Obviously, the first trade from No. 8 down to No. 26 plus three other choices was critical.

Once Matt Ryan was gone, Ravens director of college scouting Eric DeCosta had seven pages of notes with several permutations of scenarios. When the Falcons picked Ryan, DeCosta turned the page.

The game plan was to trade down somewhere between No. 18 and No. 28. For more than a week, GM Ozzie Newsome had been talking to teams about trading down. In one case, the discussions began at the NFL owners' meetings in March. Once Jacksonville cooperated, it was a matter of the Ravens gauging the draft terrain as their pick got closer. A number of teams had them sweating -- Carolina, Kansas City and Chicago were among them, But it was the Jets that they were worrying about jumping ahead of them.

With a surplus of picks from the Jacksonville trade, including two extra third-rounders and a fourth, the Ravens were able to offer Houston (No. 18) the second of the third-rounders from the Jaguars deal (no. 89) and a sixth-rounder (No. 173).

Both the Ravens' coaching staff and the scouts were watching the draft together and according to DeCosta, there was elation with the Flacco pick. Interestinlgly, DeCosta said that had the Ravens been trumped on Flacco, there would would have been a big letdown so clearly, there was a substantial difference between Flacco and Michigan's Chad Henne.