The Ravens selected Georgia safety Malaki Starks in the first round of the 2025 draft, addressing one of their top positional needs and giving them potentially one of the top safety duos in the league.
General manager Eric DeCosta said Starks is “wired like a Raven,” a “ball hawk” and a physical tackler who will give defensive coordinator Zach Orr a lot of flexibility. DeCosta also said Starks wowed the Ravens staff with “probably one of the most impressive interviews we’ve ever had at the Combine.”
DeCosta praised Starks’ production, durability and a “football GPA” that was “very, very high.”
“Throughout the process,” DeCosta added, “Malaki was a guy that just really passed every single test. … It just made a lot of sense for us to take him.”
DeCosta said he had opportunities to trade back from pick No. 27 but ruled it out because whatever extra draft capital they might gain in return wasn’t worth the possibility of losing out on Starks, whom DeCosta described as, “by far the best guy available for us when we made the pick.”
The Ravens were linked to Starks in many mock drafts, and DeCosta acknowledged the attention was a little nerve-wracking as he wondered whether Starks would last until pick No. 27. He did, as the earlier part of the first round was concentrated in the trenches; of the first 24 picks, 10 were offensive linemen or interior defensive linemen.
Starks was the first safety drafted. South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori, projected by many to be the top safety selected, went undrafted in the opening round.
Starks, who was on-site in Green Bay for the draft, said on a video interview with Baltimore media after being drafted that, “I think I fit the culture very well.”
Starks said he looked forward to learning from Pro Bowl safety Kyle Hamilton and Pro Bowl cornerback Marlon Humphrey and said the grind of playing in the SEC each week had prepared him for the physicality of playing in the AFC North.
Starks (6-1, 197) led Georgia with 77 tackles this past season and recorded one interception and three pass breakups. He totaled six interceptions and 23 passes defensed in 43 games with the Bulldogs before opting to enter the draft after his junior season.
Both DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh praised Starks’s versatility, and the way he, Hamilton and Ar’Darius Washington can create problems for a defense.
“He plays both safeties, he plays nickel, he plays dime linebacker spot,” Harbaugh said, “which is what Kyle does, which is what Ar’Darius does. … So the ability to move all those pieces around and get them in different positions is pretty exciting.”
“The offense isn’t going to know who’s going to be back there on any given play,” he added.
This marks the third time in the past four years that the Ravens have selected a defensive back with their top pick, as they continue to use a back-to-front approach to building their defense. They selected Hamilton at No. 14 overall in 2022 and then cornerback Nate Wiggins at No. 30 last year.
“In my experience,” DeCosta said, “if you’re going to lose a game, an easy way to lose it is by having a bad secondary. So we never want to be in that position.”
Safety was considered one of the Ravens’ biggest roster needs after a 2024 season in which presumptive starter Marcus Williams fell out of favor, Eddie Jackson was released and Washington emerged as a stopgap starter over the second half of the season.
Williams has since been released, and Washington signed a restricted free-agent tender earlier this week, but depth was a glaring concern at this position. Second-year safeties Sanoussi Kane and Beau Brade carved out special teams roles last season but neither made a meaningful impact on defense.
With the selection of Starks, the Ravens can turn their attention to other positional needs, including edge rush, offensive guard and the defensive line, when Day 2 of the draft begins Friday, April 25, at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
DeCosta said at the team’s pre-draft news conference last week that the edge rush, offensive line and defensive line were among the strongest positions in this year’s draft, and he anticipates value to be there at those positions when the Ravens are next on the clock.
Barring any trades, the Ravens have two picks on the second day of the draft, at No. 59 in the second round and No. 91 in the third round. They are then scheduled to have eight more picks on the draft’s final day, with two in the fourth round, one in the fifth, four in the sixth and one in the seventh.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Georgia Athletics