GM: It’s possible Ravens will pick QB in 1st round

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens declined to answer any questions about Lamar Jackson at Wednesday’s pre-draft news conference, but general manager Eric DeCosta did have something interesting to say about Baltimore’s quarterback position.

DeCosta acknowledged the possibility of the Ravens selecting a quarterback in the first round.

“It depends on the board, it really does,” DeCosta said. “I mean, I’d have to say yes because we have quarterbacks in our top 31. So just based on that alone, simple math, I would have to say yes.”

The Ravens might need to look for a new quarterback for the future considering the uncertain situation with Jackson, who received the nonexclusive franchise tag this offseason. Baltimore has two other quarterbacks on its roster: restricted free agent Tyler Huntley and Anthony Brown, who went undrafted a year ago.

The problem for the Ravens is they have the No. 22 overall pick, and the team doesn’t have the draft capital — a total of five selections — to move up in the first round. The Ravens described this quarterback class as strong at the top.

Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and Alabama’s Bryce Young are projected to go in the top two picks, and Florida’s Anthony Richardson and Kentucky’s Will Levis are widely projected to be taken in the top 15. Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker could be available toward the bottom of the first round.

“I would say there’s probably more than four guys that can be significant quarterbacks in this league in this draft class,” DeCosta said.

It’s more likely that Baltimore will take a wide receiver or cornerback with its top pick. The Ravens’ wide receivers ranked last in receiving yards last season, and the team has a void at cornerback with Marcus Peters being a free agent.

But the Ravens have been forward-thinking when it comes to quarterback. In 2018, Baltimore moved back into the first round to take Jackson when Joe Flacco was on its roster.

Asked if the Ravens have spent more time looking at quarterbacks this year, DeCosta said, “I wouldn’t say we’ve necessarily done that.”

Ravens officials answered six questions about this year’s quarterback draft class, but they shut down any talk about Jackson. In fact, no team official mentioned Jackson by name on Wednesday.

This represented a dramatically different tone by the Ravens, who have repeatedly praised Jackson and expressed optimism about retaining him over the 25 months of negotiations.

The first question of the news conference was whether the Ravens had spoken to Jackson since his tweet last week, when he announced he had requested a trade and then said goodbye to Ravens fans.

“I understand the need to ask those kind of questions,” DeCosta said. “I think just out of respect for the process, this is a draft luncheon and we’re going to try to keep as much of this discussion as we can to the draft, to the coming weeks, building the best football team we can build. So, I understand those questions. I think we’ve spoken about this situation probably five different times this spring in various different press conferences and such. So, we’re going to try to just kind of defer to those questions and move forward to the draft.”

On the third question of the day involving Jackson, a Ravens spokesperson cut off the reporter to reiterate that the news conference was about the draft and not about the Jackson situation. The reporter, though, continued his question about whether the Ravens are evaluating quarterbacks differently this year.

“I don’t think we really are,” DeCosta said. “We go into every draft trying to take any kind of bias out, any kind of need-based situation out of the draft equation. We really do try to build a board that’s really best player available.”

There were no more questions about Jackson, but the uncertainty surrounding his future in Baltimore remains.