“The only rational approach is to get more at-bats,” Ravens GM Eric DeCosta declared, his voice dripping with the calm certainty of a blackjack dealer shuffling a hot deck. In a league where draft rooms often feel like Ocean’s Eleven heist planning sessions, DeCosta’s strategy? Slow-roll the hype, stack your chips, and let everyone else panic-bid, especially Roseman.

Picture this: It’s 2025, and Howie Roseman—Philly’s gridiron Gordon Gekko—is trading draft picks like crypto bros swapping NFTs. Meanwhile, in Baltimore, DeCosta’s sipping coffee, thumbing through The Loser’s Curse, an econ study that’s his draft bible. “Teams don’t do any better drafting than anyone else,” he muses, channeling Moneyball’s Billy Beane: ‘Your goal shouldn’t be to buy players, it’s to buy wins.’ But DeCosta’s twist? Buy more lottery tickets.

Roseman’s Eagles, fresh off a Super Bowl LIX win, live by the ‘go get your guy’ creed—like swapping picks to snag LB Jihaad Campbell. But DeCosta? He’d rather chill at Pick 27 than auction next year’s capital. “If you think about that, and if you accept that premise, then you’re trading up for a player that you think is better than anyone else, right? And you think that team’s gonna draft him, right? But most of the time, they’re not gonna draft that player,” he shrugs. Translation: Why panic when the board’s a crapshoot?

“And so what we’ve seen over the years is that player is probably gonna fall to you. And could he be selected? Yes. But there’s no guarantees that that player is going to be better than the player that you end up getting.” DeCosta’s even got a culinary gripe. Imagine 32 GMs at a diner, all ordering steak and pasta. “Nobody’s getting the lamb!” he laughs, skewering the herd mentality fueled by mock drafts and consensus boards.

Case in point: The 2025 Ravens snagged Georgia safety Malaki Starks at 27—a pick Roseman might’ve packaged to move up. But DeCosta’s Ravens, sitting pretty with nine picks, added depth like LSU OT Emery Jones Jr. and Western Michigan CB Bilhal Kone. More swings, more chances to hit—even if some whiff.

Roseman’s roulette: Philly’s high-risk, high-reward addiction

Meanwhile, in Philly, Roseman’s playing 4D chess. He traded a third-rounder for WR Jahan Dotson, flipped QB Kenny Pickett for a fifth-rounder, and turned draft capital into confetti. It’s Ballers-level swagger: ‘In this business, you’re either a shark or a minnow.’ And hey—it worked. The Eagles’ $276M cap juggle landed them a Lombardi.

But DeCosta’s counter? Cold, hard math. With a $12.2M cap cushion and a 12–5 roster, why gamble? “The draft’s inherently luck-driven,” he says, channeling his inner statistician. While Roseman’s chasing unicorns, DeCosta’s herding horses—steady, sturdy, and built to last.

There’s poetry in DeCosta’s pragmatism. The man who studied classics at Colby College sees drafts not as sprints, but sonnets—each pick is a carefully measured stanza. When he nabbed K Tyler Loop in Round 6, it wasn’t glamorous.  ‘Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.’

Roseman? He’s composing power ballads. DeCosta? Haikus. Both valid, both viral. But in a league where ‘next season’ is always a Hail Mary away, Baltimore’s betting on volume over velocity. Because sometimes, the smartest play is just… letting everyone else burn their timeouts. At the end of the day, his philosophy is simple: take more swings. “For me, the idea of having more picks means I have the chance of getting more players.”

Mic drop. Draft board: unplugged.