The Baltimore Ravens are sitting at No. 27 in the 2025 NFL Draft with no glaring holes but one very real problem creeping over the horizon: their pass rush. The team was second in the league in sacks last year with 54, but that stat doesn’t tell the full story. They patched it together, and the glue is starting to wear thin.
Odafe Oweh is entering a contract year. Kyle Van Noy turned 34 in March. David Ojabo hasn’t developed like the team hoped. That’s three big question marks at a premium position, with no guaranteed answer on the roster past 2025. General manager Eric DeCosta might be looking at a defensive front that’s dangerously close to falling apart next offseason if he doesn’t act now.
That’s why the latest mock draft from CBS Sports; Chris Trapasso might actually be right on the money. Baltimore is projected to take Boston College EDGE Donovan Ezeiruaku with the 27th pick—an outside-the-box selection at first glance, but a smart long-term investment once you look a little closer.
Ravens get ahead of potential 2026 offseason headache
Ezeiruaku doesn’t fit the mold of Baltimore’s usual pass rush prototype. He’s smaller than the classic Ravens edge guy at 6-foot-2, 247 pounds, but he makes up for it with some serious polish. This isn’t just a raw athlete. He’s one of the most refined pass rushers in the draft—period.
As Trapasso put it:
"A departure from the normal, oversized defensive front player for the Ravens, Baltimore gravitates toward Ezeiruaku because of his polish as a pass rusher."
He ranked second in FBS last season with 16.5 sacks and shows off an NFL-ready bag of pass-rush moves. Ghosts, cross-chops, dips, rips—he’s got them all. And it’s not just about the highlight reel. He plays with discipline, knows how to set the edge, and brings a relentless motor every down. If Baltimore wants a player who can rotate in early and grow into a bigger role fast, this is the guy.
Ezeiruaku isn’t perfect. Seldom picks are. He’s not going to bully elite NFL tackles with raw power and can get swallowed up in the run game. But what he lacks in frame, he makes up for with savvy and technique. His bend and fluidity around the corner are what the Ravens have been missing.
With Oweh’s future looking uncertain, Van Noy aging, and Ojabo stuck in developmental purgatory, the Ravens need a new pass-rushing pillar. Ezeiruaku isn’t a luxury pick. He’s a necessity—especially if they don’t want to head into 2026 scrambling for answers at a position that’s become increasingly expensive and hard to fix on the fly.
Mock drafts aren’t gospel. But if this is how things play out, it wouldn’t just make sense. It’d be solid damage control a year before the damage hits. Ezeiruaku has the potential to be a real difference-maker.