Everything you need to know about the NFL draft

The 2024 NFL draft begins Thursday, and over the next three days you’ll find out who the newest members of your favorite team are.

Whether you’ve been staring at mock drafts until your eyes cross or you don’t even know which team is picking No. 1, we’ve got you covered.

From basic facts about the draft to in-depth looks at prospects and scenarios, we’ve compiled everything you need to know. As you wait for the Ravens to make their pick, check out our coverage from the past few weeks:

When is the draft?

The draft kicks off Thursday at 8 p.m. with the first round. Three of the league’s 32 teams are without a pick in the first, the Cleveland Browns, Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans. Each club has 10 minutes in the first round to make a pick.

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Baltimore has the 30th overall pick in the first round. Over the last three years, the team holding the 30th pick has typically made its selection about 11:45 p.m.

Teams will return Friday for the second and third rounds, with coverage kicking off at 7 p.m., and Saturday for the fourth- through seventh-round selections, starting at noon. The time between picks decreases as the draft continues.

Where is the draft?

The draft will take place in Detroit, where top prospects will gather to see if their names are called. However, NFL front offices will be making their choices from their own practice facilities, which means the Ravens will be picking from Owings Mills.

How can I watch the draft?

You have four options if you want to watch the draft on television. ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and NFL Network will all air the draft. If you can’t watch on TV, you can follow along with us for news.

Where are the Ravens picking?

After finishing with the best regular-season record and an AFC championship appearance, the Ravens have the lowest pick you can have without playing in the Super Bowl. Here’s a list of their picks:

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Round 1, pick 30
Round 2, pick 62
Round 3, pick 93
Round 4, pick 113 (from Denver Broncos, via New York Jets)
Round 4, pick 130
Round 5, pick 165
Round 6, 218 (compensatory pick, from Jets)
Round 7, pick 228 (from Jets)
Round 7, pick 250

What do the Ravens need to address with the draft?

The Ravens’ biggest needs come at offensive line and wide receiver. They lost both of their starting guards, Kevin Zeitler and John Simpson, to free agency, and they traded their right tackle, Morgan Moses, to the Jets. Center Tyler Linderbaum and left tackle Ronnie Stanley are the only returning starters, and Stanley has dealt with injuries. The team has long-term and short-term needs there.

At wide receiver, Odell Beckham Jr. is a free agent and special teams star and depth option Devin Duvernay signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Baltimore needs more starting talent and more long-term depth.

The Ravens could also add a cornerback or an edge rusher in the first round. The need isn’t as desperate there, but if prospects at those positions are the best players available, the Ravens might consider it.

In this article, we ranked position groups by strength and broke down where each stands in the immediate and long-term future.

In this article, we broke down what general manager Eric DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh said in their predraft press conference about this year’s class and the roster’s needs.

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In this article, we combed through the Ravens’ draft history to get an idea of what types of players the front office leans toward.

Would the Ravens trade any of their picks?

DeCosta said he estimated there were only 15 to 20 players with first-round value in this year’s draft. The Ravens pick at 30. Maybe they get lucky and one of those players falls to them, but there’s a distinct chance they trade out of the first round to match their rankings of available players.

In this article, we went through the Ravens’ history of trading up and down and compared it to the draft landscape this season.

In this article, we crafted a mock draft that starts with a trade out of the first round.

In this article, we examine how name, image and likeness deals have changed the draft and how that might lead to more trades in late rounds.

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Who are players to keep an eye on?

With the Ravens drafting so far down the board, it’s hard to predict what direction they’ll take. At the very top of the draft, there are picks that are almost guaranteed, including quarterbacks Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels going first and second overall. There are other prospects who will probably go in the top 10.

But, once you get to 30, the decisions get harder as you weigh positional needs with who’s available. That’s something we discovered for ourselves as we put together four mock drafts that examine options for all nine picks:

We also broke down individual players and made cases for why the Ravens should go with that position in the first round:

Cornerback

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Wide receiver

Offensive line

Would Baltimore host a draft?

At the annual owners’ meetings in Orlando, Florida, Ravens president Sashi Brown said the NFL has chosen cities for the next few years, but the team is working on convincing the league that Baltimore should be on the list. Read more here.

Lamar Jackson

Because everything always comes back to Lamar.

Quarterback Lamar Jackson is a big fan of the draft — or at least of sharing his opinions on who the Ravens should take. Harbaugh said Jackson has shared his thoughts on offensive prospects in the past, and they’ll have a list of guys for him to look at again.

Jackson didn’t have the best draft process, with teams questioning whether he should play quarterback. He was barely a first-rounder. If the Ravens hadn’t made a trade to take him with the final pick of the first round, he would have had to wait for Day 2. How would Jackson be evaluated differently if he was a 2024 prospect? We examine how he’s changed the game.

Jackson’s also having an impact on the draft from a financial perspective. His salary is taking a jump this year and will take even greater jumps the further the Ravens get into his contract extension. That makes the draft even more important because the Ravens can get talented players cheaply if they draft well.

Here’s how the Ravens have worked around the salary cap and how much room they need for the draft class. Here’s coverage of a surprise that made things easier for them.

Everyone else

The first-round draft order is:

Chicago Bears (from Carolina Panthers)
Washington Commanders
New England Patriots
Arizona Cardinals
Los Angeles Chargers
New York Giants
Tennessee Titans
Atlanta Falcons
Chicago Bears
New York Jets
Minnesota Vikings
Denver Broncos
Las Vegas Raiders
New Orleans Saints
Indianapolis Colts
Seattle Seahawks
Jacksonville Jaguars
Cincinnati Bengals
Los Angeles Rams
Pittsburgh Steelers
Miami Dolphins
Philadelphia Eagles
Vikings (from Cleveland Browns)
Dallas Cowboys
Green Bay Packers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Cardinals (from Houston Texans)
Buffalo Bills
Detroit Lions
Ravens
San Francisco 49ers
Kansas City Chiefs

All the draft podcasts

At the bottom of this article, you can find the link to our latest podcast, but here’s a list of all the draft-related episodes of The Banner Ravens Podcast.

Seven-round mock draft

Offensive line evaluations

Wide receiver evaluations

Quarterbacks, running backs and tight end evaluations

Defensive prospect options

Spiciest takes