Sports

/

ArcaMax

Mike Preston: Ravens stick to script and come away with solid draft class

Mike Preston, The Baltimore Sun on

Published in Football

BALTIMORE -- On some days, boring is good.

The Ravens had a couple of those days during the NFL draft this past weekend, and that’s a good thing because everything seemed to fall into place.

There were no trades or reaches on selections, and the Ravens basically stayed with the script.

Will they challenge for a Super Bowl title in 2024? That remains to be seen, but they appeared to upgrade in the secondary with Clemson cornerback Nate Wiggins as their top pick and added much-needed depth on the offensive line with second-round selection Roger Rosengarten, a tackle out of Washington. Penn State outside linebacker Adisa Isaac, chosen in the third round, adds to the pass rush.

The Ravens might have a speedy outside threat in fourth-round selection Devontez Walker, a wide receiver from North Carolina. Other than adding more interior linemen on both sides of the ball, which could come later in free agency, the Ravens’ draft was solid.

“It was a productive three days,” general manager Eric DeCosta said. “There were no trades. We had a few opportunities, but in the end we stayed with what made the most sense for us. It takes a village to have a successful draft, and I’m very proud of the men and women upstairs.”

 

The Ravens went into the draft wanting to add offensive linemen, especially tackles, but nine came off the board before the team’s No. 30 overall selection in the first round. The Ravens then chose Wiggins, who was generally considered the No. 2 cover corner in the draft behind Toledo’s Quinyon Mitchell, who went 22nd to the Philadelphia Eagles.

It was a good move. Offensively, the Ravens can’t match quarterbacks such as the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen or maybe even the Houston Texans’ C.J. Stroud in the postseason, but they can at least slow them down, which is exactly what the Chiefs did to the Ravens in the AFC championship game with cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and L’Jarius Sneed.

With Brandon Stephens on the outside, Wiggins on the other side and Marlon Humphrey playing over the slot, the Ravens should have good nickel and dime packages. It still would have been interesting to see whether the Ravens would have taken Oklahoma offensive tackle Tyler Guyton if the Dallas Cowboys hadn’t selected him at No. 29.

The Ravens didn’t have much of a choice except to take Rosengarten with the No. 62 pick. He was ranked around where the Ravens selected him, and Baltimore needed a tackle after trading right tackle Morgan Moses to the New York Jets in exchange for draft picks and watching left tackle Ronnie Stanley struggle through an injury-hampered 2023 season.

...continued

swipe to next page

©2024 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus