A shock wave rippled by means of Ravens headquarters in Owings Mills as midnight approached on April 26, 2018.
A couple of minutes earlier, the staff’s vice chairman of public relations, Kevin Byrne, had requested General Manager Ozzie Newsome if he was prepared to talk with reporters in regards to the Ravens’ first-round draft choose, tight finish Hayden Hurst. No, Newsome mentioned, he thought there is perhaps extra enterprise that evening.
In a flash, the Ravens have been again on the clock with the No. 32 choose they acquired in a commerce with the Philadelphia Eagles. On ESPN’s broadcast, veteran analyst Mel Kiper Jr. speculated they have been about to pick out Iowa heart James Daniels.
Newsome had one thing splashier in thoughts.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell quickly introduced it to the world: Lamar Jackson, essentially the most dazzling, divisive prospect in a quarterback-rich draft was headed to Baltimore.
Five years later, Jackson is once more a central character because the Ravens and the NFL put together for an additional draft Thursday evening. He greater than made good on the Ravens’ authentic wager, seizing the beginning quarterback job from an injured Joe Flacco halfway by means of the 2018 season and successful NFL Most Valuable Player honors in 2019. But now, he and the Ravens are stalled in negotiations for a contract extension, and the staff is once more contemplating a possible succession plan at a very powerful place within the sport.
Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta and Coach John Harbaugh have mentioned they’re constructing the staff as if Jackson will likely be their quarterback for years to come back. But Jackson requested for a commerce in early March, and the Ravens have no idea if he will likely be prepared to play the 2023 season underneath the $32.4 million nonexclusive franchise tag they positioned on him March 7. The draft is the subsequent flash level within the saga, as a result of the Ravens might use one in all their 5 picks to pick out a possible successor, or they might flip the entire occasion on its head by sending Jackson to a different staff.
Draft analysts don’t take into account a cataclysmic situation doubtless. At most, they predict DeCosta may use a later choose on a quarterback who might polish his expertise behind Jackson and final yr’s backup, Tyler Huntley.
“If they draft a quarterback, maybe in the later rounds, something that’s not threatening to Lamar,” ESPN’s Todd McShay mentioned. “I think the most important thing that organization has to do is to make sure Lamar knows he’s their guy. With their recent move to bring in [wide receiver] Odell Beckham Jr. and pay him the money they did, I think that was the first olive branch in that situation. Utilizing an early-round pick on a quarterback would not be the wise move, and I don’t expect to see Eric DeCosta, who knows what he’s doing, make that decision.”
NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah, a former Ravens scout, agreed the DeCosta would keep away from any transfer which may alienate Jackson: “I don’t get the sense this will be a big, bold move for them to go up and get one. I think it’s just good business and being smart to bring in another option [at quarterback]. It’s just a matter of where you want to do it. I don’t think it makes as much sense to do it early. That’s almost, I don’t want to say a panic pick, but if you’re taking a quarterback or you’re trading up for a quarterback, you’re all but kicking Lamar Jackson out the door.”
Of course, not many thought the Ravens would make the leap for Jackson in 2018. Flacco, the 2012 Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, was headed into his eleventh season because the staff’s beginning quarterback, and most pundits assumed Newsome would use his first-round choose on a participant who’d make the veteran’s life simpler.
The Ravens appeared to substantiate this strategy once they took Hurst, a powerful, swift go catcher and blocker, after buying and selling down twice to the No. 25 total choose. If they have been bought on Jackson as their future, they might have merely snagged him at that time. When they lastly did choose him, the transfer felt extra like a triumph of opportunism than an orchestrated plan to switch Flacco.
The state of affairs this time round is totally different. When Jackson was drafted, Flacco was 33, three years faraway from the final time he’d led the Ravens to the playoffs. There was loads of speak in regards to the Ravens on the lookout for their subsequent quarterback, although proprietor Steve Bisciotti had mentioned they’d have “bigger fish to fry” within the 2018 draft.
Jackson, in contrast, will likely be 26 when the 2023 season opens in September. Though he has completed the final two seasons on the sideline due to accidents, he’s nonetheless one of many NFL’s most enjoyable and impactful gamers. If the Ravens transfer on from him, it is not going to be as a result of they’ve a greater expertise ready within the wings.
Still, DeCosta left open the likelihood the Ravens will draft a quarterback. They hosted Anthony Richardson of Florida, who blends uncommon dimension, pace and arm energy, for a prospect go to. And staff officers have mentioned there are quarterbacks projected to be picked outdoors the primary spherical who might make an influence within the NFL.
“It depends on the board, it really does,” DeCosta mentioned when requested if he’d take into account drafting a quarterback within the first spherical. “I mean, I’d have to say yes, because we have quarterbacks in our top 31.”
Newsome, DeCosta’s mentor, used related language in 2018: “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.”
One manner for the Ravens to resolve their dilemma with Jackson could be to tug off a draft-night blockbuster.
The Ravens couldn’t solely add picks for this yr and past however probably land one of many high 4 quarterbacks within the 2023 class — C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Richardson or Will Levis — to be the staff’s subsequent offensive centerpiece. Jackson must signal his franchise tag tender to facilitate such a transfer, so he basically would have veto energy.
The Indianapolis Colts, who maintain the No. 4 choose, haven’t dominated out curiosity in Jackson, even with proprietor Jim Irsay saying he doesn’t consider in absolutely assured contracts, which Jackson is perhaps in search of.
“Anytime a special player is available, which he is, you’ve got to do the work,” Colts common supervisor Chris Ballard mentioned final month on the NFL house owners conferences in Phoenix.
If the Colts signed Jackson to a proposal sheet, the Ravens would have 5 days to match it or obtain two first-round picks in return, together with the Colts’ choose this yr.
Who among the many high 4 quarterbacks within the draft would finest swimsuit Baltimore? It relies upon who you ask.
“The most NFL-ready, right now, would be Stroud and Young,” Kiper mentioned. “Levis performed in two NFL programs with school coordinators. If you needed to go to [new Ravens offensive coordinator] Todd Monken, you’d must ask, what sort of quarterback you need?
“If you say we’re going to get away from the runner, you go with Will Levis. If you want more of the Lamar Jackson-type quarterback coming out, then you’d go with Anthony Richardson.”
The Ravens have drafted a quarterback within the first spherical simply 3 times: Jackson in 2018, Flacco with the 18th total choose in 2008 and Kyle Boller with the nineteenth choose in 2003.
They’re maybe extra more likely to take a shot on the place within the middle-to-late rounds after utilizing their first-round choose to handle extra quick wants at cornerback and large receiver. The quarterback class is deep sufficient for that to be an attractive compromise answer.
“The fact is that we think you can get a quarterback in the first round, or the third round, or the fourth round who we’d have a chance to develop,” DeCosta mentioned. “You saw what the [San Francisco 49ers] did last year with [seventh-round pick] Brock Purdy. It’s quite possible to get a good quarterback at any point in the draft.”
The Ravens have a historical past of dipping into the later rounds for a quarterback, although the outcomes have been blended, with 2011 sixth-round choose Tyrod Taylor essentially the most notable success.
Kiper pointed to a few potentialities for this yr: Fresno State’s Jake Haener, Texas Christian’s Max Duggan, and Stetson Bennett, who spent the previous two years enjoying underneath Monken at Georgia. Jeremiah supplied two extra names — Jaren Hall of Brigham Young and Dorian Thompson-Robinson of UCLA — as attention-grabbing developmental candidates behind Jackson.
The Ravens began down a brand new path 5 years in the past, when Jackson bounded onto the stage in his forest inexperienced swimsuit and bow tie to shake Goodell’s hand and don a Ravens cap for the primary time.
“I’m a Raven. It’s on,” he mentioned that evening. “They’re going to get a Super Bowl out of me, believe that.”
“We got it done,” Newsome mentioned quietly as scouts celebrated round him within the Ravens’ struggle room.
Is the journey they started simply coming to its thrilling center, or are the Ravens about to begin one other one?
NFL draft
Round 1: Thursday, 8 p.m.
Rounds 2-3: Friday, 7 p.m.
Rounds 4-7: Saturday, midday
TV: ESPN, NFL Network, Chs. 2, 7
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Source: www.bostonherald.com