Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta knows the value of trading up in the NFL draft and getting additional picks, but he saw more value in cornerback Nate Wiggins.
The crows turned down eight commercial offers of teams trying to move up before remaining at No. 30 and drafting Wiggins with their first-round pick, according to ESPN’s Jamison Hensley.
DeCosta said Wiggins was a player the Ravens identified early in the draft process, and that they didn’t expect him to still be on the board after 29 picks. When he was, choosing him was an easy choice.
“For us, it’s always been, ‘If Nate [is] there we [are] I’m going to choose,'” DeCosta said. “In our opinion, [he’s] a guy who can be a real shutdown corner.”
Wiggins was First-Team All-ACC at Clemson last year and was the fastest cornerback at the combine, but at 6-foot-3 and 173 pounds, some have questioned whether he’s too skinny for the NFL. Ravens defensive coordinator Zach Orr, however, has no doubts.
“On tape, I didn’t see anything about him being undersized as something we criticized,” Orr said. “He flew, established the lead in the run game, played physical with receivers at the line of scrimmage, went up, disrupted, taking the ball away from people. So he played like a Raven. We have no concerns about that.”
If the Ravens had any concerns, they would have accepted one of these trade offers and moved on. But with Wiggins available, they wanted to stay right where they were.
