Eric DeCosta took his first big gamble with Marquise Brown

Eric DeCosta made Marquise Brown his first draft pick as a general manager. In doing so, he made Brown his first big gamble as a general manager:

Eric DeCosta made a lot of good moves this offseason yet before the draft he had relatively played it safe. He didn’t let himself go crazy in a bidding war for C.J. Mosley. He went with Mark Ingram on a very well shaped deal rather than dropping a bucket of money to get Le’Veon Bell. DeCosta did make a big splash to get Earl Thomas, however it’s hard to call that a gamble. When Thomas is healthy he is a Pro Bowl caliber player.

DeCosta took his first major risk when he drafted Marquise Brown. He selected a wide receiver, which is the one position the Ravens seem to be plagued at in the NFL Draft. Instead of choosing the big bodied N’Keal Harry (who the Patriots ended up taking) he went for an undersized player recovering from a Lisfranc injury.

Calling Brown a gamble isn’t knocking the pick. It’s acknowledging that the Ravens drafted him based on potential rather than being a sure thing. Brown has the potential to be one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. He has many of the same traits that made Antonio Brown an elite receiver. Brown has been compared to Desean Jackson more times than you can count.

If it works out, DeCosta will reap the rewards. He will have done the one thing that his mentor couldn’t achieve. Ozzie Newsome failed to draft a superstar wide receiver. If Brown becomes a perennial Pro Bowl participant, DeCosta is going to look like a genius. At the end of this hypothetical situation, he took a player based off of potential and he turned out to be right.

The fear with Brown is that he becomes more like a Travis Taylor than like his cousin who plays for the Oakland Raiders. The Ravens drafted the fastest receiver in the draft. They fell in love with his big play capabilities. We’ve seen this approach go wrong in the past. When the Ravens chose Brown, they had to look their draft history in the eye without blinking.

This was an unquestionably gutsy call made by DeCosta in his first draft as the general manager of the Baltimore Ravens. Brown will either become an early building block of his legacy or a stain on his draft record. It can either end up being a great thing or a missed opportunity that haunts the organization for years to come.

One thing is clear, DeCosta deserves credit for going for this kind of a gamble. Newsome was afraid to draft receivers. Newsome only drafted three wide receivers in the first round during his long run as the general manager. Newsome hardly took receivers in the first three rounds. DeCosta drafted two receivers in the first three rounds of his first draft. DeCosta looked at drafting Brown as a chance to get it right at the wide receiver position. It was a big gamble and if it works out it will be a huge win for the franchise.