If you're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. Today, we had a chance to hear from Ravens Director of Player Personnel Joe Ortiz. He held a session with local reporters breaking down some film of the Ravens six drafted prospects, giving us his perspective on what he likes about this class, and he answered some questions from the media about this draft class and the impact they could have on the team this year.
Can you describe the pressure building up into a draft where you had so few picks? Where is that How much different that when you got ten or eleven like you had in some of.
The Yeah, I guess you can create the pressure. It's the best way for me to put it. But I think all I think every year we have we put that pressure on ourselves, like we want to you want to get every pick right, you really do, and when you have less, it's like, all right, we got it. We we do. We got to nail every one of these picks. And uh, but I don't think it really.
We really don't change our approach. We don't do things differently because oh my god, we got to make We're always trying to be thorough, be detailed, have all the information and make the best decision. But you definitely I think post draft, like, well, you know, you have less at bats, so you better get more, you better have a better batting average. You know, you feel more pressure
that way. But I think it's more post draft. You know, we wanted to be great with this draft, and we wanted to nail everyone, but we're like that when we had eleven picks last year. You want to get them all, right, But there's probably a little bit more pressure, I guess because you have less swings at the plate.
It seemed like in a lot of pre draft and it seems like this year, a lot of players that.
Some people have really high, you know, a little bit lower.
Do you have a feeling of whether they would be there when you picked, or you're kind of surprised that they were there?
You thought he could be He was certainly one of the players that all our scouts looked at of the guys that we thought could be there. Was I shocked that he was there? No, I wasn't. Did I think he could have gone before we picked? Absolutely? And again, the way the receiver run was last year and the amount of resources that have been poured into the position. The fact that the run didn't start till write around when we were picking, that actually surprised me a little bit.
You know, so who went first. That wouldn't have surprised me that because I think everyone if you asked everyone from February to the draft to shake him up in a cup and pour them out, you're going to get different orders every single time, you know. But I thought that the run might start a little earlier, just because of the way the league is treating the position. Now, BC maybe didn't use say that you were.
Enough of that you were hoping to see on safe because projected.
It not really know they I mean they used him in a lot of different ways. I mean, he's a you know, he's certainly probably their best playmaker, you know, and so they they tried to get him the ball, they put it like I said, they had him out wide, they put him in the slot, they moved him to the backfield. They tried to use him on a double pass. He aboarded and took it in on his own. But no, I think, you know, I you know, he he when you're that kind of a player, you don't want to
overuse him. Maybe on as a punt returner, but he shows the ability to catch punts and certainly look really natural doing it at the East West when I was out there watching him there.
So all that, I think you're just looking at his statistical pression. I think that freshman year he was getting all carries, design, design touches, because the sophomore year has that forty year.
Was that just you know, him.
Maybe leveling up as a receiver and then you know, realizing what he was or what was something else with him, you know, his role changing becoming.
More that that downfield. Yeah, it's probably just h him him growing as a receiver. I would think if you look at you know, when you have veteran players anywhere at college pro like they you kind of especially in college. You got a senior junior that you trust, and he got the young guy that's a playmaker. Let's get the ball in his hands, give him some carries. We got the seniors or the juniors that we get. You know, they've been the X, they've been to Z, so yeah,
that's probably them, just like let's get him. Just find ways to get the ball in his hands. I think a lot of college coaches do that when they get a player like Zay, like just find a way to get it to him and then let him grow into his role. And that's what he did with Addison.
You know, he played with Kenny Pickett and then he transferred to Playland. Probably guys gonna be the wonder Ball pick next year with Zay? Did you see more upside there because he wasn't playing with the quarterback? You know, it's going to be most likely first round picking what he can become in an NFL offense.
Yeah, I think, you know, I think when you look at players and there's listen, there's not a lot of number one picks playing quarterback in college football. You know, so they are what their quarterbacks are what they are. And you know, I think you look at a receiver, especially or a tight end. You look at them and how are they running routes? How are they catching the ball? You know, is the ball on target? Nope? It wasn't on target there, you know. And but man, he got open.
He can separate, he can you know, when the ball is on target, he can finish, he can catch, he can catch contested. So I think you really look at him independent sometimes scheme is probably more a player his production can be affected more by skiing than necessarily who the quarterback is. Now certainly I can think of quarterbacks, and I can think of players again without naming names, since this is on the record, that man, they left
a lot of yards out there with that. You know, there's been some receivers that might have another three hundred yards in their college senior season. But the quarterback, you know, cost of those, you know, but that's that's the nature of the game. You know. But that receiver, you see him, he's wide open, he got deep, just got overthrown, you know, so you you feel like he's gonna be able to do it. You get an accurate ball on him, you're gonna get more production fro him.
Should have to have been doing what you guys ultimately did with Modi And can you just kind of take us through how that played out, because something you guys it already done your fresh staff intever.
Yeah, so you know, it's just it was like it's almost like an organic thing. You know. It's like our scouts liked him. Uh, you know, he towards a c l I still had jo d look at him, and
Jod liked him. Offensive line coaches liked him. Devline liked him, so we did all the same work on him, and then we had him on the board and it was one of those things where we only have six picks or five picks, and you know, if we got an opportunity to get a late round pick, he'd be a guy we'd consider and uh and so it was talked about throughout the draft process and you know, and there's other players that are injured, you know, or have a
medical concern that we'll still consider taking. And it just got to the point where we came down here, had the discussion with you guys, had the press conference with you guys, and it you know, Eric kind of called a shot. I think, you know, who knows we might get you know, we get back in. But we went back up there and we talked about it going into day three. You know, if we got enough, if we made a trade and got a seventh round pick, he'd be a guy that we'd target. And we were just
able to get back in. When we got back up there were some teams with multiple picks that frankly didn't want to use all of them, and we were able to trade next year six for them, and so it just kind of worked out great, you know, But don't you know, it wasn't one of those things where like we're definitely doing it. It was, you know, just if the opportunity presents itself and it's something we'd consider.
Process question with Simpson, you're sitting there in the third late. I know Eric in the past has been moaned not have the second round pick, and how difficult that week is and you're seeing these guys fall off the board.
How difficult is it just to.
Kind of be patient to think that one guy you have graded in that spot is still going to be there and when is there a lot of discussion in that case, but hey, maybe we should move up to get this guy or we're gonna be left blah blah blah.
You know, I think in some ears, when it's one guy that you're sitting on, you might be more inclined to go up if you have some resources to go up with. In this case, it wasn't just one guy when we had plenty of targets, so to speak. When day two began, obviously we knew there was going to be a lot of attrition through the second round, but when we started the third there were still a good number of names up there that we were we liked,
and then they literally just probably fifteen picks away. They kind of just rolled off the board, that cluster of guys, and he was the last one standing. There comes a point where you're like, okay, we're four picks away, we got we got three guys left. One of them is going to be there, you know, you just because you're in the third round. There's no like, I mean, it can happen. You could lose all three picks, but that's
the way it worked out. Trenton was it, you know, and he was sitting there, and so yeah, there's some years where you'd want to consider going up, but if it's just like one guy who's kind of sitting out. But I think I've learned personally in terms of patients, like the draft is the draft, you know, and you're gonna be sitting there and a guy you really hope gets to you is going to be taken, and you just got to be ready to take the next one. That just kind of another process question you guys.
Maybe I told us this, like give guys round grades so that if you are there in the third round and there was literally no guys with a third round grade, then you would be compelled to trade into the fourth round or something.
And is that how you evaluate that? Yeah, we don't put great round grades on players. We put just a number grade on a player. Yeah, it's just you know, typically this grade. You know, again, we stack it, you know, and Eric stacks it with you know, with the room, uses the room to end his opinion obviously to stack the board. But then I have my own individual ranking. So if Eric asks me, would you take a player at eighty four at thirty six? Doesn't matter if he's
in my top thirty six. And Eric asked me, would you take him at thirty six? And I say, no, Well who else am I going to take? You know? So it's like, yeah, I would take him at thirty six, you know. So now typically I know in my stack, like I may, there'll be somebody, there's gonna be other players that one maybe I haven't seen, or two I just didn't like as much, are going to go ahead.
So it's almost like in the third round, someone in my top six will probably be there, you know, if we're picking at ninety, you know, and so you know, would I take ninety in the third round? Yeah, I would because I have ninety players and we're the ninetieth pick. That's what I would take. But that's kind of how it works. So the scouts that do him Eric may say, hey,
would you take him in the third round? Well, hey, haven't done everyone else on the board, But they're just kind of like, it just doesn't feel like a third round player to me. It's more like a fourth you know. That's that's just a dialogue conversation. But in the end, wherever we're picking, we've got to have If we're twenty two, we got to have twenty two guys. So if I say I take a guy in the first round, he's in my top twenty two. He might be the twenty
second guy, but yeah, I take him. And there's times where I'm like, you know what, he's not even in my top twenty two, and I'd still take him. He might not be my top twenty two, but if the room likes him enough, heck, yeah I take him because I still like him. He's just number twenty three or twenty four for me. You know, it's not it's the organization's pick.
You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcasts, This is a conversation with Joe or t Is, the Ravens director of player personnel, breaking down some of the prospects from this year's class and what he thinks the six drafted players could bring to the team this year.
With I'm curious, have you seen more talent coming out of Canada in recent years? And then secondly, is his hustle and retracing to the ball kind of uncanny?
Answer the second one uncanny? No, but I like it, you know. I mean it's one of those things where it just you can't help but not enjoy seeing guys play hard and go and there's certainly other players in college football to do it, but he's just he just it's a motor. I mean, he's passionate and cares about the game. And yeah, you know, players coming from Canada, I think there's there, always have been. Is there a
high volume of player from Canada? No, but you just do see more and more when you go to the colleges throughout the country. You know that their kids are coming down. They're playing high school in Canada, or they make come down to the States and play at a you know, a prep school or somewhere down here to gain some experience and then obviously going to college. But
there is definitely i'd say growth. And I think, you know, football has always been popular enough up in Canada, they have the CFL and there's exposure to it, but I think there's probably becoming more and more exposure would be there's a little bit more exposure nowadays.
So two of them MOUs On Simpson just reading up on the scouting reports where one of the misstackles and then two just the processing. Did you think both of those are probably a function just how dumb he is and just you know, give more, get more reps, get more hear that's.
Yeah, yeah, And like I mean, tackling is a thing that you can improve on. I mean especially when you're an athletic kid, and he is very athletic, so excuse me. It becomes about leverage, about angles, you know, tempo in the back, you know whatever, you know, breaking down, coming to balance. So that's definitely something that any player with athletic ability can improve upon, especially if they're techniques off. Personally, I thought he was. I wasn't concerned about either one.
And when you talk about you know, processing, you know you're talking about a player again. That was really a nickel type rover backer, you know. So it's going to be different inside the box this year. There is a little bit of like process, read, react, go because you're not used to picking up little tails from the offensive lineman because you have never done it before. So, yes, that's something. He's a smart kid, he's a diligent worker.
He cares about the game. He's going to get better at it with more reps, just like all of us. More reps is something that we're not as exposed to. We'll get better at it. Look over the.
Past few years of the draft, are you finding any trends or relations on more big picture of what teams are liking disliking anything that you could you recognized.
We study stuff like that, you know, and without saying anything, you know, but we certainly do research on it. You know. I think some obvious ones. More receivers are getting taken,
you know, higher, and obviously the Backs. It's great to see a couple of backs go in the first round this year, honestly, because I mean it's not fair, you know, I mean the Backs get you know, everyone's talking now backs undervalue and that they're still good players, you know, So I think Both those guys are great players and deserving where they're a pick. So I like seeing it, you know, and I'm not opposed to taking a running back.
I mean, heck if if you know, we would have a chance to put mel into retirement, you know, but you know, not that we want to do that, but he you know, they're both great players. So yeah, there's definitely trends that go on through the league, and we try to study it and an idea them, but it's so fluid. It's so fluid, you know, there's so much turnover in this league, GM's coaches, coaching staffs, so just when you think you have a trend figured out, they can go the other way.
You're going to talk about a first round why receiver and was in the knock with Okay, well maybe maybe the drops when you describe kind of the way he went about him that was more like, well we understand why that happened when given like form, that was a.
Knock on him. And then the way that it's worked.
Out just in the the work, bring up up what are the conversations like talking about a guy that as you're going back pros and cons, is there an extra concern or bigger debates because of that history.
Yeah, I mean, certainly you got to you gotta pay attention to history, but you also have to understand that there are different every All players are different. You don't want to knock a guy because of a previous player, and you also don't want to give the guy the benefit of the doubt because of a previous player. So, you know, we it's funny because you mentioned Brashad and then you think about Tory. Tory drops some balls in college, and Toy was a big, fast, strong guy who ran downfield.
So you know, do you drop a lot of balls now? But Tory would drop some balls to college. Prashad dropped some balls. But Purshot also made great catches. So you just try to compare them to players that we've had or players that you know in the league. And you know, obviously you know Burshad wasn't as productive as we had hoped.
Certainly dealt with some injuries that I truly I don't know if you guys were out here the day he got hurt, but I think he had five or six catches for about one hundred and seventy yards and three touchdowns. I'm like, oh my god, and then he hurts his knee right in front of me, and it was a long process of recovery and that you know, you know, I don't know if that's why, But he still drops some balls afterwards, So Zay. I feel good about Zay's hands.
And I think you look at them individually, I really do. I think if you sit there and say, oh, he drops some balls, so did this guy, they're going to be saying I just don't think that's fair. I think you have to really dig into it and see why they're doing it, if there's a reason, if there's a common occurrence, what causes the drops. But you see him make enough contested catches and again, and you guys saw it on the on the film, he catches the ball
away from his frame. It's just sometimes you gotta focus a little more, you know. Now, if he had to get on the field, he might go to help you this this year?
Will it be a blitzer rough stop or what do you think he does best?
Right now?
Yeah? I think I think early on, the thing that's gonna stand out about is his ability to pursue and and run to the ball. And then he does have blitzing ability. I mean he is explosive, you know, off the edge or coming from depth. You know. So if if you had to say, okay, Joe, what's the one thing you're gonna hang your hat on trenton right now? Day one? What's he gonna go out there? And do you tell him go chase that ball? You know, and
and go and pressure the quarterback? You know, because he's got elite speed, just like our other two inside backers you know who were are true starter. So we just added more speed to the insire backer position and speed and athleticism. So it's great with someone like Kayyie.
Does pedigree matter at all or is just like another line that's kind of biographical information on a prospect?
Yeah, you know, I I think when you it doesn't hurt certainly. You know, he's been around the game and you know a lot of these guys either generations, you know, grandfather's fathers played in the league. That exposure does help a player acclimate himself, understand what he's getting into. Doesn't push him up, no, but it's just it's it's a
positive thing, you know. And there's every year in the draft, there is numerous I mean, obviously Joey Porter, you know, you know who people were asking me about before the draft would be fun. But you know there's the they just get exposed to the game, they understand how it goes. So yeah, it's a positive thing. I wouldn't say it's something that, oh, we got to take this guy because he's his dad playing the league.
Obviously, the pre draft questions were can he play outside?
Big enough and all that.
Obviously we had a condition that he can't play outside and inside.
What were the attributes that you saw.
From him that made up for the size difference that tells you yes, in the NFL he can play outside.
Yeah. So it's it's he's explosive speed all right, and he's strong, Like he's not big, but he's strong. So you watch him, you watch guys grab him and which they do even in this league they get called for a lot more than you do in college. College is crazy. But he can fight through contact, he can fight off contact. He can handle the bump because he's got such good strength and core, you know, center of gravity. He just he can get bumped to get his foot in the
ground and work off contact. So you see it. And then his ability to play big for himself, for his size at the catch point. But he's just roul skill. I mean you can he can separate back down the stem. He can, and he's a vertical, so we creates pressure on the dB and then he's able to work back down away from him. So he just got a round ability at all. Really, xyz, you know wherever just line them up and go run around and get open and catch the ball and make place.
This is the Ravens Press Pass podcast that was Ravens Director of player Personnel Joe Ortiz breaking down these six players to the Ravens drafted and this year's class. Also, if you missed it, go ahead and check out the Lounge podcast feed. We actually sat down with Ravens gentleal manager Eric Tacosta earlier this week. It was a forty five minute conversation about the draft, the moves the Ravens have made this offseason, and the overall approach that the
Ravens bring to the scouting process. Really insightful conversation with him, So go ahead and check that out and the Lounge podcast feed. Make sure that you subscribe to both. These feeds also lead a rating and a review. Thanks for listening. Talk with you again, Sid