2009 NFL draft two years out: Baltimore Ravens
In the past two years I have gone back and forth of the 2009 Baltimore Ravens draft class. Sure they landed one starter and two backups. On one hand it looks to be about average, but on the other way make six picks for one starter and two backups. I personally feel that NFL teams need to make a bigger splash in the draft than that.
Here is a quick look at the 2009 Ravens draft class:
•Round One (23)- Michael Oher OT
•Round Two (57)- Paul Kruger DE
•Round Three (88)- Lardarius Webb DB
•Round Five (137)- Jason Phillips LB
•Round Five (149)- Davon Drew TE
•Round Six (185)- Cedric Peerman RB
So Oher looks to be a home run, but should that excuse the lack of production for the rest of this class? Kruger has played in 20 games and done little to nothing. Lardarius Webb on the other hand has been pretty good. He has played in 29 games and been effective in the Ravens secondary. Jason Phillips missed most of year one with a knee injury and has yet to crack the starting rotation as a linebacker. The rest of the Ravens picks were cut during training camp.
I guess in the end this still looks like a pretty good class. At the very least they are getting something from most of their picks. However I never like to see a team cutting more than one player from that years draft class in training camp that always seems like a few picks were wasted. In my mind wasting draft picks is not the way to build a championship organization.