Ravens Top 10 Worst Draft Picks Of the Last 10 Years: #4 Oniel Cousins

Oct 14, 2012; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns tackle Oniel Cousins (75) during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Cleveland won 34-24. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

With The Draft upcoming, i thought it would be appropriate to take a look at some of the shining accomplishment and most glaring faults in terms of draft picks.

First I will be starting with The Ravens 10 worst draft picks. I have a few parameters here.

1. No picks outside of round 3 were considered. It isnt really fair to call a seventh rounder a bad pick because he never played.
2. No Current Starters, a starter cant really be considered a bad pick unless they were a high pick who hasn’t paned out(spoiler alert, the Ravens don’t have any of those).

Those arent shackling restraints, but because the Ravens draft so well in the first three rounds, this was actually a bit of a challenge. This list is riddled with career ending injuries(or series of injuries) and crazy improbable events that changed the career of the player involved.

Now we reach number 4, Oneil Cousins.

When a player selecting in the top three rounds fails to spend the life of his rookie contract with a team, You know he is a bust. Oniel Cousins was just that.

Cousins was drafted in the third round of the 2008 draft, a draft that featured major steal picks Ray Rice and Joe Flacco in the first two rounds. The thing that saves Cousins from being a top 3 bust is that the back end of that draft was devoid of talent. The only probowlers selected behind Cousins were Matt Slater(who shouldnt have ever been a probowler) and Carl Nicks, who was taken a full 2 rounds later.

Cousins time in Baltimore was 100% fueled by frustration. Cousins played, poorly, at both guard and tackle and was never able to live up to his talent level. Cousins lacked focus and consistency on and off the field. After failing miserably at tackle, the Ravens tried to move him inside to guard, which forced Marshal Yanda out of his more comfortable spot and forced him to play RT, the position Cousins should have been playing. Yanda played well at tackle, but Cousins was still a disaster at guard. after the 2010 season, Cousins was waived. He now plays for the Browns who claimed him off waivers.