The guys at Sirius NFL Radio's afternoon show, Movin' The Chains, did a two round Mock Draft Friday afternoon and you might be sort of surprised at whom they had the Baltimore Ravens selecting with their two picks. Co-hosts Tim Ryan and Pat Kirwan undoubtedly know their football and took turns picking for each team as their turn came up.
In the first round, they had the Ravens jumping all over Penn State defensive lineman, Jared Odrick. Odrick has been talked about here on Baltimore Beatdown for quite a while now and I doubt too many Ravens fans would be disappointed to hear his name called when the Ravens turn actually comes up for real late Thursday night.
Odrick was the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and at 6'4" and 298 pounds, he can play defensive end in either the 3-4 or 4-3 schemes as he has the size and more importantly, the athletic abilities to play both inside or out, depending on whom lines up next to him.
It was the next pick that sort of caught me off guard and threw me for a loop.
When the Ravens pick in the second round round came up at #57 overall, the pick for the Ravens was East Carolina defensive tackle Linval Joseph.At 6'5" and 328 pounds, Joseph casts a giant shadow and is rated by NFLDraftScout.com as the 8th best DT on the board (click on their link to see Joseph's profile). However, Alabama defensive tackle Terrence Cody was still available and ironically, was taken right after the Ravens, picked by the Arizona Cardinals. At the same time, NationalFootballPost.com had Joseph rated as only the 16th best DT in the draft, while they ranked Cody as the 5th best DT available, right behind Odrick on their list.
While getting two big and highly rated defensive linemen in the first two rounds would certainly shore up the gaps left by losing both Justin Bannan and Dwan Edwards through free agency, this combination might not be what most of us fans were looking for. Although I would prefer to get a defensive lineman and a cornerback with those first two picks, I would much rather have Odrick and Cody than Odrick and Joseph. Imagine a d-line with Odrick, Cody AND Haloti Ngata staring down the opposing QB's with Ray Lewis, Jarret Johnson and T-Sizzle right behind them? Kind of makes you crave for the season to begin right now, eh?
For any true Ravens fan, though, we know that no matter what these Mock Drafts predict and regardless of what we talk and write about here on The Beatdown, no one truly has any idea of what will happen come late Thursday night when the Ravens turn comes up. Keep it, move up, trade down are the options and only GM Ozzie Newsome knows what the team will be doing and even he won't make that final decision until you hear the words from Roger Goodell, "the Ravens are on the clock."