When NFL owners get involved with football decisions, results are mixed - ESPN

Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti engaged in some playful after-dinner smack talk with general manager Eric DeCosta during the team's annual offseason meeting at Bisciotti's house in Jupiter, Florida.

While they enjoyed a nice bottle of red wine, Bisciotti boasted about how many of his favorite draft prospects became successes in the league, and DeCosta brought up how many of Bisciotti's top prospects flopped. In the stressful world of the NFL, Bisciotti believes it's important to laugh at one another.

After another glass or two, DeCosta mentioned the time in 1998 when former team president David Modell made the team's pick for Mr. Irrelevant, the title given to the last player taken in each draft. Bisciotti then threw out the idea that he should get a chance to select a player.

DeCosta offered up one of the Ravens' seventh-round picks. But Bisciotti had his sights on one of Baltimore's four fifth-round selections, not knowing how much immense pressure would follow.

«Steve was begging for a draft pick, and he owns the team,» DeCosta said with a smile. «I said, 'Yes, Steve. Of course you can have a draft pick.'»

The involvement of NFL owners in the draft and personnel decisions covers a wide spectrum, from the Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones, whose role as GM ensures a hands-on role, to the Chicago Bears' George McCaskey, who spent Day 3 of the 2024 draft umpiring a high school baseball game. The results of an owner's influence have varied just as widely, from disastrous moves in New York and Cleveland to controversy in Miami to a successful blockbuster trade in Indianapolis.

DeCosta agreed to give Bisciotti the team's last fifth-round pick. Bisciotti enlisted the help of DeCosta's 15-year-old son, Jackson, who bonded