Eric DeCosta explains why true NFL draft sleepers are fading fast

Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said the modern draft environment has made it increasingly difficult for teams to uncover true “sleeper” prospects, pointing to expanded media coverage and widespread access to draft information as key reasons boards around the league have become more aligned.

DeCosta noted that while teams still look for edges in the evaluation process, the early rounds of the draft have become far more predictable than they were earlier in his career.

"That's another thing that's really kind of an interesting phenomenon is we've seen less, well I call it slippage, but in the draft, the first couple of rounds come off pretty easy to predict, I think. I don't know exactly why that is. There seems to be more of a consensus among teams. I think part of that is because of media coverage and social media and things like that, with consensus boards and different things that you can get online. There seems to be so much interest in the draft now compared to 25 years ago, the coverage is so much that the idea of sleepers and players that are maybe kind of under the radar doesn't seem to happen quite as much. It used to be that we could find players maybe in certain rounds that other clubs weren't even aware of – non-combine guys, potentially, small school guys. You see very few small school guys now, because these small school guys end up going to big schools. They start at small schools and go to big schools. So, there's very few guys now from smaller schools that are getting drafted compared to what it used to look like. I think that in it of itself also kind of creates a consensus board where most of these players are getting drafted from these bigger schools. So, I think where you can get an edge potentially is by getting better background information, knowing these players, their drivers, their motivations, who they are as people. I think there's a real opportunity for clubs that can do that well."

DeCosta said the biggest remaining advantage for teams now comes less from identifying unknown players and more from understanding the people behind the prospects at a deeper level than the league-wide consensus.

This article originally appeared on Ravens Wire: Ravens GM Eric DeCosta sees more draft consensus today