Even though I do not agree with some of the picks, I will support what Ozzie does. He is taking guys that I never even heard of, and that is definitely a good thing. It is quite amazing that we went in with these 6 picks, and walked out with 6 better picks.

Weird way to look at it, but if you add up the spots where the picks are in the draft, our original picks equals 654 and after the draft, our picks equal 639. Pretty incredible. We were able to basically move up a total of 15 spots throughout the draft. I will give Ozzie credit that that is pretty insane and he is an absolute genius when it comes to keeping quality picks.

However, I think this is one of the weaker drafts we have had. Not saying that our picks will be busts, but I think we could have gotten better value on the 2nd day. I love the first 2 picks. Oher at RT for the next 8-10 years makes my mouth water and Kruger reminds me of a more versatile Jared Allen. I could see him being a relentless pass rushing hybrid DE/OLB. I give our first day A- grade

As for the 2nd day picks. I give it a C grade. I like what Webb brings. He is going to be a great special team player and will definitely see some time in the dime packages. Philips should be okay, but I think there were other players available that could help us a lot more. Davon Drew I never heard of and I dont really know what he is all about, but I would have taken Ingrum. With the RB, its funny cause I was watching this with 2 of my friends. And in my outraged mode that I was in, I sarcastically said that we were going to take the RB from Virginia. What do you know, we take Peerman. Really hope Ozzie made a choice here.

Again this is just my intake, and besides Oher, I do not think we did one thing to improve our passing game. All 3 teams in our division have a game breaking WR, and we do not. It really irritates me to, cause all we talked about and heard others talk about since the season ended was how much we NEED to give Joe weapons.

I say it again, we got stronger at positions that were not weak and we got weaker at positions that were already weak.

C+ overall grade. Yes, I am an asshole

Even though we didn’t take a wide receiver I have a hunch that Ozzie is cooking up a deal with Boldin or Edwards or someone thats a free agent. Just a feeling but I hope I am right!

Take a deep breath and a valium. I totally disagree that we got weaker at positions that were already weak. You can’t grade a draft for about 3 years. But I would prefer to look at it this way. We had a few major positions of need. WR, OL, ILB, CB, DE

1. Major position of need – OT – We looked at Starks, we offered a contract to Pace and we ended up with Oher who is better than either of the other two at this point in their career. He has played on the right at guard and on the left at tackle.

2. DE/OLB Hybrid – Kruger may well be the replacement at DE for Trevor Pryce. DT is set with Ngata, Gregg, Bannan and Edwards. So Kruger fills a major need in the near future and everything I’ve read about him sounds great and makes me think of Michael McCrary.

3. ILB – We need depth to go along with Gooden. Greisen is gone, Bart Scott is gone and Ray is in the December of his career. The kid from TCU is a tackling machine who is too small and too light. Anyone remember who was cast as too small and too light. Now I’m not suggesting that this guy is going to be the next Ray Lewis, but Oz has shown a tremendous ability to draft linebackers.

4. CB – again need depth. Kiper was wild over the kid from Nich. State. His comment – think Bob Sanders. Fastest corner in the draft and hits like a train. Only needs to come in and be a dime corner and can learn from Samari, Fabian and Foxworth. Again great fill of a need with a smart player who based on reports plays Ravens football.

5. The only downside is no WR. But I would rather have Oher than either Britt or Nicks. Offensive Tackles picked in the first round have a tremendously higher hit rate than receivers. Granted it was our biggest need, but unfortunately the boys didn’t feel that the people available when they were drafting were worth spending the pick on. In Ozzie I trust. I don’t want to reach for someone based on our need if he isn’t near where we have them ranked.

Overall I think this was a very good draft. If by any chance in the world we can pry Q from the Cards for a second and third next year, this may become the best draft we have had since JO and Ray started the ball rolling over 10 years ago.

Drink the purple koolaid MaLoR – it tastes really good right now.

Peace

I have been analyzing the draft… There is no denying the numbers. By the numbers it shouldn’t have worked. I would have never believed that Oher would have been available. To get him and still maintain a equal quantity (and quality) of picks is amazing.

Michael Oher is the real deal. He’s an excellent tackle that I believe will be making the pro-bowl sooner than later. Our offensive line is down-right nasty now. For those of you that are worried about our receivers (MaLoR), remember that teams are going to be forced to sell-out to stop the run. This fact alone will open up the passing game. Mark my words… we will pound teams into the ground next season. I believe that Oher may be remembered as the steal of the draft. I’d give this pick an A+.

Paul Kruger is another classic “Raven” pick. He’s a try hard, tough-nosed football player. However, this doesn’t mean that he’s not athletic. Greg Mattison described him as “heavy handed.” When he impacts players, they visibly stagger. Added to this ability is his quickness and aggressiveness. I believe that Kruger may have more upside than any player currently on our roster. He does have some physical question marks and may not contribute immediately, but he has the potential to be great. I’d give this pick a B+.

Lardarius Webb is a sleeper pick. Chuck Pagano personally scouted Webb. He quickly fell in love with Webb’s ability and potential. Pagano was fired up when we drafted Webb, and Mel Kiper compared him to Bob Sanders. Since Pagano is the coach who developed Nnamdi Asomugha, that’s good enough for me. I think that this pick has alot of value for a third round pick. I’ll give it a B.

Jason Phillips, Davon Drew and Cedric Peerman are all quality picks that add depth to the Raven’s roster. I think that they are all high upside players. My only question is over the positions that were picked. If Ozzie was just adding depth to the roster, I wonder if we could have address other needs. On the other hand, we don’t know our real needs. Ozzie is building the team. All in all, I love these players. I’d give these picks a B- overall (Phillips is a B, Drew is a C+ and Peerman is a B-).

All considered, I’m going to give the draft an A-. Obviously, draft grades given this early are meaningless. We will need to wait and see, but my grade represents my overall grade of Ozzie’s drafting, which is top-notch as always. Oher was just an amazing pick.

Many teams reached at WR. Barden was ranked as a 4th or 5th, he went in the 3rd i think. Patrick Turner was graded in the 6th or 7th, and he went in the 3rd too. I think we might have been hoping for Johnny Knox in the 5th with our 2nd pick , but the Bears snagged him one pick before us so we traded out of the pick. Oh well. I guess Ozzie is banking on LJ Smith having a big year and one out of Demitius, Harper or Smith to step up as a solid 3rd reciever. Maybe Jazz20 is right and we already have a stud on the roster. I can dream, right?

How about we start the season right freaking now!!!!

Already looking for my tickets to see us kick the crap out of the Pack at Lambeau Field on December 7, 2009.

To anyone who was in the live threads throughout the weekend who witnessed my explosion. I did not mean to offend or annoy anyone from what I wrote at times.

It is not that I hate the picks we made, as I always say that I support anything Ozzie does. This is his expertise and I am just someone who voices a meaningless opinion.

A lot of what I said came from what we all went through the last few months. The great contributors of this site spent countless amount of time breaking down the WR position and studying all the prospects that could have possibly landed with the Ravens. It just really disappointed me that there was so much talk of getting WR’s by us and all the experts.

There was so much talk of how much we needed to give Joe some weapons and we did not grab anyone.

Again, I love our draft picks. I cannot wait to get this freaking season started. I am sorry for my outbursts and ridiculous comments I through out there.

I know some didn’t like the pick of Cedric Peerman from Virginia, but I can identify at least one outlet that supports it. Turns out some math whizzes have developed a metric for an RBs success purely based on Combine 40 time and Weight. This should measure how much of a force an RB can bring to a running game.

http://footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2009/speed-score-2009

The system has had a reasonable amount of success, and this kid could be absolutely dynamic. Although rated as a fumble risk, he only fumbled 4 times in 448 college touches. This kid could be an enormous steal.

is just not who we are. Yeah, Cleveland and Cincy have that big name guy, but what has it got them, besides big headaches. God help this team if we have to resort to throwing it up 30-40 times/game.