2025 NFL Combine: GM Eric DeCosta & HC John Harbaugh

Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass podcast. The twenty twenty five NFL Scouting Combine is now in the books. The Ravens had a chance to take a look at the incoming class of prospects and put in some work to build out the draft board for the upcoming draft in April. Now during the week in Indianapolis, we had a chance to hear from several of the Ravens executives, including GM Eric Costa.

Hello, everyone, We'll get started with questions. Thanks for coming man, that's a that's a that's a deep question. I've been blessed to be a part of an organization where we've had three head coaches and two gms. I think that that, you know, continuity is huge in decision making, having support from ownership, putting processes, play systems, feeling good about the process, knowing the other people in the room.

I think that's a big part of it.

I think shared experience, calling on historical things that have happened in the past to help you make decisions. I think factors in the biggest thing is really just having an owner that believes in you and has put you in place to succeed and believes you will succeed, and I've been blessed to have Steepashaty in my life for a long time. Here. Well, I think you're always you know,

We understand that.

These guys drive the league, and so you know, it's a tough position to be in.

But I think if you've got to write people and.

Trust the process, you can find one. Well, I think a lot goes into that. First of all, a good question. Appreciate the question. The allegations are serious, concerning the amount of allegations are serious and concerning. I think we're fortunate that the league is doing an investigation. We'll wait as patiently as we can for as much information as we can, and we'll make a decisions based on that. Well, I think, like every position, we're going to evaluate rank the board.

Zero that.

Well, I think again, it's a good question.

I think the biggest thing that we have to do first of all is look at every single case differently. There are no absolutes, and I think in this case, we're still a waiting as much information as possible. Again, we're fortunate that the league is it's come down to Baltimore.

I met with the league.

I believe the league is meeting with other people in Baltimore as well. We'll wait for the details of that investigation and we'll make a decision based on that. I really can't because again, we look at every case differently, and the facts in every single case.

We do this for a living.

We study players, we look at background, we consider all these different things. Every case is entirely different, different facts, different situations. So we'll wait for the investigation to take place and we'll make a decision based off of that.

Right.

So, we were aware that local media outlet was getting prepared to do a story on Justin Tucker, and that was the first time that we became aware of those allegations, of the potential allegations.

That might result.

Right.

So, I think, you know, I've answered what four questions on this situation. I did meet with Justin. I'm gonna keep those comments to myself and personal conversations with Justin. I think is probably the smart thing to do. But at that point, we did, you know, meet, and that's what I'm gonna say about that.

Don't know, I have no idea.

Well, I think it's a good, you know, a pretty good class draft wise, free agency wise as well.

I think we do a really good job.

I'm very happy to see the development that our young receivers have made the last couple of years. Greg Lewis does a great job coaching those guys up. Our players really did a good job this year. I feel like there's a good opportunity for us to find some good talent, either through free agency or the draft.

Uh, in every round, uh and every.

Price point and uh, and you know, I think the other point is that we've got some really good tight ends as well. And I think this year we really he did see kind of our vision for the offense come together with playmakers across the board, whether it's running back, receiver, tight end, backup running back, back up receivers, backup tight ends. I think, Uh, it was kind of what we've hoped for the last couple of years, and we had a

Uh. He and I have a good friendship. We've known each other for a long time.

He's got a great agent in Kim Miale. You know, you know, never want to say one hundred percent, but I feel good that we'll have a good, healthy debate, a good process. We're going to meet with Kim in Indy this week, and Uh, I'm optimistic that we'll be able to get a deal done. Well, that's a coaching question. I mean, we've seen you know, we think Roger had a great year last year. He's a very good athlete.

Get to the quarterback. I think that's a priority for us for sure.

Derrick Henry, I mean, Derek is just a phenomenal worker. He's a pro, does everything the right way, the way that he practices, the way that he takes care of his body, his mentality on the field, his leadership, his talent. I mean, he's freakishly talented. I mean his combination of size and speed. So he was just the perfect player for us. I think last year the right addition, and he brought a lot to the table on the field

You know, it's a tough question.

I mean it's you know, running backs are kind of like the stock market. They've been up. When I was a kid, running back was was was arguably the most important position on the field. You know, I grew up a Cowboys fan, and you know, Tony dors said, Emmitt Smith, guys like that were my idols. And then we went through this period of the last what five ten years, the analytics emphasis sort of de emphasized the position. And I think last year you saw the impact that some

Well. I see Michelle over here.

She helps Deck rate my office wall, and I think we have a picture of Derek going up on my wall. So what does that tell you? Lamar's got a great voice, and uh, he's a student of the game. He watches players, he knows talent. Now we do does love the Miami guys and the Florida guys, but listen, Lamar has a he's a stakeholder, he's a partner. He's earned that right to be to have that type of input and opinion, and a lot of guys haven't earned that right, but

I don't know how to answer that. I mean, you know, I mean Lamar is Lamar.

He's a two time MVP, in my opinion, should have been a three time MVP, so different status.

So that's what I would say.

I think you have to earn those kind of rights.

Uh.

I mean, upside is how good can this guy be? Position need is like we need a player to play right away my opinion. You know, with positional need, it sounds great at the time you draft the player, you pencil him in, but if he doesn't have the ability to play at a high level. Then typically you're gonna be disappointed, your fans are gonna be disappointed.

You're gonna look at.

As a as A as a bad pick. So you want the best player in any given situation. You need to change day to day. I mean, We've been in situations. I've been on teams where I felt like we had great depth at corner, great depth at tight end. In the matter of a couple of weeks, we had no depth. I go back to the year that in a matter of a couple of weeks we lost you know, JK Gus Edwards and Justice and had no running backs. Literally a Friday afternoon calling agents, trying to find somebody to

And so, you know, need changes. But you win with talent, you win with players.

And I always, if I have my choice, I'm always going with upside and I'm always going with talent. What was that, I mean, you guys know the Ravens. I mean, you know, right player at the right price. You know, we don't have a lot of cap room we have Nick Mattio working tirelessly to find some space for us. We call it couch cushion coins. You know, like we're just we're trying to find fifty grand here, seventy five

We're just not gonna be able to do that.

Obviously.

Comp Yeah, I mean, I think Mark is a great player. We're blessed to have three really good tight ends under contract this year.

They all contributed in different ways.

Their chemistry, their camaraderie, their impact on the offense, the relationship with the other skill guys is great. I mean, Mark's gonna go down as one of our great players. He'll be in the Ring of Honors someday. I love having Mark on the team. He's an awesome player. I know he's gonna have an amazing season.

Uh.

We'll figure out all the roster machinations over the coming weeks, but I can tell you there's no bigger fan of Mark Andrews than me.

And Uh. He's been a blessing to have on the team.

His leadership, the way he approaches the game, his attention to detail.

He's just one of those guys. Thank you, guys.

We also heard from head coach John Harbaugh.

All right, good seeing everybody appreciate you all being here for us.

What you got you focused on high school age students.

What draws you in a high school experience and what makes it special?

That's the best question that we're going to have all day to day. The best the high school experience. We're doing something we all came through high school. We all understand how formative that is, right, and the high school experience, whether it's uh sports, football or basketball, or band or theater or clubs or whatever, make a huge difference in young lives, right, you know that? And the impact that you have is a coach in any of those areas,

Thanks.

You know, NFL investigators on going earlier here when out and a little the allegation serious and it's certain has had does that sort of some up your reaction to.

Oh?

Absolutely, Uh, you know it's uh, it's not what you want to wake up and read. You know, you don't want to read about it. It's not something you want to see. I don't care what it is in terms of, you know, things that are are hurtful and harmful to people. There's too many headlines like that, too many stories that you hear that just make you just just sad, you know,

And that's where we're at right now.

That's what you can fail.

First point of the yeah, and that's that's what we're waiting to try to do, is reconcile it.

You know. It's uh, it's uh, that's what the process is for. You know.

That's why you've got to You've got to come to an understanding if you can, about what happened. You know, we've all got questions, but nobody knows exactly what happened.

So let's see where the review takes us.

When did you first learn deplication? And second when you're that confers.

Sitting there, Chelsea, Yeah, I learned after Eric told me. I think right before it came out. Maybe the banner had called Eric and told him that there was something coming out. We didn't know anything about what it was gonna be, so I knew what it was when I read it, and then, uh, I don't know.

A week and a half.

Two weeks after that, I gave Justin a call on a Sunday morning and we had a conversation about it and talked about it more about you know, just more from a perspective of being together for all these years. You know kind of what he was going through and you know what he was dealing with with that and kind of how he was handled with his family and things like that, and that was really what we talked about.

Can you say it again?

Assuation likes frien.

Sa year great question.

When it rises to a national level, how do you approach it Really it's not so much about like what level national or what level of attention something gets. It's the fact that it's so important to somebody in our program. I mean, to me, it's like people walk in the door in this job, you know, kind of you know, god appointment sometimes we call it, but things come up

So to me, it's exactly the same as any one of those conversations that you'd.

Have lost drafts going on.

Yeah, well sure it's uh, you know, every position isupport and we're gonnaok at every single position, but certainly different years you look at different positions. Uh we we we're looking at kickers. I mean, we're looking at a lot of positions. We're looking at every position. But I'd say the kicker position would have been a priority no matter what, because you know, our Justin's our kicker.

We love him and I expect him.

Would have you know always expected him to keep keep going forever, but nobody goes forever. So we've got to look at every position like we do, not what you all the big picture of the coaching changes. Yeah, that's the thing that we found in the last three, four or five years, we've had a lot of coaching changes, and uh, different reasons for different coaching changes. Guys have

Uh frendick chack.

Vs go. He's be gravitation was twenty er, you see him. It's very sensive, tagular class and the fine.

Years.

Yeah, it starts, Cliff, It starts there. You know, it starts on the offensive defensive line. So we're gonna be looking at both lines really hard. You look at every position. It gets a deep running back classroom, I've been told to, so we'll be looking at that position too. But yeah, game wrecking defensive tackles kind of a big deal, you know, you know, past past pressuring defensive ends.

That's kind of a big deal too.

Checks down. If you guys had the largest projects down with the team last year and at.

Least your thought process may be halved on a sail legs.

Flying Yeah, well we we our analysts are in that in that list.

So just so you know, we have about the same number of guys on the field and coaches women coaches too. On the field, we have the most women coaches in the league, which I'm really proud of that. We've got a very diverse coaching staff. I'm really proud of that. And we have a great coaching staff most importantly, and that's the thing I'm most proud of. So many well everybody's got them, everybody's got them, but they're just not listed under the coaching staff. We just we just give

John mentioned coaches gation, you guys have.

Oh the women's coach are Yeah, yeah, you guys conversation. Our women coaches are doing a great job. They're coaching football. Uh, they're they're they're contributing to our team. They're learning their their younger coaches. Uh, in the weight room, on the football side, through the administrative, through the analytic part of it.

Uh, we have we have some great young people coaching for us. I'm excited about that. It's that me check you.

Yeah, that's probably a better Eric quest I've I've I personally watched the tackles and guards right now so far on offense.

That's what I've gotten through. And I like a lot of those guys, so that's what I can speak to.

Jim learned about himself in his first year back, and.

Jim learned about himself.

Uh.

I don't know, man, he's he seems like the same gym to me.

I you know, I think maybe I think people people maybe in uh, but the Chargers learned much how good he is, how much funny is to be around.

Every day. You're around him a lot, you know, and he's he's he's Uh.

I was just talking to Joe Rties in the way coming down the hallway here, and he said, we work really hard and we have a lot of fun doing it, you know. And I think that's something that Jim has always been about. He's he's fun to be around. He's he's all he's all ball. If you like football, you know, you like being you like being a Charger. And I feel the same way about the Ravens kind of run similar type programs.

And and uh, you know, it's kind of what it's got a ship about. I say, some changes to play also the same years taking a step off. I'm talking to you, colleague league and trying to express that.

Your viewpoint, man, I don't know how it goes from the idea.

That's a great question.

I have been very involved in that, and you can ask anybody that and they'll probably tell you that they are they yeah, yeah, yeah. He's been a little bit of a pain about that. But you know, the thing I appreciate about the league is there's a great dialogue with that and they do like Roger wants to hear everybody's opinion and Troy wants to hear everybody's opinion. And those guys are kind of at the top of the food chain there and it kind of works from there through the competition committee on.

So they're great.

You know, No, I haven't always gotten what I've suggested. You know, I think most of the time that they should be doing what I think is right. But the coaches talk a lot too. And as far as replay, you know, I'm I'm a I'm about I'm just as much replays we can that makes sense, you know, some

When you have in your organization.

Got one vote right. Yeah, you guys ever have to kind of come to an agree with.

You we do.

You know, Steve is the boss.

You know, Steve ultimately makes a call, but he listens to all of us and then he it's not too often we're like, he doesn't.

We all come to an agreement. I think one of our philosophies is that we agree to agree.

You know, and you've got to come to the you know, it might be it's either or a third option or a fourth option or some you know, some way of looking at that melds all the ideas together.

But we always try to agree to agree.

Because of that. Also priding you take it.

And hid it developing.

Yeah, thanks, Now, I do you take a lot of pride in that, you know, you take a lot of pride in the fact that your coaches are going off and they're doing well, and you kind of see the the personality of the teams that they coach or the units they coach, and you feel like.

Man, that looks familiar to me, you know, and that's something that you do.

You take a lot of pride in that, and especially as you get older, you start feeling better and better about that. So I love our guys, and you know, I don't love playing against him all the time. That's not so much fun. But you love what they're building.

Earlier.

And you've heard this question as you know, he's a good the questions all after you.

Now, yeah, yea work with a free agency.

Would you become going to Roger in a.

Year or two on the web side, absolutely, Yeah, Yeah, that'd be one of the options we could go to. It would depend on the draft and different things like that and free agency. You know, I think we'll probably keep Ronnie, hopeful that we will, but if we don't, we'll have an option and that would be one of them for sure.

Oh yeah, boy, he's got a great shot at that.

He looked really good at the end of the year when he played and uh and there's other guys in there too in.

That mix.

Rotation.

Yeah, it was early in his career, and you know it just someone came in there and played really well. I mean, you know, Pat went in there and played great, and that was a better option. But Andrew was working all all the way through and developing then all of a sudden boom, he's back on the field. You guys don't see the practices. But then he's back on the field, and he played really well, you know, and that was because of all the work between then and when he got his opportunity.

To push.

Okay, well, to me, it's okay, you got to take all those rules holistically. Okay, what effect is one rule change having the next thing? So if you take out the touch push, then you've got to take out all pushing. Okay, So you can't. Guy can't be downfield and the offensive lineman come running in and push the ball carrier five more yards.

You can't take one out and not the other. They're they're the same.

Just like you're not supposed to be able to grab a running back and pull them into the end zone. That hasn't been officiated. They've allowed that to happen. That's already against the rules. How you can officiate that. So if we want to say that you can't, like you can't you can't help push it back, then you can't. Then you can take out the touch push if you if you're going to say that that's still allowed.

In my opinion, you can't take out the touch push. So I'm good. I'm good with you. I'm okay with the touch push. Yeah.

How employant is.

This offseason at the pass rusher and being able to get home four or not having.

The center in the bodies in the way.

Yeah, we believe in both.

I think you want to be able to You want to be able to get there with three, you know, maybe make them hold a little longer. You want to be able to get there with stimulated where you bring four, but it's not the guy they expect to come and make them hold the ball to coverage the guys. You want to be able to get there with four rushers, like some teams, the teams that have those guys, they do a great job.

And we have those guys too, We've done that a lot.

You want to be able to get home with zone blitzes, with man blitzeres, with all our blitzes, we like to keep it moving, We like to keep people guessing. That's kind of our format and for man rush, absolutely big part of that.

Four minuts thous two thousand and two of ours, Aaron was today humans play in.

The policy and definitely in your mind where if that policy is a paid stuff.

That's that's to be determined. I think that's to be determined, right, you know, that's something we got to find out. That's what the reviews for it again, understanding of what we're even talking about. You can't make a can't take an act without understanding, right. You got to get the facts and understand what happened as best you can, and then you take the situation for what it is. But the principle is the same. How do you define that principle

No, no, absolutely not absolutely not. Okay, great, Thanks, all right.

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