Since 2011 the Ravens have made 35 selections during the last 4 NFL drafts. Of those thirty-five, 32 have made the team while 2 were eventually assigned to the practice squad. Only thirteen of the 35 are still with the team today.
Clearly the picks provide depth, yet surprisingly just 37% remain with the Ravens four years later as the team prepares for the 2015 NFL Draft.
For this draft the Ravens will be equipped with 10 picks in their war room arsenal after yesterday’s award of 3 compensatory picks (Nos. 136, 171 and 175). Compensatory picks cannot be traded.
It is unlikely that all 10 picks will make the final 53-man roster and perhaps not even the practice squad. In 2013 the Ravens had 10 picks, 8 made the team, 1 was assigned to the practice squad while another was cut.
Therefore, it stands to reason, as RSR’s Ryan Jones points out, that Ozzie Newsome is a candidate to at some point trade up in this year’s draft.
So who would the Ravens move up to get?
Most believe that the team’s three most glaring needs are at wide receiver, corner and tight end. Some mocks don’t have the draft’s best tight end, Maxx Williams, even listed as a first round pick. More on Williams in a moment, but for the sake of this discussion, let’s focus on the other positions mentioned while considering reasonable first round draft positions that the Ravens could move up to obtain.
The consensus top three wide receivers are Kevin White, Amari Cooper and DeVante Parker. White and Cooper are often viewed as top 7 or higher picks. Based on the Draft Pick Value Chart the 7th pick carries a point value of 1,500. The Ravens entire list of tradable picks combined, add up to 1,295.4 points. So we’ll just scratch White and Cooper off our list. Clearly moving up to get either of them is unreasonable.
And that brings us to DeVante Parker.
Parker in most mocks falls in around No. 14 in the 2015 NFL Draft – a pick that carries a point value of 1,100. To move up to take Parker it would cost the Ravens picks 26 (700 points), 58 (320) and 122 (50). That would still leave them a tad short at 1,070 points and may require a swap of Day 3 picks to even out the trade or some other considerations.
Other than Parker, there are a handful of other receivers that could fall to the Ravens at No. 26, but they’d likely sit back and wait as opposed to moving up the board.
At corner the Ravens could try and climb up to secure Trae Waynes or Marcus Peters. Waynes is generally pegged at around pick 11 while Peters falls in at roughly No. 20.
The 11th pick carries a point value of 1,250 and would cost the Ravens their top 3 picks and then some other considerations. Consequently Waynes will not be a Raven.
For the Ravens to move up six spots to No. 20 to get Peters, a pick that carries a point value of 850, the Ravens would have to give up their first and third (pick 90 with a point value of 140).
Unless the Ravens are head-over-heels in love with a player, moving up in the first is probably a long-shot.
A more likely scenario would be for the Ravens to move up in the second round, assuming of course they could find a trading partner to select a wide receiver such as Jaelen Strong, a corner such as PJ Williams, or the aforementioned tight end Maxx Williams. These players in some mocks have hovered on average at around pick No. 38, which carries a point value of 520 points.
In such a trade up scenario the Ravens could give up:
Round 2 Pick at 58 (320 points)
Round 3 Pick at 90 (140 points)
Round 4 Pick at 122 (50 points)
They would still have 6 more picks, nos.: 125 (4th), 136 (4th), 158 (5th), 171 (5th), 175 (5th) and 203 (6th).
But let’s keep in mind how much the Ravens covet picks. Ozzie and the gang are as Assistant GM Eric DeCosta often reminds me, “in the pick business” so it’s unlikely that they’ll raid the cupboard for one player. Given their pragmatic approach to the draft and the costs to move up, don’t expect Ozzie to move up in Round 1.
Round 2 and 3 are the more fluid rounds and a scenario like the second round move described above simply makes more sense.
The Baltimore Ravens 2015 NFL Draft Picks
