No Lamar, The Battle Under Center & Schedule Breakdown

We break down Ravens OTAs: analyzing Lamar Jackson’s voluntary absence, the wide-open battle at the center position, and how Baltimore’s newly released schedule shapes their road back to the playoffs. #RavensFlock #BaltimoreRavens #NFLonX

Transcript

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What's going on, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome into another episode of the Charmed City Sports Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Holohan back here on this Thursday evening. We are obviously going in depth into what has now been about a week, I think exactly a week since the NFL has released its 2026 schedule. So we'll be talking about all of that here on this episode in regards to the Baltimore Ravens. We'll talk a little bit about the NFL schedule as a whole, but mainly we'll be, of course, talking about the Baltimore Ravens. Some OTAs discussion as well, and that's pretty much where we are going to begin here. As Adam Scheffner went in detail today to Pat McAfee on the Pat McAfee show, of course, about the Baltimore Ravens not having starting quarterback Lamar Jackson at OTAs as of right now. Now whether or not he is going to report to OTAs throughout, as this is obviously voluntary offseason workouts. And Lamar Jackson probably will be in attendance at some point during that. Now, the Ravens, of course, haven't had Lamar Jackson throughout the last couple seasons. This year, under new offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, who has kind of stated already here in this offseason that Lamar Jackson needs to be there in order to uh get the offense under, you know, kind of to I mean, as close to being as a hundred percent with it as you could be, of course, before the start of the season. Now, obviously there's a lot that they're going to continue to install during the summer, but the basics are something that he needs to really have nailed shut right now. Uh but he has met with that, I mean, they they have met in April. It's not as if Lamar has not been present with the Baltimore Ravens coaching staff so far, as obviously for the first time ever in his Ravens career, he is going to be obviously guided under a new head coach in Jesse Miner, and the Ravens for the first time since 2007 will obviously not have John Harbaugh on that coaching staff as the head coach, and of course, for the first time since 08, then having a new headman for the team, first time in 19 seasons, you know, so obviously, or 18 seasons, I should say. Uh so of course one of the few teams that can say that. The only other team that hasn't dealt with that, of course, has been the Pittsburgh Steelers with Mike Tomlin, and obviously they're undergoing their own change under Mike McCarthy. But back to the Ravens. Not having Lamar Jackson there, obviously, you know, so far that's of course stirred things up a little bit, but uh but of course, you know, um it there should I think be no question that at some point he is going to be there, I would assume, and I think a lot of people assume that as well. Uh Derrick Henry gave everyone a little bit of a scare today as he banged knees with a defensive player, went down and was down for a little bit before popping back up. Derrick Henry said he thought maybe he was down on the ground a little bit too long. Um now, whether or not that is uh, of course, just him saying that to make everyone feel a little bit more calm about the situation. Of course, he was right back to running drills, but maybe initially he was a little concerned about what that might mean, and then uh back up and and doing drills. So that's a good sign. Now, one other big key for concern, and as we talk about Lamar Jackson, one of the reasons why he most definitely needs to be there, not only to learn the offense, but also this offensive line, uh, they've got to be able to meet with uh have as many people on hand as they possibly can because this is a very pivotal year for that offensive line for a lot of guys within that offensive line and specifically at the center position. The Ravens are going into this season with kind of the mindset of sort of rolling the dice and let's see what happens, and hopefully someone uh can have a big year there on the offensive line, and we can develop someone as a starter, as you know, right now it kind of feels like you're you're limited, completely limited at that position as it currently uh sits. And you know, whether or not the Ravens are going to go into this season um with having not a true starting center who we know can play at the NFL level. Uh there are some guys that have been around this offensive line for the last couple years, Corey Bullock, who is undrafted in 2024, but I mean, are you willing to let him go into the year as a starter? I I don't think so. There's Danny Pinter, uh, who was the starting center for the Indianapolis Colts uh for a couple seasons there. Um, but he's been injured the last couple years, and now uh he's with the Ravens on a one-year, $2.75 million deal. Is that someone that you're confident in? And then obviously, I don't think Nick Dawkins, who's an undrafted center uh out of Penn State, is the exact ideal guy that you'd say, yeah, I I feel good with him starting. I don't think that's where the Ravens would want to go, but Pinter right now seems like the lead candidate. Now, before the draft, Eric DeCosta spoke about this. He said that he basically was going into it with the mindset that the Ravens could draft someone to start, or, you know, they're gonna have to hope for, because this is essentially what you're doing, you're hoping that someone is going to shake loose from one of their respective teams and you're going to get them. Maybe via, you know, obviously being released, which I don't know if that really helps things. I mean, it's it's not like you're looking for a long snapper. It's not like you're looking for a kicker or a punter or, you know, a special teams guy. You're looking for the starting center for a team that has hopes of making the playoffs, has the talent to make the playoffs. You brought in a head coach that you're trying to put in the best situation possible in order to go after a championship. You have a veteran team here that has the mindset of going after a championship. So to not have a center, which is one of the most important positions on your team, feels kind of like malpractice from the general manager's position. I'm sorry to say it, but it feels like it. I mean, I just don't know what the idea here is and what the end game is. You didn't think about resigning Tyler Linderbaum, you didn't think it was worth re signing a center to that much money, fine. But you can't go into the season without having anyone that is prepared to take over. That's why I talk about whether or not Bullock could be that guy. Was there something they saw in him the last two seasons that would say, hey, if we don't resign Tyler Linderbaum, you've been on our practice squad, you've been behind him, we can go into the year with you as our starting center. I maybe, I don't know. I don't think that's really where I would uh necessarily put my eggs in that basket. I mean, this is someone, you know, in Corey Bullock, whom has the most experience within this offense, and uh he his only accolades in his career was being second-team all-Miac at North Carolina Central in the 2021 season, and then transferring to Maryland for his 2023 season, and then obviously going undrafted. 6'2, 307, these were his pre-draft grades. Um this is obviously, you know, someone that and you know, in the NFL preseason in 2024, he was given the highest rookie offensive lineman grade by PFF and was named to their all-rookie team in preseason. But would that translate two years later to be the full-time starter of the Baltimore Ravens? I don't know. I'm not sure I necessarily see that, but we'll see where the Ravens end up going there at the center of spot. Now for what I think everyone is most looking at and what everyone's kind of eyeing down here, uh the 2026 Baltimore Ravens schedule will give you a nice, as it sits right now, uh little bit of you know, the I guess uh predictions for this upcoming season. I think we'll as we get closer and closer, we'll we'll look at really what you know could happen for the Ravens this upcoming season. In terms of their strength of schedule for the Baltimore Ravens, they currently sit 24th at a point four seven nine percent. They are sandwiched between the Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans. Interesting, the Eagles uh back-to-back NFC's champions sit at twenty-three. But for the Baltimore Ravens coming into this season, you look at what's been deemed as an you know a prove-it year for you know a couple of guys um uh, you know, both on the offensive side and the defensive side, you know, the head coach and the offensive coordinator, what are they gonna look like um as well? And you kick the year off in Indianapolis against the Colts, Daniel Jones, what's it gonna be for him? Is he gonna be ready to go for the opening game? I do not believe he will be, and for the Indianapolis Colts, I mean, you can't anticipate you're gonna go into the year and you're gonna, you know, possibly have in his third season on the team Anthony Richardson as your week one starting quarterback. I mean, is that really you know, they declined his fifth year option, they're anticipating making him a free agent after this year, so it is you know a prove-it year for him. Um but you know, it's a prove-it year which you know he's going to have to if Daniel Jones is going to now he was signed to a two-year $88 million deal, so that kind of lets you know what they think of Anthony Richardson already. But if Daniel Jones is not going to be ready for week one after tearing his Achilles tendon, which is a huge possibility, then is Anthony Richardson going to be installed into being the week one starting quarterback, and if that's the case, that plays a huge favor for the Baltimore Ravens. Now, week one la losses happen all the time. They happen, I mean, the Patriots lost to the Raiders last year, week one. Obviously, we know by now that the Patriots uh maybe were the beneficiary of a pretty light schedule, but obviously, you know, that it turned out to be, you know, a fluke because uh, you know, while the Patriots may not have been uh as good as their record ultimately showed, they still weren't as bad as the Las Vegas Raiders and ended up losing week one to the Raiders and would also lose a little bit later in the season to uh the Pittsburgh Steelers. I think a couple of weeks after that loss to the Raiders. Yeah, week three. They lost to the Steelers, then obviously went on to uh reel off ten straight wins. But so I'm just saying, you know, early losses possibly happen. I think it's very unlikely it happens in this scenario. But after that, the Ravens will come home and they will open their home schedule against the New Orleans Saints. Obviously, the Saints are in a kind of a weird state right now. Are they ready to kind of see what Callum Moore can do and and Shuck can do in their second season? Are they fully committed there? Are they possibly, you know, looking to, you know, maybe put themselves in position if things go wrong with Joe Burrow and Cincinnati, get themselves positioned for the Joe Burrow sweepstakes with a favorable draft pick. I mean, how's that going to shake out? So that's what the Ravens have week two. I think they'll probably get that win, possibly starting off 2-0. And then they host the Dallas, or I'm sorry, they don't host the Dallas Cowboys. They go to Brazil to play the Dallas Cowboys. So this is really, in my opinion, where we get to talking about the NFL schedule being wonky. And my disagreements with the NFL on having nine international games for this upcoming season, and having a game where you go from playing a team the previous Sunday, taking what can be a 12 and a half to thirteen and a half hour flight down to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and playing the Dallas Cowboys. Now, the last couple years the ra the NFL has done this game and it's kicked off the NFL season. Now, I personally really hate the fact that you're kicking off the NFL season and teams are not in their own stadiums. I thought it was ridiculous when the Eagles did it two years ago. The Chargers and Chiefs did it last year, and when you, you know, the Eagles playing the Packers. Packers obviously one of the most storied franchises, as, you know, as well as a team with not as many years, but of course the Philadelphia Eagles who have been around for a long time. You got the Chargers and Chiefs. I mean, it's not the Jaguars and the Panthers going down there. It's, you know, and obviously they want it because they want teams with a lot of cachet. But it just feels like to me, why alienate the home fans to do so? Because and and here's why, because the NFL knows they can do no wrong. They can do whatever and people are going to buy in. Unless they see a significant dip in their bottom line, in the bottom dollar coming from the home from the fan base, you know, in terms of jersey sales, in terms of ticket purchasing, and it can't just be because, oh, the team stinks. In terms of ratings, unless that happens, they are not, trust me, they are not going to look to take any international games away. That is what is going to have to happen. And until that does, which I doubt it will, the NFL is going to continue to say, you know what? There's no reason for us to change. We're going to keep scheduling as such. You know what? It doesn't matter. You know, whether people even go to those games or not, people are still tuning in. People are still, uh, and for the NFL's sake, people are still in all these fantasy football leagues, so they seem to not care. People are still tuning into Red Zone every single Sunday at you know, enormous clips and you know, buying subscriptions for NFL Sunday ticket and this and that and so on and so forth, and Peacock and Amazon, they're seeing rises in their subscriptions due in part to the fact that the NFL has forced people, and it's not just the NFL, NBA as well has caught on to this. They are forcing people to buy subscriptions just to be able to watch one game a week or one game a month or one game a year or you know, however many games a year, however many times you go on to Amazon Prime, however many times you go on uh to Peacock. I mean, Netflix is one thing because, you know, just about everyone has Netflix. But when it comes to when it comes to Peacock, when it comes to Amazon Prime, when it comes to all this stuff, people don't generally have that. And it was one thing I assume with the NFL network, which meant you had to, I mean, just say, hey, I would like to increase my sports package on my cable TV, you know, which obviously would cost you a little bit more money, uh, depending upon whatever year it was, naturally, you know, you are having to spend more in order to buy all these subscriptions, but I believe someone did the total dollar amount, total money spent on this upcoming season to stream NFL games, the amount the breakdown is between seven hundred dollars to fifteen hundred per season. That's ridiculous. The a cable package, a TV sports package, the cost of that, which can range between anywhere on Xfinity, let's just go off of that, the package can be seventy dollars to ninety dollars per month. Think about that. For com for Xfinity Comcast, 70 to 90 per month. Now, granted, that's still you know, you're spending close to $2,000 per year, but when you think about in the grand scheme of things, if you have multiple teams, like hey, if you were the Philadelphia fan, you can watch the Phillies, you can watch the Sixers, you can watch the Flyers. Now, unfortunately in Baltimore, you know, you can only if you purchase Masson, if you purchase cable for that reason and you have Masson, you can only, you know, really your other option, and you can't watch the Ravens on Masson during the season, but you can only get the Orioles on there. Unfortunately, you know, you can't, you're not able to get the Capitals and the Wizards. But still, if they could figure out a way for that to work, that could regionalize that. And again, this is something that, you know, is a waste of breath because, hey, it's already moving towards streaming, but you're spending that much money on just being able to watch all those games for the NFL. It's extremely ridiculous. Now, the Baltimore Ravens, they play Dallas in Brazil. This is and interrupting the schedule for this one week to then come back, play the following week against the Titans, albeit at home. Again, it's ridiculous. For the Eagles and the Packers, for the Chiefs and the Chargers, it was week one. You had time in between for the players to get healthy, you know, for the for the players to, if they're not already healthy, for them to be fresh. You're playing two games and you're traveling to play this game against the Cowboys. I think the NFL is gonna find out that this is a no-no for this. That long of a flight to go down, you know, it's about a five-hour flight to London. But it's about a twelve and a half to thirteen hour flight to Brazil with no bye week before or after. That's just I don't agree with that at all. Week four they come home and play the Titans. I mean, you want to talk about player safety. We'll see how that works after that game. Week four they come home and play the Titans. Dallas on the road in Brazil kind of concerns me. You get Dak in the warm weather. I think he might be able to have a field day potentially. We'll see what the Ravens defense looks like there. I think that could probably be the Ravens' first loss or second loss of the year. But coming home and playing the Titans, I think the Ravens will be Tennessee and be two and two or three and one. Then they take to the road to take on the Falcons. Uh I think you probably pick up a win here against Atlanta. You go to Cleveland. Now the Browns have given the Ravens fits the last couple seasons. And you're going to face former Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken. So that's going to present its own crop of challenges. And uh Todd Monkin, you know, with the Cleveland Browns, obviously Shador Sanders expected what kind of a leap is he going to make this upcoming season. Uh, but no Jim Schwartz as their defensive coordinator. Uh Mike Ruttenberg, whom was previously the Atlanta Falcons defensive pass game coordinator. So without Jim Schwartz being there, that kind of gives me a little bit more uh, you know, reason to breathe a sigh of relief because Jim Schwartz, you know, among one of the best defensive minds, very underrated in what he did with Cleveland. But going there to take on the Browns, I'd like to think the Ravens could pick up a win here. And I think I think we're probably looking at I want to say Shane Steichen could possibly put the Colts in position to win that game. So I think we're probably looking at a four-and-two Ravens team at this point, which then you'll play host to the Cincinnati Bengals the following week. Bengals believe they are going to be much better with their offense this upcoming season, both offensively and defensively, more healthier. We'll see ultimately what that looks like, and especially against the Ravens. I think they come through and win this game, the Ravens do, and they're five and two. Then you go to Buffalo to play the Bills. I see that probably as a loss to be five and three. You play host to the Jacksonville Jaguars the following week. That's a tough Jacksonville team to go up against. Uh I think potentially again when you start to go up against some of these better m better teams and if you have the team constructed right now without a center for your offense, I think you lose a lot there. I think there could be some growing pains as well. I think the Ravens pick up their fourth loss here and go to four five and four. You play host to the Chargers the following week. Monday night football, coming off Thursday night football against Jacksonville, so that's another reason. Short week from being in Buffalo, coming back to play, you know, a tough, uh, a very tough opponent in the Jacksonville Jaguars, albeit at home. But then you got a mini bye, so I think you can beat the Chargers there and move to six and four. Then you play the Panthers on the road. I they should beat the Panthers. Seven and four. I could see that being a close game, but I think the Ravens pull through. I think they have just enough to pull through. Then you go to Houston. That's a tough one. I think you go with a loss there. You're seven and five at the bye, feeling pretty good. Then you welcome the Buccaneers in. I believe the Ravens can beat the Bucs. I think there's a lot of turnover with Tampa. I think the Ravens will come through with the W there. They'll be eight and five. Hit the road to play Pittsburgh. Uh you'll see them twice in the next four weeks. Close out with four straight rivalry games, playing Pittsburgh on the road. Always tough to play them on the road. I'm interested to see at this point in the season, after a long ruling year, this is always when Mike Tomlin's teams would typically fade into the sunset. And I think with Mike McCarthy, there could be a little bit of a jolt in his first season, maybe a little bit of exuberance as well, some new things they're doing offensively. Of course, Aaron Rodgers playing in his 20th season. He could be winding down at this point. So taking that into account, I think the Ravens pick up the win here, which would make them uh at 9-5 at this point in the season. Then you host the Cleveland Browns the following week. I think they pick up the win against Cleveland as well, move to 10-5, then you're at Cincinnati. I think unfortunately that's gonna be a loss Thursday night football. Uh, after a short week, you know, you play the Browns there Sunday, December the 27th after Christmas. You play the Bengals uh New Year's Eve at 8.15. So that game wraps up and the ball is just about to drop. Uh and I think the Ravens, unfortunately, are gonna be uh again mourning maybe a little bit of a loss here. I think they'll be 10-6, but probably in good position to make the playoffs and they wrap up the season against Steelers at home. I'm gonna say they pull off the rare sweep of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Uh the the Ravens, you know, do not sweep uh the Steelers very often. Uh last time they pulled that off was in 2019. So, you know, it's it's pretty darn rare uh, you know, that you you see the Ravens do that. The Steelers they've managed to uh actually be able to pull off a couple of those, um, especially here in the last couple seasons. Uh, but obviously I in last year, of course, but I think uh this time around, I think it'll be the Ravens uh pulling it off here against the Pittsburgh Steelers. But alright, ladies and gentlemen, that will pretty much do it for us. Uh 11-6 for the Ravens. Does that win them the division? It definitely gets them in the playoffs, but I think because of the way the schedule is, you know, the Ravens should be able to get to a plus 500 record at minimum, and I'd like to say make it into the playoffs. Whether that's as division champs, whether that's just getting in as a wild card, that will be yet to be seen. But thanks everyone for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.