BALTIMORE — “I’ve always looked at draft picks as currency," said Baltimore Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta. "You can either use that on a player. You can trade up, you can trade back. You can trade for future picks in future years. I think we’re fortunate to be in this position. I think that as we continue to sign back our players as many as we can, our good young players, we’re going to be in a situation where you know salary cap is critical and so for us young talented influx of young players every single year competing to make you know make the roster I think is really important.”
VIDEO: Who will the Baltimore Ravens draft with pick 27?
Drafting 27th overall in the first round can be a gift or a curse, depending on how you view it.
On one hand, it means you're not getting a top draft prospect.
But, it shows you're competing at a high level and could be just a few pieces away from reaching championship status.
DeCosta feels they can get there in this draft class, which he says has tons of depth.
“I see a lot of opportunity in this draft class, really in the middle rounds. I see more players, I see more draftable players, so we have 217 players right now on the front board and there have been years where we’ve had a hard time getting to 160, 165, so there’s a lot of draftable players that means that the mid rounds are gonna be really good and also I think undrafted free agency should have a chance to be really really good for us,” DeCosta said.
While DeCosta didn't give any specific names on who they're targeting, both the O-line and D-line seem to be priorities.
"I think its a good strong offensive line class this year across-the-board, a really, really good group of tackles and guards as well and so you know, I think anytime you have a chance to draft an offensive lineman that you think of really good player, you should do that, especially the way we play football because we’re a team that prides itself in running the ball and being physical, knocking people off the ball, controlling the clock, protecting the quarterback,” DeCosta said. “We’ve always been a team that wants to be big and strong and powerful on both sides of the line, both sides of the ball, so I think there’s an opportunity for us to get better on the defensive line for sure.”
With the departure of cornerback Brandon Stephens and Tre'Davious White, adding to the secondary also seems like a guarantee.
"Corner is a critical, important position. They break down, they’re like Bugattis, and they just break down and you’ve gotta have them in reserve, but I feel pretty sure that we’ll take at least one corner in the draft,” said DeCosta.
WMAR asked DeCosta about his recent success drafting first round talent and if that track record has any impact on his confidence.
He told us he never goes into a draft super confident, preferring to have "the weight of the world on his shoulders" as he tries every day to live up to former GM Ozzie Newsome and the standard he set in Baltimore.
A standard that has them routinely playing well and picking in the latter half of the draft.
