Now that we’ve had a chance to breathe following the three days of trades and picks in the NFL draft, it’s a little easier to take stock in what the Baltimore Ravens have done.
While there are plenty of grades about the draft picks themselves, the NFL draft has repercussions throughout each team’s roster. Here are the Ravens’ winners and losers.
Winners
QB Lamar Jackson
Joe Flacco has to be ticked off, right? Heading into his first full year as the starter, quarterback Lamar Jackson gets a new offensive coordinator and a boatload of weapons and blockers. It’s why we had named him an early winner from the 2019 NFL draft.
The Ravens drafted two wide receivers for Jackson — one in the first round and another in the third. In Flacco’s entire career in Baltimore, the Ravens selected just two wide receivers in the first three rounds of the draft.
Baltimore also grabbed a capable blocker to help solidify the offensive line. Ben Powers and last year’s selection, Bradley Bozeman, are set up to compete for starting jobs at left guard and center, respectively — the two weak spots on the Ravens’ offensive line.
Jackson has just about everything he needs to be successful. He’s got an offensive coordinator that is tailoring the offense to him; a strong running game; a good offensive line that is improving; three starting-caliber tight ends; and two new speedy wide receivers. That’s all any franchise quarterback could ever ask for.
CB Jimmy Smith
Though the Ravens have made a public commitment towards Smith, his huge salary cap hit for 2019 still left him as a potential cut. But Baltimore would have had to find a way to fill that void.
While the Ravens took cornerback Iman Marshall in the fourth round, that shouldn’t be enough for Baltimore to cut ties with Smith. Unless a cheap and productive cornerback hits free agency, it looks like Smith will finish out his contract with the Ravens.
GM Eric DeCosta
In his first draft as general manager, DeCosta did an excellent job. He was able to move around the draft to acquire more picks and then used the Ravens’ draft equity to go up and get a player he liked. While each pick will receive scrutiny, DeCosta was able to get value in each round and address Baltimore’s biggest needs.
Considering the pressure DeCosta is under as he fills the shoes of Ozzie Newsome, he handled himself exceptionally well. Ravens fans should feel like they’re in good hands after that draft.
Losers
WR Chris Moore
I feel kinda bad for Moore. Baltimore has never really given him much of a chance to make his name on offense. Now, taking two wide receivers in the draft only goes to make things even harder on him.
While I still have Moore pretty high up on the Ravens’ offensive depth chart, he’s got even more competition for snaps.
OLBs Tim Williams and Tyus Bowser
The Ravens needed to find at least some depth at outside linebacker in the 2019 NFL draft. But by taking Jaylon Ferguson, Baltimore made it clear they wanted a starter, which puts a lot of extra pressure on Williams and Bowser to step up their games in 2019.
Both linebackers have been disappointments so far.
Bowser was expected to be a starter immediately as a three-down linebacker. But his stats — he played just 15.65% of the defensive snaps last season and hasn’t started a game in his career — are a long way from his second-round draft status.
Williams was expected to at least be a force as a pass rusher with the upside of being a three-down linebacker. He hasn’t done either. Active for just 15 games in two seasons, Williams has just two sacks and played a paltry 11.5% of the defensive snaps last year.
There’s a hope one or both players will break out in 2019, but the Ravens don’t seem willing to wait to see. Ferguson immediately steps into a competition for the starting job opposite Matthew Judon and likely has the edge barring either Bowser or Williams dramatically improving this offseason. For two guys taken in the second and third rounds, the bottom of a really shallow depth chart isn’t where anyone expected them to be entering their third seasons.
G James Hurst
Where does Hurst fit on this offensive line? I’m not entirely sure the Ravens know the answer to that.
After losing his job at right tackle last season to rookie Orlando Brown Jr., Baltimore pushed Hurst to left guard. He had excelled there enough in 2017 to earn a contract extension, but his return to the position in 2018 didn’t go nearly as well.
After the selection of Powers, Hurst might be on the outside looking in. While I’m sure Baltimore would love to keep the versatile Hurst on the roster this season, his recent contract extension pays him too much to ride the bench in the future.
If Hurst can’t grab and keep the starting job this season, he might be out next year.
