{"id":791974,"date":"2026-03-04T18:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/791974\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T18:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:21:08","slug":"recent-nfl-draft-theory-provides-the-ravens-with-a-weapon-on-the-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/791974\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent NFL draft theory provides the Ravens with a weapon on the edge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Championship windows don&#8217;t stay open forever. The <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/baltimore-ravens\/366\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Baltimore Ravens;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Baltimore Ravens<\/a> know that. When you have a franchise quarterback in his prime, Lamar Jackson, and a team that&#8217;s built to win now, you don&#8217;t tinker around the edges. You attack weaknesses head-on. What do you know? One of Baltimore&#8217;s most glaring weaknesses heading into this offseason cycle is at edge rusher. This isn&#8217;t complicated. This team must find ways to pressure the opposing quarterback. To make matters worse, they&#8217;re losing talent at the position this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Turnover seems inevitable. Dre&#8217;Mont Jones, Kyle Van Noy, David Ojabo, Carl Jones, and Brent Urban are all expected to enter free agency. Baltimore loses meaningful snaps if that happens.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Baltimore hasn&#8217;t gotten the impact it hoped for from Mike Green, at least not yet. Suddenly, the edge room looks thinner than a contender can afford. That&#8217;s where draft theory enters the conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Pro Football Focus fills a glaring Ravens need in a recent 2026 NFL Draft theory.<\/p>\n<p>In Pro Football Focus&#8217; article titled<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/news\/draft-2026-nfl-draft-best-case-scenario-for-all-afc-teams\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:2026 NFL Draft: Best-Case Scenario for All AFC Teams;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> 2026 NFL Draft: Best-Case Scenario for All AFC Teams<\/a>, Ryan Smith connected the dots representing the Ravens and one of the best edge rushers in the class. Keldric Faulk was a disruptive force on the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/ncaaf\/teams\/auburn-tigers\/3480\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Auburn Tigers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Auburn Tigers<\/a>&#8216; roster.<\/p>\n<p>We recently named him among <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/ravens-big-board-8-prospects-105524150.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:eight prospects who fit Baltimore&#039;s NFL draft philosophy;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">eight prospects who fit Baltimore&#8217;s NFL draft philosophy<\/a>. He earned Third-Team\u00a0All-SEC\u00a0honors last season. Smith&#8217;s argument centers on upside and fit. Faulk brings size, length, and scheme versatility. He can line up inside and outside on passing downs. He sets a firm edge against the run and collapses the pocket with power, not just with his speed.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>That matters. The Ravens don&#8217;t just need a situational rusher. They need a tone-setter. This is the type of prospect Baltimore has quietly coveted for years.<\/p>\n<p>No disrespect is intended. Faulk is the type of prospect they thought they were getting in Mike Green, but don&#8217;t give up on the latter yet. Sometimes, it takes a little longer for young prospects to flip the switch.<\/p>\n<p>Faulk is a young and consistent defender who can affect quarterbacks in January. He&#8217;s someone offenses have to account for on every snap. He shortens games by forcing mistakes, and for the Ravens, this is a best-case scenario. This allows them to add the right talent at the right time.<\/p>\n<p>If the Ravens are serious about sustaining championship expectations, they can&#8217;t rely on patchwork veteran deals to fuel their pass rush. They need a new cornerstone. Drafting Faulk wouldn&#8217;t solve every problem overnight, but it would give Baltimore the type of defensive weapon it has long desired.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>In the AFC, a conference loaded with elite quarterbacks, that isn&#8217;t a luxury. It determines who&#8217;s still in the conversation come late in the postseason.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Ravens Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/ravenswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/ravens\/2026\/03\/04\/draft-theory-gives-ravens-weapon-they-have-long-desired\/88981291007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Draft theory gives the Ravens the weapon they have long desired;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Draft theory gives the Ravens the weapon they have long desired<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Championship windows don&#8217;t stay open forever. The Baltimore Ravens know that. When you have a franchise quarterback in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,4697,4691,7,7770,111474,5386,192,895,276,6,410,169,18780,2850],"class_list":["post-791974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-ravens","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-baltimoreravens","tag-brent-urban","tag-david-ojabo","tag-football","tag-franchise-quarterback","tag-glaring-weaknesses","tag-keldric-faulk","tag-kyle-van-noy","tag-lamar-jackson","tag-mike-green","tag-nfl","tag-pro-football-focus","tag-ravens","tag-ryan-smith","tag-the-ravens"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116172297701574419","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}