Perfect Picks 2026: Baltimore Ravens
By Rhys Knott
Trading away their next two first round picks for Maxx Crosby means the Ravens only have one pick in the first 45!
Crosby will definitely improve the Ravens’ defensive front. And, as much as the trade has drawn criticism, the Ravens know what they’re getting. Crosby is a high character, workaholic who never gives up, that’s not something you can say about all first round draft picks.
With a new, defensively minded head coach and a new, former Ravens player as defensive coordinator, everyone assumes Baltimore will focus on rebuilding the defense. They have a multitude of problems, though, and not enough cap space to fix them all in free agency.
Baltimore ranked second in the league when it came to running the ball in 2025, but allowed 45 sacks! Only three teams ended the regular season with a worse sack rate than Baltimore’s 9.64%! That problem is magnified when you know that no team threw fewer passes!
The combination of a dominant run game and injuries to quarterbacks prevented the passing game from truly developing in 2025. Todd Monken’s offense ranked 11th for net yards per attempt, but 13th for interceptions thrown!
Part of the problem was their tendency to lean on running backs as pass catchers. 17% of the Ravens’ targets were checkdowns to backs (even the Seahawks were only at 13.6%).
The receiving corps was also part of the problem. Only two Ravens receivers caught more than 56.4% of their targets, and according to FantasyPros, the Ravens’ receiving corps dropped 11 passes in 2025.
The most efficient receivers were Devontez Walker and Zay Flowers. Somehow, Walker only started three games and only saw eight targets (he caught 75% of them). Flowers hauled in 72.9% of his 118.
Baltimore needs to replace Rashod Bateman, who started 13 games and saw the fourth-highest number of targets but only caught 50% of them!
Round 2 - Elijah Sarratt (WR, Indiana)
22-year-old Elijah Sarratt is exactly the sort of receiver the Ravens need to add. He’s efficiency personified.
They already have Zay Flowers to do all the flash stuff, Devontez Walker can be a deep threat (if he stays healthy), and Mark Andrews can operate on short crossing routes and the holes in zone coverages.
Sarratt will be the glue that binds the offense together; he’s a reliable receiver on third downs and in the red zone. The 22-year-old caught 75.3% of his targets in 2025!
The Indiana Hoosier isn’t the biggest or the fastest, but he hauled in 200 passes in 40 college games! 31 of his catches went for touchdowns, Lamar Jackson would bite your hand off for a receiver with a 15.5% touchdown rate!
Mid Round Gem - Dani Dennis-Sutton (EDGE, Penn State)
You’ve never seen a man get as excited about getting to a quarterback as Dani Dennis-Sutton does!
The former high-school basketballer and track athlete isn’t the fastest EDGE defender in the class. But he is a very athletic 6-foot-5 lineman.
His 4.68 40-yard dash time is in the 83rd percentile of the class, and he weighs 268 pounds. Just four pounds lighter than Myles Garrett, and Garrett clocked a 4.64-second 40!
The Penn State product isn’t going to break the sack record like Garrett, but he lives in the backfield. In 55 college games, 22-year-old Dennis-Sutton only recorded 23.5 sacks, but he had 34.5 tackles for a loss and forced seven fumbles.
A former five-star recruit, Dennis-Sutton ranks 89th on PFF’s Big Board and 73rd in Tankathon’s rankings. He could be available when the Ravens pick in the third round, but his high floor could see him go earlier.
Late Round Sleeper - Treydan Stukes (CB, Arizona)
Cornerback isn’t a pressing need for the Ravens this year, but they could have three leaving in free agency.
There’s no way they can let the chance to draft Treydan Stukes pass them by, and he should still be available when their fourth-round pick rolls around. The consensus suggests he will be the 115th overall selection.
6-foot-2 Stukes is in the 92nd percentile for height in this class, and his 4.45-second 40-time sees him in the 68th percentile (it’s the same time Akello Witherspoon ran at the 2017 combine).
In his final season of college football, Stukes lined up in the slot 62.5% of the time. The Ravens’ current slot back, Marlon Humphreys, is contracted through next season, but drafting Stukes now would give him a year to become more au fait with Minter’s scheme.
Despite earning a 90.1 overall grade from PFF last year, Stukes projects as a fifth-round pick. Any cornerback who made 206 tackles, 12 of them tackles for a loss, in 52 games is great value that late in the draft, not to mention very Eric DeCosta coded.
Draft in Full
45 (R2) – Elijah Sarratt (WR, Indiana)
80 (R3) – Dani Dennis-Sutton (EDGE, Penn State)
115 (R4) – Treydan Stukes (CB, Arizona)
152 (R5) – Logan Jones (C, Iowa)
160 (R5) – Trey Zune (OT, Texas A&M)
172 (R5) – Dae’Quan Wright (TE, Ole Miss)
173 (R5) – DeMonte Capeheart (DL, Clemson)
210 (R6) – L.J. Johnson Jr. (RB, Cal)
249 (R7) – Lander Barton (LB, Utah)
252 (R7) – Haynes Kings (QB, Georgia Tech)
RHYS KNOTT
NFL/FANTASY FOOTBALL ANALYST
Rhys has been watching the NFL for 30 something years and still hasn’t managed to pick a team to support. When he’s not fixatED on pass rushers you can find him blithering on about most sports on Twitter @wrhys_writes