Eric DeCosta Opening Statement: "We are happy to take Malaki Starks. He's a player that we've seen over the last couple of years, a great football player at a great football program. [He's] wired like Raven, [has a] great mentality [and is] probably one of the most impressive interviews we've ever had at the Combine. Ball Hawk, he's a physical guy. He's a very, very good tackler, and I was reminded that the last time we took a Starks in the first round, [Duane Starks] ended up intercepting a pass in the Super Bowl, so hopefully that ends up happening again."
With S Malaki Starks, you kind of touched upon the interview at the Combine. Was there anything else that kind of stood out throughout the Draft process that made him stand out to you? (Jamison Hensley)
(DeCOSTA) "I just think that as we go back and look at our very best players, they're just wired a certain way. They play a certain way consistently, and throughout the process, Malaki [Starks] was a guy that just really passed every single test. As far as football GPA – [his was] very, very high – [his] production as a player, durability, ability, everything really, it just made a lot of sense for us to take him."
John, have you already started to kind of visualize what your defense looks like, especially now teaming S Malaki Starks up with S Kyle Hamilton who also does a variety of things? (Cordell Woodland)
(HARBAUGH) "We have. We have. I think when you look at Malaki [Starks] on tape – and you guys have seen him, I'm sure – all different positions he plays. He plays both safeties. He plays nickel. He plays the dime linebacker spot, which is what Kyle [Hamilton] does, which is what Ar'Darius [Washington] does, and then Marlon [Humphrey] plays inside and outside, so the ability to move all those pieces around and get them in different positions is pretty exciting. The other thing is – [executive vice president and general manager] Eric [DeCosta] kind of just mentioned this – but when we first came out of the season, we had a conversation about just the type of mindset that we were looking for and the guys we were going to bring in, and to me, Malaki – he fits that perfectly. He's smart. He's tough. He loves football. He loves everything about football, and you saw it when he walked up the [stage]. I saw it. Did you guys see him when he walked down the hallway there [at the Draft] and out to the stage? It looked like he was coming through the tunnel for gameday. He's ready to go. I think he's just as excited to be a Raven as we are excited to have him be a Raven."
Eric, did your phone ring? Did you consider moving back at all? Was S Malaki Starks the target all along, and how busy was that time when you were on the clock? (Bo Smolka)
(DeCOSTA) "I think that as we looked at this draft, [in] the first round, we kind of got a sense for most of the players that were going to get picked in front of us, and we had maybe three or four players that we thought might have a realistic chance of being there when we picked. The phone started to ringing. We had some opportunities to trade back. In the end, you have to look at the excitement of actually getting some additional picks, which we do love, versus what kind of player are you going to get, potentially. And for me, maybe I'm getting older and just a little bit more conservative than I used to be, but I think looking at the quality of player that we had with Starks versus what we might have to get, it just didn't make enough sense for me. This was a guy that really checked every single box for us in a lot of different ways. There were some other players that we coveted as well, but in the end, he was by far the best guy available for us when we made the pick."
Were you surprised at how things kind of happened with so many guys that were linked to you or you thought could be a good fit here in Baltimore? (Valerie Preactor)
(DeCOSTA) "I really wasn't surprised by the way this draft kind of unfolded. In fact, I think that in a lot of cases, I kind of knew which players were going to get picked, generally speaking, and that was one of the reasons why, for me, that I was nervous this year in the first round. I was kind of nervous that we weren't going to get a chance to get a player like Malaki [Starks], just because this is what I would refer to as a 'flat draft,' and so you have probably 10 players that everybody puts up there, and then it really flattens out, and it stays that way. It's going to stay that way in the second, third and fourth round. So, from that standpoint, it's a really good draft if you have a lot of picks, because it's flat in the middle. But that being the case, there were really just a few players that we thought we might have a chance to get, and fortunately, we got one of those guys."
Some GMs and coaches have talked about how hard it is to evaluate safeties, just in general. Is there anything that you guys weigh more or less when you are doing that evaluation at that specific position? (Jonas Shaffer)
(HARBAUGH) "I don't think it's that hard to evaluate safeties. The guy is running around making plays all over the field. We've done pretty well with those guys, and yes, we've missed on guys just like everybody else, but [Malaki Starks is] a very versatile player. He covers people man to man. He comes up and tackles people. He plays nickel-zone responsibility, which is really kind of tricky. He's got a good feel for that. In the deep middle, he's got range, so he showed ball skills. He showed all the things, and then you put on top of that the mentality that we talked about, the mindset, kind of the football character, I guess you could call it. The guy just loves to be out there, and he loves to play. He can't wait to hit the grass, and to me, that's been a good recipe for success – no matter what the position is – but he looks like a safety to me. We'll see, but I bet he'll prove us right."
You touched on this a little bit, but last year with S Kyle Hamilton, you had to play a little more split safety second half of the year. Not just getting a player like S Malaki Starks, as talented as he is, but being able to maybe free up Hamilton to be as versatile as he can be, how important is that for your defense? (Luke Jones)
(HARBAUGH) "It definitely gives us that option, and it's not to say that Kyle [Hamilton] will be back there, because he will be, but the good news is the offense isn't going to know who's going to be back there on any given play. [They're] not going to be able to line up and say, 'Okay, Kyle's going to be deep,' or even, 'Ar'Darius [Washington] is going to be deep.' Ar'Darius [and] all three of those guys can be on the field a lot or Marlon [Humphrey]. Marlon can go back and can play deep if we wanted him to, but really now, it's those three guys as interchangeable parts playing any one of those four positions in there. That's pretty exciting."
I'm sure you had a bunch of guys, obviously. How important specifically was defense in that attention and getting a guy to contribute right away? (Brian Wacker)
(DeCOSTA) "We didn't go into it thinking that we'd take a defensive player. We were going into it thinking we're going to take the best football player we can take, and there were some guys on the offensive side of the ball, too, that got picked, and there were a few really good players that were still there when we picked Malaki [Starks]. But I think, generally speaking, we want to be a balanced drafting team. We want both sides of the ball to be really strong, and so we're fortunate [with] this draft, as I said, we have a lot of opportunities in the next couple of days to get some good players, and I think you'll see us fill some needs, take some really good football players and hopefully hit on a bunch of guys."
S Malaki Starks was a high-level starter at one of the best programs in the country for three years. Does that always give you more confidence that a guy will step right on the field and help? (Childs Walker)
(DeCOSTA) "I think so. One thing that I've learned from [executive vice president] Ozzie [Newsome] ... Over the years, you look at some of our best picks, and they're big school guys – SEC, Big Ten, Pac-10, back in the day – guys like that, experienced guys from winning programs. That's a big deal. That's important, and that's something that we definitely look for. Let's face it; the SEC is, if not one – I mean probably one, but one or two in terms of the best football conferences in the country – and this is a guy that's won national championships and played at a very high level. That's important."
You guys keep your draft plan so close to the vest. Were you – I don't know if concern is the right word – but were you aware of, I mean there was so much talk that you loved S Malaki Starks. ESPN said that he was your ideal pick. Did that make you at all uncomfortable during this week? (Jeff Zrebiec)
(DeCOSTA) "It did. Again, I sort of handicap it and model this thing out, and I figured, 'Ok, well if [Malaki] Starks gets picked, and there is going to be another player there.' We had a few players that we really liked, but yes, it was kind of weird to just always consistently see us tied to him. There were a few other players, too. In the end, it just fell for us, and we're lucky that it did, but I can promise you that if somebody else had been there, the right player, that we would've taken him, and I believe he'd be a really good player for us."
You sound like you did like S Malaki Starks. Was there any thought about possibly trading up at all? (Jamison Hensley)
(DeCOSTA) "I feel like you guys ask me this question every year. I'm not a big, big believer in trading up. I just don't think that the data supports that, generally speaking, but we always look at it, potentially, and again, I think it is assessing what other teams are going to do. It's kind of the flow of the draft. As you get to – we're picking [at] 27 – as you get to say [pick] 18 or 19, that's when you might consider trading up, probably, but then you look at the players that are still there, and you start looking at each pick, and every time a player gets taken outside your range or out of your sequence, you're like, 'Ok.' And you finally get to the point where we're like, 'Ok, there's three or four guys. We don't have to trade up. We're going to get one or three or four of these guys. We feel happy with all these guys, and we're good to go.' So, when that happens, you're at peace. It's a good place to be."
You said it was one of the best Combine interviews you've ever done or had with a player. What does that look like and what is it that impresses you so much in that setting? (Bo Smolka)
(DeCOSTA) "I just think it was remarkable the way that he [Malaki Starks] could discuss football, his awareness, his ability to call out the plays from their defense before we even show the plays, just based on formation. His ability to dissect and talk about what happened at any given play and to know what his teammates were doing on any given play. It was like he was a coach, and when he got up, we were all kind of looking at each other, and we use a grading scale. We grade every interview, and a seven is the best, and across the board, he got straight sevens. So, it was just super impressive. I haven't seen that type of detail in a long time."
You said you got a really good feel for how this first round was going to break. Do you feel that for the second and third rounds as well, or is that a little bit more wait and see? (Childs Walker)
(DeCOSTA) "Yes, it really drops off. My prognostication ability falls off a cliff when you get into the second and third round, because you guys cover the first round, right? Everybody covers the first round in the media, and there's so much mocking now, and all these different things and social media. Just generally speaking, as I said before, the first rounds nowadays are a lot less unpredictable than they used to be. Now, you might get one or two picks that kind of go rogue, but now everything's fairly predictable. [On] our list of the top 32 players, you're going to see 30 players drafted off that list right now, but when you get to the second round, that's where you start to see the deviation. You start to see random players, and you start to see slippage in your sequence of players. Random players get picked. So, now you might see a player that we have rated at like [No.] 110 get picked at [No.] 42, and then we start high-fiving and then we laugh, and we're like, 'We can't believe they took that guy!' And that guy might end up in the Pro Bowl." (laughter) "But that's just nature of the Draft as you get into these rounds now, and you see a lot of differences in your sequences."
John, anything you can add to that interview process that stood out to you about S Malaki Starks and his football I.Q.? (Brian Wacker)
(HARBAUGH) "No, it's a 15-minute interview, but [Malaki Starks] is smart. He knew the defense, but just the fact that he was a 'Red Star' guy kind of tells the story. You guys have heard that in here, and you look at the board, and there he is with a red star sitting next to his name, and then the room, the way the scouts felt about him once we picked him, they were jacked. They know this guy better than anybody."
(DeCOSTA) "They don't always clap upstairs. They clapped this year, so that tells you how excited the scouts were."
(HARBAUGH) "Well, sometimes we always clap."
(DeCOSTA) "And sometimes it's like a little bit of one of these kinds of claps." (displays a gentle soft clap)
(HARBAUGH) "Right, right." (laughter)
How much changes now when you get your guy, your 'Red Star' guy, quickly for you into tomorrow? Do you change a lot more when you kind of get maybe your slam dunk on Day One? (Morgan Adsit)
(DeCOSTA) "I think what I have to do tomorrow morning is come in and restack [the board], and that's a process where it is painful because there may be some other really good safeties, and we could still take one, but the reality of it is, there's some really good safeties in this draft, and so you have to now kind of look at it and be like, 'Well, we're not going to take six safeties.' So, there are going to be some really good safeties for somebody else. We got the best one. Somebody else is probably going to get the second-best one is what it amounts to, and we'll find other guys that are in those same clumps – very close – and find the best guys in those clumps that we can use in different ways."
It's the ninth time the Ravens have selected a defensive back in the first round in team history. Do you think it's just the way that sometimes the board has fallen over the years, or do you feel like there is an investment, a priority placed in the secondary for this team? (Jamison Hensley)
(DeCOSTA) "Usually four or five guys are playing in the secondary in any given play, so you've got more guys. But secondly, in my experience, if you're going to lose a game, an easy way to lose it is by having a bad secondary. So, we never want to be in that position. That's a bad place to be, so we're going to have a strong secondary, and [head coach] John [Harbaugh] was a secondary coach in Philly for a while, too. He understands the importance of it, as well, and I really appreciate that, because I think it's a really important, critical part of your defense."
Reporter: "Also, he played a little bit at Miami of Ohio."
(DeCOSTA) "That's to be determined. We need to see the tape."
Out of curiosity, there was a giraffe in the background of the Draft Room. Was that planned? Whose idea was that? (Valerie Preactor)
(HARBAUGH) "There's actually a great story behind that."
(DeCOSTA) "There's certain things we can discuss, and there's certain things we can't, but that giraffe has been in there for a long, long time. That was my son Michael's, who's now 17. That was a gift to him when he was born, and I got the idea years ago, because we were talking to the scouts, and I'm saying, 'Guys, the best scouts stand on the table. They stick their necks out,' and it just popped into my brain. I had this old giraffe back at home, and so one day, I brought it in, and we put it in the Draft Room as a reminder for these guys [that], if they really like somebody, to stand up on the table and stick their necks out."
