The Baltimore Ravens turn their attention to the 2023 offseason after a disappointing 2022 season that ended with a 24-17 loss in the Wild Card round to the Cincinnati Bengals. Baltimore will try to improve their roster in many facets, with one avenue for improvement coming in the draft.
The Ravens have less draft picks than normal in 2023, coming to the table with just five after being a part of transactions that moved around assets over the last few months and years. When asked about potentially acquiring more draft picks, Baltimore general manager Eric DeCosta said that they’d love to have more, but every draft is different.
“Every Draft is different. Ultimately, we’d love to have more picks; I think most years we do. Sometimes what we find is if you have too many picks over a three or four-year span, it’s hard for all those guys to make the team and contribute. I go back to, there was a draft many years ago where I think [executive vice president and former general manager] Ozzie [Newsome] had four picks. [It was] one of our best Drafts. [In 1999], I think we took [Chris] McAlister, Brandon Stokley, Edwin Mulitalo and there was one other guy [Anthony Poindexter]. It was a hell of a Draft; it was a hell of a Draft; every single guy contributed right away. My goal, my mentality is to take every one of those picks this year and nail every single one of those picks.”
The Ravens traded a second-round pick and a fifth-round selection for inside linebacker Roquan Smith, while also trading their 2023 seventh-rounder in a swap that included cornerback Shaun Wade. The team isn’t in line to get any compensatory picks either, so they might have to move down from their No. 22 overall slot in the first round to generate more picks if they want them.