The Ravens had one of the NFL's best safety tandems in the league last season with Eric Weddle and Lardarius Webb.
According to Pro Football Focus, Weddle graded as the NFL's No. 2 safety and Webb came in* *at No. 16. No other safety pairing had a better overall score from PFF than Webb and Weddle.
But the two veterans are also on the back nine of their careers – Weddle is 32 and going into his 11th season, and Webb is 31 entering his ninth season – and the Ravens are at the point where they may need to start re-stocking the cupboard for the future.
"We've got two safeties that are – I don't want to say older – but they're getting to that point where they could be considered older," Assistant General Manager Eric DeCosta said at last week's Senior Bowl.
Adding young players in the defensive backfield overall is a priority for the Ravens. DeCosta and Head Coach John Harbaugh have both emphasized the need to add cornerbacks, and DeCosta even said the Ravens could take cornerbacks with their first two picks in this year's draft if the board falls that way.
Finding more cornerbacks has dominated the conversation in recent months, but the Ravens aren't ruling out a safety either.
"We need a young infusion of talent on the back end, whether it's at corner or safety," DeCosta said.
The Ravens have the No. 16 pick in this year's*draft, and they could be in a situation where they can pick between the best safety in the class or the second or third best cornerback. The *top cornerbacks in a draft class often fly off the board starting in the top-10 picks, but the best safeties can sneak to the middle or end of the first round. The Ravens even found Ed Reed with the No. 24-overall pick.
"We need guys back there that we feel like can help us on special teams in the short term, but develop into starting-caliber players long term," DeCosta said.
