Eric DeCosta Had Lengthy Meeting With Controversial Ravens Day 2 Draft Pick

The Baltimore Ravens did as much research as they could into the two allegations of sexual assault brought against 2025 NFL draft second-round pick Mike Green, but the key moment may have been a lengthy one-on-one meeting between last season’s college football sack leader and general manager Eric DeCosta.

Shortly after taking Green 59th overall on Friday, April 25, DeCosta told reporters, including ESPN’s Jamison Hensley, “I would say that we investigate this situation very thoroughly.” DeCosta went on to explain, “We understand the severity of what these allegations were of course, but doing our due diligence, we are comfortable with Mike.”

The GM also revealed “I personally spent an hour and a half with him in my office and I think the best is yet to come with him and I’m glad we got him.”

Green, who led college football with 17.5 sacks last season, revealed at the annual Scouting Combine in February he had twice been accused of sexual assault. As Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic reported, “No charges were filed and Green has denied the allegations.”

That didn’t stop DeCosta and head coach John Harbaugh from overseeing their own investigation. They both spoke at length about an extensive process of investigating Green and ultimately being happy with the edge-rusher’s character.

Ravens Comfortable With Process for Drafting Mike Green

When Green addressed the media in Indianapolis two months ago, he explained he’d been accused of sexual assault during his time at Virginia, per Kevin Fishbain, Joseph Person and others of The Athletic. He also told those in attendance he had faced a previous allegation of sexual assault while attending high school.

The 21-year-old defensive end denied both allegations and said he’s “done nothing wrong.” As the report in The Athletic detailed, “The Charlottesville Police Department said Thursday it was notified on Aug. 29, 2022, of an alleged sexual assault involving Green that occurred around 1 a.m. three days prior on West Main Street in Charlottesville. There were no reported injuries nor any damaged or stolen property, according to Charlottesville Police Sgt. Chris Huber. ‘The investigation of the case has been suspended,’ Huber wrote in an email Thursday.”

Green said, “There’s accusations out there. I’ve never been questioned. I’ve never been asked. Nobody ever asked me a question about what happened before I departed from Virginia. It was just accusations that caused me to leave.”

Those revelations prompted some teams to remove Green from consideration, according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, who detailed how “decisions on these sorts of risks go to a team’s security departments and then, eventually, to the owners. And some owners won’t want to take a risk, even if a guy has been cleared, especially in cases where there’s more than one incident. For that reason, fair or not, Green is off some team’s boards.”

By contrast, the Ravens “pulled a few players off their board for character. Green remained on it,” per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.

That’s significant when the Ravens had reason to proceed with caution following the allegations of “inappropriate sexual behaviour” made against All-Pro kicker Justin Tucker. Reports from The Baltimore Banner’s Julie  Scharper, Brenna Smith and Justin Fenton revealed accusations made first by six massage therapists working in the Baltimore area, with 10 more therapists also accusing 35-year-old Tucker.

The latter took to social media to deny the allegations on January 30, and both DeCosta and Harbaugh acknowledged the seriousness of the situation, but preached patience ahead of the outcome of a league-led review.

The Ravens led their own review into Green’s background and came away ready to make a pick sure to boost their pass rush.

Mike Green Answers Needs for Ravens on the Edge

They needed help on the edges given question marks about the principal players in their rotation, and the Ravens got what they wanted in the form of Green. “He was the very best edge-rusher at the Senior Bowl all week long,” according to NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger, who credited Green with a “crazy” spin move.

Green has the physical traits and expansive repertoire of pass-rush moves to be an immediate impact player for the Ravens. They need one of those on the edges, where last season’s team sack leader Kyle Van Noy is 34 and fellow outside linebacker Odafe Oweh is set to enter free agency in 2026.

Depth is also an issue because brittle 2022 second-round pick David Ojabo has struggled to stay healthy and get onto the field. That’s a lot of doubts at a key position, doubts Green’s arrival helps to answer.

His arrival also follows a trend of the Ravens overcoming concerns to bolster their defense in this draft. It began with drafting to a strength by taking Malaki Starks in Round 1, before other teams beat them to the dynamic safety.