Reacting to Ravens GM DeCosta comments on Odell, WR room: "Teams called us"

If you know anything about the Baltimore Ravens franchise, that's probably more to do with their defense than their offense, and how they have nurtured uber-talented players on the defensive side of the ball while struggling to develop standout wideouts.

Well, that might be about to change, if only because of the impressive collection of talents (both signed and drafted) that Ravens GM Eric DeCosta has put together this offseason to offer Lamar Jackson as many weapons as possible and the best pass-catching unit the QB and former MVP has ever enjoyed.

It's been all plaudits and flowers (no pun intended) given to the wide receiver room of the Ravens through the training camp and the offseason, and Jonas Shaffer asked Eric DeCosta about his assessment of "where this group stands compared to other groups."

"I think this group is good, and we've seen these guys make plays. And it's encouraging for us to see them every single day. [The] guys are stepping up and making contested catches and making big, explosive plays. The attitude and the energy is very, very good. Our coaches have done a great job with those guys, and just the leadership of the veteran players – Nelson [Agholor] and Odell [Beckham Jr.] – has really been superb. And the younger guys have really brought their game every single day. So, it's just encouraging to have so much depth. This is the first year, I will say this, it's the first year where other teams have called us looking for receivers. I actually thought it was a joke at first. So, that's kind of cool."

- Eric DeCosta, Baltimore Ravens GM

As EDC put it, he definitely didn't sound very excited about the whole combination of Odell Beckham, Nelson Agholor, Rashod Bateman, Zay Flowers, and Devin Duvernay. However, the GM acknowledged that "the attitude and the energy is very, very good."

DeCosta praised the job done by the Ravens coaches, as well as mentioning the "leadership of the veteran players," referring to Agholor and Beckham, who both signed with Baltimore earlier this offseason.

Speaking about OBJ in particular when asked about him by Cliff Brown, DeCosta said Beckham's body is "in very good shape," adding that the veteran "worked extremely hard" through the summer.

"He's a leader. He's a first-in-line guy. He's a do-the-right-thing guy. He's just been great...," DeCosta started. "I just really don't know how to explain it."

In a funny statement, EDC said that when approached by other franchises this summer for the first time in ages, he thought "it was a joke" that other teams were actually calling him asking for potential trades instead of the other way around. "That's kind of cool," the GM said.

We'll see if those talks lead up to an eventual trade or not down the road, but odds are the Ravens, if they perform to expectations, might actually entertain trading away some of their receivers.

A player to keep an eye on is Devin Duvernay, who is under contract at an unreasonable salary of $4.5 million while he's only used, for the largest part, on special-team plays and as the WR5 from the LOS.

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