A team known for its success selecting collegiate talent believes there are more prospects worth drafting this year than in other years.
At the Ravens’ pre-draft press conference on Wednesday, assistant G.M. Eric DeCosta said the club had “about 180 players” it had rated skilled enough to be drafted.
In other years, the Ravens have given 140 or 150 prospects a draftable grade, DeCosta said, according to a transcript furnished by the club.
Using those numbers as a rough estimate, it appears the Ravens believe there is at least a 20 percent increase in draftable talent this year relative to other years.
DeCosta believes the increased number of draftable prospects should help the club in rookie free agency, too.
“That tells me that if we’re doing our jobs, we should do a really nice job in undrafted free agency, because we’re going to target a lot of those guys that we think are good players that don’t get drafted and try to add those guys after the draft,” DeCosta said.
The Ravens have had a good eye for rookie free agents over the years, with Bart Scott, Dannell Ellerbe and Justin Tucker among their post-draft signings.