Ravens GM Shares Motivation Behind Re-Signing Pro Bowler

While draft experts had one of the top tackle prospects landing in the Ravens' laps at No. 27 overall in the first round of their mocks, DeCosta's decades of experience on the job as a scout, assistant general manager and head of a front office has taught him that projections can and are often wrong more often than not. Keeping a proven commodity for less than he would've made on the open market was the best course of action.

"When you're picking in the twenties and in the late twenties, it's very hard to get left tackles.," DeCosta said. "Those guys fly off the board, so you think you have a chance, and then what you realize is you're picking 25, 26, 27. There's five tackles, and all five tackles get picked before Pick 20. And so, for us making that investment in Ronnie, knowing him as a person, his ability as a left tackle to protect the quarterback and be a run blocker and be a leader on the offensive line was important."

Despite the mass exodus of experience the Ravens voluntarily underwent last offseason, they still ranked in the top half of the league in spending on the unit according to Spotrac at 12th at $34.2 million with the bulk of it going to Stanley who was making $17.05 million against the cap on the final year of his restructured deal.

As it currently stands, the Ravens rank third to last in offensive line spending in the league at 30th with just $28.01 million with Stanley accounting for roughly half of that figure again with a projected cap hit of $13.9 million.

"That tells me that we have some good young players who are playing well — they're on their rookie contracts," DeCosta. "I've got a lot of faith in those guys. I've got a lot of faith in [offensive line] Coach [George] Warhop to develop [them] and a lot of faith in our strength and conditioning program, too, that we bring in these younger offensive linemen, and typically we see that they get better over time."

The Ravens no longer need a new starting left tackle and have some internal options to fill the void at left guard. However, they could still benefit from adding more competition for Andrew Vorhees for the vacant starting spot and need more depth at tackle after losing Mekari and veteran swing option, Josh Jones, in free agency.

"I think it's a good strong offensive line class this year, across the board," DeCosta said. "[They are] a really, really good group of tackles and guards, as well. So, anytime you have a chance to draft an offensive lineman that you think can be a really good player, you should do that. Especially the way we play football, because we're a team that prides itself on running the ball and being physical, knocking people off the ball, controlling the clock, protecting the quarterback, all those different things, and so I think that's going to be critical."

The Ravens have already hosted a pair of developmental tackle prospects who hail from small schools for pre-draft visits and could be potential targets on Day 3 when they have eight of their 11 league-leading picks and even one projected early round prospect at the position recovering from injury. They have also been among the best in the NFL at drafting and developing mid-round interior offensive linemen into quality starters, especially at guard so history suggests that their methods when it comes to their offensive line approach are tried, true and should be trusted.