Welcome to the Ravens Presspass podcast. It is Thursday, August twenty ninth. The Ravens opened the regular season a week from today in Arrowhead against the Kansas City Chiefs. Before we get to that point, we had a chance to hear from Ravens general manager Eric Tacosta today. He talked with reporters just before the season and here's what he had to say.
Eric, and paring down the Rocks down to fifty three, what were kind of some of the more difficult decisions.
That you feel you had to make to get down a different.
Well, I mean we're strong in the secondary, and you know, we stayed strong. We kept some additional guys we really like our corner group and our safety group, and you know, it would have been more challenging really honestly had Trayvon Mullin stayed healthy and then Arthur Mallett, two really good players who got hurt. So yeah, we're very strong there, and you know, we had a few teams call us about a few of our players, and you know, mentality
is just if you're strong, stay strong. And you know, some years we've traded players and then you get a couple of injuries and you look at it and you kind of regret it now you're happy at draft time, but it makes for you know, some challenges in season. So we just decided this year that we liked our team and we were going to stand put with the players that we had. We felt there was a chance we get some really good players to the practice squad and we were fortunately able to do that.
But the rule that carried a third quarterback when you may roster they're going to two quarterbacks. Is that sort of an issue.
You'll deal with it if if your issue comes comes up or you know what kind of plan you got in place for that.
Well, we have three qbs, so you know, heaven forbid we get an injury, and if that happens, then we'll have to adjust the roster, you know, if we get a long term injury at quarterback. You know, that was an interesting dynamic. The rule passed at the owners meetings, and then we were notified I believe on July eleventh that the NFL p A had UH had not agreed to that rule change. So it was a little complicated, I think, especially for you know, teams that potentially drafted the QB.
In the draft.
You know, it just we didn't find out. We found out so late in the game. But in the end, we.
Have three qbs.
We just have one of the practice squad and we have a mechanism for getting that player up if we need to get them up. So I guess the one scenario would be if both qbs got hurt in a game, and we've dealt with that. We've dealt with that for years up until last year, so so we'll be ready to go regardless.
If you're happy your quarterback situation, I think there is for rating quarterback who's the least earlier to the.
But you think you're pretty good with what you have there, Well.
We have an MVP, so I think we're pretty happy there. With Josh, we have a really experienced guy. He's like having another coach, you know, and he's great with Lamar. The players love him, he's what, he's highly respected, he's a talented player. So we love Josh. And with Devin, we have a young player and he had his moments and just certainly as we've seen with quarterbacks, a lot of things that he can improve on and get better at, and we believe you will. But yeah, we like the room.
It doesn't mean that we won't add another guy, which we could do at some point.
You know.
It's like any position on the team will continue to evaluate and look at players that become available and make decisions based off of that.
Eric with the offensive line a lot of turnover this off season, I'm sure it was a big point of emphasis for you guys this offseason. How do you feel about them now compared to going into the off season.
Well, I mean, I think we're still there's a little bit of an unknown just because we haven't played as a unit in games. We've seen him in practice, you know, Tyler, you know, getting hurt early on the camp probably wasn't ideal. We're very excited to get him back, but you know, not having a Pro Bowl center out there. That's kind of the guy that drives the car in a lot of ways on the offensive line. He's the guy that typically will adjust the line and works hand in hand
with the quarterback on things like protections and stuff. Very important position, and we're blessed to have one of the best guys in the league. You know, I think across the board, we made the decision to start to build up the offensive line with young players and that was a you know, unfortunately, with a salary cap league, you know, you just can't build a team with veterans at every position.
If you could be.
Great, you know it would be you know, I always tell people I grew up a Cowboys fan, and the nineteen ninety three Dallas Cowboys. It was one of the great teams of all time that period with the Cowboys. And if that team had been able to stay together forever, they dodn't won Super Bowls every year, I think. But there is a salary cap, and there is free agency and things, and so you have to pay players. But you also understand you've got a draft and you've got
to develop young players as well well. And we have started to do that on the offensive line. Excited about Roger, excited about four He's Andrew, excited for the future. We may have a couple of hiccups across along the way, but I think we've started to build from the bottom up, and I think a year from that will be in a great place.
Did you know going into the offseason that would be the play with that group, or if the rate value had come up with a veteran, might.
You have adjusted.
It's hard because again, we went into this year knowing that when you pay your quarterback, your MVP quarterback, and make them the highest paid, you pay your basically the heart of your defense, Roquan, make them the highest paid linebacker, you pay arguably one of the top three defensive tackles in football last year, justin Mattabek. You realize you're going to have to make some changes in the way that you do business, and that's going to affects. It's affecting
other teams. I could give you ten different teams that are all dealing with that exact same phenomenon.
And you see it.
So it's just one of the realities of this business.
You know.
I can think of multiple teams right now that are struggling with this dynamic and they're gonna have to probably make major, massive changes in the next coming years. And so we're aware of that. You just simply can't pay everybody. And so we made the decision that we were gonna go young on the offensive lines as best as we could develop our guys. We've had a lot of success
developing offensive linemen in the past. I give you a bunch of players that we took in the draft or even got you know, off the streets, you know, and those guys became good players for us.
When you were constructing this offensive line, How did having a guy like Patrick Mutari affect the way that you look at it?
Well, it's Patrick's great. He can play multiple spots. I mean, he's played probably all five spots on the offensive line. So having that, you know, flexible chess piece, I think really helps us on game days especially.
You know, it's great.
He's like having an elite six man in basketball. You know Kevin McHale when I was a Celtic Celtics fan back in the eighties, who was the six man at one point. You know, Patrick's kind of like that. He can play all five spots and plays them.
Well, you're no stranger to the trades you made him many times over the years. Do you feel like you have the flexibility if there's a player that you want at some point this season to.
Pull off the trade.
Well, we don't right now because I think we're probably over the cap when you factor in practice squads and things like that. But at some point we will have to make some moves in the coming days and weeks, and we've been planning for all that, you know, So there's a lot of things we'll be able to do.
We will be cap.
Compliant, and we will have at least some money to spend if a player is available that we think will help us be the best team we can be.
You've been watching the preseason for a while now.
How much value do you get out of watching these games? And do you think we're closer to ending at all and just going to seventeen games altogether?
Oh, I don't know, Jerry, I don't have an opinion on that, but I do think that for us, looking at the practice, I mean, looking at the preseason games is really about looking at the lower end roster players and undrafted free agents and guys like that, and getting a chance to.
Evaluate those guys. You know.
We know we're not going to have a chance to look at really the starters and to get much of a feel. It's not like the old days when guys played in the first couple of preseason games, but it's still a great opportunity for us to evaluate the talent the back end of rosters, to look at those players that we may not know a lot about, to assess those players to help us, you know, find a couple guys here and there. I mean, I think our pro department, led by George Cokeenis and Marc as Sabada do as
good a job as anybody in the NFL. And I think that's proven every single year. They find players at all different levels of football, and we'll have a chance to at some point probably churn our practice squad and find some guys that we think are better than what we have, and those guys will probably help us win some football games.
Player making a team of both raide is that a specific pride? And finding again that undrafted player to get to the fifty three.
Uh.
You know, someone said maybe we had twenty out of twenty one years we had a guy make it. That's not necessarily like a streak that like we're trying to uh address. I mean, even that one year, I don't know who it was. Had I been aware of that streak, I probably would have kept a guy just to.
Keep the streak going.
So I really didn't know about that streak. But in this year, I just think with bo, I mean, that guy just really earned it. And if you looked at our games, you know, the Packers game, let's face it, it was kind of a joke. It was hard to watch in a lot of ways. I couldn't wait for the game to be over really, just you know, to get the pop Eyce chicken sandwich on the plane. But the reality is like bo actually just played great and he
did it consistently. He won the job, he took the job, and in the end he deserved to be on the team.
And that's what it was all about.
Intentioned Sally cafin compliance projection sites out of it between two million to three and half million over.
Are you expecting his significant restructures? You have to make more white sweeping moves to get cap rempliant where kind of to.
Be comfortable for in.
Season moves in a potential trade that you pretend to have an affinity for the season.
Just or are you expecting significant moves.
To get cap repliant and.
Buck Cup with the season?
Well I think I answered that, but I'll we have some flexibility to make some moves and we will in the next probably week be cap compliant.
A lot of different things we can do.
We've been pretty conservative and I'm blessed to have Nick Matteo, who's a great salary cap guy in pat Moriarty, who's kind of like the conciliarity of salary cap guys. So we're in good shape upstairs, and we'll have a good plan.
Eric when you feel like where you are at.
Edge rusher and specifically with David Agado and Tavius Robinson.
So yeah, I think both those guys really kind of made a jump this year. I mean, David has really been snake bitten by injuries. He's worked extremely hard. I mean, you guys know, coming back from an ACL terrorist challenging and this is a guy that did that in started practice in probably in eight months.
Which is pretty remarkable.
He is showing me that he has got his quickness back in his twitch and his suddenness.
Uh, he's playing with heavy.
Hands and I'm very excited about what he's gonna bring to the team this year. And then Tavius is a guy that just keeps getting better and he plays with a passion.
He's very very physical, stout edgestter.
He plays with a relentless energy about him, you know, and I think his best football is on the common. He's going to be one of these guys that probably a year from now, two years from now, we're going to say it was one of our better fourth round picks.
Along those lines.
I don't think we asked you yet about a da FE and the decision to pick up that fifth year option.
I guess, what have you seen to give him a pretty significant check of money for twenty twenty five?
Well, that I did from what I've seen. You know, we were kind of betting on the come with him. He's a guy last year. You know, everybody wants to kind of evaluate a player based on just a sack production, which you know, I get that that's what we do as fans. But this is a guy that impacts games and played well last year, and we felt like he was going to make another jump, and we've seen it in the training camp. We've seen him every day you
guys are out there. You've seen the energy that he plays with his ability to disrupt and make things happen. And you know, it's it's always it's never easy when you're talking about a fifth year option. That's why you see so many fifth year options not get picked up around the league. I mean, it's kind of surprising when
you think about it. We do for a living, and yet we draft these guys and then we don't pick up their fifty year option almost probably half the time, I'm guessing without any I don't know the stats on that. But but with o'dafe, we just felt like this was a guy that has all the tools.
He plays hard, he's.
Got a great energy about him, he wants to be good, he's got all the talent to be one of the better guys at his position, and uh, and we just decide to make a bet on him, and he was gonna do it, and so far I feel really good about it.
Is when you were deciding to make Rashaan Bateman a part of the team's future and you're evaluating what you thought could make him a success, how much of that comes down to chemistry with Lamar and how do you think they can continue building that.
It's just really an opportunity, you know, for him to show what he can do consistently. I think a big part of that is him staying on the field playing catching the ball. He runs great routes, he's he's tough, he.
Wants to be good.
He he has the talent to do it, and uh, he needs the opportunities. But and then half of that is really getting the opportunities the other half of that is staying healthy and doing being the best he can be. But I am very bullish on Rashad. I've said that repeatedly. It was a no brainer for us to extend him, to give him the chance to be what we all know he's going to become. He is a great kid, an awesome guy. I love having him here in the building.
He's got a great opportunity and I believe he's going to show the fans this year what he can be on paper.
What do you like about the roster that you constructed.
We got a lot of guys that love the game. They play hard, relentless. The camaraderie is great, the culture is awesome. These guys really get along well together. And
we have a lot of really good young players. And we're going to have more challenges because looking out, you know, in the next couple of years, starting after this season, we're going to have some really, really good players that we can extend and it's gonna be challenging, but we're gonna try to do it because we're going to try to keep I think I said this back in twenty nineteen, We're gonna try to keep as much of our young
talent here in Baltimore as we can. We can't do it all the time, but that's a mission.
That we have.
And I love that we have so many good young players and you know, they just keep emerging and we keep seeing these guys develop in our training staff and strength and conditioning staff and our coaches just they do a great job taking young players and helping them be
the very best that they can be. And it's it's great in one way, but in the other way, it's it's hard because we can't keep every single player, but we're gonna try to keep as many guys as we can, and so I think our future is very bright a lot of lines.
Brandon Stevens is going to be his fourth year.
Is he a guy that you're really watching this year and say, hey, maybe this is somebody I want to have this contract aggreciations with this year.
Yeah.
I mean, Brandon had as good a year last year as anybody on the team, and I love his attitude, love how he just takes care of his business as a player, and I think he's gonna make another jump this year. So again, you know, he's a guy that you know, we certainly want to keep him here. Long term. It's not without a challenge. He plays a position where the best players are highly compensated. But we'll do our best. And I just I admire so many things about Brandon.
This guy has had some adversity. He's overcome so many different things, position changes, transfers and all these things, and he's made himself one of the best corners in the NFL.
Sorry, Eric, one of the guys that you probably will want to extend, you know, when time comes.
Call Hamilton, do you ever think back to that draft and wonder, like, how did this guy still fall to you?
Guys?
You know, I just.
I credit Ozzie because it happened to him so many times. We're just the best player fell to him, and it happened to me. So I'm blessed we have been around Ozzy and sat next to him, and maybe some of that magic kind of fell off on us that year and we were able to get who I consider to be one of the best players in that draft class, the Loner's life.
Hamilton, Steve was very versatile. John and the coaches all talk about diversity, flexibility of the roster. Is that something you guys are seeing in the college game and you're emphasizing to the scouts hows you're developing the players when they get here. Every every coach talks about it.
Well, I think versatility is a skill, you know, it's a it's a it's a trait that we look for scouts. So when we see a guy that can do multiple things or be used in multiple.
Ways, they get graded for that. They get graded up for that.
And so you know, if you have an offense from the lineman who can play multiple spots, uh, you have a dB who can play safety or corner or play on the nickel, or you have a receiver who can return kicks or do different things or be a gunner, you get extra credit almost.
It just it just makes it.
It makes it easier for the club because we can account for game day, and we can account for the roster and the forty eight players and all those different things. It's really peace of mind when you know you have a guy who can do multiple things to get you out of a game. Or you can create packages where guys moving around quite a bit and keeping the offense or the defense kind of on the heels because they're not really or how that guy is going to be used.
So it makes you more.
Multiple in it, it makes it more confusing for the other side of the ball. All that kind of factors in. But I would say just I think one of the things that our scouts have to do is really assess the players versatility to do multiple things, and the most versatile players end up being players that get moved up the board a little bit.
Training keep what's it does you about Lamar's training camp and what are your thoughts on you come off another mvpcson.
Going into this year.
Well, he looks fast as heck, you know, he looks he looks really really fast. He's throwing the ball extremely well. What I've noticed about Lamar really is more of an intangible thing. His urgency as a leader, his urgency with the other players. He's just really in tune with the other players every single day in practice. He's so engaged with the coaches, he's engaged with his teammates, you know, Heck, he's engaged with me. We talk personnel. We meet after
practice just the other day talking about personnel. He's got some great ideas and suggestions, and he just really wants to win badly. And I think I'm seeing that, like as a player. I've always known that, but now I'm seeing his personality kind of come out more where I can really get a sense like this guy is so hyper focused on this season and really you know, working to get a ring.
Is that meeting with you about personnel, Lamar?
Is that a new thing or you know.
Has that been going on?
I mean we would, we would always talk about players and stuff, but you know, I think just Lamar sees I mean, I don't want to speak for Lamar, but I think we all see an opportunity for us to be a good team this year, and we want to do it this year. And and that's just there's so many different layers to that. It's what have we done in the offseason, what are we doing in training camp? How can we be the best team on Sundays? You know other players out there that might help us. Where
are we strong, where are we weak? What can we improve on? There's just so many different things. But again, like I just I feel an urgency with Lamar. I mean it's great. I love it, you know, That's how I am, And so I really appreciate that quality and others and just the urge to get better and the daily just improve on things. That's how you win as a team.
Likely if you're vision being a breakout player this year's sort of He's a guy can get down fielding, also has.
Good hands and tight and had great training camp.
What do you seeking the industry, Well, he's I love Zay. I mean, he's he's a playmakers. He's got, you know, right running ability. He's similar to a receiver in some ways, strong after the catch, you know. I mean that's something that going back to college when I evaluated him, So one thing you really kind of hung your hat on. This guy was dangerous with the football in his hands. He's another guy like I've seen in an urgency this
year with him, his leadership, interaction with other players. You know, he's he's kind of changed from being a young player to being from being a rookie to being a vet. And I just feel like he and Mark Andrews will be the best tandem at their position in the league and really create a lot of problems for opposing defensive coordinators.
That's that's a huge blow off the field, but even football wise, to lose a coach with that status and bring everything he brings to the table right before the season. What does that do.
For this team?
Uh, you know, it's just a hard one. I mean, Joe is just a great friend of mine. You know, if you've seen practice, you know I always stand behind usually next to Joe and we talk about you know, football and just life and things. And his ability with the younger players is just was a special thing watching him develop these guys. You know, he could push, but he could love And that's what makes a great coach,
great teacher. Think about the great teachers we've all had, right, the best teachers will push you, but they could also love you up too.
When you were struggling. And that's Joe d.
It's a tough one. You know, it's a tough one. It's a tough one for all of us here, you know. That's what I have to Saynd that Eric, you.
Have had conversations with the coaches, the fact that this season you're fifteen practice squad players will be seen throughout the league forward hard knocks and there's a possibility of many of maybe taking off.
That list there.
If you guys had conversation, the fact that they haven't.
I don't think so.
I mean, you know, we evaluate the practice squad guys, We don't use HBO to evaluate, and we watch the tape. I mean, so we're gonna we're gonna know the players, and you know, we'll know everybody else's players too, and so you know, we you know, we'll get a guy post once or twice a year. We'll post a couple guys. But in the en, I think teams are really comfortable with their own players. You know, it's gonna be an interesting dynamic with hard knocks, and I'm not exactly sure
what that's gonna be. I don't know how how much focus will be on the practice squad guys. If it's up to me, they won't be much. But I don't see it as a as a major hindrance for us in terms of keeping our players.
Sometimes you hear fans say this team can't prove anything else to me during the regular season. It's all about what happens in January. You know, what do they do at the end. How do you kind of balance that urgency to win the Super Bowl with knowing all the steps you have to go through to even have that chance.
Yeah, you know, it's an excellent question. I mean I would say I was thinking about this the other day, like if I had to just rank some of the best Ravens teams, you know, you'd put two thousand on there. But it's a one sided team, right, And then you go two thousand and six. That was a hell hell of a team, you know. Twenty eleven was a great team, one of the best. Twenty nineteen, twenty twenty three, those are like really strong teams. The twenty twelve team we
got hot late. You know, there's a lot of factors that really go into a team winning the Super Bowl and in the end, and I know this because I'm at the Senior Bowl every single year, there's only one team ends up being happy. There's a lot that goes into that. So my goal is to build a team that has talent in every position, that is flexible enough to withstand injuries, that we have depth to get us through a long season and to make the playoffs and
to be sort of ascending at that point. It's really hard to project what's going to happen, and it's it's mentally challenging too for me. You know, it is tough. You know, I think we've been maybe had the best record twice in the last six years five years, and we didn't make it to the end. That's tough, But I am proud of our team what we've accomplished. We haven't accomplished our ultimate goal. But I don't really subscribe to the idea that your season's a failure if you
don't win the Super Bowl. I know a lot of people do. If I did that, I'd probably be in a mental institution. So I don't feel that way. I measure the success of a season and a lot of different things, super Bowl being one of those things, but certainly not the only criteria that I would use to judge a season.
Two more, you talked last year, maybe you talked about how the Lamar Jackson contract was going to change how you.
Could build the roster in the future, thinking of Brandon Stephen some of the other players.
How is your approach to kind.
Of in the season negotiating because it has it changed in terms of trying.
To negotiate with some of these extensions in the season.
Does that strategy change since the Jackson contract to now?
I don't know that it changes that.
I think it's just right player, right price, you know, I mean, you got a negotiate a contract that works for you and work for the player, and sometimes you're under parameters that might make it more challenging. You just simply just can't afford to have the highest paid players
across the board at their position. You know, you can have some, but I think if you study the league, you're seeing the impact that it has on rosters and what that means, whether that's holdouts or players getting terminated, quality players getting terminated. It's just you just fundamentally, financially, you can't do it. You can't have ten players making twenty million dollars a year. You just can't do it on a two hundred and fifty eight million dollars salary cap.
So you have to look at it and have a strategy. And every team operate rates with a different strategy how they pay players, what's.
Important to them.
We try to be balanced across the board, and we try to pay our best players as much as we can, understanding that sometimes we just can't keep every single player. If we could, the roster would be different, but it's not. We understand that it is challenging sometimes to let really good players leave, but that's the business.
We're in.
Quarterbacks specifically, Like it was pretty obvious that you know, giving Lamar's accomplishments and talent he was gonna we sent the quarterback market that are a top across the seem like every time a quarterback gets a second contract, they're like the highest big player ever. All of a sudden, do you think that's going to continue to be reality
across the league? We should, you know, kind of look in the future at the landscape or at some point is that going to bounce back and either going to say we can't afford to keep doing this with if it's done an MVP.
Kind of guy. Well, we paid Lamar.
We made Lamar the highest paid quarterback because we felt he was the best quarterback in the league. He won an MVP now two MVPs, and I'm blessed. We're very happy that we did that. Generally speaking, I don't necessarily subscribe to the theory that every time you do a negotiation with a quality player they need to be the highest paid player at their position, and I think in a lot of cases we haven't done that. It's challenging
at times. There isn't typically an expectation when you negotiate with agents that they want the market to work that way.
I think it's up to the club. It's up to the individual club. The hard part is that.
When a deal is done, good or bad, that goes into the library of deals that get done and it's used good or bad by clubs and by agents. We try to be responsible with our deals. We try to be respectful of the player's position. But we're going to pay the players what we can't afford to pay the players, and most of our money every single year we're going to be over the cap, cash over cap most years. Now, there is always going to be a day of reckoning.
You can't be a cash overcap every single year. There's going to have to be a purge at some point. So we understand that. But you know, I've seen these contracts. Every club has to operate the way they.
Want to operate.
You know, we operate the way we're going to operate, and we look out and we know we have a lot of really good players to pay, and every dollar that we can save on a contract is a dollar that we can use a really another, really good player.
That's my theory.
Thanks guys, you're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. Also make sure you head over to the Lounge podcast feed. We had quarterback Lamar Jackson on the podcast this week. He shared some really good insight into his mindset, his mentality, and the urgency that he has going into this season. And listen to that right here and you're podcast feed just head over to the Lounge podcast make sure you hit that subscribe button here and on the press Pass feed.
Thank you so much for listening. We'll talk with you again later this week.