{"id":21826,"date":"2026-04-28T18:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/21826\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T18:46:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:46:21","slug":"what-we-learned-from-the-ravens-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/21826\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Learned From the Ravens\u2019 Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Declan Doyle&#8217;s offense has new priorities.<\/p>\n<p>Wacker: &#8220;Here&#8217;s a list of everything we know about Declan Doyle&#8217;s offense: Players think it&#8217;s going to be &#8216;electric,&#8217; explosive plays are one of three nonnegotiables (along with physical and detailed), and it will utilize Jackson&#8217;s legs as an &#8216;eraser of mistakes&#8217; rather than a set play call. Sure sounds like Doyle wants Jackson to air it out more.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Ravens jumped on third\u2013round wide receiver Ja&#8217;Kobi Lane higher than some projected he&#8217;d go, but they covet his upside and catch radius. He&#8217;s a big receiver who Ravens coaches want to take advantage of in the red zone \u2014 something the previous coaching staff promised and failed to do with DeAndre Hopkins. Fourth-round wide receiver Elijah Sarratt thrives more on the perimeter. Back-shoulder throws are his biggest strength, according to the fourth-round pick out of Indiana. The go ball, out-route toward the left sideline and slant up to the right accounted for 60% of his route tree production, according to the football data site SumerSports.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whether they&#8217;re good enough to immediately contribute or not, adding Lane and Sarratt is at least an indication of the offense&#8217;s new direction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It had its virtues, but this Ravens draft zagged again and again.<\/p>\n<p>Walker: &#8220;The Ravens loaded up on targets and protectors for Jackson. They checked some expected boxes, drafting a pair of solid all-around tight ends, SMU&#8217;s Matthew Hibner and Alabama&#8217;s Josh Cuevas, to learn behind Mark Andrews. Their track record at the position suggests at least one of those guys will be a real player, even if neither is ready to fill Isaiah Likely&#8217;s (or even Charlie Kolar&#8217;s) shoes in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They took the top punter on many boards in Michigan State&#8217;s Ryan Eckley, who&#8217;ll try to fill Jordan Stout&#8217;s spot. They added a classic value pick in undersized Duke cornerback Chandler Rivers \u2014 fast, smart and one of the most prolific defensive playmakers in college football. It&#8217;s easy to envision Rivers shining on special teams and gradually forcing his way onto the field as a nickel back.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But they left other needs \u2014 a new starting center, an early-round defensive lineman to hedge against the health concerns around Nnamdi Madubuike \u2014 to be addressed by other means. When we thought they&#8217;d build their offensive line, they drafted two wide receivers. After opening with their eyes on the trenches, they used five of their next six picks on skill positions.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Declan Doyle&#8217;s offense has new priorities. Wacker: &#8220;Here&#8217;s a list of everything we know about Declan Doyle&#8217;s offense:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[313,12621,314,12167,3729,8,3732,12620,9,2743,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-21826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-2026-nfl-draft-news","10":"tag-draft","11":"tag-draft-tracker-card","12":"tag-general","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-homepage-latest-headlines","15":"tag-late-for-work","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nfl-draft","18":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116483822885130684","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}