He has to wait one more week.
But Ozzie Newsome, the general manager of the Baltimore Ravens, is more than prepared for the National Football League draft.
“If the commissioner was ready to call the draft tomorrow, we?re ready to go,” Newsome said Thursday.
Newsome, head coach Brian Billick and head of scouting Eric DeCosta, in a meeting with the media Thursday at the team?s Owings Mills? facility, spoke about potential picks. They said the team is likely to address needs at various positions.
The April 29-30 draft will likely see the team select perhaps several safeties. And the team left the door open to the possibility of taking a quarterback.
When discussion turned to selecting a defensive tackle, DeCosta said Oregon?s Haloti Ngata and Florida State?s Brodrick Bunkley are on the team?s radar.
“I think Bunkley is more of a playmaker,” DeCosta said. “Ngata is more of your prototype, two-gap, straight-forward type, nose tackle.”
The Ravens currently have two quarterbacks on the roster, with incumbent starter Kyle Boller and Brian St. Pierre. Newsome said he was confident the team would address the position in the coming weeks.
“Are we still looking to upgrade that position? Yes. Are there some guys in this year?s draft who we think are going to be very good players? Yes,” Newsome said.
Vanderbilt?s Jay Cutler will likely be the highest-rated quarterback left when the Ravens use their first pick at No. 13. Newsome did not rule out signing an experienced player. Speculation has circled around Tennessee Titans? quarterback Steve McNair, who could part ways with the team in the next few weeks.
“I will say by the time we open training camp, we?ll have four quarterbacks,” Newsome said.
The luncheon came a day after Comcast SportsNet aired an interview with the franchise?s most notable player, linebacker Ray Lewis, in which he did little to ease fears that he was unhappy being a member of the team.
Lewis repeatedly invoked God when asked if he was happy to be a Raven. When asked about the direction of the team and Billick?s leadership, Lewis offered “No comment.”
Asked about Lewis? comments, Billick said: “I saw the piece. I can?t control the conclusions that people want to draw.”
Billick said Lewis was in the Ravens? headquarters working out and that he appeared “upbeat.”
THE NFL DRAFT
When: April 29-30
Time: Noon to 10 p.m., April 29
TV: ESPN
Ravens? first pick: No. 13
Did you know? The only University of Maryland product drafted by the Ravens was wide receiver Jermaine Lewis, who was taken in the fifth round as the 153rd overall pick in 1996. The Ravens got the pick from Atlanta, for Gene Williams … Dan Cody was the second pick of the Ravens in 2005. He played at the University of Oklahoma.
