There Are Four Draft Trends The Ravens Must Curb, Now And Forevermore

If you are among those who believe the Ravens needs to alter some fundamental player-acquisition traits, and roster-building philosophies, the failed Maxx Crosby trade might offer some hope.

The taboo of never trading a first-round pick was embraced – at least verbally, for a few days – to a point never before seen in the history of this successful franchise. It felt so keenly out of step with what the Baltimore Ravens, and who the Baltimore Ravens are, that it required the buy-in from everyone from Steve Bisciotti on down.

And even though they bailed in the end, it’s clearly a prism into ways the powers that be must be reassessing about where they are as an organization, and what it will take to get where they want to go, and what chains they must be willing to break to potentially get there.

The draft will be the next laboratory to explore how deeply Eric DeCosta and Sashi Brown are ruminating on this and truly learning from past mistakes. Is there sufficient introspection and self-scouting going on, and will they course correct? These would be a few good places start.

Be Willing To Move Up Now And Trade Future Picks

If you had two picks, including one at 14th overall on the table for Crosby (until you didn’t), keep an open mind about other ways to pivot around the draft with those assets now, and in the future. This team needs blue chip talent at essential positions, and the mid-rounds have been far more barren under DeCosta than was the case under Ozzie Newsome (albeit an impossible bar for most to reach).

Merely trading down to throw more darts that haven’t been hitting the mark often enough ain’t gonna fix this mess. More is not always better. Better players with better pedigrees are better. Should they go full ‘F Them Picks’ like the Rams? Nah. But the idea they are a draft-and-develop powerhouse is ridiculous.

Hiring Jesse Minter and an inexperienced coaching staff ain’t fixing that, especially not after the exodus of talent in free agency. Can you get one of the top 5 football players in this draft at a premium spot that meshes with the strength of this draft class (tackle or pass rusher, before the drop off) by going up if need be?

Multiple general managers told me this week they believe the Ravens are in a sweetspot to land an impact offensive lineman or tight end just by letting the board fall to them at pick No. 14. “They really can’t (mess) this up with where they are sitting,” as one GM put it. When I suggested they then be willing to make a move up in round two for a tight end assuming they address the line of scrimmage with their first pick, he jumped in:

“They never do that,” he said. I then brought up what they offered for Crosby. “Good point," he responded. "Maybe they would do it now."

Exactly.

Stop Drafting Little Guys or Big Guys Who Can’t Move

The Ravens are supposed to be a bully. So sitting on their hands a year ago at this time in a generational defensive tackle draft and loading up on projects who would largely make no impact on the 2025 campaign and waiting to take an undersized defensive tackle near the very end was asinine in realtime. And after the injury to Nnamdi Madubuike that strategy looked utterly ridiculous.

In general, reaching for value in players who lack the ideal size to play their positions at the pinnacle of the sport has gotten them into trouble. On the flip side, being ga-ga for offensive linemen as close to 7-feet tall as possible, with no bend and terrible feet and who get over-drafted (Daniel Faalele, Ben Cleveland) isn’t serving them well, either. This had been a front office of extremes in roster construction – give us all the defensive backs and none of the pass rushers is another example – and it needs to change, immediately.

Stop Drafting Hurt Guys

My sincere hope is that by hiring a new head of their entire medical team, this will take care of itself. My expectation is that, with new minds on board, the approach isn’t that we can fix everyone, so keep wasting primo day-two resources on guys who need a medical redshirt year or two. This roster ain’t what it used to be and there are opportunities for healthy rookies to make an impact all over. Enough with the David Ojoabo and Andrew Vorhees experiments. Plenty of teams had well-founded concerns about Rashod Bateman’s medicals and durability ahead of that pick. Those medical red flags need to be adhere to, not blown thought

Dive Into The LOS

If all else is even, or close to even, you’d best start throwing numbers at the line of scrimmage. Part of drafting hurt guys and little guys and sitting out positional honeypots – while failing to extend many of the draft picks who did work out – means you have core issues at offensive and defensive line. Don’t bank on Madubuike and Ronnie Stanley coming all the way around because of your new medical guru. On the OL, Lamar Jackson needs far superior protection, and there is one solid starter under contract in his prime on the roster beyond this season. On the defensive line, well, might just be a couple there. Unfortunately, this is a suspect draft for defensive tackles, but maybe they can find a diamond in the rough.