The Ravens drafted Mike Green, then spent most of Friday night defending it

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OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Baltimore Ravens decision makers have been asked several times this offseason about a perceived organizational no-tolerance policy concerning misconduct against women and similar offenses. That’s as the league continues its investigation of longtime Ravens kicker Justin Tucker, who was accused of inappropriate behavior by 16 massage therapists as part of an investigation by The Baltimore Banner.

The organization, team officials have said, doesn’t have a blanket no-tolerance policy despite head coach John Harbaugh seemingly citing one when asked about the Cleveland Browns’ acquisition of Deshaun Watson in 2022. Any lingering ambiguity about that was erased on Friday night when, with the 59th pick of this year’s draft, the Ravens selected Marshall outside linebacker Mike Green.

From a football standpoint, Green is a wonderful fit for a Ravens team that needed more pass-rushing juice. Green was widely considered one of the best pure pass rushers in this draft class. He led the FBS last year with 17 sacks and he also had 22 ½ tackles for loss. You may have seen the clip from January’s Senior Bowl practices when Green put Oregon offensive tackle Josh Conerly, who was drafted by the Washington Commanders in Thursday night’s first round, on his back. Green sets a mean edge against the run, too.

Green was also twice accused of sexual assault which is why, instead of coming off the board before the Ravens made their first-round pick, Green was still available for Baltimore to select late in the second. The first allegation was when Green was in high school in Williamsport, Va. The second came when he was at the University of Virginia; he was dismissed from the UVa football program in September 2022. No formal charges were filed and Green has denied any wrongdoing — he voluntarily brought up the allegations at the NFL Scouting Combine in February. He was not made available to reporters Friday night.

“I would say that we investigated this situation very thoroughly,” Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said. “I think we have the best scouts in the NFL. We’ve got great scouts that go into Virginia. They go into Marshall. We’ve got people that work for investigating different incidents with players all the time, and we felt comfortable taking [Green]. We think he’s a talented player. We understand the severity of what these allegations were, of course, but doing our due diligence, we are comfortable with Mike. I personally spent an hour and a half with him in my office, and I think the best is yet to come with him, and I’m glad we got him.”

Friday was another busy day for the Ravens and DeCosta looked weary by night’s end. In the afternoon, they introduced the team’s first-round pick, Georgia safety Malaki Starks. The Ravens then patiently waited out a second-round run on edge rushers before landing Green, who joins an outside linebacker group that includes double-digit sack guys Kyle Van Noy and Odafe Oweh; 2022 second-round pick David Ojabo; 2023 fourth-round pick Tavius Robinson; and 2024 third-round pick Adisa Isaac.

In the third round, the Ravens landed offensive tackle Emery Jones Jr., a three-year starter at LSU, 91st overall. Jones slots into the No. 3 tackle role behind starters Ronnie Stanley and Roger Rosengarten, though Harbaugh said he expects Jones to also get some summer reps at guard, where the Ravens have a vacancy on the left side.

After the third round, DeCosta also quieted some of the speculation about Mark Andrews’ future when he said that he expects the Pro Bowl tight end to remain with the team. The Ravens have engaged in trade talks involving Andrews for much of the offseason, but they’ve made clear that that they expect significant value in return.

“I would never say if I entertained any trade offers at this point,” DeCosta said. “Great player, I love him. Competitive, tough, playmaker. I would expect him to be on the team.”

Eric DeCosta spent a portion of his combine availability addressing the Ravens’ approach to Justin Tucker’s sexual misconduct allegations. (Stacy Revere / Getty Images)

Otherwise, the majority of DeCosta and Harbaugh’s post-third round news conference focused on Green and why the Ravens were comfortable selecting him when so many other teams clearly were not. NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reported that Green was off several teams’ draft boards and specified during the NFL Network broadcast that some teams found Green’s explanations about the sexual assault allegations to be “unsatisfactory.”

At the combine, Green said: “You can ask anybody that knows me how I am. … I think what everybody just needs to know is I’m not this guy that everybody’s trying to portray me to be. That’s online, that’s talking about something that they don’t know about.”

The Ravens spoke highly of their meeting with Green at their facility earlier this month. They described all the feedback they’ve gotten on him as “positive.”

“We diligently investigated it,” DeCosta said. “We got as much information as we could. We considered the facts. We considered the allegations. We considered what the reports actually were and what they actually weren’t, and we made the decision based off of that.”

Harbaugh acknowledged that he was not part of the team’s pre-draft hosting of Green, but he vouched for the work that the franchise put in, calling it “exhaustive.”

“It was Eric. It was our scouts. I was in all the meetings. I heard all the reports,” Harbaugh said. “The coaches and administrators and teammates at Marshall were fully supportive of everything he had done there, and same at UVa. It wasn’t any different at UVa. It was exactly the same from that standpoint, so you talk about due diligence. We made a decision based on what we felt was fair.”

If there is any NFL organization that is acutely aware of the potential ramifications, it is the Ravens. In 2014, running back Ray Rice’s struck his then-fiancée in an elevator at an Atlantic City, N.J. casino. It led to long overdue scrutiny about how the NFL handles domestic violence cases; it also ended Rice’s career. The NFL’s investigation into Tucker, one of the Ravens’ most accomplished and recognizable players, remains unresolved. The team said it will follow the lead of the league’s investigation. DeCosta was asked whether the Tucker investigation had any bearing on the team’s decision-making with Green.

“I don’t think that would be fair to either player,” he said. “It’s two different situations, and obviously, the allegations are severe. We take it seriously. We look at them individually, and we do as much homework as we can, and specifically in Mike’s case, I feel like we did a good job talking to as many people as possible. We talked to Mike at length, we did our own kind of work behind the scenes, looking at all the different things, and we felt comfortable taking him.”

The ESPN draft broadcast showed an emotional Green in tears as he celebrated at home with family and friends after being drafted. DeCosta declined to provide details of his phone conversation with Green, but he said that Green was “relieved.”

“It looks like he has a beautiful, wonderful family supporting him and I think they’re excited for this next chapter,” DeCosta said.

The Ravens are excited, too. They believe Green will be a high-impact pass-rusher from the outset. They also think that they’ve improved their defense significantly with the selections of Green and Starks, and they have eight more draft picks on Saturday. Regardless of what they’ve done, or what else they do, in this draft, the selection of Green and the scrutiny it draws will stand on its own.

(Photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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