REPORTS: RAVENS TO EXTEND M&T'S NAMING-RIGHTS DEAL

Snow was falling, and Ravens fans were exalting.

On Dec. 8, 2013, Marlon Brown's last-second touchdown catch gave Baltimore a sweep of a critical three-game home stretch and a win against the Minnesota Vikings during the first game played in accumulating snow in team history.

The game featured a league-record five lead changes during the final two-plus minutes, and it also made the Ravens' record better than .500 as they made a late-season playoff push.

Ravens assistant general manager Eric DeCosta said preseason storm clouds had meant more than the snow, because the game also represented the fruition of a foreboding prediction.

"I knew this (2013) would be a tough season," DeCosta told a gathering of fans at a PressBox post-draft event at Mother's Federal Hill Grille May 20.

Besides his duties with the team, DeCosta is also on the board of directors of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which benefited from a winning auction bid of $900 at the event, conducted by PressBox publisher/founder Stan "The Fan" Charles.

The sponsors for the event were Bob Davidson Ford Lincoln and Budweiser.

The fans in attendance seemed to be in good spirits, but DeCosta seemed eager to set the record straight about why the 2013 Ravens missed the playoffs, the team's first playoff absence since 2007.

"When you [have a winning record] every year, it's tough to repeat that," DeCosta said. "You have lots of other things conspiring against you.

"When Pittsburgh won the Super Bowl [in 2008], I spent every dying breath trying to figure out a way to beat the Steelers. … It's very, very hard to stay on top every year.

"After we beat Minnesota, I looked over at [general manager] Ozzie [Newsome] and said, 'We're not the team we want to be.' "

That's when DeCosta, Newsome, college scouting director Joe Hortiz and the rest of the team's brain trust rolled up their sleeves and did what many observers feel they do best: draft college players.

Even though it usually takes at least three years to evaluate a draft class for any given team, most draft and media observers have given Baltimore a solid B grade for their nine-man haul.

The Ravens didn't meet some team needs, such as cornerback and offensive line, during the selection meeting, and DeCosta said that was because the Ravens had stayed true to their draft philosophy.

"There's one thing you can count on," DeCosta said. "We are going to draft the best available player. That means we are going to draft players that we have graded more highly, regardless of need."

First-year Ravens offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak likes to use multiple tight ends in his scheme, and the team used a third-round pick to select Colorado State tight end Crockett Gillmore.

Head coach John Harbaugh usually has plenty of options at as many positions as possible, and the DeCosta said the fifth-round selection of Penn State center/guard John Urschel had loaded up a position where players are tough to find.

"We've got [multiple] guys who can snap," said DeCosta, referring to Urschel, trade acquisition Jeremy Zuttah, 2013 draftee Ryan Jensen, A.Q. Shipley and 2013 starter Gino Gradkowski.

On defense, DeCosta admitted the team had started to get old and slow, which seemed to provoke the Ravens' propensity for getting defensive help with their first three selections: linebacker C.J. Mosley, defensive lineman Timmy Jernigan and free safety Terrence Brooks.

DeCosta went so far as to say that Mosley was the highest-rated player the team had drafted during the first round since selecting University of Arizona cornerback Chris McAlister 10th overall in 1999.

As usual, fans wanted to know a few behind-the-scenes draft stories, such as DeCosta's favorite 2014 draftee and whether another team had taken a player that he wished hadn't gotten away.

Fourth-round defensive end Brent Urban, despite an ankle injury that kept him out of rookie camp, was prominently mentioned as the answer to the former question, with tight end Eric Ebron (Detroit draft pick) and safety Jimmie Ward (San Francisco) cited as players Baltimore would have liked to have drafted.

Echoing majority owner Steve Bisciotti's proclamation several years ago, DeCosta gave the fans a blunt bottom line.

"We don't believe in [competitive] windows," he said. "We want to compete every single year."

The fans cheered loudly, knowing they could likely count on that being as reliable as a robust snowfall.

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DEAL EXTENDED: The Ravens are set to announce May 21 the extension of their stadium naming-rights deal with M&T Bank, a source told PressBox at the DeCosta event.

The deal is expected to be at least 10 years in duration, according to the source.

M&T Bank, which is based in Buffalo, N.Y., signed a 15-year deal in 2003 to put its name on the stadium, which opened in 1998 as The New Stadium at Camden Yards.

Internet provider PSINet signed a 20-year deal in 1999, but its tenure as the rights holder lasted three years before the company dissolved in the wake of the dot-com boom that fizzled at the turn of the millennium.

The sponsorless facility was called Ravens Stadium in 2002 before the current name took effect the following year with a preseason game against the Buffalo Bills.

Joe Platania is in his 21st season covering professional football.