On NFL.com, Gil Brandt, also known as 'The Godfather,' ranks the prospects of the 2010 NFL Draft from 1-100. Brandt earned 'The Godfather' nickname through success in his years as the Dallas Cowboys General Manager. He appears on Sirius NFL Radio on a regular basis and seems to know every player that ever played in the league and something on every prospect coming into the NFL.
Here he lists the prospects in 'tiers' as groups of ten, with ten tiers making up the rankings. With that in mind, it should appear that the Baltimore Ravens would be picking someone from the third tier, which has the players Brandt ranks from 21-30. However, if one of the players from the second or, gasp, the first tier are still available when Baltimore's turn comes up,then expect Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome to reach up and grab them if of course, that player is similarly ranked on the Ravens own board.
At the same time, if more than a few of the players are still on the Ravens board when our time comes, then there is a better than average chance that Ozzie will just trade back to gather more picks and then still get one of the guys he covets with that later selection. While this is what most people think is the likely scenerio, remember, when I asked him the question at the team's Pre-Draft Media Luncheon last week, he said if he saw a player falling towards them that they had ranked among the best in the draft, then they would definitely consider trading up to get them.
Looking at Brandt's list, the players that we all have been debating about the past couple of months all seem to be in the second and third there are even some in the fourth. Likewise, there are players in those tiers that we haven't discussed, so there is always that chance that the Ravens could grab a guy that many of us never saw coming our way. The term "Best Player Available" is one used in conjunction with the Ravens draft history, but most teams use that term, which is pretty subjective towards whomever is using it. The Ravens' "BPA" might be significantly different from the Steelers' "BPA" and so on and so forth. It is becoming one of the Draft's most overused terms as you know every team will say the selection they make was their own "Best Player Available" when they picked.
Take a look at Gil Brandt's list on NFL.com.