John Harbaugh and Eric Decosta shares initial thoughts on Ravens 2024 NFL Draft class

What the general manager and head coach said about each pick.

The Baltimore Ravens came away with one of the better hauls in the league during the 2024 NFL Draft and after each of the three days of action, general manager Eric DeCosta and head coach John Harbaugh shared their initial thoughts on each pick and what went into the evolution process that made them great fits for the team.

Here is what the team’s top two decision-makers had to say about the nine-man draft class which they hope will have a profound impact on their outlook for the 2024 season.

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CB Nate Wiggins, Clemson (Round 1: No. 30 overall)

DeCosta:

“In my opinion, [he’s] the best cover corner in the Draft. [He’s] highly athletic [and has] fantastic feet. Really, in our opinion, [he’s] a guy that can go into being a true shutdown-type corner.”

“For us, it was always, ‘If Nate [is] there, we [are] going to pick.”

“He’ll gain weight. If we get him up there with some of the scouts, he’ll pack it on pretty quick. Get him with ‘Manny’ in the [cafeteria]. We have a plan for him.”

“When I think of Nate [Wiggins], I just think that he is a ridiculous athlete – very, very quick-footed, efficient. He’s fast. He’s tough. He’s competitive. In our division, we play a lot of really good receivers, and you have to get off the field on third downs. And, we were blessed last year to have a lot of depth in the secondary, and it really helped us quite a bit. And this is a guy that can come in here and play meaningful football right away for us. We’re excited about that.”

“I think we just look at everybody differently. We just study the player for who he is, what he does and what he puts on tape. [We] look at his skillset. We talk to people, which is a very important part of the process. We follow the guy around, and I think at that position – it’s a very hard position to play. A lot of guys can’t do it. The biggest thing is – and John always says it – you’ve got to actually cover people. You’ve got to guard people. It’s a hard thing, and Nate has proven that he can do that very, very well. He’s a young player. We love that about him. He’s 20 years old. [He’s] one of the fastest players at the combine. [He’s] silky smooth, and he will compete. He does tackle very well. People at [Clemson] are high on him. We were getting texts from the head coach. Dabo [Swinney] was texting us during the first round [saying], ‘Please take this guy.’ So, we’re just very excited about him.”

Harbaugh:

“You see him as an outside corner, that’s kind of where he’s made his hay, but he plays inside as well, and he did it in college. We’ll just continue to be versatile through those DBs. [We’ll] move them around and let them play in different spots. That gives us another quality starting corner; I’d say we have three legitimate starting corners. He has to come in and prove it and do it and all that, but we expect him to do it. We were excited. We were looking for Nate [Wiggins]. We were in the defensive room, actually Chris Hewitt’s office – [it was] me and about five of the defensive coaches before the Draft started [at] about 7:45 [p.m.], it came up, ‘What if Wiggins falls to us? Wouldn’t that be something?’ We were like, ‘Nah, that’ll never happen. That couldn’t happen, but how good would that look in our defense?’ It worked out, and it came true. So, we’re excited.”

“When you watch the tape; he comes up and smacks people. That’s what he does. He’s not afraid of the physical part of it at all. He’s a complete corner. First of all, he’s rangy, and he can run. He’s got very good feet, he changes direction, he puts his hands on people in press, and he runs up and tackles people with some physicality. The weight doesn’t impede him at all, and he’s going to put on weight; he’s over 180 [pounds] now. He’s a young guy. He’s 20 years old”

“[Nate Wiggins] is coming out for a reason, [and] he’s a first-round pick for a reason. He’s very talented. He’s ready. He thinks he’s ready, [and] his head coach [Dabo Swinney] felt like he was ready [to come] out. And he’s a young guy, but that’s opportunity – the way we look at it – and he’s determined. He’s a motivated guy. He’s talking about that he has a lot to prove. We both got on the phone with him and talked to him, and he’s talking about what he has to prove, so our response was, ‘Alright, let’s come in here next week, and let’s get to work. Let’s get started on it.’ He’s planning on being a hard worker, and if he does that, we’ve got a path for him. We’ve kind of got a plan for him, and we’ll have him ready to go.”

Defensive coordinator Zach Orr:

Assistant head coach/defensive pass game coordinator Chris Hewitt:

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OT Roger Rosengarten, Washington (Round 2: No. 62 overall)

DeCosta:

“Roger Rosengarten [is] a tackle that we’ve really have been following since the Senior Bowl. We were fortunate – as an underclassman – with the rule changes, [that] he was able to be down there this year, and we watched him at length and followed him and saw him at the [NFL] Combine, [and] we interviewed him at the Combine. He was a player that we had kind of had our sights on today. He was one of our top players in the entire [second] round today, and I think [we are] fortunate that we got him when we did. There was a trend, as you guys saw; all those offensive linemen [got] picked after him. I think there were like 10 or 11 guys in a span of, like, maybe 20 picks, so we were fortunate.”

“[Roger Rosengarten] is young. He’s a young player. You guys will see him; I mean, he’s young. He’s going to get stronger, [and] we’ll get him in the weight room. He’s a very gifted athlete. He’s played some left tackle. He played left tackle at the Senior Bowl. [He has] very good feet, body mechanics, change of direction, agility. He’s just got to get physically stronger, as a lot of guys do, and so, he will. He’ll fill out and get stronger. We have a great strength program, and he’ll see quick results, I think.”

“Pass protection-wise, the guys that really kind of flourish at our level are the guys that have enough strength and the guys that can really move their feet, and that’s great. In our offense, we do a lot of things out in space. Guys have to be able to pull, and our screen game was good this year. And we get these guys out there, and we have fast players, and our quarterback, obviously, is a tremendous athlete, so you want guys that are mobile. We want big, strong guys, but we want these guys to be mobile, too.”

“We went to the national championship, John [Harbaugh] and I. We were blessed to be able to go to that game, and it was a great result – as John would say – and a fun night. I’ll be honest, I did scout a little bit, but I was really kind of just taking in the atmosphere of the game at that point. I didn’t know a lot about Roger [Rosengarten] at that point. My first real exposure was at the Senior Bowl, and I was very impressed by him. [I] came back, and before the draft meetings, watched his tape [and] was more impressed. Then he went to the NFL Combine, [we] interviewed him, super impressive guy, great background, great makeup. So, that’s kind of what happened with that.”

Harbaugh:

“Roger Rosengarten] came in there, and he just … We try to focus on football. Our scouts do a great job of uncovering all the other stuff, and if something needs to be asked, [executive vice president & general manager] Eric [DeCosta] will do a great of asking questions. But we try to get in there with football [questions], and he was just so on point. He was on point, he knew his technique, he knew his assignments, he was very self-aware with the things he needed to get better at, and he just seemed like a motivated guy. He seemed like a Raven.”

“We drafted [Roger Rosengarten] with that idea – that he’ll compete for that. That’s the idea; [that] all these guys will be competing for playing time and opportunities to start. And in his case, right and … We’re going to look at him everywhere. He can play guard, if we needed him to, and he can play left tackle, if we need him to. We’re just going to roll the offensive line out there and let them compete.”

“He’s just an athletic guy when you watch the tape like Eric [DeCosta] had mentioned. He’s young, but he can move his feet – [the reporter] was kind of talking about that, the athleticism part of it. He can move, so it’s not going to be a challenge for him to go either way. He’s young; we’ll bring him in. All of these guys we look at, especially early on. He’ll be in [rookie] minicamp in here next weekend – he’ll be playing both sides, and [we’ll] just see what they look like and kind of see how it shakes out over the course of minicamp, training camp and all of that. The fact that he was with a left-handed quarterback on the right side is kind of part of that.”

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EDGE Adisa Isaac, Penn State (Round 3: No. 93 overall)

DeCosta:

“Adisa [Isaac], my first school visit this year was the Penn State-West Virginia game. I have a daughter there, at Penn State, [and] I scouted Adisa. They had a lot of players on defense this year. I love his body, I love his frame, his upside. He’s a very explosive player, very physical. [He] can be used in a lot of different ways. He’s got a great story. [Northeast area scout] Patrick McDonough, one of our scouts, did a phenomenal job scouting him. He was his “Red Star” player this year, which is kind of cool, and we just feel like he’s a Raven-type of guy, [who] fits us in many different ways – his mentality and with his physical style of play. So, we’re excited to get him.”

“Most of these guys need some development when they get to this level, as pass rushers. But what I like about [Adisa Isaac] is [that] he’s got great length, which is a critical factor. He’s got heavy hands, he’s got some different moves, he’s got speed and quickness, and I think he’s tenacious. And so, I think [that] all of those things … When you think about our best pass rushers, I think [that] those are a lot of the traits that those guys have, so we’re very excited. I’ve watched a lot of offensive linemen this year in the Big Ten. Obviously, we have a need at that position, and so I watched a lot of these guys, and Adisa is a guy that kind of wreaked havoc in the Big Ten this year.”

Harbaugh:

“I saw a guy on tape that makes a lot of plays, and he does it in a real athletic way. He’s a very athletic guy; very explosive starter, can cover ground, he can get to the edge of a tackle and beat them on the edge with quickness or beat them underneath with quickness, and then, long-arm power, he’s got that, too. He’s got some real pass rush ability – he’s heavy-handed against the run. So for us, he’s going to be in the rotation.”

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WR Devontez Walker, UNC Chapel Hill (Round 4: No. 113 overall)

DeCosta:

“With ‘Tez,’ you get really a vertical receiver, size and speed. In some ways, [he] reminds me of a Torrey Smith-type of player – an outside, take-the-top-off, vertical threat with good size, and phenomenal kid, excellent jumping ability.”

Director of College Scouting David Blackburn:

“He just has vertical explosiveness [and] the ability to get behind coverage, take the top off the defense, make big plays. He is a threat, and he also does it at his size. He’s not a small guy, and he doesn’t play small downfield. He can put pressure on the defense, and he’s able to make some contested catches downfield. I think that bodes well for our offense and our quarterback. He didn’t really have the week that he wanted in Mobile at the Senior Bowl, but [his] pro day was great, his Combine was great. The thing that I really like most about him is that he’s encountered some athletic adversity in his life, and he’s overcome. And, he’s a really mentally tough kid, as well as physically tough. He works at his craft, and he’s a great teammate. So, outside of those physical traits that he has, he has a lot of intangibles as well.”

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CB T.J. Tampa, Iowa State (Round 4: No. 130 overall)

DeCosta:

“T.J. [Tampa] is a guy that, quite honestly, we would’ve taken in the second day of the Draft. [He] is a press corner; [he’s] long [and] just a guy that we think really fits what we do very, very well.”

“We really liked [T.J. Tampa], and honestly, we’ve doubled up on positions before – probably four or five times – and it’s worked out well for us. Honestly, we would have taken him a lot higher had we not taken Nate [Wiggins in the first round], I would have to say. So, he didn’t necessarily have a great 40 [-yard dash] time. He had a Big 12 Pro Day, and he did not run at the Combine, so that might have hurt him a little bit, but for us, we see the length, we see the size, we see the leaping ability [and] his ability to play the football. He’s a tough guy. He tackles well. We’re excited. We think he’s going to have a chip on his shoulder and play well.”

Director of College Scouting David Blackburn:

“[T.J. Tampa’s] athleticism at his size [stands out]. He’s long. He can flip his hips. He can change directions well. [He’s a] former wideout, so I think there is some built-in upside to him, as a player. He just kind of plays the game smoothly; he doesn’t look too stressed. He tackles well. He’s a guy that’s going to compete. He’ll run down on kicks and be a special teams guy for us. [He’s got] good makeup, good mentality. [He’s] a smart football player. They speak highly of him at [Iowa State]. So, again, any time you have [well]-sized corner, you’re always intrigued, but I think he’s got the necessary movement skills at that size, along with his length, to give us something as a coverage player and then also be able to support the run.”

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RB Rashee Ali, Marshall (Round 5: No. 165 overall)

DeCosta:

“Rasheen [Ali] is a running back that we’ve really liked since the fall; [I’m] excited about him. [We] had a chance to see him at the Senior bowl before he got hurt, and [he] was very, very impressive to us as a guy that can run the ball, pass protect and also catch the ball.”

“[Rasheen Ali]’s an explosive guy. I think he runs hard. He finishes his runs. He catches the ball well; he can run routes; he’s a good pass protector. Like I said, at the Senior Bowl, he was a guy that I noticed very quickly. He got hurt, but during the week at practice, he was very, very explosive, and I think we all took note. We had him visit a few weeks ago. He’s an interesting kid. He’s got a great background – other than the fact that he’s from Cleveland, of course – but he’s got a great background, and I think he’s going to be a good player for us.”

“When we evaluate running backs, we’re looking for specific things. Certainly, ball security is one of those things, but this is an explosive guy, very shifty, good vision, [and] he runs hard – all those different things.”

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QB Devin Leary, Kentucky (Round 6: No. 218 overall)

DeCosta:

“Devin [Leary] is a quarterback that we see as a viable backup over time. [Quarterbacks coach] Tee Martin – we gave him a project to basically come back to us and tell us who he thought his favorite backup-type of quarterbacks in this year’s draft class – and he came back with Devin as one of his very top guys, so that was exciting for us to take a quarterback; it’s been a few years since we’ve done that.”

“I think [quarterbacks coach] Tee Martin does an excellent job evaluating, and he thinks he’s a natural thrower. He thinks he’s an accurate passer. He loves the kid. He thinks he’s got the right mentality to come in and compete and improve. For me, it’s similar to how I feel about kickers. Who better to evaluate quarterbacks than a quarterbacks coach who played in the League? Who better to evaluate kickers than a kicking coach? So, I think Tee did a phenomenal job. He’s very, very excited about Devin, and so are we.”

Harbaugh:

“Josh [Johnson] will be the backup quarterback, and I think Devin will develop. He’ll probably be the third quarterback this year in some way or fashion and grow into the job as we go.”

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IOL Nick Samac, Michigan State (Round 7: No. 228 overall)

DeCosta:

“Nick Samac is just a gritty Big Ten offensive lineman. [He’s] a very good center, a very athletic guy, stays on his blocks, good sustainability, very, very intelligent, and we think a guy that can back up Tyler [Linberbaum] and also hopefully work in as a guard and develop and be a swing guy for us.”

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DB Sanoussi Kane, Purdue (Round 7: No. 250 overall)

DeCosta:

“Sanoussi [Kane], [a] non-Combine guy; typically we don’t draft a lot of non-Combine players, but with Sanoussi, it kind of harkens back to Haruki Nakamura who we drafted, who was a non-Combine guy back in the day. Sanoussi is a guy that does a lot of things well; [he’s] a tough player, I think he’s got good ball skills, [he] should play on special teams. He’s a guy that [director of college scouting] David [Blackburn] can talk more about – some of the scouts really liked him, and [defensives back coach] Doug Mallory really liked him as well and had a chance to come here to Baltimore and visit with us.”

Harbaugh:

“Sanoussi [Kane] is a guy that we were talking about right at the end – it’s so much love between the scouts and the coaches. In some ways, he’s kind of similar to that guy from Iowa whose name will not be mentioned because he’s playing in the division here. But, we appreciate Geno [Stone] and all he did for us. But, [it’s] kind of a similar kind of pick – a really heady player, a really productive player. He’s going to have every opportunity there, then whoever else Eric [DeCosta] finds for us, we’ll coach them up. So, we’ll see what happens.”