Lots of clarity Sunday on the season’s penultimate regular-season Sunday. The two top seeds are set, the MVP is almost certainly set, game 272 (Bills at Dolphins) is set and the Eagles need a HAZMAT intervention. Five teams are fighting for three playoff spots in the AFC, with six dueling for two in the NFC.
But I digress. I want to talk for a few paragraphs on this first day of 2024 about a Saturday afternoon in 2022 that made everything possible for the best team in football, the Baltimore Ravens.
Setting the stage: The Ravens clobbered Miami 56-19 Sunday, the same way they’ve clobbered division leaders San Francisco (by 14), Jacksonville (by 16) and Detroit (by 32) on the way to the best record in football, 13-3.
Lamar Jackson, as you’ve seen, has been magnificent. He’s cemented his MVP candidacy by beating the formidable Niners and Dolphins in the span of seven days by a combined 51 points. Video-game football over those two games: 73 percent passing, seven TDs, zero picks. Jackson is playing the position with such flow, such fluidity. Nobody gets a big hit on him. Nobody. His touch is so deft. Forget stats, because some have better ones. Watch the games. Watch Jackson’s control of the games. There can’t be a question about the MVP race now after watching Jackson, leading the best team, dismantle two of the best teams in football in a week.
But I’ve got a story to tell you about three of Jackson’s touchdown targets that says so much about why the Ravens are the Ravens. The story takes place in the Ravens’ draft room on day three of the ’22 draft. I’m there because they had six picks in the fourth round of a draft in which they’d aimed to stockpile a bunch of mid-round picks; they let two free agents go to get compensatory picks and made two trades in 2021 to net ’22 fourth-rounders. All well planned.
With overall pick 128, GM Eric DeCosta took a prized tight end from Iowa, Charlie Kolar, who had a 3.99 college GPA. “Finally, I’ll have someone to converse with,” owner Steve Bisciotti chortled. Then punter Jordan Stout from Penn State at 130. Baltimore picked next at 139, and everyone in the room knew the target: speed receiver Calvin Austin from Memphis.
New England at 137, Pittsburgh at 138. Austin still on the board.
Quarterback Bailey Zappe to New England. Now Austin was four or five minutes away. The room, full of coaches and scouts, with DeCosta and coach Jim Harbaugh up front, was fired up.
Out of the tinny speaker on the conference table, connected to draft HQ, came this: “The Pittsburgh Steelers select … Calvin Austin, wide receiver, Memphis.”
“You gotta be kidding me!” someone from the front of the room shouted.
DeCosta had open offers for the pick from Kansas City and Jacksonville. He didn’t love any of his options, but there was one player he liked from Coastal Carolina, a tight end who played like a big receiver named Isaiah Likely. DeCosta asked Harbaugh what he thought. Harbaugh asked then-offensive coordinator Greg Roman, “How about Likely? Can you find a spot for him?” Roman said yes. Thirty seconds left on the clock. DeCosta turned the pick in.
The GM never planned to take two tight ends in the span of 12 picks. And he wished his division rival hadn’t taken Austin. But he didn’t grimace or pound the table. A few minutes after the round ended, he said, “That’s the draft. You never get everyone you want. But I like Likely. He’s going to make some plays for us.”
Six weeks ago, the Ravens lost Jackson’s favorite target, tight end Mark Andrews, likely for the season with an ankle injury. Next men up. Likely was the starter, with Kolar getting increased time. On Sunday, with AFC home field on the line in Baltimore against Miami, Likely caught a TD pass in the second quarter and another in the third, and Kolar caught one in the fourth.
“Eric DeCosta does a great of going after guys who are going to have that Raven in them, who fit,” said Lamar Jackson after Sunday’s game. “Hats off for bringing players like Charlie [Kolar] and [Isaiah] Likely in.”
In the five games since Andrews was lost, Likely’s given the offense 19 catches, 57 yards a game and four touchdowns. The depth at tight end has helped the Ravens stay on the attack, and help Jackson nail down what should be his second MVP award.
In his last five games, Calvin Austin has two catches for 15 yards for Pittsburgh.
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