The Ravens entered this year’s NFL draft with 11 picks and three days later had 11 new players.

That fact seems axiomatic, but is also revealing when it comes to Baltimore’s roster-building philosophy. In short and simplified, general manager Eric DeCosta is willing to dole out big bucks to high-impact, star players like quarterback Lamar Jackson, linebacker Roquan Smith, defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike and a few others, then likes to use an abundance of selections to try to find quality, inexpensive players that fit culturally to fill out the bulk of the roster.

Some teams prefer packaging picks to move up to land a big-time talent; DeCosta avoids doing so like a crab evades the midday sun.

Doing so has generally worked out, too. To borrow from ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr., there’s a reason some teams are always picking at the top of the draft every year and Baltimore is not one of those teams. Put another way, it’s a numbers game, and generally speaking the Ravens have played it well, often nailing their mid-to-late first-round picks and finding meaningful contributors on Day 3, which is when eight of their selections took place this year.

While DeCosta uses “best player available” ad nauseam, Baltimore also addressed several needs this year with players it believes fit scheme and personality-wise. There was plenty to be gleaned from what the Ravens did — and didn’t do — as well.Here are five things we learned from this year’s draft.

Defense needed upgrading and was a focus: That six of the Ravens’ picks — including each of their first two on safety Malaki Starks and controversial edge rusher Mike Green — were spent on defensive players was telling.

Though Baltimore ranked a respectable eighth in both points (21.2) and yards allowed per game (319.2) last season, the defense took a big step back, especially through the air. The Ravens were an abysmal 27th in passing yards allowed (238.3) and only some schematic changes and personnel adjustments helped turn things around the second half of the season.

It was also a short-term fix.

By adding what many consider to be the top safety in the class who has a resume filled with consequential plays at a school (Georgia) that played a ton of big games the past few years, the Ravens’ pass defense should immediately get better on the back end and in the middle. Starks is also a high-character, high-football-IQ guy who played all over the field for the Bulldogs’ defense and will do the same here, from deep safety to nickel, like a smaller version of All-Pro Kyle Hamilton.

The other way to improve a secondary is to get to the quarterback.

Green did that persistently at Marshall (17 sacks, 59 pressures, 20.2% pass rush win rate, per Pro Football Focus), and if it weren’t for concerns over two previous sexual assault allegations he would have been long gone by the second round. But DeCosta said that he feels “comfortable” with the Ravens’ due diligence on those matters, the organization likely feels its culture can help Green avoid any further issues and is clearly willing to take that gamble in exchange for a highly talented player who should improve Baltimore’s middle-of-the-pack pressure rate from last season.

The one thing DeCosta acknowledged the Ravens did not get was a “big, wide-body-type” defensive lineman, though sixth-round tackle Aeneas Peebles, while on the smaller side, is an interesting player who has a chance to be the kind of late-round find they covet given his vigor and array of moves.

Justin Tucker’s days in Baltimore appear to be numbered: DeCosta was never going to flat-out say that he expects that sixth-round pick Tyler Loop will be Baltimore’s kicker next year and that the team is moving on from Justin Tucker, who is being investigated by the NFL over sexual misconduct allegations by several massage therapists from numerous Baltimore-area spas. Instead, he offered up a predictable line, saying, “They’re both on the roster, and there’s a situation for us where we’re just trying to find the best football players.”

But he didn’t have to be declarative — Loop’s selection as the first kicker drafted in the organization’s 30-year history all but was.

Unless Loop is lousy in rookie minicamp and beyond — something that seems unlikely as Kiper’s top-rated kicker in the class and the only kicker Ravens senior special teams coach Randy Brown coveted, according to DeCosta — it’s all but certain that he will be the Ravens’ kicker this season. If Tucker, who has maintained his innocence, is hit with a suspension from the league, that would presumably be the final nail in his time here.

But even before the disturbing allegations emerged, there were already questions about the 35-year-old and team’s longest-tenured player’s future, who is relatively pricey and was coming off easily the worst season of his career.

For Loop’s part, following in the footsteps of a team legend in at best an awkward scenario doesn’t seem to faze him.

“I think it’s really exciting more than pressure, just because it gives you something to shoot for,” he said. “Getting to follow in the footsteps of a guy like him who’s been so elite and get to compete with him and maybe learn from him, that gets me fired up.”

Mark Andrews was never (likely) going anywhere: The combination of Andrews being in the final year of his contract, the emerging Isaiah Likely behind him and DeCosta before the draft stopping short of definitively saying that he would be on the team this season was convenient kindling to trade speculation. But any such flames were fully doused after the draft’s second day.

“I would never say if I entertained any trade offers at this point,” DeCosta said. “I would really expect Mark to be on this team.”

Now, what if a tight-end-needy team that had missed out on Tyler Warren and Colston Loveland, both of whom went in the first round, offered the Ravens a deal that included a second- or third-round pick?

“You would only deal him if you knew you could get a [third-round pick],” one agent told The Baltimore Sun before the draft.

Even then, would that really be worth it given Andrews’ role in the offense, his being a security blanket to a star quarterback on a Super Bowl-caliber roster and the fact that Baltimore would recoup a similar compensatory pick should he leave in free agency next offseason?

“It’s not even close,” said the agent, who was granted anonymity to speak openly about sensitive league matters.

“With all these draft picks, nobody knows. Why get rid of Andrews for a third-round pick that you don’t even know is going to make it in the NFL? There’s first-rounders getting cut after a year. You’ve got a Pro Bowler there who’s probably one of the heartbeats of the team. That’s a winning team. There’s a reason why they’re picking where they’re picking every year.”

They still need help on both lines: Going into the draft, DeCosta made it clear Baltimore was looking to add to its defensive and offensive lines.

The latter was addressed with third-round pick and swing tackle Emery Jones Jr. out of LSU, fifth-round pick and true tackle Carson Vinson out of Alabama A&M and seventh-round guard Garrett Dellinger. Meanwhile, Peebles ended up being the lone defensive lineman the Ravens selected and even that doesn’t fulfill the need for a true run-stuffing nose tackle given his lack of size.

In other words, expect them to continue to beef up both fronts both in the undrafted free agent market and the veteran free agent market this summer when signing an available player would not count against the league’s compensatory pick formula.

Already, Baltimore has reportedly signed three undefeated free agent tackles and an interior defensive lineman along with extending minicamp invites to at least two interior offensive linemen.

It just makes sense and there’s a need to build depth, particularly given Ronnie Stanley’s injury history, among other potential concerns.

For one, teams need 15 or so offensive linemen (and around half as many defensive linemen) just to get through training camp.

For another, coach John Harbaugh ostensibly believes in the law of averages when it comes to ultimately filling out the 52-man roster and practice squad, particularly along the offensive line, which the Ravens currently allocate the least amount of salary cap space to of any team in the league, per Over The Cap.

In other words, the more (inexpensive) players competing for spots, the more likely they are to find guys who will fit what they need, which was the case last summer even with three open jobs on the starting offensive line.

Drafting a quarterback was a possibility: The Ravens are in the best shape they’ve been in at quarterback in a long time, with of course two-time NFL Most Valuable Player Jackson and a quality No. 2 in veteran and former Dallas Cowboys backup Cooper Rush, whom they signed this offseason.

Still, DeCosta said he considered drafting a quarterback in the later rounds, likely as someone who could be developed into a reliable backup or perhaps striking gold like the San Francisco 49ers did with Brock Purdy, the last pick in the 2022 draft.

“We had a few guys that we liked,” he said. “I can tell you that one guy got picked that we really did. We talked about it.”

He also said that he still thinks current third-stringer and 2024 sixth-round pick Devin Leary still has a chance to develop, but the Ravens targeting a quarterback along with Leary’s obvious struggles last summer probably means it’s a long shot that he’ll become a backup anytime soon.

Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker @baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1.