News out of Baltimore earlier today, Jayer Alexander is
now a raven, the former Pro Bowl quarterback who
played his entire career with the Packers released a couple
of weeks ago, now is headed from the NFC
North to the AFC North, where we also find
our next guest. It is. Ravens wide receiver
Rashad Bateman here with me, Tom Paliero, and
Ian Rapoport on the insiders. Rashad, thanks for
being here. We got all kinds of stuff to
get into with you, your contract, the offense
, the offseason, but it's June 18th. We
don't get a lot of opportunities this time of year
to talk about fresh news. You get the word
today, Jayer Alexander, he's coming to Baltimore.
What was your reaction? I mean, that was
, that was big news for like all of us
. I, I would say, I mean definitely
top, you know, defender, you know,
DB in the league, and I think he could
come in and help us right away. Um,
I think we still connected and put pieces together right
now and you know, we definitely look forward to
it. You know, if you take a look
at your secondary now and you're gonna take a really
good look at them because you're gonna see a lot
of these guys in practice in training camp. You
got Marlon Humphrey, you got Wiggins, you got
Malachi Starks, now you got Kyle Hamilton, and
now you got Jayer Alexander. What is the secondary
gonna be like, do you think in games and
what's it gonna be like for you guys having to
battle them in practice every day? I mean in
practice it's definitely gonna be a battle. I mean
it's always a battle, you know, this defense
here is tough and you know adding Jayer to the
group definitely gonna make us better and you know,
going out, you know, putting Jayre in the
middle uh of our defense with the guys that we
got now, I think it's gonna be fun to
see could be some Ravens football. So 2 years
in a row we've gotten to do a Rashad Bateman
new contract story here on the insiders. This time
around, obviously you're coming off of a big season
. You showed again what you did all those years
in Minnesota, the big play threat you can be
. Tell me about signing that 3 year extension,
what that meant for you and what that you hope
means for the rest of your career here. I
mean it means a lot. It's an honor.
I take it with respect. You know it's a
lot of hard work and, you know, uh
, dark days where I come from and you know
I'm excited to be here and it shows that this
organization believes in me, you know what I've done
and what I continue to do and shows that my
teammates believe in me as well. So you know
I'm excited to be here and hopefully I can continue
to, you know, keep stacking these days and
building on that. You have had some ups and
ups and downs since you've been in Baltimore. Obviously
far more ups recently really, really clicked over the
past couple of years, I would say. Was
there a moment for you when you went from like
, maybe I'm not so sure of things like,
all right, Baltimore is my home and I'm gonna
, I'm gonna be able to sign a big time
extension to stay. I mean that's always my mindset
. It's never really changed, you know what I'm
saying, no matter what I went through, I
was always praying and hoping that it worked out here
. It's a lot of love and respect that comes
with the team that drafted you and you know I
wanted to, you know, flip that narrative of
receivers here and I definitely think they were on the
right track of doing that. Um, we're not
really looking for nobody else's validation, but you know
, it feels good, you know, somewhat,
you know, being in the midst now and you
know, headed down that you know right track.
Yesterday your quarterback Lamar Jackson was asked about looking a
little bit skinnier, and he said, you know
, don't, don't say skinny, say that I
look in shape, I look fit. How does
he look to you physically and also from what you're
seeing with one of the most dynamic players in the
league on the field here this spring. I mean
, everybody looks good right now. I mean,
we just got done with mini camp and uh I
mean everybody look fast, strong, powerful, and
you know you could tell that everybody's eager to get
back to work and you know, chase this ring
, um, but Lamar, it's funny you say
that he does look skinnier and quicker and faster,
so, um, the league gets in trouble per
usual. Right, I mean, Lamar looking great
and electric is, is news, but it's also
basically what's been the case for the multi-time MVP for
the last several years. You guys on offense,
uh, just like you just did on defense,
had a significant veteran addition this year. DeAndre Hopkins
, you know, multi-time Pro Bowl, really one
of the better technicians, uh, and pass catchers
we've seen over the course of the last decade.
What is his addition been like for you, uh
, either on the field, off the field,
or I guess both? I mean you could just
definitely tell that you know he's been in the game
a while and you know done a lot of you
know great things and a lot of people you know
respect what he has done and you know what he
brings to the table uh but as far as of
right now he's been a, a very good,
you know, veteran for us, you know,
giving all of us advice, not even just myself
, he's been a very vocal. Um, about
that, and we, you know, all of
us are, you know, much younger, so
we all, you know, ears open, you
know, taking in all the advice we can get
from him. Um, he's done great things and
you know, so we hopefully, uh, you
know, we can take that, add to our
game, you know, add it to our personalities
to go help his team, but he's been good
for us and I know he's gonna be big for
us in this season. Rashad, you guys are
in that rare position in the NFL where every year
people just kind of go into the season expecting the
Ravens are gonna be there at the end, right
? divisional playoffs, AFC championship game, you're gonna
be in the mix. How do you balance the
task ahead to make sure that you are in that
mix again while also trying to figure out what it
is that it's gonna take to get beyond that and
get to a Super Bowl? I think for us
, man, we just got to continue to focus
on us and get better, you know, we
, we know that we can be in those games
. We have been in those games and you know
as a you know a football player and as an
athlete, I just think we got to go out
and finish, you know, we gotta, you
know, clean up what we need to clean up
and go out and finish those games. It's a
lot of areas that you know we feel that we
can be better at, but you know, getting
there, you know, it's not a problem,
you know it's just kind of, you know,
continuing to do the little things right as far as
you know, taking care of our business on the
field. Raad, congrats again on the new contract
, man. Best of luck. Hopefully you get
like what, a month or so here to kinda
unwind a little bit, get away, enjoy the
downtime, man. We'll see you in camp in
Owens Mills. Man, thank you man I appreciate
it y'all have a good one.