbeat, which I guess he's excited about,

which good, I guess. So that's cool. And yeah, I think, you know, we talk all the time about

the OBJ acquisition to get Lamar Jackson the first time. If it took Max Crossbeat again this time,

I guess I'm excited because obviously keeping Lamar Jackson around is number one priority.

It is the number one priority. And if there was a if there were a palette of various choices,

I'm not sure I'm not sure I believe that this would have been on Lamar Jackson's Bingo card.

Like, I think it would be an offensive player to start with. I think it would have been, you know,

get me a big offensive lineman, get me a Simon Tyler Linderbaum, if you really believed in that,

you know, sign me somebody who can actually give me some protection some time in the pocket,

or sign me a white receiver. But I don't believe he'd have said, get me, Max Crossbeat,

who can be on the field while I'm going and looking at my surface tablet to help the maybe 24

was worse than we remember again. And then he was like, I never want to be tackled by that guy again.

Yeah, I guess if you're if you're on the other side of the field from Max Crossbeat,

yeah, maybe. All right. But I'm not I'm not buying it. I really don't buy that this was a Lamar

motivated thing. I think Lamar may say, hey, look, I want to play on a Super Bowl champion.

You know, what can you do to help me get one? And they might have said, look,

let us restructure. We'll promise you significant investment we made at the team this year. That could

be. I'll give you downstream implication number two for me is that that I think this means there's

a very good chance not they made a BK. We'll be back playing. I my reason is not the videos that

about there. It's that I don't believe the Ravens would take a swing like this without knowing

it were true. Now, it's not a sure thing by any stretch. And I I'm not convinced that that

Matt BK has had the discussions with the doctors that matter yet about whether or not he can

continue this. I mean, oftentimes, I mean, that's why people go for second opinions. They don't

like the answer from their doctor. Yeah, if you if you if you have a terminal diagnosis,

I mean, the first thing you do, it's like an automatic appeal. You go for a second opinion from

another doctor. Hey, is there anything else we can do? You're known for aggressive treatment.

Don't tell me I have to give up at this point. Tell me there's some form of chemo,

irradiation, or surgery that I can go through to try and beat this thing. And I'm afraid, you know,

that that Matt BK may or may not, you know, hopefully it's not Dr. Nick Rivera who told him,

yeah, you can play again. Yeah, I hope so. I hope nothing will be worse, obviously,

then he comes back and gets hurt in a even more significant way. That would be discretion.

Yeah, I don't even want to think about it because it's just so so bleak and sad and awful. So

I hope it means that he'll be back and that, you know, honestly, you know,

the way the conversation is gone about Matt BK has been bleak, right? The only reason we talk

about it in this way is because we were given no reason not to, you know, neck injury,

weird conversations around him, etc. It did not feel like a normal season ending injury.

And all you can do is hope that it was bad, but not, I don't know, dangerous.

Yeah, and I think the things we've heard about it, which are limited, are that, you know,

it says to do with narrowness of the spine and that there wasn't necessarily an injury as much

as the way he was born. And he's got a lot of muscle around there, obviously, but that there's

really significant injuries. And that was the case with Zach Orden and his career. Zach Or

very much in Zach Orden like fashion, try to come back from it because he wants to give up a

football career and wasn't able to, you know, to make that work. So I just, I don't know where

they are in that process. But I do think it probably says good things about this. I'll say one

thing to the extent that Harbaugh was using the media to try to incent players to come back sooner,

which is a, it's a legitimate point that he probably did too much of that to try and put it

on the player to try and come back earlier than he maybe otherwise would, that he wanted to focus

on toughness and I hope that the acquisition of Dr. Nick Gill is going to take some of that pressure

off the players, that he's going to be a, you know, kind of a final say in some of these injuries

and the head coach should not be. And the head coach probably, I really hope Mentor takes the

Bella check approach to injuries. And I'll trust, you know, a doctor with a kind of track record

that Gill has to make the right judgments for the, for the organization and for the team and for

the player most importantly, to get them back at the appropriate time. Yeah, for sure. That was

pretty exciting signing. People asked me what I thought about it. I was like, well, it sounds like

the other team does not happy about it. So I guess good. I've never, never heard of them before.

I don't really know anything about them. Other than that, but hoping that

he brings great wisdom to injuries and management and getting players healthy,

yeah, quickly and being prepared to play when they are playing. Right.

Now we look at this Ravens defense. They still have significant holes at edge corner defensive

tackle and nose tackle. Inside linebacker, whether or not Manipede case back, I mean, they've got

holes at defensive tackle that they're going to need to address in the draft. And inside linebacker

because the Buchanan, you get cornerback because of the age of the room and edge because they don't

have their fourth guy yet. They at least need somebody. And I think it's got to be somebody who plays

a significant number of snaps and probably somebody who at least has a pass rush contribution they can

make that is significant. Meaning, I don't need an every down, sorry, I don't need a pure situational

pass rusher. It wouldn't be the worst thing, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't need a pure situational

pass rusher, but a new guy who can contribute on the pass rush at least some, which is they don't,

it's not easy to find those guys often. And I'd like some early down relief as well. So,

you know, maybe the ideal player is another guy like Tavius Robinson who can do both,

you know, not at the top level certainly as a pass rusher, but also gives you some early down

snaps. But I want, I need somebody who can at least give me something as a pass rusher.

Right. Definitely, definitely a position that we need to look into. I strongly agree about defensive

tackle. I thought that'd be a high priority, regardless of a matter of BK as well. And you mentioned

inside linebacker, that's a, that was a place that some people were like speculating the Ravens,

might make a splash of free agency. I'd be more surprised about that now given the probably

signing, but I suppose we'll see. Right. I mean, they've got, they've got players that could

get into free agency that would still be good. Voss and I talked a little bit about Leo Chanel,

who's my number five free agent that, that I think I'd be excited about for the Ravens at this

point. Great tackler, two down linebacker who gives you outstanding value on that, and then you

bring in a dime back to replace him on third down, you keep Rokwan on the field. I really like that.

But if you get Leo Chanel, you're really taking away from how you can and can contribute to the

team in the near future or, or at least for 26. And remember, 27, they're not going to have Simpson,

because the 26 is his last year as a Raven. And in 27, they may not have Rokwan either. So it's kind

of important that they go out and get inside linebacker probably both in free agency and in the draft.

Yeah. Yeah, I think one of the biggest challenges a Ravens face each year, but I feel like this year

is particularly true is managing acquiring players and free agency to bolster something,

but also giving opportunity to their young players to play what they need.

I feel like they're really struggling with that in a few areas now, where particularly inside

linebackers a huge one, with all the reasons you mentioned with Buchanan, not available at the

beginning of the season, one might assume. They want something probably better than Trans Simpson,

but I won't cost like, what does that look like? What's structure? Like, you know, it just,

it puts them in a really difficult position. Yeah, so I mean, I think in all honesty,

they may just have to go with Trans Simpson and then return to Buchanan at some point during the

season and then from year three on for Buchanan, but it's going to leave them very short for 2027

with both Rokwan and Simpson leaving that they that they that they haven't planned ahead for that.

So they know over the next two years, and that's what I meant about one draft and one and one

free agent signing. I think the Ravens are going to have to invest at the inside linebacker position

to fill those two departing players. We even talked about Hummel, who's leaving. I guess it's

possible somebody like Higgins or Chandler Martin could step up and take a backup slash key special

teams role on the team, but I'm not seeing either of those guys as being really obvious high value

starters. Right, right. I would I would slot them as what you said, a, a special teamer, a decent

backup and things of that nature. I'm not trying to expect too much more from what we've seen as

our right. Okay, so anyway, still a lot to do in the draft. That's one of the downstream implications

of this crossbeesigning is they have one less thing to worry about, but they still have plenty of

defensive picks that they're they're going to allocate. I think almost certainly Tyler Lindovon will

not be resigned after the crossbeesigning boy, would I be shocked if they flipped on that? But

right now the center market has been a lot of pressure is on it right now in terms of

players retiring and today Ryan Kelly retired, for example, for the Vikings. So he didn't play much

this last year only about 329 snaps, but he played very well when he was in there. And

somebody else has retired also in the last the Bears, the Bears Center, Biares or Biares is a guy

got signed, right? But by that sounds potentially true. Bears, a center.

Oh, that's right. They traded a Drew Dalman, is he a Drew Dalman retired? Yeah. Okay, that's a big

one. He's one of the better ones in the league. So he's Kelly. And now we're talking about Conor McGovern

being one of the best available centers in the league. You're really buying high. If you buy into

McGovern, it's not like he's not a pretty good player, but you'd be buying high. Ravens might do

it, but there's a lot of pressure on the top of the market with Linda Bob is going to be a lot of

suitors for that. And by extension, every retirement is creating pressure that moves centers up in

terms of the salary scale from top to bottom. And also we'll put pressure on the center position

in the draft. So there's going to be a lot of pressure on teams to move a guy to center probably.

So it's a it's a it is a good year. There are a lot of interior offensive linemen who could end

up being centers. I haven't yet looked at the offensive tackles to know which offensive tackles

might be forced inside because oftentimes there's a guy like a Steven center, somebody who's

going to move inside from tackle to center. And you don't know about it right at this point,

but listen, position is tackles. So of course, they don't make tackles. Except no way is a good

playing tackle with this 32 HR. So he's yeah, I also saw Bullock's a free agent, which I didn't

I didn't realize. So what what Cory Boan? I that's what I saw. I don't know if it's true or not.

Let me double check that. He's not a he's not a UFA. I mean, he's only got one season with the

Ravens. Let's see. All right, I'll look at it on the Ravens roster. We need we need to solve that

mystery. I'll tell you that. I thought I thought I was surprised to when I saw it. I never trust

that a free agency tool. But when I was using it, he said Cory Boa, you're one Maryland. He'll

be in year two this next year. Okay. Yeah. But yeah, the center, the center of market just wild.

I've been pretty clear that I don't want to resign lender bomb for the price that he seems to be

commanding. And I just feel like you were better off spending half that on the center. That's

still pretty good. And then heaven, you know, another chunk of change should go get another guy.

So what we'll see. I mean, obviously, I don't want them. I don't think the team wants to. I

expect them to sign somebody and not go into the draft without it being an empty hole. But

yeah, we'll have to see how they they approached that.

So I think we're probably Raven's fans have been getting used to the point that lender bombs

leaving after the last two years when it became reported out there that he was looking for $25

billion a year. This is not a guy I would pay to reset the center market. It's just it's just

that simple. And he's just not a not a particular good pass blocker. And as greater run blockers,

he is as well as he moves down field, all that stuff is not as valuable as having a good pass blocker

center. Much rather have one of these guys who's equivalent at both or a little bit better as a

pass blocker, the run blocker, which would be my preference. And I think they can they can get that

at a fraction of the cost of lender bomb. And hopefully they'll they'll take the shot at it.

And hopefully whatever shot they take won't end up being Geno Craig Gasky again.

Correct. Well, let's see what I thought about. Yeah, let's cap flex. Flexibility is kind of a big

thing from this. And so it's a it's a positive downstream implication, but there is some risk associated

with this. So, um, Crosby is on a deal where he's making most of his money early on that is his

pluses and its minuses. If he had a backloaded contract, he'd be less likely to treat this

as say a two year deal. So let's look into the future and see the bad things and the good things

that can happen at either end of the set of outcomes that might happen from XCrosby as a Raven.

On the on the on the extreme left hand side of the curve, he gets hurt early in his Ravens career.

He never produces very much of anything. And the Ravens are terribly disappointed by the by the

deal and Ravens fans are upset as hell. People like me never stop talking about it because it should

never trade away to you. So anyway, that's the extreme left end. Okay. Extreme right end.

Crosby has 13 sacks the first year. And he has 12 sacks the second year. And they're saying,

yes, all right, we finally got that past rusher that we haven't had really since Jumerville maybe

or, you know, since Suggs's defensive play or the year era. I mean, we've got that past rusher

now. We really love. And we've got it for two more years. And then Crosby comes back

before the 2028 season and says, I've got a broom this contract. I want a new deal. I'm old now.

I mean, that's very possible on the right hand edge of that curve if they get what they hope

to get out of Max Crosby is that he doesn't think he signed for four years. He thinks he signed

for two years. Right. And then we're going to we're going to talk about a new contract extension

or or I'm not playing. And it's the risk of a player at his age who feels like he needs to get

a bite out of the apple again at 31 to 32 for ability for his last chance. It's just very high.

And I'm and probably my biggest single concern is that the Ravens won't realize the full upside

now. That's not my biggest single concern. My biggest single concern is he gets hurt. But the

but my you know, one of my concerns is they won't realize the full upside on the right hand side

of the curve. And it makes the the landing strip of real value for the Ravens pretty limited

on the middle of that outcome. They don't they don't they certainly don't want a full left side

outcome. Nobody does. And a full right side outcome is just going to cost him a lot more money

and mute his value significantly in terms of of what they get out of this trade.

Right. Correct. I guess we have to just talk about the privilege of being in that situation

and and hope for that. It is, you know, the consequence of drafting law, right, Ken?

You know, you have to make tough decisions about it. This isn't a consequence of drafting.

Well, this is this is a if you draft, well, you I mean, you have that player for four years.

There's nothing else you can do. You can line and talk about it, but he can't change. I'm

pulling the ring tongue. She but I guess like, you know, they did pick this player, you know,

with some picks. And I guess like they're I guess they're hoping for that, you know, outcome,

right? Is what I'm getting at. It'll I mean, I want people to realize the full risk in play here.

If two years from now, Max Cosby says, I want a new contract or I want to be traded. Those are the

two options. I'm sure they're they're picking up whatever trade clause is existing in

Cosby's contract right now. He may have a no trade no trade clause or ability to decline certain

teams. But since he just got traded, that doesn't seem likely, right? It doesn't seem like we'd still

have a no trade causing. So we'll assume there's no no trade clause in his contract. He'll reduce

his own trade value by demanding a new contract because he's not under its contract for two years

of for 28 and 29 million or whatever the last two years of the DLR. It's approximately that. He's

under he's under contract for whatever, you know, he demands. And that that's where you know,

you're just the the structure of the contract does not lend itself well to realizing the full

value of of Max Cosby. If they had a more steepness, the acquisition price probably would have

been lower, but they would have the the higher likelihood that they would realize the full value

of the upside of Max Cosby. Now I hear what you're saying. And yeah, I guess only time will tell

how that gets played out. All right, you get the increased injury risk for a player and it's 29

to 32 seasons. This is unquestionably an enormous bet on Cosby's health. So far, he's been one of

the most durable players in the NFL. So I hope that risk does not end up, you know, biting him in

the ass here after they've they've unloaded a ton of graph capital to get him. But it can't be

ignored. It is a it is a big risk. And we have to at least mention it here. Right.

We're not there. All right. So let's let's let's talk about the why. Why did they end up pulling the

trigger on this trade? What what made the Ravens think this was a good idea when it's very contrary

to Raven's history to make this kind of a trade? But I think, you know, if I had a hypothesis about

this, I'd basically start here, Alec and I'd like to hear yours too. But I think DeCosta looked at

the this year's board. There are a lot of players almost seem like their square peg round whole

players less positional value. Don't affect the passing game kind of players that are in the draft

at the top who are great players. Caleb Downs now has an injury flag, which is he'd be one of the

players that I'd be excited about falling to the Ravens at 14, you know, before the injury flag came

up. You know, sunny styles would be a player that I think could have been a surprise Ravens pick

if he had somehow fallen number 14. I don't think it's no way in hell it's happening after that

combine. No, it's not happening. Yeah. But it would have been. They had to maybe trade up the

get it at that four spot. I mean, it wouldn't shock me if he's gone in the first five picks at this

point. Right. Yeah. So yeah, yeah. I'll be honest with you again. It was pretty clear to me

pretty quickly in my very limited draft research at this point. You know, obviously it wasn't going

to be the handles in it 14 year. There just wasn't that kind of players to possibly push it that

far back, you know, yeah, the guy. Sure. And yeah, I just think that they knew that they weren't

going to play like that. I think the best player they could have gone there was probably I got like

Vega, right? And, and, you know, he could be great. Don't get me wrong. I just think that they

got a little less excited about that. I think they looked at the 14th overall pick this year

and said to themselves, we feel like in most drafts, it is almost like we were in the

divisional and got knocked out by the quality of player we were going to see at 14.

Right. So you're saying if the quality of player 14 is more typical of a quality of player,

you see it 24 probably it's probably not quite that bad, but I agree with you in philosophically

that they thought the 14 pick was not worth what the 14 pick is usually worth. Correct. And

I also think that they were thinking themselves, you know, we have, we were essentially just

giving ourselves instead of saying, oh, when we pick at 40 or, you know, 25, we hope that these

five players are there. They're like at 14, we expect 15 players to be there, you know,

all that we felt kind of in a clump that we're comfortable with. And like other teams will see

that there won't be the value in trading back. Yada, yada, yada. So, you know, there will be

the option to trade back, you know, that he believes that trading downally difficult so you

can't realize the value of the 14 pick. Correct. Even if you defer it potentially, which would

that would have been an interesting move for the Ravens to defer some value in the next year,

allow somebody else to trade up to 14 and see if you if you want to play it that way. I don't

think that I've been popular with the fans at all. The fans always want basically what happened

here is to trade multiple number ones for a player right now, now, now, now, now. Yeah. Yeah.

So I think I think they definitely thought the 14 value this year was depressed. I will say on

the flip side of that coin, you know, every year people say, oh, but next year, this is going to be

the draft. But allegedly, 26 drafts is pretty loaded. So that is something that does maybe a little

disappointed is that, you know, in the world that there is a negative outcome in this season,

they had a better than expected pick, even if it's in the middle, right, of of next year's draft,

it could have been potentially a very, a very solid player that fell to them. So yeah, I think

that's the, the 27 pick is the part that really just inclines my gears. I've been, I've been

closer to saying giving up day one and two, then then giving up day one of next year personally.

Yeah, you'd rather give up one and two this year to, right, I would, I would have rather

I'm saying day one and two. I'm saying the one, two, three of this year. Oh, Jesus. I'm saying almost

a hundred percent so old on it, but I think I think I think I'm with you. I think I wouldn't

made that trade. I think I would at least know what you're giving up, you know, and that's a lot

of that's a lot of value. I have to look at that. Let's look at that real quickly because it's

an interesting thought experiment. I want to make sure I know what they're what the three picks

this year because you're really trading, you're trading value that you know what it is and

this is going to take a second here in the class. Okay, we got

number 14 pick is worth 1100 and he's already updated this for the trade and then you got about

650 and rounds two and three to be bet 1750. It's equivalent. I might, I might flip on that. I might

flip and say I'd rather trade two number ones because the picks they haven't rounds two and three

this year are pretty early. They are both in the top half of the round. Yeah, so it is close,

but I think that if they, if they, it is very close. There's a potential that

and this is a pretty absurd statement to make, but I think I honestly do believe it's true. I

think there's potential that the tiers that they have of players that they would pick the 14 might

be there too in the second round this year. I think it's possible. Not high, but I would say like

50% passable. So somebody, somebody slips to number 45 who they have in a broad group of,

say, 20 players that they might draft it at number 14, right? If I wasn't their first choice,

actually, yeah, but, but pretty high, just to be clear, they don't need more than 15 players,

sorry, no more than 14 players than they could draft at number 14. So they've got to,

they've got presumably they got a tier list that includes that or less, you know, for that,

for that first pick. And then they may have, hey, we know these guys are going to be out.

We got nine guys that could be here. And then we'll talk about whether or not we'd like to trade

down or not, they could have some tiering system like that. I'm, I'd be interesting to, to know how

they, how they think of it strategically like that as opposed to just a, this guy's in 8.5 and

this guy's in 8. Yeah, yeah. So we'll see, we'll see how the draft plays out. But, um, yeah, I, I,

I will say like, for what it's worth, I wasn't like super thrilled about who they were going to get

at 14. Like, I wasn't like, like in my chops about any of these guys so much so that I'm like,

this is, that's a big loss. So that, that part makes me feel a little bit better as we talk through

it. All right. So let's talk a little bit more about the Y is I think that they may have already

been rebuffed on the possibility of a trade up. We say, well, they should have just traded up to

number five. Well, they, they may have tried. They may really have tried to do that. And, you know,

if figured out how they could have gotten a pass rusher by moving up for one thing, there's risk

involved because you know, it does look like they'll be at least one of the top three pass rusher

will be there at number five, but they may only like two of them. And it may be those guys, you know,

Bane goes at number two and number four, um, you know, is, is the other one they like, yeah, whether

it's, you know, research Bailey and they end up with not the guy they want at number five,

and they even end up having to draft another position because of it. Yeah, I mean,

yeah, I would hope that it'd be a draft day trade, right? It wouldn't be a pre pre-meditated

trade. And that I think makes more sense if the Ravens are doing that, they can, they can,

they can wait to do it. They, they have to, we do know, we do know feelers are put out at the

combine, right? Like we've seen that before. Like, uh, what was it? They were trying, when they were

trying to get um, Drake May, right, uh, the, uh, the giants when they get Drake May or whatever,

and they couldn't do it. So like, yeah, I think, um, yeah, that's, that's a, that's a known thing too.

Okay. Now one thing comes up out of this that I, I don't really believe has,

happened, but we need to inspect it anyway. Is that the, the Ravens have just gotten out of these

Jupiter meetings, um, or, or maybe they're even still going on, but the, but the, the meetings in

Jupiter, Florida that, um, happened with Bishaddi and the other top people in the organization,

um, they discuss the, you know, direction of the team. The last time they had these,

they traded back into the first round and got Lamar Jackson. So, uh, you know, they decided

basically that the Flacco, you know, that's not the last time they had the talks, but the last,

the last time they made a major splash out of these talks was the Lamar Jackson trade.

These meetings have just occurred. I'm, I really hope we are not seeing an inflection point in

organizational history where Bishaddi is taking a stronger hand in pushing the direction of the

draft personnel changes and things like that. I don't believe we are, but, you know, in its

entire history, Bishaddi only made three major changes, three major things. As far as we know,

on the football operations side, he hired Harbaugh overbillock. He, um, actually, yeah, he hired

Harbaugh over, overbillock. He hired, um, Mincer over Harbaugh and he changed from Ozzy to

Acosta. He hasn't made any other football operations changes in 25 years. Okay, the 2001 pick,

actually, the reason one changed to, sorry, 99 changed to Billock was during the Modell era.

So it wasn't, you know, didn't have anything to do with Bishaddi at that point. So I, I, I can't

believe, I can't bring myself to believe he had a hand in this and yet I, I can't not inspect it,

and I do look back at the Lamar thing as being a, a very significant inflection point in Ravens

history that decided to move on from Joe Flacco at that point. He still started nine more games for

them, and while Lamar was a rookie, but they basically made the commitment to Lamar by trading

back into the first round to get it. Right. Well, I, and, and to cost was a big part of that too.

Going to get Lamar. He's, he's, uh, I'm not, sorry, Bishaddi rather was a big part of, um, going to

get Lamar. He's been pretty vocal about that. So, um, nice choice. Bishaddi is the one I'm worried about.

Yeah, I know. I know. You know, I, and he, I think Bishaddi was, was fairly well integrated into

decision to the Flacco trade. The, the, the acquisition of Flacco with the Ravens, you know,

undoubtedly needed a quarterback death. Nobody was questioning the notion that, hey, this isn't

time to change quarterbacks because we've got new to lie armed injured Steve McNair and Kyle Boller

were moving on from, um, but they went after, when they went after him, they were at six. I believe,

again, we need to check that move back to something like 25 and then back up to 18 and end up

getting Flacco, uh, in that process. And I think Bishaddi has talked about that as often,

something that, that it almost seems like he was involved in directly as opposed to just sitting

in the room while it was done. Correct. Yeah. Uh, yeah, now I'm going to look up the 28th,

28th draft. So, we, we're, we're sure, where's your level of concern on a scale of one to 10?

I'll write down mine, uh, for where? For this being a, a possibility of either an individual,

yeah, of an individual meddling situation from Bishaddi himself.

I'm ready when you are. Okay. I'm, I'm a non zero number. I'm a three that I think is,

it's, it's, you think it's a three percent chance? No, no, no, no, no. I think it's a three in

a scale one to 10. Oh, okay. 30 percent chance. Yeah. No, not a 30 percent chance. A three in

terms of magnitude, you can, it's probably an earthquake scale where it's a geometric scale,

but it's a, it's a, it's a three. It's not a, it's not a zero. It's not a one. It's not,

in terms of, of the, the possibility that Bishaddi has, has stepped in and, and ordered the

thing to happen. Gotcha. Um, yeah, I would say, uh, I was in the same, same band there. I,

I was, when I originally was thinking it was, uh, 100 points scale, I was saying 30. So, um,

yeah, and it was the eight pick. It was the eight, eight down to 25 up to 18, eight, uh, let's see,

click, uh, eight to 26, 26 at 18. Okay. Yeah. That was also a draft where they acquired Willis McGahey.

No, no, they acquired him the year before. They're mine. Yeah. So eight to 26 and then 26 to 18,

I recall, right? Yeah. Yeah, 18. Yep. I remember where we were, because we were overseas when that,

when that trade happened, we actually in Japan. And, uh, you know, the draft was, you know,

uh, hours and, uh, I saw, wait a minute, they moved around and they got you flakko and that was, uh,

uh, that was exciting at the time. Anyway, didn't know that. Maybe they're right. So the second

pick that you've cracked. Yeah, I'm about to. I was in a restaurant. I forget which one I saw it

on the TV go across. So yeah, very cool. Here we get to the end of the climax cross B situation,

undeniably exciting player, you know, very positive in terms of what he can do for this defense.

Um, the credit card bill racked up is not insignificant in both in terms of cap and draft capital.

And the Ravens will end up paying this off over a period of four years here, uh, or more in terms

of how they restructure contracts get add up board boy years and whatnot. We saw Odell Beckham's

one year contract became a three year, um, gift that kept on giving. Uh, I hope Max Crosby certainly

isn't anywhere near that same class, but, uh, uh, gives the Raven some cap flexibility and some

additional opportunity to take risk. But, uh, I'm, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to miss those

draft picks. Sure. Who wouldn't? Well, a couple of wouldn't, but I will. I as well. Uh, so, uh,

pleasure talking to you now they can. Um, I, I feel better. You know, similar when you,

you watch, uh, the film, right? And then you say, uh, after I lost, sometimes you feel better.

I feel a little bit better right now, uh, after talking to you. So thank you for, uh, being there

as my therapist today. Uh, what, what's your rate? My unpaid therapist. We get some unpaid

marriage counseling from our driver on our recent trip, by the way, but that's, uh, it's, it's, it's

not, uh, not this similar. Now, Marie and I have a wonderful relationship. We disagreed on whether

do something or not. Our driver then encouraged us to wait. And I thanked him for being our unpaid

therapist. But we, uh, uh, I, I, it's, it's, I'm glad that I'm the more positive guy on this move

than you. I know a lot of people are very negative on this. Um, I, you know, in terms of my

excitement level on this, if I'm going from zero to 100 where 50 is, I'm, I'm ambivalent to the

move, my feeling is probably about a 37. Um, I'm not, I'm not the, uh, you know, I'm not a 94 on

this and I'm not a 65, but I'm also not a zero. Yeah. And I think they could, they could win from

this and they just got an enormous bet out there on Crosby's health and productivity over these

next four years. Correct. Uh, you didn't ask, but I would say I'm about, I'm about 23. 23. Okay. Yeah.

So, um, yeah. So I, I definitely can see the upside. Um, I guess the big, like, there's so many,

the, the biggest shocks to me in summary are giving up the craft, draft capital, which we are

not one to do. And also just the fact that I was preparing myself for a world that

that mentor was going to solve the defense. You know, like, right. He was going to raise the

boats. We don't need to like make any crazy additions. Uh, what we already have was going

enough and mentors are going to make it look great. Uh, and I guess whatever evaluation they did,

they thought they needed this. And uh, me still have that opportunity because mentor is a defensive

backs guy and Mickens, very importantly, the defensive backs coach is a, you know, historically

good or a, you know, very highly thought of coach of defensive backs who made the Notre Dame

defensive backfield the best of the country that may be a bet on their ability to go cheap at corner

and find guys, whether it's longer beam and Konae from last year's draft or whether it's, um,

you know, turning TJ Tampa into a better player than his, uh, you know, physical attributes would,

would, would say he could be at the top end or, or, or getting somebody new this year, um,

who's not in a top round that Mickens can turn into somebody better. Uh, I think it's just,

there's still some of that there that they, they really have to hit on some elements of

positional coaching in order to win, uh, on this deepest for sure. All right, always great talking

football with you. I like till folks where they can reach out to you online. Sure. Uh, you can find

me on my, on my blog, pulling honest.com. I'm going to write about this tomorrow. I'm guessing

that's going to be up. I'll link to it and, excuse me, summarize some of my thoughts there. Um,

and, uh, feel free to reach out to me there and, uh, so my socials are there as well.

All right, other folks out there, hit me up, uh, uh, on Twitter anytime you have an idea for,

for a podcast, uh, for a film study short, I'd love to talk to you for something for 20 or 30

minutes, generally speaking, that you're very passionate about. And let's, let's talk about what

you think about roster construction this time here in particular, or if you have something

historic you want to talk about, or maybe some trend you've seen in Raven's history,

all those are on the table and so's anything else you want to talk about. Uh, I, I'd love to, uh,

hear from some new people. They'll very large stable of guests that come on the show.

Alec is certainly one that probably does 10 episodes a year with me, but we, we have a, you know,

a large stable of other people and I'd like, I need to grow it since last year we did 386 podcasts.

And I do, but I do need a large stable of guests in order to draw from. So, uh, hopefully we

develop a relationship and I, I love talking football with new people at the very least.

Alec, thanks again for joining me. Thanks again. And we'll talk to you next time on Film Study.

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