Ravens GM speaks on Maxx Crosby fallout (3/12 Hour 1)

0:00Coming up today at PFT Live, Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta addresses the next Max Crosby trade. Daniel Jones cashes in and Calamari could be close to finding his next team. Also, we're eight months away, but your Thanksgiving plans may already be changing a bit. PFT Live starts now. Based on our assessment of the situation, very, very, I think, disappointing to me. Nobody more disappointed than me. A player I greatly admire, I think, one of my favorite players in the entire NFL. I know our fans are upset, devastated. I understand that. Tough, tough situation, but I think for the Ravens, the right situation. That was Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta yesterday, right around five o'clock Eastern, addressing the debacle, heard round the NFL world that continues to resonate.

1:04I hadn't thought about that until just now. He's the only one that's spoken out of everyone involved. We haven't heard from the Raiders. It's easy to send a tweet. If you have a complaint, let's hear it. John Spitek, Tom Brady, Clint Kubiak, anyone. Let's hear it. Max Crosby hasn't posted a video. He posted the video on Saturday that let the cat out of the bag prematurely. We heard from him last night on Twitter, but the cost is the only one that's faced the music and faced reporters and answered questions. I keep coming back to the reality that this is how NFL business gets done. Until they come up with some sort of dramatic change of the rules, you're going to have situations where you do a trade and the guy fails the physical. It's not the first time it's happened. It's not the last time it's going to happen. No, it's definitely not. Good morning. Good morning. How you doing, man? Good to see you. First off, I think it was probably on Eric DeCosta to be the one that first addressed the situation.

2:07I mean, it was a Raven's situation. It was a Raven's medical doctor. It's Raven's fans who wanted to jump off a cliff yesterday in the day before to be like, what? We just were having our pre-superbowl party. We're going to the Super Bowl. This is going to be amazing. He's got to talk them off the cliff. It helped the course with Trey Hendrickson and all of that. I think even for the league, I think needed to hear it. Everybody needed to hear Eric DeCosta speak first. I mean, I'm with you. You'd like to hear from the Raiders at some point. I'm sure we'll hear from Max Crosby, but the Ravens were really the team in the crossfire here that I think had to be the first ones to at least address the situation. And my guess too is, and there's certain things I know. There's certain things I don't know. But a lot of this is just common sense. I doubt that the Ravens rushed to the phone to start texting the various insiders. Make it their lot in life to tell us things five minutes before where otherwise going to find out

3:10anyway. Maybe this is something we weren't going to find out until Wednesday at four o'clock Eastern. Maybe somebody blabbed when they shouldn't have blabbed. Maybe somebody was too eager to get this out there. Max Crosby did that 13-minute video. They put the cart before the horse on this. One of the lessons to be learned from this by teams and players in the future is keep your mouth shut until the physical is done, especially in a case like this, where you clearly are going to want to get a look at the guy's knee that just had surgery. You clearly are going to want to do a thorough evaluation of where it is, where you think it's going to be, and are you ultimately comfortable tying a pair of first round picks and possibly a contractual adjustment. But even without that 29 million a year over four years, are you comfortable doing that? And getting it out

4:13there actually puts more pressure on the Ravens to pass him because everyone expects this deal to be done. Yes. So I don't know who leaked it, but the reality is Max is the one who went public last Saturday and in hindsight shouldn't have. No one should have said a thing about it. There have been deals in the past where everyone kept quiet until the physical was done. It just creates an expectation that you may not meet and it sets the stage for disappointment and the perception of dysfunction. Now I won't complain. It's great for business. Thank you, football gods, generally, for giving us something that's been so rich and fertile to discuss, but the lesson to be learned above all else, above all else, as as Jimmy advised young Henry in good fellas. Don't run on your friends and always keep your mouth shut. I do think there's a lesson to be

5:18learned. I don't disagree with you there. Now I it's hard to fault anybody with this. I mean, because this is like I'm not mad at Max Crosby for making a 13 minute video. That's what everybody does now. I mean, it was already out there though, but it was already out there. Yeah. By then it was too late. Yeah. Well, okay. That's the way it is. And it's, you know, yeah. People start to celebrate before it's officially done. I mean, yeah, this happens only once in a while. It's a rare occurrence. I mean, it really rarely happens. It rarely happens, especially with the player of this magnitude. But yeah, maybe this makes agents and players readjust a little bit. It's just going to be hard for not, you know, for these things not to come out at some point with somebody in the organization, in the agency that's representing the player. There's just too many tentacles there. But at the end of the day, I mean, it came to a point here where I think most of the public and the majority of the NFL, and I told you and even said a text to you yesterday at one point, because I had a few

6:20friends that I'm texting with the last 48 hours about the subject at all together. I mean, at first, it looked so obvious like, oh my gosh, this is like ridiculous. The way it looked. Wait, I mean, yeah, oh, they sent Max Crosby home. Maybe he asked for more money. We don't know. I know the agent has come out and said, that's not true. But whatever. Okay. And then we get cold feet because we'll wait. Trey Hendrickson's out there for that. So I think at a base level, the NFL people just thought, oh, the Ravens went gangster and pulled off a big time move here and went, well, we got cold feet. We don't want to do it. We got another player we really like for a lot less money. But I think with Eric DeCosta making the comments and, you know, knowing a few people to hear that, hey, the surgery and things with Max Crosby's knee, there's real stuff there. So there's legitimate. And then on top of that, I think what Eric DeCosta and you were saying and what I'm saying here is also just a big reason to think like, no, the Ravens first off, they don't run their organization like this. We've never seen it. So I'm not going to like say they would do something

7:23shady. And I don't think they wanted to be in the business of, hey, we got Max Crosby. Everybody, we're awesome. This is great. This is great. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And then letting their fans down, letting the players on their team down, who are all excited about it too. So I think from a base level there, DeCosta's comments made a lot of sense. And then, yeah, use some common sense about how they operate and what they really wanted. And they wanted Max Crosby. I believe that 100%. I've got an explanation for what both teams did wrong in this situation. Before we do it, though, let's hear a little from Eric DeCosta on the speculation that's out there that the Ravens simply backed out of this deal and seized on the status of Max Crosby's knee because the Ravens got cold feet. I mean, I understand it. You know, I understand it. We live in that age of skepticism and people question, especially people that don't really know me or know the Ravens culture and Ravens organization. So I understand it. As I said, at the beginning, we've got a responsibility.

8:27I've got a responsibility to the Ravens, to this community, to our fans and to Steve Bischotti, to do what we think is best for the club. And that's what we always try to do. Every decision we make is based on this idea. Is this the best thing for the Ravens? Very, very challenging. Again, I understand how people might maybe from the far would feel that way. But nobody is more upset about this than me, gutted by it, actually. And so a regret, a big regret for me. But we will move on as a football team. And I think there's many, many opportunities for us to grow as a team, to become a better team, to build a roster, and to be the team that we want to be. All right, here's my take. And I hadn't thought of this until we sit in here talking about it. It's one of the benefits of talking these things through. Both teams had a failure here of a different kind. For the Raiders, it was a failure of strategic thought. It was a failure

9:30to sit down and have a plan for how this is going to happen with Max Crosby. And to understand the way that the rules could be used against them. In all other aspects of pro football, you've got coaches, you've got front office people, all the way up to owners, engaged in careful strategic thought as to how to make the rules work for them aggressively. And also how to protect themselves from someone else using the rules to their detriment. The Raiders screwed this up by creating a timeline that allowed the Ravens to delay the physical of Max Crosby until the second day of the signing period, creating the potential temptation of the market forces allowing them to say, number one, man, we're concerned about this knee, but okay, maybe we'll go forward. Oh, wait,

10:35Trey Hendrickson's still available after a full day and a half of the negotiating window. Well, that's an acceptable fallback for us if we don't go forward with this Max Crosby deal and then we go sign him. So what the Raiders should have done, they should have seen how this could unfold. This is where it's important for every organization to have at least one person who's got the ability to sit down and say, all right, this is the way the shit can go sideways. Let's have a plan to protect ourselves from it. And somebody should have said to the Ravens, here's what's going to happen. If they're having this conversation on Friday, Chris, here's what's going to happen. Tomorrow, you're doing the physical and we're going to know by midnight Monday morning, whether or not you're doing this trade. And if not, if not, it's not happening. It's not happening. It's not happening, at least until after free agency. And then we'll see where we are after that. But they created this situation that allowed the Ravens to do exactly what they did, whether it was nefarious, whether it

11:37was just shit happens, the Raiders allowed this situation to play out this timeline. That's on them. That's on them. And you know, it is kind of odd that people around the NFL are miffed at the Ravens for taking advantage of the rules. When that's all any, whatever does, this takes advantage of the rules. That's all anyone does in the NFL. How can we take advantage of the rules to our benefit? And if that's what the Ravens did, and they could back down to that deal for any reason whatsoever, they don't need, they don't need multiple doctor opinions telling them, you probably shouldn't do this, although they had that, they could have just said, we don't feel like doing it. The rule allows it. Now where the Ravens failed from a PR perspective, they didn't bother to think how this was going to look. They just went about their business. And they should have stopped and said, wait a minute, wait a minute. And this is where you need to have your PR function can't just be sitting around and waiting for a fire. And too many organizations have PR departments that just sit around and wait for someone to step in shit and then they go

12:42clean it off their shoe. And there isn't a proactive strategy for getting your messages out there, controlling the messages, understanding how things could possibly hurt you. The Ravens gave no thought to how any of this was going to look. They just went about their business. So it was a strategic failure for the Raiders, a PR failure for the Raiders. Yeah, but it's hard to blame. It's hard to blame. It's it's unforeseen. Again, this has never been seen before. And the Raiders, we all should have seen the possibility. Okay. All right. Well, I didn't hear you say anything. We should have. I mean, yeah. Okay. Wait a minute. I said, none of these trains are done until they're done. We know you say that every time you talk about that, we know, we know you say that every time. Every time there's a deal done, you say it in the middle of October. And you're call me Dr. Doom. Yeah. And you call me Dr. Doom. Right. And I say, wait a minute, Chris, this stuff can happen. Okay. And it did. Oh, my regret is that I didn't realize this guy's, this guy's had a meniscus repair. It's a three month surgery. They got played on a torn meniscus

13:47for 15 weeks. It's possibly worse than it would have been if he just would have had the surgery in September. There's a lot of reasons there to say, hey, wait a minute. They're giving up to they've never given up a first round pick in the history of the franchise. They're giving up two first round picks. They're going to make damn sure that this guy's on the road to 100% before they do this. Annie may want more money. They're going to make damn sure. So I think that that this is exactly the kind of thing. There are teams out there that the patriots would not have allowed this to happen. That just to name one. There are teams out there that would not have allowed to step allowed this situation unfold the way it did. They would have had tight deadlines and they would have understood. Wait a minute. We could get screwed here if we're not careful. We got to, we got to get this done sooner. We can't let this be hanging during free agency and we can't take the risk of committing to all these contracts and Max Cross be boomerangs back onto the onto the balance. Yeah. Again, I think I think you're I think your Monday morning quarterback in here. I

14:49think if the Patriots signed Max Cross be two. We would have heard about it before it happened. It would have happened. We would have heard about it. It would have. It is a it's a tough one. It's a tough Mike. I'm not saying that they said if the Patriots had him. Okay. I'm saying that the Patriots wouldn't have allowed the deal to happen if they had him. I think they may be. All right. So can I talk now? Can I have a say can I say something at all? Okay. So either way. All right. So but but okay. So let's back back to it. The Raider set up the situation with a trade and set it up perfectly with other teams and got maximum amount got it got it got like got two first rounders. We know that. I mean, they want to build their team. They want to know what they have available for free agency. They want to get that done and move on. They want the draft picks to build the team. The GM is going. Wait. Yeah. I would like those this year. We want to do that. We don't want to wait. They're Ravens. Same thing. They're they want to get it done. They're going. We want to start framing our team. Get it going. So yeah, that's where I think it's like, you know, a little

15:49tough to say. You should have saw that's the Ravens and the Raiders were led to believe. I'm sure by the man who did the surgery on Max Crosby and Max Crosby that things were heading in the right direction. So they assumed, okay, let's make a deal. Now they did their due diligence. What they should in the right way. But like, it's hard to see this type of circumstance coming. They certainly were hopeful that it was going to work and be good. But but I understand the timeline of when they did it and why they want to do it. And especially the Raiders who were sitting out there looking going, wait, yeah, we want to get him off the books and make this move and do this because we do want to sign these other players and start this new era. So that it's it's a tough one. It's hard for me to sit here and blame them for their approach. I guess is what I'm trying to say. It's not hard for me to do a Chris because they should be smart enough to know they needed a final answer before it was time to start signing these other players. You need to know whether or not the guy is going to be on your books or not. You need to know whether or not. So why do they

16:52supposed to do it? So they should wait. Hang on. Can I talk now? Can I talk now? You get the deal done Friday. You do the physical on Saturday. Why don't you have to wait until Tuesday? Fly doctors in to Las Vegas and do the physical in Las Vegas. Do whatever it takes to get the physical done. And I think the Ravens needed to have this done too. You know, everybody's thinking the Ravens pulled a fast one here. How many free agents did they lose? And how many of those guys weren't resigned because they've got this financial commitment. They think they're going to make them X crossby. Why in the world? And this is on both teams. Why in the world would you do that physical on Tuesday? When Monday's the day, when everybody's signing everywhere and money's being spent and free agents are leaving and free agents are coming. And we're going to wait until the day after that to take a look at this guy's knee. Are you freaking kidding me? That's what I'm talking about. That's just dumb by everyone. That's just flat out stupid that they waited until Tuesday to do this physical when they had the deal on Friday. And if it's that big of a transaction, you get

17:54the physical done before Monday when all hell breaks loose and free agency. Yeah. Well, yeah, it makes it that's another reason to make you believe that they thought things were going to be okay. And it was going to work. That's where it's tough. And again, that would be what I would say is standard protocol. Yeah, the player gets signed. Oh, wait, yeah, we're figuring out a few things. Hey, oh, wait, yeah, I'm supposed to see somebody or whatever our doctors aren't working. Hey, we'll be there Monday, Monday evening, whatever. Yeah, it's different. Maybe this is the thing that changes everything. Maybe that's what happens here. Maybe this is the thing that changes all of it from here on out. And maybe we won't see this type of stuff go on a few days leading up before free agency. It's certainly is going to make things see teams think twice. But, but yeah, I mean, again, it's one where it's a tough one. And it's hard to foresee this type of situation. That's where I it's it's unfortunate. And I certainly can see how either side can make the mistake here. I can. Yeah, I can because like we talked about yesterday, we've never really seen this happen

18:56ever with this magnitude of a player. And I think the biggest message is you got to have a plan for everything. You can't just float and your plan has to have a plan and your plan has to have a plan for how your plan is going to be effectuated and when you're going to do it and how it interlocks and interacts with other things. Because yes, they ultimately got the best possible offer they could, but they needed to have a shorter fuse on it. They needed to know what was going on in time for a very discreet visit from Max Crosby to Baltimore or to a neutral site. And the doctors go there, whatever the case may be, they needed to have this all buttoned up. And everyone know exactly where it stands before free agency started and all hell broke loose. And the Ravens lost guys and the Raiders signed guys under the impression that Max Crosby was going from Las Vegas to Baltimore. Yeah, at the same time, I think they think you and it was fair to say that they were doing their due diligence and they're feel like, hey, we're getting things in order here. So now we can get ready for the guys that we want to get for free agency.

19:59You know, so they were trying to be as diligent and I think in as planned as possible. It backfired. It's human life. Crap happens. It's the NFL. So yes, but I don't think it's because of like lack of poor planning are there. It's obviously is. Well, yeah, it's one of those things again. It's never happened before. So now, yes, maybe people will plan for it. I don't know. I mean, if you knew this was going to happen so much, why didn't you crystal ball and say, why are you doing this now Raiders? Where was your post with the Starkey comment going, wait, wait, this makes no sense. Have a shorter fuse. Because it's unforeseen. I said I regret did did not hear the part where I said I regret that I hadn't thought of that. Yes, I know because I've not paid to engage in strategic thinking for the Raiders. That's my point. And this is why and think of this the next time you want to call me Dr. Doom. Because when you litigate, you are cleaning up the messes that people didn't foresee. So that makes you start thinking about

21:01all the other ways that messes can happen. And I wish I thought, you know, this guy had a meniscus repair. I don't know about this physical. Yeah. What kind of bar what kind of bar or the ravens going to have to pass him on this physical because you got 32 different teams and they can have bars all over the place as to what it's going to take to pass him on it. So yeah, in hindsight, it all makes sense. And I think we all should have seen it coming. I wish I'd seen it coming. The point is the two parties most involved in this are the ones who have the obligation to see this stuff coming and they failed to do it. Yeah. I think you know, all the thing is the meniscus surgery. It's kind of run of the mill now. Nobody looks at it and go, oh, there's going to be a problem, right? I think that's the other person. That's why most of the league didn't believe it. That's why they didn't believe it. They went, wait, meniscus, they're going to like the no, but that doesn't happen. That's I think that was the thought of everybody. That's what looks fishy about it. So yeah, this will make everybody rethink and retool that. Dr. Doom. Yeah. Well, Dr. Doom, Dr. Needle,

22:06Dr. Whoever it was Dr. Cooper, the cowboy hat wearing cowboys, Dr. who I think once I heard that he was involved and he was raising the red flag on this one, you know, this isn't a doctor who's going rogue or who's getting the wink nod from the Ravens. Hey, real, hey, make sure you make sure. Hey, make sure you're real. Hey, listen, make sure you're really check out that. And he wasn't a situation like that. I mean, that's the whole system is ripe with the potential for skepticism. We've seen it before and physicals have been failed before. And the Raiders have had a couple of players that I can remember who had physicals that were an issue. Jimmy Garoppolo, we talked about him. Everybody's there for the press conference. They send everybody home and say, come back tomorrow. There's a problem with the physical. Remember Roger Saffold, he had some sort of a shoulder thing. He was going to sign with the Raiders after years with the Rams and the Raiders failed him on the physical and he went back and the Rams passed him and he rejoined the Rams for

23:10less money than he was going to get from the Raiders. Yeah, remember that. It's it's it's this is I don't know what they can do to change this as it relates to trades that are negotiated tentatively before the start of the league year. You've got to find a way to get the physical done before you have a deal. And and I just don't know what you can do other than make sure you get everything done a lot sooner. So everyone knows where they stand when it's time to start spending money or not spending money because you think you're not going to have or you think you are going to have this $30 million liability on your books for 2026. And you know it's it's it's you know it should never happen again. Let's just say that. Yeah, especially for a big name player. This should never happen again. The Max Crosby precedent should should cause all teams to do a deep dive and understand

24:12what was missed what went wrong and how you avoid this in the future. Although again, I kind of liked it. It's kind of good for business. I'm not complaining about that side of it because it has been driving a lot of conversation. But there are lessons to be learned from it going forward. Get this stuff done. Get it done discreetly. And get it done quickly enough. So you know, maybe it doesn't have to be done discreetly. Maybe maybe there has to be like a public process. Maybe it has to be, you know, maybe you're on to something when maybe it has to be, hey, we might trade Max Crosby. We're the Raiders. Oh, right. Ravens Cowboys. You know, let's just another name Patriots. You're involved. Okay. Hey, fly to Las Vegas or wherever Max Crosby is or Max Crosby will fly to whatever. And you guys can review him there with a doctor and whatever. And we know everybody already knows you're in the trade conversation anyways. But here, bring your own doctor. We'll have an independent doctor. Everybody can go through it so we can see where it stands before we get to that point

25:15of what you're talking about. So we don't embarrass a player or embarrass a football team on top of that. Maybe it has to be something like that. Maybe it needs to be made more public and just get it out there and get it done. And instead of, you know, hoping it's okay. And we through word of mouth and the lead up of the process. I don't know that we make it public. But I think what you're on to here is the idea where it's almost like a mini comment. Exactly. Yes. Yeah. The player goes somewhere. The doctors from the interested teams go there and everybody gets a chance to poke and prod and come to their conclusion as to whether or not they're comfortable with proceeding. Now, the risk you're taking is you get all these doctors together and they start looking at the MRIs and they started holding. Oh, I mean, we. Oh, sorry. I got to be somewhere like and the next thing you know, no one wants to trade for him. But it's going to happen anyway. They're going to do the poking and the parting anyway. Yes. Yes. Why not make I think here's the key. You make the

26:15medical exam part of the pre finalization of the agreement process. And that eliminates the opportunity for someone to pull the rug out from under the other team. That would be better. Yeah. Everybody's at the table. Everybody gets to say, okay, before we go any farther, before we have these conversations about what the compensation is going to be, we want to know who's in. Yeah, who's at the opportunity. Two ways. You've had the opportunity to review all the medical information. And to negotiate with his agent. So you know what it's going to take. To get him through the door, whether he's going to be content to take his current deal, whether he wants to, you've all had the chance to do it because I believe there were two prongs here of what Baltimore was allowed to do. Do the physical and talk to the agent. That's common. Yeah. But I like this. I like this through the, through the, the, the, the, the, the lively back and forth has come. I think I hit it progress. You need to let all this shit be done before any deal is,

27:22before there's ever a tentative deal done, before it ever becomes public. We're going to have all the doctors. We're going to have the agents, the agent and the, and they're going to figure it all out. And before we go any farther, now's your chance to say no to either the medical or the contract. And if you don't say no, then once we do a deal, the deal's done. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. I think there could be something to that there. I think it could protect the league in a lot of ways. It protects the leagues, protects the teams, protects the players from embarrassment, like you talked about. I think it wouldn't be a bad thing to do here. And, you know, and again, it's, it's a crazy situation. And that's where I get. I just was trying to say it's hard for me to blame. And then you're right. I know they should see some of these things. And it's not your job to think about that. I get it. But it's also hard to think about it too. I think when you're thinking about, wait, we want to get it done. And then the other tentacle we little learned yesterday too, right? It's just that, hey, they want to get it done. I think and get it all done because they were going, wait, we got to get things in balance here because if you take Eric to

28:25cost that his word, he was going, we were really planning on getting Max Crosby and hoping to get Tray Hendricks in too. So that's another reason why, you know, I could see them going, hey, let's get this done. Let's get it over. Hey, we got that. Now we can start to figure out our money. And can we really make a play at Tray Hendricks? And that's where it stinks. But yeah, this was kind of a unforeseen circumstance that yes, you maybe hope they would have saw. I get all that. But it's a tough one nonetheless. And one thing that I think has gotten mixed up by a lot of the people try to discuss this. And I think it's important for us to separate the two. There's a fundamental difference between the physical that is done before two teams do a trade and the physical that is done before a free agent contract is signed sealed and delivered. And one thing that's come out of the Crosby situation, even though it has nothing to do with the negotiating window, it has nothing to do with free agency. It just happened during that period. One thing I've heard and there's some talk around the league that they need to figure out something here. There needs to be more of a runway

29:30in advance of the start of the negotiating window to let interested teams do physicals of the players who are going to do these deals because it does give every team that agrees to a contract during the two day window, the chance to say, yank, rip the leg out, rip the rug out from under the player. Once it's too late for him to go back and get maximum compensation because the best money flows in the early hours of free agency. So there's talk about coming up with some way to create more time, more of an opportunity or any opportunity as the case may be to conduct physical examinations of the guys who are going to be available in the negotiating window in free agency. Yeah, I would like that. I mean, I know we've discussed, we've discussed with other coaches about pushing the off season back a little bit. Maybe we'd have more head coaches and GMs or at least head coaches at the combine if they weren't worried about, wait, free agency starts next

30:33week. The draft doesn't start for eight weeks. I can't worry about that right now. I need to worry about the things that are going to change our football team next week. So that's where I would agree with that sentiment or what you're saying there. If they could push it back a little, buy some times her teams would do stuff like you're talking about. And then yeah, I mean, not only does it hurt the player, as we know, it hurts the team too. So it's a double whammy effect. It'd be good for the NFL, I think, in general, if that could happen there. People in the NFL get very nervous at the prospect of pushing anything back. I know they are very protective of that four weeks or so that they have middle of June to middle of July because that's what's going to happen. One of these days, the NFL is going to squeeze the off season down to nothing to like one week off for the coaches and the front office people. Obviously the players have a break between the end of the off season program, the start of training camp. But everybody else is working, working, working except for maybe

31:34four weeks. That's going to get pinched. That's going to get squeezed at some point inevitably somehow. And I know that that's going to be the first reaction to any suggestion that we need to push things back. We need to delay things and the thing about delaying free agency, the players don't want that because they want to get their signing bonuses. They want to get their money and follow up for that. Because every once in a while, the idea pops up and moving the draft in front of free agents. Yeah, right. We talked about that. Ask Paul does. Yes. And the problem is for the free agents, you're just, you're making it longer for them to get the financial commitment that they want. Okay. So I think it's a good point to take a break because you mentioned Ray Hendrickson. There was some reporting last night about Max Crosby's contract expectations. As you mentioned earlier, there was, there was a rebuttal to that. So there's still a few more things left to take a look at as it relates to Max Crosby, the Raiders and the Ravens. Let's take a break and we'll continue the conversation on PFT Live right after this. I'm going to yell at you more,

32:36Dr. Doom. There's Max Crosby using the Undertaker GIF. Everything happens for a reason. Believe nothing you hear in half of what you see. I'm a Raider. I'm back. Run that shit. I don't like that. Believe nothing you hear in half of what you see. I mean, come on, man. Don't act like nothing went down here. Don't, don't hack. I mean, obviously, Max some stuff happened. You can't just act like, oh, hey, up. I woke up and decided I'm going to stay in Las Vegas. We all know what happened. So I'm not a big fan of that. I'm not a big fan of that. But, but it, it sure sounds like he's sticking around now. It's going to be very awkward if he leaves again after making it clear that he's committed to the raid. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing I felt that, I explained to a lot of people in public yesterday. Like, man, how's this going to work? And I went like, hey, they didn't break up in a bad way.

33:38You explained that earlier this week. I think Max Crosby had a lot of respect for the Raiders. He enjoyed it. It just was like, wait, where is this going? And I want to, I want to win here. And I want to start seeing something that tells me we're going to win. And I feel like we know the Raiders liked them, liked them certainly too, but they looked at it and like at a point of their, their lifeline to go, wait, does it make sense for us to have this guy right now? And he's our greatest asset. Do we have a chance to kind of start a young nucleus? So I don't feel like it's not bad blood. It's not bad blood. And yeah, I don't know what he's talking about on that tweet. Maybe he's just talking about, hey, my knees, not as bad as what everybody's trying to say it is. Maybe that's all it means by that. But maybe that's it. Yeah. Maybe that's it. But, but it, it's got a lot to push back against, but he's motivated. If anybody can do it, it's him. If anybody is going to go out there, you know, they say the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. If there's anyone who can defy that, it's Max Crosby. His spirit is so strong that it may overcome any of all frailties of the flesh. That's his mindset. That's his motivation. And he's

34:38going to be even more motivated. And I could see Max Crosby coming to the conclusion on the flight back from Baltimore to Las Vegas that everything happens for a reason. This is a message from the football gods. I was meant to stay in Las Vegas. I'm not meant to go anywhere else. Yeah. I shouldn't be upset that the Raiders tried to protect me from myself. I shouldn't have maybe been playing on this torn meniscus. Maybe I made it worse. Maybe this is why the doctors are, you know, they're there. And I, you know, if I'm late 20s and still feeling like I'm invincible and all these things are annoyances, I think the doctors are just being overly cautious. Doctor, doom, I'm fine. And I'll show you I'm fine. So that's the whole mindset. Now he may be in for a rude awakening at some point. If the knees just not going to cooperate with the messages that are coming from the neurons and synapses and nerves all the way down to his knee. And then the knee

35:41just says, sorry, Max, we don't work here anymore. But until then, I understand the, I understand the mindset. And it's good for the Raiders. It really is. There's so many Raiders fans that were like, oh, man, yeah, thank God he's gone. We'll take the food to first round picks. And now all of a sudden, it's like, oh, thank God he's back. I think he should be happy. He's back because look at what they've done in free agency as long as they can pay for it all and fit it under the cap. And they can, they can fit it under the cap. I don't know the Mark Davis has the extra 30 million laying around to supplement the budget that was busted in free agency. But, you know, go get a loan, I guess, because the money's going to be coming in this season. I think it's good for the Raiders and it puts them on the track to being competitive. Definitely that. I mean, we liked what they did in the first day of free agency. They were one of the teams I looked at to go, hey, they won today. That I, you know, Linda bomb. Yes, they overspend. We've talked about that. Okay. But still, they felt like they needed it to start this new era with the young quarterback and a top 10 running back behind it. Okay. Sometimes you got to do that. And like you said, sometimes you

36:43got to pay the tax of like, yeah, we're not that good. We'll have to pay a little extra money to get you here. But the rest of the contracts, getting a guy like Quay Walker for what they did. I mean, I think there's people in the NFL that thought he would, he and Devon Lloyd would challenge the top of the market at the linebacker position. And I think it's really only because they, you know, it's only been a year or a year and a half of really quality, awesome play, where he was young at first and it took him a while to get used to the NFL. But damn, I mean, him, we know the Kobe Dean is polished. I mean, it was the starter for the Eagles, Jalen Nailer, Quiddy Pay, all good players without having to spend crazy money on that other than Linda bomb. And now you add Max Crosby to the mix with Malcolm Coons there. As you see, and you go, holy crap, they got one of them. They got it at the time with the defense. They traded for Tyron Johnson from Buffalo, who still a really damn good nickelback. So they have a different look on that side. Devon's a coordinator, Rob Leonard should be very happy with the pieces he's got to play with there.

37:44And the other bit of good news for the Raiders, it's going to be hard for Max Crosby as for an adjustment of the contract that has four years left on it that he just did a year ago. It's one thing to be going through the door with a new team that's giving up two first round picks and expecting something that adjusts you in relation to the rest of the market becomes a little more awkward now for Max Crosby to expect the Raiders who just gave him the contract last year with four years left on it paying out 29 million per year moving forward. So and hey, I mean if I'm Max Crosby, I'm thinking centers at 27 and I'm at 29 something's wrong with this picture. But again, it's going to be hard for him to do anything about it. And that leads to the the little dust up that emerged last night on social media, Diana Roussini tweeted that as part of the proposed trade for Max Crosby, the Ravens. We're also prepared to sign him to a revised contract that would have paid him near the top of the past Russia market. Had that deal gone through, it would have

38:49made also signing Trey Hendrickson very all caps difficult. CJ LaBoi, one of the two agents representing Max Crosby responded to words fake news. All right, as much as I hate that phrase, I despise that phrase fake news, I don't know what is fake about that. It's too general. Is all of it fake? Was it a contract that would have paid him like, I don't know, somewhat near the top of the market? I still think that there was a good chance for a new contract and I would be very surprised to learn that the permission the Ravens had to do a physical of Max Crosby didn't also include permission to talk to the agents about the contract. 46.5 is the top of the market. So the problem is the market is so broad. When you say a contract that would have paid him

39:51near the top of the market, I don't think he would have been near the top of the market. I don't think that's what he would have been looking for. I think he would have been looking for 40. 40. He's at 35.5. Get to 40. That's not near top of the market. Top of the market is 46.5. I guess somebody could say it is near. I don't think it's near. I don't think 40 is near 46.5. It's nearly a year. On a four year commitment. That's 25 million bucks. If you get 40, you're tied for fourth. You're at the top of the market as far as the number wise and pecking order, but yeah, you're a little off there. I had heard and again, I don't know this for sure. But I had some people who have heard us talk and reach out and everything like that way. I don't, at least from what I know, I don't think he was going to ask for a new deal right now. That's what I was led to believe. He was going to get there and just say, let's play football. If I do really good, then it'll be time to go, hey, you know what? I want some more money. But I feel like that's maybe what the agent is pushing back against. I don't think they went into the door from my understanding as I sit here

40:56now of going like, hey, trade, hey, we want to bump up on the contract. I don't feel like I've been led to believe that was part of the conversation here at least at first. Well, that would have been the best time to do it. Yeah, I hear you. On the way through the door, that's when you have maximum leverage. Hey, Ravens, you want to do this trade? You want to do this trade? You got to get the Raiders what they want and you got to give me what I want. And let's do this. If you think I'm worth two first round picks, four years, 29 million, that's really not a proper reflection of the investment you're making in me. And if I'm the Ravens, I want to know right out of the gates. I want to add to your point, your very excellent point that let's have all the doctors get together and look at this guy. I want to know, I want to know, before I buy this player, I want to know what it's going to cost me. I don't want to find out later that there's some hidden cost I wasn't aware of that all the sudden he's upset with his contract. I want to know, is he healthy? And what does he want?

41:59Tell me now, tell me now what this is going to cost before we say, okay, we're going to do this thing. We're going to trade for this player. So that would have been the best way to do it now. Now, the whole of Trey Hendrickson point because one of the arguments is and look, I'm a big fan and I hate the term conspiracy theory because I think that term has been ruined by the over the top crazy ass bullshit conspiracy theories that have emerged over the last 10 years. But I'm very supportive of skeptical thought. And I think it's not crazy to think that as the Ravens were reviewing the medical information and trying to decide whether or not this is a physical that they're comfortable with and whether or not they were willing to go through with this deal for Max Crosby and assume the risk that the knee is going to be a problem. Trey Hendrickson still. Trey Hendrickson wanted too much money. He didn't get a deal done on Monday

43:03because he wanted too much money. He's still out there. He can still be had. And all right, Crosby's going to cost 29 over four years on the way in the door and we may have to pay him more later. We could get this guy for 28 and not have to give up two first round picks. Okay, yeah, you know what? I'm not real comfortable with that knee. So that there had been the thought that this was Crosby's their guy Hendrickson's plan B. Here's the cost of telling yesterday that the plan was plan A and plan B. There he is on Hendrickson. We were very focused on Max. A lot of attention given to that particular acquisition. Like as I said, a player that I think really fits us and his skill set. We've played against him. Really admire him in many different ways. We came to a point probably after we lost Tyler where as we're trying to find the best way for us to get better as a football team, Trey kind of made a lot of sense as a possible guy to look at. So we started some discussions

44:08with he and his agent thinking that, you know, potentially we have two past rushes on the defensive line and both sides of the line. And you know, that's the thing to remember, they were going to get Crosby while they were still in it for Linderbaum. One of the crazy conspiracy theories about the Max Crosby failed trade. And I've gotten a bunch of emails to this effect. The Ravens backed out because they're mad that the Raiders paid Tyler Linderbaum. That's just cookie. That's just cookie. But the reality is they traded for Crosby or at least they had a tentative deal that hinged on a physical. They did that while still hoping to get Linderbaum and willing to pay him as I hear it 22 million a year. So you already have room for Crosby and Linderbaum. So Linderbaum goes and the cost explains it. All right, what are we going to do

45:12that money? Well, we could go after Hendrickson. And they tried. And it would have been something if they had gotten both. Now that would have been okay. Are we doing the parade on Tuesday or Wednesday after the Super Bowl? Like, I mean, that would have been the reaction. Who knows what would have played out? But can you imagine if they had gotten, if they had gotten both Crosby and Hendrickson and the way to cost it tells that they were, they were thinking about trying to do that. Yeah, I mean, it would have been incredible. I mean, it really would have talked about game changing move, lead changing move. Those two guys coming off the edge would have changed everything we thought about the Ravens. I mean, we know the Ravens are still going to be good and competitive and a playoff caliber football team with just everything they got on the offensive side of the ball. But those are the type of players that take you from, hey, we're a fringe playoff team to, hey, we're one of the best teams in football. We don't ever have to blitz with those two. We can just drop seven into coverage every play because we're going to get there between our detacles and the

46:15two rushers. So yeah, I mean, the possibilities of that are incredible. That's where you feel for the Ravens fans and what they had in their grasp there. And oh my gosh, it's going to be Max Crosby. And then to learn that that they were going to try to couple them together. I think that makes it even more crushing for the Ravens fans to hear this type of news. Even though it's awesome, they got Trey Hendrickson. It's just the what if of, you know, what would have if we had both? What could it have been? And that's devastating. And, you know, I think the the eric de costa explaining these things and all of that was really great by him and the Ravens yesterday. And on top of that, you get to see the emotion behind it, which makes you believe in everything they're saying. You get to see that you get to see that he takes a deep breath. I'm like, man, we were heavily invested in this Max Crosby thing. Like he was he was hurt by this, which I think would be another context clue for everybody out there to go, no, they had real concerns about the knee. It wasn't pulling the rug out of underneath everybody there to trick us

47:15there. And what did we say yesterday? They have to say something. Yeah. It's better to put someone out there and let them speak so we can observe their demeanor, their facial expressions, etc. Then to issue a counter tweet in response to the the tweet from the Raiders that got this all started thing that I thought was fake got pissed off at the guy that sent it to me. It's like, you know, we're trying to work here, man. Just don't, don't, but we get we get out of here. That dumb shit. You know, so anyway, that that was only 36 hours ago. And so much has happened since what on top of that? Okay, go ahead. I was going to just say, I'm going to pick your brain too and go, uh, did you hear anything from about Trey Hendricks and maybe signing with another team? I'm just interested in the course of what that went down. And did the price go up once the Max Crosby thing went down because now the Ravens were willing to go, wait, we definitely want you. So we'll throw more money on the pot. We got to have you. What was that? What was he? We heard the

48:20the the Diana Rossini report of saying, you know, it seems like between Max Crosby and other, the teams are 10 million dollars apart. That's kind of what I had heard as well. But what were those numbers? Was he being offered 35 or 25 and he wanted 35? I'm just, I'm interested to kind of know, you know, the details behind that and how that went down. And I've yet to hear which is odd. And maybe I'm wrong. That's where I want you to tell me of like anybody that really made a real big offer to Trey Hendricks and I feel like you usually hear, hey, the Ravens signed them, but blah, blah, blah team was also hot on those heels and water them. And I haven't heard any like that. And I just, I kind of found it peculiar as I was thinking about all this last night. I saw something last night and it was one of those. I need to pivot back to it at some point. And I don't know if it was Brear. I don't know who it was. Jonathan Jones was the first one that I saw who reported there was a 10 million dollar. That's right. Yeah, right. He was the first

49:20Hendricks and wanted and what the market was, was providing, which tells you this guy was way over his skis in his expectations and he needed some time to come back down to earth. But what I think I saw at some point yesterday and I'm trying to find it now as we're talking about it. I saw something along the lines of, yeah, I like maybe the, there was a handful of other teams involved, but you know, the Ravens came in just a little bit above. Yeah, everyone else. I think that's, I think that's how it went. And the Ravens, you know, they were in a position where they could, because it was going to be max at 29 plus two first round picks and the possibility that it was going to want more money or trade Hendricks in at 28. I mean, to get him at 28, that's a pretty good deal. And I remember hearing last year that Hendricks and wanted the Max Crosby package at 35,

50:21five and the Bengals wouldn't give it to him. So my guess is based upon all the different things that are out there, he was at 35 and the rest of the world was at 25. I think so. It settled on 28. Exactly. Yeah, it feels that way. It feels that way. I don't know exact numbers, but just again, with people that I've texted with the league and everything there, I think those are the numbers that a lot of people feel like we're being thrown out there. And yeah, with the Ravens and have no lender bomb and no Max Crosby, they were like, okay, we can pay you the extra two or three million dollars a year to make sure we get you. And of course, it's a really damn good fit. It's still a damn good fit. Yeah, he's not as good as Max Crosby. We know that, but he's still damn good and he still does give them a presence here and it changes their football team. And hopefully, now one of these younger guys that they got in the roster, like a migraine, whoever, can come along on the other side, along with Tray Hendrix in here and they can form a force as far as a pass rush. And by the way, unless the Raiders and the Ravens somehow cross paths in

51:23the playoffs, they don't play again until 2027. I rechecked the schedule to make sure that we weren't going to be highly entertained by the possibility of the Raiders and the Ravens getting together this year. Alas, it won't happen unless again, they both get to the playoffs and they end up playing each other. So the other item of business that the Ravens are dealing with is the little Marjacks in contract. Take it back to January 13th, Steve Bischotti during the press conference regarding the firing of John Harbaugh said, we want to get Lamar Jackson signed to an extension by the start of free agency. And if that doesn't happen, we will exercise our right, our absolute right to restructure his contract. And the contract was restructured. The cost was asked about yesterday. He said, we ran out of time to do an extension. And that is a familiar refrain. Yeah. When it comes to Lamar Jackson, I mean, when I hear that, I'm thinking, uh-oh,

52:25here we go again. Yep. And I go back to the collusion grievance, the 61-page collusion grievance, and what's lurking in there? Quotes like Lamar said the microphone on his telephone was broken, that that's why he couldn't talk to the cost. Like, this is one of the basic realities. And here come all the people saying, you're just trying to help the agents. This is one of the basic realities having an agent. Yeah. The cost can get the agent on the phone. And that microphone always works when it's time to talk about Lamar Jackson's contract. So they couldn't get a deal done. They do the stroke of a pen. And what they did, they created, and I tried to do the analysis yesterday. The way I did the numbers, because here's how this works. I'm going to try to keep it as simple as possible. Because I'm not sure I completely understand it. They put void years at the end of some of these contracts. Yeah. Lamar Jackson's got two void years, 28 and 29. And those are

53:26there for primarily absorbing cap charges when you do a restructuring. So last year when they restructured in 2025, they had five, six, seven, eight, and nine. They could divide the money that was turned into assigning bonus from the salary. Take that, divide it by five, and put 20% in each of the next five years. That's how it works when you do a restructuring. This year, they took that number and it was almost 50 million if they used the entire amount that they were allowed to pro rate. Because you can go all the way down to the minimum salary of 1.3 million. So it was like, I think it was like 51, 5, something like that. It was more than 50, 52, 5, something like that. So you could do it over four years now, 26, 27, 28, 29. And they can actually do it next year in the final year of his contract, 27, 28, 29. The problem is, and yes, it created almost 40

54:32million in cap space this year. Man, there is an iceberg out there that keeps getting bigger and bigger that they're dumping all this cap money into that they're going to have to deal with if he leaves. Now, if he doesn't leave, there's a way to do the new contract and play games with those cap dollars. But if he leaves in free agency, Chris, in 20, 28, the Ravens are going to have a cap calamity on their hands. Now, the cap keeps going up. So the, you know, the relative impact is smaller, but they keep dumping millions into these two years where Lamar Jackson's not going to be there. Yeah, it is crazy. Potentially. Yeah, it is. Before I even look at any of that, what's the worst excuse? Tell me which one's worse. I don't get reception in my Matlaboo million dollar mansion or my microphone doesn't work on my phone. Which one? Which one by our all

55:35pro MVP quarterbacks? I mean, you talked about careful planning and things behind the scene. And here's two guys quarterbacks smart as hell. That's the two excuses. They came up with why they couldn't get in contact with their team. I mean, come on, come on. Which one's worse? Tell me. Well, I think Rajas is worried. I'm sorry, but it's just, you know, because it's so obvious that, and he's, he actually, here's why it's worse. He actually tried to deliver it with a straight face. He did. Lamar isn't doing a press conference saying, you know, sorry, my, my microphones broke and like, you know, we've all, we've all offered up some flimsy excuse within the context of one-on-one private communications to stand up and say it out loud. That's pretty weak. Yeah. Yeah. That was one of the, that was one of the, that was one of the excuses that Rajas provided for the, the inability of the Green Bay Packers to get in touch with them before things all fell apart

56:39there. Right. So, look, now, the, the key is that more and more of these contracts now have, and I think it's a default now that you have the provision in there that allows the team to do the restructuring. You used to have to go to the player and get him to agree to it. And man, that would have been interesting. If it wasn't already in the contract this year and the Ravens had to go to Lamar Jackson and get him to agree to it, all he's got to say is no, no, you want to reduce my cap number. There's a way to do it. Extend my contract. Yeah. I mean, the Seahawks got, that's why the Seahawks traded Geno Smith. Yeah. Geno Smith had a cap number in the last year of his three-year contract that needed to come down and needed to be dealt with. And Geno Smith tried to leverage head into 40 million a year. And the Seahawks said the hell with that will just trade you. So, it really would have pushed things to a head if the Ravens didn't have the ability to restructure the contract, but they did. And they've created a lot of cap space. Yeah, they have. And that's one of the easy ways to do it. But man, they got, there's some, there's some,

57:43there's some stuff out there they're going to have to deal with. Let's deal with and think about, and they're still going to have to hear questions about Lamar. And we knew that Steve Beshati said, at the end of the year, he'd like to get an extension done with Lamar. I mean, it doesn't get anymore like in your face than that. When the agent, I mean, the owner basically comes out and press conferences like, yeah, we'll just same contract different numbers. And you can't get that done to kind of formulate your team for the future. Yeah, I, you know, it makes you wonder. One, it goes like, okay, here we go with Lamar again. Nobody can ever get in contact with them anywhere, any at any time. That's been an issue. Doesn't matter who you talk to. And okay, that's fine. That's the way things are done. But as we have argued before, we feel like money has been left on the table because of some of those circumstances. Certainly. But the other thing that's just going to lend itself to thought here with Lamar again, and Eric DeCosta making a comment like the time has come and gone. We, we, it's too late for the, the new contract now. We've, we've made too

58:48many moves. We wanted to do that first. So then we can set things in order. So now they don't do that. But I mean, it's not going to squash Lamar to Miami. It's not going to squash that. Oh, wait. Oh, Malik will assign to three year deal that actually was a two year deal. That'll be ending right as Lamar's deal ends if he wants it to. And that's also going to be out there. I mean, it is. And it made, I thought of it when I, when I saw this and the run down and went, I went, oh, man, is Lamar just going to kind of sit back and go, oh, let me see how this goes because, you know, wink, wink. I saw Steven Ross or someone one of his lackey somewhere and said, I still like Miami. I'd like to come home and play there at one point. Hey, hey, Steven Ross's team would never tamper. You're funny. So don't go there. You're funny. Well, and let's go down memory lane because we're talking about less than two months ago. I know January 13. Yeah, I've got the article in front of me here. Steve Bishaddi and Eric DeCoste meeting with reporters

59:48if they're embarking on the search for a new head coach who ultimately was Jesse Minner and talking about the departure of John Harbock. DeCoste said an extension with Jackson would certainly give us more flexibility in building a team. We have a nice little nest egg. It's not as much as we'd like a deal with Lamar would give us the ability to be more active to resign. Probably more players on the team and potentially go after a big ticket item. Again, that all hinges on Lamar doing a new deal. And Bishaddi said this, we want another window. Lamar knows that. I think he's amenable to doing something that mirrors the last deal that he did. Although the annual number will be a little higher. I'm hoping it's plug in your number in the same contract he signed in 2023 and move on. The urgency of that matters to me because we've got free agents and I don't want to go into free agency with that hanging over our head. I made that clear to Lamar and I think he was very appreciative of my stance and hopefully willing to work with Eric and not get this thing dragged

1:00:54out like it did last time. Man. Yeah. Uh oh. Yeah. Right. And then we've heard complaints and we've heard, you know, we know they love Lamar. But is this always perfect with everything? No, it's not. We know that. We know. And we're not going to get into details of all that in there. But these are getting little things that I look at and and again, maybe he has other plans to go. But what I will say, you know, for Lamar is, yes, showing up for OTA is important for if you want to win. It's important. And being able to practice all the time is important if you want to win. It is. And what I would also say on top of that is the great quarterbacks, Tom Brady and others throughout time Patrick Mahomes right now, when the team says stuff like that to him and they tell them, hey, we got a plan and we want to sign this guy and do that. That's part of why they are who they are. They're again, it's the gym rat of Mahomes. Oh, okay. Hey, guys, you need this. Hey, we're

1:01:55going to make our team better. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm in. I'm in it. All right. Let's get the deal done. Let's do it. I want to win a Super Bowl. I want to go back this year. I want to go back this year. Let's redo the deal. And that's to me, the difference right now and there's something to do that. And again, Tom Brady was the same accessible way with New England. Hey, Tom, we're going to sign this guy. We want to resign Grunk and blah, blah, blah. You know, can you take less or can you restructure the deal? Do whatever. And then we all sit there and go, how is New England dominating football for 20 years in a row? Well, it's little things like that that go a long way. And yeah, this doesn't help the Ravens. And that's what I know. Again, I would love to tell them more of that. And you know, it's funny. Anytime that we bring this up, anytime we talk about this, we're doing it with the desire of helping Lamar. And there are Ravens fans who will perceive this as an attack. And it's amazing to me how fans are so protective, knee jerk, reflexive protective

1:02:56of their teams that they don't understand that we are raising things that need to be addressed if your team is going to be as good as it can be. You should be on our side with this. You shouldn't be circling wagons and wagging fingers at anyone who would point these things out. Now again, I think people just don't like to have their worst fears about a team. Yeah, emphasized. And I think if I'm a Ravens fan, I'm wondering, man, how do we hold this together with Lamar? But look, Chris, all we can do is draw conclusions from what the facts are. The fact that both the cost and the shoddy were so clear in their wishes to get this thing done by the start of free agency. And it didn't happen. How do you not look at that and say, this is a freaking mess? That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Is he all in with Jesse Minner? Does he want to be traded?

1:04:00I'll tell you something I heard during the break that's not ready to be okay, that may that may raise your eyebrows. But you know, all he's got to do is show up and collect $104 million over the next two years, assuming he shows up for the offseason program because otherwise it's $1025. Either way, show up, collect your money and become a free agent because they can't tag him in 2028 and go straight to Miami. Yeah, yeah, I know. And again, that's amazing. Yeah, it is. It's it's odd. And it continues to be the story that kind of hovers around Lamar and the Ravens and the Ravens say the right thing. And you know, of course, they've been very successful and all that too. But I would think in lieu of those comments and where we are now and all that, that yes, they're probably a little frustrated or like rolling their eyes at Lamar a little bit like, oh, can we get this guy in the phone? Can we get some things done here in an orderly fashion? That's got to frustrate them. Well, and I think it makes them feel

1:05:02paralyzed because what can you do? And that's what was so striking to me when Steve Beshati was talking about hiring a coach and taking input from the player, but I have the power. And that's true. I'm not, you know, the owner of the team has the power at the time you don't want to say it out loud because the implicit message is the guy who plays quarterback has power too. He's got the power to say, I don't want to sign a new contract. Sorry, I can't hear you. The microphone on my telephone is broken, whatever he wants to say. And this gets back to something we've been saying for months, if not years, the communication issues between the Ravens and Lamar Jackson have created problem after problem after problem for the player and for the team. And the soon, I'm, look, we've been down this rope of tape. If he would have hired, if he would have hired an agent from the get go, he would have gotten his contract when Josh Allen did all that money's never coming back. He would have another contract by now. All the money he would be making

1:06:04now, it's never coming back. And it's, it's astounding to me that this continues. This dysfunction between the Ravens and Lamar Jackson continues, but it clearly still does. All right, we must take a break. Daniel Jones, apparently, has gone to the Kirk Cousins School for Advanced Contracting because he did okay for himself yesterday. Talk about that next on PFT Live.