One player’s last name has familiar (wrestling) ring to it
Top signings also include Oregon tight end, Utah QB
After three days of drafting ended late Saturday afternoon, the Ravens moved on to the mad scramble for undrafted free agents.
They found some interesting prospects. While the team has yet to announce any signings, the Ravens could end up with the NFL’s biggest class of undrafted rookies. As of early Sunday morning, 22 players are signing with the team, according to program announcements and media reports:
1. Kennesaw State fullback Bronson
Rechsteiner, the son of former professional wrestling champion Rick Steiner, confirmed on Twitter that he’s signing with the Ravens. The 6-foot, 230-pound Rechsteiner finished with 112 carries for 909 yards and seven touchdowns last season, along with eight catches for 101 yards.
Robert Rechsteiner, better known by his ring name Rick Steiner, was a World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation tag team champion in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
2. Oregon tight end Jacob Breeland confirmed on Twitter that he’s signing with the Ravens. The 6-5, 252-pound Breeland had 26 catches for 405 yards and
ing picks to do it. Win-win.
The Ravens still ride with the “best player available.”
Queen was both the best player on the Ravens’ board at No. 28 and a perfect fit to fill one of their most obvious holes. But they faced a different scenario in round two. Fans and analysts assumed they’d grab an edge rusher or a wide receiver. DeCosta, meanwhile, saw a first-round talent dangling in front of his face.
The Ravens didn’t need a running back, not with Mark Ingram II, Gus Edwards and Justice Hill returning from a record-setting attack. But their general manager could not pass on J.K. Dobbins, a fast, durable, no-frills runner with proven receiving skills and a 2,000-yard season at Ohio State on his resume.
DeCosta built on a strength rather than trying to patch a weakness with a player from lower on his draft board. It’s a philosophy he learned long ago from his predecessor, Ozzie Newsome. “These great players would just fall down the board, and we would take them,” he said, reflecting on his early drafts at Newsome’s side. “You prepare yourself for it, and when it happens, you have to be prepared to take the guy.”
Get as many good players as possible in the door and then figure out the puzzle. It’s an approach that has served the Ravens well. Ingram is 30 years old. Edwards is headed for restricted free agency after this season. If Dobbins becomes the team’s featured back by 2021 or 2022, no one will look back at the receivers or outside linebackers DeCosta eschewed at No. 55 overall.
The Ravens general manager made a similar decision when he picked Dobbins’ college teammate, Malik Harrison, late in the third round. He did not need another inside linebacker after drafting Queen. But DeCosta saw a player whose power game would complement Queen’s mobility and who carried a second-round grade on some boards.
The Ravens waited out the rush at wide receiver and ended up with good value.
You could feel fan anxiety building as the Ravens chose not to trade up for any of the11 wide receivers who went before their first pick in the second round. That anxiety threatened to go nuclear when they picked Dobbins over Denzel Mims of Baylor at No. 55 overall.
But DeCosta said going in that he saw 25 potential starting receivers in the class. So he was always more likely to go shopping at other positions while the wideout frenzy raged around him. That’s just how the Ravens do business.
We’ll never know exactly how the Ravens evaluated Mims, the kind of big, fast outside receiver they could use on their roster. But they did trade down after the NewYork Jets snatched him one slot ahead of them, at No. 59 overall.
They waited another 33 spots before taking Devin Duvernay of Texas. DeCosta’s patience paid off, because Duvernay brings elite pure speed (4.39 seconds in the 40-yard dash), reliable hands and dynamic ability to gain yards after the catch. John Harbaugh was thrilled, describing the premium the Ravens placed on speed and emphasizing how rare it is to find a sprinter who almost never drops the ball.
The knock on Duvernay coming into the draft was the he did not consistently use his speed to get open downfield at Texas. He’s most effective in the slot, which could also be said for the team’s most productive returning receivers, Marquise Brown and Willie Snead IV.
But Duvernay noted that he played outside earlier in his college career and promised that he’ll continue to sharpen his intermediate route running.
The Ravens got a receiver who fit them well without sacrificing picks to move up. Their faith in the depth of the class paid off, and no one should be surprised if Duvernay outproduces many of the pass catchers picked ahead of him.
It’s not clear the Ravens found an immediate replacement for Marshal Yanda.
We knew this was a dicey proposition going in.
First off, no one will truly replace Yanda, perhaps the best guard of his generation. Second, this draft did not feature an abundance of sure-thing interior blockers.
The Ravens apparently did not see great value at the position, because they waited until the last pick of the third round to take an offensive lineman, Tyre Phillips of Mississippi State. They added Michigan guard Ben Bredeson in the fourth round.
As a 6-foot-5, 331-pound mountain who mauls smaller men in the running game, Phillips fits the profile Harbaugh often talks about. He held up at left tackle in the talent-rich SEC, and the Ravens believe he can shift to guard without missing a beat.
Phillips certainly said the right things when he spoke to Baltimore media members, describing his “nasty” run blocking and his eagerness to fill the void left by Yanda.
But there are shortcomings in Phillips’ pass blocking. He’s neither particularly agile nor effective against bull rushers who gain a leverage advantage against him. That’s why many analysts pegged him as a fifth-round pick despite his ideal size and college resume.
“Phillips’ inability to play with consistent leverage in pass protection is going to get him smoked in the NFL,” the evaluators at Pro Football Focus wrote. “It’s not something that will be alleviated by a transition to guard either.”
Does that sound like a player who’s ready to fill in for Yanda, a flexible athlete and exquisite pass blocker?
Bredeson started all four years at Michigan and comes to the Ravens as a polished pass blocker. But scouts criticized him for losing leverage battles against powerful interior defenders, which describes almost every NFL defensive tackle.
Phillips and Bredeson will give Ben Powers competition for the right guard job and provide depth at both guard and tackle. But interior offensive line remains one of two significant areas of concern (along with edge rush) coming out of this draft.
The Ravens addressed their pass rush, but not in the way we expected.
Matthew Judon was the team’s only consistent edge rusher in 2019, and his future remains murky as he prepares to play this season under the franchise tag. So many of us assumed the Ravens would use a firstor second-day pick on a young outside linebacker.
Instead, they traded away a secondround pick and went for an interior pass rusher, Justin Madubuike of Texas A&M, with their first pick of the third round.
The 293-pound Madubuike is an intriguing prospect who thrived against the run throughout his college career and won enough battles as a pass rusher to suggest he might become an NFL playmaker. He measured as one of the fastest and most agile defensive linemen at the NFL scouting combine. He’s not another space eater in the Brandon Williams/Michael Pierce mode.
“He’s an explosive guy — a really quick, twitchy, heavy-handed guy,” Harbaugh said. “He can kind of take a blocker’s balance away, and then turn him and work edges. He does it in the pass game and in the run game, and he got to the quarterback a lot.”
The pick fit the Ravens’ pattern from this offseason. They’ve added large, powerful rushers such as Calais Campbell and Derek Wolfe instead of chasing the speedier outside guys.
They had several chances to draft outside linebacker Zack Baun from Wisconsin, seen as a first-round talent by some analysts, and looked elsewhere each time.
Perhaps the Ravens simply did not see good values among the edge rushers available. Or perhaps they believe that with enough talent along the defensive front, Martindale can scheme up an outside pass rush with his unpredictable and relentless blitzes.