Ravens GM Eric DeCosta: 'Everything Is Fixable'

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens finished in last place in the AFC North for the first time in 14 years.

While general manager Eric DeCosta admits there is much work ahead to rebuild the roster, it has not deterred his confidence.

DeCosta is ready to reload and try to get back atop the division next season.

“We have some work to do in a lot of different areas," he said. "I think everything is fixable, and it can be improved and built and strengthened, for sure. The first thing we have to do is look at the salary cap. We spent some time down in the Caribbean last week, I guess it was, and we discussed the salary cap. We discussed contracts.

"We discussed potential deals, ways of freeing up more money. I think we’ll have enough salary cap room to do everything we need to do, to do responsible, good deals that work for the club but also work for the player."

The Ravens could add talent in the free-agent market, but traditionally they have not pursued that route to build their roster. DeCosta would have to create some salary-cap space by restructuring contracts or releasing players on the current roster.

"We’ve never been a big, huge free agency team," DeCosta said. "We’ve dabbled in it a little bit. We’ll continue to look for players that benefit the club in different ways, certainly. Right player, right price, as always. We’ll continue to look at players that we have whose contracts are expiring to try to get some deals done. I’m comfortable with that process. We’re excited."

The Ravens have opted to build their team organically through the draft and they are one of the league's most successful teams with thay process. Baltimore has a huge opportunity to add playmakers with 10 selections in this year's draft.

However, DeCosta cannot afford to miss on those selections.

"We have nine draft picks at this time in the first four rounds," DeCosta said. "We’re not sure exactly how that’s going to break down and where those picks will be in the first four rounds, but we know we have nine picks in the first four rounds. For me, as I look at it and as we project and we model and see where those picks will fall … If you think about our list, our master list, if we have 100 players ranked, we feel like all of those nine picks will probably come within our Top 80 players.

"So, if we do our job correctly, if we stack the board the right way [and] if we’re able to play the combinations correctly – what I mean by that is drafting the players with an eye toward maximizing each pick positionally – I think we have a really good chance to build some serious and quality depth to help this team be the best it can be.”