Ozzie Newsome hates giving up draft picks. He reminded reporters of that fact during Wednesday's pre-draft press conference.
But as much as the Ravens general manager guards his draft picks, he might be a little less protective this year because the Ravens have an abundance at their disposal. The Ravens have 10 picks thanks to adding three untradeable compensatory picks, giving Newsome the flexibility to move around the draft board.
Newsome will still cling to his picks, but he said the Ravens will consider making trades once the draft gets started.
"It could go either way," Newsome said. "It's how the board starts to come off, as to how we will use some of the picks that we have to move up, or if we come away with 10 or maybe even more by moving back. It's based on what will happen in the first 25 picks and what will happen in the first 50 picks to determine how we will react on Day 1 or Day 2."
Newsome is no stranger to draft day trades.
The Ravens have picked at their original spot in the first round just three times in the last seven years. Newsome also has a history of moving up to nab highly graded players, which he did in 2008 and 2009 to take Joe Flacco and Michael Oher, respectively.
"There are reasons why we did it, and the other reasons were that we had multiple picks in those years, just as we do this year," Newsome said. "But what we'll do is we'll value the board, we'll watch it very closely and as we get close to our pick if there's somebody we really covet, then we'll go get him."
The preferred trade scenario for Newsome and the Ravens is to move up a few spots to get highly graded players who may start to slide down the board.
"If someone that near the end of the first round is probably in our Top 8 or 10 has slid down our board, then it would probably be for that reason," Newsome said. "The value of picking someone in the 20's, where we would have been picking in the top-10, we'd be happy to have him. So, that is probably the reason why we would move up to get a guy."
The other possibility is for the Ravens to stay put in the first round, this year at No. 26. The Ravens have gone that route to take inside linebacker C.J. Mosley, safety Matt Elam and cornerback Jimmy Smith in the first round, and Newsome didn't rule out the possibility of the Ravens holding onto their extra picks and making their move at the original spot.
The Ravens could also trade back, and entirely out of the first round. They did that in 2010 to get pass rusher Sergio Kindle, and in 2012 to grab outside linebacker Courtney Upshaw.
"As we start to get close to our pick, do we have three or four players that we really like?" Newsome explained. "It that's the case, there's not a reason why we should move up because we feel like we'll probably get one of those players without having to give up a pick."
