Jaire Alexander FINALLY BREAKS SILENCE on Baltimore Ravens trade, Todd Monken shares KEY OL thoughts

Jaire Alexander FINALLY BREAKS SILENCE on Baltimore Ravens trade, Todd Monken shares KEY OL thoughts

The Baltimore Ravens have a big game on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings, but one of the players they traded away broke his silence. We talk about that and so much more coming up on Locked on Raven. You are Locked on Ravens, your daily Baltimore Ravens podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. You are Locked On Ravens. Welcome into the show. I’m your host Kevin Ostriker of Ravens wire here with you on the lockdown podcast network your team every day. Thanks so much for being here on this Purple Friday making locked on Ravens a part of your day. Your first listen each and every single day as well. And thank you out there to all the everydayers, all the first time listeners. If you’re somewhere in the middle, thank you as well. We have five days a week plus more of daily Ravens coverage here on Locked on Ravens. We have a jam-packed episode today as Jer Alexander, he finally broke his silence. He’s a member of the Eagles. He talked about his situation in Baltimore and why it ended the way that it did. We’ll also dive into Todd Monkin having some interesting offensive line comments and Zach or talking about Draymond Jones and his role. Then we’ll dive into the Ravens situation. We’ll talk Ravens and Vikings for week 10 and a lot more. Want to tell everybody and remind everybody today’s episode of Locked on Ravens is brought to you by Game Time. Dial the game time app use code lockdown NFL for $20 off your first purchase. here with me to break it all down. It’s Sam and Jooku of the Ravens Talk podcast and the Locked on Ravens Squad show. And Sam, I I I say this. It’s funny how like couple weeks ago that Saturday, Lamar Jackson, he’s not playing against the Bears. All that comes out and you’re like, “All right, well, these vibes just can’t get any worse. They’re one and five.” And then here we are just a couple weeks later. Even just in the week, you have this team three and five Ravens right now in a better place than they were a couple of weeks ago. And I guess that’s all you can ask for considering they’re going to have to make a heck of a run here to uh get their playoff chances as good as they can get. Yeah. I mean, I would love for the Ravens to crack off some wins, get some wins going because this is a team that has what it takes to go far. Vegas believes in them. We’ve seen the national media coverage. Really sad with the Ravens on this. It’s going to be up to them. It’s any given Sunday. 60 Minutes of Football. They got to get it done in these games upcoming, but they are they are the right team to get the job done. headlined by, in my opinion, the best quarterback in the National Football League and Lamar Jackson. I’m ready to see what they can do. These are the guys are going to have to to fight with and and go to battle with and we’ll see if it’s enough. But the Ravens still have a pretty good opportunity to go on a run here with their schedule. But of course, you have to got to play the games. I mean, you need to go out there, perform, go one and0 each and every single week. And we’re going to dive into that Minnesota game in week 10 in a little bit during the show. But I want to first start off with Jier Alexander. He was traded over last weekend to the Philadelphia Eagles. It was a trade that, you know, the Ravens made. And I know you and I, we can kind of take this segment to finally close our chapter on Jair Alexander, considering how much we both wanted him in Baltimore for years. And it just it didn’t work out. You know, the Buffalo game was bad for him. He had the injury in training camp and trying to get his body right. only played in one game outside of the Buffalo game and he’s officially gone. He spoke to the media for the first time in Philadelphia on Thursday and he’s wearing number 18 and a lot of people are saying, “Oh, what what is that number 18 doing on Jaier Alexander?” But we didn’t get the story behind the number. We did get the story behind why he ended up not working out in Baltimore according to Jaire. He was asked why things didn’t work out with the Ravens and he said, quote, I think they had some guys they wanted to play some younger guys, but I’m excited about this opportunity here. And then he did confirm that it was not a physical thing and he feels ready to go. He said he feels good. So to me, Sam, these are interesting comments because again, we don’t know how long the process took for Jaier to to overcome the injury he was dealing with in training camp and how how long it took for him to get his body right. But I at least personally assumed like once Jaier was able to get back on the field, the Ravens would give him an opportunity to go out there and and play a little bit and see if he’d be a fit or not. But like Jaier kind of said, you know, we’ve seen TJ Tampa getting snaps. Other younger players have gotten snaps. Shidobia Wuier who’s not necessarily like a young player or anything. He’s also been ahead of Jaire on the depth chart. So I mean what did you make of Jaier’s comments and the end of his tenure in Baltimore now that we have this perspective? It’s along the lines of what I assumed was the case for this relationship between the Ravens and Jire. It just seemed as though and we’ve have various reporters sum this up pretty well that you know the Ravens went to a three safety look. When you have three safeties that’s predominantly uh a sixdB package, you only got room for three DBs and Jier’s gonna be the odd man out when you have Chidobia Wuzier, you know, Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins. Now, can the case be made that Jair should probably be taking the place of Chidobi? Yeah, sure. You you could say something like that. But the point is the Ravens had two other guys who have, you know, special teams value for this team. They were struggling to get anything going with the nickel look on the base level where you’d have a guy like Jay or even a dime look with Jier. He was the odd man out. Do I like it? If he’s the guy that we saw in Green Bay, no. But we saw him a little bit in action against the Bills. He didn’t look spectacular that Knee was still giving him issues. I don’t think the knee is an issue anymore. He hasn’t been on the injury report in weeks. Doesn’t seem like based on his comments that the knee is an issue now. We’ll just have to wait and see. It’s very interesting situation. could come back to bite the Ravens, but we don’t know for sure. We’ll just have to see how he looks on Monday with the Eagles. My thing with the Jer situation is I I do personally believe they should have given him more run to see. But you also, in my opinion, have to look at it from the perspective as well, and this is something I’ve kind of had to take a step back and do is that I just don’t think the Ravens had time to do it because they couldn’t afford for him to be bad. like they couldn’t afford for him to come back and cost them another game or or try to feel things out and give up a couple of big plays that, you know, result in a loss or contribute to a loss. And again, that’s the situation they were in. But it kind of reminds me of last season to a lesser extent because the players we saw like Marcus Williams, Eddie Jackson, they they earned their way off of the field with their play. But it’s almost like you you don’t have an opportunity to test things out. The only reason the Ravens went to Ararius and Kyle Hamilton in the deep part of the field is because they they had no other choice. That was that was it. If that didn’t work, their defense was sunk and their season was over. It was done with. But for Jaier, I just think it’s because you mentioned if he was the guy that we saw in Green Bay and not even that, if he’s just like 80 or 75% of the guy that we saw in Green Bay, it’s it’s a tough scene for the Ravens because they could use a depth guy like that, especially because we know that Warner injuries have plagued this team. You can go back as far as you want to with this Ravens organization in terms of corner injuries and Jahir himself I feel like could have really helped in that regard. But I mean clearly Sam they do feel confident and comfortable with the players they currently have on the roster and you know it’s not like them trading away Jaire is like this big hole of snaps that’s now not accounted for. Ja barely played for him. So they’ve been kind of working with the guys they’ve been they’re going to roll out there for the rest of the season. So, we know their confidence level, but what what’s your confidence level in the corners the Ravens currently have and what we’ve seen so far? I’m okay with the quarterback room right now. I think that what scares me about the trader Jier is the depth piece. You know, if you lose a guy like Nate Wiggins or Wuzier are you comfortable with TJ Tampa being that next quarterback up? You think it would be Jire? probably not because based on the way the depth chart was looking uh prior to his departure, but you’d like to have that reassurance that you have a veteran guy that can go in there and and handle the responsibility that they set forth for you. But also, I want to look at it as though you know Vic Fangi over there in Philadelphia plays or plays or I guess coaches defense a little different than the way Zachary does. I’ve been on the show plenty of times talking about the amount of space that is given with the DBs and what they’re asked to do as opposed to what some other defenses would be asked of Jaier. So, it could be a a fit or just schematics. He may not just be a fit for this team from a scheme aspect, let alone uh what he does on the football field. So, it might be interesting to see what Jer does on here. The fans would be livid if Jer goes there and shows even a glimpse of talent uh that he showed in this time at Green Bay. As you mentioned, I think it’s just going to be one of those things where we’ll just have to wait and see. They do have depth right now. The Ravens do have depth. It’s not going to be a huge loss if the Ravens were to unfortunately lose a guy for an extended period of time. I I am very fond of TJ Tampa. There are other guys in that locker room that can come in and spell in. They do have safeties in bunches over there. So, there’s there’s other ways for them to get play out of the DBs, but I I don’t know. I was very happy for the Jay Alexander signing when it first happened. Still a little trepidacious on how I should feel about this, but I think watching him actually play because we haven’t seen him play really since that Bills game in week one. He’s had snaps here and there, but really a prolonged look has been avoided since that week one game back in September. Be interesting to see how he looks in Philadelphia. And then I could probably make a better assessment about where this team at as a DB room. You know that if he gets one interception just one is an Eagle like we saw with the Oway sack and honestly the sacks we’ve seen from Adaf. It’s like it was the scheme. Why weren’t they playing them? But again I just they probably didn’t feel comfortable giving him playing time. But again then you kind of wonder like all right why was the signing made in the first place? And I think Sam it wasn’t necessarily about why the signing was made in the first place. I I just think that that training camp injury was the the one and only nail in the coffin for Jaier because that’s been the book on Jaire, right? It’s he’s a he’s incredible player, but he’s not out on the field as much as teams need him to be. So, I think that it was like they had a plan for Jaire, but then there was this setback or injury or whatever it was in training camp. He didn’t look great in Buffalo. And at that point, I just think the Ravens said, “Okay, we we we don’t we can’t do this right now.” And then by the time he was probably ready to come back and play a bigger role, they were already in such a deep hole and guys were already playing. I I guess the explanation would be like they didn’t feel comfortable putting a guy who hadn’t played in the system a bunch out there. It’s not like the Ravens are top five in pass defense anyway. So, but Exactly. Yeah. That that’s my thing is like if the Ravens were like firing in all cylinders as a unit, if Nate Wiggins was having six picks, Marlon Humphrey and Shobe Wuz were doing their thing, you know, that’s not the case. The Ravens had to make shift the defense halfway through the year for the second straight year under Zachary or so. So, it’s not like they wouldn’t have loved to have a Jer come in and be that guy. Uh, but I am seeing what you’re saying. I mean, there there is a lot going on with that. The three safety look definitely destroyed any chance the Ravens had to put him on the field on a regular basis barring an injury. So I see that aspect of it. But if you’re not beating out a guy like Chado Wuzia, even though Wuzi has played well, but you know, Ja Alexander, his pedigree speaks for itself. Not beating a guy like him out for some playing time, that kind of sees what the Ravens probably saw in him at least during his time in Baltimore. Yeah, I’m 100% with you. I agree with you. It’s like, you know, try something else and why not put a guy out there if he’s fully healthy in Jer to try to help turn things around. You know, he’s not former allpro guy who’s been there still. I think when he’s healthy, a top 10, top 15 corner in this league. So, you had that guy there. But, I think it’s just interesting to hear from Jaier’s perspective because we heard reports after the fact like Alexander wanted to play, the Ravens didn’t have the snaps for him. And now with Jaire coming out and saying, “Yeah, they just had some guys they wanted to play and some younger players. That’s where the Ravens went.” And so, we will see. I’m very curious to track and monitor the situation in Philly, too. And and see what he ends up doing over there. But coming up in the second part of the show, we’ll talk about Todd Monkin having some interesting comments about the offensive line, particularly Emry Jones, who I know a lot of Ravens fans want to see plugged in at one of those guard spots. So, be sure to stay tuned. Plenty coming your way here on Locked on Ravens. First, this episode is brought to you by Mint Mobile. If you’re still overpaying for wireless, it’s time to say yes to saying no. Mint Mobile, their favorite word is no. No contracts, no monthly bills, no overages, no hidden fees, no BS. I said yes to making the switch and getting premium wireless for just $15 a month. Mint makes it simple. 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Kevin O Striker Sam and Jooku still rocking out with you here diving into Ravens content and coverage with you as we do five days per week plus more. And Sam, the offensive line has been a big concern point for the Ravens this season. Obviously, everybody’s focusing on the guards, which rightfully so. Daniel Fle and Vorhees have not been good this season, but you also have Ronnie Stanley going in and out of the lineup with injuries. You have Roger Rosenard who has regressed from year one to year two. So there there are a lot of different things that this offensive line has struggled with this year. You know, some guys like Daniel Fle are falling over in the run game. You know, some guys getting blown by and blown off the ball in the pass game. It it’s just been kind of like a mixed bag. You can kind of pick your poison in terms of what you want to talk about, but Emry Jones has been this kind of wild card for them. was really the only offensive line move that they made that really felt like, all right, this guy has a chance to start. He had the shoulder issue that they knew about during the draft process and I’m sure that didn’t go the way that they wanted it to, but now he is practicing again. And Todd Monk, the Ravens offensive coordinator, was asked about Ery Jones and the question from Jess Rebecca, The Athletic, who does a great job. He said, quote, “Have you seen enough from Emery Jones to suggest he could help you at some point relatively soon?” And Todd Monin said, quote, “At some point, I’m excited. He has worked awfully hard to get back. From what I see, he’s everything we hoped he’d be at this point. When you don’t go through training camp and you only have one day in pads, that’s really hard to say, but he’s diligent. He’s tough. He’s a Raven. You can see that he fits here.” And he also mentioned that they haven’t necessarily narrowed down a position that he might be best at right now. And they he did say that they’ve been playing Emery Jones at a couple of positions just to get him comfortable. So, look, I’m not going to like blow these comments out of the water and say Emry Jones is starting. He’s That’s not what Todd Mccin said, but I do think it’s interesting that they’re trying him out, trying to see where he fits in. Obviously, the tackle spots, that’s not going to be a position he starts unless there’s an injury like to a Stanley or to a Roger Rosenard. Those guys are pretty firmly entrenched there. But, I don’t think it’s there’s a big chance of it just because of how this team operates. I would love it, but I I think that there is a nonzero chance. Ley Jones does start in a guard position for Baltimore this season, especially if things keep going the way that they are. I want him to start immediately. I want him to start today. There’s not a game today. I want this guy to put on pads. I want him to be at Minnesota ready to play today. I want him to have a flag on his hand waving. I’m starting at right guard. I’m I’m Emry Jones. We did it. That’s what I would love. But is that going to happen? Probably not. And it’s for reasons that, you know, Q talked about in our show at the lockdown Raven Squad show. He just doesn’t have the snaps. He doesn’t have the the live action. You know, it’s very different practicing. Finally, he’s getting an opportunity now that he’s off that list. Uh but playing a live fire, that’s what makes preseason so important, especially for rookies. I know a lot of Ravens fans talk about, oh, Rosen Gardner got a start, you know, after a few games, you know, you know, Ronnie Stanley’s gotten a start as a rookie, all of that stuff, but it’s so different not having any playing time coming off an injury. You know, we heard about his shoulder even after the fact that he was able to actually come practice. It’s been a grind for for for Emory Jones. Uh it is good to hear because I know that was a plan for Eric Costa coming in. Okay, we got a third round pick. We got Mike Green for the pass rush. We got Malaki Starks at the safety. Now we’re going to attack the trenches. But unfortunately for you, trenches were got got injured, you know, didn’t get healthy enough and Emory Jones and then Mabik got injured throughout the well in the beginning of the season. So your trenches took a hit injury-wise. Luckily for you, Emory Jones is back. Is he going to get a start again? I would love it. You heard my té. But it’s going to be a little bit dicey. I mean, again, can he be worse than what we’re seeing from Daniel Fleet? Even though Falle has improved as the past, you know, you know, protector, which is crazy to say because he has been awful in some instances, but he was even worse his first year here. His run blocking is what has been horrendous. It’s just been inconsistent at best. The floor is to the floor and six feet past it. It is bad. But can Emry Jones be worse than that? That’s what we’re thinking. I guess for the Ravens, the answer is yes. Or they don’t want to stun his growth by putting him out there before he’s ready. I don’t know. But man, it would do Lamar Jackson wonders. And Dererick Henry most importantly wonders if he can get a guard out there that can pull effectively, be an effective blocker and not fall down doing, you know, run plays or pass plays, not blocking to your own receiver doing run plays or pass plays. That would be fantastic. Seems like Emry Jones is close, but I would hold my breath. If I want to hold my breath to any type of notion that Emry Jones plays, at least in this game. Yeah. And there’s been a graphic going around, actually multiple, but one I’m going to focus on here. It is a a chart, and it essentially is about NFL conversion rates for offenses on third and longs versus third and short, and where those teams are converting, how how good they are at doing that. And the Ravens on third and long are the best offense in the league at picking up third longs. Like, they’re they’re incredible. that they’re just about 30 I’m trying to eyeball the graphic here like 33 34% which is again the best mark in the league but they are a bottom three offense it looks like at least bottom five in picking up short yardage third down situations and I think that has a lot to do with offensive line getting blown up off the ball guys not getting push up front and that’s been a really big concern point because that’s what the Ravens pride themselves on is like getting physical up front running the football and you know on third and ones, third and twos, you have Lamar Jackson and Derk Henry. There should be no way you’re getting stuffed on these plays, especially even on I know that was a third down graphic, but for fourth down also like there there shouldn’t be like a oh, we have to rely on Mark Andrews on a on a tight end tush push every single fourth and short or third and short to pick it up. You you should just be able to go heavy on heavy, match that personnel and out physical those guys. And it feels like Sam for the offensive line, they’re not getting nearly enough push up front. They’re getting pushed into the backfield, which if you want to just go back to Miami on Thursday night, we saw multiple times, you know, Pat Ricard getting put on his butt, Ronnie Stanley getting blown off the ball. We’ve seen Linderbomb get blown off the ball at times and obviously the guard position, like everybody, it’s been a huge issue. It’s been huge. And that that stats that you pointed out, it’s you made you hit the nail right on the head with that one. I think you know, third and short, fourth and short, you’re counting on your offensive line. I mean, that’s just the way it is. kind of on your offensive line to to get those blocks because you’re primarily going to run on third and short and fourth and short. At least you should. And that’s putting all of the onus away from Lamar Jackson and onto the hands of your offensive lineman and Derrick Henry. And that running unit, especially on short yardage situations, has been terrible. And in long yardage situations, third and long, you’re counting on Lamar Jackson. And is there a better quarterback in the league than Lamar Jackson? I’m more confident in him getting the job done on those dirt longs than as opposed to the offensive line getting a yard, Kevin. A yard. I I cannot even begin to tell you how unserious I am looking when the Ravens are pulling up on third and short to get a yard. There’s no chance because that unit is just not ready to play. So, I see what you’re saying. This offensive line needs help. I don’t think it’s coming. We’re at nine games into it now with this upcoming matchup. Offensive line is offensive line. It’s not going to just magically get better. There’s no scheme out there that you can use to get these unathletic guards ready to play football. You got to make a change. Did it happen through the trade? So, all eyes are on Emory Jones. I’d be surprised if it happens this week, but you will hear me screaming from the heavens if I see that boy coming out there starting and not on the inactive list for the third straight week. I I just feel like, and we talked about this on the squad show, if there was a time to do it, it would have been during the by-week to make a change on the O line. If there is another time to do it, it would be during the mini buy. It would be during the mini buy. So, there is again a nonzero chance. Do I expect it to happen? No. I do expect the Ravens to roll out the same starting five, especially because they have now started to win some games. And I think they’re not going to try to quote unquote mess anything up when it comes to what’s been quote unquote winning them games. Now, is the offensive line the big? No. you know, it’s the defensive pressure has turned up, the turnovers, the red, there are a lot of other reasons besides the O line, but we’re we’re gonna have to see because again, the trenches have been a huge point of concern for the Ravens this season. And flipping over to defense a little bit here, Sam, the Ravens did add Draymond Jones to their roster via trade. He’s a guy that a lot of people are excited about. I know that him being the only other trade deadline acquisition outside of Lohei Gilman was disappointing to a lot of people, but he himself I think is a is a solid move and the Ravens actually action, not just Draymond Jones, Carl Lawson, I believe, is also going to get some opportunity here. John Harbaugh made that pretty clear. So, Zack Ore, he was asked on Thursday about Draymond Jones, and talked a lot about his versatility both in the run game and the pass game, and he hasn’t played a ton as an interior guy for the Titans this year. Again, he started off his career as an interior defensive lineman and since converted to more of an edge outside linebacker, but he did say that yes, Draymond Jones lined up on the edge primarily in Tennessee, but he did line up a little bit as an as an interior guy. and he said that they’re going to try to hunt matchups with that versatility and he anticipates that he will line up more in Baltimore on the interior than he did in Tennessee. So, do you like that strategy, Sam? Draymond Jones is 281. He’s not a small dude out there on the edge. How do you think the Ravens can utilize him? I’m nervous. I’m not going to lie. I’m not very fond of it. Uh, and not just because, well, I say it’s because of Zachor. I I just don’t trust him as a play caller to get the correct matchups. If you want to hunt matchups, I don’t I don’t trust you to do it, you know. So, it’s one of those things where I would much rather him be doing what he’s done well these last four weeks and that’s be on the edge. Use stunts something that the Ravens haven’t done well either that haven’t done it well because they haven’t done it at all, you know. So, a lot of things are there’s a lot of question marks with this move, especially given Zachary’s comments. Now, is there some validity to what he’s saying? Would it be better for the defense if this guy can be a Swiss Army knife? kind of similar to what we’re getting with Kyle Hamilton because he didn’t say he’s not going to put him in edge. He just saying that he’s going to, you know, hunt some matchups if the guard position has a matchup issue, he might put him at guard. You know, have him attack the guard at the A gap or the B gap. Oh, he’s one of those guys who plays a little bit of a edge and the tackles are looking bad. Well, maybe put him on edge. So, I see where he’s coming from. Do I trust the guy to do it? No. I have no trust in it. So, we’ll just have to wait and see. He had to prove me wrong. Uh, but there is some validity to what he’s saying. You would love to take some pressure off of Travis Jones because he’s a guy that can get some penetration, but without having a secondary tackle in there that can take that pressure away, take the double teams away. You’re kind of leaving Travis Jones on an island by himself to, you know, be effective in taking the double teams, but the penetration is in there. So, I see the plan. I see the vision. I understand it. Maybe I love it depending on how they’re utilizing him. Are they going to put him inside and just keep him attacking the guard? Are you going to have him moving around a bit? You know, kind of what we saw with Ed Oliver with the Bills. Can he do that? Yes, he has that capability. But do I trust Zachary to do it? I do not. I’m not going to lie to you guys. But he can certainly prove me wrong. This will be a big test for him against a rookie QB and JJ McCarthy. Yeah. And I love the mindset of Draymond Jones talked about that on on yesterday’s show of him essentially saying like what the Ravens are getting and what they can expect. to the Ravens fans says someone who’s physical as hell and will will attack every play like it’s his last kill or be killed and I’m just like that fires me up. So hopefully exterior interior stuff Draymond Jones is able to make a huge impact right I mean they need that immediate impact because Baltimore especially when they’re rushing four it’s not been good this season blitzing has made it a little better and coming up in the final part of the show we’ll talk a lot about blitzing because that’s a lot of what we’re probably going to see in this week 10 match up between the Vikings and the Ravens. So stay tuned. We got a lot coming your way here on Lockdown Ravens. 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Plus, if one of your players leaves early with an injury, the injury reboot saves my lineup from a loss. Download the prize picks app today and use code lockdown NFL. Get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code lockdown NFL for $50 in lineups after your first $5 lineup. Price picks. It’s good to be right. Moving along on lockdown ravens with Sam and Jooku. I am Kevin Ostriker rounding out this Friday edition of the show. Thanks so much again for being here. Be sure to hit the like and subscribe button in video form and follow along in audio form for five days a week plus more of Daily Ravens coverage. We have the regular show Monday through Friday as well as bonus episodes on the weekend. And we have a lot of bonus episodes on the weekend during the season because there are a lot of headlines to talk about during the season. We also have watch alongs during games, instant reactions after games and after pieces of big news, plus lock on Raven Squad show twice a week with myself, Sam, and former Ravens receiver Kadri Ismael. And again, you want to tune into those because Q’s good for one or two epic rants each and every single show. So you don’t want to miss out on any of the Ravens coverage and content we have here for you on Locked on Ravens. But Sam, we know that the Ravens, they have become a much more aggressive team on the defensive side of the ball as the season has progressed this year. A lot of that has probably just had to be because they’ve needed to do it. They’ve been awful at rushing the quarterback without blitzing. Blitzing has kind of been their calling card this year because they’ve had trouble with their guys winning one-on-one battles. Jonah Schaefer put out a stat a couple of days ago of the win rates for the Ravens rushers on true pass sets according to PFF where Draymond Jones who again was just acquired hasn’t played a snap for Baltimore. He was 48 of 93 for Tennessee. Mike Green 62 of 93. Tavius Robinson 82 of 93 and Kyle Vanoi 93 of 93. So it it’s it’s been rough there on the interior. Travis Jones ranked 29 of 95 interior defensive lineman and John Jenkins rated 67th out of 95 in terms of interior guys as well. and Jonas also Jonas did really good work of just kind of illustrating this because a stat that I’ve read out all week is that since losing nam to Benabke the Ravens pressure rates on plays without blitzes is an NFL worst 17.2% according to SIS and over the past decade no defense has finished the season even below 20%. So th those are just kind of stats to say hey the Ravens have needed to blitz because they are not getting any pressure one-on-one. Hopefully Draymond Jones and Carl Lawson can change that a little bit. But Sam, for a defense that at the beginning of the season ranked right around 30th in terms of blitz percentage over the first couple of weeks, maybe month of the season, they were really far down in that category. We’re in week 10, just a couple month and a half after they’ve skyrocketed to 10th in the league in blitz percentage. So it’s certainly showing how aggressive they’ve become. Aggressive is a word that I’d use. Desperate is another word that I would also use. They are extremely desperate to get pressure on the quarterback. They’re not getting it from their front four guys, which is something that, you know, some teams have that issue, but you needing to get five or six guys going to get after him. It is going to be a tall task for this defense to keep this up. You’d love for them to get something out of Draymond Jones. You also talked about Carl Austin coming in. Those two guys coming in means that we’re probably going to see less of David Aabo, which is probably a good thing because he hasn’t done anything since he’s been active. So getting some guys that can actually get after the quarterback, get physical. That does wonders not only getting after the quarterback, but also, you know, stopping the run. So you’d love to get the physicality on your defensive front, but yeah, you got to blitz. This team has got to blitz, manage some pressure somehow. Maybe it’s a fake blitz. We see that all the time. They send they have six guys in the line of scrimmage, send five, keep one back, send four, take two back. Whatever it takes. So seven, send back one. Whatever. Whatever it takes. I guess it’s J.J. McCarthy who hasn’t seen a lot of action. That would be great. But yeah, they’re not getting any pressure with their front guys. The edges aren’t doing anything. Not getting any pressure out of Travis Jones because they are double and triple teaming them because he’s the only effective pass rusher they got. Notif taking out the game. Dare the guys on the edge to beat you. No one’s done it so far this season. Mike Green is starting to get it up a little bit, but you want to see more out of him. And again, a lot of that is because they’re asking Kyle Vanoi and Mike Green to do way more than they thought they’d have to do at this point in the season. Those guys are pass rushing specialists. They need to be saved for third down. Not the case when you got only got three pass rushers on the team. So having Carl Lawson, having Jayon Jones should change that a bit. Might get to see a little bit more pressure of those guys uh upcoming. We’ll see. It’s up to Carl Lawson and Draymond Jones. But Blitz is in the name of the game for this Ravens defense at least for now. Starts with Kyle Hamilton and ends with Kyle Hamilton. We do know that Brian Flores, he plays that aggressive style defense, blitzing defense. We know at what happened in that 2021 game against the Dolphins, which you know, I still question whether that actually happened, but I guess we have to say it did. So, it happened. But now, Lamar Jackson has grown from that moment. Obviously, Brian Flores is now in Minnesota, and the Vikings have seen plenty of success with their pressure. They’re number one in pressure percentage, and a lot of that is because they’re the second most aggressive team in terms of blitzing. You also have on the offensive side of the ball a ton of weapons like Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ Hawinson, obviously JJ McCarthy is the question mark. So, how do you feel going into this game against Minnesota? Sam, how do you think the Ravens match up? Uh, they match up well against the Vikings, both on both sides of the ball. This is a game that the Ravens should have a a a good time with as far as preparation. The one thing I will say is that this game is going to come down to coaching, coaching, coaching for the Ravens. Can the Ravens not get out of their own way? Can they get out of their own way and just say, “Hey, we know they love to blitz. They love to keep guys in the box. Are we going to try and power through this this wall that the the the Vikings have created with Brian Flores?” I I wouldn’t advise it with this guard unit. I wouldn’t advise you having a jumbo formation against this this heavy box because they’re not going to have much success on the ground if they do that. I think we saw that when they played against the Detroit Lions. They did a good job stopping Jir Gibbs and David McGomery early on downs on first and second. So, I think you’re going to see a lot of passing early on in this contest. And so, we’ll see what this offensive line is able to do to protect Lamar Jackson early. If they’re able to get that, you know, passing success going, then maybe they can lean on the run a little bit more. Another option for them is to kind of spread this defense out. that four receiver look kind of space everything out and then run the football effectively with uh Derek Henry something he did very well in the second half with the Miami Dolphins. So we’ll see what happens. Either way the the problem is the the Dolph the Vikings love I said hit the Dolphins because Brian Flores used to coach there. The Vikings love to play a heavy box formation with blitzing. So you do not want to match power power because I don’t think the Ravens have the power that they think they have with this front five that just looks awful with Daniel Flei and Voy struggling the bit the way that they have. Now they do got Pat Ricard and he did struggle against the Dolphins but I think he might be better fitted for this game. I think they know what to do in this contest. I say likely as well. So they may feel the anxiousness or maybe feel the the pressure to kind of run the football that way. But I would advise against it. Use Lamar Jackson. Throw the football short of your game. Get it going that way. put the pressure away from the offensive line and then try and attack with the run game. Yeah, big opportunity for the Ravens in week number 10 to get a win against a very talented NFC opponent in the Minnesota Vikings that has talent on both sides of the ball. Sam, I appreciate you. Thanks so much for hopping on. Before I get you out of here, please tell people where they can find you, what you’re working on, what you have going on. Yeah, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram, Ravenstock Podcast, talking Ravens football all the time. We’ll have a little update for you prior to the contest between the Ravens and the Vikings. You also catch me on the locked on Ravens squad show twice a week with myself, Kevin, and Kadri talking Ravens football game. You’re ready for the game. We’ll have a postgame show after the Ravens hopefully beat on the Vikings, which I am predicting. Uh so we’ll see what happens there. But yep, definitely catch us on here locked on Raven Squad show and on Instagram, Twitter, wherever you want to find me on Ravens Talk podcast. Be sure to go support Sam. Links will be in the description down below. Sam, again, thanks so much and thank you to everybody who watched and listened to Data Locked on Ravens coming up. We’re probably going to have some bonus episodes on the weekend because it’s the season. There’s always something to talk about. So, be sure to stay tuned for that as well as all of our Ravens daily coverage and content here on Locked on Ravens. You can subscribe in video form and like the video. You can also follow along in audio form and subscribe over there. And be sure you stay tuned. I’ll see you right back here soon on Locked on Ravens.

We look at Jaire Alexander sharing his thoughts on his trade from the Baltimore Ravens to the Philadelphia Eagles with Sam Njoku, discussing what was said and more. We also look at Todd Monken sharing key Baltimore Ravens offensive line thoughts, the team’s Week 10 game vs. the Minnesota Vikings and more.

Jaire Alexander FINALLY BREAKS SILENCE on Baltimore Ravens trade, Todd Monken shares KEY OL thoughts

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