Speaker 1: If you're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. Today,
Speaker 1: we had a chance to hear from Ravens Director of
Speaker 1: Player Personnel Joe Ortiz. He held a session with local
Speaker 1: reporters breaking down some film of the Ravens six drafted prospects,
Speaker 1: giving us his perspective on what he likes about this class,
Speaker 1: and he answered some questions from the media about this
Speaker 1: draft class and the impact they could have on the
Speaker 1: team this year.
Speaker 2: Can you describe the pressure building up into a draft
Speaker 2: where you had so few picks? Where is that How
Speaker 2: much different that when you got ten or eleven like
Speaker 2: you had in some of.
Speaker 3: The Yeah, I guess you can create the pressure. It's
Speaker 3: the best way for me to put it. But I
Speaker 3: think all I think every year we have we put
Speaker 3: that pressure on ourselves, like we want to you want
Speaker 3: to get every pick right, you really do, and when
Speaker 3: you have less, it's like, all right, we got it.
Speaker 3: We we do. We got to nail every one of
Speaker 3: these picks. And uh, but I don't think it really.
Speaker 3: We really don't change our approach. We don't do things
Speaker 3: differently because oh my god, we got to make We're
Speaker 3: always trying to be thorough, be detailed, have all the
Speaker 3: information and make the best decision. But you definitely I
Speaker 3: think post draft, like, well, you know, you have less
Speaker 3: at bats, so you better get more, you better have
Speaker 3: a better batting average. You know, you feel more pressure
Speaker 3: that way. But I think it's more post draft. You know,
Speaker 3: we wanted to be great with this draft, and we
Speaker 3: wanted to nail everyone, but we're like that when we
Speaker 3: had eleven picks last year. You want to get them all, right,
Speaker 3: But there's probably a little bit more pressure, I guess
Speaker 3: because you have less swings at the plate.
Speaker 4: It seemed like in a lot of pre draft and
Speaker 4: it seems like this year, a lot of players that.
Speaker 3: Some people have really high, you know, a little bit lower.
Speaker 4: Do you have a feeling of whether they would be
Speaker 4: there when you picked, or you're kind of surprised that
Speaker 4: they were there?
Speaker 3: You thought he could be He was certainly one of
Speaker 3: the players that all our scouts looked at of the
Speaker 3: guys that we thought could be there. Was I shocked
Speaker 3: that he was there? No, I wasn't. Did I think
Speaker 3: he could have gone before we picked? Absolutely? And again,
Speaker 3: the way the receiver run was last year and the
Speaker 3: amount of resources that have been poured into the position.
Speaker 3: The fact that the run didn't start till write around
Speaker 3: when we were picking, that actually surprised me a little bit.
Speaker 3: You know, so who went first. That wouldn't have surprised
Speaker 3: me that because I think everyone if you asked everyone
Speaker 3: from February to the draft to shake him up in
Speaker 3: a cup and pour them out, you're going to get
Speaker 3: different orders every single time, you know. But I thought
Speaker 3: that the run might start a little earlier, just because
Speaker 3: of the way the league is treating the position. Now,
Speaker 3: BC maybe didn't use say that you were.
Speaker 5: Enough of that you were hoping to see on safe
Speaker 5: because projected.
Speaker 3: It not really know they I mean they used him
Speaker 3: in a lot of different ways. I mean, he's a
Speaker 3: you know, he's certainly probably their best playmaker, you know,
Speaker 3: and so they they tried to get him the ball,
Speaker 3: they put it like I said, they had him out wide,
Speaker 3: they put him in the slot, they moved him to
Speaker 3: the backfield. They tried to use him on a double pass.
Speaker 3: He aboarded and took it in on his own. But no,
Speaker 3: I think, you know, I you know, he he when
Speaker 3: you're that kind of a player, you don't want to
Speaker 3: overuse him. Maybe on as a punt returner, but he
Speaker 3: shows the ability to catch punts and certainly look really
Speaker 3: natural doing it at the East West when I was
Speaker 3: out there watching him there.
Speaker 5: So all that, I think you're just looking at his
Speaker 5: statistical pression. I think that freshman year he was getting
Speaker 5: all carries, design, design touches, because the sophomore year has
Speaker 5: that forty year.
Speaker 3: Was that just you know, him.
Speaker 5: Maybe leveling up as a receiver and then you know,
Speaker 5: realizing what he was or what was something else with him,
Speaker 5: you know, his role changing becoming.
Speaker 3: More that that downfield. Yeah, it's probably just h him
Speaker 3: him growing as a receiver. I would think if you
Speaker 3: look at you know, when you have veteran players anywhere
Speaker 3: at college pro like they you kind of especially in college.
Speaker 3: You got a senior junior that you trust, and he
Speaker 3: got the young guy that's a playmaker. Let's get the
Speaker 3: ball in his hands, give him some carries. We got
Speaker 3: the seniors or the juniors that we get. You know,
Speaker 3: they've been the X, they've been to Z, so yeah,
Speaker 3: that's probably them, just like let's get him. Just find
Speaker 3: ways to get the ball in his hands. I think
Speaker 3: a lot of college coaches do that when they get
Speaker 3: a player like Zay, like just find a way to
Speaker 3: get it to him and then let him grow into
Speaker 3: his role. And that's what he did with Addison.
Speaker 6: You know, he played with Kenny Pickett and then he
Speaker 6: transferred to Playland. Probably guys gonna be the wonder Ball
Speaker 6: pick next year with Zay? Did you see more upside
Speaker 6: there because he wasn't playing with the quarterback? You know,
Speaker 6: it's going to be most likely first round picking what
Speaker 6: he can become in an NFL offense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, you know, I think when you look
Speaker 3: at players and there's listen, there's not a lot of
Speaker 3: number one picks playing quarterback in college football. You know,
Speaker 3: so they are what their quarterbacks are what they are.
Speaker 3: And you know, I think you look at a receiver,
Speaker 3: especially or a tight end. You look at them and
Speaker 3: how are they running routes? How are they catching the ball?
Speaker 3: You know, is the ball on target? Nope? It wasn't
Speaker 3: on target there, you know. And but man, he got open.
Speaker 3: He can separate, he can you know, when the ball
Speaker 3: is on target, he can finish, he can catch, he
Speaker 3: can catch contested. So I think you really look at
Speaker 3: him independent sometimes scheme is probably more a player his
Speaker 3: production can be affected more by skiing than necessarily who
Speaker 3: the quarterback is. Now certainly I can think of quarterbacks,
Speaker 3: and I can think of players again without naming names,
Speaker 3: since this is on the record, that man, they left
Speaker 3: a lot of yards out there with that. You know,
Speaker 3: there's been some receivers that might have another three hundred
Speaker 3: yards in their college senior season. But the quarterback, you know,
Speaker 3: cost of those, you know, but that's that's the nature
Speaker 3: of the game. You know. But that receiver, you see him,
Speaker 3: he's wide open, he got deep, just got overthrown, you know,
Speaker 3: so you you feel like he's gonna be able to
Speaker 3: do it. You get an accurate ball on him, you're
Speaker 3: gonna get more production fro him.
Speaker 5: Should have to have been doing what you guys ultimately
Speaker 5: did with Modi And can you just kind of take
Speaker 5: us through how that played out, because something you guys
Speaker 5: it already done your fresh staff intever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know, it's just it was like it's
Speaker 3: almost like an organic thing. You know. It's like our
Speaker 3: scouts liked him. Uh, you know, he towards a c
Speaker 3: l I still had jo d look at him, and
Speaker 3: Jod liked him. Offensive line coaches liked him. Devline liked him,
Speaker 3: so we did all the same work on him, and
Speaker 3: then we had him on the board and it was
Speaker 3: one of those things where we only have six picks
Speaker 3: or five picks, and you know, if we got an
Speaker 3: opportunity to get a late round pick, he'd be a
Speaker 3: guy we'd consider and uh and so it was talked
Speaker 3: about throughout the draft process and you know, and there's
Speaker 3: other players that are injured, you know, or have a
Speaker 3: medical concern that we'll still consider taking. And it just
Speaker 3: got to the point where we came down here, had
Speaker 3: the discussion with you guys, had the press conference with
Speaker 3: you guys, and it you know, Eric kind of called
Speaker 3: a shot. I think, you know, who knows we might
Speaker 3: get you know, we get back in. But we went
Speaker 3: back up there and we talked about it going into
Speaker 3: day three. You know, if we got enough, if we
Speaker 3: made a trade and got a seventh round pick, he'd
Speaker 3: be a guy that we'd target. And we were just
Speaker 3: able to get back in. When we got back up
Speaker 3: there were some teams with multiple picks that frankly didn't
Speaker 3: want to use all of them, and we were able
Speaker 3: to trade next year six for them, and so it
Speaker 3: just kind of worked out great, you know, But don't
Speaker 3: you know, it wasn't one of those things where like
Speaker 3: we're definitely doing it. It was, you know, just if
Speaker 3: the opportunity presents itself and it's something we'd consider.
Speaker 7: Process question with Simpson, you're sitting there in the third late.
Speaker 7: I know Eric in the past has been moaned not
Speaker 7: have the second round pick, and how difficult that week
Speaker 7: is and you're seeing these guys fall off the board.
Speaker 3: How difficult is it just to.
Speaker 7: Kind of be patient to think that one guy you
Speaker 7: have graded in that spot is still going to be
Speaker 7: there and when is there a lot of discussion in
Speaker 7: that case, but hey, maybe we should move up to
Speaker 7: get this guy or we're gonna be left blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: You know, I think in some ears, when it's one
Speaker 3: guy that you're sitting on, you might be more inclined
Speaker 3: to go up if you have some resources to go
Speaker 3: up with. In this case, it wasn't just one guy
Speaker 3: when we had plenty of targets, so to speak. When
Speaker 3: day two began, obviously we knew there was going to
Speaker 3: be a lot of attrition through the second round, but
Speaker 3: when we started the third there were still a good
Speaker 3: number of names up there that we were we liked,
Speaker 3: and then they literally just probably fifteen picks away. They
Speaker 3: kind of just rolled off the board, that cluster of guys,
Speaker 3: and he was the last one standing. There comes a
Speaker 3: point where you're like, okay, we're four picks away, we
Speaker 3: got we got three guys left. One of them is
Speaker 3: going to be there, you know, you just because you're
Speaker 3: in the third round. There's no like, I mean, it
Speaker 3: can happen. You could lose all three picks, but that's
Speaker 3: the way it worked out. Trenton was it, you know,
Speaker 3: and he was sitting there, and so yeah, there's some
Speaker 3: years where you'd want to consider going up, but if
Speaker 3: it's just like one guy who's kind of sitting out.
Speaker 3: But I think I've learned personally in terms of patients,
Speaker 3: like the draft is the draft, you know, and you're
Speaker 3: gonna be sitting there and a guy you really hope
Speaker 3: gets to you is going to be taken, and you
Speaker 3: just got to be ready to take the next one.
Speaker 3: That just kind of another process question you guys.
Speaker 8: Maybe I told us this, like give guys round grades
Speaker 8: so that if you are there in the third round
Speaker 8: and there was literally no guys with a third round grade,
Speaker 8: then you would be compelled to trade into the fourth
Speaker 8: round or something.
Speaker 3: And is that how you evaluate that? Yeah, we don't
Speaker 3: put great round grades on players. We put just a
Speaker 3: number grade on a player. Yeah, it's just you know,
Speaker 3: typically this grade. You know, again, we stack it, you know,
Speaker 3: and Eric stacks it with you know, with the room,
Speaker 3: uses the room to end his opinion obviously to stack
Speaker 3: the board. But then I have my own individual ranking.
Speaker 3: So if Eric asks me, would you take a player
Speaker 3: at eighty four at thirty six? Doesn't matter if he's
Speaker 3: in my top thirty six. And Eric asked me, would
Speaker 3: you take him at thirty six? And I say, no,
Speaker 3: Well who else am I going to take? You know?
Speaker 3: So it's like, yeah, I would take him at thirty six,
Speaker 3: you know. So now typically I know in my stack,
Speaker 3: like I may, there'll be somebody, there's gonna be other
Speaker 3: players that one maybe I haven't seen, or two I
Speaker 3: just didn't like as much, are going to go ahead.
Speaker 3: So it's almost like in the third round, someone in
Speaker 3: my top six will probably be there, you know, if
Speaker 3: we're picking at ninety, you know, and so you know,
Speaker 3: would I take ninety in the third round? Yeah, I
Speaker 3: would because I have ninety players and we're the ninetieth pick.
Speaker 3: That's what I would take. But that's kind of how
Speaker 3: it works. So the scouts that do him Eric may say, hey,
Speaker 3: would you take him in the third round? Well, hey,
Speaker 3: haven't done everyone else on the board, But they're just
Speaker 3: kind of like, it just doesn't feel like a third
Speaker 3: round player to me. It's more like a fourth you know.
Speaker 3: That's that's just a dialogue conversation. But in the end,
Speaker 3: wherever we're picking, we've got to have If we're twenty two,
Speaker 3: we got to have twenty two guys. So if I
Speaker 3: say I take a guy in the first round, he's
Speaker 3: in my top twenty two. He might be the twenty
Speaker 3: second guy, but yeah, I take him. And there's times
Speaker 3: where I'm like, you know what, he's not even in
Speaker 3: my top twenty two, and I'd still take him. He
Speaker 3: might not be my top twenty two, but if the
Speaker 3: room likes him enough, heck, yeah I take him because
Speaker 3: I still like him. He's just number twenty three or
Speaker 3: twenty four for me. You know, it's not it's the
Speaker 3: organization's pick.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcasts, This is
Speaker 1: a conversation with Joe or t Is, the Ravens director
Speaker 1: of player personnel, breaking down some of the prospects from
Speaker 1: this year's class and what he thinks the six drafted
Speaker 1: players could bring to the team this year.
Speaker 6: With I'm curious, have you seen more talent coming out
Speaker 6: of Canada in recent years? And then secondly, is his
Speaker 6: hustle and retracing to the ball kind of uncanny?
Speaker 3: Answer the second one uncanny? No, but I like it,
Speaker 3: you know. I mean it's one of those things where
Speaker 3: it just you can't help but not enjoy seeing guys
Speaker 3: play hard and go and there's certainly other players in
Speaker 3: college football to do it, but he's just he just
Speaker 3: it's a motor. I mean, he's passionate and cares about
Speaker 3: the game. And yeah, you know, players coming from Canada,
Speaker 3: I think there's there, always have been. Is there a
Speaker 3: high volume of player from Canada? No, but you just
Speaker 3: do see more and more when you go to the
Speaker 3: colleges throughout the country. You know that their kids are
Speaker 3: coming down. They're playing high school in Canada, or they
Speaker 3: make come down to the States and play at a
Speaker 3: you know, a prep school or somewhere down here to
Speaker 3: gain some experience and then obviously going to college. But
Speaker 3: there is definitely i'd say growth. And I think, you know,
Speaker 3: football has always been popular enough up in Canada, they
Speaker 3: have the CFL and there's exposure to it, but I
Speaker 3: think there's probably becoming more and more exposure would be
Speaker 3: there's a little bit more exposure nowadays.
Speaker 5: So two of them MOUs On Simpson just reading up
Speaker 5: on the scouting reports where one of the misstackles and then
Speaker 5: two just the processing. Did you think both of those
Speaker 5: are probably a function just how dumb he is and
Speaker 5: just you know, give more, get more reps, get more
Speaker 5: hear that's.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And like I mean, tackling is a thing
Speaker 3: that you can improve on. I mean especially when you're
Speaker 3: an athletic kid, and he is very athletic, so excuse me.
Speaker 3: It becomes about leverage, about angles, you know, tempo in
Speaker 3: the back, you know whatever, you know, breaking down, coming
Speaker 3: to balance. So that's definitely something that any player with
Speaker 3: athletic ability can improve upon, especially if they're techniques off. Personally,
Speaker 3: I thought he was. I wasn't concerned about either one.
Speaker 3: And when you talk about you know, processing, you know
Speaker 3: you're talking about a player again. That was really a
Speaker 3: nickel type rover backer, you know. So it's going to
Speaker 3: be different inside the box this year. There is a
Speaker 3: little bit of like process, read, react, go because you're
Speaker 3: not used to picking up little tails from the offensive
Speaker 3: lineman because you have never done it before. So, yes,
Speaker 3: that's something. He's a smart kid, he's a diligent worker.
Speaker 3: He cares about the game. He's going to get better
Speaker 3: at it with more reps, just like all of us.
Speaker 3: More reps is something that we're not as exposed to.
Speaker 3: We'll get better at it. Look over the.
Speaker 4: Past few years of the draft, are you finding any
Speaker 4: trends or relations on more big picture of what teams
Speaker 4: are liking disliking anything that you could you recognized.
Speaker 3: We study stuff like that, you know, and without saying anything,
Speaker 3: you know, but we certainly do research on it. You know.
Speaker 3: I think some obvious ones. More receivers are getting taken,
Speaker 3: you know, higher, and obviously the Backs. It's great to
Speaker 3: see a couple of backs go in the first round
Speaker 3: this year, honestly, because I mean it's not fair, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean the Backs get you know, everyone's talking now
Speaker 3: backs undervalue and that they're still good players, you know,
Speaker 3: So I think Both those guys are great players and
Speaker 3: deserving where they're a pick. So I like seeing it,
Speaker 3: you know, and I'm not opposed to taking a running back.
Speaker 3: I mean, heck if if you know, we would have
Speaker 3: a chance to put mel into retirement, you know, but
Speaker 3: you know, not that we want to do that, but
Speaker 3: he you know, they're both great players. So yeah, there's
Speaker 3: definitely trends that go on through the league, and we
Speaker 3: try to study it and an idea them, but it's
Speaker 3: so fluid. It's so fluid, you know, there's so much
Speaker 3: turnover in this league, GM's coaches, coaching staffs, so just
Speaker 3: when you think you have a trend figured out, they
Speaker 3: can go the other way.
Speaker 9: You're going to talk about a first round why receiver
Speaker 9: and was in the knock with Okay, well maybe maybe
Speaker 9: the drops when you describe kind of the way he
Speaker 9: went about him that was more like, well we understand
Speaker 9: why that happened when given like form, that was a.
Speaker 3: Knock on him. And then the way that it's worked.
Speaker 2: Out just in the the work, bring up up what
Speaker 2: are the conversations like talking about a guy that as
Speaker 2: you're going back pros and cons, is there an extra
Speaker 2: concern or bigger debates because of that history.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, certainly you got to you gotta pay
Speaker 3: attention to history, but you also have to understand that
Speaker 3: there are different every All players are different. You don't
Speaker 3: want to knock a guy because of a previous player,
Speaker 3: and you also don't want to give the guy the
Speaker 3: benefit of the doubt because of a previous player. So,
Speaker 3: you know, we it's funny because you mentioned Brashad and
Speaker 3: then you think about Tory. Tory drops some balls in college,
Speaker 3: and Toy was a big, fast, strong guy who ran downfield.
Speaker 3: So you know, do you drop a lot of balls now?
Speaker 3: But Tory would drop some balls to college. Prashad dropped
Speaker 3: some balls. But Purshot also made great catches. So you
Speaker 3: just try to compare them to players that we've had
Speaker 3: or players that you know in the league. And you know,
Speaker 3: obviously you know Burshad wasn't as productive as we had hoped.
Speaker 3: Certainly dealt with some injuries that I truly I don't
Speaker 3: know if you guys were out here the day he
Speaker 3: got hurt, but I think he had five or six
Speaker 3: catches for about one hundred and seventy yards and three touchdowns.
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh my god, and then he hurts his
Speaker 3: knee right in front of me, and it was a
Speaker 3: long process of recovery and that you know, you know,
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's why, But he still drops
Speaker 3: some balls afterwards, So Zay. I feel good about Zay's hands.
Speaker 3: And I think you look at them individually, I really do.
Speaker 3: I think if you sit there and say, oh, he
Speaker 3: drops some balls, so did this guy, they're going to
Speaker 3: be saying I just don't think that's fair. I think
Speaker 3: you have to really dig into it and see why
Speaker 3: they're doing it, if there's a reason, if there's a
Speaker 3: common occurrence, what causes the drops. But you see him
Speaker 3: make enough contested catches and again, and you guys saw
Speaker 3: it on the on the film, he catches the ball
Speaker 3: away from his frame. It's just sometimes you gotta focus
Speaker 3: a little more, you know. Now, if he had to
Speaker 3: get on the field, he might go to help you
Speaker 3: this this year?
Speaker 4: Will it be a blitzer rough stop or what do
Speaker 4: you think he does best?
Speaker 6: Right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think I think early on, the thing that's
Speaker 3: gonna stand out about is his ability to pursue and
Speaker 3: and run to the ball. And then he does have
Speaker 3: blitzing ability. I mean he is explosive, you know, off
Speaker 3: the edge or coming from depth. You know. So if
Speaker 3: if you had to say, okay, Joe, what's the one
Speaker 3: thing you're gonna hang your hat on trenton right now?
Speaker 3: Day one? What's he gonna go out there? And do
Speaker 3: you tell him go chase that ball? You know, and
Speaker 3: and go and pressure the quarterback? You know, because he's
Speaker 3: got elite speed, just like our other two inside backers
Speaker 3: you know who were are true starter. So we just
Speaker 3: added more speed to the insire backer position and speed
Speaker 3: and athleticism. So it's great with someone like Kayyie.
Speaker 5: Does pedigree matter at all or is just like another
Speaker 5: line that's kind of biographical information on a prospect?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I I think when you it doesn't
Speaker 3: hurt certainly. You know, he's been around the game and
Speaker 3: you know a lot of these guys either generations, you know,
Speaker 3: grandfather's fathers played in the league. That exposure does help
Speaker 3: a player acclimate himself, understand what he's getting into. Doesn't
Speaker 3: push him up, no, but it's just it's it's a
Speaker 3: positive thing, you know. And there's every year in the draft,
Speaker 3: there is numerous I mean, obviously Joey Porter, you know,
Speaker 3: you know who people were asking me about before the
Speaker 3: draft would be fun. But you know there's the they
Speaker 3: just get exposed to the game, they understand how it goes.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's a positive thing. I wouldn't say it's
Speaker 3: something that, oh, we got to take this guy because
Speaker 3: he's his dad playing the league.
Speaker 6: Obviously, the pre draft questions were can he play outside?
Speaker 4: Big enough and all that.
Speaker 6: Obviously we had a condition that he can't play outside
Speaker 6: and inside.
Speaker 5: What were the attributes that you saw.
Speaker 6: From him that made up for the size difference that
Speaker 6: tells you yes, in the NFL he can play outside.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So it's it's he's explosive speed all right, and
Speaker 3: he's strong, Like he's not big, but he's strong. So
Speaker 3: you watch him, you watch guys grab him and which
Speaker 3: they do even in this league they get called for
Speaker 3: a lot more than you do in college. College is crazy.
Speaker 3: But he can fight through contact, he can fight off contact.
Speaker 3: He can handle the bump because he's got such good
Speaker 3: strength and core, you know, center of gravity. He just
Speaker 3: he can get bumped to get his foot in the
Speaker 3: ground and work off contact. So you see it. And
Speaker 3: then his ability to play big for himself, for his
Speaker 3: size at the catch point. But he's just roul skill.
Speaker 3: I mean you can he can separate back down the stem.
Speaker 3: He can, and he's a vertical, so we creates pressure
Speaker 3: on the dB and then he's able to work back
Speaker 3: down away from him. So he just got a round
Speaker 3: ability at all. Really, xyz, you know wherever just line
Speaker 3: them up and go run around and get open and
Speaker 3: catch the ball and make place.
Speaker 1: This is the Ravens Press Pass podcast that was Ravens
Speaker 1: Director of player Personnel Joe Ortiz breaking down these six
Speaker 1: players to the Ravens drafted and this year's class. Also,
Speaker 1: if you missed it, go ahead and check out the
Speaker 1: Lounge podcast feed. We actually sat down with Ravens gentleal
Speaker 1: manager Eric Tacosta earlier this week. It was a forty
Speaker 1: five minute conversation about the draft, the moves the Ravens
Speaker 1: have made this offseason, and the overall approach that the
Speaker 1: Ravens bring to the scouting process. Really insightful conversation with him,
Speaker 1: So go ahead and check that out and the Lounge
Speaker 1: podcast feed. Make sure that you subscribe to both. These
Speaker 1: feeds also lead a rating and a review. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Talk with you again, Sid