Ravens Top 10 Draft Picks Of the Last 10 Years: #5 Marshal Yanda
Feb 3, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; Baltimore Ravens guard Marshal Yanda (73) and center Matt Birk (77) block for quarterback Joe Flacco (5) against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-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.
Now That I Have Recapped the Ravens 10 worst draft picks, lets get to the good stuff, Here are the Ravens 10 best draft picks of the past 10 years. Like with the worst picks, I have a few parameters here.
- Players who signed a second contract with the team were given priority over those who did not.
- Non Starters were not included. There are way to many good picks for me to include players who don’t start, at least occasionally.
- Players on the Superbowl squad were given the edge over players who were not.
- Proven commodities are worth more than potential success.
Those arent shackling restraints, but because the Ravens draft so well, this was actually a bit of a challenge. There are probably a lot of player that should have made this list but didn’t, just because there wasn’t enough room on the list to include everyone.
Marshal Yanda might be the second best player on the Ravens roster. He is really really good.
Yanda was taken in the third round of the 2007 NFL draft, he was actually the second guard the Ravens had taken that day, the first being the 29th overall pick ben Grubbs. Grubbs is a very good player, but Yanda is easily the better of the two. That is why Yanda is still a Raven and Grubbs is not.
Yanda has played both RG and RT over the course of his time in Baltimore, and he has played both at a Probowl level. Yanda has played with a level of dominance and consistency that has solidified his standing as one of the 2 or 3 best RGs in the NFL.
The Ravens dealt out a big contract to Yanda to the tune of 5 years 32.5 millions in 2011.
Yanda has not only shown his skill, but he has shown his toughness over the past five years. Yanda has played through a littany of injuries and even once had midseason knee surgery, and never missed a game. Yanda has been the embodiment of what you expect when you draft an Iowa lineman. He is highly skilled, high character, tough as nails and can just flat out play football.