It begins with Madden 23 coins the No. 14 pick, which was made just after the pivot, which came No. 10. That's when we saw back-to-back trades with both the Commanders and Vikings in which they moved back and permitting the Saints and Lions respectively to advance and get wide receivers. This was an important event for Baltimore's opening round, since it cleared out the path for them to acquire one of their defensive players. Initially , it seemed easy to sign Kyle Hamilton, but it wasn't as easy as it appeared.

The Ravens were faced with a hard choice between two sliding defensive players The other was Hamilton, the best player in the class, but at a de-emphasized position as well as Jermaine Johnson II an edge rusher with a sliding style who looked tailor made to fit in with the Ravens defense. A pass rusher was essential, especially with the Ravens finishing on the bottom of the pack in their final season of Madden NFL 23. and it was an obvious decision. It would also be acceptable to go with the second-best cornerback in the class, Washington's Trent McDuffie. However, the pass rushing and cornerback classes this year was much better than at safety, so Ravens took the most experienced player available, and locked down the position.

What we didn't realize at the time is that there was a wrinkle that was a part of the Ravens draft that was yet to be worked out. Behind the scenes wide receiver Hollywood Brown had been asking the team to trade him. We're not sure of the time of the discussions, or whether the Ravens decided to wait for a specific player to be removed from the roster before pulling the trigger -- but the end result was Arizona making the number. 23 pick to Baltimore.

There were many possible directions that in which the Ravens could have gone when they came back on the board. Kaiir Elam would have made sense, George Karlaftis was a possibility. But Jermaine Johnson II was available. All draft experts expected Johnson to be the choice, then Baltimore was traded to return. They rolled the dice on neither Buffalo or Dallas selecting a player they wanted. It resulted in a win, but the Ravens surprised everyone madden 23 coins buy with their choosing to pass on Johnson II, who was a pick Iowa Center Tyler Linderbaum.