It's Friday, September first, and Ravens general manager Eric Tacosta met with reporters today to look ahead to the upcoming season. He talked about quarterback Lamar Jackson, wide receiver Odell Beckham Junior, some of the other new additions to this team, and his mentality going into this year with this new look Ravens offense. Here's what the Costa had to say in his time with reporters.
First of all, I knew with Gil Brandt you might EMPLOYE. Can you just talk about the passing of Gil.
Yeah, that's great question. I'm glad you brought that up obviously. You know me growing up child of the seventies, you know, I became a Cowboys fan in seventy eight.
Really just admired the way they built that team.
Gil Brandt, coach Landry tech Shram, very innovative, really kind of set the standard for scouting as we know it. Our actual grading scale that we use, our system goes back to that original gil Brandt system that they use out of We've tweaked it, but it's still the same system. Just a very innovative, deep thinking person just really set the stage basically for scouting as we know it big
loss in the NFL community. I'm glad that he got into the Hall of Fame a couple of years ago, well deserved in my opinion, and just one of the best.
Is a big picture, Eric, kind of what's your thought mindset of where the team stands going into the season. Certainly a lot of excitement and optimism.
Feel good, you know.
I think coach Harbard did a great job getting us out of training camp relatively healthy, which is awesome compared to the recent past. And I think the team is an excellent mindset. I'm excited about some of the changes we've made personnel.
Wise, you know. Just I think we're very, very excited and ready to go.
Eric, I guess what happened with the jay Gats off season and is there any hesitation at all from the organization in terms of you know him or with his entry history.
We love JK. But when he's played, he's been a warrior.
He's uh played through injuries when he's been able to very talented guy, great attitude, he's a leader.
I think he's respected.
Uh, I've got a strong affinity for him personally, and uh, we're.
Very excited he's back. He's healthy this year, he looks great and he's ready to go.
Rick's contract Just what's the what's the plan is it?
Well, it'll be ongoing discussions through the year.
Uh he you know, w what's what sort.
Of your Yeah, I mean that's kind of you know, try to keep that stuff in house. We're excited to see what he's gonna do this year. You know, he's a talented player.
Uh.
I know he wants to be here. We want him here. I have a lot of respect.
For him as a person also as a competitor, the way he takes care of his business, the way he rehabed his injury, the way he plays on Sundays.
And uh, I think we've shown.
That over the last five years we've really tried hard to bring back as many of our own players as possible and that will continue to be what we do.
Eric, what clinched the decision of three quarterbacks on the fifty three And do you think that's something that likely could persist for the entire year?
You know, that's a a good question. I think every team is adjusting to the new.
Rule this year, which allows you to keep three quarterbacks active.
On Sundays if you have three quarterbacks on the active roster, allowing you then to uh to dress forty nine players. So I think every team's gonna attack that differently. I think in our situation it's complicated a little bit by the health of our quarterbacks of.
This training camp. That being the case, we're trying to keep all of our good players. And you all saw the games. Uh. Josh had an excellent preseason, played.
Very very well in the games. Snoop in the one game that he played, played very well in that game. So we think we're dealing with a position of strength at the quarterback position, with three guys that have shown they can play winning football for us, and we're excited about that. Eric. Eric was a.
Report that, uh, the Ravens showed interest in Trey Lance. Can you come in on that?
Yeah, I would say that's just bad reporting. If somebody calls you and asks about if you're interested in the player and you say no, does that mean you're interested in that player? You know, it's just one of those things. I think there's a lot in term Koibono, who does it benefit?
And you know, when you.
See a report like that, We've got good quarterbacks. We love our quarterbacks. We weren't looking to add any quarterbacks at all this training camp. That's what I would say on that.
Eric help challenging.
Has the evaluation for the cornerback position been this summer? Just guys on and off the field? And where do you think you are there right now? Knowing that you know Marlon status is iffy at least early in the season.
Well, we've certainly thrown out a big net. You know, we have a lot of guys right now at that position. I think the health has been somewhat problematic at various times throughout camp at that position, as we've seen it in the past. That being said, we do think we have a lot of talented guys back there. We're anxious to see when we finally get everybody out there on the field together what it looks like. But I think
that some of the younger guys have emerged. A couple other guys that have been on the team in the last couple of years look like they've taken a step in the right direction. Obviously, we know that when we get Marlin back, we'll have a premier player out there, and you know, remains to be seen. There's always going to be one position that every team has that's challenging at times throughout the course of any season, and you know, we'll address those positions. We've tried to do that every
single year. There's always one position that seems to just kind of be an outlier force depth wise.
The good thing I would.
Say with the corner position this year is we haven't suffered any serious injuries, catastrophic injuries. They are all injuries that are more in some ways annoying type of injuries to soft tissue whatever, and we think will be healthy pretty quickly.
How do you like value the running back position?
As a general manager? We value good players really, I think you know how teams I I can't speak to how other teams do it, but we want guys at every position who can make plays and help us win football games at the right time.
And uh, that's across the board, y, you know, And I think you know.
We've paid inside linebackers, We've drafted safeties in the first round. We've drafted a center in the first round. Those aren't your typical, you know, most important positions. We've paid left tackles a lot of money. We've paid corners a lot of money. We've paid quarterbacks a lot of money.
So I do it based on how good is the player.
Not necessarily well, this position you should give a ton of money to. In this position you can't give any money to. For me, it really does depend on how good the player is. I guess what I was growing up as a young scout. I had the chance to see players like Ray Lewis and Ed Reid and Jamal Lewis and guys like that, and I could s see how those guys could take over games. And so I understand the argument, uh about running backs and mother positions
as well. I think there's definitely some wisdom to who you pay and when you pay those players. On the other hand, we want to try and get as many good players as we count of the.
Team are police. Have you been with Odell from what he's done on the field, from a culture standpoint, just everything that he's brought so.
Far been great.
He's uh, I would say he's probably exceeded my expectations to this point.
Regarding to placing Kyuk Kelly on waivers or not on the fifty three man roster and your reaction to seeing.
Him get claimed, Well, he didn't make the team because he didn't make the team, disappointed that he got claimed.
Definitely eric.
According to David Clowney, what prompted that signing was the type Bowser injury part of that.
And what do you where do you see David Ajabo right now? Uh?
Well, Clowney first of all, as a player that we've admired for a long time. We've scouted him in the past, we've played against him many times. We felt like he could be a guy that's been uh like Jason was last year here, Paul and Justin and guys like that for us this year. And uh, he wanted to play here, which for me, when we're talking to players and we're trying to bring players in, when a guy expresses an
interest in coming here, that resonates with me. You know, we really we we want guys that wanna be here, and he wanted to get it done.
We were happy to work with him and we were able to do it. I think that.
Uh, regarding all the other outside linebackers, they're all good young players that were very excited to see. They're gonna all improve at their own uh pace. Uh, David's a guy that you know, obviously missed a lot of football last year. I think that, Uh, he's shown us what he can do in practice this year so far in training camp, we've seen it.
Uh.
Eventually, Uh, I think when he gets w in in games nfl R regular season games, I think he and o'dafay both are gonna have very very good seasons for us.
Because of your where you're at salary wise, salary cat wise. Do you feel like you're gonna have to do some restructures here to create some more flexibility so you have that, you know, availability and make moves going forward.
Yeah, I mean you always want to have more money, Jeff. We have different ways of doing that, you know. I think that we've shown that we'll spend up to the cap every single year, and we'll do that. I think that the the the landscape for this team has changed a little bit because we struck a contract with Lamar, and so the way that we operate will probably be a little bit different in the future. I think we'll continue to try and do early signs as much as possible.
The draft will continue to be very very important as well.
We're blessed to have Nick Matteo and Pat Moriarty working here.
They're very creative with the.
Salary cap, finding ways for us to find additional money to sign players, and uh, we'll continue to do that and hopefully have a little bit so that we can get to the trade deadline and maybe make a trade. Eric, you've been here since ninety six.
A lot of soaprolos being thrown around about this wide receiver group do you have Are you comfortable kind of assessing where this group stands into the previous group team?
Ah, Jonas, that's a good question. You know, I'm really not.
I you know, I just think this group is good and we've seen these guys make plays, and it's encouraging for us to see him every single day. Guys are stepping out, making contesting catches, making big explosive plays. The attitude and the energy is very very good. I think our coaches have done a great job with those guys, and just the leadership with the veteran players Nelson and and Odell has really been superb. And the younger guys
have really brought their game every single day. So I think it's just, uh, it's encouraging to have so much depth.
This was the first year.
I will say this, This the first year that other teams called us looking for receivers and h I actually I was a joke at first, but so that you know, so that's kind of cool.
Eric, who you thought about Odell exceeding?
You have to take it in some ways.
Can you talk about kind of and how he's done that? Well?
His body he's in very good shape. That takes care of his body. I think he worked extremely hard this offseason. His attitude is awesome. He's a leader, he's a first in line guy, he's a do the right thing guy. He's just been great. I just I just really don't know how to explain it, you know. Uh So I have two boys at Gilman and just before camp started there was a football camp that Odell had a Gilman And to see the entire community that seemed like there
were thousands of boys and girls there. And to see that, to see that impact in a very short span of time, to see the impact that he's having on this community, it's a powerful thing.
And we're excited about that.
Are you intrigued to a greater degree than usual to see how this offense looks when when you get the games and that you have all these new pieces who haven't actually been in a game together.
Yet you have the new coordinator all all that stuff together.
Well, I was intrigued in nineteen because I knew that we were gonna do something that was different and it was gonna be a very very tough offense to defend. But you know, I think you go into every season excited. I mean, if you're doing your job the right way and you're excited about it, you know, you bringing players that you like, you're always excited. I do think this is ex's a It could be a really cool thing
to see this group kind of come together. You know, if you look at just across the board and offense, all the different position groups were pretty strong.
We have pretty good depth, and.
I know that because other teams will calling us on all these offensive guys, looking at.
How you have a lot of tight ends, You've got.
An extra running back, You've got a lot of offensive linement receivers. So I think that boats well for the season. Obviously, these guys have to play and we expect them to. Got a lot of faith and Todd and the coaches and the players. You've got to stay healthy. But on paper it pretty good. Do you think the offense will look compared to the previous years. Oh man, that's a that's more of a coaching question. I just want to see touchdowns.
Did those conversations happen right up till the roster cutdown?
People calling you?
Did you entertain trades, either adding or some tracking players right up until the cutdown?
Yeah?
You know, people call me because we do a lot of trades. We love trades, and so we get a lot of calls.
Now.
It used to be easier for me to do trades than it is now. I think people they're always a little more suspicious now that I've been in the league as a general manager for five years. But yeah, you get a lot of calls and you look at it and you just have to basically assess the way that I think of it is, Okay, yeah, sure we could flip a pick and maybe get some additional value in
a late round next year. Is that worth you know, giving up your tenth offensive lineman or your seventh wide out who might make it to your practice squad, those kind of things, And you just have to go back and forth and look at it.
You know, Uh, I've seen It's happened to me.
Actually, you know, Uh, a few years ago, we had a bunch of offensive linemen.
We traded a couple guys. I think Ben Brettison might have been one, and and uh.
Somebody else Man's and all that, and then you get a couple of injuries and now all of a sudden, all that depth becomes a weakness.
You know.
So that's something you always look at me kind of being greedy. I love the idea of getting extra picks. A lot of times coaches will be more reluctant. They don't see how a six round pick or a flop six or a five is gonna benefit you in two thousand twenty five.
So they want the players.
And so for me, it's kind of like short term versus long term and really kind of being balanced.
And how with the team you've assembled, how do you think they stuck out compared to the division and and the rest of the AFC. Just right now going.
Into the season, man, I think, uh, and we'll have to we feel good about our team. You know, every team is trying to build the best team they can, you know, I think, uh, we always joke like the the draft, we look at our draft board and we're always excited about the players that we got, and then we look over there and we see what the Steelers did and what the Bengals did and we're like, man, they got better too.
So they're great teams. The Browns are an excellent team.
We respect all those guys every t Every game is gonna be very very challenging and very tough.
But I think John'll have us prepared every week, more prepared.
The previous years.
Can win in the training camp and leave in the training camp.
Oh man, Well, Lamar's attitude has been ex excellent this year. I think last year was a challenging year for a lot of reasons, but obviously just where he was with his contract.
But this year is just his attitude. His enthusiasm has been fantastic. He's thrown the ball very very well.
He's been able to build a a great rapport with the receivers very very quickly. He's taking care of his body. He seems really into the offense. I think he's excited about it. He has an awesome relationship with his coaches, and uh, you know, he worked very hard this offseason with some of the receivers that we brought in, which was awesome to see.
And I think it's showing off and his parent's gonna pay dividends for us.
Eric, we talked about different approaches the contract. What did Patrick Queen show you and how he came here? Was that OTA's it's a lot of questions about his contract, but what did he show you with what he's done over the last couple of moments?
Oh, man, Patrick's a gym, you know, uh I. I think we've seen in the NFL now y a lot of teams are dealing with it right these players that they're holding in or they're not showing up, or they're holding out, or they're unhappy or they're spouting off publicly.
And Patrick's just a guy that shows up.
To work every single day. He's a very very talented player, very very selfless, but loved by his teammates. He's a leader, and we expect to have a great season.
That was Ravens general manager Erics Costa. You're listening to the Ravens press pass.
Now.
The team has a few days off before getting back to work on Monday, and we're gonna have a chance to hear from head coach John Harball coming up on Monday. So enjoy the weekend and come back on Monday as the Ravens really dive into their game prep for the season opener at home against the Houston Texas