Nothing quite sums up the sliding doors moment of the Baltimore Ravens’ 2025 draft quite like two videos, taken minutes apart on the same day.

In one, Shedeur Sanders paces outside his family’s palatial $10 million mansion on the phone with Cleveland Browns personnel telling him he would be taken with the 144th pick. It is clear that the Sanders family, who hoped the star Colorado quarterback would have been drafted two nights before, had long prepared for this moment — there are at least five cameramen scrambling on all angles of Shedeur to capture high-definition footage of the call.

Then, there’s the grainy footage of the Baltimore Ravens’ pick at 141, Carson Vinson, leaping in the arms of his dad as his name flashes at the bottom of the draft broadcast. That’s the only video there is of the biggest moment of Vinson’s career, because there were only three people present.

“I was too scared to have a draft party,” Vinson told me this week. “So it was just me, my dad and my brother at home.”

In the wake of an intriguing ESPN report this weekend that the Ravens nearly drafted Sanders instead of Vinson, it’s a bit tempting to imagine what the swap might have looked like. If Sanders, as reported, hadn’t told Baltimore he didn’t want to play behind Lamar Jackson, what would be the difference today?

But it only takes a little imagination — and a few minutes talking to the affable offensive tackle the Ravens wound up with — to realize the franchise probably dodged a bullet. In this alternate timeline, the Ravens probably don’t look much different than they do now, except instead of having an offensive lineman who is excited to be here, they’d have a quarterback who wouldn’t be at all.

In my mind, Baltimore has already come out a winner.

The 6-foot-7 Alabama A&M product has yet to play at all in the regular season, but you would never know it from his bouncy attitude. Vinson raves about the offensive line room, the pearls of knowledge he gets from Ronnie Stanley and Roger Rosengarten, and the reception he’s gotten from the city itself — people have stopped him at the grocery store and at IHOP, eager to say hello to one of the newest Ravens.

“It’s been a dream come true,” he said. “Just fulfilling a childhood dream, and the city of Baltimore has welcomed me with open arms.”

When asked about the report that he asked Baltimore not to draft him, Sanders told reporters that “my memory don’t even go back that far” to the day he was drafted.

But Vinson will never forget. As he tried to mentally prepare for being undrafted, his agent had a gut feeling.

“He said, ‘I think you’re gonna be a Baltimore Raven,’ before the draft started,” Vinson said. “He told me, ‘I think you’d be perfect in Baltimore.’”

There had been a few signs. Coaches had seen Vinson at the Senior Bowl, where he impressed offensive line coach George Warhop with his competitiveness, according to ESPN. Vinson went to Baltimore on a “30 visit” (one of 30 prospects the Ravens could invite on campus) and loved it.

Carson Vinson arrives at the Ravens training facility for the first day of training camp in June. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Banner)

He hoped his agent’s prediction would be true. As for Sanders’ lack of interest in playing behind Lamar Jackson — well, Vinson didn’t want to speak for anyone else.

“I just try to stay to myself,” he said with a wary grin. “I know I’m perfectly blessed. I’m ecstatic to be here. … Just to be thought of and drafted is really amazing. I always thank God for the position I’ve been put in.”

Whether the Ravens knew it or not, they got an extremely loyal player in Vinson. He was a two-star prospect out of Cary, North Carolina, smack in the middle of the state’s famed Research Triangle and a whole host of Division I college programs. None of them wanted him. Alabama A&M did.

When Vinson started establishing himself, UNC gave him a call — but he told Ravens.com that he decided to stick with the Bulldogs because they had believed in him from the start. He wound up playing all four years there.

Vinson has the distinction of being the only player in 2025 drafted directly from a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). Since the Ravens plucked him off the board, he said he’s been received a swell of support not just from his own school, but from a host of other HBCUs.

“It means a lot, even for the entire HBCU space, because it’s really a beacon of hope that you can do it from your own institution,” he said. “It’s really been a special thing for all types of different schools and places that have supported me since this happened.”

The hoopla that follows Sanders at every turn would have been outsized in Baltimore for a player that would have been, at best, the backup quarterback. Think Tim Tebow or Lonzo Ball — players who arrived with mountainous hype ultimately to fall far below sky-high expectations.

In Cleveland, he couldn’t beat out fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel for the No. 2 spot — and yet, he still drives intense media narratives that vastly outweigh any strategic importance he has for the Browns.

By contrast, Vinson is grinding in relative anonymity, learning the NFL level by day and playing video games with fellow draft pick Emery Jones Jr., at night. There’s a lot to like about his size and skill set, and while he may not be ready for primetime this season, Baltimore is at the start of a promising journey by picking substance over sheen.

“Carson’s a guy, man,” said Rosengarten. “He’s got a lot of that God-given ability with his size and his talent. He’s worked hard ever since he got here — OTAs, training camp, you know. I can’t speak enough about it. He’s just put his head down and grinded. I commend him for that.”

Added Vinson: “Ever week, I prepare like I’m ‘The Guy.’”

For the Ravens, he already is the guy. They’re lucky to have him — instead of the other one.