Review of the Ravens' 2012 NFL Draft

After we sat through nearly three hours of prospect-picking insanity and draft day trades, the Ravens were finally on the clock in the first round at about 11:00 p.m. Of course, they promptly traded their first round pick to the Vikings and we were left to wait another day to add some new talent to the Ravens’ roster.

When the draft dust settled, Ozzie and Eric DeCosta emerged as the perennial masterminds we've grown to know and love. Here’s a look at the picks, and the reasons why our Ravens had one of the better drafts in the league.

2012 NFL Draft Reaction--First Round

The NFL Draft usually tells you everything you need to know about a franchise. The Colts more or less threw an entire season's worth of games in order to land Luck, who--they pray, is the "next big thing." The Redskins, a notoriously shoddy organization, mortgaged their entire future (three first-round picks, a second-round pick and a late-round pick) for an unconventional quarterback who will have very little in the way of surrounding cast.

With the drama sucked out of the first two picks, here's our reaction to the rest of the draft:

2012 NFL Draft Primer

The first round of the 2012 NFL draft is just a few hours away. Everyone who has access to a blog and a keyboard has been making mock drafts, and speculation abounds concerning what the Ravens will do with the 29^th pick.

To prepare you for what might transpire this evening, we’re going to list and give you a short description—provided by Baltimoreravens.com writers—of a few of the players linked to the Ravens as possible first-round selections.

Dear Ozzie Newsome and Pat Moriarty, YOU lock it up!

Let me just preface this article by saying that if you aren’t on the Joe Flacco bandwagon yet, you might as well hop aboard now. Joe’s going to be our starting quarterback for a long, long time. Those of you who refuse to embrace that fact are destined for a maddening decade-plus of Baltimore football. (To our fanatics with masochistic tendencies—I know you’re out there; I’ve heard you calling local sports talk radio—you may disregard this warning).

I digress.

The agents for Joe Flacco and Ray Rice are in the thick of contract negotiations with general manager Ozzie Newsome and chief financial officer Pat Moriarty. Both Joe and Ray have far outplayed their initial rookie contracts, and both have earned a substantial payday.

The future is Now for Maryland Basketball

It has been over a decade since the Maryland Terrapins basketball team—led by Juan Dixon and 12 other unheralded recruits—won the national championship. They remain the only group in NCAA Tournament history to win a National Championship with no McDonald’s High school All-American players on the roster.

Over the last 10 years, the fans and the media alike have criticized Gary Williams for not bringing in top talent, though amidst the criticism, he always found a few diamonds in the rough. Jordan Williams was a 3-star recruit—ranked 87 overall—who is in the NBA after 2 short years under Gary. Terrell Stoglin ended up as the ACC’s leading scorer in just his second season last year, despite not being considered good enough to play for his home-town Arizona.

When Gary retired last summer, the Terps hired Mark Turgeon and fans had no idea what to expect. Less than one year later, Turgeon has recruited one of the best classes in the nation and has ESPN citing the Terps as a powerhouse program once again.

Baltimore Baseball--Experience Oriole Tragic.

 “…And it’s just another little bit of history repeating.”

Who knew the Propellerheads were Orioles fans? The band released this song in 1997—the last time, as most of you know, the Baltimore Orioles produced a winning season. It’s been stuck in my head since two nights ago, when the O’s lost after four-and-a-half hours of futility.  Then, last night, they delivered the sequel, prompting me to develop a proposal for the Orioles’ front office to make “History Repeating” the team’s fight song.

Of course we dropped two extra-inning games. At home. To the Yankees. Again. The Orioles have been the Murphy’s Law of baseball for over a decade, now. Within the context of a single game or over the course of an entire season, anything that can go wrong does. Every time we see flashes of brilliance from one player or in one phase of the game, another player, a different phase flames out.