Rob Long, 105.7 The Fan Morning Show Co-Host

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Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. Rob, how you been? So well, man, how are you?

Well, I'm doing fantastic. So what was your biggest takeaway from that press conference today with John Harbaugh and Eric DaCosta? I'm finally going all in publicly on Lamar Jackson.

That seems to be the big sense of anxiety here in Baltimore. Is the team going to trade him, sign him to a franchise deal to trade him, or going to keep him? You know, my guess from recently is just maybe a franchise deal just long enough to come and negotiate a deal, but I just can't see Steve Bishati.

You had two people talking today, and Eric DaCosta and John Harbaugh, and I'm not taking anything away from their authority because I'm a huge Eric DaCosta fan. But the person we need to be concerned about is Steve Bishati, and if you know anything about business with Steve Bishati, he doesn't let good people go. That's where he is right now, and he knows Lamar Jackson, the generational talent. I don't see Steve Bishati let Lamar go.

So here's the thing. They keep on talking about Lamar, obviously, in a positive light. They keep on saying that they want him to be there and they want him to be the guy, but for me, actions speak louder than words, and so far, they haven't been able to get a deal done.

What do you think the biggest difference is, or the biggest reason is, why a deal hasn't gotten done yet? Lamar, I mean, we keep forgetting. We keep putting this on the Ravens.

Let's go back to August. He said when the season begins, he's not negotiating anymore, so what do you want them to do when the line's been drawn in the sand and the person you have to negotiate with won't negotiate? We keep going Ravens, Ravens. The Ravens tried to do a deal with him.

When he's represented himself and he said he's not talking, you can't make him negotiate. I don't understand why all of this is put on the Ravens. A deal like fully guaranteed, with the exception of Deshaun Watson, is unprecedented. You just don't do that.

That kind of money. It doesn't happen often. Watson did it to her cousin to a lesser extent, so it's not like it's a normal deal. Something like that needs to be negotiated throughout the season. You can't draw a line in the sand on that, but because he doesn't have representation, he's trying to play quarterback, you understand it from his standpoint, but I think this is more Lamar than it is the Ravens. Do you think down deep Lamar will eventually get a deal done with the Ravens and he wants to stay in Baltimore, Rob Long? I think the first thing that was done today is Greg Roman stepping down. That's a problem.

I don't think people understand how much of a problem that is. If you look at some of the animators he's become this year, plays getting in late, routes, the route tree guys running in the same area, Lamar became very animatedly frustrated, and I think this is a huge step in the right direction, and Greg Roman stepping down. John Harbaugh probably ahead of the class, and Greg, we're going to go in a different direction, you're my guy, it's better for you to step down than for me to have to fire you.

I can imagine that's how it went. There's no way in the world they would have brought Greg Roman back next year. Do you think this offseason a deal gets done, Rob?

Yes. I think if you ask me to predict, there's not a lot of media people that's close to Lamar. He's a good guy when you're there, but he doesn't have a media contact guide too much. But if you ask me to look into the Rob Long crystal ball, I say they franchise him, and the franchise tag is long enough to put pause on, and they sign him to a deal during the franchise tag. I don't think they'll have to franchise him twice. It does feel though like, Rob, if they don't get a long-term deal done this offseason, then you're almost running out of time, and I know that a deal could get done a year from now, but they can't run that risk of franchise tagging him two years in a row, and then maybe him just walking and going for a compensatory third pick. It seems like this is the last year for a deal to get done. I agree with you.

That you and I agree on. If they can't do it this year, then Lamar Jackson, I don't think Lamar Jackson ever sees a second franchise tag with the Ravens. Is there any thought, and I know it's pretty new today, on who could be that next offensive coordinator? Is there any name that's being thrown around there in Baltimore? Not a lot of names here in Baltimore.

A lot of wishes, but not a lot of names. I would love someone even suggested, get Bobby Petrino a call. If you look at Lamar Jackson, how did he get to the NFL? He didn't get to the NFL running that crappy offense of Ray Roman. I know a lot of people would say the offense was fine in 2019. That's because no one knew what to do with it. It was brand new.

Then when people got film on it, they caught up with it. Lamar Jackson ran a spread offense in college, three and four wide. Name is running back.

He don't know it because he really wasn't that much of a presence. I mean, he threw the football. A lot of his runs were designed pass plays that turned into runs. I don't know where the Ravens get the narrative of their running the offense for Lamar, Lamar's offense. That's not the offense that got him to the National Football League. That's not the offense that got him the Heisman Trophy, the Heisman Trophy finalist in back-to-back seasons. They need to bring someone in that really knows Lamar and knows how to use Lamar instead of telling him to run, run. Lamar Jackson is the quarterback. Is he the most efficient quarterback in the National Football League?

No. But if you get receivers out there spreading wide, it's one thing to play ball in man in basketball. That's a small court. When you play ball in man in football, then you're in trouble because you're going to lose sight of those wide receivers. When you're a DB or a linebacker, you're backing up. You've got to look at a receiver, but you've also got to be mindful of what the quarterback is.

It's hard to keep track of those receivers. So the Ravens today, Rob Long, make it appear that they want Lamar Jackson back. And as we've been discussing, and it's definitely fair to question if Lamar wants to stay there, take the contract out of it. One thing that I still don't get was Lamar's frustration with Marquise Hollywood-Brown getting traded.

From everything that the Ravens have said, they were honest with Lamar. Marquise Hollywood-Brown multiple times requested that trade. I never got that on draft night when Lamar made it seem with the social media post that he was so annoyed and caught off guard with the Marquise Hollywood-Brown trade. Well, I think the annoyed part was why Hollywood-Brown wanted to go. Hollywood-Brown wanted to go because he said it wasn't an offense that was friendly to receivers.

And I think Lamar sensed what I sensed and a lot of other people sensed. If Hollywood-Brown, your first round draft pick is gone after having a 1,000 yard season, then what are we going to do in the future when we want to sign free agent wide receivers? Do we have to just draft wide receivers or trade for agent wide receivers? That was the frustration. I think the frustration was maybe Hollywood-Brown echoed the same sentiments that he had. He's wondering, well, maybe we should get rid of the offensive coordinator and not the wide receiver.

I think the frustration was well placed and legit. You have a receiver that just had a 1,000 yard receiver walk away in a situation where he may not even be the number one receiver when D-Hop came back and things just kind of didn't work its way out in Arizona. He's willing to go there in a past wide receiver friendly offense and stay here.

I think that was the frustration. I know the offensive coordinator, Rob Long, is going to be big in this, but do you think DaCosta will change that approach and will be willing to go get Lamar a bona fide number one wide receiver this offseason? The best offensive coordinator we've had in John Harbaugh's era was Greg Kubiak. And it's known that Harbaugh didn't hire him.

That was a hire above him. They're going to have to do the same thing here. They're going to have to get John Harbaugh, by nature, offensives.

They're conservatives. They've got to get somebody. If you look at Eric DaCosta's draft picks, Hollywood-Brown, he didn't get Mark Andrews, but he got Devin DuVernay. He went out and got Isaiah Likley.

He had J.K. Dobbins. These are all perimeter guys. These are fast guys. Yet, you run a three yards in the cloud and does offense that's only dynamic because number eight is in it. It's not a design dynamic offense.

Number eight makes it dynamic. You've got to go out and get an offensive coordinator that can utilize the talent that was drafted. I believe a lot of these guys, these still positioned guys on offense, are out of place. Why is it Isaiah Likley puts a hundred yards receiving a rookie tight end out of coastal Carolina, but then when you bring Mark Andrews back, he disappears. Because your offensive coordinator doesn't know how to use multiple weapons. We talk about how bad the receiving coordinator is in Baltimore. Are they bad? Or are they not able to be utilized to their proper talents? I think they're not able to be utilized to their proper talents. I think a big thing to smooth this over this offseason would be going out there and getting Dondre Hopkins.

That's not just putting lipstick on the pig. That changes your entire offense. You get the right offensive coordinator. You bring D. Hopp in here. You bring back the healthy Mark Andrews.

You don't love this Isaiah Likley kid. Devin DuVernay comes back healthy. J.K. Dobbs and Gus Edwards. That's an offense that can keep the defensive head on the swivel. Now all of a sudden Lamar Jackson approaches 4,000 yards passing. Lamar Jackson needs to approach 4,000 yards passing and only 700 or 800 yards rushing.

You don't need the 1,000 yards rushing. You need to have an offense. Not only that, I haven't seen the Ravens run a rub route. I haven't seen them run that in years. You watch other offenses around and ask the football league if you're in Baltimore and it makes you frustrated to see that they've taken offense back 15 years.

Because there's no innovation, no creativity. You've heard guys like Steve Smith calling them out. Kurt Warner. Now Steve Young.

Guys in the hall of favors and guys that are great at what they do calling them out because it's bad. Rob Long I know that the way that we talk about things isn't necessarily the way that players think. Do you think at all in Lamar's mind he would be content getting traded and maybe going to the NFC just because you look in the AFC and I know everyone thinks Lamar is sensational and he's won an MVP unanimously. But you've got Burrow there for the foreseeable future. You've got Allen there for the foreseeable future. You've got Mahomes there for the foreseeable future. Herbert and Lawrence too. Like the NFC, they're looking for a face in that conference and Lamar could be the best quarterback if he gets traded at the NFC.

No, that's you talking. Lamar's not worried about leaving the AFC for those reasons. If Lamar wants to leave the Ravens, it has nothing to do with him wanting to go to the NFC because the AFC is crowded. If anything, Lamar Jackson embraces, he's the type of guy that embraces that kind of challenge because he believes he's in that class. Keep in mind, he won an MVP when those guys were playing quarterbacks.

He won the MVP when those guys were in the league. So Lamar Jackson is not thinking about getting out of the AFC so he can be the face of the NFC. He wants to be the face of the NFL. Alright, before we let you run, Rob Long, just this weekend around the NFL, let's get some predictions out of you. Who do you like in that Bills-Bangles game? Alright, fine.

Let's start. Bills-Bangles. Who do you like in this one? I like the Bills in that one. I think Josh Allen is on too much and he's hot right now. And that spread though.

I was surprised it was at five, five and a half. Yeah, I'm loving that though. I'm loving it. I take that.

Okay, let's go to, well, Saturday night. You're not picking the Jaguars to upset Kansas City, I'm assuming, right? Oh no, Patrick Mahomes. You know the AFC wildcard is the Patrick Mahomes Invitational. It's like Duke was to the ACC tournament years ago. That's what the AFC playoff picture is.

It's the Pat Mahomes Invitational. And the NFC, we got two juicy games this weekend. Philadelphia and the Giants and then the Cowboys and the Niners.

Where are you going? I think Philadelphia is going to get upset in the City of Brotherly Love. The Giants are hot and Danny Dobbs is underrated. I think that Giants defense led by Baltimore's old DC, Wick Martindale, goes to Philadelphia and stages the upset. And I think it's going to be an all NFC championship game because I think Dallas defeats the San Francisco Giants.

I just find it a hard time to believe that Mr. Irrelevant is going to play in the NFC championship game. At some point, at some point, reality is going to catch up with him. I think he's going to be a very good quarterback moving forward. But the playoffs are different. And when the Dallas Cowboys come around that edge and come at you, all of a sudden that clock in your head speeds up.

I see Dallas getting the upset in San Fran. Last thing I'll ask you, Rob Long, since you mentioned Wink Martindale, but why don't you think he's a head coach yet in this league and the other part? Why did that relationship end in Baltimore?

The relationship ended in Baltimore because there were guys who were leaving Baltimore as pass rushers that couldn't become pass rushers in the Wink Martindale system. And the Ravens drafted a couple of young pass rushers. They drafted one in old way. They drafted another kid out of Michigan this year. They needed to change that narrative.

So they had to get him out of town. When you see former guys leave you and become big time pass rushers elsewhere, you got to do it. Why is that a head coach? I don't know if Wink Martindale, the biggest thing I question, I don't interview him, can Wink Martindale want a team or can Wink Martindale want a defense? I personally, you know, when he was interviewed a couple of years ago, I think I told all of Baltimore that was listening, I just think he'll be back. And just from the Wink Martindale, I know he's great DC, but I just don't know whether he can run, he can be the CEO of an entire team.

I'm not saying he can't, but just, I have the same questions that seem to come up in interviews. Rob Long, we appreciate it. Thanks so much as always.

Anytime. The NFL playoffs live on Odyssey. Touchdown as time expires.

Unbelievable turn of events. Nonstop coverage from the biggest sports radio stations in the country. Podcasts dedicated to each NFL team. And post-season games streaming live for free.

Thinks the handoff, looks right, throws right, hands on clock, touchdown. Your playoffs, your Odyssey, get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. The NFL playoffs live on Odyssey. Touchdown as time expires.

Unbelievable turn of events. Nonstop coverage from the biggest sports radio stations in the country. Podcasts dedicated to each NFL team. And post-season games streaming live for free.

Thinks the handoff, looks right, throws right, hands on clock, touchdown. Your playoffs, your Odyssey, get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. The NFL playoffs live on Odyssey. Touchdown as time expires.

Unbelievable turn of events. Nonstop coverage from the biggest sports radio stations in the country. Podcasts dedicated to each NFL team. And post-season games streaming live for free. Thinks the handoff, looks right, throws right, hands on clock, touchdown. Your playoffs, your Odyssey, get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today.