Henne’s arm strength lagged far behind Flacco and he didn’t have the same natural throwing ability. In short, the Ravens liked him, but they loved Flacco.
So the trick for Newsome was to trade back far enough to get Flacco while picking up as many later round picks as possible while dealing around.
Many people in the NFL will tell you that the annual draft is a poker game for men with sunglasses and sweat suits. No one wants anyone to know what they’re doing and smokescreens, lies, damned lies, and red herrings are all fair game.
There was no way the Ravens were going to take Flacco with the eighth pick in the draft, even though they believed in him and were clearly ready to turn the franchise over to him. They knew there were some teams that had mild interest in him – like Minnesota and St. Louis — but they knew of no team that had expressed any notion that he’d be taken in the first round. There was no “value” in Joe Flacco at No. 8, and they’d also have to pay him a lot more money from the rookie salary cap at that slot.
But, in this cat and mouse game of keep away and state secrets, some coaches and organizations intentionally don’t bring players in for visits because they don’t want to alarm anyone in the media, agents, or other NFL executives that they’re even remotely interested. There was a stunning precedent set in 2006 when Mike Shanahan and the Denver Broncos traded up to No. 11 and drafted Jay Cutler without ever speaking to him or even attending any of his workouts. Anything was possible on draft day in a league full of increasingly secretive and paranoid executives.
While Newsome was trying to figure out how low he could drop and still get Flacco, reporters were calling for information and opining that the Ravens actually coveted Chad Henne. That was a rumor that no one in Owings Mills wanted to refute. If anything, they wanted to spread that rumor to throw anyone onto a false scent.
Newsome had a strong relationship with former co-worker James “Shack” Harris in Jacksonville and had for weeks discussed some scenarios where a deal for their 26th pick could be had on draft day if the Ravens wanted to back up. The Jaguars had several extra later round picks, and when the Ravens went on the clock they wanted to deal but the value of going up 18 picks in the first round is steep. Because of their relationship, Newsome sold the pick a little short on the “trade value chart” that is kept at the War Room table to gauge an approximate value of a deal on draft day. It’s a complex algorithm, but the chart makes it clear. Even though that No. 8 pick had extreme value, the best the Ravens could do was obtain the 26th overall pick plus two 3rd round picks (No. 71 & 89) and a 4th rounder (No. 125) from the Jaguars.
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Jacksonville wanted defensive end Derrick Harvey from Florida with the eighth pick, and Newsome made the deal.
Newsome has a credo he shares with those around him when it comes to draft day: “There’s always enough players to go around,” the Hall of Famer says when it comes to having a player he likes inevitably go off the board and off to a competitor. Every year players who the Ravens have scouted and loved wind up going to competitors like Pittsburgh and New England. They have scouts, too.
But this was the one time his theory was debunked. Everyone in the media was reporting that they were trading back to get Chad Henne. Even SI.com’s Peter King had written about it the night before and now when the trade was consummated it all made sense to everyone except the nervous Ravens room.
In all of the months leading up to the draft, no one anywhere thought Joe Flacco was a first round draft pick. No one seemed to covet him, and even St. Louis and Minnesota, who flew him in for interviews didn’t seem particularly interested.
In most drafts, the Ravens have a myriad of players they’ll happily select. But this was a franchise quarterback that they felt like they had almost secretly discovered 50 miles up the road in Newark. But what if some other NFL team had done the same thing — fallen for Flacco and thrown rumors out about going in a different direction? Was there a team out there lying in the weeds that would pull the trigger and trade into a spot above 26th to take Flacco? Those are the questions that keep Ozzie up at night.
There were a lot of sweaty palms in the War Room in Owings Mills as the picks started coming off the board into the teens. Bisciotti and Cass were as nervous as burglars. Newsome was trying to preach calm.
But the stakes were high, and everyone realized it.
A month earlier, Bisciotti was the first guy to stand up in front of the brain trust, just weeks after Harbaugh was hired, and told his football people to do whatever it took to get Matt Ryan. “What’s it matter if we have all of these Pro Bowlers on defense if we’re going to be scrounging around to just sneak into the playoffs every year?” Bisciotti said. “I told them to give the draft away to get Ryan. There was no price too high.”
