Ravens GM Reveals Tough Lesson From Mentor

The Baltimore Ravens have only had two general managers in their history, and the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Nov 7, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens general manager Eric Decosta one the field before the game against the Cincinnati Bengals at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images / Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

Next year will mark the Baltimore Ravens' 30th anniversary as a franchise, yet they've only had two general managers in that time.

Ozzie Newsome served in the role since the team arrived in Baltimore from 1996 to 2019, when he moved to a higher position away from day-to-day operations in 2019. In his place, his longtime protege in Eric DeCosta took over the role at the same time. Undoubtedly, that front-office consistency plays a major role in the Ravens' success over the years.

On his way to becoming the Ravens' general manager, though, DeCosta learned plenty of lessons from his mentor. Some were easy, but others were tough pills to swallow.

During an interview with The Ringer's Todd McShay, DeCosta shared one particularly tough lesson he learned from Newsome.

"You sometimes have to do what's right for the organization even though you know it's the wrong thing to do," DeCosta said. We had a player that historically was one of the great Ravens of all time, Anquan Boldin. He just epitomized what it is to be a Raven. When you went into Pittsburgh, you wanted Anquan.

"The reality of it was we were in a bad cap situation and we had to trade him. And we didn't get much for him. It was a horrible football decision, but we had to do it, and it was hard. I think sometimes you have to just accept that you have to make the hard decision. We might've made it work. We could've probably finagled some contracts, done some cap deals. We probably would've put ourselves in a worse position in future years had we done that."

Boldin was a reliable weapon throughout his three seasons in Baltimore, recording 186 receptions for 2,645 yards and 14 touchdowns. In March of 2013, the Ravens traded him to the San Francisco 49ers - ironically the team they beat a month earlier in Super Bowl XLVII - for just a sixth-round pick return.

On it's own, that's obviously a trade no team wants to make. In context, though, it was in the team's best interest in the long run.

Another example DeCosta mentioned was the 2019 offseason, his first at the helm. That year, the Ravens saw franchise icon Terrell Suggs leave in free agency, as did other key defenders in Za'Darius Smith, Eric Weddle and C.J. Mosely. It absolutely hurt to lose four key starters from the league's best defense in 2018, but for financial reasons, they had to say some tough goodbyes.

The reality is, the NFL is a cruel business, and every general manager worth their salt learns that at some point.

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