Baltimore Ravens draft history: The second day of the draft

Take home point: 

Take out Matt Elam and Breshad Perriman and Baltimore has a great record with their first round picks. The Ravens drafting on the third day of the draft is where a lot of their success comes from. The second day of the draft, more specifically the second round, seems to be the most iffy spot on the Newsome/DeCosta resume.

The third day of the draft is where they flourish the most. In fact, I would argue that no team is better at player evaluation from the fourth round all the way to undrafted free agency, If history tells us anything the most likely Ravens draft is a strong start and a strong finish. What they get in second and third rounds is the biggest gamble.

In the third round the Ravens have a decent rate of finding undervalued prospects. This is the round where the players start to become more of unfinished products. The Ravens are good at finding a player who has both traits and potential for growth. Look at Andrews. He had a decent rookie season yet when things clicked, his second season got him to the Pro Bowl.

In the third round most of the boom or bust prospects are off the board. These players are what they are and you have to figure out if you can work with that. The Ravens have always been good with those terms.

The fact that there is no round without plenty of misses for Baltimore shows how hard it is to draft players from the collegiate level and turn them into pros. The idea of loading up on second round picks is fairly appealing on paper.

In actuality the Ravens need to do what they did in the past two drafts. They need to maximize their value in the first and third rounds and continue to show the league how it’s done on day three.