Where do The Ravens go after losing out on Eric Ebron?

With Eric Ebron getting a deal done in Indianapolis, where does this leave the organization at the tight end position.

News broke late last night that former Lions Tight End, Eric Ebron would be signing with The Indianapolis Colts on a two-year deal. The Ravens front office had plans of meeting with the recently released tight end. Much like the Ravens with Michael Crabtree, The Colts didn’t want Ebron to leave the facility without a deal being done. They got their guy. Ravens fans were hopeful that Ebron would eventually make his way to M&T Bank Stadium to meet with GM Ozzie Newsome. Ebron is just 24 years old, and while he has been inconsistent, he is truly just hitting his prime. Adding the talented pass catching tight end with Michael Crabtree would’ve added an interesting dynamic to this offense. A dynamic that it has surely missed over the last few seasons. I guess we’ll never know now.

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Ebron was the last intriguing tight end on the market. Trey Burton signed with the Chicago bears and Austin Seferian-Jenkins signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Ebron wasn’t the first tight end they missed out on signing. Now, there just isn’t a whole lot of moves out there at the moment. At least not appealing ones. You got Martellus Bennet who is coming off a season ending injury last season. They could pick up Brent Celek, but he’s 33 on the back end of his career. There is Julius Thomas who just hasn’t done a whole lot since he left a Peyton Manning led Broncos team. There just isn’t any moves out there at tight end that makes a whole lot of sense.

You have to be a bit optimistic here. Look at the glass half full, rather than half empty

I’m sure this news disappointed a lot of fans. As they wanted a tight end that could move the needle. There is a bright side to this news. After losing out on the handful of tight ends that were available in free agency, the pressure on Ozzie Newsome to hit on a pass catching tight end come April’s draft just got significantly higher.

When you look at the talent this draft has, Ozzie will have his bevy of options. Pairing Ebron with a rookie tight end would’ve been much nicer, that ship has now left the dock. But say the Ravens did sign Ebron, the front office wouldn’t be under the same amount of pressure to draft one. They missed out on him and this is good news.

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Say the front office decides to trade back and add another mid round pick. Seeing as how they don’t have too many of those with only getting a 6^th round comp for Ricky Wagner. They would be in a perfect position to draft two skilled position players in the first two rounds. They could draft a DJ Moore in the first round and then take the highest ranked tight end on their draft board when pick 51 rolls around. Hayden Hurst, Mike Gesicki, Mark Andrews, Dallas Goedert. One of them is bound to be there on day two, when The Ravens are on the clock. And Ozzie needs to make a decision. Along with desperately needing a wide receiver or two, needing a pass catching tight end, is at the top of the list as well.

The Bottom line

There will certainly be some sour grapes amongst Ravens fans, if Ebron goes on to be a star in Indianapolis. And although the Ravens front office never got a seat at the table with the tight end, this news means hearing one of the big name tight end prospects on the first two days of the draft, just got a whole lot more likely after last night.