The Ravens are making a concerted effort to reinforce the middle of their defense, devoting their first three draft picks toward that goal. After selecting inside linebacker C.J. Mosley in the first round on Thursday, the Ravens added continued their defensive focus a day later, drafting Florida State defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan in the second round and Florida State free safety Terrence Brooks in the third round. “It's important to be strong up the middle,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Friday night. “We'd like to say it's important to be strong at the edges too, but we took a middle linebacker, a defensive tackle and a safety with the first three picks of this draft: all just really quality players, all just highly-rated guys. “When you watch the tape, you like the way they play. They fly around and they are very physical guys. These guys should be able to establish their personality on our defense for a long time to come.” The Ravens landed one of the top defensive linemen in the draft when Jernigan plummeted out of the first round largely due to NFL teams' concerns about a diluted drug specimen. Jernigan was projected as a first-round pick, but dropped significantly after news surfaced that he had produced a diluted drug specimen at the NFL scouting combine in February. Jernigan and his agent both attributed the drug test result to hydration issues, denying that the consensus All-American had tested positive for any banned substances. Jernigan dismissed initial reports that he had failed a drug test. Under its drug testing program, though, the NFL has treated diluted samples in the past as the equivalent of a positive drug test. “It wasn't a positive drug test, the sample was diluted," Jernigan said during a conference call with Baltimore reporters. “I was losing weight very fast, and it was causing me to cramp. My nutritionist wanted me to start drinking a lot more water. She would have to put salt in my Gatorade to keep me from cramping. I had to go see another doctor in Jacksonville and she had to do an IV on me the week leading up to the combine. - See more at: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/...ackle-timmy-jernigan-20140509,0,1356923.story
