Ravens Nearly Missed On Ed Reed

The Baltimore Ravens look back on the 2002 NFL Draft, where the team almost missed out on one of the franchise's best players.

Jan 28, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Former Baltimore Ravens Ed Reed looks on from the sidelines | Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

In the first round of the 2002 NFL Draft, the Baltimore Ravens were hoping to add to their already-electric defense and give linebacker Ray Lewis someone to work with.

However, things didn't end up in their favor when the player they wanted, linebacker Napoleon Harris, went the pick before. That means Ed Reed, the Hall-of-Fame safety, wasn't the Ravens' top choice for their first pick in the 2002 NFL Draft.

In an appearance on "The Ryan Ripken Show," Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta, an area scout at the time with the team, took listeners inside the team's draft room in 2002.

"It was quiet and painful in our draft room, because we were going to get the 17th-best player on our board," Ravens general manager DeCosta said. "Now we have to settle for a safety from Miami who's undersized, a step slow, the 24th-best player in the draft. Long story short, Hall of Famer versus Napoleon Harris, where is he now? No one knows. And that happens. That's the nature of the draft."

The draft is about the moves you make, but sometimes it's about the ones you don't make. Often, it can be about the moves others make that affects you, and it appears that the Raiders choice ended up giving the Ravens another Hall-of-Famer to the defense.

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