Freedom Of Routine (This Changes Nothing)

The Ravens continue to be the Ravens, perhaps more consistent in their identity than any other team in the NFL.

While the veterans seem to define the team, the scary part is that Baltimore is getting younger and potentially better at their most important positions, the positions they use as cornerstones.

If the draft is all about value, then the important part is how value is perceived. The Ravens have a slightly different value system than everyone else. Gigantic tackles, high-motor edge rushers, ball-hawking defensive backs, versatile running backs.

The Ravens assurity even spreads to the type of player they draft at each position. Last year, drafting Joe Flacco in almost every way displayed the same logic as drafting bust Kyle Boller a few years before. Raw prospect. Big arm. Difficult to gauge intangibles (Boller coming out of Tedford’s Cal system, Flacco of DI-AA Delaware).

But general manager Ozzie Newsome stuck to his guns, stuck with the profile they were looking for in a quarterback. And Flacco so far looks like the real deal.

Plenty have written off Baltimore’s draft a couple weeks ago as unspectacular, with a couple reaches, while leaving a few needs on the table.

But I’ll refer to Zac at Throwing Into Traffic whose notion that identity advancing talent is always a need, will almost always pay dividends. Looking at Baltimore’s six selections this way, the Ravens draft is potentially good to great.

Though Andre Smith was the best tackle on film and Jason Smith was the best in interviews, Michael Oher from Ole Miss could be the best player of them all. And the Ravens, possessing all the depth and tools to develop him, nab Oher toward the end of the first round.

Knowing they can’t franchise Terrell Suggs forever, the Ravens take Paul Kruger, a big edge rusher. Knowing Samari Rolle won’t run forever, they take ball-hawking Lardarius Webb. And, of course, knowing that they will always be a grind-it-out team, the Ravens take perhaps one of the steals of the draft late in the sixth, back Cedric Peerman, a solid between the tackles runner with the speed to bounce it outside and threaten in the short zones through out of the backfield.

So while pundits can sing the praises of the Bengals drafting well according to some abstract board, the Ravens are perfectly happy being looked over in April, staying true to themselves and likely playing again in January.