Eric DeCosta said before the draft that he was insulted by the criticism of the team’s receivers. Then, the Ravens drafted a pair of receivers in round one and four. So how does DeCosta reconcile his pre-draft comments with his in-draft decisions?
“Well, it was before the draft,” DeCosta told PFT PM. “Anybody that tries to read too much into what people [are] thinking before the draft, they’re acting foolish. We’re trying to win. Everything we do is based on does this help our club win? Does this put us in the best position to win?
“As you know, Mike, you write about it all the time, there’s a lot of foolishness being said before the draft. Anonymous scouts and things like that. We don’t play that game. For me to stand up there and talk about how we’re going to build a team before the draft is probably not the smartest thing in the world. What I said really in my intentions was that I believe our receivers do want to be the best. They do care about that. We believe in those guys. We’re still going to build the very best team we can build at any point -- now, before the season, during training camp, after the season.
“Whatever that might be,there’s gamesmanship involved. There’s a strategy involved. For me to go up there and say, ‘We’re going to draft a receiver in the first round,’ that would be foolish. Everybody should understand that. On the other hand, I do believe in our receivers very strongly. I do believe in those guys. I do believe in Hollywood Brown, Miles Boykin, Devin Duvernay, James Proche, Sammy Watkins. We do believe in those guys. We also believe in [Rashod] Bateman. We also believe in Tylan Wallace as well. We think we’ve really strengthened that class, players, and that’s going to make us a better offense.”
It’s a candid and refreshing response from DeCosta, and it’s a reminder that so much of what it said before the draft is noise at best, deliberate misdirection at worst.