BALTIMORE _ It's been a full decade since the Ravens faced the greatest question that can confront an NFL team going into the draft.
What to do at quarterback?
We know Joe Flacco will be the starter next season, but for the first time since he was drafted in 2008, it's not clear what lies beyond at the most important position in pro football.
Many analysts believe the Ravens will take advantage of an unusually deep quarterback crop to select a signal caller in the second or third round of this year's draft. That player could back up Flacco in 2018 and become a candidate to start if/when the Ravens move on from their high-priced franchise player.
Some draft experts have even projected the Ravens to take a quarterback in the first round, speculation they helped fuel by scheduling a pre-draft visit with Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson.
All the quarterback talk is mitigated by owner Steve Bisciotti's statement in February that the Ravens have "bigger fish to fry" than finding Flacco's eventual replacement.
"Top two or three (rounds), maybe?" said NFL Network analyst and former Ravens coach Brian Billick. "First round, wait a minute, there. First, let's remember, Joe's not done, and no matter how you couch it, to bring in that heir apparent before a guy thinks he's done is not good. It does not go well typically. Also, there's a lot of work to do, and to expend a first-round draft choice on a quarterback that ostensibly won't see the field, that'd be pretty strong."
Regardless, it's a conversation we have not heard around these parts in a generation.
The Ravens added an extra layer to the intrigue when they signed former No. 2 overall pick Robert Griffin III as a potential backup for this season. But general manager Ozzie Newsome and his successor, assistant general manager Eric DeCosta, said that would not dissuade them from drafting a quarterback.
"We will grade the players, set the board, and if there's a quarterback that we feel that we can pick at any of our picks, we'll do it," Newsome said.
It's possible none of this would be a talking point if the 2018 class were not so rich at the premium position. As many as six quarterbacks _ Sam Darnold of USC, Josh Rosen of UCLA, Josh Allen of Wyoming, Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma, Jackson and Mason Rudolph of Oklahoma State _ could go in the first round. That hasn't happened since the famous quarterback draft of 1983, headlined by John Elway and Dan Marino.
But that year, another quarterback did not go off the board until the fifth round. As strong as this year's class appears to be at the top, it's nearly as stocked with appealing second- and third-round options.
Scouts view Kyle Lauletta of Richmond, Luke Falk of Washington State and Mike White of Western Kentucky as passers with significant NFL potential, and others such as Tanner Lee of Nebraska have demonstrated the physical tools to wow some franchises.
"I think this is a really, really strong quarterback class," DeCosta said. "There's probably eight or nine guys that have a chance to come in and over their first contract, be guys that have a chance to start, play effectively, compete and be winning players. That's a good number. Obviously, at the top, you have four, five or six guys that have a chance to be really good players, we think. That's going to make this first round very interesting."
