OWINGS MILLS — Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta fielded several calls in the hours leading up to Tuesday’s roster deadline, particularly with opposing teams looking to make a trade for a defensive back.
DeCosta didn’t budge on any of the offers.
He knows the importance of a strong secondary and how it can impact the Ravens’ season. The team kept 11 defensive backs — six safeties and five cornerbacks.
“We’re strong in the secondary, and we stayed strong; we kept some additional guys,” DeCosata said. “We really like our corner group and our safety group. It would have been more challenging honestly, had Trayvon Mullen stayed healthy and then Arthur Maulet – two really good players who got hurt. We’re really strong [in the secondary], and we had a few teams call us about a few of our players, and my mentality is, ‘If you’re strong, stay strong.’
“In some years, we’ve traded players, and then you get a couple of injuries and then you look at it and kind of regret it, now you’re happy at draft time, but it makes for some challenges in [the] season,” DeCosta said. “We just decided this year that we liked our team and we were going to stand put with the players that we had.
The Ravens’ cornerbacks are Marlon Humphrey, Brandon Stephens, Jalyn Armour-Davis, and rookies Nate Wiggins, and T.J. Tampa.
They surprisingly kept six safeties with All-Pro Kyle Hamilton, Marcus Williams, Eddie Jackson, Ar’Darius Washington, rookie seventh-round pick Sanoussi Kane, and undrafted rookie Beau Brade, who made a late surge to make the team, especially in the final preseason game against the Green Bay Packers.
The Ravens have had at least one undrafted rookie make the final roster in 20 of the last 20 years. Brade tied with inside second-year linebacker Trenton Simpson with a team-high 19 tackles in the three preseason games.
“I just think with Beau, that guy just really earned it. And if you looked at our games – the Packers game, let’s face it, it was kind of a joke,” DeCosta said. “It was hard to watch in a lot of ways. I couldn’t wait for the game to be over, really to get the Popeyes chicken sandwich on the plane. The reality is, Beau actually just played great, and he did it consistently. He won the job. He took the job. And in the end, he deserved being on the team, and that’s what it was all about.”
