Ravens' Newsome to step down as GM after 2018 season

Ozzie Newsome, who built the Baltimore Ravens' two Super Bowl-winning teams, will step down as the team's general manager after the 2018 season.

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti announced Friday that Newsome will move to a scouting and consulting role when his current contract runs out after next season.

Bisciotti also announced that assistant general manager Eric DeCosta will take over the general manager duties following Newsome's move into consulting.

Newsome has been the team's general manager since the team relocated to Baltimore from Cleveland in 1996.

Newsome, 61, was as an executive with the Cleveland Browns before he became the Ravens' vice president of player personnel in 1996. He was named Baltimore's general manager in 2002, becoming the league's first minority general manager.

He was the architect of the Ravens teams that won the Super Bowl following the 2000 and 2012 seasons.

Newsome played 13 seasons for the Browns as a tight end and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999.

DeCosta, 46, has been viewed as the successor to Newsome for years, and he has rejected chances to interview elsewhere. He turned down an opportunity to interview for the Green Bay Packers' general manager position this offseason.

DeCosta served as Baltimore's director of player personnel before being named assistant general manager in 2012.