Ravens Top 10 Draft Picks Of the Last 10 Years: #10 Courtney Upshaw
Feb 3, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; Baltimore Ravens linebacker Courtney Upshaw (91) celebrates after defeating 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.
The 10th player on my list is young Courtney Upshaw. Upshaw was a revelation as a rookie last year. After being drafted with the Ravens top pick in 2012, Upshaw came on and started for most of the second half of the season including the superbowl and all 3 playoff games.
Upshaw played so well, that he pushed Paul Kruger back into a situational role and out of the starting lineup. The most impressive aspect of Upshaws game is his versitility. At some point last season he played OLB(both sides), Sam line backer, Mike line backer, Defensive End, Defensive Tackle and Cornerback. Basically, Upshaw plays everywhere. Ironically, the Reason the Ravens were able to draft him was because despite having top 15 talent, he didnt have a true position. So the Ravens played him at every position.
Given another year or two(likely at ILB), Upshaw could possibly break the top 5 of this list.