Bold Predictions: What Will the Ravens Do In Round 1?

The NFL Draft is finally upon as, as the teams descend upon Kansas City to select the next generation of NFL stars (and scrubs).

RSR staff tries to predict what we’ll see from the Baltimore Ravens here…

Tony Lombardi

This has been a strange offseason for the Ravens. A team that lives by the credo, “right player, right price,” overpaid for an oft-injured, 30-year-old vet who has played in just 53 of a possible 98 regular season games since 2017. That seems to more closely align with “wrong player, high price.” They’ve done next to nothing in free agency primarily because their mercurial franchise quarterback has held them hostage with his highly unorthodox negotiating modus operandi. The hostage crisis continues through the weekend and beyond.

• EDC will find no trade partner for the 22nd pick.
• They will select the highest-rated CB on their board.
• DeAndre Hopkins will be traded to a team did not named the Ravens or Bills.
• Bijan Robinson will go to the Raiders at No. 7.
• The Texans will wait until their second first-round pick to take a QB. The card at No. 12 will read: Anthony Richardson, QB, Florida.
• Will Levis will drop like Aaron Rodgers in 2005 while C.J. Stroud falls to the Falcons at No. 8.

Adam Bonaccorsi

For my money, I’m looking at one of three corners (Porter Jr, Banks, Forbes) or one of three wideouts (JSN, Addison, Flowers). I don’t see a world where all six of these prospects are off the board by 22, and I think preference leans in the favor of BPA between the bunch for the Ravens selection tonight.

The potential for a trade down surely exists, but ultimately I think this draft class oozes mediocrity and coupled with the lost value of the 5th Year Option (it’s gotten more expensive for teams), it feels like the Ravens would need a QB to fall to 22 – coupled with faith in LJ to sign – in order to see a trade down happen at all.

But most importantly, I don’t think Round 1 brings the Ravens anything closely resembling a D-Hop trade!

D-Hop Drama

Rob Shields

I’m not sure how bold this is but I am expecting the team to stay at 22 and likely take a CB. The pick I feel they make, of who will likely be there plus someone I feel the team would grade out highly, is Deonte Banks. He is similar to Marlon Humphrey in terms of size and physicality and that is a profile the team likes on the outside.

One thing to keep in mind…don’t rule out the chance they take an OT. There is talk that 6-7 OT could go in the first, and if they feel one of them could be a LG in 2023 and the RT long term, that is a move they could make. We are all focused on CB, WR or trading back but both lines are also big needs, so this wouldn’t and shouldn’t be looked at surprising or a “bad pick.”

Darin McCann

Ravens fans will get excited as one of the top receivers begins to fall closer to the Ravens’ slot, and the intensity will only spike as that player is still on the board after the Chargers pick right before the Ravens. And then… it happens. A trade is announced, Ravens fans scream to the Heavens and we collectively go to sleep angry at a world that prevented us from certain greatness.

Or they’ll take a corner. My money’s on the corner.

Kevin McNelis

After waiting patiently for Draft Day to roll around, we’re going to see the picks roll off the board as we bide our time until pick #22, and at long last, we’ll take…

RSR Roundtable Rankings – Day 1 WRs and CBs

No one, because I think Arizona walks away with the pick. If rumblings from the last few days are any indication, I think a pick swap is in order to help facilitate a move for DeAndre Hopkins. In a way, it’ll be a whole lot of build-up for not a lot of immediate payoff, but if the Ravens nab pick #34 in the transaction, we won’t have to wait very long to see the newest Raven on Day 2.

Chris Schisler

Prediction 1: Four quarterbacks go in the top 10 picks, and five total in the first round.

The NFL can’t help itself. The league manufactures QB talent whether it’s there or not. We know that the top three are going off the board fast. Carolina has traded for the right to get their top choice. Let’s give them Bryce Young. Will Levis and C.J. Stroud will be swooped up quickly, one of them going to the Colts, ending a worry that they’ll steal Lamar Jackson. Somebody is going to get trigger happy and trade up for Hendon Hooker, who has a rocket arm. Let’s say Washington moves up to get Hooker at 10. That’s four quarterbacks quick. By the end of the first round Anthony Richardson will get swooped up by a team that needs to make a big gamble at quarterback.

Prediction 2: Ravens go cornerback and draft Emanuele Forbes after a trade back.

The Ravens will see a lot of names linked to them off the board by the time they pick. Deonte Banks will go to the Steelers – I want him too much so he’ll go to my least favorite team, sorry about that. Jordan Addison and Joey Porter Jr. will be swooped up right before the Ravens are on the clock. The Ravens are going to trade back to the late 20’s, to get some extra draft capital. If they can, they will. It’s a draft without a lot of resources. Then Forbes will be the super athletic cornerback sitting there for them. Let’s call it pick 26.

Prediction 3: Jalen Carter drops out of the top 10, but Bijan Robinson goes.

Jalen Carter is an incredible talent who should go top five. But I’m going on a limb and saying he won’t go in the top 10 picks. QB mania is going to take at least three picks and I predicted four. There’s going to be at least two edge rushers taken. That’s six picks. Then you have to account for a couple cornerbacks, that makes eight of the top 10 picks. Give the other two spots to Paris Johnson Jr., an offensive tackle, and Bijan Robinson.

Robinson is a running back some team is going to go ga ga for. You just saw what happened when Christian McCaffrey went to the 49ers. It attracts the idea of taking a running back early again. Robinson has been linked to the Ravens but he’s never going to fall far enough to be a consideration for them.

Nikhil Mehta

Deonte Banks makes too much sense at 22. He’s a Baltimore native who played at the University of Maryland, earned comparisons to Marlon Humphrey in the pre-draft process, and would fill the Ravens’ biggest need.

But that’s a boring prediction, and I’d rather be bold. No edge defender under 250 pounds has been drafted in the first round since Leonard Floyd and Darron Lee in 2016. Nolan Smith weighed in at 236 pounds at the Combine, so I think the NFL goes with the bigger hybrid pass rushers in the first round and Smith falls to the Ravens at 22. Baltimore should jump at the chance to add the draft’s second-best pure edge rusher to an already-stacked defense, giving Mike Macdonald not just another edge defender, but another defensive weapon that he can deploy in a variety of ways to attack opposing offenses.