I’m way too old and tired to pretend like there is even minimal value in “grading” a team’s NFL Draft. God bless the folks who still go through the motions because someone compensates them to go through the motions. PressBox has made no such specific request of me, so I won’t do the same.
So when someone asks me how I think the Ravens did in the draft, my answer isn’t really about the players themselves (I think they got good ones!) but instead about the strategy the team employed in making its selections and (for the most part) completing its roster for the upcoming season.
And even Larry David would have to acknowledge that in terms of strategy, the Ravens’ 2024 draft was … “some vanilla bullsh*t thing.”
Sorry, I’m now being told that’s not the quote I meant to use there. Management regrets the error. Yes, I thought the Ravens’ 2024 draft efforts were “prettay, prettay good.” Honestly. I, like everyone else, have no idea how the haul will pan out in the years ahead. But it’s nearly impossible to be critical of the thought process. They took good players — players carrying great perceived value in many cases — and addressed needs without doing anything desperate.
If I were to nitpick, I’d say that even if there were no real solutions at tackle when they picked at No. 30, perhaps they could have tried to move up to lock up a player who could have been their left tackle of the future. Roger Rosengarten is a solid addition who will be penciled in as the starting right tackle at least by default. I’m not sure that he fits the bill of someone who could ultimately replace Ronnie Stanley in the coming years, however.
And yes, you’d like to see first-round cornerback Nate Wiggins add a little bulk for his upcoming battles with boundary receivers at the professional level. And sure, it would have been nice to pick up an edge rusher with a deeper repertoire than Penn State’s Adisa Isaac in the third. And there are reasons why North Carolina wide receiver Tez Walker and Iowa State cornerback T.J. Tampa lasted until the fourth round.
But still, they’re all really sensible selections that fit needs. Two days after the conclusion of the draft, I can’t fault those picks. History will have its say down the road based on what these players actually accomplish but on paper, this was a solid weekend.
So now where does it leave the roster on the whole? There’s not really a simple answer to that. Going into the weekend, the Ravens had a really good roster with question marks at a few positions. That didn’t change dramatically during the draft, save for cornerback depth. Going into the weekend, Jalyn Armour-Davis and Damarion Williams were in spots on the depth chart that meant they would have to be relied upon. The addition of Wiggins (and perhaps Tampa as well) means that position suddenly looks like the deepest unit on the roster.
But offensive line was also a major question going into the draft and coming out … it’s a major question but SLIGHTLY less major. There will still be three new starters along the line going into the season. It seems like Rosengarten has a bit more pedigree than Daniel Faalele and therefore makes the situation more encouraging. But we’ll still have questions about Andrew Vorhees and/or Ben Cleveland and/or anyone who is brought in to compete for the other offensive line jobs.
And while edge rush and wide receiver might not have stood out quite as significantly among needs as the offensive line did, Isaac and Walker were talents certainly worth taking where they were selected. They might be capable of making an impact quickly.
But yeah, I still have questions at those positions, too. The Ravens will continue to hope that Odafe Oweh and David Ojabo can be ready to take a step up — or perhaps that someone like Tavius Robinson might be primed for an explosive sophomore season — but it’s simply hard to count on those guys being the primary difference-makers. There’s not a ton left on the open market. A reunion with former Terp Yannick Ngakoue wouldn’t inspire confidence in Ravens fans but might actually make some sense.
There will be time to further address these issues in roster construction, even if the odds say the Ravens are not likely to duplicate their insane run in late free agency a year ago.
On paper, it’s enough to make you say “Eric DeCosta did it again.” But we’ll wait a little while to say that with our chests. For now, we’ll just acknowledge what looks like a solid haul and sound decision-making.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Clemson, Washington and Penn State Athletics