Former Ravens running back Ray Rice did an interview with New York magazine this week, providing another reminder of the off-field issues that surrounded the team last season and that have continued this offseason with the arrest and release of running back Bernard Pierce.
Questions about identifying and avoiding such issues in the future were part of a pre-draft press conference on Wednesday as the Ravens discussed meetings with players like Nebraska linebacker Randy Gregory and Oklahoma wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham. Gregory failed a drug test at the combine while Green-Beckham was kicked off the Missouri team after allegedly pushing a woman down some stairs. The wideout also has two marijuana arrests on a record that Assistant General Manager Eric DeCosta said the team was investigating closely.
“Everything matters,” DeCosta said, via the team’s website. “We scrutinize everything, every piece of information. Obviously if a guy has a problem with drug testing, we talk about it. We don’t do this in a vacuum, we consider everything. We talk about all the different facts of the matter and talk to people.”
Owner Steve Bisciotti said that incidents of domestic violence are being treated differently in this year’s evaluations and that they are “changing” the team’s draft board. General Manager Ozzie Newsome admitted, though, that while the Ravens will do everything they can to get an accurate picture of the players they’re considering, “there is not a guarantee that [an arrest or other off-field problem] isn’t going to happen.”