John Harbaugh trolls former Broncos coach Vic Fangio on Ravens setting NFL Draft record with six Round 4 picks

Having six fourth-round picks in one NFL Draft has teams envious of the Baltimore Ravens, who always seem to find good players this time of year. Baltimore already landed Kyle Hamilton, Tyler Linderbaum, David Ojabo, and Travis Jones on the first two days of the draft — and are in line to find even more value with the boatload of fourth-round picks on Day 3. 

The Ravens made all six picks in the fourth round, setting an NFL record for picks in a round in the common draft era. With the way general manager Eric DeCosta and head coach John Harbargh find talent, there’s plenty of reason for the front office to be excited. 

Since a record is made to be broken by the Ravens, Harbaugh had to joke at another coach’s expense that last time Baltimore approached a record. That would be Vic Fangio, who criticized the Ravens for running the ball in the final minute to tie the NFL record for consecutive 100-yard rushing games last year. 

Here was the conversation between Harbaugh and DeCosta to the media: 

DeCosta: “I’m glad you bring that up, because I’m not sure, but I think that may be a record – someone said – in the modern age.”

Harbaugh: “An all-time NFL record?”

DeCosta:  “All-time NFL record, coach.”

Harbaugh: “Like, never been done before?”

DeCosta:  “Never been done before. What do you think about that?”

Harbaugh: “I wonder what Coach [Vic] Fangio thinks about that? I don’t know.” — I couldn’t help myself.”

Fangio wasn’t pleased Baltimore went for the 100-yard mark in the final seconds of the game, tying the 1974-1977 Pittsburgh Steelers for the most consecutive 100-yard rushing games in NFL history. Harbaugh didn’t regret going for the record, saying the run play to tie the mark was his call. Harbaugh even said he wasn’t going to give his insult “one second of thought.”

He did late Friday night, as he had to laugh at Fangio’s expense. 

“I will say this: six picks are a great opportunity for our club, and as I said back in the pre-draft press conference, we’re going to proceed like we’re going to nail every single pick,” DeCosta said on taking advantage of the six picks in the fourth round. “Now, again, we do this for a living, and we look at it, and we study it, and we know that we’re going to hit on some players, but we could miss on some players. 

“But our scouts are jacked up and our coaches are jacked up, and we see some great players on the board. We’re going to find those guys, we’re going to select them, and we’re going to be done.”

Here were the six picks the Ravens made in the fourth round:

The Ravens took two cornerbacks and two tight ends in the fourth round, solidifying depth at those positions and taking advantage of having that much draft capital with Lamar Jackson contract extension looming. 

“They’re tickets – they’re lottery tickets,” DeCosta said. “That’s how we always approach it. Everything we did last year was really based on acquiring picks for this year; we thought this would be an opportunity for us this year as well…That’s the pressure and that’s what we’ve been thinking about – coaches and scouts – over the last nine months.”