Ravens' Kyle Hamilton Reflects on NFL Draft Fall After Signing Record-Breaking Contract

Kyle Hamilton surprisingly fell to No. 14 in the 2022 NFL draft, but it seems to have been for the best.

Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton became the NFL's highest-paid safety on Wednesday. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

About three and a half years ago, Kyle Hamilton was viewed as a top prospect in the 2022 NFL draft and expected by many to be taken within the top 10 picks. Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta even thought Hamilton would be off the board by the fifth pick. Instead, Hamilton fell to No. 14, and Baltimore quickly snatched him off the board.

Despite landing later in the draft than expected, Hamilton felt confident that he ended up in the right place. That was correct, as Hamilton has emerged as one of the best safeties in the NFL and was rewarded Wednesday with a historic four-year, $100.4 million extension that makes him the highest-paid safety of all time.

"Some people said some things about where I was drafted [and] this and that and where I could be drafted. And at the time I think I was the least mad at anybody," Hamilton said after signing his extension, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN. "I knew that I came to the right place. Sometimes you got to see the bigger picture."

Though Hamilton likely would have been successful with many other teams, he was selected by a Ravens team that was already an NFL contender. He's surrounded by other good defensive players, as well as a quarterback in Lamar Jackson that gives him confidence he and the Ravens can achieve their next goal—winning the Super Bowl.

“We got eight [Jackson], we've got a chance," Hamilton said. "We go as he goes. I think everybody in the building agrees with me. As long as he’s here, we have a chance to lift the trophy at the end of the year. That's not hyperbolic at all, he's one of the best to ever do it.”

No team that picked ahead of the Ravens in the 2022 draft has a better quarterback than Jackson, who is already a two-time MVP. He has yet to reach the Super Bowl, but he keeps the Ravens' window open, which is not necessarily the case for the quarterbacks Hamilton would be playing with had he been drafted higher.

All in all, Hamilton might have had to wait longer than expected to hear his name called, but it seems to have worked out for the best.

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