Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said it doesn’t always happen this way, but early in the 2024 draft, it seemed each time the Ravens were on the clock, one of their top targets at a position of need was available.
“Then you really have something special,” DeCosta said. Ultimately, DeCosta and the Ravens hope that will be the story of the 2024 Ravens draft class, which included nine players.
“You’ll often hear me say, ‘Oh, man, we had a chance. We missed out on some guys,'” DeCosta said. “But this year, we were patient. And the board, more often than not, not in every single case, but the best player was a position of need. So we basically just started checking off boxes, working our way down through each pick. … So from that standpoint, I think it was good. It was really good.”
In something of an upset, the Ravens made no draft trades — the first time that’s happened in DeCosta’s six-year tenure as GM and just the third time in franchise history — and they made nine selections on turn. DeCosta acknowledged the phone was ringing a lot, but, he said, “in the end, picking the best player available made the most sense for us.”
That included first-round cornerback Nate Wiggins from Clemson, whom DeCosta called the “best cover corner in the draft.” The Ravens had Wiggins ranked among their top 20 players overall, DeCosta said, and they drafted him at No. 30.
It also included Washington tackle Roger Rosengarten in the second round. Knowing they were picking late in the second round, DeCosta said they had identified Rosengarten as one of their top Day Two targets, and rebuffed opportunities to trade back out of pick No. 62 for fear that they would miss out on him.
Rosengarten should immediately compete for the starting right tackle job left vacant by the trade of Morgan Moses to the New York Jets. Originally a left tackle, Rosengarten shifted to the right side at Washington to protect the blind side of southpaw quarterback — and first-round draft pick — Michael Penix Jr.
With their second Day Two pick, the Ravens selected edge rusher Adisa Isaac, a former teammate of Odafe Oweh at Penn State. With Jadeveon Clowney and Tyus Bowser no longer in the organization, Isaac has the chance to make an impact right away.
The Ravens fortified several other positions with a cache of six Day Three picks. DeCosta had said that with NIL money flowing and the NCAA granting an extra year of eligibility to college players because of COVID, he felt the draft pool was thinner than previous years. Still, the Ravens retained both seventh-round picks and used them on Michigan State center Nick Samac and Purdue safety Sanoussi Kane.
Earlier in the final day of the draft, DeCosta nabbed North Carolina wide receiver Devontez Walker and Iowa State cornerback T.J. Tampa in the fourth round, Marshall running back Rasheen Ali in the fifth round and Kentucky quarterback Devin Leary in the sixth round.
DeCosta likened Walker to former Raven Torrey Smith for his ability to take the top of a defense, and he said that if the Ravens had not taken Wiggins with their first pick, Tampa would have been in play for their late third-round pick. So they were especially pleased he was still available at pick No. 130 in the fourth round.
Ali is an “explosive” back, DeCosta said, and he might have dropped to the Ravens because he suffered a biceps injury in the Senior Bowl. Ali had ball security issues at Marshall that the Ravens acknowledge will need to be cleaned up.
Head coach John Harbaugh said he expects veteran Josh Johnson, re-signed by the Ravens last month, to remain the top backup quarterback, and Leary would be a developmental quarterback who would compete with Malik Cunningham for the No. 3 spot.
For the nine rookie draft picks — as well as a slew of undrafted rookie signings and rookie tryout candidates — it will all become real this weekend when they report to Owings Mills for rookie minicamp. (Despite various reports from media and agents, the Ravens don’t officially announce their undrafted rookie signings until they report and pass physicals.)
But, DeCosta noted, the roster-building process never ends. Indeed, several key players on the 2023 team — including edge rushers Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy and cornerback Arthur Maulet — were signed after training camp began.
“We’re not finished, for sure,” DeCosta said as he met with the media after the draft ended. “I’m not going to sit up here today and say, ‘Oh, the team is set. We’ve got this great team.’ We have a lot of work to do, and there’s a lot of different ways to do that. We have a lot of different opportunities between now and September to build the team.”
“I know some of these guys won’t be as good as we think they’re going to be,” he added, “but I know some of these guys will be better than we think they’re going to be, and that’s exciting. That’s just the nature of the draft.”
RAVENS 2024 DRAFT CLASS
| Rd. | Name | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | College |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nate Wiggins | CB | 6-1 | 173 | Clemson |
| 2 | Roger Rosengarten | T | 6-5 | 310 | Washington |
| 3 | Adisa Isaac | OLB | 6-4 | 253 | Penn State |
| 4 | Devontez Walker | WR | 6-1 | 191 | North Carolina |
| 4 | T.J. Tampa | CB | 6-1 | 194 | Iowa State |
| 5 | Rasheen Ali | RB | 5-11 | 197 | Marshall |
| 6 | Devin Leary | QB | 6-1 | 216 | Kentucky |
| 7 | Nick Samac | C | 6-4 | 307 | Michigan State |
| 7 | Sanoussi Kane | S | 5-10 | 207 | Purdue |
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Clemson Athletics