Speaker 1: Welcome into Ravens Press Pass. Today, the Ravens held their
Speaker 1: annual pre draft press conference with general manager Eric DaCosta,
Speaker 1: head coach John Harbaugh, and Director of Player Personnel Joe Hortiz.
Speaker 1: The trio took a handful of questions about the wide
Speaker 1: receiver position, the number of picks Baltimore has in this
Speaker 1: year's draft, and of course, the cornerback draft class. As
Speaker 1: we all know how much the Ravens love their dbs. Harbaugh, DaCosta,
Speaker 1: and Ortiz spoke for about forty minutes. So with that,
Speaker 1: here's today's Ravens pre draft press conference. First and foremost,
Speaker 1: the Oils. I think open up at home this week,
Speaker 1: right Tomorrow's week tomorrow, and Bruce Springsteen's gonna be here
Speaker 1: on Friday night, so it's a big week. And I
Speaker 1: didn't do the peloton today as well, so I'm won't
Speaker 1: be sweating anyways. I think the offseason has had a
Speaker 1: set of challenges in different ways, but we're excited about
Speaker 1: where we are as a team. We're very happy that
Speaker 1: we could bring back a bunch of players that were
Speaker 1: with us last year. I think the Combine was a
Speaker 1: really good week for us as well. Our coaches and
Speaker 1: scouts are now canvassing the country, going to Pro Day's,
Speaker 1: watching guys work out. We'll start our final set, well
Speaker 1: our almost final set of draft meetings next week with
Speaker 1: the coaches, first time the coaches have a chance to
Speaker 1: talk about the players. The board will be basically set
Speaker 1: probably next Friday or Saturday, with a few tweaks along
Speaker 1: the way. We're excited. We see the draft there's a
Speaker 1: great opportunity for us to get better as a team.
Speaker 1: We've got five to five picks. We wish we had more.
Speaker 1: Our goal is probably to get more along the way
Speaker 1: if we can, depending on how things fall. But we
Speaker 1: see a great opportunity for us to add some quality
Speaker 1: players and to be a better football team come September. Questions,
Speaker 1: it's been a week, remark Develops having the trade of
Speaker 1: the quest saying the body of the fans, I think
Speaker 1: the rads have you had a chance to talk to
Speaker 1: him since what was the conversation like? And you know
Speaker 1: when the player asks to saying he wants to be traded,
Speaker 1: what's your confidence level of him being able to be
Speaker 1: in being playing this year with the Raiders? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: those are you know, I understand the need to ask
Speaker 1: those kind of questions, I think just out of respect
Speaker 1: for the process. This is a draft launching and we're
Speaker 1: gonna try to keep u as much of this discussion
Speaker 1: as we can to the draft to the coming weeks
Speaker 1: building the best football team we can build. UM. So
Speaker 1: I understand those questions. I think we've spoken about this
Speaker 1: situation probably five different times this spring in various different
Speaker 1: press conferences and such. So we're gonna try to just
Speaker 1: kind of defer to those questions and move forward to
Speaker 1: the draft. Like corners fast, I mean, that's twenty two,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, many it's a strong position. Probably four
Speaker 1: or five guys that you look at and say, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the first round type of guy. That's a first
Speaker 1: round pick. Maybe six guys. So you know, us, we
Speaker 1: have a history of draft in defense in the first round.
Speaker 1: We love corners. Our defense is really built to succeed
Speaker 1: with a great, strong secondary. UM coach Arba loves big, physical,
Speaker 1: press type guys. There's a lot of these type of
Speaker 1: guys in the draft, so for us to look at that,
Speaker 1: we think it's one of the most important positions on
Speaker 1: your football team, and it's a position that we'll always
Speaker 1: look at very closely of the draft and you're looking
Speaker 1: at your area needs beyond cornerback, the very positions where
Speaker 1: you see there's a lot of depth scenario where you're
Speaker 1: want to go shopping. Yeah, man, I think the fans
Speaker 1: will be happy. That's a strong receiver class, you know. Um, again,
Speaker 1: we see a multitude of guys that can go in
Speaker 1: the first couple of rounds. Um, it's a great opportunity
Speaker 1: for us. I think offensive line is a strong position
Speaker 1: this year. Some defensive lineman that we like as well,
Speaker 1: So you know, we think it kind of shapes up
Speaker 1: nicely based on our needs. Of course, you have to
Speaker 1: have a little luck on draft day, but we see
Speaker 1: a lot of players that make us a better football
Speaker 1: team at those positions for sure. Conspecting that this is
Speaker 1: about the draft, but also spec the fact that a
Speaker 1: lot of what you guys will be doing in the
Speaker 1: draft could hinge on what happened over the next weeks
Speaker 1: with Lamar and potential offer seat. What's the I guess
Speaker 1: your stance or preferred I guess outcome over the next
Speaker 1: few weeks before we come on where things stands with
Speaker 1: themar Would you like to see kind of an outcome
Speaker 1: before round one, or what's your guys outlook regarding where
Speaker 1: he seems and where the organizations seems before the draft,
Speaker 1: something kind of fin us. Yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: the things that we control are really getting the list,
Speaker 1: the draft board set, evaluating the players as best as possible,
Speaker 1: being aware of the players the free agents that are
Speaker 1: available now post draft, who are the players that we
Speaker 1: might have a chance to bring in post draft that
Speaker 1: could make us a better football team as well, And
Speaker 1: then doing the best job we can in terms of
Speaker 1: recruiting free agents. Our scouts do a phenomenal job of that.
Speaker 1: I think our coaches do a great job of that,
Speaker 1: and just putting ourselves in position to win draft weekend.
Speaker 1: Are you looking at quarterbacks differently because of the situation's plan?
Speaker 1: You know, I don't think we really are. I mean,
Speaker 1: we go into every draft trying to take any kind
Speaker 1: of bias out, any kind of need based situation out
Speaker 1: of the draft equation. We really do try to build
Speaker 1: a board that's really best player available, and that process
Speaker 1: involves really nine months starting in you know, the you know,
Speaker 1: in early August, from our scouts go out on the
Speaker 1: road and they generate the profile and the evaluation to
Speaker 1: get as much information as possible. We then segue into
Speaker 1: a set of meetings in December, and then we get
Speaker 1: into the meetings in January and the All Star Games
Speaker 1: and all those different things, really trying to assess this
Speaker 1: player versus a player, and it's really just comparisons and
Speaker 1: how these players stack up. Who do we think has
Speaker 1: the best chance to come in and make us the
Speaker 1: best football team. And so if that's a quarterback, if
Speaker 1: that's a receiver or corner, an offensive tackle, we're gonna
Speaker 1: look at that very strongly and make the best decision
Speaker 1: we can, knowing that over time, we think building a
Speaker 1: team best available player is the right way to go.
Speaker 1: You will add, well, I think, Stan, we've done that
Speaker 1: nine times in the last four years, so I think
Speaker 1: the chances for us to be able to do it
Speaker 1: are pretty decent. Of course, if we're in love with
Speaker 1: somebody while we're on the clock, we're gonna make the pick.
Speaker 1: You know, we always have to gauge that, you know,
Speaker 1: how strong do we feel about the prospect he's available
Speaker 1: versus a chance to go back and get additional picks.
Speaker 1: And sometimes you get lucky in that there's a guy
Speaker 1: that you might really want, you make the tough decision
Speaker 1: to trade back and you can still get them. It
Speaker 1: happens more than you think. Not all the time, though,
Speaker 1: of course, So we have to look at that. We
Speaker 1: have to look at the capital we can get by
Speaker 1: trading back, and we'll make the best decision we can.
Speaker 1: John and Joe. When you have a coordinator change what
Speaker 1: extra work goes in should be last whole months leading
Speaker 1: up to the draft. No, you're not reinventing the wheel offensively,
Speaker 1: but maybe there are some trades, different points of emphasis
Speaker 1: that you have now A feeding wouldn't have been the caseable. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: the first thing we did in scouting, uh was we
Speaker 1: got todt in there in the room and talked about
Speaker 1: his offensive philosophy, the types of players he wants at
Speaker 1: each position, and what he thought about our players and
Speaker 1: the guys that are here, how they match, what he
Speaker 1: can do. Who you know who fits his scheme, his system.
Speaker 1: The thing and talking to him that you love is
Speaker 1: he's versatile and he's going to he's just getting players
Speaker 1: and he'll make him work. So, um, that's exciting to
Speaker 1: here's a scout. So now you just go out and
Speaker 1: try to find the best players for the Ravens and
Speaker 1: and see as we go through the process, through the
Speaker 1: pro days, through the combine, through the workouts, and then
Speaker 1: uh um next week in the meetings, if they fit
Speaker 1: our scheme and can help us. What do you deem
Speaker 1: this is your biggest need? Oh man? Uh you know,
Speaker 1: I never want to go into a draft nicking where
Speaker 1: that was said in any position. Of course, you know,
Speaker 1: we we see a lot of times. I mean, I
Speaker 1: remember one year we thought we had a really strong
Speaker 1: tight end room and then like in the span of
Speaker 1: like a few days, we had a bunch of guys
Speaker 1: that got hurt and we were trying to find tight
Speaker 1: ends all year. Um. You know we saw that, you
Speaker 1: know a few years ago at running back, you know,
Speaker 1: with with j K and Gus in justice. So our
Speaker 1: needs can change. I wouldn't want to, you know, pigeonhole
Speaker 1: and one specific thing, but you know, in general, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, secondary is always something that we can address.
Speaker 1: Offensive lines always something the defensive line that we should address.
Speaker 1: The receiver position, um, you know those positions where you
Speaker 1: need multiple guys to play. Um, I think those open
Speaker 1: important positions every single year to draft players. So that
Speaker 1: you have a continuous depth in terms of when guys
Speaker 1: get hurt, you can put guys in. And I think
Speaker 1: last year, last year's team was a good example of that,
Speaker 1: where we had depth on the offensive line and in
Speaker 1: the secondary to be able to withstand some injuries. And
Speaker 1: our goal is to always be in that position. And
Speaker 1: you said you be able to add more. But how
Speaker 1: does that affect your strategy killing me into the drafts?
Speaker 1: Which is you know you had much more of that.
Speaker 1: I was justifect the strategy into the drafts. Uh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, like last year, you know, my strategy was
Speaker 1: I had to watch as many guys as I could
Speaker 1: because we had so many picks. UM. I still want
Speaker 1: to watch as many guys as I can, but I
Speaker 1: don't feel the tremendous anxiety knowing that we have six
Speaker 1: fourth round picks. UM. Our goal would be to add
Speaker 1: picks if we can. At some point in saying that,
Speaker 1: I think it's important to note that we've had a
Speaker 1: lot of picks over the last four or five years,
Speaker 1: and you get to a point where maybe having too
Speaker 1: many picks isn't necessarily the right thing. In any given year,
Speaker 1: you almost have to have a purge at some point
Speaker 1: because you have all these young players on the team
Speaker 1: and they can't all make the team if you have
Speaker 1: just keep stacking these huge, massive draft classes. So I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say that it was intentional this year. But for
Speaker 1: us like to say that our second round pick was
Speaker 1: Roquan Smith, I'm pretty happy with that, you know, um,
Speaker 1: you know, i'd like to get you know, if we
Speaker 1: had five picks this year, if we only have five
Speaker 1: picks this year, I'd like to get back to nine
Speaker 1: or ten picks next year for sure. But having a
Speaker 1: smaller amount of picks this year, based on what we've
Speaker 1: done in eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two, that's
Speaker 1: not necessarily the worst thing. I wouldn't say we've necessarily
Speaker 1: done that, Vinie. We kind of treat the prote is
Speaker 1: kind of the same. UM. We always canvas, We always
Speaker 1: send a lot of guys out. We always try to
Speaker 1: have um a position coach at almost every pro day.
Speaker 1: You can't always get that done with all the offseason
Speaker 1: stuff they're doing. We'll have an area scout in some
Speaker 1: cases an area scout, a director possibly and also a
Speaker 1: potentially a coordinator, a position coach, whatever that might be
Speaker 1: we try to get as much coverage as possible. The
Speaker 1: other thing it's changed so much over the years is,
Speaker 1: you know, we get all the prods on digitized now,
Speaker 1: so we have all the pro days. We get all
Speaker 1: the pro days within twenty four hours. Event. Basically you
Speaker 1: don't get the hands on personal attention that you might
Speaker 1: get at the school visit, but you do get the
Speaker 1: video on tape. You get a chance to assess that
Speaker 1: as well, so it's not like it was maybe ten
Speaker 1: or fifteen years ago when you didn't have access to
Speaker 1: that stuff. Yeah, there's so much attention about the wide
Speaker 1: receiver position as there always seems to be around character
Speaker 1: that basically benefit in this offense. You're trying to build
Speaker 1: what in particular you're looking for in terms of the
Speaker 1: wide receiver you can break in. Well, I think you
Speaker 1: look at the big picture. It's a great question. There's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of guys that we like, right Eric,
Speaker 1: I mean, in really every round, I think there's there
Speaker 1: are guys that can make our team. In the early rounds,
Speaker 1: there are a number of guys that could start for us.
Speaker 1: You know, even so you start with that, then it's okay,
Speaker 1: who fits us? You know, in terms of what Todd's
Speaker 1: looking for, how we're building the offense, terms of the
Speaker 1: guys you already have. So I would say that, you know,
Speaker 1: between Eric and Joe, myself, Todd, Greg Lewis, you know,
Speaker 1: all the scouts. Really you start saying, Okay, which guys
Speaker 1: do we really like for what we're trying to do
Speaker 1: for our room, and who compliment the other guys in
Speaker 1: the room, and you know that's uh, those are names,
Speaker 1: you know, so probably not sharing those with you guys
Speaker 1: right now, but we have those names you know, already
Speaker 1: targeted and we'll probably finalize that next week. In terms
Speaker 1: of the guys that we'll be looking at, we feel
Speaker 1: fit of the best and hopefully hopefully we get one
Speaker 1: of those guys. But that being said, you never know.
Speaker 1: You know, you might up somehow you find a guy
Speaker 1: that falls your way and you really wasn't one of
Speaker 1: the names that you thought was going to be a
Speaker 1: great fitting term to be a great player. So as
Speaker 1: long as we've got you know, enough players, I think
Speaker 1: we do to get guys that can help us and
Speaker 1: we'll be in good shape. What's your ID say? It's
Speaker 1: pretty strong up top? Um, you know those four guys
Speaker 1: are best being listed in the moss going high. They're
Speaker 1: all talented and good in their own rights. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: if you break them down, you know Bryce is extremely accurate, cerebral, intelligent, winner.
Speaker 1: They're all winners, actually, every one of them. So it
Speaker 1: was what you love, um, and then uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Richardson's got just raw physical talent, strong arm, athletic, big, physical,
Speaker 1: tough UM. Probably the least experience of the four of them,
Speaker 1: but you know, has a chance to really blossom and develop.
Speaker 1: Will is again a physical, strong guy with a lead arm,
Speaker 1: and has gone through two different offenses the past two years,
Speaker 1: so he's adjusted to players changing around him. His whole
Speaker 1: offensive line was revamped. And then CJ. You know, he's
Speaker 1: just matured and grown and gotten better and better. It
Speaker 1: played his best game, his last game of his career,
Speaker 1: I thought, and uh, really accurate, has a great feel
Speaker 1: for the field, um, and showed off his athleticism certainly
Speaker 1: in that Georgia game. One of your things was watching
Speaker 1: the cornerbacks. I think that was one of Eric's things
Speaker 1: that he was watching huffily of the joy Porter Junior,
Speaker 1: What would be kind of that be? Like? Considering the
Speaker 1: history of the Ravens with his father. I mean, seeing
Speaker 1: Enjoy Porter's senior Ravens fan, I think that'd be that'd
Speaker 1: be great for all of us, but all Enjoy. Of
Speaker 1: course he would you for your family first, man, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get mc call and I'm gonna find out, you know,
Speaker 1: but because it would be good to do. I know
Speaker 1: for me, it's family first. But Joey Porter Junior is
Speaker 1: a heck of a player, you know. And it's not
Speaker 1: just him. I mean there's a lot of good corners,
Speaker 1: like Eric said, guys that would be excited about. But
Speaker 1: this this dude knows how to play. I mean, I
Speaker 1: love the way he plays his style. Um, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: he's the Joey Porter's senior, your version in a dB
Speaker 1: for him. You know, he's got got a great mentality.
Speaker 1: So we'll see what happens. So quarterback, because of the combine, like, oh,
Speaker 1: we got combined work out believal. Now it comes to
Speaker 1: the super sofa. You want to hear that quarterbacks? Is
Speaker 1: that different to see because the physical things he did? Yeah, gosh,
Speaker 1: it's so hard because like we go to the combine
Speaker 1: and we know what he already is a lot of
Speaker 1: times um. So I don't think any of the scouts
Speaker 1: were surprised that Richardson ran fast and looked away Dick,
Speaker 1: because we go through the school and you watch the
Speaker 1: LSU game. You see him take off on the seventy
Speaker 1: five yard run and nobody catch him. So it's really
Speaker 1: not surprising. I think it's just so impressive and you know,
Speaker 1: awesome to see it. That was physical trays on display,
Speaker 1: so he gets the buzz um. You know, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of scouts throughout the league looked at Richardson
Speaker 1: as a first round talent, So I don't think he
Speaker 1: really jumped up in our eyes. I think it's just
Speaker 1: the display he put on was impressive. You're listening to
Speaker 1: Ravens Press Pass. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review
Speaker 1: if you haven't already. Now let's get you back to
Speaker 1: the rest of the pre draft press conference. You select
Speaker 1: the data the JOBO last year with just one year
Speaker 1: old starting experience. How difficult is it's pruge future performance
Speaker 1: in the NFL Anthony Ridginson for example, for a player
Speaker 1: in college that hasn't limited playtime. Yeah, it's good question.
Speaker 1: Factor that in for sure. It's hard, you know, production
Speaker 1: is really important. I think production is a great predictor
Speaker 1: of future success, but it's always talent, and so that's
Speaker 1: what we have to try to do. In some cases,
Speaker 1: you may have a very small sample size with some guys,
Speaker 1: you know, years and years and years and years ago.
Speaker 1: I remember god named Ziggyanza came out and he was
Speaker 1: basically he had one year and he might have had
Speaker 1: I think, well, I don't know how many sacks he had,
Speaker 1: but you could just see the talent. But he had
Speaker 1: to you know, there wasn't a lot of history. Um,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of questions about them. You just
Speaker 1: didn't know much about him. Those guys are challenging to
Speaker 1: evaluate in many different ways. I think good scouts UH
Speaker 1: can can really help the process when it comes to that.
Speaker 1: And I think we're blessed here to have the continuity
Speaker 1: on staff with our scouts UM to be able to
Speaker 1: settle some of those debates, some of those questions about
Speaker 1: you know, one year of production, injuries and things like that.
Speaker 1: But that's that's that's a challenging aspect of our business,
Speaker 1: I think. And sometimes you're gonna make mistakes. I mean,
Speaker 1: let's not forget now, this is a business that you know,
Speaker 1: if you can go seventy five percent, it's pretty good.
Speaker 1: I would say you're gonna you're betting on people. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you don't have all the answers, and uh so it's
Speaker 1: a challenge associate. Obviously, if you have a guy that's
Speaker 1: a four year starter in a in an sec uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you have a lot to go on. When
Speaker 1: you have a one year starter or you have a
Speaker 1: small school guy, you have a guy that's injured, that
Speaker 1: makes that conversation a lot more difficult. In January said
Speaker 1: John had any interesting in rebuild? I guess class what
Speaker 1: it is you can come in and be offestional in
Speaker 1: BacT out of your want You said the quarterback? Is
Speaker 1: that what you said? Uh? Well, I mean I think
Speaker 1: that you know, I don't want to insult anybody in
Speaker 1: the draft, Um, but you know, I would say there's
Speaker 1: probably more than four guys that can that can be
Speaker 1: significant quarterbacks in this league in this draft class. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, there's forget about where they might get big
Speaker 1: more than four. But I mean, i'm you know what,
Speaker 1: am I gonna say seven to eight? Whatever it is?
Speaker 1: But the fact is that we think that you can
Speaker 1: get a quarterback in the first round or the third
Speaker 1: round or the fourth round, who have a chance to
Speaker 1: develop and uh, you know, go back to uh Tyrod Taylor.
Speaker 1: I don't know when we drafted him. Is that the
Speaker 1: fifth round, sixth round, whatever it was, years and years
Speaker 1: and years ago. Derek Anderson took him in with the
Speaker 1: six or seventh, right, So you can get good quarterbacks
Speaker 1: that you saw what the Niners did last year with
Speaker 1: brock Party. It's quite possible to get a good quarterback
Speaker 1: at any point in the draft. Obviously the Goat, as
Speaker 1: my son would say, Tom Brady was a six round pick,
Speaker 1: so they were all over the place in the draft.
Speaker 1: You have to have good scouts, you've got to have conviction,
Speaker 1: and in some cases you got to get lucky too,
Speaker 1: back in the first round. Consolation, it depends on the board, Jamison,
Speaker 1: really does. I mean, I'd have to say yes because
Speaker 1: we have quarterbacks in our top thirty one. So just
Speaker 1: based on that alone, simple math, I would have to
Speaker 1: say yes. Away from the deadline, it says, say, if
Speaker 1: you'll be picking out half off, Yeah, that'll be a
Speaker 1: discussion we'll have with Patrick. Wouldn't want to announce anything
Speaker 1: too premature. With all you guys been here, how much
Speaker 1: different reception with boss is doing and you would have
Speaker 1: been twelve years ago. Yeah, I would just say that
Speaker 1: jen joking comment, But I think coach has done a
Speaker 1: remarkable job out and talent. You know, every year they've
Speaker 1: got a number of guys that can play at our
Speaker 1: level and play very very well at our level. So
Speaker 1: I think that speaks to the job he's really done
Speaker 1: down there. Yeah. Yeah, he's just having seen him over
Speaker 1: the years and watched him where he's been, He's always
Speaker 1: been a great evaluator of talent and recruiter. Tom has
Speaker 1: always produced players at the schools he's been at, and
Speaker 1: so he's done a great job building that program and
Speaker 1: adding really you know NFL talent to the roster. And
Speaker 1: Maryland's you know, always put out some good players, but
Speaker 1: it seems like the group has grown as as he's
Speaker 1: been there. You know, Google, you don't all that, you
Speaker 1: know all he didn't, Yeah, exactly right. It's probably an
Speaker 1: interesting point. Uh, he's uh, he's actually worked with a
Speaker 1: number of these guys already, you know, just professionally as
Speaker 1: as a as a pass rush trainer, so he knows
Speaker 1: the personalities. That's an advantage for us. We have a
Speaker 1: number of guys from college. Willie Taggart, you know, he's
Speaker 1: recruited a lot of these guys, knows a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys, So that's always an advantage for us, right.
Speaker 1: I know Joe Todd obviously has has been around guys
Speaker 1: last a couple of years, especially at Georgia. But Chuck,
Speaker 1: you know, Chuck's a pass rush coach and he's also
Speaker 1: a football coach. I mean he's gonna he's gonna coach
Speaker 1: all aspects of it. Continue to develop as a coach
Speaker 1: like we all do going forward. But the pass rush stuff, man,
Speaker 1: I really haven't come across anybody better. You know, over
Speaker 1: the last many number of years. He was here all
Speaker 1: the way back in two thousand and eight working with
Speaker 1: our guys in training camp, and you don't forget that.
Speaker 1: So I know our guys are excited. Those young guys
Speaker 1: are excited to work with him, and he'll be I think,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, like you're saying, it'll be a big
Speaker 1: addition as far as the draft, but also really coaching
Speaker 1: our guys. Joe um Church for a second, can you
Speaker 1: come out, you know, the wide receivers coming out Jared
Speaker 1: and yeah, you know they're all a little different. But uh,
Speaker 1: you know Jared he can fly obviously, Copeland same thing. Uh.
Speaker 1: Demis has been a fun guy to watch through his career.
Speaker 1: Obviously he had the injury and he's really you know,
Speaker 1: worked hard to get it get better and he's developing. Um,
Speaker 1: so I think he's on the upswing. UM, big physical
Speaker 1: guy with size radius. And then Jared obviously they played
Speaker 1: more slot, but you see that vertical go. I mean
Speaker 1: he can he can really accelerate, put pressure pressure on
Speaker 1: the defense. And then Copeland athletic guy transferred in. You know,
Speaker 1: was an impact special teamer at Florida while being a
Speaker 1: vertical guy. And he's done the same in Maryland. The
Speaker 1: two receivers, you got a link to a lot of
Speaker 1: Flowers and Johnston. You talk about Flowers, Uh when he's
Speaker 1: obviously speeded there you see him with the guy can
Speaker 1: play anywhere inside outside, and Alton Johnson maybe the only
Speaker 1: day too as you yeah, um, you know, go we'll
Speaker 1: go to Johnson first. Um with the drops you just
Speaker 1: see when you see receiver drop balls, you see how
Speaker 1: they're doing it. You know, is it a tracking is
Speaker 1: it a hand placement issue? Is it just bad hands?
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes it's just he's got his hands in
Speaker 1: the wrong spot. He's watching make outstanding catches on film.
Speaker 1: You see his ability to just go up and high
Speaker 1: point the ball, but he does drop some balls. Most
Speaker 1: receivers to drop the ball or two though. Um. But
Speaker 1: he's a big, fast, physical guy. Obviously has play making
Speaker 1: ability outside and then going to zay Um, you know
Speaker 1: he plays inside and out for BC and you see
Speaker 1: the same ability coming up to this level. He's strong
Speaker 1: even though he's not big Um and certainly he can
Speaker 1: fly and put pressure like I said, you know, like Jared,
Speaker 1: he can put pressure on the defense quickly and so
Speaker 1: and he's got outstanding hands and rackability. So UMA's bigger
Speaker 1: than the size. Overall, it's Eric You've talked about death
Speaker 1: and the D line group is really young all across
Speaker 1: the board, but you have a couple of guys who
Speaker 1: are in the contract years plays Campbell has moved on.
Speaker 1: Could D line be a position that you're looking at it? Well,
Speaker 1: there's no doubt, you know. I mean, we like the
Speaker 1: group we have now. They've played well, played well last year.
Speaker 1: I think they'll continue to play well. But we've also
Speaker 1: got to look at it from you know, short term,
Speaker 1: long term, what's the position is going to look like
Speaker 1: the strength of the draft class, and we think there's
Speaker 1: guys in the first three four rounds that can come
Speaker 1: in and play well. And we've been fortunate we've taken
Speaker 1: some mid round guys in the last few years, the
Speaker 1: last four years that have played well for us. We're
Speaker 1: excited about that. You know, Justin is a talented player
Speaker 1: who's playing his best football. Brodrick again a guy that's
Speaker 1: maximized his ability, one of the hardest workers we have
Speaker 1: on the team, plays multiple spots. You know, we just
Speaker 1: know Travis is another guy already you see every day
Speaker 1: I think working out. You know, we're excited about those guys.
Speaker 1: But it takes more than three or four guys to
Speaker 1: play and to win in the NFL. So of course
Speaker 1: we'll look at it. We'll assess those guys versus the field,
Speaker 1: and we'll see what we come up with. You've gone
Speaker 1: through fifteen years a head coach of this league. As
Speaker 1: you look a potential, is there an equation you run
Speaker 1: through it and say, okay, but how will he handle
Speaker 1: this in the NFL that you use evaluate if a guy,
Speaker 1: make sure list. Yeah, there's a lot of equations like that.
Speaker 1: It's a great point, Jerry to me, you start with
Speaker 1: the type of player that Eric and Joe they start
Speaker 1: and all the scouts evaluate. Then you just try to
Speaker 1: look at it and say, you know, do I think
Speaker 1: do you think his skills are going to translate? You know,
Speaker 1: just what are you doing what he does in college?
Speaker 1: You think it's going to show up the same in
Speaker 1: the NFL? Or is it going to be more? You
Speaker 1: know a lot of guys are better players in the
Speaker 1: NFL than they were in college. It's crazy enough for
Speaker 1: other guys, you just never see it in the NFL,
Speaker 1: and you wonder why. So he tried to say, is
Speaker 1: that translatable? Can I picture him in our on our team,
Speaker 1: in our defense, in or on our offense, on our
Speaker 1: special teams doing the things that you see well in college?
Speaker 1: Can you? Can you imagine that? That's more probably feel
Speaker 1: and experience than anything else for me. Then the other
Speaker 1: part of it, you know, when you talk to those
Speaker 1: guys is just do they have what it takes out
Speaker 1: they do they have the right mindset towards success? You know,
Speaker 1: are they going to be thinking the right way as
Speaker 1: their head going to be in the right space because
Speaker 1: it's tough, you know, and can they keep it simple
Speaker 1: and keep it about what really matters and not get
Speaker 1: caught up in the things that don't matter? Uh that's
Speaker 1: you know, how's the guy built that way? Character wise,
Speaker 1: if you want to use that word, are they going
Speaker 1: to be the type of guys you need that are
Speaker 1: going to maximize their own ability? So like anybody would
Speaker 1: with any kind of evaluation, right, you try to try
Speaker 1: to figure who the person is loss for physical character,
Speaker 1: You're like, what do you do? You know all you do? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we certainly we know the Georgia players with Todd, but
Speaker 1: we're still going through that process and we'll have medical
Speaker 1: meetings and then we're talking over through the coach with
Speaker 1: the coaching staff. Steve Claggett does a great job with
Speaker 1: all our background investigations and research, so we kind of
Speaker 1: talked through it. We don't eliminate anyone based on a
Speaker 1: quote unquote grade. It's a discussion and a conversation that
Speaker 1: we talked through with the coaching staff during the meetings.
Speaker 1: You've had one free agent come in from the outside
Speaker 1: of new organization so far of this off season. How
Speaker 1: difficult has it been all of the mens roster ahead
Speaker 1: of the draft. Not too much, not too bad, I
Speaker 1: would say. I mean, we we've signed a lot of
Speaker 1: free agents they just had played for us in the past.
Speaker 1: We had a lot of guys who wanted back as
Speaker 1: what it amounts to and guys that you know, have
Speaker 1: played winning football for us. You know, We've never been
Speaker 1: a big free agency team prior to this year, were
Speaker 1: very much pick and choose. It's based on a lot
Speaker 1: of different factors, you know. So it's it's a bigger
Speaker 1: picture team building strategy that I believe in that goes
Speaker 1: back to Ozzie that John and Ozzie have developed over
Speaker 1: the years and coach Bailick and Ozzie and everything. It's
Speaker 1: just the way that we operate. And so for us,
Speaker 1: the draft will always be paramount. It will always be
Speaker 1: our biggest and best way of improving our team for
Speaker 1: the long term. Uh, you know, So that's what we
Speaker 1: believe in. We're not done, as Ozzie has said a
Speaker 1: million times, the roster's not set till September, and we'll
Speaker 1: have a lot of different opportunities pre draft, post draft
Speaker 1: to build a strong football team. We'll take advantage of
Speaker 1: every single mechanism that we can free agency, undrafted, free agency, trades,
Speaker 1: wave a wire, pickups, whatever that might be to build
Speaker 1: the best team we can. So this is just really
Speaker 1: the beginning, not the end. One thing I might look
Speaker 1: the kind of way we're built. We're really not a
Speaker 1: team that you'd go in and say, hey, this team
Speaker 1: was going to sign a lot of free agents because
Speaker 1: of all the draft picks we've had. We've had eight, nine, ten, twelve,
Speaker 1: eleven draft picks in the last three years, so most
Speaker 1: of those guys are still there. Most of those guys
Speaker 1: are I'm gonna take a guy like our Darius Washington,
Speaker 1: just a guy who was a free agent. We like
Speaker 1: him as a player, just to give you one name.
Speaker 1: We think he's got a future as a player. You know,
Speaker 1: we're going to go out and sign players. You know,
Speaker 1: on top of these players that we're still developing, we're
Speaker 1: gonna be a young team next year. Plus, like Eric mentioned,
Speaker 1: we signed a number of free agents who our own
Speaker 1: guys already coming back. So when you like the players
Speaker 1: that you have, you drafted all those guys, you're developing
Speaker 1: those guys. You're not like the cover's not bear where
Speaker 1: we need to go outside a bunch of free agents.
Speaker 1: We think we need to just to dismiss or just
Speaker 1: to cross out the guys that we're trying to grow.
Speaker 1: So see where these guys grow and they develop, and
Speaker 1: trust our young trust our evaluation, trust our development, and
Speaker 1: give these guys a chance to go play. I think
Speaker 1: that was more of the mindset this offseason when you
Speaker 1: mentioned the son of that characteristics you look for out
Speaker 1: of receivers when it comes to some of the undersided receivers,
Speaker 1: like say Flowers. You got to draft Hollywood in the past,
Speaker 1: but some of these undersized re seas, what do you
Speaker 1: look forward to know that their size can be something
Speaker 1: that translates at his level? Such a great question, you
Speaker 1: know and like and what does undersize mean? I mean Zay,
Speaker 1: you know Za's he may be kind of short, what
Speaker 1: is he five to nine? But he's not small, Like
Speaker 1: he's not a little guy. He can This guy's a
Speaker 1: strong guy. Plus he can accelerate. He's got great explosiveness.
Speaker 1: You know Addison at USC he's another guy. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he's you know, he's a small guy, but you
Speaker 1: watch his stride. He opens up his stride. This guy's
Speaker 1: like ability to control his body and his balance. From Marquis,
Speaker 1: it was that explosiveness that you saw, an ability to
Speaker 1: track downfield. So what what what's the trait? You know?
Speaker 1: What is the what's our superpower? You know? So yeah,
Speaker 1: if your superpower is not size, he's got to be
Speaker 1: one or two other superpowers that are going to make,
Speaker 1: you know, help you to be successful in this league.
Speaker 1: And you try to look at that individual and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's going to be the key for him? What's going
Speaker 1: to be the trait that's going to make the difference.
Speaker 1: So I don't think Zay is an undersized guy. He's
Speaker 1: off for our board. I don't think Addison's off for
Speaker 1: our board as a quote unquote undersized guy. You know,
Speaker 1: they've got superpowers that are gonna make them successful. It's
Speaker 1: just what's the best fit in our offense? And are
Speaker 1: they there? You know? And who else is there? At
Speaker 1: that time? Eric, you've talked a lot about houn't you
Speaker 1: like your young players and you know, giving guys a chance?
Speaker 1: Would you drafted Oa in the first round and pajab
Speaker 1: Goo in the second round. Essentially he was viewed as
Speaker 1: a first round pick. Would that impact at all the
Speaker 1: pursuit of an edge rusher early in the draft, because
Speaker 1: inevitably if you added a number early round another early
Speaker 1: round guy in and would you know, impact their snaps
Speaker 1: or or so forth. Well, I mean if if Will
Speaker 1: Anderson's they were probably gonna take them. Yet, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, it just depends on the player. You know,
Speaker 1: I would never want to say no and then we
Speaker 1: take a guy. It just depends on the player. How
Speaker 1: good we think the player is going to be. If
Speaker 1: we think the player can be three else Sugs or
Speaker 1: Lawrence Taylor probably take the guy. At the beginning to
Speaker 1: talk about the challenges this offseason, where has that taken
Speaker 1: you now to where you are today? Oh? Man, I
Speaker 1: just think you know the challenges For me, it's just
Speaker 1: been being able to get as much tape done as possible.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been on the go since the end
Speaker 1: of the season. Um, you know, we've signed a bunch
Speaker 1: of our guys back. We've been doing a lot of contracts.
Speaker 1: You know, we're just trying to get the boards set. Really,
Speaker 1: this is our chance. You know, we don't have a
Speaker 1: lot of picks. I referenced the uh well, Chris mcalliser
Speaker 1: draft earlier this offseason as a really great draft because
Speaker 1: of what we're able to do with a small amount
Speaker 1: of picks. And that's our challenge this year. We don't
Speaker 1: have a lot of picks. We want to nail those
Speaker 1: picks as best as we can and find guys to
Speaker 1: make the team better. Our scouts and coaches have got
Speaker 1: to do a great job with undrafted free agency, and
Speaker 1: then we'll assess post draft players that are still there.
Speaker 1: How can we use our money wisely? Knowing that we
Speaker 1: don't have a ton of money. You guys all know that.
Speaker 1: You can see what our cap situation is. How do
Speaker 1: we use that money wisely? How do we get creative
Speaker 1: with what we do to build the best team we
Speaker 1: can I think every year we've always ask you about
Speaker 1: wide receivers and the challenge of evaluating it, and you
Speaker 1: pretty much approv Bowl players in every position except wide receiver.
Speaker 1: I mean, doesn't get to the point where you would
Speaker 1: the house satisfied? Would it be we would not have
Speaker 1: to ask a wide receiver questions in the future. You
Speaker 1: know what, I've been here twenty eight years. If it
Speaker 1: wasn't receiver, you guys would be asking something else. I mean,
Speaker 1: ask the reality it would be the offensive line, to
Speaker 1: be the quarterback position, to be a secondary. It's just
Speaker 1: with a nature of the beast, right, So we want
Speaker 1: to address as many positions we've There's never been a
Speaker 1: perfect team. I've never seen a perfect team yet in
Speaker 1: the NFL. We aspire to it, but I haven't seen
Speaker 1: that team. So we're always going to have a weakness.
Speaker 1: We're always going to have a point of emphasis. We're
Speaker 1: always going to have something with trying to fix. It's
Speaker 1: like a house. Buy a house, you think, oh great,
Speaker 1: then the next year something breaks right, the next year
Speaker 1: something needs to be replaced. It's just like running a
Speaker 1: football team. There's always things that need to be replaced
Speaker 1: and fixed, rebuilt, added on, you know, whatever that might be.
Speaker 1: And so that's where we are every single year. And
Speaker 1: so if it wasn't a receiver, it'd be something else.
Speaker 1: That's the nature of this business. Joe got another question
Speaker 1: for you. Obviously, you know a lot of them talk
Speaker 1: about his physicality. How how you can bet that might
Speaker 1: that's play round lea guess what is kind of value
Speaker 1: having a guy who do and be that kind of player? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean when you can get up there and disrupt
Speaker 1: the timing of the wild's release and the timing of
Speaker 1: the play. That that's a big thing, you know, in
Speaker 1: terms of affecting an offense's ability to execute. So he
Speaker 1: does a great job that he's very physical, he takes
Speaker 1: pride in it, and it does it well. So I
Speaker 1: think that's something that's one of his strengths. Certainly. So
Speaker 1: much focuses on the first round of the draft, but
Speaker 1: you know, where are you finding the death in this
Speaker 1: one and the third, fourth, fifth round that, um, you
Speaker 1: can attack any kind Yeah, you know, I think Eric
Speaker 1: mentioned you know, the wide receiver being a deep position,
Speaker 1: and it is. If you look at our board, it's
Speaker 1: all the way throughout. You know, there's there's targets and
Speaker 1: multiple rounds, pass rushers, another one outside back er. Um,
Speaker 1: you know us playing the rush sam aspect. You know,
Speaker 1: I think there's just different v or variations of players.
Speaker 1: But the guys that can play in space and do
Speaker 1: more of the dropping, and certainly the edge setters and
Speaker 1: the pass rushers. So those are two deep ones. In
Speaker 1: the corners another one, you know, it's a good deep
Speaker 1: classic corner. So I think I think we'll be able
Speaker 1: to find some day three prospects of those positions. Eric,
Speaker 1: and see all of your fiss you've been involved in
Speaker 1: plenty eight years and you've got a lot more hits
Speaker 1: than this. When you look at the missus, what have
Speaker 1: they taught you in terms of are you don't fall
Speaker 1: in love with this? When you're drafting a player, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I think some knee confractor into that.
Speaker 1: You know, you feel a crunch and you see there's
Speaker 1: only one guy left at that position, and you take
Speaker 1: him at the expense of other players that might be
Speaker 1: better players or other positions. You know, and I think
Speaker 1: you can't really discount a negative report. It's easy to do.
Speaker 1: And so it's just it's kind of psychologically how your
Speaker 1: mind works. You have six guys that love a player
Speaker 1: and one guy who doesn't love the player, and you
Speaker 1: tend to think, to yourself, oh, that guy is wrong.
Speaker 1: You know that one scout is wrong, and so you
Speaker 1: know he might be right. You know, one of our
Speaker 1: great scouts we've ever had, guys, I've heard me talk
Speaker 1: about Ron Marsenac. What made Ron great was he didn't
Speaker 1: care what anybody else thought about players. He didn't go
Speaker 1: and look at mock drafts. He didn't. He wasn't on
Speaker 1: Twitter reading all the stuff about players. He just sat
Speaker 1: in a dark room and evaluated guys. He didn't care
Speaker 1: if everybody else in the organization love the guy, he
Speaker 1: didn't care. And you know, I could give you some
Speaker 1: incredible examples where he would take a guy that was
Speaker 1: going to be the first pick in the draft, of
Speaker 1: the fifth pick in the draft, and would give him
Speaker 1: a free agent grade and we'd all be looking at
Speaker 1: him like, and you know what. A lot of those
Speaker 1: guys never made it past the third year in the league.
Speaker 1: And it's incredible, right, Joe, I mean incredible. So that's
Speaker 1: a mistake I think sometimes that decision maker has to
Speaker 1: avoid is to not dismiss one report at the expense
Speaker 1: of a bunch of other reports. You've got to really
Speaker 1: look into that and you've got to consider the other path,
Speaker 1: so to speak, and do your homework, and that's what
Speaker 1: we try to do right now. The Ravens currently have
Speaker 1: five picks in the twenty twenty three draft, but GM
Speaker 1: Eric de Costa said today his goal would be to
Speaker 1: add more picks over the course of the draft. He
Speaker 1: did add, however, he actually wouldn't mind if Baltimore ended
Speaker 1: up with just five picks this year if that means
Speaker 1: the Ravens would get nine or ten draft picks next year. Now,
Speaker 1: we'll be dropping a pre draft press conference Takeaways episode
Speaker 1: of The Ravens Lounge, so make sure you check that
Speaker 1: out later today to hear what Garrett Downing and Cliff
Speaker 1: Brown had to say after today's presser. Don't forget you
Speaker 1: can get every media availability, interview or press conference on
Speaker 1: Ravens Press Pass, so if you haven't done so already,
Speaker 1: make sure you subscribe, rate, and review. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and we'll be back with you soon