Eric DeCosta Shares Insight Into Ravens' 2025 Draft

Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta joins team insiders Ryan Mink and Garrett Downing to talk about why he was more nervous in the first round this year, the genesis behind the Malaki Starks pick, his vision for Mike Green, the outlook on the five sixth-round picks, his reason behind two draft-day trades, the Mark Andrews trade buzz, and much more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome into the Lounge presented by DraftKings. I'm Ryan Ink
here at Garrett Downing and we are thrilled to sit
down with Ravens general manager Eric Dacassa. And Eric one
thing we hate to do on this podcast is tu
darnhorn just we loathe doing that. But I you know,
in full transparency, I do have to let you know
that Malachi Starks was my mock draft pick.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
And you're probably thinking a lot of guys pick Malchai.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
You know, this wasn't exactly a giraffe stick your neck
out kind of thing, but I planted my flag on
February thirteenth.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I have the receipts. A few days out of the
Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
I said, Malachi's my guy, right, So my question to
you is how early was Malachi the Ravens guy?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Like when did he first peak your interest?

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (00:48):
I mean I think Ryan, first of all, they don't
become our guy until they become our guy. Like literally,
we're on the clock and that's our guy. We have
a lot of guys that are our guys, but I
think that's a player that the scouts like throughout the process.
Joey Cleary Andrew Raphael Kevin Widel. Those guys went in
there to Georgia early and just came back with rave reviews. Professionalism, coachability,

(01:12):
ball skills, toughness, tackling instincts, just you know, kind of
ran a gamut of every box to check off. Was
Malachi and he became a guy that throughout the process
we just said, you know what, if this guy's there,
this guy would be a great pick.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, is there a process?

Speaker 1 (01:26):
You know, Malchi had a fantastic interception in like his
fourth play.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
It was his first game in college.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Are there guys that down the road, you know eventually
they're going to be in the draft, and they but
they catch your attention as freshman, Ye're like, when that
guy comes out, like we were gonna have to take
a good hard look at that guy.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Yeah, you know, that's a great question. And sometimes those
guys end up being every bit as good as they
looked as freshmen. Sometimes they even become better. But I'll
tell you, every once in a while, you'll watch a
guy that's a senior and you'll say, you know what,
this guy was a beast as a freshman. You know,
look at him and go, you know what, he's not
that good, right, and some of that. Sometimes that's scheme change.

(02:05):
Sometimes that's they peaked early, injuries or a factor or
different things like that. But that happens with certain guys.
And you know, so I used to back in the
day when we could make little bets, which can't do
that anymore. But back in the day, there was a guy.
This was I'm going, this is going back fifteen twenty years.

(02:26):
There was a guy that I saw that played in
the Pac ten as a freshman, and I was watching
somebody else. I might have been watching. I might have
been watching Holodinada. I mean that times out far backwards.
But I saw a guy. I go, Wow, that guy's
gonna be a first round pick some day. He was
a freshman. So I put it on Joe Hortiz's board,

(02:49):
and this guy's name was up there for like four years.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
But four years later.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
I'm looking at that name, going why is that up there?
And that was your guy, and I'm like, that guy's terrible.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
That was not Malachi MALKI continue to get better.

Speaker 5 (03:02):
Yeah, I'm curious you made the point after the draft
you picked him that he was the highest rated player
on the board when you were on there at twenty
seven by far by far, Yeah, can you give any
indication of just how high he was on our board?

Speaker 3 (03:16):
Well, we repicked what twenty seven, yeah, and he was
much higher than that.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
So you know then that happens a lot in the
first round. You know, we talk about the word I
use as slippage, which is just basically players outside your
range that get drafted. So anytime that happens, it's great
because it pushes down.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
One of your players.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
And so for us at twenty seven, we have our
list one to twenty seven, and you know, the quarterbacks
may be in there, so that means you need more
than twenty seven because you're probably not going to draft
the quarterback for the first pick if you're the Ravens,
so you need more than twenty seven players. You need
twenty nine players if you have two first round quarterbacks.
So you got twenty nine players. Well, anytime a player's

(03:59):
draft that outside your range of twenty nine, you're like
high five and because that's going to make it easier
for one of your higher rated guys in twenty one
and above to make it to you. So Malachi was
pretty down high.

Speaker 5 (04:11):
It seems like the league like just doesn't understand the
value of safeties to a certain extent. I mean, we
saw that with Kyle Hamilton when he gets to US
at fourteen and ends up being like a great player,
and hopefully that's the same case with Malachai and he
ends up falling into that category of a slippage situation
where he's there and probably has no business being there
at twenty seven. Do you agree with that, Like, does

(04:33):
the NFL not value safeties or do we value safeties more?

Speaker 6 (04:36):
What's your view on that?

Speaker 3 (04:39):
You know, I think there are definitely premium positions. Some
people may or may not put safeties in that group
of premium positions. I think one of my philosophies, and
this is going back many years, is that, you know,
going back to like Todd Heap ed Reid, when you

(05:00):
get the number one player at his position in any
given draft class, you're getting a damn good football player.
And so for us, you know, getting a number one
player at a position that maybe some don't think is
a premium position. If that guy has a chance to
be an impact player for you, then you should take him.
So it's like it comes down to, like, would you
rather take the sixth best offensive lineman in a draft

(05:24):
because you have a need on the offensive line, or
the fourth best receiver because you have a need at receiver,
or the best safety or the best inside linebacker.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
There's not really a right or wrong answer.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
I'm just saying that's a discussion that people would have, right,
you know. And so for me looking at it, if
you got the best guy this position in the draft,
and he's going to come in and play for you
right away, you think he's a difference maker, that's exciting.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
Well.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
And the nice part is last season, two premium positions
at the top with cornerback and offensive tackle with Wiggins
and then Rosengarten, and they turned out to be arguably
the best at their position anyway, even though they weren't
the first picked. They were right up there with the
top guys drafted at those premium positions. So that kind
of frees you up to all, right, now, we're gonna
get the best guy at different positions because we check

(06:18):
those boxes at premium positions this year.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Any other point too, I think, is so if you
imagine like you've got a bunch of buckets, and in
every bucket, your mentality is gonna be you have all
these players, they're all graded closely together, right, and then
you're gonna take the premium position guys and probably move
them up a little bit because they play premium position,
except that you're also going to weigh how clean is

(06:42):
the player, Right, So you get a guy that is
super smart, he's been productive, he's extremely durable, he's been
a team captain, or you know, incredible interview and all
that stuff, versus the other guys in the bucket that
maybe aren't as productive, or maybe have some injuries, or
maybe don't test that well, whatever it might be. So

(07:02):
with Malachi, you're truly looking at the best player at
his position, and probably when it all comes right down
to it, maybe arguably the cleanest player at his position, literally,
no questions whatsoever. There were some other really good players
that were then when we picked, you know, and like,

(07:24):
for instance, you know, Josh Simmons Ohio State, tremendously talented,
probably the best feat in the draft coming off of
a teller injury. So that just, you know, in some ways,
just slightly muddies the water. That's a great player, Josh Simmons.
You know, they got a great player. The Chiefs got

(07:45):
a great player with a lot of upside. They're probably
to be I know, probably going to be a Pro
Bowl player at some point. But he suffered a serious
knee injury. So you have to you know, everything matters
when you're evaluating these guys and you're really trying to separate.
And so for us, Malachi, it was like, what can't
this guy do? He's going to play for us right away.

(08:08):
He's smart, he's tough, he's a ballhawk, tackles well, instinctual,
great kid, winning program. Sec like every box literally if
they were twenty boxes, he checked off all twenty boxes exactly. No.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Now you mentioned the name Ed Reid, and look, I
don't want to fit him for a gold jacket before
he's played an NFL game, right And I know we
don't want to overhype kids. But part of the reason
way back when that I was like, this guy is
my guy, and he looks he looks like a raven
to me is like I saw some shades the way
he goes up in his ball skills and makes plays
on the ball. I was like, I've seen this before.

(08:45):
You've been here a long time.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
You were here with Ed.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Do you see any any shades of twenty in Malachi.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
Well, you know, I don't want to put that on
any I mean Ed probably, you know, don't. I don't
like to say I have favorites, like my kids, like
I don't have favorites. I don't have a favorite dog.
I don't have any favorite kids. But Ed, for me,
you know, one of my very favorites. Yeah, you know,

(09:16):
I probably got three favorite Ravens over the years. Ed's
one of the three. That gives everybody else a chance
to be in the top three. But Ed's one of
my top three. So you know, I'm not gonna put
I'm not gonna put anybody up there with that. I
think Malachai on his own, he's he's an awesome player.
Excited about him, very excited about him. You know, this

(09:37):
draft gave me, particularly the first round. I had a
lot of anxiety in the first round this year. Last
year not as much. It's been a few years, you know,
even like the Z Draft, not as much this year.
There were a lot of potholes along the way with
the players in this draft. In the first round is
a very very flat draft. So you had players in

(09:58):
that just sort of dropped and then it was flat
for a long time. So I was nervous about this draft,
and you know, if people would have asked me, I
would have said, you know, one of the best possible
outcomes would be Malachi being there, and he was, and
so from that standpoint, there was tremendous relief for me.

Speaker 4 (10:17):
At the end of that first round.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Did you think the Falcons traded up right ahead of us?
They ended up taking Xavier Watts in the third round
with their next pick, so they took James Pierce Junior.
When they when Atlanta, who had a safety need, trade
up right in front of us, were you sweat and
thinking they might take Malakai.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
Not really.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
I still felt like that because Atlanta's got some safety talent.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
I just felt like they were going to come up
and get another edge player, another front seven player.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
I wasn't too white about Atlanta.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
I was more worried about, you know, some of the
other teams behind us, the Commanders, the Bills, teams like that.

Speaker 4 (10:48):
Gotcha.

Speaker 5 (10:49):
John Harbo said in the press conference that night after
drafting Malachi, you guys talked after the season about the
types of players you wanted to bring in the mindset
of guys who you wanted to add to this team.

Speaker 6 (11:00):
How did Malki fit that?

Speaker 5 (11:01):
And I'm just curious, like was that a specific conversation
or like was that part of a wh when you
lay out the blueprint for the off season, you and
John and Steve in the front office and everybody, Like,
was there a vision for the types of players that
you wanted to add to the team.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
I just feel like when you look at like some
of our best players, they just wired a certain way.
They're very mature, minded, smart, accountable, self sufficient, dependable. I mean,
those are some qualities you know, growth mindset, always work
and they get better working on your weaknesses. Gritty, tough,

(11:40):
physical guys and you know, Malachi was just one of
those guys. And so you know, we go through and
you again, like we scrutinize everything. It might just be
one thing. You might have seen one thing at practice.
Maybe there was one rep in practice where the guy
goes to the back of the line and some scout
brings it up and I'm gonna say, well, what does

(12:02):
that mean? What do they say about him? How does
he practice? You know, those kind of things and oftentimes
it means nothing, but we approach it like it means everything.
At first, like we go through every little thing. If
one source has one concern, we're gonna investigate it. If

(12:23):
you know, one hand is ten inches in his other
hand is nine inches, we're gonna say and that happens sometimes,
not usually to that extent. We're gonna say, well, why
is one hand bigger than the other hand? Is he injured,
does he have a bad finger, or do we measure
it wrong, whatever that might be. We're gonna look at
every little question that we have and try to eliminate

(12:45):
those questions as much as we can, and it maybe hey,
go back to the school, talk to somebody else, get
more information. It's very like, you know, much like being
you know, an investigative journalist or something, and then you
have your editor telling you we don't have enough information,
we don't have enough sources. Talk to somebody else. That's

(13:07):
kind of what we do with Scouts, and we just
keep probing and pushing and answering questions and getting more
information to help us. At the end of the process.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
You said that Malachi had one of the most impressive
Combine interviews that you've ever been a part of. How
rare is his intelligence and knowledge of the game, for
how young he is.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
Well.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
One of the things we do is we have we
have our giraffe conduct interviews. And you know, the giraffe
has been around since two thousand and eight in the
draft room and he's never been more impressed.

Speaker 6 (13:44):
Has the draft been there since two thousand and eight.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
The giraffe has been in the draft from since two
thousand and now this year the draft, the draft got
promoted for the TV he did and he was getting
a lot of coverage this year. Now in past years
he's been in the corner. He got promoted this year
to VP. We make a lot of people vps around here,
and yeah, VP of Animal Scouting Scouting.

Speaker 6 (14:09):
Well, what's the real question is what's Malchi sign?

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Oh yeah, that's a good point.

Speaker 6 (14:14):
Okay, you had to make sure that crossed. That was
one of the box.

Speaker 3 (14:18):
He was too good. It didn't really make it.

Speaker 6 (14:22):
So in the second round you get Mike Green.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
And if I had told you at the start of
the draft that you would get him in the second round,
would you have thought that that was a possibility.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
Probably not.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
Let's face it. You know, there were there were allegations
made that on Mike that uh, he had to answer
to and and work that teams had to do, and
we knew that going in. It wasn't like in the fall,
we didn't know that there were some some issues with
Mike and but but as a player, you know, watching

(14:53):
him as a player, one of my favorite players this year, Like,
I think we do have a good idea what takes
brush the passer in the NFL, and we've had a
lot of really good players over the years as pass rushers,
and Mike is just well schooled his technique. He's got
a variety of moves, explosive off the football, tenacious player,

(15:16):
He's stronger than he looks. I mean, this is a
guy who can knock you back and set the edge
and do those kind of things. He can drop and
play in space. He's lightning quick on the backside, knife
and down. He can beat tackles. He can do anything
you want a guy to do, he can do it.
And so, like it wasn't like we weren't surprised by

(15:37):
how good he was, because starting out in September of
last year, he was one of the top rated players
on our board, and so.

Speaker 6 (15:44):
We speak him before he played the season.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
Well, as we got into the season, his tape was
just so impressive that we got as much information as
we could. We talked to as many people as we could.
We sent in multiple area scouts, We got information from Virginia,
we got information from Marshall, We talked to people in

(16:08):
his hometown. I mean, we basically did as much as
we could and in the end, we made the decision
to pick him. And we're excited about him as a player.
We think he's going to flourish here with us. We
think we have a great scheme for him to be
his very best, and we think he's going to have

(16:28):
a great career with us.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
He led the nation with seventeen sacks this past season.
You know, he just blew up, you know that last year,
and he had a good year before that too. But
what do you feel like he because he has obviously
the moves like you were talking about, and he has
the athleticism, the explosion, what kind of came together for
him this last season when you were looking at him?

Speaker 3 (16:49):
I just think maturity. You know, guys develop at different paces.
We see it with our own guys. Right, Why does
the player not do much for two years and then
all of a sudden make the Pro Bowl?

Speaker 4 (16:59):
Right? We've seen that.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
So guys, it just takes everybody different amount of time.
Some guys come in right away boom. Other guys develop
along the way two, three, four years. So I think
with Mike he just really kind of hit his stride
this year. He developed his game strategy of rushing the passer,
which you know, rushing the pass or does require a strategy.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
It requires.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
A game plan. It's like chess. It's not necessarily like
playing offensive line or playing corner. You are trying to
set your opponent up to beat him. And I think
for Mike it really just kind of all came together
this year and clicked.

Speaker 5 (17:38):
You talked about just having a believing that he can
have a great career both this year and Miana, what
do you view for him this season? Like you've had
a lot of pass rushers who've had success some immediately
when you go back through this franchise's history, what do
you think he has a store for this year? And
what does a ceiling look like for him?

Speaker 3 (17:58):
Well, we're blest, I mean, you know, I think you
know there are some people that might say, well, you know,
the Ravens don't have a true number one pass rusher,
and yet I think we finished second last year in
the league in sacks, and our whole room is back.
So you look at kyle Vin knowing what he's done

(18:18):
in two seasons. A great player plays like a raven. Tough, smart,
polished rushes, the passer can do all the different things.

Speaker 4 (18:29):
He's a leader.

Speaker 3 (18:30):
Odafe double digit sacks last year. Right just continues to
grow every single year, having a great offseason. Expect huge
things from him. Tavius is another guy. Like Tavias, was
a fourth round pick and he's like a real physical
He's a raven. I mean that way that guy plays.

Speaker 4 (18:49):
He fits us. You know.

Speaker 3 (18:52):
A Jabo has overcome injuries, still a very, very talented player.
He's so hungry right now. I expect big things from him.
You know it's right there for him. And then a
Disa last year, so a Desa comes in. He's one
of a higher players that we rated in the third round.
We get him last year, had some soft tissue things,
had some injuries, kind of had his first season derailed

(19:13):
a little bit by that. But again, like a Disa,
when you think about that, it's like getting an additional
draft pick this year, and then you take Mike Green,
you put him in the mix. We got six really
good intriguing football players at sam and rush linebacker.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Moving on to the third round, Emory Jenes Junior. You know,
he played great tackle at LSU. There's talk about sliding
in the guard, and he can certainly compete to be
our swing tackle and also compete at guard.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
When you were.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
Watching his tape, do you ultimately believe like kind of
like in a cliche Assemile kind of mold like that
guard ultimately ultimately will be his best position.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
I mean, I think it remains to be seen. Yeah,
he's got good length, arm length, he's physical, he's got
good feet. His game, you know, certainly, I would say,
like most of our picks needs some refinement, But like
watching Emery at the Senior Bowl and watching his physicality,
that to me tells you that he's going to be

(20:16):
excellent NFL offensive lineman. Whether it's right tackle, left tackle, guard,
doesn't really matter. He's got the strength, the competitiveness, the quickness,
the feet, the body, the frame, the experience, all those
things to be a starting offensive lineman. Then, like, honestly,

(20:36):
when you watch him finish plays, that's a separator from me.
You're looking at like, say, you got you know fifteen
or twenty twenty five offensive linemen that you have as
draftable players in this draft. When you really look at
his competitiveness in his physicality and his ability to finish,
that puts him for me in the top twenty of

(21:01):
all the offensive LINEMENUS draft class.

Speaker 5 (21:03):
How do you when you're evaluating players, how do you
assess whether you think for him, as an example, he's
been a right tackle, but maybe you think he could
come in and compee at left guard. Like, how are
you making that assessment during the draft evaluation process?

Speaker 3 (21:19):
Well, I think you have to look at the qualities
that make successful guards, and so you've got to have
some strength, ability to anchor body type. You know, it's hard,
generally speaking, in my opinion, to be a six foot
eight offensive guard because you're going to be linear. You're
gonna have a linear body. You want some guys that

(21:41):
have a base we call it an ass that you know,
that have some leverage and ability to stay low and
plays because that when you play guard, guys are getting
into your chest quickly, right, So you got to have
an anchor to you. You can't just be getting blown
back into the backfield. So there are some tackles who
can't play guard. The other thing is to play guard,
you gotta be smart because things happen so quickly. You're

(22:03):
getting there's always going to be stunting games, and guys
are jumping in gaps and things. So as a player,
as a guard, you've got to be able to process
more quickly then you might as a tackle. Like So
for me, when I think of tackles, I'm thinking of corners,
and I'm thinking of guards, I'm thinking of safeties. Safeties

(22:23):
probably need to be more instinctive than corners. Corners it's
like you cover that guy. Tackles is more like you're
gonna block that guy. When you play guard, things are
happening so quickly. Guys are stunting, you know, guys are
jumping down in gaps and things like that. So I
think intelligence is again important. And then the final piece

(22:43):
is just physicality, right playing like a raven. You know,
we're a physical downhill running team. We want guys that
get off the ball, trying to push guys off the ball,
latching on the guys running their feet and finishing with intent.
And I think I think Emory we can do that.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
You talk about like finishing the play And it really
felt like throughout this year's draft class that the way
in which guys play the game really jumped off the
tape and with almost all of our picks right like
it was. It was that fierceness, that way they finished
and all those things. And Teddy Buchanan seems like a
great example of that is just like playing like his

(23:23):
hairs on fire and he's all over the field. Was
that a big thing that like when you're watching the
tape and when you were watching it on Teddy specifically,
that you you just can pretty quickly say, oh, yeah,
that guy plays the game the way that we want
our players to play. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
So I say when I talk about that, it's like
I want to see something, you know. I saw an
interview one time with an art gallery owner and she
was talking about an artist that she decided to buy
his art and it like this artist took off and

(24:01):
they asked her like, what did you see? And she
had a hard time answering the question other than saying
I saw something. And that sometimes is all it takes
with players, like I can't always tell you exactly what
it is that level about the player, but I saw something.
It's like an energy that you see. It's the way

(24:21):
they move, It's the way they strike, it's the way
they finish. It's the tools they have. It's the upside potential.
It's what are they going to do right away. It's
they're getting beat forty four to nothing in the fourth
quarter and the guy's making every play. It's the fact
that he's playing defensive end and he's passing safeties and
corners in pursuit. It's the lineman that, like after the

(24:44):
play you see him getting another shot. It's the running
back that is getting hit at the line of scrimmage
and gains another two yards every time. So you're looking
at his average, he's gaining two yards to carry, but
he's getting literally getting hit the line of scrimmage every time.
It's like the most misleading two yards you'll ever see.
Those are the things that scouts sometimes that we look for.

(25:06):
They're hard to measure, they're hard to quantify, but when
you see it, it resonates.

Speaker 5 (25:12):
Have you tried to put science behind that, because like
when you see something in a player, Ozzie may see
a different something like when you're looking for that something,
or John may see a different something and your scouts
may see, and so it's like quantifying that magic quality
that you're kind of talking about. I assume it's just
really challenging. Have you tried with analytics and everything that

(25:32):
you do in this process to like put science behind
that thing that you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah, I mean I think we have and we do,
and we use the chip and we use some other
services that we subscribe to that measure things like movement
and balance and acceleration and deceleration.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
And things like that.

Speaker 3 (25:54):
One of the things we do that I'm sure other
teams might do, we do it in camp, we do
it in June is sometimes just watch a player and
I'll just point out things, especially with the younger guys,
like what do you guys see in this play? And
then I'll let them all kind of throw something out right,

(26:16):
and then I'll say, well, you're all missing this one thing.
Look at look at this is what I see. Okay,
this is what I see. And look at how he
gets bull rushed and doesn't give up any ground, right,
or look at this. You know, you guys are telling

(26:37):
me that he's not fast and yet he's running by
a corner on this play? Who runs a four to four.
You tell me he's not fast. How's he doing that?
There's something going on here, right, Those are the things.
It's not just watching a guy's target tape as a
receiver and watching all sixty catches and saying, oh, he

(26:58):
looks like an inside slot receiver.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
It's what does he.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
Do differently than everybody else. Maybe it's the way he
catches the ball right. Maybe it's he's got incredible coordination
near the sideline. He always makes the tough catch near
the sideline and gets both feet down right.

Speaker 4 (27:17):
Maybe it's that.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
But it's what makes this player stand out. And it's
not always the most obvious things. It might be something like,
for instance, you know, say it's a fourth and twenty right,
and the quarterback just throws the ball downfield and the
safety probably has a really good chance to intercept the pass,

(27:41):
but instead he knocks it down because he knows they're
going to get the ball and the forty yard line
rather than the twenty yard line. It's all the little
nuanced things that kind of go into it, and I
think the best scouts are able to parse those things
out and use those little glimpses of that player to
evaluate the player.

Speaker 4 (27:58):
The right way.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
And Vincent, you know you remained loyal to Alabama A
and M. And I remember you talked about Zay Flowers
and how he remained loyal to Boston College when he
had nil offers and he could have gotten money to
go elsewhere, and that resonated with you with Carson, him
staying with Alabama A and M. Did that also show
you something, especially in this age of nil and paid

(28:23):
for play and all that stuff, like, did that show
you something?

Speaker 3 (28:26):
I mean, I think anyone who knows me knows how
I feel about loyalty, right And.

Speaker 4 (28:32):
You know, for me, I've said.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
It's a thousand times probably on this podcast, But growing
up in Boston in the eighties and seeing all my
favorite players, Larry Bird, you know, Jim Rice, guys like
that playing with one team. That's like a beautiful thing, right,
Like just that idea. Even in my career, you know,

(28:55):
myself having been here now this is my thirtieth year,
so I value loyalty and when I see players that
exhibit that to me, loyalty, humility, respect for others, those
are the qualities you want and a great teammate and
so if you have that, you have something And those
kind of qualities make you a better player. So you

(29:16):
could be a good player, but if you've got humility
and loyalty, you'll be a better player, you know. And
so for me, that's something I really value.

Speaker 5 (29:24):
You've gone more big school in your time as GM
rather than the smaller schools, and Vincent falls into the
small school category at HBCU. He is your first not
FBS pick I believe. But what was it about him
that like made you feel like he's worth taking that
shot on and giving him an opportunity.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
I just think traits.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
You know, we had a chance to see him a
few times at the senior ball I studied him at length.

Speaker 4 (29:51):
He came to Baltimore, we visited with him.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
George Warhop really liked him. You know, we had a
period where, you know, think, you know, maybe back in
like two thousand and six, we realized everybody was kind
of scouting the same players, and we felt like small
school players were really.

Speaker 4 (30:10):
An opportunity for us to exploit.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
And then we had a period of time where we
took guys like Rebbee and Flacco and I mean we
had a whole.

Speaker 4 (30:19):
Bunch of guys.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Yeah, all those guys through that whole stretch where we
took a lot of those guys and a lot of
the guys ended up really good. Some guys didn't. You know,
we had some we had some failures too, but we
hit on some guys. And then I think with COVID.
When COVID hit, uh, we we did a lot of
work trying to figure out, like we understood what COVID

(30:40):
was going to mean for scouting, and there were different
things that were going to be greatly affected, one of course,
which was no testing. You know, we weren't going to
know how fast these guys were. We weren't going to
know a lot about these players, so we had to
find ways to account for that. And I think with
the analytics and you know, David McDonald and Derek specifically

(31:01):
and James Hancie and you know, they did some amazing
things to help us get more information. But then the
other idea was basically like smaller season, right, shorter season.
Guys weren't going to play as many games, maybe no games,
and that for us, the acclamation of basically no football

(31:25):
or reduced football, it made all the sense in the world.
They big school guys. So during COVID, if you really
go back to that what was that twenty twenty draft,
all big school guys, biggest of big school guys, you know, LSU,
Ohio State, you know Texas saying like Texas, we just

(31:48):
took as many big school guys as we could, and
we've kind of been doing that.

Speaker 4 (31:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
I do think that these guys that play at these
bigger schools are probably just generally speaking, ready to play
faster because it's almost like a pro program. Now they're
getting paid, the bigger schools are paying more, so it's
just like almost like you are able to go down

(32:15):
and just pluck a guy from a big school, a
big football powerhouse, and they come in and the transition
is at a much faster pace, which is what we're
all about as a team that wants to develop, the
faster we can develop these guys right, the faster they
can play, the faster they can help us win games.
Because generally speaking, you only get a guy for four

(32:36):
years before you're talking about either resigning him or he's
going to leave him free agency. So you really want
to maximize that window of four years and get him
on the field as quickly as possible.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Right this draft, in some ways remind me a little
bit on day three of the twenty twenty two class
when you had all the fourth round picks, and this
year you had this cluster of sixth round picks, and hey,
it hits like the twenty twenty two class.

Speaker 6 (33:01):
So you want to increase the challenge. You did well
on the twenty twenty Yeah, exactly, Let's make it tough
for ex second round.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Let's run that back again. That worked out pretty darn
well that fourth round. How did you approach this year's
sixth round? Because I remember when you were talking about
that fourth round, You're like, that's going to kind of
define our draft, right, and we hit I say it
likely we hit file Leayle. You know, we hit Charlie
like a bunch of guys. How did you look at
this year's cluster sixth round picks? Did you have kind

(33:29):
of a similar outlook on that cluster?

Speaker 3 (33:33):
I think, you know, it wasn't intentional. I mean, I
think the year we did the fourth round was pretty intentional.
In general, with the fourth round, you're going to hit
on about twenty percent of your pick starter rate. Starter rate,
can real contributors like go guys that really come in
contribute twenty to twenty five percent would be good, and
so we were like, okay, can we get three guys
out of that clump to really be contributors for US?

(33:57):
Obviously sixth round of percentages of lower right, you know, yeah,
I mean you're talking like twelve to fifteen percent. Those
guys end up really being strong contributors for your team.
So the challenge is set, Like, we go into it
knowing that the odds are probably stacked against us, but

(34:17):
we swung and we took some really good football players
and excited.

Speaker 4 (34:21):
About really all those guys.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
I mean, those two corners were guys that I looked
at a couple of weeks ago, and you know, I
saw them differently, but the same really good players, guys
that had they gone the fourth round, you'd have been like,
that's a good pick. And both both corners very athletic guys.
You know, Cone's taller, Longer Beam is a little shorter,

(34:44):
but Longer Beam is a great offman player, ball skills, ballhawk, tough.

Speaker 4 (34:52):
Cone.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
I think got a prototypical press corner size and speed ratio.
We think both of those guys are really really good
prospects for US. I think Wester, you know is another guy.
So we talked to Chris Horton and to Chris ranked

(35:14):
these guys who are the best returners, and he came
back with Wester as being one of the very best.
And so we watched his returns impressive, watched him as
a receiver, looked at his production very impressive. And I
think it's when you see a guy and I call
this the Addison phenomenon, Like Jordan Addison had been at

(35:39):
PITT as a receiver and had like great production, like
basically like I don't know how many catches, but eighty
catches a year at Pitt. Right, it goes to USC.
It's hard to go to a new school, right. Think
about when we refreshmen in high school. Think about when
refreshman in college. Right, there's an acclamation it's hard. He

(36:00):
goes to USC first year and has an amazing season
at USC. So when I look at Wester, I see
the same kind of thing. I see a first year
player at Colorado who goes there and has a great season.
He's a talented receiver, excellent return man.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
I'm excited about him.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
We've had a great success with South Florida players and
very excited about him.

Speaker 5 (36:22):
Yeah, I'm curious about the strategy on I mean I
even asked you before the draft. You have eleven picks,
do you expect to use all eleven picks? And because
eleven rookies making the team is going to be challenging,
especially when you have all the six round picks, And
so I'm just interested in the strategy of that of
keeping all of those picks rather than trying to move
up in the whatever the second or the third round. Like,

(36:45):
what was the thought process on keeping those picks and.

Speaker 6 (36:50):
Going that route.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
Well, I could talk about that for twenty days. I
think that you know, in our research, if you've ever
done any kind of bias study, one of the most
pervasive biases.

Speaker 4 (37:09):
I would say is consensus bias.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
And it's basically the idea that everybody is seeing things
like you see things, right, which you just can't believe
that people wouldn't see it like you see it. We
see that in all walks of life, right opinions on
various things. You might think a TV show is insane
and you're at a dinner party going it's the best
show in the world. In some hot scholes, I hated it,

(37:32):
but you can't imagine that they would hate it. You
would just assume that they like it because you like it.

Speaker 4 (37:37):
That happens with the draft every year.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
And years ago there was really, for me an important
study called the Loser's Curse by Richard Thaylor, who's a economist,
and Cade Massey, who's a professor at pen Now. And

(38:00):
the idea of it basically is that teams simply don't
do any better drafting than anyone else. You're all going
to be about the same, right, So the idea that
you're going to trade up and basically that the draft
is inherently sort of a luck driven process. Now I
don't believe that, but there is an element of luck involved.

(38:22):
So if you think about that, and if you accept
that premise, then you're trading up for a player that
you think is better than anyone else, right, and you
think that that team's going to draft them. But most
of the time they're not going to draft that player.
And so what we've seen over the years is that

(38:44):
player is probably going to fall to you. He could
he be selected, yes, but there's no guarantees that that
player is going to be better than the player that
you end up getting. So they call it the loser's
curse because the team at the top, it's like, always
got the first pick in the draft. Well, you know what,
the player that they select, We've seen this many times.

(39:05):
There's no guarantees that that player is going to be
better than the player that gets selected at twenty five
or thirty in the first round. And so, all things
being equal, I know I'm doing a lot of talking
about this, but it's a passion of mine. All things
being equal, right, the fact that no one really knows
who's going to be better than anyone else. The only

(39:26):
rational approach is to get more at bats, is to
pick more. And so what we've seen over the last
five years, but especially this year, everyone seems to be
drafting players the same players. So it's like going to

(39:46):
a restaurant with twenty of your best friends and there's
twenty things on the menu, but all twenty of you
are ordering one of the same three andres. Right, you're
all getting the stake, and you all getting the Maybe
a few guys are getting the crab cakes, but nobody's
going after the vegetarian option, right, and nobody's getting the lamb.

(40:08):
Everybody's draft eating the same things. That's kind of what
the draft has become in some ways. And I don't
know if that's because of the incredible media coverage, all
the so called draft experts, right, all the people that
are putting up mock drafts and consensus boards and things

(40:29):
like that.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
But for me, the idea of having more.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
Picks means I have the chance of getting more players.
If I have the chance of getting more players, then
I have a better chance of finding more players that
can play than my opponents.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
And so that's why we do it.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
So I feel like we're always in the business of
if the league is zigging or zagging, right, And so
when you see teams all ordering the same thing off
the menu, you're saying that having more picks is like
you ordering the salad right, like, like you're ordering something
different from them. Is that kind of what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
No, it just means that I can order more appetizers.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
That's always a good idea.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
I got more food on the table, right, right, right, right,
And so if I have more food on the table,
there's a better chance I'm gonna find something than I like, yeah,
because I might order that steak, or I might order
that pasta with that crab cake.

Speaker 4 (41:21):
But I might not like it, right, I got you.
So if I can order more.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
Food than I'm gonna leave and make sure I'm not hungry,
I'm gonna have enough to eat.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
Yeah, everybody else is fighting over that's taking everything they
may not like right exactly, it might be well done.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
So to kind of go a little further down the
analytics rabbit hole here, because it is fascinating stuff. You
talked about the trade that you made, you know, going
back in the fourth round five spots to go up
in the sixth round from five spots, and that gave
you more picks in quick succession in the sixth round.
And I was trying to read between the lines during

(41:59):
the press conference on this, and it felt like what
you were saying you wanted to do was you were
you were going to draft a kicker and you wanted
to be in that sweet spot where you felt like
kickers were going to be drafted and he didn't want
to get the third kicker. You didn't want to have
the top two kickers go and then you're you're going
with the third guy.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
Is that? Am I reading that correctly?

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Like?

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Can you take us inside that that?

Speaker 3 (42:21):
Yeah? So so that was really, I'll tell you. You know, honestly,
I just made all that up. You know, I was like,
you know, I made all that up. I mean, and
people are still trying to figure that out. I just imagine,
like all these people going, what did he say? And
you know, he said four or five different things, and
none of those things really makes sense.

Speaker 4 (42:38):
Okah.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
The reality of it was, there were really two reasons
why we made that trade. One, they had just brought
out the Buffalo chicken dip, and I really wasn't I
wasn't in in a mind frame to pick because I
want to get some of that Buffalo chicken dip, and
I knew that George Coquinas and Marc Astaveda were going
to be out there eating that dip in that part.

(43:00):
And the second one was just and you know, this
happens every once in a while. This happened back when
we drafted Flacco, but Chad Steele was in the bathroom
the time, and we couldn't make a pick without Chad
being in there, so we had to. I mean, basically,
that trade was like a timeout, that's.

Speaker 4 (43:16):
All it was. I mean, it really I meed just.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
What's going on.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
What that trade was was like a time out, but
we didn't have any timeouts, so we faked an injury.
That's what we may make that a penalty now, yeah,
but you got to catch them. So that's what that
trade was, honestly, Like, if I really want to boil
it down, I know a lot of people have thought.

Speaker 4 (43:39):
About that trade.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
That trade was a timeout for us, and it was
just basically, you know, faking an injury and the clock
stopped and gave us a chance to regroup.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
And was that because like a pick before that, Vincent picked,
like somebody got taken that we really liked and were like,
wait a second, where are we going here?

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Yeah, you know, uh, there's a lot going on. Yeah
at that point, and uh sometimes as I get older,
I'm fifty four and now I just turned fifty four,
and I get murky. Things get murky. And so that
was a period of time where I don't remember why
we had to take the time out. Yeah, but I
think I know Chad was in the bathroom time, So

(44:24):
that was a part of it. Because when we drafted Flacco,
I think I think Kevin Byrne was unavailable missed it
any and then we had to recreate some things after
the fact. That's a true story. That is actually a
true story be in the book someday. So I was
worried about Chad. He didn't you know, he didn't look
well and he wasn't you know anything. He was in

(44:46):
the bathroom stall.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
Okay, yeah, Well, if you.

Speaker 5 (44:48):
Know, you want to make sure that when that pit
goes down in history that you want to have that documented.

Speaker 4 (44:52):
So Chad's got to be there.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sureactly sure.

Speaker 6 (44:56):
I'm curious.

Speaker 5 (44:57):
You mentioned someone asked you after the draft about drafting
a quarterback on Day three and whether you were interested,
and you said that, you know, you you thought about it.
There was a guy that you liked. Of course, a
couple of quarterbacks went in the division. Should Or Sanders
went to the Browns, Will Howard went to the Steelers
on day three. I'm curious, are you willing to share
who you were thinking about drafting at quarterback as a

(45:18):
backup on day three?

Speaker 3 (45:20):
I mean, I think there was a couple of guys
we liked, one guy in particular that we liked on
Day three. I mean, you could go back and you
could look at it and see all those guys that
were drafted on day three and then you know, try
to figure it out. But you know, there was definitely
one guy that we thought was kind of interesting as
a day three pick, and we talked about it and
he got picked. But you know, again, it would have

(45:42):
been a good prospect for us to develop. We still
believe Devon's going to really make a jump this year.
But you know, again, like we people don't necessarily think
this all the time, but we really do.

Speaker 4 (45:55):
Try to draft best available.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Player, and we ranked the player and we work off
that list, and uh, you know, had this quarterback been there,
then we might have picked him.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
Right Tyler Loop, Uh you know, we know that Randy
Brown went on a scouting mission. He was all over
the place drafted or scouting these Kickers. How much did
you hear about Tyler from Randy? Like?

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Was he was?

Speaker 1 (46:20):
He in your office a lot giving you the full
run down, the fool breakdown on the Kickers.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
Well, fortunately, because of all the construction going on in
the building right now, my office was really really hard
to get to.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
Did you have the ear plugs in when Randy y.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Well, my office was just like really really really really
hard to find.

Speaker 6 (46:39):
Yeah, I gotta put a hard had on it was.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
Like Arc of the Covenant, hard to find, you know, like,
but it reminded me though, I will say, like years ago,
you know, this is what these kicking coaches do.

Speaker 4 (46:54):
You know.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
They just they go on on a tour basically, and
they just evaluate all these kickers and they want to
watch them live if they can, you know. And that's
just what Randy did. He went all over the country
looking at these guys. But it reminded me in some ways.
Although I'll tell you a great kind of throwback story
that people don't know.

Speaker 4 (47:14):
So years ago.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
Back in I think it was two thousand and six,
one of my early drafts, and we were looking for
a punter and we had this coach, Frank Ganz we
call the Machine Gun Gans and I called Frank down,
you know, Frankie Ganz. I said, hey, coach, we got

(47:38):
to find a punter. So I said, you know, just
go out and scout and do whatever you gotta do.
But I'm going to ask you in April who the
best guy is and let me know. And they were
a bunch of guys like the Combine, you know, they
had all these punters at the Combine and I'm at
the workout and I'm watching all these guys boom the ball.

Speaker 4 (47:59):
And so.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
Frank comes back in April and he's like, hey, I
got the guy.

Speaker 4 (48:07):
I got the guy.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
And I'm thinking, okay, well who is it? And he goes, well,
it's a non combine guy. And I'm like, wait a minute.
There's twenty punters at the combine and you're telling me
that this is a non combine guy. He goes y,
you know, he was a linebacker. And I'm like, what's
his name? He said, Sam Cook. No, he goes he's

(48:32):
the best one. And I'm like, Frank, this is kind
of important. You're telling me that this is the best one.
And he's like, I'm telling you this guy is the
best punter in the draft. And I go he didn't
even freaking get invited to the combine at Nebraska. It's
not like he's at Mankato State. He's like, I'm telling
you he's the best one, and we took him. What

(48:55):
was the sixth round pick?

Speaker 4 (48:56):
I think it was.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
He kicked for us for how many years? I don't know,
sixty years, whatever it is. So I tell you that
story because kicking is it's an aspect of scouting that
I will never truly understand or appreciate. I think Randy

(49:19):
Brown does a great job. I know he does, and
I'm gonna usually defer to the coach, which I won't
really do any other position. Right, I'm not gonna just say, Okay,
we're drafting this. I'm gonna watch him and I'm going
to form an opinion. It's just more challenging for me
to form an opinion of a punter or a kicker. Right,

(49:40):
And so Randy said this was the best guy, and
not only I think this is the best guy, I
think this is the best guy over the last you know,
three or four years at least. So I'm like, okay,
that's interesting. And he ended up being the highest rated
guy in the sixth round when he picked interesting.

Speaker 5 (49:58):
I'm curious you talk to good amount coming into the
draft about running back and the possibility of taking a
running back, and I don't know if that was all
smoke screens, but you fooled me because I was like,
they keep mentioning running back here, and even though it's
not a knee on paper, it reminded me of when
you took Dobbins and it wasn't a need that year
necessarily but he ended up taking him. So I was like,
they're going to take a running back at some point,

(50:19):
you know, And.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
You were saying early.

Speaker 6 (50:21):
I thought early.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
I thought this guy was saying early.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
I thought maybe it could be in like the second round,
like it was with Dobbins. Were there any running backs
that you consider? Was that something that you were hoping
to do? What was your view of the running back position?

Speaker 3 (50:35):
Well, we tried, you know, I chant on my owner,
Mike Ditka. We offered every draft pick this year and
all of our draft picks next year to go up
to take Gent. You just couldn't find a trade partner.

Speaker 6 (50:45):
No one would do it.

Speaker 4 (50:46):
Huh.

Speaker 3 (50:46):
I thought maybe there was a chance we could get
up to three, but they didn't want to do it.
They didn't want to do it. But no, I think
this was a really really good draft class for running backs.
In saying that, as we look at our position group,
we're pretty blessed. I mean, we've got, you know, I
think a great room. We've got four deep that we

(51:06):
feel really really strong about. And I think Rasheen last
year he hasn't really shown people what we think he
can do.

Speaker 4 (51:13):
He's an explosive.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Running back and you know, Keaton coming off an injury,
Justice Hill, one of the probably most unsung players on
our team, and then of course Derrick Henry, who had
any elite season last year. So we feel blessed to
have like four backs that we feel like can go
in and play play extremely well. Given the chance. Not
to say we wouldn't have taken a back, it just
had to be a situation where for us to value

(51:36):
was too good to pass up. In other words, we're
not looking at a chalk player. We're not looking at
oh yeah, this is a good second round pick. We're
looking at, oh my god, we gotta take this guy.
He's too good for us to pass up on. And
it just didn't really materialize that way based on which
players were on the board when.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
We picked another just loaded room on this offense is
a tight end room. And there's of course a lot
of pre draft buzz about Mark Andrews and the possibility
of a trade there. Potentially did any team call us
asking about Mark?

Speaker 3 (52:11):
You know during the draft, we never really had those discussions.
The phone never really rang, you know. Honestly, Mark is
a great player, yeah, and we're not.

Speaker 4 (52:23):
Really in the business of.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
Letting our great players leave unless we're going to get
a lot for them, because our best team is with
Mark Andrews on it. Let's face it, our best chance
to win a Super Bowl is with Mark Andrews on
the team. And so I think teams knew that, you know,
we had, you know, some discussion potentially early on in

(52:49):
the process, back going back in March, and it just
became apparent to me that I value Mark more than
anybody else. We value Mark more than most teams anybody else.
And so based on that, you know, we're going to
keep our best players. And so, you know, it was
a really good tight end draft class this year. You know,
I think five or six guys that watching these guys,

(53:13):
you know, whether it's you know, Lovelin or Warren or
a Royo or yeah, Taylor, I thought the Fanning kid,
you know, Ferguson. You got six tight ends that really
have a chance to contribute quickly. We would have considered
those guys for sure, and just had you know, four
tight ends on the roster.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
Well when you have three going into contract years this year.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
So we would have easily taken a tight end. The
way that those guys came off the board, you know,
I think what maybe five of those guys came off
the board, maybe before we picked in the second round. Yeah, right,
Fantom might have been the last guy standing. He got

(53:59):
picked pretty quick to So yeah, I think the league
values tight ends. We're blast that we have some good
tight ends. Definitely something that we have to work on
in the short term and long term given that they're
all free agents. But I think right now, where we
have an abundance of riches at both running back and
tight end, we're gonna use those guys.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
Well.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
The takeaway here is, you know we could have taken
a running back, a tight end you talked about you
want a big run stuffing defensive. We need more picks, right,
we had eleven. We need more picks, more appetizers, that's
the solution.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
You know I really wanted the Bang Bang shrimp and
we couldn't do it fire.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Yeah, you gotta get the bank bank trip.

Speaker 5 (54:40):
Last question that I have, Eric, is the heavy lifting
of the off seasons done. You made these eleven picks
in free agency, You keep Ronnie, you bring in DeAndre Hopkins,
and so like, the roster is pretty much set going
into this season for the most part, and this team
is this team is so close. It's been right there,
and the expectation, I'm sure is that this team is
going to be right there back in that mix again

(55:00):
this year.

Speaker 6 (55:01):
Like, what is your view of this team.

Speaker 5 (55:04):
And what it can do going into this season.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
Well, I think it's a good team, you know. I
like the depth that we have. You know, last year
we took on some water with our depth, and I think,
you know, we lost a lot of good players last
year in free agency and started out owing too, came
back and played great football, had a great season part
of the team. I think this team is really poised

(55:29):
and we were strong at most position groups. Now there's
a couple of things we want to do between now
and probably when we break you know, before camp, a
couple couple additions, maybe a couple of signings, you know,
a couple of things we can do to make our
team better. But you know, I think in the short
term this year, we are you know, positioned extremely well.

(55:52):
Now I think looking out, we've got some players that
we want to extend, we we should have and now
amount of draft picks next year. We didn't even talk
about the other trade that we made with the Jets,
where we gave up. You know, we went back ten
spots and got their fifth for our sixth. Like, that's

(56:14):
an opportunity I think for us to gain a lot
of spots in the draft next year. I think right now,
if you assume that we.

Speaker 4 (56:22):
May get maybe get.

Speaker 3 (56:28):
Two fifth round compicks potentially for guys that we lost
this year, mckerry and Stevens. If we do given that
Jets trade, we should have four right now, four fifth
round picks, which is nice, and you know, maybe an
opportunity for us to corner the fifth round, which we haven't.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
You know, we've called.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
Maybe there's going to be a chance for us if
we can get a couple more fifth round picks and
just make that our around next year, you know, would
be kind of cool to do. But yeah, that's what
we're focused on right now, and I we're excited about it,
and I think the team looks strong, but it never ends.
You know, this is a competitive business and if you
ever get to the point where you think you're set,

(57:11):
you're going to fail. So for us, it's all about
challenging ourselves, looking at the short term challenges associated with that,
but also the long term, what do we have to
accomplish to make the long term look better and we'll
work on that.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
Well, thank you so much, Eric, We really appreciate it.
Congrats on another successful draft.

Speaker 4 (57:28):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (57:28):
Thanks guys awesome you're listening to The Lounge podcast and
we are coming to you from the Seat Geeks Studio.
We want to mention our partners at Draft King Sportsbook.
They are an official sports betting partner of the Baltimore
Ravens Draft King Sportsbook. The Crown is yours so big.
Thanks to Eric Costa for joining us on the podcast.
It's one of my favorite episodes of the year every
single year, and of course it did not disappoint. I

(57:49):
will say for longtime listeners and viewers of The Lounge,
Eric has a track record of pulling off some kind
of prank, some kind of lie story whenever he comes
on the pod. Us had our antendos up the entire time.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Well, I felt myself, I thought that the whole Sam
Cook story, you.

Speaker 6 (58:06):
Thought it was going down that path.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
At first, I was I was just you know, I
was like no, and then and then the alarm bell
started going off.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
I was like, wait, is this whole story fake?

Speaker 6 (58:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (58:15):
But I don't I.

Speaker 6 (58:16):
Don't think you think I was real. I mean, we
actually took right.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
You can sell the whole backstory at it, right, But
I think I think that was all real.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
I think that's but my radar was up.

Speaker 5 (58:25):
We were definitely alert to the potential this year. So
I don't think that any of those stories were fake.
But I also can never be certain.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
The giraffe really was.

Speaker 6 (58:34):
He really was conducting.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
Interviews conducting interviews, so that was real.

Speaker 5 (58:37):
Check it, Yeah, but it was. It was a really
good conversation with him. I mean, I think that as
I've talked with him, we had a chance earlier this
week to go through a film session with Joey Cleary
and Andrew Rafael Raven Scouts, and I just think that overall,
like I feel even better about this class, and you
can tell the excitement that the Ravens have about this group.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
I mean, look, the facts of the matter are, we've
had some awesome draft classes here and Ozzie knew someone
went out in a blaze of glory in his last
year making the picks with Lamar Jackson that twenty eighteen
class was awesome, and Eric Decasta before the draft that
I was every year, I go and I kind of
rank the draft classes and the best in Ravens, So

(59:21):
the best in Ravens history, all of the Ravens draft
classes in rank them. And I'll tell you there's been
a couple now in Eric DeCosta's ten years GM that
are right up there near the top. Yeah, I mean
that twenty twenty two class, that twenty twenty class, awesome,
awesome classes, and then these most recent ones. It's too
early to say you need to give a draft class
a little bit of time, but I think that this

(59:44):
year's class, when all is said and done and I'm
going back three four years from now and saying where
does this some rank.

Speaker 6 (59:49):
I guess can be high.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
You know how much I love that Malachi Starks picked. Yeah,
so it's off to it got off to a great start.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
Well.

Speaker 5 (59:55):
I always just find it interesting hearing process and when
they talk about why they kept all eleven picks and
the percentages of hit rate that they're going to have,
and of course you try to be better than that,
but they're looking at the averages on those things, and
I just think that all of that is interesting perspective
and it gives you an understanding of why the Ravens
do what they do, and I think that, like the

(01:00:15):
Eric is very processed, driven and very analytical in his approach,
not just from a standpoint of like what does the
number say, but wants to be like, look at things
from a holistic view and make a sound decision with
every pick and every strategy decision. And I think you
see that, and I think that comes across when he

(01:00:36):
sits down with us, and I think that's always enlightening.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Yeah, absolutely, so thank you for listening. As always, leave
a rating and review. You can email us at the
lounge at Ravens NFL dot net. And these rookies will
be on campus here very soon, coming in for Rookie
Mini Camp this weekend. We'll have all the coverage, first impressions.
We'll have the photos, the videos, the social media clips.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Make sure you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
Tune in for that this weekend as we get our
first taste of what this draft class is going to bring.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
Thanks for listening.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
We'll be back early next week with our impressions from
Rookie Minicamp.