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HOT TAKES: Let The Offseason Begin

Wednesday, February 11, 2026 8:41
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The NFL’s offseason has begun, and the new league year is but a month away, beginning on March 11. I watched a few of the season recap shows yesterday and the recency bias is completely off the charts. Dan Orlovsky is now touting Sam Darnold as a great quarterback. Give me a flippin’ break! He tried to give Super Bowl 60 away, much like Trent Dilfer 25 years earlier. Fortunately, he was supported by a terrific defense.

Big Offseason for EDC

Ravens GM Eric DeCosta needs a comeback offseason, and he’ll have plenty of opportunity to redeem himself for ignoring the offensive line; overestimating his pass rush; the complete non-sensical signing of Cooper Rush; and the head-scratching extension for Mark Andrews.

EDC’s to-do list includes (but is not limited to):

There’s a lot more to do besides these things, but this to-do list is a good place to start. Can EDC be the 2026 Comeback Exec of the Year?

Teamwork

I’m asked often for my opinion on the hiring of Jesse Minter. Since I have no personal experience to draw from, I can only rely on others who do to help develop temporary thoughts on the topic until I see it play out. But from what I can gather based on things said by other players and coaches, Minter represents a breath of fresh air that the stagnant Castle certainly needs. It’s long overdue!

It’s interesting how the descriptions of Minter and his career path track similarly with Super Bowl winning head coach Mike Macdonald. And while I know that many in RavensFlock still lament the fact that the Ravens let Macdonald go, Minter, so far, looks, sounds and feels a lot like Seattle’s hiring of Baltimore’s former DC.

Macdonald’s team plays with a togetherness that has been lacking from the Ravens. It’s not as if the players quit on John Harbaugh, but the intensity and purposefulness that you see in the Seahawks, whether on offense, defense or special teams, is a characteristic that we can’t use to describe Harbaugh’s teams in recent years. Macdonald’s team has a clear identity. For year’s Harbaugh’s Ravens were searching for one – one that was never found.

That’s not to say that the Ravens have always suffered from identity theft. This video reminded me of that.

“Everybody gets the ring, or nobody gets the ring!”

Odds & Ends

Joe Cool

While he was in Baltimore, Joe Flacco was often referred to as “Joe Cool” because of his success in the playoffs. Now to be fair, it wasn’t always that way. Joe’s first two postseasons were rather wretched. But then things started to turn and when unleashed, Joe’s cool demeanor, seemingly unaffected by the pressure packed atmosphere of the playoffs, was on full display. But never was he the personality that he’s become today.

These days when interviewed, Flacco’s transparency, experience and maturity have helped to unveil a side of Joe that we really didn’t see in Baltimore. He’s now Joe Cool off the field as well.

During Super Bowl week, Ryan Ripken (who by the way should take over the 2-6 slot on 105.7 The Fan) asked Orlando Brown, Jr. about his two-time teammate in Baltimore and most recently in Cincinnati.

California Dreaming?

Imagine you are a marketing exec, and you must travel to California to try and land a huge deal that you and your company have been chasing for a long time. You go to California for the meeting and it’s a smashing success. You close the deal but then discover after the ink dries, that the long-coveted contract will cost you and your company more money than if you had done nothing at all. Sam Darnold experienced that recently after winning Super Bowl LX.

More Mike Mac

Mike Macdonald’s wife Stephanie is from Annapolis, MD and was once a Ravens cheerleader. The couple met in 2015 through their ties to the Ravens. Stephanie was also a cheerleader for the Washington Redskins where she was given the opportunity to sing the National Anthem. Some in Baltimore County will recognize her as one of the talented singers in the church band at Nativity in Lutherville, MD.

I remember having some small hope that Mike would stay in the area given Stephanie’s ties to Maryland, like Eric DeCosta staying in Baltimore given his wife’s ties to the Baltimore community. But the roots weren’t strong enough and as we’ve seen, things worked out quite well for the couple in the upper Pacific West. Here’s a quick video that captures a surreal moment for the Macdonald Family following SB LX.

The National Anthem

For my money, Whitney Houston’s rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner before 1991’s Super Bowl XXV is the standard to which all other renditions will be compared. Watching and listening to that performance, wow, just wow. It sends chills through the body and makes my eyes sweat with pride. But let’s give a tip of the cap to Charlie Puth who was outstanding 35 years later. Time sure does fly.

The post HOT TAKES: Let The Offseason Begin appeared first on Russell Street Report.


Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2026/02/11/tltakes/offseason-2026-begins/


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