Ravens Always 'Conservative When It Comes to Injuries in the Draft'

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Few teams in the National Football League have been decimated with injuries like the Ravens.

That's a trend that GM Eric DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh are trying to stop.

As a result, the Ravens are careful in selecting players in the draft that have a history of injuries.

“I think we’ve always been, I have to say, pretty conservative when it comes to injuries in the Draft, probably more so than most teams," DeCosta said. "I’ve only worked for the Ravens, and [head coach] John [Harbaugh] has been with the Eagles, but we’ve always been pretty conservative. Very few times, I think, have we taken a player that had injuries in college that we didn’t feel really good about and rolled the dice. Now, we’ve taken some flyers on guys, usually for other things, not necessarily for injuries. In saying that, I think one of the things that we really do believe in is just looking at has the guy missed time in college? Has he been a consistent player?

"Sometimes, the guy has an injury history, but doesn’t miss practices and doesn’t miss games. Those type of guys, we feel pretty good about. The guys that miss a lot of time in college, we’ve seen a trend that they miss time at our level. Then, there are some things you simply can’t plan for – the catastrophic injuries, or the freaky-type things that happen, the non-contact stuff, we’ve seen that."

EDC on the Draft board at this point: pic.twitter.com/msnJrdh53V
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) April 5, 2022

The Ravens had 25 players on IR last season.

Some of the players they have taken in recent drafts, such as cornerback Iman Marshall have struggled to get on the field because they have consistently dealt with injuries. Cornerback Tavon Young and safety DeShon Elliott also dealt with numerous injuries over their young careers and are no longer on the roster.

That's something DeCosta is hoping to avoid moving forward.

"We’ve had some players that have never missed any time in their careers and then got hurt here with us," DeCosta said. "So, I’m not really sure how you can predict that or project that. We’re looking at a lot of different things, using analytics and using science. I think you all know we have a new [head certified] athletic trainer, as well, Adrian Dixon. He has a role in this. I think our strength and conditioning staff is very helpful as well. We use those guys to look at things like body composition, strength, frame and things like that. [Director of sports nutrition] Sarah Snyder, our dietician, she’s a part of the process as well.

"So, we try to use as many resources as possible, put it all together and make the best decisions that we can, understanding that we will make some mistakes. Some of these guys that look extremely durable on paper will come in and, at some point, get hurt. That’s kind of the nature of our sport, and we’re prepared to handle that.”