The Baltimore Ravens will look back at their 2008 NFL Draft as one of the best in their franchise history. While it's hard to top the inaugural 1996 draft when they scored two future Hall of Fame shoo-ins with LT Jonathan Ogden and LB Ray Lewis, the 2008 group has to be their second best. Getting QB Joe Flacco with the 19th pick in the first round and then "stealing" RB Ray Rice in the 2nd round with the 55th overall pick is a great draft, just counting those two and if you add in safeties Tom Zbikowski and Haruki Nakamura, it only gets better.
Of the Ravens ten picks in the 2008 draft, nine are still on the team, including 3rd round picks Tavares Gooden and Oniel Cousins. Only 7th round pick, RB Allen Patrick (Oklahoma) did not make the squad out of Training Camp, a great percentage for any team in any draft.
NFL.com took a look at the entire 2008 NFL Draft and did a "do-over" of the top of the first round. They moved Flacco up to the third overall pick of the first round (he would have been a much richer man) and say that Rice was among the best values of the second round. They go on to compare Joe Flacco's first three seasons with those of Eli Manning and Drew Brees in terms of throwing TD passes.