Ravens rookie report: How all 8 draft picks fared, and what’s in store for next season

The Ravens’ 2021 draft class defies easy narratives. In late April, general manager Eric DeCosta opened it with a rarity: two first-round picks. By late August, the eight-player haul had already been reduced to six, another front-office rarity. There were highs and lows, breakthroughs and injuries, starters and backups.

“In general, we just tried to pick good players, guys that could do multiple things, guys that fit us, personality-wise,” DeCosta said after the NFL draft wrapped up May 1. “We tried to pick smart, tough and competitive guys. Quite honestly, if we had a choice between two players and they were equal talents, we would always defer to the guy that really lives like a Raven, so to speak. That was something that we used to separate a lot of guys this year.”

As Ravens officials prepare for this April’s draft, the team’s 2021 class is due for an evaluation. Here’s a look at how the Ravens’ eight picks fared, and how they might fit in (or not) on next season’s team.

Likely starters

WR Rashod Bateman

Stats: 12 games (four starts), 46 catches on 65 targets, 515 receiving yards (171 after the catch), one touchdown, 29 first downs, two dropped passes, two penalties (one false start, one offensive pass interference); graded out as PFF’s No. 9 wide receiver among 13 qualifying rookies

2021 summary: The No. 27 overall pick missed the Ravens’ first five games while recovering from groin surgery, which cut short a promising training camp. Despite his delayed introduction and limited time with Lamar Jackson at quarterback, Bateman finished the season with the second-most receiving yards per game by a rookie in franchise history (42.9), behind only wide receiver Torrey Smith (52.6 in 2011).

Bateman’s production was prone to inconsistency — he sandwiched a no-catch and one-catch game around his 103-yard outburst in Week 14 — but the former Minnesota star showed the route-running ability that made him so productive in college. He also had some highlight-reel catches and slick after-the-catch moves.

2022 projection: Bateman said he got out of the season healthy, but after three months of playing on a surgically repaired groin, the offseason probably came as a relief. He acknowledged after the draft last year that his run blocking would have to improve, and another year in an NFL strength program should help his growth there, too.

With those gains, Bateman could supplant Marquise “Hollywood” Brown as the Ravens’ top outside wide receiver next season. While Bateman was a less productive slot receiver (1 yard per route run) than Brown (2 yards per route run), he was more efficient in outside alignments (1.5 yard per route run) than his fellow first-round pick (1.2 yards per route run), according to Sports Info Solutions.

OLB Odafe Oweh

Stats: 15 games (two starts), five sacks, three forced fumbles, 33 tackles (five for loss), 15 quarterback hits, one pass defended, four penalties (two roughing the passer, one offside, one neutral-zone infraction); graded out as PFF’s No. 4 edge rusher among 12 qualifying rookies

2021 summary: The No. 31 overall pick didn’t need long to distance himself from his 2020 season at Penn State, which he finished without a sack. Oweh took down the Las Vegas Raiders’ Derek Carr in his NFL debut, then had a game-changing forced fumble in the Ravens’ comeback win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2. In Week 4 and Week 5, respectively, he knocked Denver Broncos quarterback Teddy Bridgewater out of the game and strip-sacked the Indianapolis Colts’ Carson Wentz.

Despite missing the Ravens’ final two games with a foot injury, Oweh finished the season with 49 quarterback pressures, according to PFF, the most among rookie edge rushers. The Ravens also got creative with his alignments, sometimes asking him to beat guards, spy the quarterback or disrupt receiver’s releases on obvious passing downs.

2022 projection: If Tyus Bowser’s recovery from a reported Achilles tendon injury pushes back his return to the middle of next season, and if the Ravens can’t re-sign Justin Houston, Oweh would enter Week 1 as the team’s top returning outside linebacker.

He has the athleticism and football IQ to dominate as a run defender and hold his own in pass coverage. As a pass rusher, however, Oweh’s still learning how to make the most of his gifts. He needs to show he can trouble linemen as much with his speed off the edge as with his size, length and mix of counters.

S Brandon Stephens

Stats: 17 games (11 starts), 78 tackles (49 solo, one for loss), four passes defended, one quarterback hit, one penalty (illegal contact); graded out as PFF’s No. 5 safety among six qualifying rookies

2021 summary: The third-round pick never played less than 23% of the Ravens’ defensive snaps in a game, and he got every snap in four of them. Stephens’ role only expanded after starting safety DeShon Elliott suffered a season-ending biceps and pectoral injury in Week 9. He finished the year with 744 defensive snaps (sixth most on the team) and 223 special teams snaps (behind only Wallace among Ravens rookies).

Stephens, who played primarily cornerback at Southern Methodist, lined up everywhere on defense in 2021 — sometimes out of necessity, sometimes as a chess piece. In pass coverage, for example, he played 11 snaps as an outside cornerback, 75 as a slot cornerback, 90 as an in-the-box safety and 265 as a deep-lying safety, according to SIS.

2022 projection: Stephens was one of the Ravens’ highest-graded players over the final month of the season, according to PFF, and his relative inexperience at safety opens up a handful of possibilities for his future next season. Does the Ravens’ staff see his greatest value as a center-field safety, a box safety or a matchup safety who can help out anywhere? If it’s the latter, the Ravens could target a more traditional safety in free agency or the draft, someone who could complement Chuck Clark and Stephens in the secondary.

To be determined

G Ben Cleveland

Stats: 12 games (four starts), no sacks allowed, two penalties (one holding, one false start); graded out as PFF’s No. 6 pass blocker and No. 8 run blocker among nine qualifying rookie guards

2021 summary: Offensive coordinator Greg Roman hailed the third-round pick as the best run blocker in the draft, but injuries and rookie-year growing pains hamstrung Cleveland’s development somewhat. In an early-season timeshare at left guard with Ben Powers, he played nearly 50% of the offensive snaps from Week 2 to Week 4.

A minor knee injury in Week 5 sidelined the Georgia product for over a month, however, and he didn’t earn his next offensive snap until mid-December. After Powers suffered what became a season-ending foot injury in Week 14, Cleveland played every offensive snap over the Ravens’ final four games.

2022 projection: Cleveland, who’s expected to compete with the more experienced Powers and Tyre Phillips for the starting job at left guard, rarely looked overwhelmed in pass protection and showed good movement skills for a 6-foot-6, 357-pound rookie. His next step is converting strength into power; Cleveland had some success clearing space on double teams, but he struggled to uproot defenders as a one-on-one run blocker.

WR Tylan Wallace

Stats: 17 games (one start), two catches on six targets, 23 receiving yards (14 after the catch), nine special teams tackles (four solo), two kick returns (19.5 yards per return), one penalty (illegal shift)

2021 summary: After a knee injury ended his 2019 season at Oklahoma State and interrupted his 2020 campaign, Wallace made it through his rookie year with almost no time on the injury report. (He missed just one practice, in December, while clearing the NFL’s concussion protocol.) The fourth-round pick finished sixth on the team in special teams snaps (58.7% overall), the most for any Ravens rookie or offensive player, and had some ups and downs as a gunner on coordinator Chris Horton’s punt team.

As a receiver, Wallace had to adjust to new territory. After operating almost exclusively as a right-sided outside receiver in college, he started 31 of his 51 routes this season in the slot, according to SIS. His two catches were both impressive: a diving 5-yard grab on an outside-the-numbers throw against the Green Bay Packers in Week 15, and an 18-yard catch-and-run a week later against the Cincinnati Bengals in which he spun out of two tackle attempts.

2022 projection: Wallace has already proved his special teams value. Now he’ll have to continue his growth at wide receiver, where he’ll battle for snaps behind Brown, Bateman and Devin Duvernay, and maybe another. Wallace thrived as a vertical, jump-ball threat at Oklahoma State, but the best slot receivers earn snaps with their route running, soft hands and dependable blocking. If Wallace develops into a trusted target over the middle, he could block James Proche II’s path to more playing time.

OLB Daelin Hayes

Stats: One game (four defensive snaps) and no tackles

2021 summary: The fifth-round pick was one of the Ravens’ most impressive rookies through offseason workouts and over the first two weeks of training camp. Then injuries got in the way, as they sometimes did at Notre Dame. Hayes missed the Ravens’ first two games with a knee injury, only to suffer a high-ankle sprain in his Week 3 debut. He later underwent a minor knee operation in the middle of the season. Hayes returned to practice in late December but was placed on season-ending injured reserve on Jan. 1.

2022 projection: A healthy Hayes should be a rotational outside linebacker in Baltimore next season. The Ravens could’ve used him on the strong side as a rookie, especially when injuries and a coronavirus outbreak depleted the position’s depth. Hayes has dependable moves and impressive bend for an edge rusher, and his motor, versatility and edge-setting ability should earn him playing time.

Already gone

CB Shaun Wade

Toward the end of an unimpressive training camp, the former Ohio State star was traded to the New England Patriots for a 2022 seventh-round pick and 2023 fifth-round pick. Wade, a fifth-round pick, appeared in three games for the Patriots over the second half of the season, seeing 11 defensive snaps and seven special teams snaps.

FB/TE Ben Mason

The fifth-round pick from Michigan, drafted as fullback Patrick Ricard’s heir apparent, left Baltimore after failing to make the Ravens’ season-opening 53-man roster. He joined the Patriots’ practice squad, then never appeared in a game for New England, which released him in November. Mason joined the Chicago Bears’ practice squad in December but was not signed to a reserve/future deal.