Ravens trade up for superstar CB in 7-round 2022 NFL Mock Draft
By Justin Fried
The Baltimore Ravens are on the hunt for some major difference-makers in this year’s 2022 NFL Draft. And with 10 total picks, they certainly have no shortage of draft capital.
The Ravens love to stockpile mid-round picks, many of which come through the compensatory formula. Those picks allow the team to have as much draft flexibility as needed come draft day.
In this scenario, they won’t be using all of those 10 picks. Instead, we explored a scenario where the Ravens packaged a few mid-round picks to move up four spots in the first round.
The trade below sees the Ravens trade up from 14 to 10 in exchange for four first-round picks. The Ravens also receive an extra fifth-round pick from the New York Jets in return.
With help from Pro Football Network’s mock simulator, here are the results from our latest seven-round 2022 NFL Mock Draft.
Round 1, 10th Overall, Ravens: Sauce Gardner, CB, Cincinnati
This trade-up was done with one specific player in mind, that player being Cincinnati cornerback Ahmad ‘Sauce’ Gardner. The compensation is more than fair as the Ravens aren’t forced to give up a single top-100 pick to move up to get Gardner.
At 6-foot-2, 190 pounds, Gardner is one of the most successful cornerbacks in recent college football history. He combines a super high athletic ceiling with some of the best tape from any cornerback that I’ve ever seen.
In three years at Cincinnati, Gardner never allowed a touchdown and he surrendered just one red-zone completion over 115 coverage snaps. One catch allowed in the red zone in his entire career.
The Ravens love to have as much cornerback depth as possible and adding Gardner to a roster that already boasts Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters would go a long way toward fixing a pass defense that ranked dead-last in the NFL last season.