Sitting at the podium, fresh off drafting safety Malaki Starks, general manager Eric DeCosta raved about all the reasons the Ravens had used their first pick on the Georgia safety.

Starks is athletic, talented and skilled, of course — all the things you would expect of a first-round pick. But, more than that, Starks is smart. Over and over, DeCosta mentioned how well he interviewed, how high his football IQ is, how quickly he can diagnose plays and break down film.

“It’s almost like he’s a multiyear vet in the league, and we haven’t even played a game yet.”

Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton on Malaki Starks

Watching back home in Jefferson, Georgia, Starks’ youth football coach Shane Sorrow’s heart filled with happiness. How far the former Jefferson Dragon had come from the days when he couldn’t be bothered to memorize the youth team’s playbook.

Just as in school, that teaching method didn’t work for him. But, once they found one that did, Starks took off — and so did the other kids. Sorrow said they simplified the playbook and it allowed players to learn the game more easily. He still uses the Starks-influenced teaching method with his youth teams today.

Although it took years for Starks to become the film whiz he is now, it was clear early on how smart he was.

“He understood the game back then, but he could not verbalize to you how or why he understood the game,” Sorrow said. “It makes my heart happy to see him be so smart, because it was always there. He just didn’t understand what he knew and didn’t know back then.”

By high school, coaches had emphasized that football IQ would lift Starks above other players with similar skill. By college, Starks was fully bought in. By the draft, he was an expert, his intelligence helping him to be a first-round selection expected to become part of the Ravens’ starting safety rotation.

But now that intelligence is going to be even more critical. After safety Ar’Darius Washington tore his Achilles during offseason training, Starks was thrust into the starting role alongside Pro Bowler Kyle Hamilton.

In a talented secondary that is desperate to get off to a better start than last year, when it fell far short of expectations, a rookie will be expected to hold things steady in a critical role. But, if it’s going to be any rookie, the Ravens are glad it’s Starks.

“There was never a doubt whether Malaki could do it or not, I don’t think, for me personally,” Hamilton said. “I think he’s just more so solidified [with his play in camp] what people thought going into it.”

Letting him grow

On their way to a youth football game, the car Starks was riding in stopped at a gas station to stock up on refreshments.

Donovon Spicer, the driver and a teammate’s parent, asked Starks what drink he wanted.

The 6-year-old pointed at a Smart Water and asked what it was.

“He said, ‘Mr. Donovon, if I drink that Smart Water, will it make me smarter?’” recalled Sorrow, who was the team’s coach. “He’s like, ‘I don’t know, Malaki. You want a Smart Water?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, I want a Smart Water.’ And he drank that Smart Water. After the game, he said, ‘Malaki, what did you think?’ And he said, ‘I’m drinking a Smart Water before every game.’”

At 6, Starks did not fit the traditional mold of a “smart kid.” He struggled in school, a fact that frustrated him greatly, his mother said, until his father sat down with the lessons and figured out a different method of teaching him.

On the field, he wasn’t thrilled about the idea of having to memorize plays labeled alphabetically and numerically. He just wanted to know if he was supposed to go right or left on offense. And on defense he just ran to the ball, letting his instincts guide him and making the play no matter where it was on the field.

“We’d call a blocking technique, we’d call several different things out to different parts and and we eventually — it was inside right, outside right, inside left, outside left,” Sorrow said. “… So we developed a concept, and I still use it to this day, because it lets kids think about the game and stop being so intellectual because they’re young kids. Let them develop that and let them grow in that.”

And that’s exactly how it worked for Starks. Guided by his instincts, Starks made plays throughout youth football that led to many opposing coaches throwing and breaking clipboards, Sorrow recalled.

Detailed knowledge

A soccer player herself, Savanna Jackson never thought she’d know what a nickel package was. She preferred to watch her boyfriend, Starks, play when he was the quarterback.

But, as Starks transitioned from his sophomore to junior seasons of high school, a critical time for recruits, he began to get more serious about football. That meant focusing on defense, which he wanted to play in college — and watching film.

His high school coaching staff emphasized studying because “the number of people that you can out-athlete is going to get less,” his high school defensive coordinator, Tom Parker, said.

Unlike in youth football, Starks took to it quickly.

As the team returned for his junior season, Parker noticed Starks talking quietly to teammates in the back of the huddle. He quickly realized Starks was not chattering — he was explaining concepts to the others.

“He became the guy that was back there while I’m running drills with them, he’s coaching up the younger kid,” Parker said. “… Those kids [like Starks] most of the time can do all that without having to have that kind of detailed knowledge of it, because they’re so talented at our level. But he paid attention and knew the details so well he could coach it to the next person.”

Starks made the film room fun for everyone with his enthusiasm. He asked thoughtful, engaging questions, and Parker said it got to the point where the players were looking for the opponents’ tendencies rather than waiting for the coaches to tell them.

Starks brought the film home, too, which meant Jackson got to watch “a lot” of film.

The now-engaged couple have always bonded over sports. They would toss each other the football or practice soccer. But breaking down film was like a “different language” to Jackson.

But, because it was important to him, it was important to her. It’s still a work in progress, but she is rather well versed in the game and knows what a nickel package is, because her boyfriend excels when placed up in the box.

When Starks graduated and headed to the University of Georgia a semester early, he found himself scrambling to grasp the sophistication of a Southeastern Conference playbook. Alone in a new place without the rest of his freshman class, Jackson recalled, Starks treated the playbook like a college course with the way he studied for it.

Fellow defensive backs Chris Smith, now with the Las Vegas Raiders, and Dan Jackson, who is with the Detroit Lions, helped him get up to speed quickly — enough that Starks became a rare Georgia freshman starter.

His thirst for knowledge unlocked (and something he inherited from his father), Starks decided it wasn’t enough to simply be an expert at understanding the safety position.

“He was like, ‘OK, I understand the playbook,’” Jackson said. “I understand what my role is, but I want to understand what everyone else’s role is, why the D-line moves this way and why the linebackers are doing this and why the corners are doing this, so that he could understand the whole defense as one, and not just his position.”

By the time Starks sat down across from DeCosta and the rest of the Ravens staff, this had become a big part of his brand.

“I just think it was remarkable the way that he could discuss football, his awareness, his ability to call out the plays from their defense before we even show the plays, just based on formation,” DeCosta said after drafting him. “His ability to dissect and talk about what happened at any given play and to know what his teammates were doing on any given play. It was like he was a coach, and when he got up, we were all kind of looking at each other. And we use a grading scale. We grade every interview, and a 7 is the best, and across the board, he got straight 7s. So it was just super impressive. I haven’t seen that type of detail in a long time.”

A veteran rookie

After the Ravens’ organized team activities, Starks took one last sip of Smart Water before dropping it to the grass and stepping up to the podium. He then blew away the media with his thoughtful interview responses.

In every aspect of professional football, Starks has impressed.

He impressed coach John Harbaugh when he organized walk-throughs for all the rookies at the hotel he was staying at.

He impressed the entire coaching staff when he slid seamlessly into the defense. Although he didn’t make many explosive plays, he also didn’t make many mistakes, displaying a consistency usually found in veterans.

Starks’ athleticism is notable — Hamilton said he’s fluid and has good ball skills — but it’s his football IQ that has stood out.

“It’s almost like he’s a multiyear vet in the league, and we haven’t even played a game yet,” Hamilton said. “Just the way he diagnoses the formations and is able to take it to the practice field and recognize them when they’re thrown at him, give him motions or give him different looks and all that stuff. And you can definitely tell he put some work in.”

Although the Ravens don’t usually play their starters in the preseason, as a rookie, Starks was given a handful of snaps to test his mettle against NFL competition.

What they saw made the Ravens hungry for more. Multiple veterans on the offense said Starks would be the defense’s breakout player of the year.

The Ravens’ first-round pick, Starks was always expected to play a role this season. Immediately after drafting him, Harbaugh said he expected Starks, Hamilton and Washington to factor in as starters. He waxed poetic about the possibilities with three such versatile safeties.

The Ravens went into the 2024 season with a talented, veteran group. But things never clicked for Eddie Jackson and Marcus Williams, forcing Hamilton out of the nickel role back to free safety and eventually paving the way for Washington to start.

With Hamilton and Washington as the starting safety duo, the secondary became the anchor of the best passing defense from Week 10 on. A key ingredient? Communication.

But, with Washington injured, Hamilton would now have to spend every snap, not just those when Starks rotated in, next to a rookie. Without having seen Starks play a game, Hamilton says he thinks Starks has the potential to be one of the best in the league one day.

Although that day has not come yet — Starks has yet to play an NFL regular-season game — his inexperienced self is good enough that Hamilton isn’t worried starting a rookie might pave the way for another slow start.

There’s always a chance things go wrong. But excitement reigns over any doubts.

“I can’t wait for him to go out there and go play a full game,” defensive coordinator Zach Orr said. “... I know how I feel like he’s going to do. I think he’s going to play really well for us. He’s done great in camp. He’s done great in practice. I might say he doesn’t play like a rookie. He doesn’t act like a rookie, but like we said, it is Week 1, so this is going to be his first professional game. We have to go out there and go see him do it.”