Over the course of his first three years on the job, Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta has shown the ability to sign quality free agents, draft for both need and talent, and make important decisions during the season.
When talking about DeCosta’s draft history, his 2019 selections have yet to pay off in a big way outside of wide receiver Marquise Brown, but his 2020 and 2021 classes show plenty of promise. He’s also used his draft capital to maneuver up and down the draft board.
In Pro Football Focus’ ranking of the general managers that have made the best draft-day trades from 2017-2021 using the “Fitzergald-Spielberger chart,” Baltimore’s general manager came in at No. 9. The writer of the PFF piece, Conor McQuiston, explained that while draft day trades haven’t been a massive part of DeCosta’s strategy so far, he tends to couple trade-downs with a trade-up of equal value.
DeCosta only barely made the threshold (five draft day trades) in his first three drafts leading Baltimore, indicating that trades are not a particularly large part of his draft0day strategy. Additionally, when he has traded down, he has shown the same “book balancing” tendency as Grier — in two of his three drafts, a trade down has been coupled with a trade-up of roughly equal value.
Per the piece, DeCosta’s best trade-down is when he traded down from pick No. 22 in 2019, and his worst trade-up was to pick No. 93 in the same draft to select WR Miles Boykin.
With 10 draft picks in the 2022 draft, including nine in the first four rounds, many are anticipating DeCosta to be active over the course of draft weekend. The Ravens hold the No. 14 pick, so there should be ample opportunities to move both up and down depending on how the draft board falls.
DeCosta’s predecessor, Ozzie Newsome, was also analyzed on the chart for his draft activity in 2017 and 2018. He had the second-highest value gained through trade-downs.
