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2026 NFL Draft Gameday Thread

What position will the Ravens select with their first pick in the draft

  • DT

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • EDGE

    Votes: 3 11.1%

  • LB

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • DB

    Votes: 3 11.1%

  • OL

    Votes: 19 70.4%

  • RB

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • TE

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • WR

    Votes: 2 7.4%
  • Total voters
    27
  • Poll closed .
Grim said:
He's kind of a weird fit. We have Madubuike for 3T, who is a much better player. Not sure I would have 2x 3T if you're running a 4-man front. In a 3-man front, it makes some sense. But we will certainly not be so fixated and likely rotating that front.
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Madubuike isn't healthy and there is no guarantee he even plays this season. Zreibec said on his recent pod that the Ravens are really keen on Woods.
 
Simba said:
With the McCoy medical situation, it now really feels like we need one name to go before 14 for me to feel good about what we get.

Mendoza, Love, Tate, Tyson, Mauigoa, Ioane, Fano, Bain, Bailey, Reese, Styles, Delane, Downs

I wouldn't be thrilled with Styles just based on it not moving the needle as much as I like but he's a damn good player and if he's what's there and we can't move down, so be it.

But it really feels like we need one more guy not named above to go for us to get some of the premium talent.

If not, there are still guys I like - Concepcion, Sadiq, Proctor, Freeling, Mesidor, Thieneman - that I'd be okay with us taking if that's what we had to do, but they just feel like they don't pack quite the same punch.
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You wouldnt be thrilled with Styles ?!

If we draft Styles I will be bouncing off the walls.
 
UKRaven1827 said:
Madubuike isn't healthy and there is no guarantee he even plays this season. Zreibec said on his recent pod that the Ravens are really keen on Woods.
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Yea, that’s true and no doubt about that. I guess I’m also not super sold on Woods, either.
 
rmcjacket23 said:
So ironically, you kind of made my point for me...
1. If iOL today is a weakness, and you have to give up a 2nd round pick to gain an advantage in another position, then the number or scenarios where it's still not a weakness, at the end of the draft, are high. Basically it means you need to find one, maybe two, starters, in rounds 3 or later in the draft. EDC ain't that good.
2. Why doesn't one player get you to league average? Did you do the math? 30 sacks last year. League average is basically right around 40. Do you expect Hendrickson to get you 10+ sacks? If you do, we're at league average today. And that's off the baseline of last year, which includes Mike Green @ 3.5 sacks (I'd expect more this year), and Madubuike, even if he played half a season, getting more than the 2 sacks he had last year (I'd bet the over on that as well).
I mean I'm all in on adding more pass rush, but not using two top 50 picks to achieve it in this class. Only way I'm doing that is if one is interior and one is Edge. I'd rather take somebody else in the first, trade back for someone, or take a guy or two later in the draft.
3. I'm certainly not stressing about the TE room. I'm just suggesting that at TE and RB, you're putting a gigantic amount of faith in some very older players not getting hurt in order for those units to not be total dog shit. You're talking about RB3... who's RB2?
Similarly at WR. Bateman gets hurt, you're fucked from a WR perspective. Just double team Flowers and the defense will be fine. And if Flowers misses any prolonged time, yikes.
In my opinion, with the prices at WR, you need to take a WR in the top 100 pretty much every year or every other year just to maintain competitive balance. And under this fictitious scenario, you're into day 3 looking for Oline depth and starters in that scenario.
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You can get solid starters in the IOL in the 3rd and 4th round and if you do the trade you will have 2 pick in the 3rd to fill that hole.

Also important you did the math on Trey wrong. Trey doesn't need 10 sacks to get the Ravens to league average, he needs 13-15 because him being on the field means someone else isn't so he needs to not only get the 10 sacks to get the Ravens to 40 and league average but also the additional sacks that the player he is replacing would have had which is more than 0. For context there are 6 players in the NFL who had 13 or more sacks last year and 3 who had 15 or more. Now he is capable of that as he has done it before but he is coming off injury and is 2 years older than when he last did it so I think it is unlikely he is able to do that on his own.

I think if they got Bain then its actually fairly likely though that he can put up his old numbers and that the weakness of the Ravens defense becomes a strength and if the Ravens are a top 10 pass rush, and able to get pressure rushing 4-5 instead of having to be creative with it, then they are a top 3 defense without question which makes everything easier.

By the way all I am proposing is a better version of what the Ravens were already willing to do. The Ravens were willing to give up multiple firsts to trade for Crosby. Instead they can give up a 1st and a 3rd, and end up paying about the same money, to get both Trey and Bain which I think is overall a better situation AND they keep next years 1. The weakness becomes a strength and by using both 3rds on IOL, if one is even average then the Ravens are about where they were last year on OLine with a dramatically better defense, and that's assuming they are not planning to use the cap money they have for other moves later in the offseason.
 
Grim said:
Yea, that’s true and no doubt about that. I guess I’m also not super sold on Woods, either.
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No neither am I tbh but I guess he is one of the only DTs in this class with genuine pass rush potential.

I was just taken back by how many times Zrebiec mentioned he is someone the Ravens really like.
 
A stud at TE would be nice, but for me Vega is the smart pick that would have the most immediate and lasting impact. Hopefully he’s still there at 14 and we make him a Raven.
 
Adreme said:
You can get solid starters in the IOL in the 3rd and 4th round and if you do the trade you will have 2 pick in the 3rd to fill that hole.

Also important you did the math on Trey wrong. Trey doesn't need 10 sacks to get the Ravens to league average, he needs 13-15 because him being on the field means someone else isn't so he needs to not only get the 10 sacks to get the Ravens to 40 and league average but also the additional sacks that the player he is replacing would have had which is more than 0. For context there are 6 players in the NFL who had 13 or more sacks last year and 3 who had 15 or more. Now he is capable of that as he has done it before but he is coming off injury and is 2 years older than when he last did it so I think it is unlikely he is able to do that on his own.

I think if they got Bain then its actually fairly likely though that he can put up his old numbers and that the weakness of the Ravens defense becomes a strength and if the Ravens are a top 10 pass rush, and able to get pressure rushing 4-5 instead of having to be creative with it, then they are a top 3 defense without question which makes everything easier.

By the way all I am proposing is a better version of what the Ravens were already willing to do. The Ravens were willing to give up multiple firsts to trade for Crosby. Instead they can give up a 1st and a 3rd, and end up paying about the same money, to get both Trey and Bain which I think is overall a better situation AND they keep next years 1. The weakness becomes a strength and by using both 3rds on IOL, if one is even average then the Ravens are about where they were last year on OLine with a dramatically better defense, and that's assuming they are not planning to use the cap money they have for other moves later in the offseason.
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What’s not being counted here is that Crosby is a guarantee producer for at least a year, where Bain is not.
Grim said:
I’d rather Zion Young, personally. He may not be there, but he’s someone I really like after a few obvious guys in the first. It also depends on what we want from this person. I can definitely see Lawrence becoming a monster of a player.
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i like both of those guys and I think they’re both going well before 45, think at least one goes late first

Idk if age plays a factor but I wouldn’t be shocked to see young go before Faulk, similar massive lengthy edge rushers But young clearly has more juice in his pass rush on day one
 
JoeyFlex5 said:
What’s not being counted here is that Crosby is a guarantee producer for at least a year, where Bain is not.

i like both of those guys and I think they’re both going well before 45, think at least one goes late first

Idk if age plays a factor but I wouldn’t be shocked to see young go before Faulk, similar massive lengthy edge rushers But young clearly has more juice in his pass rush on day one
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I think some GMs are going to love Faulk.
 
Adreme said:
You can get solid starters in the IOL in the 3rd and 4th round and if you do the trade you will have 2 pick in the 3rd to fill that hole.

Also important you did the math on Trey wrong. Trey doesn't need 10 sacks to get the Ravens to league average, he needs 13-15 because him being on the field means someone else isn't so he needs to not only get the 10 sacks to get the Ravens to 40 and league average but also the additional sacks that the player he is replacing would have had which is more than 0. For context there are 6 players in the NFL who had 13 or more sacks last year and 3 who had 15 or more. Now he is capable of that as he has done it before but he is coming off injury and is 2 years older than when he last did it so I think it is unlikely he is able to do that on his own.

I think if they got Bain then its actually fairly likely though that he can put up his old numbers and that the weakness of the Ravens defense becomes a strength and if the Ravens are a top 10 pass rush, and able to get pressure rushing 4-5 instead of having to be creative with it, then they are a top 3 defense without question which makes everything easier.

By the way all I am proposing is a better version of what the Ravens were already willing to do. The Ravens were willing to give up multiple firsts to trade for Crosby. Instead they can give up a 1st and a 3rd, and end up paying about the same money, to get both Trey and Bain which I think is overall a better situation AND they keep next years 1. The weakness becomes a strength and by using both 3rds on IOL, if one is even average then the Ravens are about where they were last year on OLine with a dramatically better defense, and that's assuming they are not planning to use the cap money they have for other moves later in the offseason.
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1. Where are the Ravens getting another third round pick from? If you're getting a third back in a move up, it's costing you next years 1st, not pick 45. 31 NFL teams are saying no thank you to some offer involving giving up 45 and getting like pick 80 back. Horrendous deal for the acquiring team. If you're getting a pick back at all to give up 45, its definitely a day 3 pick, and I'd bet it's not a 4th rounder either. Draft trade value charts are not historically accurate when it comes to determining trade value.
2. Many of the players Hendrickson would play ahead of had very little sack production last year to replace. That's how you get 30 as a team. Hendrickson doesn't need to carry the slack. Madubuike does. Mike Green does. They had low sack numbers. If you get even one additional sack out of both of them, you're at league average already.
3. Paying for Crosby is acquiring proven talent with a track record of on-field output. Trading multiple assets to acquire Bain is, like every draft pick, a totally "maybe". Maybe at his peak, he's Oweh. Nobody knows. That's why unless you feel like he's a true game wrecker, you sit and wait to see if he falls, or you let him slide further and make a trade that involves giving up picks you don't actually care about.
4. Forcing yourself to use a 3rd rounder on a Center basically means he has to be good. Otherwise, you're just worse on the Oline. You want to take a player, not a position.
 
JoeyFlex5 said:
What’s not being counted here is that Crosby is a guarantee producer for at least a year, where Bain is not.
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All I’m saying is that if EDC and this staff fuc this draft up and we suck again this year.. Lamar probably thinking about his exit plan.

Next year, his salary cap goes to like 80 mil and he got a no trade clause. He probably didn’t resign this year cause he’s in wait-and-see mode.
 
Told a good number of you who reached out directly yesterday who the presumed target was. Text this morning was a simple shoulder shrug emoji. So who knows what we're about to see.
 
I don't see Ioane adapting well to an outside zone system (which we believe will be implemented). I don't see him having that mobility, at least not now


I think its strength was ideal for Monken's system, but not for this one; it's like we limited it.
 
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