The first safety has come off the board. Georgia’s Malaki Starks has, to little surprise, been selected by the Ravens at No. 27 overall. A team whose biggest needs were in the trenches, Baltimore instead addresses the weakest part of their defense from the early part of the 2024 season. 
Starks was praised during his time in Athens for his leadership ability, often taking responsibility for his teammates’ alignments as much as his own. Playing most of his time in the defensive backfield, Starks also found plenty of time in the box and nickel spots on the Bulldogs defense.
Though the Ravens brought him in to address a pass defense that was the second-worst in the league over the course of the 2024 season, Starks biggest strengths were in run defense, as he frequently allowed big plays on defense last year. Baltimore will hope that handing over green-dot duties to players like Kyle Hamilton and Roquan Smith will allow Starks to focus on his own assignments and let his instincts take over in coverage. The Ravens will hope to see the version of Starks from 2023 that limited big plays while logging 19 passes defensed and five interceptions in his first two seasons.
What’s interesting is that, after a Week 10 shootout with the Bengals, the Ravens pass defense became one of the best in the NFL, allowing just 172 passing yards per game and just five touchdowns to six interceptions over that time. The difference came when the team cut Eddie Jackson and permanently benched Marcus Williams, instead planting Hamilton back at safety alongside Ar’Darius Washington. With Washington recently signing his restricted free agent tender, both starters are set to return in 2025, so Starks fit in Baltimore becomes intriguing.
Because Starks showed a tendency to get beat over the top in 2024, when his eyes got caught in the offensive backfield or when he got mixed up by crossing intermediate routes, the team may continue using Hamilton and Washington in the defensive backfield, choosing to utilize Starks in the box or nickel role, though Marlon Humphrey has typically manned the slot lately. Regardless, Baltimore has an embarrassment of riches in the secondary, and they seem to be doing everything to make sure their pass defense doesn’t leak early in the year again in 2025.
Ely Allen contributed to this post.