D1City55
Pro Bowler
I believe the team wanted to move up for Khalil Mack in the 2014 draft but just didn't have enough to offer. The Ravens surely would be aggressive to move up for someone if they feel that generational talent is there that has no chance at being a bust is there but if not they're going to stack up, I'm pretty sure I heard from Ozzie that the more picks you have the better chance at hitting on a player.i think the problem is that with how much of a lottery the draft is, the data has shown that the guy you trade up for is statistically no more likely to be a hit than the guy you stayed at your spot for - now obviously you have to trust your grades and if there's a big grade disparity and you're not sure the guy's gonna make it to you then you have to move up (which i guess is what happened with miles boykin... which obviously didnt work out but also with Lamar which has obviously worked out insanely well and we gave up a future pick to get back into the 2020 class and take proche too)
EDC said before the 2020 draft if there was anyone he'd trade up for if they got in some sort of reasonable range and he said chase young and that's basically it - if you're trading up (especially in round 1) you have to be almost 100% certain that the guy is who you think he is
and that's the reason why you hoard lots of draft picks - exactly for the reason you said - they realise not all those guys are going to be hits... so the more guys you take the more likely you are to find someone
obviously it didnt work out in 2019 where the day 3 (and day 2 as well lol) portion of that draft hasnt really panned out and we're lucky we got backup level guard play from ben powers, some special teams value from justice hill and found mekari as a udfa)
and we havent found any "true" starters from our day 3 picks the last 3 years yet - but there's some promising depth and rotational pieces with broderick washington, james proche and geno stone in 2020 and tylan wallace and daelin hayes in 2021 - it's still early enough that those guys have a chance to develop and earn more snaps and carve out roles for themselves
To put it simply, the Ravens have been mediocre in the 2nd round in the past decade with a good amount of misses in the first with some good players but not elite talent outside of Stanley, Marlon, and Lamar. It's rounds 3-6 where the Ravens do a superb job.