Ravens almost traded out of first round

Assistant General Manager Eric DeCosta was asked about if he was worries if Breshad Perriman would be available to the Ravens at their 26th pick. What he said is kinda telling about how the Ravens felt about the remaining talent left in the first round.

Yes, I get concerned about everything. We were sweating it quite a bit, and it’s just one of those things. Our board got wiped," said assistant general manager Eric DeCosta when asked about if he was worried Perriman wasn’t going to be available at pick 26. "The last couple years – not last year, but a couple years – we’ve had that happen to us where we’ve just gotten wiped out.

"Some drafts we’ve had to trade out [of the first round]. This year, we finally got something to fall our way, because we were getting wiped out. But fortunately he was there."

Teams only have a few first round talents on their boards every year. Each team views them differently and they are partially ranked by need as teams won't draft a position that isn't useful to them just because a great player is available. You likely remember the few years where the Ravens had to trade out of the first round. The offers were substantial enough to make it worth the trade back in those cases.

This draft, the Ravens stayed put but were close to trying to trade back if Perriman had gone off their board ahead of them. The Denver Broncos leapfrogged Baltimore in an effort to select Shane Ray, the outside linebacker and defensive end prospect in the feat that the Ravens were going to select him before them. It is being reported that Ray wasnt their selection at that spot.

That and DeCosta's talk might clue us into how the Ravens felt about some of the prospects. Players like Shane Ray and Randy Gregory fit a need and were highly rated players by most teams, but have fallen back due to some red flags surrounding them. Either the Ravens have those players off their boards completely or they have them much lower due to their potential headache. Clearly the Ravens didn't feel like there were any other first round worthy talents on the board and that they could have gotten more value by trading into the second round instead.

“We probably would have traded back, yes, if he didn’t make it to us," general manager Ozzie Newsome said.

Could players like Gregory and Dorial Green-Beckham still be on the Ravens' board and worthy of them moving up or do you think the Ravens have them wiped off completely and will go in a different direction?