A shock wave rippled through Ravens headquarters in Owings Mills as midnight approached on April 26, 2018.
A few minutes earlier, the team’s vice president of public relations, Kevin Byrne, had asked general manager Ozzie Newsome if he was ready to speak with reporters about the Ravens’ first-round draft pick, tight end Hayden Hurst. No, Newsome said, he thought there might be more business that night.
In a flash, the Ravens were back on the clock with the No. 32 pick they acquired in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles. On ESPN’s broadcast, veteran analyst Mel Kiper Jr. speculated they were about to select Iowa center James Daniels. Newsome had something splashier in mind.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell soon announced it to the world: Lamar Jackson, the most dazzling, divisive prospect in a quarterback-rich draft was headed to Baltimore.
Five years later, Jackson is again a central character as the Ravens and the NFL prepare for another draft Thursday night. He more than made good on the Ravens’ original bet, seizing the starting quarterback job from an injured Joe Flacco midway through the 2018 season and winning NFL Most Valuable Player honors in 2019. But now, he and the Ravens are stalled in negotiations for a contract extension, and the team is again considering a potential succession plan at the most important position in the sport.
Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh have said they’re building the team as if Jackson will be their quarterback for years to come. But Jackson asked for a trade in early March, and the Ravens do not know if he will be willing to play the 2023 season under the $32.4 million nonexclusive franchise tag they placed on him March 7. The draft is the next flash point in the saga, because the Ravens could use one of their five picks to select a potential successor, or they could turn the whole event on its head by sending Jackson to another team.
Draft analysts don’t consider a cataclysmic scenario likely. At most, they predict DeCosta might use a later pick on a quarterback who could polish his skills behind Jackson and last year’s backup, Tyler Huntley.
“If they draft a quarterback, maybe in the later rounds, something that’s not threatening to Lamar,” ESPN’s Todd McShay said. “I think the most important thing that organization has to do is to make sure Lamar knows he’s their guy. With their recent move to bring in [wide receiver] Odell Beckham Jr. and pay him the money they did, I think that was the first olive branch in that situation. Utilizing an early-round pick on a quarterback would not be the wise move, and I don’t expect to see Eric DeCosta, who knows what he’s doing, make that decision.”
NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah, a former Ravens scout, agreed he’d avoid any move that might alienate Jackson: “I don’t get the sense this will be a big, bold move for them to go up and get one. I think it’s just good business and being smart to bring in another option [at quarterback]. It’s just a matter of where you want to do it. I don’t think it makes as much sense to do it early. That’s almost, I don’t want to say a panic pick, but if you’re taking a quarterback or you’re trading up for a quarterback, you’re all but kicking Lamar Jackson out the door.”
Of course, not many thought the Ravens would take the plunge for Jackson in 2018. Flacco, the 2012 Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, was headed into his 11th season as the team’s starting quarterback, and most pundits assumed Newsome would use his first-round pick on a player who’d make the veteran’s life easier. The Ravens seemed to confirm this approach when they took Hurst, a strong, swift pass catcher and blocker, after trading down twice to the No. 25 overall pick. If they were sold on Jackson as their future, they could have simply snagged him at that point. When they finally did pick him, the move felt more like a triumph of opportunism than an orchestrated plan to replace Flacco.
The situation this time around is different. Flacco was 33, three years removed from the last time he’d led the Ravens to the playoffs, when Jackson was drafted. There was plenty of talk about the Ravens looking for their next quarterback, though owner Steve Bisciotti had said they would have “bigger fish to fry” in the 2018 draft. Jackson, by contrast, will be 26 when the 2023 season opens in September. Though he has finished the last two seasons on the sideline because of injuries, he’s still one of the NFL’s most exciting and impactful players. If the Ravens move on from him, it will not be because they have a better talent waiting in the wings.
Still, DeCosta has left open the possibility they will draft a quarterback. They hosted Anthony Richardson of Florida, who blends rare size, speed and arm strength, for a prospect visit. And team officials have said there are quarterbacks projected to be picked outside the first round who could make an impact in the NFL.
“It depends on the board, it really does,” DeCosta said when asked if he’d consider drafting a quarterback in the first round. “I mean, I’d have to say yes, because we have quarterbacks in our top 31.”
Newsome, DeCosta’s mentor, used similar language in 2018: “We will grade the players, set the board, and if there’s a quarterback that we feel that we can pick at any of our picks, we’ll do it.”
One way for the Ravens to solve their dilemma with Jackson would be to pull off a draft-night blockbuster.
The Ravens could not only add picks for this year and beyond but potentially land one of the top four quarterbacks in the 2023 class — C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Richardson or Will Levis — to be the team’s next offensive centerpiece. Jackson would have to sign his franchise tag tender to facilitate such a move, so he would essentially have veto power.
The Indianapolis Colts, who hold the No. 4 pick, haven’t completely ruled out interest in Jackson, even with owner Robert Irsay saying he doesn’t believe in fully guaranteed contracts, which Jackson might be seeking.
“Anytime a special player is available, which he is, you’ve got to do the work,” Colts general manager Chris Ballard said last month at the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix.
If the Colts signed Jackson to an offer sheet, the Ravens would have five days to match it or receive two first-round picks in return, including the Colts’ pick this year.
Who among the top four quarterbacks in the draft would best suit Baltimore? It depends whom you ask.
“The most NFL-ready, right now, would be Stroud and Young,” Kiper said. “Levis played in two NFL systems with college coordinators. If you wanted to go to [new Ravens offensive coordinator] Todd Monken, you’d have to ask, what kind of quarterback you want?
“If you say we’re going to get away from the runner, you go with Will Levis. If you want more of the Lamar Jackson-type quarterback coming out, then you’d go with Anthony Richardson.”
The Ravens have drafted a quarterback in the first round just three times: Jackson in 2018, Flacco with the 18th overall pick in 2008 and Kyle Boller with the 19th pick in 2003.
They’re perhaps more likely to take a shot at the position in the middle-to-late rounds after using their first-round pick to address more immediate needs at cornerback and wide receiver. The quarterback class is deep enough for that to be an enticing compromise solution.
“The fact is that we think you can get a quarterback in the first round, or the third round, or the fourth round who we’d have a chance to develop,” DeCosta said. “You saw what the [San Francisco 49ers] did last year with [seventh-round pick] Brock Purdy. It’s quite possible to get a good quarterback at any point in the draft.”
The Ravens have a history of dipping into the later rounds for a quarterback, though the results have been mixed, with 2011 sixth-round pick Tyrod Taylor the most notable success.
Kiper pointed to three possibilities for this year: Fresno State’s Jake Haener, TCU’s Max Duggan, and Stetson Bennett, who spent the past two years playing under Monken at Georgia. Jeremiah offered two more names — Jaren Hall of BYU and Dorian Thompson-Robinson of UCLA — as interesting developmental candidates behind Jackson.
The Ravens started down a new path five years ago, when Jackson bounded onto the stage in his forest green suit and bow tie to shake Goodell’s hand and don a Ravens cap for the first time.
“I’m a Raven. It’s on,” he said that night. “They’re going to get a Super Bowl out of me, believe that.”
“We got it done,” Newsome said quietly as scouts celebrated around him in the Ravens’ war room.
Is the journey they began just coming to its exciting middle, or are the Ravens about to start another one?
NFL draft
Round 1: Thursday, 8 p.m.
Rounds 2-3: Friday, 7 p.m.
Rounds 4-7: Saturday, noon
TV: ESPN, NFL Network, Chs. 2, 7
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