For the first time since 2007, the Ravens used their original pick in the first round.
They stuck with the 32nd-overall pick and ended up taking Florida safety Matt Elam.
But before taking Elam to close out the first round, General Manager Ozzie Newsome thought about moving.
Newsome and the Ravens considered trading up or back in the draft, and talked with teams about going either direction.
"Yes we did," Newsome said when asked if he thought about moving up. "We had some conversations with a couple of teams ahead of us. There were some players that were sliding down the board that were attractive to us. And so we had some conversations."
A handful of players that were expected to go early ended up sliding down the boards into the territory where the Ravens considered moving up.
Newsome didn't divulge names of the players the Ravens considered trading up to get, but potential targets could have included Notre Dame tight end Tyler Eifert (pick No. 21, Bengals), Florida defensive tackle Sharif Floyd (pick No. 23, Vikings), Tennessee wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson (pick No. 29, Vikings) and Georgia inside linebacker Alec Ogletree (pick No. 30, Rams).
"Other teams, they decided to pick players that they liked, and we decided to stay," Newsome said. "So we put our hands in our pocket and kind of waited, and waited to get Matt."
Once the Ravens decided to stand pat and wait for their pick at the end of the round, they said that Elam was clearly the highest-rated player on their board at the time. But before pulling the trigger on him, they waited a few minutes while on the clock to see if any other teams wanted to jump back into the first round and would be willing to pay a premium.
"We had gotten some calls before the draft started that people might want to move up to our spot, but our phone did not ring while we were on the clock," Newsome said. "We waited to make sure."
Holding onto their pick and drafting at the end of the first round to take a safety is similar to what the Ravens did in 2001, when they drafted tight end Todd Heap with pick No. 31, their original spot.That pick worked out for the Ravens, as Heap went on to become an All-Pro and play 10 seasons in Baltimore.
"Yes it probably did," Newsome said when asked if this year reminded him of 2001. "I guess you could say that this was a repeat of what happened then."
