Ravens Add Much-Needed Big Pass Catcher For Lamar Jackson In Round 3

Ravens rookie offensive coordinator Declan Doyle absolutely positively needs players with match-up potential. There is no established scheme to rely on, as he’s never called a play or installed his own offense.

And Baltimore’s offense became pretty aimless and predictable a year ago in terms who the ball was going to, and where the ball was going.

So after sitting out what would have been the start of a long tight end run, they addressed an obvious need with the 80th-overall selection by grabbing a rare receiving body type with a massive catch radius in USC’s Ja’Kobi Lane (6-foor-4). Waiting until day three to try to address a gaping need at receiver and tight end would have been dangerous, and time will tell if the decision to opt out of that tight end wave starting in round two will burn them.

Size Matters

But Lane at least can provide some hope that someone with size and leaping ability can make plays for them. He is going to be able to move the chains and pick up first downs, but whether he is explosive enough to win downfield against NFL corners is another.

Is he going to be able to muscle up and beat man coverage? Will he be physical enough to win in high-traffic areas? Those are areas of concern.

However, one team I spoke to had him as the fourth rated receiver on their board and another evaluator said he believed he was the third-best outside receiver in the draft. "I like that pick for them," the personnel executive said. "He didn't go higher because there are limitations to his game, but it's a unique frame."

Above all else, given the Ravens current construct, size had to be a carrying trait here, and it was. Baking on Rashod Bateman to be a consistent factor is naïve. It would have been malpractice not to do something along these lines, and time will tell if they should have done it in the second round at the start of that tight end run.

Lane gives you something you can dream on. He has a knack for highlight reel grabs. Checks a box they had to check.

Will he show up downfield in the same way some of these large move tight ends/slot tight ends,, who the Ravens passed on, might? Will Zion Young, the Ravens second round pick, be enough of a pass rush factor to be worthy of where he was selected?

Because all of this is interconnected.

And if the Ravens had, say, taken Vandy TE Eli Stowers in round two, I believe Baltimore would have been all over Iowa Stare defensive tackle Domonique Orange at pick 80 … Orange, I was told repeatedly by evaluators, has a chance to be a difference-making interior player, and not just as a run stuffer. Orange went at pick 82 to the Vikings and defensive mastermind Brian Flores.

One evaluator, with an impeccable eye for defensive line talent, kept giving me a comp for Orange I’ve been remiss to write or mention on “The Daily Flock.”

I was saving it in case the Ravens drafted him.

The comp was Haloti Ngata.

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