The last draft of Ravens G.M. Ozzie Newsome included two trades down in round one and a trade back into the first round to get a quarterback. Making the moves more impressive is the fact that the team initially considered taking Lamar Jackson with the 16th overall pick.
Per multiple sources, there was a movement in the Baltimore draft room to take Lamar Jackson with the 16th overall pick.
Instead, the Ravens initially traded down from No. 16 to No. 22 with the Bills, picking up a third-round pick (No. 65) and also giving up a fifth-rounder (No. 154). Then the Ravens went back three more spots in a deal with the Titans, getting a fourth-round pick (No. 125) and throwing in a sixth-rounder (No. 215).
The Ravens then picked tight end Hayden Hurst (not Jackson) at No. 25, before leaping back to No. 32 in order to get Jackson. To get Jackson, the Ravens gave up their second-rounder (No. 52), a 2019 second-round pick, and a seven-spot flip-flop of fourth-rounder picks in 2018. They also had to sweat out the possibility of another team taking Jackson — including the Patriots not once but twice.
So the Ravens turned their first-round pick in 2018, their second-round selections in 2018 and 2019, and a seven-spot slide in round four into Hurst and Jackson, along with turning a fifth-round pick into a third-round pick, a sixth-round pick into a fourth-round pick.
In the end, that’s a better net haul than simply taking Jackson at No. 16. And it’s a great way for Newsome to put the icing on a career that would earn him a spot in the Hall of Fame if he hadn’t already gotten there as a player. That icing will be a lot sweeter if Jackson becomes the kind of player for the Ravens that he was in college.