Baltimore Ravens: Geno Stone is the team’s top 2020 NFL Draft steal

Which player was the top steal of the 2020 NFL Draft for the Baltimore Ravens?

The Baltimore Ravens are no strangers to the annual NFL Draft honor roll, but coming off of a 14-2 season, they truly had one of the best classes in the 2020 NFL Draft overall.

The Ravens don’t have to pick early to dominate the NFL Draft, they just play the board well and take advantage of good players who fall for whatever reason, and they are one of the best teams in the NFL at developing their drafted talent.

Because of their track record for developing talent at every juncture of the NFL Draft, the Ravens’ late-round picks are of particular interest on an annual basis, and in 2020, they managed to get themselves one of the top steals of the 2020 NFL Draft class overall — Iowa Hawkeyes safety Geno Stone.

Baltimore Ravens 2020 NFL Draft class

• LB Patrick Queen, LSU
• RB JK Dobbins, Ohio State
• DL Justin Madubuike, Texas A&M
• WR Devin Duvernay, Texas
• LB Malik Harrison, Ohio State
• OL Tyre Phillips, Mississippi State
• OL Ben Bredeson, Michigan
• DL Broderick Washington, Texas Tech
• WR James Proche, SMU
• S Geno Stone, Iowa

Now, there was no video footage of John Harbaugh pumping his fists at the Geno Stone selection, but the Ravens are certainly going to be glad he was still on the board all the way down in the seventh round with their final pick of a deep draft class.

Stone was tremendous in his senior season at Iowa, racking up 70 tackles, 3.0 tackles for loss, a sack, an interception, and three forced fumbles. He picked off four passes the year prior as a sophomore and has been contributing on the Iowa defense for three straight seasons.

His productivity when on the field has been outstanding.

What Stone brings to the table is an instinctive, tough, physical defensive back with plenty of versatility.

He can play in the box as a dime linebacker or he can matchup in the nickel. He can roam around as a free safety when need be as well, but Stone’s value is going to be attacking the football, primarily.

He showed really nice range at Iowa and tremendous skills to play the ball, both when it’s in the air and when it comes to popping the ball out of a ball carrier’s hands.

Stone’s 2019 game against Michigan is one of the best single-game tapes of a defensive back you will see in this draft class.

Although you may not see him in the starting lineup in 2020, Geno Stone projects as an eventual starter or key rotational piece in a defensive backfield. For the Ravens, he will cut his teeth on special teams before getting his shot as a starter at safety.

There’s no reason why Stone should have been on the board in the seventh round based on his college tape. Iowa traditionally has a defensive back drafted way too low just about every year it seems like.

In this particular case, it works tremendously in the favor of the Baltimore Ravens, who cut Tony Jefferson this offseason and have some off-field issues to deal with regarding Earl Thomas.