The Ravens have taken offense to suggestions that they were lacking at wide receiver, but their last three drafts make it clear that there’s a concerted effort going on to improve the group.
Rashod Bateman was a first-round pick and Tylan Wallace came in the fourth round, which means the Ravens have drafted six receivers over the last three years. They have 10 wideouts on the roster altogether, including free agent signee Sammy Watkins, and offensive coordinator Greg Roman thinks the new arrivals sets the stage for a more expansive offense in 2021.
“I don’t want to call it an embarrassment of riches, but when you talk about Hollywood [Marquise Brown] and Devin [Duvernay] and Miles [Boykin], I really feel good about the guys we have,” Roman said, via the team’s website. “This offense is really one that runs through Lamar. We’re always going to do what gives us the best chance to win. When you add talent like that, it’s really going to expand our profile quite a bit, actually. To play with the kind of balance that we really want to play with. I really think it will probably take some pressure off guys that have been here like Marquise, free him up a little bit as well. The field’s about 53 yards wide, and I think people are going to have to defend all 53 yards of it.”
Roman said that there will be “some things that people are going to see from us that they haven’t seen before,” which may call to mind some of the offseason chatter from the Ravens about how the offense would evolve. That didn’t happen as fully as many in Baltimore may have hoped, but they’ll get another bite at the apple this time around.