When Georgia safety Malaki Starks walked out of his 15-minute interview with the Ravens at the NFL scouting combine, he left the interviewers in awe.

General manager Eric DeCosta called it one of the best interviews the team has ever conducted, and coach John Harbaugh agreed. Beyond Starks’ demeanor and professionalism, his football IQ 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, his ability to dissect and talk about what happened any given play, and to know what his teammates were doing on any given play,” DeCosta said Thursday night. “I mean, it was like he was a coach.”

DeCosta said Starks walked away with a perfect score.

So, when he was available at pick No. 27 of the first round of the draft Thursday night, the Ravens called the pick in. And all the scouts cheered.

“They don’t always clap upstairs,” DeCosta said with a grin. “They clapped this year.”

Here’s how the newest Raven slots into the defense — and what team officials passed on in taking him.

The Ravens’ prototype

Starks is “wired like a Raven,” according to DeCosta — and apparently to everyone else. Mock drafts consistently linked Starks to the Ravens, which DeCosta admitted made him nervous.

But what does it mean to be wired like a Raven?

They thought he had a great mentality, intelligence and physicality. Add that to durability and ability, and you have a player who elevates the Ravens’ secondary immediately.

When the Ravens last picked a versatile, intelligent safety in the first round, they ended up with a player who was a Pro Bowler by Year 2. Now, Kyle Hamilton will be there to help mentor Starks as they figure out how their skill sets mesh. Hamilton last season played over 400 snaps in the box, nearly 300 in the slot and over 350 as a deep safety, according to Pro Football Focus; Starks played exactly 400 as a deep safety, over 200 in the box and over 250 in the slot last year at Georgia.

They aren’t the only ones in the secondary with experience playing all over the field. Ar’Darius Washington, who won the starting job in Week 8 and helped settle the secondary alongside Hamilton, has played nickelback and both safety positions. And cornerback Marlon Humphrey is a shutdown corner on the outside while also being elite on the inside.

Starks fits the prototype, and he’s excited to be a part of a defensive that uses its players in different ways.

“I feel comfortable anywhere,” Starks said.

A chance to start strong

Starks will have the opportunity to hit the field immediately if he proves he is ready.

Last year, when the Ravens had six safeties on their roster, they used all of them at some point during the season. Part of that was because they were looking for chemistry — Eddie Jackson was eventually cut, and Marcus Williams was benched — but they also used a rotation the year before, when they had the NFL’s best defense and relied on Hamilton, Williams and Geno Stone.

That means Starks will have the chance to jump right in as part of the rotation. The questions are, how big a role could he have? And where? Starks will have an opportunity to start in Week 1 if he outplays Washington in training camp, although Harbaugh’s comments made it seem like they would utilize all three.

“It’s not to say that Kyle won’t be back there [as a deep safety], because he will be,” Harbaugh said. “But the good news is, the offense isn’t going to know who’s going to be back there on any given play. They’re not going to be able to line up and say, ‘OK, Kyle is gonna be deep, or even Ar’Darius is gonna be deep.’ Ar’Darius, all three of those guys will be on the field a lot.”

DeCosta has often said that defensive backs are injury-prone, so Starks should be prepared to step in at any point. His arrival should help bolster a secondary that was decimated by injury in 2023 and weakened by underperforming players in 2024. And he comes at a much lower price tag than Williams.

“In my experience, if you’re going to lose a game, an easy way to lose it is by having a bad secondary,” DeCosta said. “So we never want to be in that position. That’s a bad place to be. So we’re going to have a strong secondary.”

The roads not taken

DeCosta said the Ravens had opportunities to trade back and acquire additional picks, “which we do love.” But he thought better of it. Starks was “by far the best guy available for us when we made the pick,” DeCosta said.

“For me, maybe I’m getting older and just a little bit more conservative than I used to be, but I think looking at the quality of player that we had with Starks versus what we might have to get, it just didn’t make enough sense for me” to trade back, he said. “This was a guy that really checked every single box for us in a lot of different ways.”

In taking Starks, the Ravens passed on a handful of players who’d been connected to them throughout the predraft process.

Marshall’s Mike Green was one of the top edge rushers in the class. But he faced sexual assault allegations in high school and at Virginia, where he started his career before transferring to Marshall. Green was never charged and has denied any wrongdoing.

Boston College’s Donovan Ezeiruaku, another top edge rusher, finished second in the Football Bowl Subdivision in sacks last season, behind only Green. But he lacks high-end athletic traits and faces questions about how his smaller frame will limit him as a run defender.

Josh Simmons, considered perhaps the most talented tackle in the class, could’ve moved inside to guard while giving the Ravens much-needed depth behind left tackle Ronnie Stanley and right tackle Roger Rosengarten. But he tore the patellar tendon in his left knee in October, and the Ravens typically steer clear of players with medical red flags in the first round.

South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori, one of this class’ most athletic prospects, was often pitted against Starks in Ravens draft hypotheticals. But in the end, Starks won out.

"I don’t think it’s that hard to evaluate safeties," Harbaugh said. “The guy is running around making plays all over the field. We’ve done pretty well with those guys, and yes, we’ve missed on guys just like everybody else, but he’s a very versatile player. He covers people man-to-man. He comes up and tackles people. He plays nickel zone responsibility, which is really kind of tricky. He’s got a good feel for that. In the deep middle, he’s got range, so he showed ball skills.

“He showed all the things, and then you put on top of that the mentality that we talked about, the mindset, kind of the football character, I guess you could call it. The guy just loves to be out there, and he loves to play. He can’t wait to hit the grass, and to me, that’s been a good recipe for success, no matter what the position is. ... We’ll see, but I bet he’ll prove us right.”