Speaker 1: You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. The NFL
Speaker 1: Draft has come to a close and the Ravens made
Speaker 1: six picks over the course of the weekend. They have
Speaker 1: added some serious firepower to this team and they are
Speaker 1: excited about these moves. After the draft today, the Ravens
Speaker 1: General manager Eric Tacosa, director of college scouting David Blackburn,
Speaker 1: and director of player Personnel Joe Hortiz met with the media.
Speaker 1: Now a note here is that this press conference actually
Speaker 1: took place before the Ravens traded back into the seventh
Speaker 1: round of the draft to take offensive lineman Andrew Vorhees,
Speaker 1: so he is not mentioned at all during this podcast.
Speaker 1: But this was the only end of day recap that
Speaker 1: the Ravens did as a press conference.
Speaker 2: Take a listen, thanks for coming, and you know, today
Speaker 2: was a good, solid day for us. Tried to in
Speaker 2: the early part of the day and drafted the defense,
Speaker 2: which was our plan. And Tavious, I think we got
Speaker 2: a guy that plays very, very hard, big you guys.
Speaker 2: You see him six foot six, two hundred sixty to
Speaker 2: fifty sixty pounds, runs well, very very physical, long reach.
Speaker 2: You know, from a comparison standpoint, you know, probably more
Speaker 2: like a guy like Zadarius Smith. That type of a player,
Speaker 2: can kick inside, can play outside. Physical, you know, Cayu
Speaker 2: Blue Kelly is a player that we've scouted for two years.
Speaker 2: David has scouted him at length as well. Corey Fraser upstairs,
Speaker 2: our West Coast scout. A very very polished, efficient mover,
Speaker 2: good eyes, physical, has good size, can play zone, can
Speaker 2: play man, a very experienced player, durable guy. And then Salah,
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna try to pronounce his name. Here's a
Speaker 2: guy that, again we've scouted for two years. We looked
Speaker 2: at him last year. We thought there was a chance
Speaker 2: he was coming out last year. A very very large
Speaker 2: offensive lineman.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: Has played some left guard, he's played some right guard.
Speaker 2: Primarily has been a right tackle. A very very good
Speaker 2: athlete for his size, I can pull, can play on
Speaker 2: his feet. We look at him as a real strong,
Speaker 2: developmental guy, a lot of upside potential. He's young, and uh,
Speaker 2: he fits us very very well. And you know, in
Speaker 2: most cases, we're going to try to draft an offensive
Speaker 2: lineman every year if we can. We just think it's
Speaker 2: good and uh, you'd like to have that pipeline of
Speaker 2: guys every single year, the younger players, and Joe d
Speaker 2: does an amazing job developing offensive lineman for us. So
Speaker 2: very happy where we are right now, and uh, you know,
Speaker 2: over the next couple of hours, we will continue to
Speaker 2: build a team.
Speaker 3: Questions the emotions.
Speaker 4: And significance from you know, this whole week, from Sonny
Speaker 4: to Lamar to adding this rap class.
Speaker 2: Uh, it's been emotional. I mean, it's it's it's really started,
Speaker 2: you know. I would say this month's really a lot
Speaker 2: of work has gone into this month, starting.
Speaker 3: With Odell and.
Speaker 2: Really going back to the owners meetings, you know in March.
Speaker 2: It's been a whirlwind of different emotions and we've worked
Speaker 2: very hard to to get going. And I think at
Speaker 2: some point we started to build some momentum, which was nice.
Speaker 2: And here we are and it's it's you know, I
Speaker 2: think we would all say we're pretty tired, but it's
Speaker 2: a good tired. You know, there's bad tired and a
Speaker 2: good tired. This is a good tired. And I think
Speaker 2: we'll sleep well tomorrow and we'll enjoy tomorrow with our families,
Speaker 2: all the coaches and scouts, and we'll get back to
Speaker 2: work on Monday.
Speaker 5: Eric.
Speaker 3: In terms of cornerback right now.
Speaker 6: Do you do you feel like you Marcus Peters is
Speaker 6: a guy that's still in your plans right now.
Speaker 3: Metter Corner Shipping Gawn.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So you know, as we've said, you know, the
Speaker 2: ross just never set. And I think what you'll see
Speaker 2: is in the coming weeks. Uh, there's a lot of
Speaker 2: potential moves for us to make free agents guys that
Speaker 2: we've had, guys that we that.
Speaker 3: We like who are available.
Speaker 2: The other point, I think, which is a fair point
Speaker 2: to make as well, as we drafted two young corners
Speaker 2: last year and both guys kind of wrestled with injuries
Speaker 2: this past year. Uh, you know, Armor Davis and uh
Speaker 2: and and Williams both and uh we we both we
Speaker 2: feel the same way. If those guys were in this
Speaker 2: year's draft, we probably would have drafted them in the
Speaker 2: same spot, you know. Uh, and they're good young players
Speaker 2: and so but that being said, you know, would we
Speaker 2: like to add potentially add a veteran corner, Yeah, show
Speaker 2: what it's an important position, and what we've seen is
Speaker 2: that you know, you can never have enough good corners,
Speaker 2: you know, to start the season and throughout the season.
Speaker 2: That's a fast way to get beat is to not
Speaker 2: have enough corners on the field.
Speaker 7: Eric, the fact that you did end up only making
Speaker 7: five picks, I mean, was that a statement about not
Speaker 7: seeing maybe as many total draftable players as we've seen
Speaker 7: in some past years or is it not that simple?
Speaker 3: Was it more a function enough?
Speaker 2: Well, we only had five picks, so I mean, we
Speaker 2: can only make five picks, right, So I meane we
Speaker 2: could have And then to be honest with you, you know,
Speaker 2: I have to look at that because we didn't get
Speaker 2: as many calls this year, and I think you know,
Speaker 2: when you have a lot of picks, people call you
Speaker 2: because they know you have a lot of picks. And
Speaker 2: so the way that trades work is it's based in
Speaker 2: the combinations. Right. It's a simple math. If you have
Speaker 2: a lot of picks, teams can look at you and
Speaker 2: say we can do a trade with Baltimore because we
Speaker 2: can figure out the combination of points. When you don't
Speaker 2: have a lot of picks, it's tougher. So we didn't
Speaker 2: have a second round pick, we didn't have a seventh
Speaker 2: round pick. Sometimes we have multiple picks in a round,
Speaker 2: and so a team that may be lacking in picks
Speaker 2: can call us and the math works. We didn't get
Speaker 2: a lot of calls. I'm not really sure why did
Speaker 2: we have some opportunities we did. We didn't like the math,
Speaker 2: you know. So it's just one of those things like
Speaker 2: I would like to have had more picks. Still, might
Speaker 2: you know, we're gonna go upstairs. The seventh round is
Speaker 2: just starting, so this might be an unusual year.
Speaker 3: Who knows.
Speaker 2: But the fact is we just didn't get a lot
Speaker 2: of calls. And but you know, looking at the team,
Speaker 2: we really do in most cases, we look at the
Speaker 2: roster and we like the way it looks. We don't
Speaker 2: see a lot of you know, big glaring holes, and
Speaker 2: we and we and we have solutions as well still
Speaker 2: out there in free agency potentially, So if you're not
Speaker 2: going to have a lot of picks, this is probably
Speaker 2: the year to not have picks.
Speaker 3: We were able to fortify.
Speaker 2: We brought some guys back that played for us last
Speaker 2: year that we like that We were excited to bring
Speaker 2: back guys like Justice Hill as an example of one guy,
Speaker 2: and there were a lot of other guys that we
Speaker 2: brought back. So as we looked at the roster, we
Speaker 2: didn't see the big holes on the roster that we
Speaker 2: felt compelled to fill.
Speaker 3: What made an impression on you about Bluke.
Speaker 8: Kelly when you first started, Well, my first exposure to
Speaker 8: him outside of practice was I attended a live game
Speaker 8: in twenty one. It was at USC early season game
Speaker 8: and they had Drake London and he impressed me because
Speaker 8: he basically went toe to toe with a future top
Speaker 8: ten pick and did more than hold his own, got
Speaker 8: his hands on two or three PBUs had a pick
Speaker 8: six later in the game to kind of ice it.
Speaker 8: So that was kind of a statement game, and it
Speaker 8: stood out as far as like an exposure where a
Speaker 8: guy was able to really step out there and and
Speaker 8: make it make a lasting impression on me. So throughout
Speaker 8: that process, that's your basis, you know, that's your baseline
Speaker 8: from you like, man, well if he's doing and that
Speaker 8: he's gonna be able to do it in the league.
Speaker 8: And you know, I actually thought that if he had
Speaker 8: came out last year, he would have easily been a
Speaker 8: Day two pick in my opinion. But I'm happy to
Speaker 8: get him in the fifth round right now. I think
Speaker 8: he's going to be a great, raven, great fit, one
Speaker 8: of those high high floor prospects gonna come in dad
Speaker 8: played in the league. He's been around ball. Stanford kid, smart, tough, competitive,
Speaker 8: can play man his own, has good ball skills.
Speaker 3: He's gonna come in and do the right things. He
Speaker 3: loves ball.
Speaker 8: So to get a guy like that at this stage
Speaker 8: in the draft, we considered that a value pick.
Speaker 5: Did you see Tays is a sending player you know
Speaker 5: Canada and fills in a old Miss seem to get
Speaker 5: the course of his career league man animals, Is he
Speaker 5: look the league players to send him.
Speaker 3: Well, I let Joe answer that.
Speaker 8: I think Joe kind of has a better feel for
Speaker 8: for Tavis than I do. But answer your question, yes, yeah.
Speaker 9: If you watch his progression through his career at Ole
Speaker 9: Miss and then obviously went to the Senior Bowl, had
Speaker 9: a really good Senior Bowl, his performers at Combine and
Speaker 9: Pro Day, he just he just seems to be on
Speaker 9: the rise. Eric talked about the player. Is he's very physical,
Speaker 9: He's got a great motor. I mean, you know, John
Speaker 9: preaches run to the ball with our defense, and he's
Speaker 9: always run to the ball, making plays downfield. So the
Speaker 9: raven mentality is there, the effort is there. You know,
Speaker 9: he's a developmental player in terms of playing ball in
Speaker 9: the States versus Canada. But he's grown tremendously at Ole
Speaker 9: Miss and still see a lot more potential for.
Speaker 3: On the tape of right what do you like about
Speaker 3: him and give a division of more as a guard
Speaker 3: or tackle the professional.
Speaker 9: Well, I think when you watch him play at Oregon
Speaker 9: he played both positions. Some games he'd flip in during
Speaker 9: series into guard. He was primarily a right tackle for him.
Speaker 9: I think he can play both. You know, Joe'll get
Speaker 9: him and find the best spot for him in terms
Speaker 9: of starting them out, But I do. I do see
Speaker 9: flexibility with him. Things stands out with him. He's huge,
Speaker 9: He's got explosive power. Knox Sky's down on down blocks.
Speaker 9: He runs really well for a big man, and you
Speaker 9: watch him pool or get out on leads on the
Speaker 9: front side plays. He can really cover ground plays with
Speaker 9: a great temperament. So you know, just a lot of
Speaker 9: a lot to like a big man who plays physical
Speaker 9: our brand of football.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. Also, if
Speaker 1: you want more analysis from this draft to go ahead
Speaker 1: and check out the Ravens Lounge podcast feed. We break
Speaker 1: down everything happening over the course of this weekend. Now
Speaker 1: let's get back to this presser.
Speaker 3: We'll say he's sixty six.
Speaker 6: I mean, there's not many out six to six outside
Speaker 6: a guy like multiple positions.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, and they do it with him there. He
Speaker 9: plays everywhere from like a four eye technique inside reduced
Speaker 9: down all the way to a seven technique. He can
Speaker 9: you see him? Do you see that versatility? It gives
Speaker 9: you some inside pass rush flexibility. But he can also
Speaker 9: get in the two point stance and knock back tight ends.
Speaker 9: He's really physical taking on tight ends, kind of creating
Speaker 9: a new line of scrimmage behind the existing line of scrimmage.
Speaker 9: So does offer versatility in that sense.
Speaker 7: Kind of simone question probably, should you guys see Trent
Speaker 7: Simpson as a guy, a good cross train land backer.
Speaker 3: Do you like him on the ball?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's he's a good he's a good
Speaker 2: pass rusher, he's a good blitzer. I mean he can
Speaker 2: do some of that. You know, I think as we
Speaker 2: think about him, we probably envisioned him as moving off
Speaker 2: the ball guy. But that being said, you know, with
Speaker 2: Mike's defense, and this is kind of a growing theme
Speaker 2: in the league, you know, the defensive coaches are very
Speaker 2: multiple on what they do. So if you have guys
Speaker 2: who can do more than one thing, you can really
Speaker 2: mess with the offense. And what we like about Trenton
Speaker 2: is just he's a very explosive blitzer. He's good with
Speaker 2: his hands, he closes very quickly. So uh, that's a
Speaker 2: great skill for a linebacker to have. And that's you know,
Speaker 2: something that both wro Kwan and Uh and Patch both have.
Speaker 2: They're all excellent blitzers. So it just gives us a
Speaker 2: lot of, you know, multiple looks on defense.
Speaker 3: Eric just kind of one of the narratives around the
Speaker 3: draft in general, or a couple weeks ago, just around the.
Speaker 6: S two tests.
Speaker 3: I guess, do you guys see any value in those
Speaker 3: kind of things? I mean just kind of the picture.
Speaker 2: We do, you know, those we don't, So we don't
Speaker 2: subscribe to that test. You know, the Ravens historically we've
Speaker 2: been independent, going back to the nineteen ninety six. We've
Speaker 2: never belonged to a scouting service. You know, we don't
Speaker 2: belong the National we don't belong to BLASTO. The reason really,
Speaker 2: honestly being is we don't want to share our information
Speaker 2: with other teams. So I think what we try to
Speaker 2: do is kind of divide, you know, create our own tests.
Speaker 2: You know, Steve Claggett who works with us upstairs, he
Speaker 2: helps us. We use a lot of different people and analytics,
Speaker 2: We interview, we've trained our scouts. We spent a lot
Speaker 2: of time really figuring out what's most important to us
Speaker 2: when we assess these players, and we just do it
Speaker 2: our own way. And uh, you know, I think it's
Speaker 2: great because we trust our people with anybody else and
Speaker 2: h and the information stays in the house.
Speaker 3: When you look at all.
Speaker 4: The picks picks, is there something that kind of jumps
Speaker 4: out as you anything just as a collective class.
Speaker 3: Uh, well, I would say.
Speaker 2: That every single guy on this list has played starter
Speaker 2: level football and we think can be a starter in
Speaker 2: the NFL. Our scouts these players, the five of these
Speaker 2: players graded out very high. There were some years where
Speaker 2: you have a lot of picks and you sort of
Speaker 2: a little bit from your sequence because you're trying to
Speaker 2: fill specific needs. I think that the mindset for me
Speaker 2: this year was just like just try not to worry
Speaker 2: as much about the needs and just draft the best
Speaker 2: guy that's there at every single pick. And we really
Speaker 2: I think we did it like. Honestly, I can't say
Speaker 2: that we did it exactly, but I know it's pretty
Speaker 2: damn close. And the reason we might not have is because,
Speaker 2: for instance, we might have had we might have had
Speaker 2: an outside linebacker rated slightly higher than Kyu, but we
Speaker 2: did just taking an outside linebacker. So what we try
Speaker 2: to do with our sequence is that player may not
Speaker 2: be picked because we just took a player at that position.
Speaker 2: So but in general, I think the thing I think
Speaker 2: about this class is at that pick, as I look
Speaker 2: at the sequence, every one of these guys was the
Speaker 2: highest rated guy on our board.
Speaker 5: Eric, And as years you've talked about how it seems
Speaker 5: like there's Yere's years where the.
Speaker 1: Draft as a whole is seems to have a similar board,
Speaker 1: and I'm just curious did you find that to be
Speaker 1: feel like that was the case this year?
Speaker 3: I know, company into the draft.
Speaker 5: After some analysty felt like this is a very difficult
Speaker 5: draft to predict. How did the boardfollo in terms of
Speaker 5: your expectations of it?
Speaker 2: I would say that this year was a little bit unusual.
Speaker 2: Uh As you got into the second, third, and fourth round,
Speaker 2: there were some uh ebbs and flows and crazy picks.
Speaker 2: You know, I I I saw more volatility, low rated
Speaker 2: guys being drafted high guys outside our sequence. It had
Speaker 2: more of a two thousand seven type of draft feel.
Speaker 2: I think with just in general, y, you know, with
Speaker 2: the proliferation of mock drafts and the Internet and social
Speaker 2: media and information sharing, that a lot of draft boards
Speaker 2: look pretty similar, uh I, you know, and and that's
Speaker 2: why a lot of times when we're finished with the
Speaker 2: first round, second round, we see that there aren't a
Speaker 2: lot of players that we have in the top sixty
Speaker 2: four still available at the end of those two rounds.
Speaker 2: Used to be different. This year was a little different.
Speaker 2: I would say, Joe, I don't know, but they seem
Speaker 2: to be some different picks. I think this is a
Speaker 2: tough draft to evaluate. This was an unusual draft. Were
Speaker 2: still dealing with the ramifications of COVID in some ways.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of older players in this draft class,
Speaker 2: very unusual. But there's a lot of guys that are
Speaker 2: twenty four, twenty five, twenty six years old, and you know,
Speaker 2: so if you think about it, there are guys that
Speaker 2: are twenty years old in this draft, Guys that are
Speaker 2: twenty six years old, and it's just we haven't seen
Speaker 2: that big of a spread in terms of the numbers,
Speaker 2: so that's kind of different. But I would say yes,
Speaker 2: more of a tougher draft to predict in the second
Speaker 2: and third day with an.
Speaker 3: Iom maybe taking away something No I'm raving. I ask,
Speaker 3: do you still see as.
Speaker 4: Big a potential that have, you know, down the line
Speaker 4: contributors and previous years or else out of the country.
Speaker 2: That's a great question, Jonas, I don't. I don't know
Speaker 2: how that's gonna affect undrafted free agency. I will say
Speaker 2: this that I have a lot of faith in Mark Escevedo,
Speaker 2: who's upstairs. He kind of organizes this thing for us
Speaker 2: and Joe and David and the coaches and the scouts.
Speaker 2: They'll be cranking when the time comes. They haven't started yet,
Speaker 2: but when the time comes, they will be cranking. They'll
Speaker 2: be hitting the phones. We've done a lot of prep work.
Speaker 2: We started recruiting guys weeks ago, and we'll be in
Speaker 2: a great place and we'll get a good class of guys.
Speaker 2: It's going to be fierce competition to make the team.
Speaker 2: You know, it's gonna be hardly It's not like you know,
Speaker 2: back in like nineteen ninety eight, nineteen ninety nine, or
Speaker 2: four or five undrafted guys would make it every year.
Speaker 2: I mean, Jamison, you're the old statesman. Uh, you know,
Speaker 2: you remember those days, the historian, Remember those days when
Speaker 2: those guys. We had a lot of those guys make it,
Speaker 2: and now it's like maybe one guy or two guys
Speaker 2: a year.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 2: So it is challenging, but we take a lot of
Speaker 2: pride in it. Jonas, I think, you know, we think
Speaker 2: we do it better than anybody else. I think probably
Speaker 2: other teams think that too, but we have we take
Speaker 2: a lot of pride in the way that we do it.
Speaker 2: Marcus highly organized in what he does in our scouts,
Speaker 2: and the coaches do an amazing job. And I do
Speaker 2: think we haven't advantage this year because we've got some
Speaker 2: college coaches that we brought in. And with that is
Speaker 2: the recruiting aspect of the job, which is a big advantage.
Speaker 3: Going into the draft.
Speaker 5: A lot of analysts that you know, Eric lakes to
Speaker 5: trade so much, there's no way that you would just
Speaker 5: stick and make the five picks.
Speaker 3: The rigants love drafting so many players. There's no way
Speaker 3: it's just a five player class. How did it feel
Speaker 3: to you to just stay and take a by.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, we just zagged. We didn't want to
Speaker 2: zig this year, I guess, you know, like we we
Speaker 2: always trade, and we didn't trade this year. And I
Speaker 2: would expect people would think that we would trade this year.
Speaker 2: But we like the players, we like the roster, you know.
Speaker 2: And as I said, you know, the phones didn't ring.
Speaker 2: I mean as actually honestly we use we have new phones,
Speaker 2: as you know, Brian, We've got new phones, right, and
Speaker 2: they weren't ringing. And I'm like, are these damn things working?
Speaker 2: Because they want the old phones that were used to
Speaker 2: using in the draft room. They brought these new like
Speaker 2: internet things, digital phones, and I'm like, are they really working, Joe,
Speaker 2: Like honestly, and we're calling them, they're ringing. The only
Speaker 2: people calling us.
Speaker 9: We would literally the strangest dynamic.
Speaker 3: But it's one of those years, you know.
Speaker 2: But I will say this, like what was good about
Speaker 2: this year was that in most cases the player that
Speaker 2: we wanted or a player that we wanted was there
Speaker 2: when we could pick. Some year that's not the case.
Speaker 2: That's a helpless feeling. So it was okay that the
Speaker 2: phones didn't ring quite as much.
Speaker 4: You too, more, David, you know we didn't get chance
Speaker 4: went and say Flowers was stracted.
Speaker 3: But what kind of stood out to you about him?
Speaker 3: And kind of the whole skept I mean everything. He's
Speaker 3: just a fun evaluation. He's electric.
Speaker 8: He can't help but keep your eyes off of him
Speaker 8: when you're watching watching the tape. And it's even better
Speaker 8: in person, as Joe and I saw in Vegas at
Speaker 8: the East West game. Explosive, fast, sudden, dangerous. He can
Speaker 8: hurts you on all three levels. He can get deep,
Speaker 8: he's great after the catch. He's a tough tackle, he's physical,
Speaker 8: he can play through contact. He can make more contested
Speaker 8: catches than most guys' size can make. He's very productive,
Speaker 8: and he doesn't shy away from the moment. And again,
Speaker 8: I think when you're five to nine one hundred and
Speaker 8: eighty some pounds, you know, coming from a you know,
Speaker 8: shorter guy, you know you have to be wired a
Speaker 8: certain way to dominate, especially in the National Football League.
Speaker 8: You know, you can't be meek. And he has that mentality.
Speaker 8: He's got that raven mentality that we desire and it
Speaker 8: shows on the field and it's infectious, and you know
Speaker 8: you want that guy on your team, and we're extremely
Speaker 8: lucky to have him here and we look forward to
Speaker 8: seeing him play on Sundays.
Speaker 6: A couple like a week ago, there were a lot
Speaker 6: of questions about what this team may look like going
Speaker 6: into the season. I know, you guys aren't done with
Speaker 6: the Lamar signing and the draft now over, How do
Speaker 6: you feel about the view of this team going.
Speaker 3: Into this next season.
Speaker 2: I think I think we all feel pretty good, but
Speaker 2: we also understand and realize we have more work to do. So,
Speaker 2: you know, we've got you know, four or five months
Speaker 2: and whatever it is. And you know, I remember last
Speaker 2: year being on the beach with my dad when we
Speaker 2: signed justin Houston in July. So there's gonna be opportunities
Speaker 2: along the way to sign players, and we'll do that
Speaker 2: if we can. If we have the opportunity and we
Speaker 2: have the resources to do it, and the you know
Speaker 2: it exists the potential, we'll do it. You know. So
Speaker 2: the roster is going to look different than it does now.
Speaker 2: Hopefully you know better, but it is going to look different.
Speaker 2: And uh, you know, we're going to keep building and
Speaker 2: building and building until we can build a team that
Speaker 2: can go as far as possible.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: Thanks guys.
Speaker 1: This is the Ravens Press Pass podcast and there were
Speaker 1: lots of things happening over the course of the last
Speaker 1: few days. Every press conference that took place at the
Speaker 1: Castle and Owings Mills, and also the conference calls that
Speaker 1: the players did with the local media. All of those
Speaker 1: pressers live here in this feed, so go ahead and
Speaker 1: check them out, and if you want more analysis, then
Speaker 1: head over to the Lounge podcast feed. Subscribe to both
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Speaker 1: and we'll be back with you again soon.