Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta said on Tuesday that the team could draft a running back after seeing three of them go down with injuries last season and the team is looking to shore up another area where they were shorthanded as well.
The Ravens lost Marcus Peters to a torn ACL in a September practice and then finished out the season down another starter when Marlon Humphrey suffered a season-ending pectoral injury in early December. DeCosta said that the team expects both of those players to make full recoveries, but that he’s thinking about adding players to the depth chart after the departures of Tavon Young, Anthony Averett, and Chris Westry. Jimmy Smith is also unsigned at present.
“I think we’re definitely concerned,” DeCosta said, via the team’s website. “If you guys know us, we always want to have a strong secondary and as many corners as possible. We’ve referred to those guys as race cars in the past, and this year, we got decimated at that position across the board. We have outstanding players coming back, but again, until they come back it’s a question mark. We feel like Marlon is going to come back with a vengeance. We feel like Marcus is going to come back with a vengeance. But we feel like behind those two guys, the depth is thin. There are opportunities for us in the first round, second round, third round. Coach [John Harbaugh] has been watching the corners. We feel like we have the opportunity to take one or two corners in the draft that can come in and contribute right away, we’re excited about that.”
The Ravens own the 14th overall pick later this month and then have eight other picks that could go toward bolstering the secondary over the final two days.
