The Baltimore Ravens bolstered their thinnest position group with the addition of inside linebacker Jake Ryan, who agreed to terms on a one-year contract pending a physical. With the 2020 NFL Draft coming up in less than a week, the biggest question with any new signing is how it will impact the Ravens’ draft plans. For Ryan, that’s a little bit of a complicated situation.
When healthy, Ryan is a starting-quality linebacker. In fact, he did that in 27 games over three seasons for the Green Bay Packers. But injuries have kept him from the field for all but one snap over the last two seasons, with the Packers and Jacksonville Jaguars respectively. While there’s certainly hope Ryan has recovered from the knee injury that put him on injured reserve in 2018 and the hamstring injury that ended his 2019 season, betting on that seems like a shaky proposition.
However, Baltimore just needed more experienced depth. Prior to Ryan’s signing, the Ravens had just three inside linebackers under contract and only L.J. Fort has started even just one NFL game. Only Fort and Chris Board have gotten any defensive snaps. With two linebacker spots to fill on base defense, that very limited depth and production simply wasn’t going to cut it for a Baltimore defense that has a long and proud history of linebacker play.
While Ryan’s addition certainly helps that depth, it likely isn’t a huge impact on the Ravens’ draft plans. They’re still likely going to use at least one of their nine picks at the position in the 2020 NFL Draft. However, they might not necessarily be forced into taking one of the linebackers — Patrick Queen and Kenneth Murray — who have frequently been mocked to them in the first round.
As director of college scouting Joe Hortiz noted in the pre-draft press conference, there are a bunch of linebackers that can be found later in the draft to fill specific roles. If Baltimore wants to split the position group into linebackers who can cover and ones who are stout against the run, they might be able to wait until Day 2 or 3 of the draft to find their other piece of the puzzle to combine with Ryan, Board and Fort.
As with everything the Ravens tend to do in the offseason, Ryan’s addition is about giving them more flexibility. They can let their draft board come to them without having to feel like they need to reach to fill a need with an early pick. It’s a strategy that has worked out quite well for Baltimore over the years, so it’s hard to disagree with it.
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