OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Nobody was stunned that the Baltimore Ravens traded Orlando Brown Jr. on Friday. The shocker was the place he landed.
Why would the Ravens ship Brown to the Kansas City Chiefs, the group standing of their manner of attending to the Tremendous Bowl?
This commerce reveals how a lot the Ravens covet draft picks and the way normal supervisor Eric DeCosta is unafraid to take dangers. In DeCosta’s boldest transfer since changing Ozzie Newsome two years in the past, Baltimore despatched a two-time Professional Bowl offensive lineman to the Chiefs to guard Patrick Mahomes’ blind aspect so the Ravens might load up within the first 4 rounds of this 12 months’s draft.
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Earlier than the commerce, Baltimore had 4 picks within the first 4 rounds. Now, the Ravens have six picks within the first 4 rounds, together with two within the backside of the primary.
At this 12 months’s pre-draft information convention, DeCosta revealed that the Ravens’ draft success — 32 Professional Bowl gamers and three first-ballot Hall of Fame inductees in 25 years — isn’t actually a secret.
“It’s a luck-driven course of,” DeCosta mentioned. “In case you have extra picks, you’re going to hit on extra gamers.”
Over the previous 5 drafts, the Ravens have made 48 draft picks, third most within the NFL, in response to ESPN Stats & Data analysis. Baltimore has come away with 14 starters, the muse for a group that has made the playoffs in every of the previous three seasons.
This commerce between two Tremendous Bowl contenders will finally get judged by what the Ravens do with these picks. Baltimore has the draft capital to discover a playmaking huge receiver for Lamar Jackson, a pass-rusher to switch Matthew Judon and a younger ball-hawking security that’s been missing since Ed Reed.
However, by buying and selling Brown, there’s an enormous void on the offensive line, which was labeled a precedence by DeCosta initially of the offseason. The Ravens will discover all choices to switch Brown, together with the draft. One chance is signing former Steelers left sort out Alejandro Villanueva after the draft to grow to be a stopgap at proper sort out, in response to sources.
Villanueva, 32, is eight years older than Brown, however he’s not thought-about a major downgrade, particularly at what Baltimore likes to do finest. In line with ESPN Stats & Data analysis, Villanueva ranked 18th in offensive sort out run-block win fee in 2020, which was three spots increased than Brown (21st). The Ravens also can acquire a further $2 million in cap house by including Villanueva and dealing Brown, who has a $three.384 million cap hit.
The secure play would’ve been for the Ravens to carry on to Brown for this season and get a third-round compensatory choose within the 2023 draft after he signed elsewhere in free company. As a substitute, DeCosta confirmed as soon as once more how he’s prepared to take probabilities.
DeCosta’s first commerce was dealing former Tremendous Bowl MVP Joe Flacco to Denver for a fourth-round choose in February 2019, only one month faraway from Jackson struggling mightily in a playoff loss to the Chargers.
Through the previous two years, he has largely been profitable in his trades, exterior of the one for Yannick Ngakoue final 12 months. DeCosta has acquired cornerback Marcus Peters and defensive finish Calais Campbell, in addition to drafted working again J.K. Dobbins with a choose obtained by buying and selling former first-round choose Hayden Hurst.
This time, nevertheless, DeCosta made a commerce with a Chiefs group that has overwhelmed Baltimore in every of the previous three seasons and has reached the Tremendous Bowl the previous two years.
For the Chiefs, it will likely be fascinating to see if Brown has the footwork to carry up in cross safety on the left aspect in going from a run-centric offense in Baltimore to a pass-happy one in Kansas Metropolis.
For the Ravens, it’s time to make use of the extra cap room and draft picks to dethrone the Chiefs within the AFC.