In case you haven't noticed, the Baltimore Ravens are a pretty good defensive football team. Their presence in the AFC Championship Game might alert you to that fact. But their offense needs a lot of fixing. You figure that the focus of Baltimore's draft this offseason will be on the offense to try and make them a more potent and complete team.
Still, why pass on a chance to make that defense even better?
In the latest mock draft by Draft Tek, the Ravens would upgrade their pass rush and pick up perhaps the best pure pass rusher in linebacker Nick Perry with the 29th pick. Here's their explanation for that decision.
Baltimore is a team with few needs but one place where they could use improvement would be to find another pass rusher. Terrell "T-Sizzle" Suggs is a great pass rusher and should have many more years ahead of him but they lack a real pass rushing threat opposite him. Sergio Kindle hasn't developed as they'd hoped as at OLB. Pernell McPhee and Paul Kruger are nice role players but both are too big to stand up as an OLB and have been forced to split time at DE. Baltimore hasn't had a true pass-rushing threat at OLB since Adalius Thomas left in 2007. Nick Perry projects as an ideal 3-4 OLB and is coming off a season where he had 9.5 sacks at USC and is one of the top pass rushers in this weak class.
Indeed, the Ravens didn't really get much pressure on T.J. Yates today in their divisional victory over the Texans, despite having great overall defense all game long. Perry would be a good upgrade to put right on the opposite of Terrell Suggs. It'd be pretty shocking to see him fall that far to Baltimore though.
To discuss the draft with Ravens fans, go to Baltimore Beatdown. To To talk about the draft in general, head to Mocking the Draft.