S Malaki Starks, Georgia, Round 1 (27)
Starks will impact the secondary, but in how many ways?
Starks was a multidimensional safety at Georgia and the Ravens have similar plans to use him at deep safety, strong safety, in the slot, and in dime packages. The Ravens have other versatile defensive backs such as Kyle Hamilton, Marlon Humphrey, and Ar’Darius Washington, so where Starks will line up most often remains to be seen.
An early guess is that Starks will play primarily at free safety, where his range as a ballhawk will give Hamilton freedom to roam. But Starks defended wide receivers and tight ends in pass coverage at Georgia and was a quick learner, starting as a freshman. The Ravens believe he’ll grasp their system quickly as well, enabling them to move him around.
“The offense isn’t going to know who’s going to be back there on any given play,” Head Coach John Harbaugh said. “[They’re] not going to be able to line up and say, ‘Okay, Kyle’s going to be deep,’ or even, ‘Ar’Darius is going to be deep.’ Those three guys as interchangeable parts … that’s pretty exciting.”