For a couple of days in March, Baltimore\u2019s draft seemed a lot less significant \u2014 when the Ravens were about to trade this year\u2019s first-round pick and next year\u2019s for Raiders pass rusher Maxx Crosby.<\/p>\n
Then Baltimore backed out of the deal.<\/p>\n
So the Ravens still own the 14th overall selection in the NFL draft, equaling their highest pick in the last decade. After going 8-9 last season, Baltimore has a new coach in Jesse Minter \u2014 but the Eric DeCosta-led front office is a familiar one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited to have the pick this year at No. 14. We think we\u2019re going to get a really good player,\u201d DeCosta said. \u201cYou never know what\u2019s going to happen at 14, too, right? You can move up, you can move back. We\u2019ve done both over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only other recent time Baltimore picked as high as 14th was in 2022, when the Ravens took safety Kyle Hamilton. He\u2019s become a star.<\/p>\n
As of now, Baltimore has 11 picks in this year\u2019s draft: one in each of the first four rounds, four in the fifth, one in the sixth and two in the seventh. Both seventh-rounders and two fifth-rounders are compensatory picks.<\/p>\n
Need<\/p>\n
Baltimore\u2019s offensive line struggled in spots last year, and that was before losing star center Tyler Linderbaum to free agency. Several mock drafts have the Ravens using their first-round pick on the offensive line, and the trenches in general could be a focus after Baltimore didn\u2019t live up to its usual reputation in terms of physicality in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely think that it\u2019s a great draft for that. There\u2019s a lot of talent on both sides of the line of scrimmage,\u201d Minter said. \u201cI think any good football team, it\u2019s always been that way where you\u2019re good on the line of scrimmage, obviously. And so, no matter if you\u2019re coming off of a year where you\u2019re the best offensive line or the best defensive line, I think you\u2019re always looking to keep those areas as a strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ravens also lost punter Jordan Stout, although you don\u2019t necessarily need to use the draft for that position. Depth at tight end is not what it was last season after the departures of Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t need<\/p>\n
Quarterback and running back are obviously set with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. There\u2019s always room for help in the secondary, but Baltimore has taken defensive backs in the first round in three of the last four drafts (Malaki Starks, Nate Wiggins and Hamilton) and may look in a different direction this time.<\/p>\n
Like-minded franchises<\/p>\n
Several players have made the move from Baltimore to the Giants after New York hired former Ravens coach John Harbaugh. And coach Jim Harbaugh\u2019s team \u2014 the Los Angeles Chargers \u2014 has plenty of Ravens influence. It\u2019s where Minter used to coach. Meanwhile, Cleveland hired former Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken as its coach.<\/p>\n
DeCosta was asked about the possibility all these franchises might be targeting the same players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if they\u2019re picking right around us, then I\u2019m probably more concerned with it. We all know good football players, right?\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think the other thing is I don\u2019t want to be too predictable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a couple of days in March, Baltimore\u2019s draft seemed a lot less significant \u2014 when the Ravens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,7,6,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-867944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-baltimoreravens","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-ravens"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116416437627007720","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867944","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=867944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}