OWINGS MILLS -- The Baltimore Ravens did a significant amount of research before taking a risk on imposing University of Colorado cornerback Jimmy Smith with their first-round draft pick.

Smith reportedly failed multiple drug tests, including one for misuse of codeine, was arrested twice for underage alcohol offenses, once for third-degree assault and had a pair of abortions paid for by parents of women he impregnated in college.

The Ravens spent several months looking into Smith's background leading up to interviewing him at the NFL scouting combine, having him in for a visit to their training complex and working him out prior to drafting the All-Big 12 cornerback.

Here's what general manager Ozzie Newsome had to say about the Ravens' due diligence on Smith during a conference call with season-ticket holders:

"The process begins with our area scouts. We had three scouts go into Colorado, and not only do they evaluate how a guy plays on tape, they get a chance to watch him in practice, how he interacts with his teammates. They get a chance to talk to the trainers, the coaches, the secretaries in the building. So, they are able to gather a lot of information from him. When we go to Indy for the Combine, we are allowed to interview 60 players in 15-minute increments, and we had the opportunity to interview him for 15 minutes. But, that's not enough time to get him to answer all the questions. So, we are allowed to bring 30 players into Baltimore, and he was one of the 30 that we brought to Baltimore.

"What he does at that point is he gets the opportunity to spend individual time with myself, with the head coach, with the defensive coordinator, with the defensive backs coach. Also, our defensive backs coach and our defensive coordinator went out to Colorado and worked him out, took him to dinner. With all of that being said, you get the opportunity for eight or nine people who have been in the League for a lot of years and have been around a lot of players. Talking with any player, we get a chance to evaluate what that risk is if we take a player, whether that's in the first round or the seventh round."

The 6-foot-2, 211-pounder insists that his past mistakes aren't dire indicators of future trouble.

"Most of the mistakes I made, or the bad decisions I made were when I was 18, 19 years old, so they were more of a maturity thing," Jimmy Smith said. "I want people to know that I don't have any character issues and that I made some bad decisions when I was a young kid just like most Americans.

"But I don't want them to think that I'm going to come in here and try to make the organization look bad. These gentlemen put their necks on the line for me, so I want to make sure I do whatever I can to make sure they look good at all times for me and myself and my whole family."

The Ravens acquired Jimmy Smith with the 27th overall pick after a trade fiasco involving the Chicago Bears where they wound up getting passed by the Kansas City Chiefs after the Bears failed to get the trade terms called into league executive Joel Bussert.

Newsome indicated that he would have probably drafted Virginia cornerback Ras-I Dowling or University of Texas cornerback-safety Aaron Williams if they had traded back and Smith was already gone.

"With the way the procedure goes, we were on the clock at 26, and with about six minutes to go, we got a trade offer from the Denver Broncos," Newsome said. "It wasn't very appetizing, but we then got a call from Chicago. But once I made the decision - once we made the decision to move away from 26 - then we knew we were taking a gamble that we could lose Jimmy Smith.

"Once we made that decision that we were going to trade back, it was with the understanding that if we would have went back to Chicago [No. 29], we could have lost Jimmy Smith. But, you saw that there were two corners that went at the top of the draft [in the second round] - Aaron Williams and Ras-I Dowling. We liked both of those guys, and I think we would have put ourselves in a position to get one of those."

Smith has 4.42 speed in the 40-yard dash and has bench pressed 225 pounds 24 times.

He has drawn comparisons to former Baltimore Pro Bowl cornerback Chris McAlister, the last shutdown cornerback on the Ravens' roster

"So if you want to compare Jimmy to any of the corners that we've had before, Chris would be the one guy that you would compare him to," Newsome said. "Very similar in stature, Chris is a little bit thicker. I think Jimmy is a little bit faster."

Newsome also revealed that the Ravens would likely have drafted UCLA safety Rahim Moore in the second round if they hadn't been able to draft University of Maryland wide receiver Torrey Smith.

Moore wound up going to the Denver Broncos 15 selections before the Ravens were on the clock in the second round.