By now, most football fans know the story of the Baltimore Ravens first round draft pick, OT Michael Oher out of Ole Miss. They know of the hardships he endured through his childhood and the warmth and acceptance of his foster family. The fact that he was rated between 10-15 on the Ravens draft board had the Ravens not even thinking of the possibility of him falling to them, and when the opportunity came close, they traded up to grab him. He will form a great pair of tackles (along w/ LT Jared Gaither) protecting Joe Flacco, and give the offensive line the additional swagger they will now have from one side to the other. All this talk about needing a wide receiver needs to stop as you will see how much better our current crop of receivers are now that our offensive line just got a lot better at protecting our QB and giving him more time to find the open guys.
In the second round, we grabbed a DE from Utah, Paul Kruger, who has a non-stop motor and fits the image of the former Raven, Michael McCrary. Kruger was a disruptive force at Utah, accumulating sacks, tackles for losses, forced fumbles and even had two interceptions.
The third round is where it began to get confusing for most fans. Ladarius Webb, a CB out of Nicholls State, was selected, even though there were many more well known names on the board available. However, Ozzie and the Ravens War Room has it's own board, and doesn't feel any pressure to take the players that the national media and personalities rank high on their own lists. Webb was an All American CB and great kick returner at Nicholls State after getting dismissed from Southern Miss and is the only person in NCAA history to garner his conferences offensive, defensive and special teams player of the week honors durng his junior season.
Jason Phillips was the Ravens first of two fifth round picks. The Ravens traded their fourth and sixth round picks to New England for the two fifth rounders. Phillips is a tackling machine at middle linebacker from TCU, and is the first player in the Mountain West Conference to earn All Conference honors for four straight years.
Davon Drew was the Ravens other pick in the fifth round. The TE out of East Carolina University, which has produced NFL standouts such as Jacksonville QB David Garrard, and Tennessee RB Chris Johnson, is a big target at 6'4" and 260 pounds. He made 32 starts at ECU, leading the team in 2008 with 695 receiving yards on 43 receptions, and had a career game in the Auto Zone Liberty Bowl against Kentucky with 120 receiving yards.
Cedric Peerman, RB (Virginia) was the Ravens final pick of the 2009 NFL Draft. Perrman, who is an ordained minister, is an all purpose RB, who can run inside and out, as well as catch the ball out of the backfield. He earned All ACC Honorable Mention in 2008.
So there you have a quick history on the Ravens newest additions. There will be more, as the undrafted free agents are being snatched up real quick, which started as soon as the last pick was made yesterday evening. We'll get to know more about these guys as we get closer to Training Camp, but you can be sure that some of them will become household names in just a very short time.