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Depleted Ravens enter draft with all options open

The Baltimore Ravens don't have a draft board this year. They have a dart board.

No matter where they aim, they can let it fly and be confident of hitting a need. Or two. Or three. When your list of need positions includes everything but holder and wedge-buster, you know things are getting a bit shallow on the old depth chart.

How thorough has been the dismantling of the once-mighty Ravens this spring? Shoot, last we checked, they're even taking the name off their stadium. No doubt replacing it with a help wanted sign.

The Ravens held their pre-draft press briefing Monday afternoon and it was really kind of intriguing, in a slow-down-for-the-accident-rubbernecking-kind of way. Listening to Ravens officials tick off the positions they hope to address in the upcoming draft was sort of like watching two kids trade baseball cards. It was a lot of "need 'em, need 'em, need 'em," with very few "got 'ems."

On defense, the salary-cap decimated Ravens could use a tackle, an end, an outside linebacker, an inside linebacker, a cornerback and a safety. On offense, a tackle, running back, receiver and quarterback would come in handy.

That's 10 different positions if you're counting. Which works out rather well because Baltimore happens to own 10 draft picks this year. Straightforward enough, right?

The Ravens' big pronouncement of the day was -- drum roll, please -- that they didn't need a tight end. So, draftniks, cross that one off your list. It ain't happening. As of now, Todd Heap has the most secure job in America.

Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens senior vice president of football operations, said that this year's draft reminds him of 1997, when Baltimore stock-piled quality young players like linebackers Peter Boulware and Jamie Sharper, safety Kim Herring and center Jeff Mitchell, helping build the nucleus of the team that would go on to win the Super Bowl three years later.

"Back then, we realized we needed an influx of young talent," Newsome said. "We are approaching the 2002 draft in that manner."

Ah, but what Newsome conveniently forgot to mention was that the Ravens went 6-9-1 in 1997, finishing in last place in the five-team AFC Central. And then followed that up with a 6-10, fourth-place finish in 1998.

Fortunately, a sense of humor has not been lost in Baltimore. The joke this offseason is that now that the Ravens have graduated their senior class, it's time for the underclassmen to step up and prove their worth. It's a good line, and that's a welcome thing, because it may be the only good line in Baltimore this year. On either side of the ball.

The Ravens' list of losses reads like an Academy Awards thank-you speech. Too many names to remember. You could assemble a pretty fair lineup out of the Baltimore departures, but why bother? It would look almost like the 2001 Ravens. And we know how they turned out, 11-7 and a second-round playoff exit.

Here's a fact that might blow you away and illustrate our point at the same time: Baltimore currently has just 13 defensive players on its entire 35-man roster. That's right, we said 13 and 35. When the Ravens announced plans to switch to a 3-4 defense this year, who knew they meant playing seven-man football?

Newsome was asked at one point if he felt pressure to hit a "home run" in this year's draft, given the state of the team's roster (baseball analogies rule in the clichéd world of sports).

"A home run?" he said. "No, but with the amount of holes we have, it'll probably be easy to hit a couple singles and maybe some doubles."

Of one thing the Ravens can be sure. They're going to set the NFL's modern-day record for compensatory draft picks -- next year. Hardly anyone but Paul Tagliabue's accountant understands the compensatory formula, but if the Ravens aren't awarded an extra 12 or so selections in 2003, there ought to be a league investigation.

Newsome doesn't mince words when asked how many starters the Ravens need to locate in this draft, even though they're in the bottom third of each round, and choose 24th, 56th and 87th in the first three. "We need at least three starters," he said. "With about five other guys being contributors. With 10 picks, that's hitting it at 80 percent. I'd be happy with that."

In June, once their salary-cap situation loosens up a bit, the Ravens will fill out their roster with some much-needed bodies. There's even a chance, if they get defensive end Michael McCrary to take a pay cut in the coming days, that the Ravens could get serious in the bidding for free-agent linebacker Kevin Hardy before the draft.

But for now, the Ravens are concentrating on the 10 chances they get to replenish the locker room on draft weekend.

"The draft is going to have to provide us with a lot of young talent that's going to have to come in and contribute right away -- hopefully in a mighty way," Newsome said. "When you've got as many holes as we have, I think any player that we select in any of the rounds will have a unique opportunity to come in and play."

But before we all throw too much dirt on them, let's remember that these Ravens have generally known how to draft in the past. At least near the top of the draft. Of Baltimore's eight first-round picks since the relocated from Cleveland in 1996, seven are still with the team and all of those are projected 2002 starters: Ray Lewis, Jonathan Ogden, Chris McAlister, Travis Taylor, Jamal Lewis, Boulware and Heap. Only Duane Starks, who signed with Arizona last month, is elsewhere, and Baltimore got four good years out of him before he took off.

Not bad. But that sterling track record could be severely tarnished if the Ravens don't draft well in this most crucial of years. Baltimore, unlike the Marines, is looking for more than a few good men.

"It does feel like we're starting over in a sense, because it is going to be a new team," head coach Brian Billick said. "A younger team even than when I got here [in 1999]. Or at least potentially."

So the darts are out in Baltimore, and it's almost time to ready, aim, and fire. Pick a need, any need, and let it go. This year, the Ravens need them all to stick.

Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.

 

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