Ravens GM Eric DeCosta dedicates their 2020 draft to late scout Ron Marciniak

Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta just finished checking in on social media with some news about a few teams discussing a possible trade up or trade down situation with the Baltimore Ravens, who currently hold the No. 28 overall pick in the first round. While talking shop, DeCosta took a moment to inform the public he will be dedicating this draft to late scout Ron Marciniak, who passed away last month at the age of 85.

“We had our red star meeting today at 11 o’clock and ironically that meeting was started many years ago by a guy named Ron Marciniak who scouted the Southwest for us and was a great mentor for me and Ron passed away last month,” DeCosta said. “He was a special guy, a great scout, a great evaluator. Awesome people skills, funny, humble and just a great football man and very special. The red star meeting is really a tradition we have in Baltimore where our scouts are able to pick one player in the draft who they want their reputations tied to. It’s got to be a guy that’s clean off the field. It’s got to be a guy that has character, durability, intelligence and he’s got to be a great football player. Those are the kind of guys that really make your team and so that tradition really goes back to Ron Marciniak. I’m going to dedicate this draft to good ‘ole Ron who taught me so much.”

Baltimore Ravens’ editorial director Ryan Mink also tweeted Marciniak was the one who coined the phrase, “Play Like A Raven.”