Brace Yourself Baltimore Ravens Fans: Disappointments From The Past Ahead
Today we are going to look at the biggest gaffes in the drafting record of the Baltimore Ravens. No Breshad Perriman isn’t on this list. The jury is still out on him; let him touch the football field before you run him out of town. This list doesn’t account for players who were robbed of a chance to succeed due to early injuries. Dan Cody for example was not a draft bust, but a sequence of bad luck.
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The Ravens have a pretty strong draft record overall, but there are some major errors to account for. To be on this list, the drafted player must have had at least a little bit of an opportunity. He must have had high expectations, and he had to perform way below these observations.
Finally to be one of the Ravens worst draft busts, it had to cost the organization. Ramone Harewood ended up being a bad player but it’s not like a sixth round pick failing breaks the Ravens back. Players like this do no qualify to be on this list. Though the term qualify is admittedly ironic.
Next: 5. Terrence Cody, DT (Alabama)
5. Terrence Cody, DT Alabama
The Ravens invested a second round pick on Terrence Cody. Cody didn’t invest even a fifth round effort for the Ravens. Cody was a lazy player who was consistently out of shape. He was huge but he wasn’t a space eater. He had potential but it only flashed in college. Of the players on this list, Cody may be the one the Ravens were the most patient with.
He was with the Ravens from 2010-2013. He only played in one game in the 2014 season and for the Ravens sake, that doesn’t count. Cody delivered no production. To be fair he was a nose tackle, his stats weren’t supposed to jump off the page. It would be a major stretch to call him a force to be reckoned with.
If the Ravens drafted Cody in the fifth or six round, maybe I could get over it. They wasted a second round pick on Cody. To put that in perspective, Ray Rice, Torrey Smith and Kelechi Osemele were second round picks. That is the kind of value you can get with a second round pick and the Ravens whiffed on Cody.
Next: 4. Gino Gradkowski, Center (Delaware)
4. Gino Gradkowski, Center (Delaware)
When the Ravens drafted Gino Gradkowski in the fourth round they thought they had outsmarted everybody. They took an undersized center from Delaware and hoped he would be Matt Birk’s replacement. The Ravens got a franchise quarterback who was too good for the Division I FCS from Delaware. Gradkowski however was a Blue Hen for a reason.
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Gradkowski was the Ravens starting center in the 2013 season and to say it went poorly, is an understatement. He was often overpowered and blown past on defensive tackles, way to Joe Flacco. The Ravens thought they found a long-time solution in Gradkowski. They banked on it after Birk left. They were wrong and that is why this is such a bad pick.
Gradkowski was one of the worst offensive linemen I have ever seen. To be honest, other than being a good guy in the locker room, I don’t see what the Ravens saw in him. He’s 6’3″ 300 pounds, with short arms and an underwhelming level of strength.
Next: 3. Matt Elam Safety (Florida)
3. Matt Elam, Safety (Florida)
How can a player that was so good in college, be so drastically bad in the NFL? The Ravens drafted Matt Elam with the last pick in the first round in 2013. As a Florida Gator, he flew all over the football field. I’m afraid to admit that I was a big Elam guy going into the 2013 draft. He put up the production, he had good game tape, he looked as solid as could be.
In the NFL, Elam looks lost. He can’t tackle and he is constantly out of position to make a play. I don’t know if it is scheme, or confidence, but something just isn’t right here. Elam was hurt last season but it doesn’t really matter. We knew who he was already.
With the addition of Eric Weddle, and the promise of Terrence Brooks, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Ravens 2013 first round pick get cut. That sentence tells you everything you need to know about Elam’s career with the Ravens.
Next: Travis Taylor, WR (Florida)
2. Travis Taylor WR (Florida)
The Ravens honestly have a handful of wide receivers that could go on this list. The Ravens are not good at drafting wide receivers; it is perhaps Newsome’s biggest weakness as a general manager. Travis Taylor was a big disappointment for the Ravens. He had blazing speed and was supposed to be the next great receiver in the NFL.
Instead Taylor had inconsistent hands and failed to be a difference maker. He never had a season with 1,000 yards receiving. His best season was in 2002 when he caught 61 passes for 869 yards and six touchdown passes. That was Taylor’s only season with 60 receptions or more. Taylor was never a number one receiver. If he wasn’t a first round draft pick, he’d be a lot lower on this list.
The one thing we do have to acknowledge to be fair, is that Taylor never had a quarterback that was very good with the Ravens. That would have helped him, but Taylor honestly wasn’t that good.
Next: Kyle Boller
1. Kyle Boller, QB (Cal)
Since I couldn’t find a picture of Kyle Boller in the photos we are able to use, I figured I’d use a picture of the man who forced him on us. Brian Billick fell in love with the rocket arm of Boller. We grew to hate Boller’s deer in the headlights routine, but nothing could shake Billick’s infatuation with the Cal QB. Boller looked the part, he was a good guy, but it just didn’t work out. It didn’t work out because Boller was a horrible quarterback.
The Ravens took a major chance on Boller and it set the team back. The Ravens just could never admit that Boller wasn’t the guy for the job. In 2003, Anthony Wright took over for the injured Boller. He got the Ravens rolling. I still believe if the Ravens didn’t go back to Boller in their playoff game against the Tennessee Titans, they would have won.
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These are the top five draft busts in Ravens history. There are other players that got some consideration. For their sake, I will leave them off this list. This is not a list that you want to be on. We cannot ignore the parts of history that we don’t like. These draft busts happened. Hopefully the Ravens learned a lesson from each of them.