Owner Steve Bisciotti is open to making some deals on draft night.
The Ravens have the No. 6 overall pick, their highest pick in 16 years, but Bisciotti is willing to slide back if a team comes calling with an enticing proposal.
"If the right deal is to move out of six, I trust my guys," Bisciotti said during an interview at the owners meetings. "It's a total value thing. If I'm getting more picks in the second and third round by moving out of six, it's still a cumulative benefit."
That mindset meshes with the philosophy the Ravens have employed for years, where moving back and collecting picks is an attractive option. For the same reason, Bisciotti views it unlikely for the Ravens to give up a coveted draft pick in the second or third round by moving into the top five.
"I don't see that happening," Bisciotti said. "I really don't see us giving up picks that we're not used to having. It's too valuable to us."
Picking in the top 10 is rare for the Ravens, and General Manager Ozzie Newsome has found cornerstone players like Jonathan Ogden, Terrell Suggs, Jamal Lewis and Peter Boulware when drafting in that range.
The talent pool is much more concentrated at the top of a draft class, and Head Coach John Harbaugh has expressed excitement about having a chance to draft a player they normally know would be long gone before they have a chance to pick.
But Bisciotti also points out the Ravens found eventual Hall of Famers Ray Lewis and Ed Reed later in the draft, so they could still move back and get a standout player later in the first round.
"We got two Hall of Famers on our defense in the 20's," Bisciotti said.
In deciding whether to slide back in the draft, Bisciotti explained that it comes down to the players left on the board when Baltimore is on the clock. The Ravens organize the draft board by putting players into chunks, and they are likely to move back if they can still end up with a player who has asimilar overall grade.
"We have zones where we rank players, and there might be 15 players with the same ranking, and if that happens to be from seven on, we're probably picking sixth," Bisciotti said. "If that happens to be from 5-15, then we're a lot more amendable to moving out because we believe we can target as good of a player later."
