Just because the Ravens drafted "Hollywood" last year doesn't mean they aren't looking for more show-stopping speed this year.
NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah has 27 wide receivers with Day 1 or Day 2 grades (first three rounds), and he sees plenty of enticing options for the Ravens in this year's Draft.
"I can find [wide receivers] in every portion of the draft," Jeremiah said when asked if he could see good value at wide receiver for the Ravens at pick No. 28.
"I talked about last year building a track team around him, around Lamar Jackson. And they did that at the wide receiver position last year with Hollywood Brown. I would go back, get more speed and just continue to add more speed like the Chiefs have done. I would double down."
The Super Bowl champion Chiefs essentially had a track team on the football field. That posed major problems for opposing defenses, leading to a quick-strike offense that could quickly come back from deficits (like the Chiefs did in each of their playoff games).
The Ravens threw to their wide receivers the fewest of any team in the league, but they're looking to make big plays when they do.
If Baltimore were to have game-changing speed outside on both sides of the formation, opposing defense might be hesitant to drop a safety into the box to defend the run. A single-high safety could only help take away one speed threat over the top.
At the same time, the Ravens do put a premium on blocking from their wide receivers. Thus, it's a mixture of speed, blocking ability and the knack for making big plays that may be the winning combination.
The first wide receiver that Jeremiah pointed to as a favorite for Baltimore is Colorado's Laviska Shenault Jr. The 6-foot-2, 220 pounder has posted 1,775 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns over the past two seasons. He's also scored seven rushing touchdowns.
His catches and yards dropped last year as he dealt with a nagging groin injury, but he reportedly will not need surgery and is expected to participate in the Combine.
"I think Shenault would be a fun toy for them," Jeremiah said. "Somebody that could play be in the slot. You can use the fly sweep stuff with him. You could put him in the backfield with Lamar [Jackson], hand him the ball. He's done that a bunch at Colorado, for a creative offense, and there's none more creative than Greg Roman. Shenault would be a heck of a lot of fun."
Jeremiah said a lot of teams are looking to find this year's version of Deebo Samuel, who had an excellent rookie campaign for the San Francisco 49ers. Samuel is tough, fast, gets yard after catch and versatile.
In that mold, Jeremiah pointed to Arizona State's Brandon Aiyuk, Kentucky's Lynn Bowden Jr., Texas' Devin Duvernay and USC's Michael Pittman Jr.
"Those guys are guys you can use and run the jet sweep stuff and run, get on top of coverage and make plays down the field. And they're just tough to get on the ground with the ball in their hands," Jeremiah said. "So finding somebody with maybe some physicality to go along with their speed to complement Hollywood Brown in this offense, it would be fun to watch."
