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Jim Harbaugh is bringing in another familiar face to direct the Los Angeles Chargers’ offense. The Chargers announced Thursday that Greg Roman has been hired as offensive coordinator. Roman was Harbaugh’s coordinator during his four-year tenure with the San Francisco 49ers and was associate head coach under Harbaugh at Stanford in 2009 and 2010. Los Angeles also announced that Marcus Brady will be the passing game coordinator. Roman was the Ravens’ offensive coordinator under Jim’s older brother, John, from 2019 to 2022, a run in which he designed the most productive ground game in NFL history but frustrated fans by failing to build a commensurate passing attack. The Ravens hired Todd Monken as his replacement and finished with the NFL’s best regular-season record before losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game. Roman did not coach in 2023. While the Chargers have one of the league’s best quarterbacks in Justin Herbert, Roman’s calling card has been strong rushing offenses. The 49ers averaged 139.3 rushing yards per game in the four seasons under Roman and Harbaugh, which ranked second in the league during that period. Roman was honored as NFL Assistant Coach of the Year for the 2019 season after the Ravens led the league in scoring (33.2 points per game) and rushing (206.0 yards) while ranking second in total offense (407.6 yards). Lamar Jackson was named Most Valuable Player that season; he was the favorite to win that award for a second time Thursday night. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Count the 2023 Ravens among the 10 best teams not to make the Super Bowl Baltimore Ravens | Ex-Jets coach Rex Ryan interviews with Dallas Cowboys for defensive coordinator job: report Baltimore Ravens | Mike Preston: Zach Orr faces uphill battle to rebuild Ravens’ proud defense | COMMENTARY Baltimore Ravens | New Ravens DC Zach Orr brings energy, enthusiasm to role: ‘Hit everything that moves’ Baltimore Ravens | Ravens reportedly hiring Doug Mallory, former Michigan defensive analyst, as defensive backs coach Roman was Buffalo’s offensive coordinator in 2015 and 2016. Harbaugh said during his introductory news conference last week that protecting Herbert, beefing up the running game and honing the play-action pass game would be early priorities. “I think that we can be extraordinary there with the receivers we have and the quarterback. Also, the running game, work just as hard at that and get to be a balanced type of a football team. Always protect the football. That’s where it starts,” Harbaugh said. Brady comes to the Bolts after spending the this past season as a senior offensive assistant with the Philadelphia Eagles. Before that, Brady had a five-year stint in Indianapolis, including the 2021 and ’22 seasons as offensive coordinator. Roman and Brady join defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and strength and conditioning coach Ben Hebert on Harbaugh’s staff. Baltimore Sun staff contributed to this article. View the full article

It’s not a club anyone wants to join. “Every day and every night, it still pisses me off,” Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton once told the St. Paul Pioneer Press of playing for perhaps the finest team in NFL history not to win a Super Bowl. At least Tarkenton played in the biggest game three times. Plenty of great teams never got that far, and the 2023 Ravens now reside prominently on that list. Aaron Schatz created defense-adjusted value over average — DVOA — as a means of measuring team efficiency relative to competition, and by his reckoning, the Ravens are the second best team since 1981 not to make the Super Bowl, behind only the 2010 New England Patriots. “The best indicator of a championship team is big, dominating wins, and the Ravens had a series of big, dominating wins, but not against bad teams, against good teams,” Schatz explained. “Also, they were tremendously well-balanced — good at passing and running, good against the pass and the run and good on special teams. There are not a lot of teams in history that have been top eight in all five.” These teams come in many varieties. Some fell short for one year in the middle of glorious runs. Others were slightly lesser editions of previous champions. Still others never did reach the summit. The Ravens hope they don’t fall into the last category, but as Schatz noted, there’s no guarantee. Many of the best teams not to reach the Super Bowl did not bounce back to do better the following season. “There’s just a lot of randomness in a sport where you play only one game [to avoid elimination] in the playoffs instead of seven,” he said. As fans continue to process their disappointment with the Ravens’ ending, here’s a countdown of the list they joined — the 10 best teams that did not make it: The Steelers’ Clark Haggans and Joey Porter sack Colts quarterback Peyton Manning during an AFC divisional round playoff game Jan. 15, 2006, at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images) 10. 2005 Indianapolis Colts Record: 14-2 Point differential: +192, best in the league by 11 Eliminated: 21-18 in AFC divisional round by Pittsburgh Steelers Next year: 12-4, won the Super Bowl Here’s a hopeful tale for Ravens fans wondering if quarterback Lamar Jackson will ever break through. Peyton Manning was in his eighth season in 2005, with two NFL Most Valuable Player Awards on his shelf. His Colts, featuring an elite offense and an opportunistic defense masterminded by coach Tony Dungy, won their first 13 games. But they fell behind 21-3 to the Steelers in the AFC divisional round, and Manning, who took five sacks, could not rally them. To that point in his career, he had made one AFC championship game in six postseason appearances. Why, critics wondered, could he never win the big one? Well, the next year, Manning took a lesser team to Super Bowl glory. 9. 2006 San Diego Chargers Record: 14-2 Point differential: +189, best in the league by 17 Eliminated: 24-21 in AFC divisional round by New England Patriots Next year: 11-5, lost in AFC championship game Ravens fans suffered their own bitter playoff disappointment as they watched a 13-3 team fall at home to the hated Indianapolis Colts, but the Chargers were even better and crashed just as hard. The defense featured All-Pros Shawne Merriman and Jamal Williams. Quarterback Philip Rivers forged a beautiful connection with tight end Antonio Gates. But this season belonged to running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who rushed for 1,815 yards and 28 touchdowns and caught 56 passes for 508 yards and another three scores. Not even the Patriots could bottle up Tomlinson in the playoffs, but they befuddled Rivers to pull the upset. The Chargers were so distraught that they fired coach Marty Schottenheimer coming off his greatest season. 8. 1973 Los Angeles Rams Record: 12-2 Point differential: +210, best in the league by 17 Eliminated: 27-16 in NFC divisional round by Dallas Cowboys Next year: 10-4, lost in NFC championship game The Rams were cousins to the Vikings of the same era, making 10 playoff appearances and reaching double-digit wins 10 times over 14 years from 1967 to 1980 but never breaking through to win the Super Bowl. Their 1967 team, which kept one of Johnny Unitas’ best Colts teams out of the playoffs, could have made this list just as easily. Coach Chuck Knox’s 1973 bunch was beautifully balanced, with All-Pro quarterback John Hadl steering the league’s best offense and Hall of Fame linemen Merlin Olsen and Jack Youngblood — with a big hand from All-Pro linebacker Isiah Robertson — anchoring its top defense. The Rams won their last six regular-season games, all by at least 11 points, but Hadl fell victim to a fearsome Cowboys pass rush after Dallas built a 17-0 lead in the NFC divisional round. Saints quarterback Drew Brees, right, talks with Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers at the end of a game Nov. 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) 7. 2011 Green Bay Packers/New Orleans Saints Record: Packers 15-1, Saints 13-3 Point differential: Saints +208, Packers +201 Eliminated: Packers 37-20 by New York Giants, Saints 36-32 by San Francisco 49ers, both in NFC divisional round Next year: Packers 11-5, lost in divisional round; Saints 7-9, missed playoffs This is a cheat, but it’s remarkable that one conference featured two all-time great offenses, and neither team made it past the divisional round. In fact, they set a tone when they met in the season opener, a 42-34 shootout won by Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers won MVP honors that year, throwing 45 touchdown passes against just six interceptions. Drew Brees matched him, throwing for 5,476 yards and 46 touchdowns as the Saints actually topped the Packers in DVOA. Neither team balanced its offense with a top-10 defense, and it showed in the playoffs. 6. 1998 Minnesota Vikings Record: 15-1 Point differential: +260, best in the league by 68 Eliminated: 30-27 in NFC championship game by Atlanta Falcons Next year: 10-6, lost in NFC divisional round This was the team that put Brian Billick in position to coach the Ravens, because his offense, with Randall Cunningham throwing bombs to a rookie Randy Moss, set a new record for points scored (34.8 per game). The Vikings were not a DVOA juggernaut. Schatz’s method nicks them for so-so competition and for rolling up their huge offensive totals in a dome. But there was no doubting their big-play majesty, which they never quite recaptured despite Moss’ ongoing brilliance. Coach Dennis Green’s team simply ran into a very good version of the Falcons with a Super Bowl trip on the line. Ravens defensive tackle Michael Pierce looks on from the sideline during the AFC championship game. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff) 5. 2023 Baltimore Ravens Record: 13-4 Point differential: +203, best in the league by nine Eliminated: 17-10 in AFC championship game by Kansas City Chiefs Next year: TBD It’s a difficult choice between this team and the 2019 edition that rolled up a greater scoring margin with the league’s best offense. But the 2023 Ravens hit higher peaks against better competition, were more balanced and advanced deeper in the playoffs. Jackson was statistically superior in his 2019 MVP year, but he’s expected to win the award again this year, and the 2023 defense was better, leading the league in sacks and takeaways while allowing the fewest points. The Ravens are in mighty company on this list, but their missed opportunity will sting for a long while. 4. 1970 Minnesota Vikings Record: 12-2 Point differential: +192, best in the league by 47 Eliminated: 17-14 in NFC divisional round by San Francisco 49ers Next year: 11-3, lost in divisional round Coach Bud Grant’s Vikings fielded several candidates for this list, not to mention some of the best teams to lose in the Super Bowl. Minnesota won 10 division titles in a span of 11 seasons and won at least 10 games (when the NFL played a 14-game schedule) seven times in eight years. Younger fans remember the Buffalo Bills of the early 1990s as an also-ran dynasty, but the Vikings were better. This pre-Tarkenton edition featured a middling offense but dominated anyway because of the “Purple People Eaters” defense, which allowed just 10 points a game thanks to Hall of Fame defensive linemen Alan Page and Carl Eller. The Colts brought Baltimore its first Super Bowl win at the end of this season, but they were lucky not to face Grant’s crew. The team they did beat, the Cowboys, lost to the Vikings 54-13 in October. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Ex-Jets coach Rex Ryan interviews with Dallas Cowboys for defensive coordinator job: report Baltimore Ravens | Mike Preston: Zach Orr faces uphill battle to rebuild Ravens’ proud defense | COMMENTARY Baltimore Ravens | New Ravens DC Zach Orr brings energy, enthusiasm to role: ‘Hit everything that moves’ Baltimore Ravens | Ravens reportedly hiring Doug Mallory, former Michigan defensive analyst, as defensive backs coach Baltimore Ravens | Ravens, former special teams coach Jerry Rosburg not reuniting after all 3. 1987 San Francisco 49ers Record: 13-2 Point differential: +206, best in the league by 55 Eliminated: 36-24 in NFC divisional round by Minnesota Vikings Next year: 10-6, won Super Bowl The 1981-1998 49ers were the Patriots of the previous generation, winning so frequently for so long that their success obscured several great teams that fell short in the postseason. The 1992 team that went 14-2 and the 1995 team that featured perhaps the best offense and best defense in the league were candidates for this list, but we’re going with the 1987 edition led by coach Bill Walsh, quarterback Joe Montana and wide receiver Jerry Rice at his young apex (22 touchdown catches in 12 games). The 49ers led the league in total offense and total defense and won their last three regular-season games by an average score of 41-2. But they fell behind early and never recovered in an inexplicable flameout against the 8-7 Vikings. 2. 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers Record: 10-4 Point differential: +204, best in the league by 33 Eliminated: 24-7 in AFC championship game by Oakland Raiders Next year: 9-5, lost in divisional round Coach Chuck Noll’s Steelers were going for a Super Bowl three-peat and crushed the Colts, perhaps the league’s second best team behind MVP Bert Jones, 40-14 in the divisional round. The roster featured all the stars — from “Mean” Joe Greene to Franco Harris to Jack Lambert to Terry Bradshaw — we associate with the “Steel Curtain” dynasty. By scoring margin, it was Noll’s second best team behind only the 1975 edition. But coach John Madden’s Oakland Raiders had Pittsburgh’s number in 1976, beating the Steelers in the season opener and finishing them off the day after Christmas. This great team was not done, of course, picking up two more Super Bowl wins in 1978 and 1979. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is sacked by the Jets’ Drew Coleman during an AFC divisional round playoff game at Gillette Stadium on Jan. 16, 2011 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. (Al Bello/Getty Images) 1. 2010 New England Patriots Record: 14-2 Point differential: +205, best in league by 57 Eliminated: 28-21 in AFC divisional round by New York Jets Next year: 13-3, lost in Super Bowl We tend to think of the Patriots’ run with coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady as one of unremitting good fortune and big-game excellence. But we forget that Belichick and Brady went nine straight years without a Super Bowl win in the middle of their run, and perhaps their most dominant teams were among those that fell. The 2007 team that lost in the Super Bowl finished with the highest regular-season DVOA ever, but the 2010 version that bowed out two rounds earlier was nearly as good. Brady threw 36 touchdown passes against just four interceptions, and the Patriots closed with a fury, winning their last eight regular-season games by an average score of 37-16. That string included a 45-3 thrashing of the Jets, who would eliminate them on the same field six weeks later. The Patriots returned to the Super Bowl a year later (as Ravens fans remember all too well) but did not win it all again until 2014. View the full article

Former Jets coach Rex Ryan is making moves toward a possible return to the NFL. Ryan interviewed with the Dallas Cowboys about their defensive coordinator vacancy, CBS Sports reported Wednesday. The 61-year-old Ryan last coached in 2016, when the Buffalo Bills fired him as their head coach before the season finale. He has served as a football analyst for ESPN over the seven years since. But Ryan’s name continues to surface in coaching rumors. He was linked to the Broncos’ defensive coordinator role last October, shortly after Denver surrendered 70 points in a Week 3 loss to Miami. Vance Joseph remains in place as the Broncos’ defensive coordinator. The outspoken Ryan made a name for himself from 2005-08 as the charismatic coordinator of a Baltimore Ravens defense led by Hall of Famers Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. Ryan became the Jets’ head coach in 2009 and led them to the AFC Championship Game in both of his first two seasons there. He went 46-50 over six seasons with the Jets, who fired him after a 4-12 campaign in 2014. Ryan then spent two years as head coach of the Bills, compiling a 15-16 record. Ryan’s defenses finished top 10 in terms of yards allowed in all but three of his 12 seasons as a head coach or coordinator. The Cowboys are looking to fill the defensive coordinator role that was vacated last week by Dan Quinn, who became head coach of the NFC East rival Washington Commanders. Dallas is also considering Ron Rivera, whom the Commanders fired as their head last month, and Mike Zimmer, who went 72-56-1 in eight seasons as the Minnesota Vikings’ head coach from 2014-21. The upcoming season is a pivotal one for Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, who led Dallas to 12 wins in three consecutive seasons but won only one playoff game in that stretch. The upcoming season is a pivotal one for Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, who led Dallas to 12 wins in three consecutive seasons but won only one playoff game in that stretch. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones opted to bring back McCarthy in 2024 despite Dallas’ lackluster performance in a 48-32 loss to the seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers in the opening round of the playoffs last month – a game that was largely decided by halftime. Ryan has been critical of McCarthy on ESPN, including when the Cowboys hired the former Packers coach in 2019. “It’s not a sexy hire by any stretch to me because you didn’t win,” Ryan said on “First Take” at the time. “You were like the rest of us when you never had Aaron Rodgers.” ©2024 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. View the full article

When Todd Monken became the Ravens’ offensive coordinator last winter, he said his unit would be a work in progress. That’s the description of the defense for the 2024 season. Zach Orr, 31, was introduced to the media for the first time Tuesday as the team’s defensive coordinator, a job previously held by Mike Macdonald for two years until he was named coach of the Seattle Seahawks nearly a week ago. Everybody within the Ravens organization likes Orr, from coach John Harbaugh to Poe, the team mascot. But the former linebacker has a huge task in front of him in trying to rebuild a defense that led the league in sacks (60), takeaways (31) and points allowed per game (16.1) last season and is losing three defensive assistants. On Tuesday, he sounded like someone still playing. “I want our defense to play together, first and foremost — 11 people playing as one, let’s start there,” he said. “The next thing is, I want it to be violent — very violent, physical. That’s just the standard here. Everything we’re going to do is going to be with physicality and violence. Then, just execution — executing at a high level, executing in certain situations, executing all the time. “Then the last thing I would say, ‘organized chaos.’ Present a lot of problems to the offense. Never give the answer to the offense before the snap, but that’s what I would say. Identify first things first, hit everything that moves.” Orr has charisma, which allows him to relate to not only the star players he has coached — such as former Ravens outside linebacker Terell Suggs and Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Josh Allen — but the classic overachievers. He was signed by the Ravens as an undrafted free agent from North Texas in 2014 and played in 46 career games over three seasons, recording 163 tackles. He was named second team All-Pro in 2016 before being forced to retire the following year because of a congenital neck/spine condition. But this upcoming season will be different than anything he’s ever experienced. Orr has to devise and implement a game plan and call plays for the first time. That’s another step in the progression from assistant to coordinator. “I have to be on the field,” Orr said. “I have to look players in their eyes and see what’s going on and get a feel for how guys are feeling out there. So, people have their different ways, I have to be on the field. I’m more into it and getting the feel of emotion and how guys are really feeling out there.” It goes beyond calling plays. The Ravens have to replace several assistants. First, there is Macdonald, and then there is defensive line coach Anthony Weaver, who structured the front seven. He was named the Miami Dolphins’ defensive coordinator last week. The Ravens also need to find a replacement for defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson, who became the Tennessee Titans’ defensive coordinator after helping the Ravens to a No. 6 ranking in pass defense, and an inside linebackers coach to step in for Orr, who had one of the most productive tandems in the NFL last season in Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen. All had great relationships with their players, and that’s hard to build in the modern era of pro football in which everything is centered around image and ego. When it comes to filling out the defensive staff, Harbaugh will have the final say on hiring his assistants, though Orr might have some input. But you can bank on Harbaugh having more say during practices and games, especially with Orr being so young and this being his first coordinator position. “The final decision is Coach Harbaugh’s and [executive vice president and general manager] Eric DeCosta’s, but I’m very much involved with it,” Orr said of the staff. “They do a great job of letting me be in on the interviews, run the interviews and communicating back and forth. It’s an open line of communication. “Every year, when you’re building a team, building a staff, you have to build that trust, build that camaraderie, that teamwork. You have to build that every single year. Every year, you have to build it up, but I’m confident in the people we have. Once we get the staff filled out, we’ll be able to build that trust, we’ll be able to build that teamwork and be the best staff we can possibly be for our players.” Orr and the Ravens will also have to wrestle with the salary cap. They have more than 20 pending free agents, including several defensive players who will command top dollar in tackle/end Justin Madubuike, Queen and possibly safety Geno Stone. Madubuike had 13 sacks to lead the team, which is rare for an interior lineman. Queen was second on the team in tackles with 133. Stone ranked second in the NFL with seven interceptions. Even outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney played with a rejuvenated spirit at age 30 with 9 1/2 sacks. The Ravens have already locked in long-term contracts with their two top players. They signed Smith to a five-year, $100 million extension last January and then agreed to a five-year, $260 million deal with quarterback Lamar Jackson in late April. Those deals increase in salary every season, which decreases the amount of cap room. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | New Ravens DC Zach Orr brings energy, enthusiasm to role: ‘Hit everything that moves’ Baltimore Ravens | Ravens reportedly hiring Doug Mallory, former Michigan defensive analyst, as defensive backs coach Baltimore Ravens | Ravens, former special teams coach Jerry Rosburg not reuniting after all Baltimore Ravens | Ravens roundtable: Answering questions about Lamar Jackson, free agency, 2024 record and more Baltimore Ravens | Pennsylvania man charged with flying drone over Ravens-Chiefs AFC title game Baltimore might be able to bring back one or two of its top defensive players, but not four or five. Unfortunately, there are some top offensive free agents on the list, too, such as right guard Kevin Zeitler, running back Gus Edwards and wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Nelson Agholor. The Ravens might have to start the 2024 season in a similar fashion to 2023, when they had to count on young pass rushers such as outside linebackers Odafe Oweh and David Ojabo. So far, neither has shown they are worthy of their draft status. Oweh, a first-round pick out of Penn State in 2021, played in only 13 games during the regular season, starting five. Ojabo, a second-round pick from Michigan in 2022, has been bothered by leg injuries the past two seasons and has played very little. Both are still labeled as projects. There is also a sense of urgency for players such as safety Marcus Williams and cornerback Marlon Humphrey to return to top form after missing substantial playing time this past season. It’s an uphill fight for Orr, but he has already spoken to several players. “He brings passion on the field, off the field and in the meeting rooms as well as his football IQ and the ability to relate to players,” Smith said. “He’s very young and has been in the game recently, so I think overall, it’s a really good fit for our defense. Everybody around the building respects him.” The Ravens have a proud tradition of putting together physical and intimidating defenses. That dates to 2000, with the record-setting unit led by linebackers Ray Lewis, Jamie Sharper and Peter Boulware and defensive linemen Sam Adams, Rob Burnett, Tony Siragusa and Sam Adams. They have also had some good defensive coordinators, such as Rex Ryan, Chuck Pagano, Dean Pees, Don “Wink” Martindale and Macdonald. But maybe none of them faced such a daunting rebuild in terms of coaches and players as Orr does. It might take some time. This appears to be another work in progress. View the full article

When Zach Orr played inside linebacker for the Ravens, his speed, quick instincts and enthusiasm for crunching and dragging ball carriers to the ground helped propel him to second-team All-Pro honors in what was a breakout third season. It also turned out to be his last as a player, with a congenital neck/spine condition bringing his career to a sudden end in 2017. Now he’ll bring many of those same traits to Baltimore’s sideline as their defensive coordinator. “First thing first, is hit everything that moves,” Orr said Tuesday at his introductory news conference in Owings Mills. “We’re gonna play violent, we’re gonna play together and we’re gonna execute.” He also said that he “definitely” wants to build on his predecessor Mike Macdonald’s scheme that created chaos and confusion for opposing offenses, and that effort will be a collaborative one. That Orr was tapped for the job in the first place was mildly surprising. At 31, he is the second youngest defensive coordinator in the NFL behind the Arizona Cardinals’ 30-year-old Nick Rallis, and it will be his first time calling defensive plays. He is also the first former Ravens player to be hired as a coordinator. But with Macdonald having left to become the Seattle Seahawks’ head coach, defense backs coach Dennard Wilson bolting for the Tennessee Titans’ defensive coordinator opening and assistant head coach/defensive line coach Anthony Weaver getting passed over for a second time and leaving for the Miami Dolphins, Orr became the obvious choice. The process also moved quickly. Orr met with Ravens coach John Harbaugh on Monday and Tuesday last week — as well as with the Green Bay Packers for their defensive coordinator opening a day later. There was also interest from Macdonald and the Seahawks. Baltimore couldn’t risk losing Orr, and Harbaugh loved what he saw in the former undrafted linebacker out of North Texas as a player and a sharp, detailed-oriented coach who could relate to the men he coached. Zach Orr said Tuesday that he bleeds purple and black because of the support the Ravens organization showed him once he retired. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Orr’s ascent was also a product of diligence, ability and a deep love for the organization. He said Tuesday that he bleeds purple and black because of the support the organization showed him once he retired. After his playing days ended prematurely in 2017 and he expressed an interest in coaching, he got a call from Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti that both lifted his spirits and let him know they’d love to have him. He spent the next four years as a defensive analyst with Baltimore before leaving in 2021 to become the outside linebackers coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, where former Ravens defensive line coach Joe Cullen was the defensive coordinator under coach Urban Meyer. When Meyer’s brief and disastrous stint ended the following year, Orr returned to the Ravens as their inside linebackers coach. In his time in that role, Baltimore’s defense ranked in the top 10 in yards allowed per game (312.8), rushing yards allowed per game (100.8), passing yards allowed per game (212.1), points allowed per game (17.5), opponent third-down conversion rate (35.7%), opponent red zone efficiency (43.8%) and takeaways (56). Inside linebackers Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen also thrived, with Smith having been selected as an All-Pro each of the past two seasons and both selected to this year’s Pro Bowl. Orr garnered the respect of players as well. “He brings passion on the field, off the field and in the meeting room, as well as his football IQ and the ability to relate to players,” Smith said in a statement. “Overall, it’s a really good fit for our defense. Everyone around the building respects him; it’s not just because of what he says, but because of his actions and the way he goes about things. “I know his mentality is very similar to mine, so I’m stoked.” Added outside linebacker Odafe Oweh: “One thing I notice about Zach is his voice is always loud. It’s always the highest pitch, and you have to respect it because it never wavers. He’s always bringing that action.” Orr also has his work cut for him. At 31, Zach Orr is the second youngest defensive coordinator in the NFL behind the Arizona Cardinals’ 30-year-old Nick Rallis, and it will be his first time calling defensive plays. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) He follows a defensive coordinator in Macdonald who helmed a historically great unit that became the first in league history to lead the NFL in sacks (60), takeaways (31) and points allowed per game (16.1). The Ravens also have more than 20 free agents, many of whom were key contributors on defense, including outside linebackers Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy. But he does not appear to be overwhelmed by the challenge ahead. “One thing that I’ve always lived by is, ‘You never stay the same. You either get better, or you get worse,’” Orr said. “You want to be cutting edge, always want to evolve and always want to be ready for the next thing the offense may present. So, we’re going to get in the lab this offseason. We’re going to look at ourselves, look at things we did well, look at how can make it even better, look at things we need to improve on and get better at that, and look at some new ideas that we could possibly present and get ready to roll out there by the time we kick off the ball the first week of the season.” His first priority, though, he said will be to fill out the defensive coaching staff. At least one job has reportedly already been filled, with the Ravens hiring Doug Mallory, a former Michigan defensive analyst, as defensive backs coach, according to 247 Sports. There’s also the NFL scouting combine later this month. For Orr, it’s all part of the process and one he’s been around most of his life. A native of DeSoto, Texas, his father, Terry, was a tight end for Washington from 1986 to 1993, while his younger brother, Chris, is a former linebacker who played for the Carolina Panthers in 2020. His older brother, Terrance, is the offensive coordinator at Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas, and his younger brother, Nick, played college football at TCU and spent time with the Chicago Bears in 2018. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Ravens reportedly hiring Doug Mallory, former Michigan defensive analyst, as defensive backs coach Baltimore Ravens | Ravens, former special teams coach Jerry Rosburg not reuniting after all Baltimore Ravens | Ravens roundtable: Answering questions about Lamar Jackson, free agency, 2024 record and more Baltimore Ravens | Pennsylvania man charged with flying drone over Ravens-Chiefs AFC title game Baltimore Ravens | Former Ravens special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg returning to team in new role As for being named the Ravens’ defensive coordinator, Orr follows a long list of successful in-house hires. After Harbaugh retained Rex Ryan from coach Brian Billick’s staff as his first defensive coordinator, five of his next six hires all came from inside the building, with Greg Mattison, Chuck Pagano, Dean Pees, Don “Wink” Martindale and now Orr. Macdonald was the exception but only briefly — he was with the Ravens for six years before spending one season as Michigan’s defensive coordinator in 2021. “Zach is a homegrown Raven in every way,” Harbaugh said in a statement last week. “His energy, intelligence, work ethic and strong communication skills have been on display since the day he joined our organization as a player in 2014.” Orr said he wasn’t terribly surprised to get the job. Given the departure of other coaches, he knew he was in the running. He’s also excited to get going, which was obvious from the enthusiasm in his voice Tuesday. “Wednesday, [Harbaugh] called me into his office, and in my mind, I’m like, ‘Man, what do you want to talk about?’ I was like, ‘I’ve been talking to this dude [on] Monday, Tuesday. Like, what’s up?’” he said. “I’m like, ‘I thought I answered every question you had.’ So, we’re still talking [on] Wednesday, and then he asked me again; he said, ‘Are you ready to call it?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, I’m ready.’ And he was like, ‘All right, well, I’m offering you the position,’ and that’s how it went. “I heard those words, made him smile, I was grinning from ear to ear. I’m just thankful that he has that belief in me. And like I said, I’m going to work my butt off and do everything I can to make it right.” View the full article

New Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh has already poached a couple of coaches and front office staff from the Ravens. Now it’s apparently his brother John’s turn. Former Michigan defensive analyst Doug Mallory will join the elder Harbaugh brother in Baltimore as the team’s defensive backs coach, according to 247Sports. Mallory, 59, worked for three seasons with Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. He replaces Dennard Wilson, who left to become the Tennessee Titans’ defensive coordinator. A veteran coach with more than 30 years of experience mostly at the college level, including as defensive backs coach at Maryland from 1997 to 2000, Mallory spent six seasons with the Atlanta Falcons from 2015 to 2020 under coach Dan Quinn, first as a defensive assistant then as defensive backs coach and a senior defensive assistant. Like the Harbaugh brothers, Mallory comes from a coaching family. His father, Bill, was a longtime coach at Indiana, among other stops, and his brother Mike was a veteran NFL assistant who most recently spent time on Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan staff as a special teams analyst. His other brother Curt is the football coach at Indiana State. Mallory, who played defensive back for Michigan from 1984 through 1987 under coach Bo Schembechler but was undrafted and never played in the NFL, returned to Ann Arbor in 2021 as a defensive analyst under the younger Harbaugh. This past season, the Wolverines had college football’s top defense, allowing 10.4 points and 247 yards per game en route to the school’s first national championship since 1997. This story might be updated. View the full article

Jerry Rosburg is not returning to the Ravens after all. The team’s former longtime special teams coach will not be back in Baltimore as talks between the two sides did not result in a deal, a source with direct knowledge confirmed to The Baltimore Sun on Tuesday. NFL Network had reported Monday that Rosburg would have a role focused on game management. Rosburg, 68, most recently served as an assistant for the Denver Broncos under coach Nathaniel Hackett in 2022 and then as the Broncos’ interim coach for two games after Hackett was fired in December of that season. Before that, Rosburg was the Ravens’ special teams coordinator from 2008 to 2018 before retiring. Rosburg was also the special teams coordinator for the Cleveland Browns from 2001 to 2006 and for the Atlanta Falcons in 2007. He is close with Ravens coach John Harbaugh — Rosburg’s daughter is Harbaugh’s assistant — as well and attended some of the team’s practices this past season. View the full article

It’s been just over a week since the Ravens’ season came to a stunning end in the AFC championship. The Kansas City Chiefs will play in their fourth Super Bowl in five years, while Baltimore, which produced the NFL’s best record and was the AFC’s top seed, is left asking what went wrong as it again failed to advance to the sport’s biggest game for the 11th straight season. The Ravens are just 3-6 in six postseason appearances since their 2012 title season, and they haven’t won more than one playoff game in the same postseason during that span. What do they need to do to break that streak? Baltimore Sun reporters Brian Wacker and Childs Walker weigh in on this year’s playoffs, Lamar Jackson and the future. Coach John Harbaugh said it’s a fair criticism that the Ravens’ postseason performance didn’t match its regular-season output, much the way it hasn’t in recent playoff failures, yet was firm in his belief that their process works. What’s your take? Wacker: It works in that there’s a level of consistency the Ravens enjoy that many other teams in the NFL do not. Consider: Baltimore has the eighth-best record in the league since 2013, behind only the Chiefs, Patriots, Seahawks, Steelers, Packers, Cowboys and Saints. Still, something isn’t entirely translating when it comes to the postseason. Their 2019 failures can perhaps be pinned on a young quarterback in the spotlight for the first time, 2020 to a windy game on the road with a quarterback who was pressing and this season a quarterback who looked to be playing tight as the favorite against the league’s best at the position. Notice a trend? But for all the fans’ exasperation, the Ravens did take a step forward and got within a game of the Super Bowl. Now there’s only one thing left to do. Walker: What else was he going to say, really? The Ravens did about everything their fans could have asked right up to the moment they took the field for the AFC championship game, and they’ve made it clear they’re not about judging their season through the lens of one disappointing performance. Their destiny is inextricably bound to Jackson’s progress toward becoming a championship-level quarterback, and as Harbaugh noted, Jackson will only have a greater hand in shaping their attack in year two under Todd Monken. They don’t really have a choice other than to steam forward and hope Jackson takes the final step in 2024, as Joe Flacco and company did after their massive championship game disappointment at the end of the 2011 season. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson beats Texans defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins to the end zone during a playoff game last month. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) What does Lamar Jackson need to do to get the Ravens to a Super Bowl? Wacker: Play like Lamar Jackson. What’s always made him so dangerous is his ability to run, by design or off script. That doesn’t make him any less “quarterback-y.” Though the next few years feel like his best window to get to/win a Super Bowl, this was also Jackson’s slowest season in terms of top speed (19.62 mph, per Next Gen Stats) and that number figures to only decline with each passing year, thus diminishing his threat to defenses. Jackson said earlier this season that he doesn’t like to run, and there seems to be a desire to win by passing. It’s a fine line between running less and throwing more, but while Jackson is plenty good as a passer it’s his ability to run that makes him impossible to stop, and he can’t forget that. Walker: He did it right up until the Chiefs game, playing with exceptional confidence and command of Monken’s offense in key late-season wins over the San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins and again in the second half of the team’s divisional round trouncing of the Houston Texans. That was a quarterback more than capable of leading his team to a Super Bowl win. So where did that Jackson go after Kansas City jumped on the Ravens early? He was off-rhythm, off-target and visibly angry at himself as the Ravens’ chances slipped away in the second half. It’s difficult to say how Jackson might jump this last hurdle in a career that will soon feature two Most Valuable Player Awards. Is the necessary work more technical or psychological? Will simple experience serve him as it did previous greats Peyton Manning and John Elway, who did not win Super Bowls until deep in their careers? If the answer was simple, Jackson would have already found it. Harbaugh and his teammates have expressed absolute confidence that he’s thinking the right way to get there. The Ravens will have more than 20 unrestricted free agents come March 13. Who are the biggest priorities? Wacker: Keeping Justin Madubuike, who led all interior defensive linemen with 13 sacks, is easily the highest priority. Expect the Ravens to use a franchise tag on him, which allows general manager Eric DeCosta time to perhaps work out a long-term extension. Doing so also gives them an All-Pro at each level of the defense, along with inside linebacker Roquan Smith and safety Kyle Hamilton. Re-signing right guard Kevin Zeitler would also provide some stability on the offensive line, while bringing back wide receiver Nelson Agholor, cornerback Ronald Darby and running back Gus Edwards would affordably fill some holes. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Ravens, former special teams coach Jerry Rosburg not reuniting after all Baltimore Ravens | Pennsylvania man charged with flying drone over Ravens-Chiefs AFC title game Baltimore Ravens | Former Ravens special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg returning to team in new role Baltimore Ravens | 2024 NFL mock draft (Version 2.0): Two-round projections entering Super Bowl week Baltimore Ravens | Ravens assistant head coach Anthony Weaver named Dolphins defensive coordinator Walker: Madubuike, Madubuike and Madubuike. Elite interior pass rushers are among the rarest gems in the league, and that’s what he became in his fourth season. Madubuike also has a chance to be the best pass rusher of any type the Ravens have developed since Terrell Suggs. They cannot let him reach the open market, even if that means using the franchise tag to extend their negotiating window. A shorter-term reunion with Zeitler, who’s still as dependable as any lineman on the team and wants to be back, would also make sense. In a perfect world, the Ravens would line up Patrick Queen and Roquan Smith side by side for the next four years, but Queen right now feels like the top free agent the Ravens cannot afford. The Ravens have the 30th pick of the NFL draft plus six other picks. What’s their biggest need(s)? Wacker: With the exception of tight end and quarterback, the Ravens need help just about everywhere, most notably along the offensive line with two aging, injury-prone tackles and two starting guards who are free agents and little in the pipeline behind them. After that, outside linebacker is a big need with uncertainty about how David Ojabo will fare coming back from a torn ACL after suffering a torn Achilles tendon the year before and Odafe Oweh’s performance having flattened out as the season went on (though his ankle injury could’ve played a part). Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy, meanwhile, are both free agents and coming off career years, likely making them unaffordable. Cornerback, wide receiver and running back are also areas that will need to be addressed. Walker: They need at least one young offensive lineman who could start in 2024 and preferably another to compete for a starting job by 2025. They could go a win-now route in 2024 and bring back most of their line, save penalty-prone left guard John Simpson, but major change will be in order the following season, with center Tyler Linderbaum the only long-term building block on the current roster. They also need a cornerback given that Brandon Stephens is headed for free agency after next season and Marlon Humphrey missed eight games with a variety of injuries in 2023. A plug-and-play running back would help given that Keaton Mitchell will be coming back from knee surgery. Baltimore’s 2024 schedule includes eight teams that made the playoffs this season, down one from this past season. What’s your way-too-early prediction on how the Ravens will fare next season? Wacker: Given all the turnover on the roster and among the coaching staff, it’s hard to imagine the Ravens matching what they did in the regular season. Plus, division foes the Bengals and Steelers should both be better next year, along with other teams like the Chargers. But maybe that’s not the worst thing. Perhaps Jackson plays better as the underdog than a Super Bowl favorite. Maybe the Ravens are better off having to go on the road and can somehow avoid the Chiefs. Still, based on Baltimore’s opponents I see a 10-7 record at best and another season without a Super Bowl appearance. Walker: It’s worth remembering that for all our hand-wringing over his postseason performance, Jackson is 58-19 as a regular-season starter. This was the NFL’s best team, with a string of resounding victories over elite opponents. They’ll still have a top defense led by All-Pros Smith and Hamilton and coordinated by Mike Macdonald’s sharp, charismatic young protege, Zach Orr. Even if the Ravens take a step back, they’ll be plenty good, with 11 wins as a reasonable baseline. And their fans won’t be convinced by any of it until the Ravens show up with a great performance in late January. View the full article

A Pennsylvania man faces up to four years in federal prison for flying a drone over M&T Bank Stadium during the first quarter of the AFC championship game. NFL security temporarily suspended the game, and Maryland State Police tracked the movement of the drone from directly over the stadium to a landing spot about half a mile away in the 500 block of South Sharp Street, where FBI agents and state police located 44-year-old Matthew Hebert, according to a news release. “Temporary flight restrictions are always in place during large sporting events,” United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron said in a news release. A temporary flight restriction issued by the Federal Aviation Administration outlawed drones operating within a three nautical mile radius of the stadium starting an hour before kickoff and lasting until an hour after the final whistle, according to the news release. The drone was not registered, and Herbert did not have a remote pilot certification to operate it, according to the news release. Herbert told officers that in the past, the application he uses to operate the drone warned him of flight restrictions but offered no such warning during the game, according to an affidavit. Hebert allegedly flew the drone approximately 100 meters or higher for around two minutes, taking six photos and possibly a video. If convicted, Hebert faces a maximum sentence of three years in federal prison for knowingly operating an unregistered drone and for knowingly serving as an airman without an airman’s certificate and a maximum of one year in federal prison for willfully violating United States National Defense Airspace, according to the news release, which also notes actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. An initial appearance and arraignment will be scheduled later this month. “Operating a drone requires users to act responsibly and educate themselves on when and how to use them safely,” said FBI agent R. Joseph Rothrock of the Baltimore Field Office said in the news release.. “The FBI would like to remind the public of the potential dangers of operating a drone in violation of federal laws and regulations.” View the full article

Jerry Rosburg is set to return to the Ravens. The team’s former longtime special teams coach will be back in Baltimore, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation. NFL Network reported that he will have a role focused on game management. Rosburg, 68, was most recently with the Denver Broncos, where he served as an assistant under coach Nathaniel Hackett in 2022 and then as interim coach for two games after Hackett was fired in December of that season. Before that, Rosburg was Baltimore’s special teams coordinator from 2008 to 2018 before retiring. Rosburg was also the special teams coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons in 2007 and the Cleveland Browns from 2001 to 2006. He is close with Ravens coach John Harbaugh as well and attended some of the team’s practices this past season. “He’s been the best associate head coach and the best friend that a head coach can have,” Harbaugh said of Rosburg in 2019. “Without Jerry Rosburg here, there’s no way we would have had the success that we’ve had.” Rosburg’s relationship with Harbaugh extends back a ways. He coached with Harbaugh at the University of Cincinnati from 1992 to 1995, then joined the Ravens when Baltimore hired Harbaugh as head coach in 2008. While in Baltimore, Rosburg helped turn the team’s special teams into one of the best in the NFL, with the Ravens’ unit ranking in the top five in each of his final seven seasons. This story might be updated. View the full article

Just one day after the Ravens’ 17-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game, general manager Eric DeCosta arrived in Mobile, Alabama, for the annual Senior Bowl to observe some of the nation’s top draft prospects. As quickly as the Ravens’ dominant season ended, DeCosta and his staff turned their attention toward rebuilding the roster. “I don’t have the luxury of really dwelling on a season,” DeCosta said Friday at the team’s end-of-season news conference. “We’ve moved on. I know I’ve moved on. I think the scouts have moved on, and now we’re excited about the future.” That future will be shaped in large part by the NFL draft, which begins April 25 in Detroit. There’s still a Super Bowl to be played between the Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, but it’s never too early to start thinking about next year’s rookie class. With the draft order one game away from being officially set, here are The Baltimore Sun’s projections for the first two rounds: 1. Chicago Bears (via Carolina Panthers): Caleb Williams, QB, USC The Bears still have a decision to make with Justin Fields, but it makes the most sense to trade him and bring in a cost-controlled rookie. The 6-foot-1, 215-pound Williams has the creativity and scrambling ability to be a star, though he’ll have to find the right balance between playing on schedule and hunting for big plays. 2. Washington Commanders: Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU There’s a lot of Lamar Jackson to Daniels’ game, and that should be exciting for a franchise that has lacked star power since the early years of Robert Griffin III. The 6-4, 210-pound Daniels is lean and doesn’t always protect himself in the open field, but he’s a smooth passer with electric feet who could become an elite dual-threat player. 3. New England Patriots: Drake Maye, QB, North Carolina Maybe the Patriots are confident enough in their evaluations to trade down and pass on a quarterback here, but it would be quite the gamble. The 6-4, 230-pound Maye might be the third player off the board here, but he has the athletic traits and competitiveness to be the best from this class when it’s all said and done. 4. Arizona Cardinals: Marvin Harrison Jr., WR, Ohio State This might be the most popular mock draft pairing, and for good reason. The Cardinals have a glaring need at wide receiver, and the 6-4, 205-pound Harrison is perhaps the best one to enter the draft since Ja’Marr Chase. Quarterback Kyler Murray should be happy. Georgia tight end Brock Bowers could be the Chargers’ first draft pick of the Jim Harbaugh era. (AP Photo/George Walker IV) 5. Los Angeles Chargers: Brock Bowers, TE, Georgia With Keenan Allen and Mike Williams both entering the final years of their contracts and Quentin Johnston coming off a disappointing rookie season, wide receiver should be at the top of the Chargers’ wish list. But new coach Jim Harbaugh made tight ends a big part of his passing game at Michigan and should fall in love with the 6-4, 240-pound Bowers, who looked ready for the NFL as a freshman. 6. New York Giants: Rome Odunze, WR, Washington It would not be shocking to see the Giants reach for a quarterback here and look to move on from Daniel Jones in 2025. But if they do give Jones another chance, adding a stud receiver like the 6-3, 215-pound Odunze, a versatile and polished prospect coming off a dominant season, would give the offense a fighting chance. 7. Tennessee Titans: Malik Nabers, WR, LSU New coach Brian Callahan comes from Cincinnati, which enjoyed an embarrassment of riches at wide receiver during his time there. The Titans need more talent at the position to help quarterback Will Levis grow, and the 6-foot, 200-pound Nabers is an electric playmaker who would immediately give opposing defensive coordinators someone to worry about. 8. Atlanta Falcons: Dallas Turner, EDGE, Alabama The Falcons have selected just one defensive player (cornerback AJ Terrell) in the first round in their past six drafts. That changes with new coach Raheem Morris, who takes over after serving as the Rams’ defensive coordinator. The 6-4, 245-pound Turner should help provide the pass-rushing punch this team has lacked for years. 9. Chicago Bears: Terrion Arnold, CB, Alabama With the top receivers off the board, this feels like an easy decision. The NFC North is loaded with receiving talent, and star cornerback Jaylon Johnson could be headed elsewhere. The 6-foot, 196-pound Arnold is a fast-rising prospect who has earned the label of the top corner in this class. 10. New York Jets: Joe Alt, OT, Notre Dame Didn’t this work out nicely for the Jets? The offensive line needs an upgrade at left tackle, even if Aaron Rodgers’ old friend David Bakhtiari makes his way to New York. The 6-8, 322-pound Alt was dominant in college and can help keep Rodgers clean as the 40-year-old quarterback returns from a torn Achilles tendon. 11. Minnesota Vikings: Jared Verse, EDGE, Florida State The Vikings need to rebuild their defensive line this offseason, especially if they lose Danielle Hunter in free agency. The 6-4, 248-pound Verse plays with an edge and would be a great fit for defensive coordinator Brian Flores. Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy could be the replacement for Russell Wilson in Denver. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong) 12. Denver Broncos: J.J. McCarthy, QB, Michigan The Broncos made Russell Wilson the scapegoat for their failed 2023 season, so it seems likely they’ll go in a new direction at quarterback. The 6-3, 202-pound McCarthy did not always look the part of a first-round pick in college, but he’s young, athletic and went 27-1 as the starter for the reigning national champions. Coach Sean Payton might see a ball of clay he can mold into a star. 13. Las Vegas Raiders: Olumuyiwa Fashanu, OT, Penn State The Raiders have three starting offensive linemen headed for free agency, including right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor. The 6-6, 317-pound Fashanu did not become the top-five lock many expected him to be after a breakout 2022 season, but he’s still an elite prospect. 14. New Orleans Saints: Taliese Fuaga, OT, Oregon State Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Former Ravens special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg reportedly returning to team in new role Baltimore Ravens | Ravens assistant head coach Anthony Weaver named Dolphins defensive coordinator Baltimore Ravens | Ravens brain trust does not see failed process behind playoff disappointments | TAKEAWAYS Baltimore Ravens | Ravens’ John Harbaugh says Chiefs had better plan, laments lack of rushing attempts in AFC title game loss Baltimore Ravens | Five things we learned from the Ravens’ 2023 season The Saints, who whiffed on Trevor Penning and are facing an uncertain future with Ryan Ramczyk, need to get better up front. The 6-6, 325-pound Fuaga, a dominant run blocker, could play tackle or kick inside to guard. 15. Indianapolis Colts: Quinyon Mitchell, CB, Toledo Even if the Colts bring back pending free agent Kenny Moore II, cornerback should be an area of focus this offseason. The 6-1, 200-pound Mitchell cemented his status as a first-round pick with his standout performance at the Senior Bowl. 16. Seattle Seahawks: Troy Fautanu, OT/G, Washington New coach Mike Macdonald might want to go defense here to recapture some of the magic of his Ravens units, but the offensive line needs improvement. The 6-4, 317-pound Fautanu played left tackle at Washington but can also step in at guard. 17. Jacksonville Jaguars: Brian Thomas Jr., WR, LSU There are plenty of areas for the Jaguars to improve after their late-season collapse, and wide receiver jumps near the top of the list if Calvin Ridley doesn’t return. With his size and speed, the 6-4, 205-pound Thomas would give quarterback Trevor Lawrence a big-play threat. 18. Cincinnati Bengals: JC Latham, OT, Alabama The Bengals can’t mess around when it comes to improving their offensive line. The 6-6, 335-pound Latham is a bowling ball in the running game and can anchor the right side of the line to protect quarterback Joe Burrow. 19. Los Angeles Rams: Laiatu Latu, EDGE, UCLA Maybe the Rams see an opportunity to draft and develop a young quarterback behind Matthew Stafford, but that doesn’t seem like something coach Sean McVay and general manager Les Snead have the patience for. The 6-4, 265-pound Latu isn’t the quickest or strongest athlete, but he’s a relentless, skilled pass rusher who piled up 23 1/2 sacks over the past two seasons. Iowa defensive back Cooper DeJean might be a fit in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, file) 20. Pittsburgh Steelers: Cooper DeJean, CB/S, Iowa Rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. breathed some new life into an aging secondary, but the Steelers shouldn’t stop there. The 6-1, 209-pound DeJean is an outstanding athlete who can line up all over the defense and wreak havoc. 21. Miami Dolphins: Jackson Powers-Johnson, G/C, Oregon Perhaps the biggest winner of the Senior Bowl, Powers-Johnson is gaining steam as a potential top-20 pick. The Dolphins might lose both their starting center and right guard, opening a spot for the 6-3, 320-pound lineman to step in immediately. 22. Philadelphia Eagles: Amarius Mims, OT, Georgia The Georgia-to-Philadelphia pipeline continues, this time on offense. The Eagles love to draft linemen early, and the 6-7, 330-pound Mims offers an extremely high ceiling despite making just eight college starts. This feels like a natural succession plan for right tackle Lane Johnson. 23. Houston Texans (via Cleveland Browns): Byron Murphy II, DT, Texas For the Texans to return to the playoffs, the defense needs to be retooled quickly. The 6-1, 308-pound Murphy is an explosive athlete who can make an impact as both a run defender and a pass rusher for defensive-minded coach DeMeco Ryans. 24. Dallas Cowboys: Tyler Guyton, OT, Oklahoma Star left tackle Tyron Smith is a pending free agent at 33 years old and Terence Steele was one of the league’s worst right tackles last season. The 6-7, 327-pound Guyton, who stood out during Senior Bowl practices, has room to grow for a franchise that has always valued the offensive line. 25. Green Bay Packers: Nate Wiggins, CB, Clemson The Packers covet athleticism and physical traits, and the 6-2, 185-pound Wiggins checks all the boxes in that regard. Offensive line could be in play here too, but the secondary is a more pressing need. Florida State wide receiver Keon Coleman would be a worthy successor to Mike Evans in Tampa Bay. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack) 26. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Keon Coleman, WR, Florida State It would be strange to see Mike Evans playing in anything other than a Buccaneers uniform, but there’s no guarantee the pending free agent returns for an 11th season in Tampa Bay. The 6-4, 215-pound Coleman would be a worthy successor with his size and ability to make contested catches. 27. Arizona Cardinals (via Houston): Jer’Zhan Newton, DT, Illinois Coach Jonathan Gannon simply needs more playmakers for his league-worst defense. The 6-2, 295-pound Newton doesn’t have ideal size or length, but he’s disruptive and tough to block. 28. Buffalo Bills: Adonai Mitchell, WR, Texas Even if you think the lack of production from Stefon Diggs down the stretch was overblown, the Bills could stand to add another receiver, especially a cheap one. The 6-4, 196-pound Mitchell could be the steal of the first round after flashing some highlight-reel plays in college. 29. Detroit Lions: Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB, Missouri The Lions’ secondary struggled to overcome injuries this past season, particularly at outside corner. The 6-foot, 188-pound Rakestraw is tough and physical and a perfect fit for what Detroit wants to build on defense. 30. Ravens: Darius Robinson, DL/EDGE, Missouri With several pending free agents on defense, including Justin Madubuike, Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy, the Ravens need plenty of help to reach the heights of their league-best unit under Macdonald. The Athletic’s draft guru Dane Brugler labeled Robinson a player the Ravens would love because of his size, skill set and versatility. At 6-5 and 295 pounds, he’s an imposing presence who can hold the edge against the run and also rush the passer from the interior. A standout week at the Senior Bowl has pushed him into the first-round conversation. 31. San Francisco 49ers: Graham Barton, OT/G, Duke With experience at both left tackle and center, where he’s projected to play at the next level, the 6-5, 314-pound Barton provides valuable depth at perhaps the only weak spot on the 49ers’ roster. 32. Kansas City Chiefs: Jordan Morgan, OT, Arizona Everyone wants to give the Chiefs a wide receiver in the first round, but there are more important positions to address with several starters entering free agency. The 6-6, 320-pound Morgan could be the long-term answer at left tackle. Second round 33. Carolina Panthers: Devontez Walker, WR, North Carolina 34. New England Patriots: Bralen Trice, EDGE, Washington 35. Arizona Cardinals: Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB, Alabama 36. Washington Commanders: Chop Robinson, EDGE, Penn State 37. Los Angeles Chargers: Junior Colson, LB, Michigan 38. Tennessee Titans: T’Vondre Sweat, DT, Texas 39. New York Giants: Bo Nix, QB, Oregon 40. Washington Commanders (via Chicago): Zach Frazier, G/C, West Virginia 41. Green Bay Packers (via N.Y. Jets): Kingsley Suamataia, OT, BYU 42. Minnesota Vikings: Kamari Lassiter, CB, Georgia 43. Atlanta Falcons: Troy Franklin, WR, Oregon 44. Las Vegas Raiders: Michael Penix Jr., QB, Washington 45. New Orleans Saints (via Denver): Kris Jenkins, DT, Michigan 46. Indianapolis Colts: Ja’Lynn Polk, WR, Washington 47. New York Giants (via Seattle): Chris Braswell, EDGE, Alabama 48. Jacksonville Jaguars: Tyler Nubin, S, Minnesota 49. Cincinnati Bengals: Ladd McConkey, WR, Georgia 50. Philadelphia Eagles (via New Orleans): T.J. Tampa, CB, Iowa State 51. Pittsburgh Steelers: Patrick Paul, OT, Houston 52. Los Angeles Rams: Calen Bullock, S, USC 53. Philadelphia Eagles: Edgerrin Cooper, LB, Texas A&M 54. Cleveland Browns: Xavier Worthy, WR, Texas 55. Miami Dolphins: Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE, Texas 56. Dallas Cowboys: Kamren Kinchens, S, Miami 57. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Payton Wilson, LB, NC State 58. Green Bay Packers: Javon Bullard, S, Georgia 59. Houston Texans: Dominick Puni, OT/G, Kansas 60. Buffalo Bills: Jonah Elliss, EDGE, Utah 61. Detroit Lions: Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE, Western Michigan 62. Ravens: Kiran Amegadjie, OT, Yale 63. San Francisco 49ers: Adisa Isaac, EDGE, Penn State 64. Kansas City Chiefs: Malachi Corley, WR, Western Kentucky View the full article

The Ravens are losing another assistant from their defensive staff. Baltimore defensive line coach and assistant head coach Anthony Weaver has agreed to become the Miami Dolphins’ defensive coordinator, according to a source with direct knowledge of the deal. He’s the third defensive assistant to leave the Ravens this offseason after defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald was named head coach of the Seattle Seahawks and defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson was hired as the Tennessee Titans’ defensive coordinator. Weaver, 43, had head coaching interviews with the Atlanta Falcons, Washington Commanders and Carolina Panthers. He has ties to Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, whom he previously worked with in Cleveland. In Friday’s end-of-season news conference, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said he was unsure whether Weaver would stay but predicted he would become “a great head coach” one day. “He didn’t get hired this cycle, and great coaches got hired, but someday, some people are going to look back, and they’re going to say, ‘We had a chance to hire Anthony Weaver.’ I guarantee you that,” Harbaugh said. “They’re going to see that they missed their chance. The next time around, somebody’s not going to miss their chance. That’s how I feel about Anthony.” The Ravens on Thursday promoted 31-year-old inside linebackers coach Zach Orr to defensive coordinator over Weaver, who was also a candidate for the job before Macdonald was hired in 2022. Harbaugh said Friday he’s confident in his remaining staff to rebuild a defense that became the first team to lead the NFL in sacks, takeaways and points allowed this past season. “The guys that we have on defense and some of the younger coaches that are already here including [outside linebackers coach] Chuck Smith — those guys are going to build another great defense, and I’m going to be in the middle of it, just like I’m in the middle of the offense and special teams,” he said. “I’m going to lean on those guys and trust those guys and empower those guys to build a great defense.” Weaver joined the Ravens in 2021 as the run game coordinator and defensive line coach after spending four seasons with the Houston Texans, where he became defensive coordinator in 2020. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Ravens brain trust does not see failed process behind playoff disappointments | TAKEAWAYS Baltimore Ravens | Ravens’ John Harbaugh says Chiefs had better plan, laments lack of rushing attempts in AFC title game loss Baltimore Ravens | Five things we learned from the Ravens’ 2023 season Baltimore Ravens | Mike Preston: With new DC Zach Orr, Ravens and John Harbaugh have history on their side | COMMENTARY Baltimore Ravens | In Mike Macdonald, Seahawks hope they’ve found a disruptor who can again make them contenders In Houston, his defense ranked 30th in yards (416.8) and 27th in points (29) allowed per game, but the unit had very little talent outside of then-31-year-old defensive lineman J.J. Watt. Four of the team’s top five players in total tackles that season are either out of the league or playing reserve roles elsewhere. During Weaver’s time in Baltimore, the Ravens’ defensive line has consistently been among the league’s best, particularly against the run. A 2002 second-round draft pick by the Ravens out of Notre Dame, Weaver played seven seasons in the NFL with Baltimore and Houston before joining the coaching ranks in 2010 as a graduate assistant at Florida under coach Urban Meyer. He’s also spent time on staff with the New York Jets (2012), Buffalo Bills (2013) and Browns (2014-15). In Miami, Weaver takes over for Vic Fangio, who left after one season to become the Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive coordinator. The Dolphins ranked 22nd in points (23) and 10th in yards (318.3) allowed per game in 2023 while dealing with a slew of injuries to cornerbacks Jalen Ramsey and Xavien Howard and pass rushers Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb. Miami, once a contender to secure the AFC’s top seed before suffering a 56-19 loss to the Ravens in Week 17, finished the regular season 11-6 and lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, 26-7, in the wild-card round. This story might be updated. View the full article

Ravens fans are still processing their intense disappointment with the team’s letdown performance against the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game. In their season-ending news conference, coach John Harbaugh and general manager Eric DeCosta said the loss hurt them too, but they see a team that’s still on a winning course as they begin an offseason filled with difficult roster decisions. Here are three takeaways from Harbaugh and DeCosta’s 42-minute question-and-answer session. The Ravens brain trust does not see a failed process behind the team’s playoff disappointments If exasperated fans were hoping to hear Harbaugh and DeCosta speak in terms of crisis management, Friday’s news conference was not for them. Harbaugh conceded that the Ravens did not run as much as planned against the Chiefs after falling behind early and said he sees validity in fan frustrations with the Ravens’ execution in recent elimination games, going back to their divisional round loss against the Tennessee Titans four years ago. But he did not betray any dissatisfaction with the preparations that led to those defeats or any feeling that his team lost its identity with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. “It was the same team. It was the same guys. It’s the game plan that was devised against that particular team that day,” he said. “But we didn’t play better than the team we played. They had the better game plan. They executed their game plan better. They made some great throws, some great catches, a few great runs. … We didn’t come up with those great plays. In that sense, it’s not the same team. But in the sense of the effort, the preparation, what we bring to the table schematically, it was exactly the same team. It was just a different result. “Every single team is going to have that feeling after losing in the playoffs. I feel the same way. I’m telling you, I’m heartbroken that we didn’t win that game at home.” That answer won’t be entirely satisfying for fans who might have accepted the loss more calmly if the Ravens had at least put their best foot forward. Plenty of skeptics believe the Ravens will win a bunch of games again next year only to run into the same wall come January. Harbaugh and DeCosta painted a very different picture and said owner Steve Bisciotti is equally optimistic about the path forward. “I think Steve was extremely happy that we could bring an AFC championship game to Baltimore, and I think he was just really happy with the season in general,” DeCosta said. “He’s a huge draftnik, so I think he’s starting to look at that. It’s always hard for all of us. We all love what we do, and we want to see this thing finish in a great way, but it didn’t. That’s a challenge for everybody, but we move on, and we get excited.” Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, left, and general manager, Eric DeCosta hold an end of season press conference in Owings Mills, Md. (Kevin Richardson/Staff) Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, left, and general manager, Eric DeCosta hold an end of season press conference in Owings Mills, Md. (Kevin Richardson/Staff) Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, left, and general manager, Eric DeCosta hold an end of season press conference in Owings Mills, Md. (Kevin Richardson/Staff) Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, left, and general manager, Eric DeCosta, not shown, hold an end of season press conference in Owings Mills, Md. (Kevin Richardson/Staff) Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, left, and general manager, Eric DeCosta hold an end of season press conference in Owings Mills, Md. (Kevin Richardson/Staff) Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, left, and general manager, Eric DeCosta hold an end of season press conference in Owings Mills, Md. (Kevin Richardson/Staff) Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, left, and general manager, Eric DeCosta hold an end of season press conference in Owings Mills, Md. (Kevin Richardson/Staff) Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, left, and general manager, Eric DeCosta hold an end of season press conference in Owings Mills, Md. (Kevin Richardson/Staff) Ravens coach John Harbaugh, left, and general manager Eric DeCosta, right, see a team that's still on a winning course as they begin an offseason filled with difficult roster decisions. (Kevin Richardson/Staff) Show Caption of Expand Their affirming words extended to quarterback Lamar Jackson, whose record in playoff starts dropped to 2-4 with his subpar performance against the Chiefs. “I had a great conversation with Lamar yesterday,” Harbaugh said. “We were both in lockstep, already thinking the same way.” He noted that the franchise quarterback is just coming off his first season in coordinator Todd Monken’s offense and will have an even greater role in crafting the attack going forward. “Lamar Jackson is a phenomenal success,” Harbaugh said. “There’s nobody better in this league, especially nobody better for the Baltimore Ravens, for this organization, for this city. I’m excited about taking this offense to the next level next year, an opportunity to pick up where we are and dig deeper with what we can give him. It’s like setting up a car; we’ve got to build a car. Lamar’s the driver, and he’s got to be involved in the set-up of the car, even more.” Nowhere in his words did he evince any concern that Jackson will never break his pattern of underwhelming playoff performances. No one could have expected different from Harbaugh. Jackson did deliver a terrific season that will almost certainly earn him his second NFL Most Valuable Player Award. And the Ravens have already built everything around him, both financially and schematically, so there’s really nowhere to go but forward. Eric DeCosta offered only the slightest hints to his plans for the team’s free agents DeCosta was asked about most of the key players approaching free agency — more than 20 Ravens in all — but set the tone for his responses early, nodding back to his protracted extension negotiations with Jackson last year. “I learned a lesson,” he said. “It’s beneficial to just not talk about things. There is a value sometimes in not eally showing your cards.” So he didn’t say much, whether the subject was defensive tackle Justin Madubuike, linebacker Patrick Queen or right guard Kevin Zeitler. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Ravens’ John Harbaugh says Chiefs had better plan, laments lack of rushing attempts in AFC title game loss Baltimore Ravens | Five things we learned from the Ravens’ 2023 season Baltimore Ravens | Mike Preston: With new DC Zach Orr, Ravens and John Harbaugh have history on their side | COMMENTARY Baltimore Ravens | In Mike Macdonald, Seahawks hope they’ve found a disruptor who can again make them contenders Baltimore Ravens | Ravens TE Mark Andrews springs into action during medical emergency on flight Asked about the possibility of using the franchise tag to keep Madubuike off the market, he said, “Justin had a great year, as did Patrick Queen. … We’ll have a good plan in place for those guys.” A few minutes later, he said Queen has “put himself in a great position,” the type of comment he’d typically make about a player who will be too expensive to re-sign, much as guard Ben Powers was after last season. Meanwhile, he said he spoke to Zeitler last week, seeming to indicate that re-signing the dependable veteran might be a priority, if we’re reading between the lines. He gave no indication of whether he plans to pick up fifth-year options on the team’s 2021 first-round draft picks, wide receiver Rashod Bateman and outside linebacker Odafe Oweh. He and Harbaugh did push back on the notion that Bateman lacks chemistry with Jackson, with both predicting a 2024 breakout from the talented pass catcher after he banked a season’s worth of healthy reps this year. In sum, good luck guessing how the 2024 Ravens will look different from the 2023 edition based on anything DeCosta said Friday. The Ravens have great faith in their coaching and front office succession plan Harbaugh took a risk promoting 31-year old Zach Orr to fill Mike Macdonald’s boat-sized shoes at defensive coordinator. He had more experienced in-house options in Anthony Weaver, Chris Hewitt and Dennard Wilson, who left to take over the Titans’ defense. But he stuck to the same approach that led him to hire Macdonald two years ago, betting on a sharp, charismatic young linebackers coach who grew up in the Ravens’ system. “There’s no reason not to put Zach in that position in my mind, right now,” Harbaugh said. “I think he’ll do a great job, and I also think he’ll do a great job because of the support he’s going to get from two veteran coaches who are great coaches, Chris Hewitt and Anthony Weaver.” Harbaugh acknowledged Orr will have to “work through” becoming the team’s defensive play caller. Macdonald had done it at Michigan the year before he returned to the Ravens as the league’s youngest defensive coordinator in 2022. But Orr comes with the credibility of having played linebacker for the Ravens until 2016 and of having learned the art of coaching from Macdonald with some of the same players he’ll coordinate next season. Harbaugh’s choices at defensive coordinator have generally worked out, and he had no reason not to trust his judgment on Orr. If the Ravens hold on to Weaver, who’s still a candidate to take over the Miami Dolphins’ defense, all the better. “Those guys are going to build another great defense, and I’m going to be in the middle of it,” Harbaugh said. “But I’m going to lean on those guys and trust those guys and empower those guys to build a great defense. Zach is super-talented, super-enthusiastic, he’s very smart, he’s prepared for that job. He’s in the middle of the defense; I think when you’re a linebackers coach, that’s an advantage, because you understand the whole defense.” Joe Hortiz’s departure to become general manager of the Los Angeles Chargers did not create as much angst as the loss of Macdonald, but DeCosta said he’ll miss the man who has been his closest lieutenant in draft preparations for more than a decade. It’s a bittersweet parting, because Hortiz had deserved a chance to run his own team for years. At the same time, DeCosta expressed absolute confidence that the executives coming up behind Hortiz — assistant director of player personnel Mark Azevedo, director of college scouting David Blackburn — will thrive along with veteran director of pro personnel George Kokinas. “I really valued Joe as an evaluator and as a person, as a friend, but I think we have the people to take care of the process for us,” he said. When it comes to home growing coaches and future general managers, the Ravens have not lost their aura, as we saw from the rest of the league’s interest in poaching their people over the last few weeks. View the full article

There was a lot to digest from the Ravens’ season-ending news conference with general manager Eric DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh on Friday in Owings Mills, which lasted just over 40 minutes. But for a fan base looking for answers five days after Baltimore was embarrassed by the Kansas City Chiefs, 17-10, in the AFC championship game at M&T Bank Stadium, there was little to ease the pain. One number that continued to stick out like a sore thumb less than a week after the Ravens’ season came to a stunning yet familiar end: six. That was the number of carries Baltimore running backs had in the game, with half of those coming in the first quarter alone. Incredibly, the Ravens ran the ball just 16 times compared with 37 passes, a stunningly disproportionate ratio for a team that, with a dynamic and explosive quarterback and strong ground game, had bullied its way to the NFL’s best record, the top seed in the AFC and home-field advantage. “That’s not the number you want to have,” Harbaugh said. “When you look back at it, that’s not going to win us an AFC championship.” It was also inexplicable for a team that led the league in rushing yards and indefensible against a Chiefs team that ranked 25th in the NFL in yards per carry allowed and had just surrendered 182 yards on 39 attempts against the Buffalo Bills the week before. Harbaugh said that running the ball, including several run-pass option plays, was a big part of the Ravens’ game plan but that the Chiefs took it away by lining up to stop the run and by putting Baltimore in a hole, dominating time of possession and scoring on each of their first two possessions. “It’s not an excuse,” he said. “Sometimes you want to run the ball more. Sometimes you gotta be willing to get big and run the ball that way. We just didn’t want to do it that way in the game. “You want to run the ball against the Chiefs.” And yet, the Ravens did not. Justice Hill had just three carries, two of them coming in the first quarter. Gus Edwards also had three, including one he popped for 15 yards in the first quarter on the Ravens’ second possession of the game. Ravens running back Gus Edwards, left, tries to get past Chiefs safety Justin Reid during the AFC championship game. Edwards had just three carries in the loss. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff) Then there’s Jackson. Four years ago, he led the league in touchdown passes and set a single-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback on his way to being the unanimous choice for NFL Most Valuable Player. The Ravens went 14-2 in the regular season but fell on their face in a divisional round loss at home to the Tennessee Titans in which Jackson had three turnovers. Sunday, after another presumptive MVP season, he was on the precipice of his first Super Bowl and armed with the best collection of talent he’s had in his six years in Baltimore. Jackson ran the ball eight times for 54 yards, though there were plenty of opportunities in which he chose not to, instead opting to stay in the pocket. He also had two turnovers, with a fumble on a strip-sack after holding the ball too long and an interception after throwing into triple coverage in the fourth quarter. Harbaugh said he spoke with Jackson by phone Thursday and the two were in “lock step” on their plan of attack moving forward. But the stench of this loss will likely linger in Baltimore for months. Instead of playing in his first Super Bowl, Jackson and the Ravens were again bounced out of the playoffs in remarkably similar fashion to the way they were in 2019 and 2020, when the Ravens lost to the Bills, 17-3, in the divisional round. “Definitely a fair criticism because that’s what you see,” Harbaugh said. “You look at it, and it’s not the same. It wasn’t a 30-point win over a division leader, obviously, and that’s the result of it. It was the same team, it’s the same guys. It was the game plan that was devised against that particular team that day, but we didn’t play better than the team we played. They played better than us. They had a better game plan. They executed their game plan better. They made plays. They made some great throws, [and] great catches [and] a few great runs in the first half, especially, and they scored those points. Their defense came up and made plays. They tackled well. They kept us bottled up. They covered us well. “We didn’t come up with those great plays. That’s really the difference. So, in that sense, it’s not the same team, but the sense of the effort, the preparation, what we were bringing to the table, schematically, was exactly the same team, it was just a different result. Every single team in the league is going to have that feeling after losing in the playoffs. I get it, I feel the same way. I’m telling you, I’m heartbroken. I’m heartbroken. The fact that we didn’t win that game at home in front of our crowd for the first time in all these years and get a chance to play in the Super Bowl.” Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Five things we learned from the Ravens’ 2023 season Baltimore Ravens | Mike Preston: With new DC Zach Orr, Ravens and John Harbaugh have history on their side | COMMENTARY Baltimore Ravens | In Mike Macdonald, Seahawks hope they’ve found a disruptor who can again make them contenders Baltimore Ravens | Ravens TE Mark Andrews springs into action during medical emergency on flight Baltimore Ravens | Ravens promote Zach Orr to replace Mike Macdonald as defensive coordinator Instead, the Ravens now turn their focus to the offseason sooner than they hoped yet again. That started with replacing defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, who earlier this week was named head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. As has often been the case, they promoted from within, with Harbaugh naming 31-year-old inside linebackers coach and former Ravens player Zach Orr to the position Thursday. “What made Zach so good as a player was [that] he had a great instinct for the game,” DeCosta said. “He was very, very quick to key and diagnose, and he played with a passion, and he was just relentless to the football. Those qualities make a great coach, so I have no doubt that Zach is going to be a great defensive coordinator and probably, if I had a crystal ball, a head coach someday.” What that means for associate head coach/defensive line coach Anthony Weaver remains to be seen. Weaver, 43, has been passed over for the job twice. He also interviewed for the Washington Commanders’ head coach opening before they hired Dan Quinn, and he remains in the mix for the Miami Dolphins’ defensive coordinator job. “If he gets that job, I’ll be happy for him, if he takes the job,” Harbaugh said. “But he’ll be a great head coach.” Meanwhile, DeCosta, who was at the Senior Bowl all week scouting college prospects, has already moved on and turned his attention to the Ravens’ more than 20 free agents and preparing for April’s draft. Most notable among Ravens players set to hit the open market is defensive tackle Justin Madbubuike, who led all interior linemen with 13 sacks this season. If the team uses a franchise tag on him, it would cost about $20 million. Ravens defensive tackle Justin Madubuike sacks Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes during the AFC championship game. Madubuike is a pending free agent after a standout season. (Jerry Jackson/Staff) But DeCosta said he learned a lesson when handling Jackson’s contract negotiations last year and was mum on what his plans are for the 26-year-old rising defensive star and others, such as inside linebacker Patrick Queen. The Ravens didn’t pick up the 2020 first-round draft pick’s fifth-year option last year, meaning Queen will be an expensive free agent after posting a career high in tackles and being selected to his first Pro Bowl. “You never know,” DeCosta said when asked if he regretted that decision. “If you pick up an option, that’s less money you can spend on somebody else, so how do those dominos fall? Really hard to say. I can say that Patrick … he had an excellent season, a Pro Bowl season. His future is extremely bright.” What the Ravens’ immediate future looks like, however, is a bit more murky, given staff departures, free agency and their history in big moments in recent years. Harbaugh is optimistic, of course. He has no other choice. “Unless you don’t make the playoffs, your last game is not a success unless you win the Super Bowl,” Harbaugh said. “When you don’t win the last game, especially at home, AFC championship game, which is so rare and so hard to get to … is it success [or] is it a failure? “Lamar Jackson is a phenomenal success. … There’s nobody better in this league, especially nobody better for the Baltimore Ravens and for this organization and for this city and just from a historical perspective. I’m excited about the future. I’m excited about taking this offense to the next level next year.” View the full article

The Ravens were the best team in football, right up until the last Sunday of their season, when they failed to muster a representative performance against the Kansas City Chiefs with a Super Bowl trip on the line. How do we weigh that final failure against the many successes from their previous 18 games? Where do they go from here? Here are five things we learned from the 2023 season. Lamar Jackson still has a hump to get over We start with the Ravens’ most important player, the man who will almost certainly receive his second NFL Most Valuable Player Award a few days before the Super Bowl he planned to play in. Jackson seemed to hit a new level of preparedness in the days leading up to his showdown with the Chiefs and the gold standard at his position, Patrick Mahomes. He was eager and intently focused on the task at hand but also loose. Teammates expressed complete faith in his command of an offense that first-year coordinator Todd Monken placed in his hands. He had steered it impeccably in late-season blowouts of the San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins and again in the Ravens’ divisional round win over the Houston Texans. He had put to rest old narratives about how you could beat him with relentless blitzes or by forcing him to throw from the pocket. Which made his flustered performance against the Chiefs all the more puzzling. Yes, Monken could have called a better game, could have attacked a suspect run defense with Jackson’s legs and those of Gus Edwards and Justice Hill, who combined for six carries. Even so, if Jackson had played a normal game, reflective of his 2023 season, the Ravens probably would have won. Instead, we saw him hold the ball too long on some plays, rush throws with sloppy mechanics on others. His downfield radar was off, and with victory still very much in reach in the fourth quarter, he threw a crushing interception into triple coverage. Jackson is an emotive player even when things are going well, but his anger was apparent when he spiked his helmet after that last turnover. So how do we reconcile that performance with the player who could not have done any more to lift the Ravens to a No. 1 seed? How do we account for the discrepancy between his 58-19 career record and 98 passer rating in the regular season and his 2-4 record and 75.7 rating in the postseason? Will experience help him make that last step, the way great players such as Peyton Manning and John Elway did before him? If there are demons gnawing at Jackson in relation to his playoff disappointments, he never lets on. He’s always calm in the aftermath — angry about what happened in the game but resolute that he’ll work harder and do better the next time. It’s fascinating to ponder how the Ravens can help him from here. They built last offseason around Jackson, signing and drafting wide receivers and replacing Greg Roman with Monken, who seemed to click with the quarterback. It all worked right up until the AFC championship game, when it didn’t. Lamar Jackson will be back at the center of an unpleasantly familiar narrative in 2024. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) There will be changes going into next season. Wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Nelson Agholor are free agents. Rashod Bateman, the team’s 2021 first-round draft pick, did a great job getting open and staying on the field this year, but he and Jackson have yet to find real chemistry. Tight ends Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely are terrific, but can they both thrive in the same game? Monken will still call the plays but will face an extra layer of skepticism from fans because of the Chiefs stinker. And Jackson will be back at the center of an unpleasantly familiar narrative, celebrated for all he does but with a hint of doubt until he does it on the grandest stage. That final loss sent Ravens fans spiraling, but the team can’t overreact to it Steve Bisciotti, on the rare occasions he speaks publicly, will tell you he reacts to bad losses with fierce dismay, much like any fan of the team he owns. He’ll add that he does not make major decisions in those hours and days when his emotions are spiking. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Mike Preston: With new DC Zach Orr, Ravens and John Harbaugh have history on their side | COMMENTARY Baltimore Ravens | In Mike Macdonald, Seahawks hope they’ve found a disruptor who can again make them contenders Baltimore Ravens | Ravens TE Mark Andrews springs into action during medical emergency on flight Baltimore Ravens | Ravens promote Zach Orr to replace Mike Macdonald as defensive coordinator Baltimore Ravens | Mount St. Mary’s students meet ‘extraordinary’ and ‘down-to-earth’ Taylor Swift in Baltimore His tempered style, which he brought to the franchise and was reinforced by longtime general manager Ozzie Newsome, is by now the official mood of the Ravens. They don’t rush. They don’t reset based on small samples. They aspire to be urgent but never drastic. And that was the last thing fervent fans wanted to hear in the days after they sat numbly through the Ravens’ tepid performance against the Chiefs. It was the fourth time in the past six seasons the team came up conspicuously small in an elimination game with Jackson as quarterback and Harbaugh as coach. Meanwhile, the one guy who clearly figured it out against the Chiefs, defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, is now the Seahawks’ head coach. A loud contingent of fans online jumped to an aggressive conclusion: Harbaugh, who had just coached the Ravens to the league’s best record in his 16th season, should be dumped (or “elevated” to a front office job) to clear space for his protege, Macdonald, who might be the next Bill Belichick for all we know. At the very least, they hoped Bisciotti would pony up a hefty salary to keep Macdonald in place as a coach in waiting, much as he had in creating a plan for Eric DeCosta to succeed Newsome. The following is not meant as a slight on Macdonald, who at age 36 is incredibly impressive in preparation, player relations and game management, but such a move would have violated everything we’ve learned about the way Bisciotti’s Ravens do business. Harbaugh has made the playoffs 11 times in 16 seasons and has won at least one playoff game in eight of those postseasons. The team he just coached was his best by many analytical measures and came within seven points of reaching the Super Bowl, even on an off day against the best quarterback of our time. Players still respond to him over the six-month grind of a season. Beckham, for example, said Harbaugh would be on his “Mt. Rushmore of coaches” because of the genuine connections he forges. For his part, Harbaugh said during a recent conversation that he still feels “like a young coach” at age 61. He helped build the culture in which Macdonald learned to excel at his craft. That’s not to dismiss the flaws highlighted by the Kansas City loss. Whatever arrangement Harbaugh maintains with Monken, he was unable to help shock the Ravens’ offense back into rhythm, to bring the team’s powerful ground game to bear against a vulnerable Chiefs defensive front. As good as he is at managing the Ravens’ big picture, Harbaugh’s best teams of the past five years, this one and 2019, proved curiously unable to assert their style in playoff losses. It’s hard to know what grand lesson to draw from this, especially for a coach whose teams perhaps overperformed in the playoffs early in his career. These disappointments cannot be ignored, but they should not prompt Bisciotti to burn his sturdy castle to the ground. That’s not the owner’s style, and there’s simply not much evidence that a Ravens roster talented enough to make another deep push in 2024 has tuned Harbaugh out. And, oh by the way, the move to replace Macdonald with Zach Orr — a young, sharp, personable coach who might have gone to work for his old boss in Seattle if Harbaugh had not promoted him — was pure Ravens. They applaud when head coaching chances arise for their assistants and often have a promising in-house candidate primed to step up. It’s a healthy ecosystem. Justin Madubuike, a free agent to be, could easily command a -0 million deal on the open market. (Jerry Jackson/Staff) Justin Madubuike is the player who must be kept DeCosta is in for a busy few months, with more than 20 players — including 2023 standouts Patrick Queen, Jadeveon Clowney, Kevin Zeitler, Kyle Van Noy and Geno Stone — headed for unrestricted free agency. How painful would it be for the Ravens to wave goodbye to Zeitler, still the team’s most dependable offensive lineman at age 33 and a deeply respected citizen of the locker room, or Queen, who made the Pro Bowl in his fourth season while wincing and limping through injuries? Very. But one impending free agent nudged ahead of the others on the indispensability power rankings, and that’s Madubuike, who just put together the best interior pass rushing season we’ve seen from a Raven. This franchise has lined up some magnificent behemoths on the interior, from Sam Adams and Tony Siragusa on the 2000 Super Bowl team to two-time All-Pro Haloti Ngata on Harbaugh’s early teams. None of them got to quarterbacks as persistently as Madubuike did in 2023, when he put himself in a rare class of interior linemen topped by the likes of Aaron Donald and Chris Jones. These guys are so rare that Madubuike could easily command a $100 million deal on the open market. No one has to tell the Ravens their fourth-year defensive tackle is special. They watched his incremental, dogged improvement over three seasons, even as he achieved big-time results only in flashes. They celebrated with him as all the pieces came together, as he produced multiple pressures in all but two games this season, with seven in the divisional round win over the Texans and six in the loss to the Chiefs. At age 26, Madubuike is just now entering his prime. Which is why DeCosta cannot let him walk, even if that means using the franchise tag while extension negotiations continue. We’ve watched the Ravens use this tool with foundational talents. They have not developed and kept a great pass rusher since Terrell Suggs, but Madubuike is that guy. 2023 NFL: Seattle Seahawks at Baltimore RavensKarl Merton Ferron/Baltimore SunRavens right guard Kevin Zeitler is set to become a free agent. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) It’s time for the Ravens to build their offensive line of the future DeCosta and Harbaugh have said repeatedly that no offensive tweaks amount to more than a hill of beans without a top offensive line as the foundation. The Ravens’ line held up its end of the bargain in 2023, even as the coaching staff had to help tackles Ronnie Stanley and Morgan Moses play through lingering injuries by rotating in Patrick Mekari and Daniel Faalele. But this was a veteran group. Stanley will be 30 and Moses 33 at the start of next season. Zeitler, whom the Ravens would have to re-sign, will be 34. The Ravens could go the experienced route again in 2024, figuring the short-term play is a smart one for a contender, but the odds of any of these guys being around in 2025 are probably 50-50 at best. DeCosta could also go the other way and move on from Moses and Zeitler, though they have given the Ravens very good work at a modest cost. Though the Ravens would eat almost $18 million in dead money if they cut Stanley before June 1, he’s also not the foundational piece he was four years ago. Center Tyler Linderbaum made the Pro Bowl in his second season and is the one guaranteed building block. His locker room sparring buddy, Mekari, is a capable tackle, even if the Ravens prefer him in a super-utility role. Faalele made strides in his second season, but it’s not clear he’s nimble enough as a pass blocker or powerful enough as a run blocker to start. John Simpson performed competently at left guard, but he’s still penalty-prone and headed for free agency regardless. DeCosta used a 2023 seventh-round pick on Andrew Vorhees and stashed him as an injury redshirt, but it would be a big ask to plug the powerful former USC star in as a day-one starter at guard. Sixth-round pick Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu gave little indication he was ready to help this season after he briefly appeared in line to start ahead of Simpson early in training camp. Though the stories are different for each player, the collective message is apparent: The Ravens don’t have all the linemen they will need to protect Jackson in 2024, much less 2025 and 2026. DeCosta has to draft blockers who are ready to play right away. There’s no clearer priority for this year’s draft. Ravens vs. BrownsKenneth K. Lam/Baltimore SunRoquan Smith, left, and Kyle Hamilton will keep the Ravens’ defense humming in 2024. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff) Roquan Smith and Kyle Hamilton will keep the defense humming In the final tally, we can’t put the Ravens’ 2023 defense ahead of the 2000 edition that carried the franchise to its first Super Bowl with Ray Lewis at his absolute zenith. But it belongs in that next tier with the 2006 crew, which allowed the fewest points and yards in the league while ranking second in sacks and takeaways and sending five players to the Pro Bowl. Like this year’s defense, that one did its part in an agonizing playoff defeat (the infamous divisional round game that Peyton Manning’s Indianapolis Colts won without scoring a touchdown). Anyhow, the Ravens came at opponents in so many ways, from Madubuike’s relentless inside pressure to Clowney’s still formidable power off the edge to a disciplined secondary that was rarely beaten over the top. Macdonald delighted in mixing and matching all the pieces at his disposal, blitzing cornerbacks while nose tackles dropped into coverage and looping defensive tackles behind oncoming inside linebackers at the line of scrimmage. They had an answer for everyone, even the great Mahomes after he carved them up on the first two drives of the AFC championship game. For all this group’s versatility and unselfishness, its breakout stars were clear. It’s blasphemy in Baltimore to compare a middle linebacker and a safety with Lewis and Ed Reed, but it’s difficult not to think in those terms with Smith and Hamilton. Smith has overtly taken up Lewis’ shield with his fiery pregame speeches — he “brought the Ray Lewis juice” back to Baltimore, in Jackson’s words — and sideline-to-sideline hunting of ball carriers. His play slipped a bit at the end of the year as he nursed a significant pectoral injury, but there’s no denying the Ravens’ defense took off when he arrived midway through the 2022 season and has never looked back. Even other star players defer to him as the alpha. Beckham said he’s never had a better teammate. Cornerback Marlon Humphrey said Smith kept his spirits up when he was trying to come back from a calf injury. Smith doesn’t mind a cliche or two about protecting his home when he’s hyping a matchup, but there’s an authenticity to his personal interactions that keeps any of it from feeling hokey. If Smith is the voice and soul of the defense, Hamilton is its most unique talent. He doesn’t much resemble Reed, who could change a game at any moment by out-thinking the quarterback. But his 6-foot-4, 220-pound frame makes him such an unusual weapon around the line of scrimmage, where he blitzes, dives in to drop ball carriers and glides laterally to defend screens with equal facility. All that and he can still cover Travis Kelce step for step. Hamilton was the best Raven on the field against the Chiefs, much as he had been in the team’s playoff loss to the Cincinnati Bengals a year earlier. It was not uncommon to hear smart evaluators call him the best safety in the sport in recent weeks. He’s whip-smart — remember, secondary coach Chris Hewitt said he never made the same mistake twice, even when he was a struggling rookie — and professional off the field. It will be an upset if Hamilton does not end up in the Ravens’ Ring of Honor. Orr won’t have all the same players in his first season as defensive coordinator, but he’ll be off to quite a start with this pair of All-Pros. View the full article

Ravens coach John Harbaugh is taking a gamble by naming Zach Orr his new defensive coordinator, but at least his record is more proven on that side of the ball than on offense. Orr, 31, was named the successor to Mike Macdonald, who reportedly signed a six-year contract to become head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. The decision to hire Orr was not surprising, especially since he became an in-house favorite once he rejoined the franchise as a coaching analyst in 2017. A former Ravens linebacker who retired because of a congenital spinal condition, Orr has spent the past two seasons as the team’s inside linebackers coach, where he has worked with Roquan Smith in the middle and Patrick Queen on the outside. They were the only teammates in the NFL to each have more than 130 tackles this season. Orr has a history of working well with players, and he was also well-liked by Kansas City Chiefs defensive line coach Joe Cullen, who named Orr the Jaguars’ outside linebackers coach when he was Jacksonville’s defensive coordinator in 2021. Cullen, 56, along with former Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, 64, are both more proven than Orr, who has to rebuild the league’s top defense. It’s a risk, especially with a coordinator so young and inexperienced, but Harbaugh has more credibility on defense. His list of former offensive coordinators is like a Who’s Who? The Ravens have had Cam Cameron (2008-12), Jim Caldwell (2013), Gary Kubiak (2014), Marc Trestman (2015-16), Marty Mornhinweg (2017-18), Greg Roman (2019-22) and currently Todd Monken. With the exceptions of Caldwell, Kubiak and the yet unproven Monken, all have been disappointments. Harbaugh’s slate is cleaner on the other side of the ball, having had Rex Ryan (2008), Greg Mattison (2009-10), Chuck Pagano (2011), Dean Pees (2012-17), Don “Wink” Martindale (2018-21) and Macdonald (2022-23) as defensive coordinators. All, except Mattison, were successful. Ryan, Pagano and Macdonald went on to become head coaches. Ryan had stints with the New York Jets and Bills, while Pagano led the Indianapolis Colts from 2012 to 2017. That’s a pretty good pedigree. Playing tough, physical defense has been the trademark of the franchise since the record-setting 2000 unit led the team to the Super Bowl title. Macdonald kept the tradition going in 2023 as the Ravens became the first team to lead the league in sacks (60), takeaways (31) and points allowed per game (16.5). The Ravens had seven Pro Bowl selections this past season, including Smith, Queen, safety Kyle Hamilton and defensive tackle Justin Madubuike. A major key for Macdonald-led defenses were the in-game adjustments he made, including in the first half in San Francisco and the second half against Jacksonville. Harbaugh’s background has probably been a major part of having defensive success. He spent eight seasons as Philadelphia’s special teams coach from 1998 to 2006 and one year as the Eagles’ defensive backs coach in 2007 before the Ravens hired him. He spent a lot of time learning the game under former Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, who died in 2009. Harbaugh knows about blitz packages, stunts and other schemes and philosophies. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | In Mike Macdonald, Seahawks hope they’ve found a disruptor who can again make them contenders Baltimore Ravens | Ravens TE Mark Andrews springs into action during medical emergency on flight Baltimore Ravens | Ravens promote Zach Orr to replace Mike Macdonald as defensive coordinator Baltimore Ravens | Mount St. Mary’s students meet ‘extraordinary’ and ‘down-to-earth’ Taylor Swift in Baltimore Baltimore Ravens | What Mike Macdonald’s departure means for the Ravens and their defense Orr has a tough act to follow. The Ravens have several top players who are set to become free agents in March, including Madubuike, Queen, outside linebackers Kyle Van Noy, Jadeveon Clowney and Malik Harrison, cornerbacks Arthur Maulet and Daryl Worley and defensive end Brent Urban. Just a few years removed from his playing career, Orr is part of the youth movement among NFL coaches. Owners want them young. These coaches can identify and communicate with the players. They can interact with them because they are in the same peer group. Orr is unique because he originally signed with the Ravens in 2014 as an undrafted rookie free agent from North Texas. He played in 46 career games over three seasons (2014-16), posting 163 tackles, one sack, eight tackles for loss, six passes defended, three interceptions, one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries. He was named second-team All-Pro in 2016. He knows about the struggles of getting into the NFL but has also coached Pro Bowl players such as Queen and Smith and assisted with outside linebackers such as former Ravens star Terrell Suggs and Jacksonville’s Josh Allen. Does that translate into victories? We’ll find out, but at least the Ravens have history on their side. View the full article

RENTON, Wash. — There wasn’t anything personal with John Schneider’s heavy rooting interest for the AFC championship game last weekend and wanting to see Kansas City, and not Baltimore, in the Super Bowl. The Seattle Seahawks general manager was simply thinking about the future of his organization and the desire to finally get an interview with Mike Macdonald. It was quite a first meeting. “I don’t know how to describe it other than it was a feeling, it’s a connection, there’s clarity, and then everything everybody said about his great reputation came to life very quickly,” Schneider said. “It was very evident.” Barely 48 hours after having that first interview on the East Coast, the duo sat together on a stage inside the Seahawks’ headquarters on Thursday after Macdonald was introduced as the ninth head coach in team history. He becomes the youngest head coach in the NFL at age 36, taking over a franchise that was led for the past 14 seasons by Pete Carroll — the oldest coach in the league when he was let go following the season. “When we started talking about vision and how we wanted to play and the direction that I felt like how I’d like to take the team and how that paralleled what they saw, it just became very clear that was the thing that you’re looking for,” Macdonald said. The decision to go with Macdonald is a decided departure from the Carroll regime — from being half of Carroll’s age to the casual hoodie under a sportscoat that Macdonald wore for his introduction. Although in Macdonald’s defense, he said he brought limited clothing options when he flew from the East Coast to Seattle late Tuesday night. Seahawks general manager John Schneider, left, poses with new coach Mike Macdonald on Thursday in Renton, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images) Schneider described his new coach as a “disruptor,” and said one of the guiding principles through the interview process was, “who is going to change the marketplace?” “I have a different personality and you’ll get to know me, but my plan is to be myself every day. And you’re just going to get me. It’s not a facade. There’s no alter agendas or anything like that,” Macdonald said. “But it’s all about what’s the best interest for the team, what’s the best interest for the players and how we can be successful.” Seattle’s search was extensive, partly because it was the first run by Schneider. Seattle did a second round of interviews with six candidates and while there was familiarity with some — most notably Dan Quinn — Schneider was intent the search wouldn’t be complete without final visits with Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and Macdonald. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Ravens TE Mark Andrews springs into action during medical emergency on flight Baltimore Ravens | Ravens promote Zach Orr to replace Mike Macdonald as defensive coordinator Baltimore Ravens | Mount St. Mary’s students meet ‘extraordinary’ and ‘down-to-earth’ Taylor Swift in Baltimore Baltimore Ravens | What Mike Macdonald’s departure means for the Ravens and their defense Baltimore Ravens | 25 Black Marylanders to Watch for 2024, plus 5 Living Legends Hence his desire to see a Kansas City-San Francisco matchup in Las Vegas so there wouldn’t be any need to wait until after the Super Bowl to move ahead with the coaching search. Macdonald called the decision to take the Seahawks job a “leap of faith,” leaving behind all he’s previously known living on the East Coast for the chance to be an NFL coach. There’s an amount of faith involved too on the Seahawks side of the equation. When Carroll took the job in January 2010, he was a known commodity coming off a major run of success in college as a head coach and had NFL head coaching experience previously. With Macdonald, there’s no such background like that. He impressively worked his way up through the Ravens organization, but has been a defensive coordinator in the NFL for only two years. And while those two years were overwhelmingly dominant — along with his one year as the defensive coordinator in college at Michigan — there’s still situations and experiences he has yet to face that he will as a head coach. Schneider and his staff seemed undeterred by the inexperience. “I talked to several people that interviewed him already and they’re like, ‘wait until you look in this guy’s eyes. He’s there. He’s present. He’s on it,’” Schneider said. “He was and everybody in that room felt it.” Macdonald wouldn’t commit to much on the second day of his employment with the Seahawks, other than he intends on calling the defense to start. Schemes and system, and the best use of players will all be determined over the coming weeks and months. “The spirit of how we play and the principles of how we play, what you’ve seen on the tape in Baltimore will be the same,” Macdonald said. “But I can’t guarantee you the schematics will be the same here because we’re not sure what we’re good at yet.” That statement shows Macdonald has research still to do in trying to find areas where Seattle can go from being a team hovering around .500 to one that is again contending for division titles and deep playoff runs. “It’s a young core and so we got a great opportunity to build these guys and build a really competitive team sooner than later,” Macdonald said. View the full article

Ravens tight end Mark Andrews was on his way from Baltimore to Phoenix on Thursday when he sprung into action. A woman on a Southwest Airlines flight bound for Andrews’ hometown was experiencing a medical emergency mid-flight when the Ravens star helped come to her rescue. According to Andrew Springs, a passenger on the flight, the doctor and nurse tending to the woman couldn’t find a strong pulse. Her blood pressure was extremely low, and she required oxygen to breathe. That’s when Andrews intervened. Andrews, 28, popped up from his aisle seat, Springs wrote on X (formerly Twitter), and asked if it could be her blood sugar, informing the doctor and nurse that he had a diabetic testing kit in his possession. Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 9, Andrews monitors his blood sugar regularly. He then instructed the doctor and nurse on how to use the kit, the woman’s heart rate was stabilized and paramedics met the plane when it landed, according to Springs, a Maryland native who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, and attended Sunday’s AFC championship game at M&T Bank Stadium. “Watching complete strangers spring into action to help save someone’s life is truly amazing,” wrote Springs, who also described the ordeal as “genuinely scary.” Andrews, a three-time Pro Bowl selection who’d just wrapped up his sixth season with the Ravens after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated Baltimore, 17-10, on Sunday, took little in the way of credit, however. “In addition to the fast-acting flight attendants, the real heroes are the nurse and doctor who also happened to be on the plane,” he said in a statement issued through the Ravens. “Thankfully they were able to provide thee woman the quick assistance she needed.” Andrews, who missed more than two months because of an ankle injury suffered during a Nov. 16 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, had 45 catches for 544 yards and six touchdowns this season. View the full article

The Ravens didn’t wait long to find their replacement for Mike Macdonald. Baltimore announced Thursday that Zach Orr will take over as defensive coordinator. The 31-year-old spent the past two seasons as the team’s inside linebackers coach after serving as the Jacksonville Jaguars’ outside linebackers coach in 2021. The news comes a day after the Seattle Seahawks announced that Macdonald would be its new head coach. Orr, meanwhile, is a familiar face, and like Macdonald, has been on the fast track in his coaching career. After spending three seasons as a Ravens linebacker, Orr retired in 2016 because of a congenital neck/spine condition. He moved into coaching in 2017 and began with Baltimore as a defensive coaching analyst and was promoted to coaching and personnel assistant before leaving for the Jaguars in 2021. “Zach is a homegrown Raven in every way,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said in a statement. “His energy, intelligence, work ethic and strong communication skills have been on display since the day he joined our organization as a player in 2014. “From making our team as an undrafted rookie, to becoming an All-Pro linebacker, then later transitioning to an assistant coach who helped mentor multiple Pro Bowl defenders, Zach has excelled at every level of his football journey. “He knows our players and understands our standard as well as anyone. I’m confident that he is prepared to take on the challenge of continuing to develop our players and scheme as our next defensive coordinator.” Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Mount St. Mary’s students meet ‘extraordinary’ and ‘down-to-earth’ Taylor Swift in Baltimore Baltimore Ravens | What Mike Macdonald’s departure means for the Ravens and their defense Baltimore Ravens | 25 Black Marylanders to Watch for 2024, plus 5 Living Legends Baltimore Ravens | Titans reportedly hiring Ravens defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson as defensive coordinator Baltimore Ravens | Chiefs’ Travis Kelce to Ravens kicker Justin Tucker: ‘I can one-up you every time’ This season under Orr, inside linebackers Patrick Queen and Roquan Smith had career years and became the only duo to post at least 130 tackles this season for a defense that led the league in sacks (60), takeaways (31) and points allowed per game (16.5). Smith was selected as an All-Pro for the second straight year as well as to the Pro Bowl, while Queen was selected to his first Pro Bowl this year. Over the past two seasons, the Ravens’ defense ranked in the top 10 in yards allowed per game (312.8), rushing yards allowed per game (100.8), passing yards allowed per game (212.1), points allowed per game (17.5), opponent third-down conversion percentage (35.7%), opponent red zone efficiency (43.8%) and takeaways (56). As a player, Orr signed with the Ravens as a 2014 undrafted rookie free agent from North Texas and played in 46 games over three seasons, racking up 163 tackles, one sack, eight tackles for loss, six passes defensed, three interceptions, one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries. A native of DeSoto, Texas, Orr’s father, Terry, was a tight end for the now-Washington Commanders (from 1986 to 1993), while his younger brother, Chris, is a former linebacker who played for the Carolina Panthers in 2020. His older brother, Terrance, is the offensive coordinator at Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas, and his younger brother, Nick, played college football at TCU and spent time with the Chicago Bears in 2018. This story might be updated. View the full article

For Mount St. Mary’s University students spending a Sunday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore as the Ravens take on an NFL opponent is all in a day’s work. Those studying sport management can take advantage of a behind-the-scenes look at how events come together at the stadium by volunteering to take on jobs like ticket scanning, ushering or checking visitor credentials, said Professor Sarah Zipp, director for the sport management, undergraduate and master’s programs at Mount St. Mary’s. The gig often starts in the morning — the college is in Emmitsburg, so students have to leave before 7 a.m. on a Sunday so they can make it to Baltimore before kick-off. Then they stand on their feet all day before returning home often hours after the game ends. It’s not exactly glamorous. Well, not until Taylor Swift shows up and asks to take a picture with you. Then it’s an “extraordinary” and “once-in-a-lifetime” experience, according to four Mount St. Mary’s students who met the pop icon on Sunday. “We were all just starstruck,’ said Patrick Rankin, 21, a rising senior and president of the sport management club at Mount St. Mary’s, who volunteered to help at the game along with about a dozen other students, including his friends Lyla Kline, Katie Farrell and Andrea Cabrera Vargas. Rankin was working an NFL football game at the stadium for the third time this season, he said. And while he and his friends were aware it was likely that Swift would attend the AFC championship game pitting the Ravens against the Kansas City Chiefs, their expectations of actually seeing the superstar were pretty low. “I thought that we would have a chance to possibly see Taylor on the big screen,” he said, referring to the jumbotrons at either end of the stadium. Farrell, 21 and a longtime Swift fan, said she thought it would be cool to “be in the same vicinity as Taylor Swift.” At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the students had finished scanning tickets at Gate A and were waiting for instructions on their next task. One of the security managers came over and told them they would be escorting family members of the Kansas City Chiefs down onto the field so that if the Chiefs won, the loved ones could celebrate with the players. The students checked family members’ credentials and then escorted them to an entrance to the field, where they all waited. Swift was not part of the group, at first. But a few minutes later, she came down on an elevator with her security team and the family of her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. “So the elevator opens and Taylor Swift is in the back,” said Cabrera Vargas, who was stationed with Kline near the elevators. “It felt like a movie scene. … She was very tall so we could see her directly. She had her red lipstick on and her bangs.” “I’m not a die hard fan,” Cabrera Vargas, 22, said. “But at that moment I was.” While Swift joined family and friends on the field for the celebration, the students stayed back in the basement area, waiting and watching. ‘We were all excited,” said Farrell, a senior majoring in human services. “I was tearing up because, you know, it’s like my dream to meet her. She’s the biggest pop star on the planet.” The students said they were told not to take any pictures and they followed that rule strictly. That is until Swift, on her way back up to the suite, noticed the students standing there — barely hanging onto their composure and some making the universal Swift fan heart symbol. Farrell said Swift “started waving to us! ‘Hi guys, how are you?'” before coming over to her group. “I think she could also tell that, like, we were big fans,” said Kline, 22, a senior fine arts major who missed out on seeing the sold-out Eras Tour in the U.S. last year and instead is headed to Europe to see the show. “I got tickets to see Swift’s concert in France this summer. … and I got a chance to tell her that. She was extremely excited … she like couldn’t believe it when I told her.” Swift then asked the four students if they wanted to take a picture with her. With shaking hands, Cabrera Vargas grabbed her phone and snapped a single picture of the group. “The angle of that picture — I always take pictures like that,” said Cabrera Vargas. “So my friends have told me that it was destined to happen since I was preparing for this moment. Because everyone said that the picture turned out great.” Still, Cabrera Vargas wasn’t certain she actually got the shot. So she checked her phone. “By the time I looked down and looked up she was already walking into the elevator,” said the senior business marketing major from Silver Spring. “It was very, very quick.” Even so, Cabrera Vargas is grateful she and her friends got to meet Swift. “It made me think that things that seem impossible are definitely possible.” While Zipp organizes the volunteer groups for game days and other events like the Preakness Stakes, she doesn’t always attend with her students. A lifelong Chiefs fan who hails from Kansas City, Zipp decided to watch Sunday’s game from home. “I am, yes, indeed, kicking myself a little bit for that.” View the full article

The Ravens lost the AFC championship, lost their director of player personnel and now lost their defensive coordinator. Bouncing back from a difficult defeat on the field is one thing. Replacing the people who helped construct one of the best rosters in the NFL and a historically great defense is another. Of course, having the staff of a successful team plundered is business as usual in the NFL. But what does losing Joe Hortiz, who was named general manager of the Los Angeles Chargers earlier this week, and Mike Macdonald, who takes over as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, mean for Baltimore? Consider: Hortiz had been with the Ravens since 1998, steadfastly working his way up through the organization, and Macdonald since 2014, save for the one season he spent in 2021 as Michigan’s defensive coordinator. Continuity is a hallmark of success in the NFL, and the Ravens, who were not caught off-guard by the departures, took a hit losing both, especially since it’s likely just the beginning. Never mind having a roster that is rife with unrestricted free agents, most of whom were key contributors to a team that had the league’s best regular-season record. Under Macdonald, Baltimore also had a dominant defense this season, becoming the first team in the modern era of the NFL to lead the league in sacks (60), takeaways (31) and points allowed per game (16.1). That just scratches the surface, too. The Ravens were also first in passing yards allowed per play, first in rushing touchdowns allowed per game and second in overall yards allowed per play. Over the past two seasons under Macdonald, Baltimore’s defense ranked in the top five in scoring, total yards, rushing yards, red zone touchdown rate and third-down conversion rate. It wasn’t just the gaudy numbers the Ravens put up, it was how they achieved them. Baltimore generated 143 quarterback pressures this season. That was just the 16th highest total in the league, but the Ravens also blitzed just 21.9% of the time, the eighth-lowest rate in the NFL. Only four teams — the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, New York Jets and Houston Texans — generated more pressures with a lower blitz rate, and three of them made the playoffs, including the 49ers, who are in the Super Bowl. Macdonald achieved that success by disguising his rushes, sometimes rushing linebackers and dropping defensive linemen into coverage and rushing a cornerback off the edge, among other things, as a way to create chaos and confusion without using more than four rushers. Karl Merton Ferron/The Baltimore SunRavens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, left, and coach John Harbaugh look on during a game in 2022. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Even in Sunday’s AFC title game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Macdonald’s brilliance eventually shined. After the Chiefs moved the ball at will in the first half, the Ravens mostly stonewalled them over the final 30 minutes, holding them scoreless and allowing just 98 yards on 30 plays. Then there’s the way that Macdonald relates to and empowers players, which presumably went a long way to him becoming the NFL’s youngest coach at age 36 in Seattle, an organization that Ravens outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney said was run similarly to Baltimore’s. “I’ve been saying it since I got here, Mike Macdonald is the smartest defensive coordinator I’ve ever had,” Clowney said. “He puts the guys in the right position. … He leaves nothing that we haven’t seen going into a game that we haven’t seen during the week.” It’s just one of many reasons his loss could be stinging for the organization. “I think he’s the best candidate out there right now,” Ravens inside linebacker Patrick Queen said Monday of Macdonald. “I don’t think anybody does it like him. Nobody cares like him. Nobody will do what he does. He will not rest until he has everything right. … The guy is all around just the best person I’ve ever been around, coach-wise, person-wise. He really cares and truly cares about the players, the people around the organization and the fans.” Added safety Kyle Hamilton on why he is fond of Macdonald’s scheme: “I like the duality of it. We have guys up front who allow us to do a bunch of stuff on the back end, in terms of doing their job correctly. Moving around, everybody doing different things, it doesn’t make us one-dimensional.” Who might the Ravens replace him with? Anthony Weaver was passed over in favor of Mike Macdonald in 2022, but he has experience in the role, having served as the Texans’ defensive coordinator in 2020. (Kevin Richardson/Staff) There are some internal possibilities, starting with associate head coach/defensive line coach Anthony Weaver. The 43-year-old was passed over in favor of Macdonald in 2022, but he has experience in the role, having served as the Texans’ defensive coordinator in 2020. He also brings familiarity, having spent four seasons in Baltimore as a player and three as a coach. Passing game coordinator Chris Hewitt could also be a possibility. He also brings a level of continuity, having worked his way up in the organization from assistant special teams coach to assistant secondary coach to defensive backs coach to pass defense coordinator to his current role. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Mount St. Mary’s students meet ‘extraordinary’ and ‘down-to-earth’ Taylor Swift in Baltimore Baltimore Ravens | 25 Black Marylanders to Watch for 2024, plus 5 Living Legends Baltimore Ravens | Titans reportedly hiring Ravens defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson as defensive coordinator Baltimore Ravens | Chiefs’ Travis Kelce to Ravens kicker Justin Tucker: ‘I can one-up you every time’ Baltimore Ravens | Seahawks hire Ravens DC Mike Macdonald as next head coach There’s also inside linebackers coach Zach Orr, who, like Macdonald once was, is on the fast track. Unlike Macdonald, he played in the NFL for three seasons with Baltimore before a spinal condition ended his career in 2016. The 31-year-old then spent four seasons with the Ravens as a coaching analyst, was the Jacksonville Jaguars’ outside linebackers coach for a year, then returned to Baltimore in 2022. Of course, he (or other staff members) also could follow Macdonald to Seattle to be the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator. The Ravens could also turn to someone outside the organization for the job. Former Jaguars defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell recently interviewed for the Buffalo Bills opening, but he also has connections to Baltimore, having played for the Ravens for a year in 1996 and been in the mix for the defensive coordinator job when the Ravens hired Macdonald. There’s also Chiefs defensive line coach Joe Cullen, who was previously the Ravens’ defensive line coach and is close to Harbaugh. Other names potentially in the mix include former Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier and Dallas Cowboys secondary coach and passing game coordinator Joe Whitt Jr., all of whom have some level of history with the Ravens. Whoever the Ravens hire, though, one thing seems certain: He’ll have a tough act to follow. View the full article

The Baltimore Sun celebrates Black History Month by honoring a wide range of notables who are working to improve the lives, health, education and experiences of all Maryland residents. The third annual 25 Black Marylanders to Watch includes activists and artists, CEOs and presidents, venture startups and adventurous restaurateurs. The names were chosen by The Sun’s editors and reporters, who cover these topics and communities and see the progress these honorees are making in their fields. In addition, we honor five Living Legends, who continue to give back while still leading in their own ways. Jump to a section: Activism | Arts | Business | Education | Food | Health | Legal | Politics | Religion | Sports | Living Legends Activism Annette March-Grier. Annette March-Grier President and co-founder, Roberta’s House Growing up on the second floor of a funeral parlor, Annette March-Grier has always been familiar with mourning. But it was when her mother died in 2006 that she realized supporting families through loss was her calling. “I often tell people: this is where my grief became my growth, where I turned my pain into passion,” March-Grier said. March-Grier is the president and co-founder of Roberta’s House, which provides grief education and support in the form of trauma-informed care in Baltimore City and Prince George’s County. In 2021, Roberta’s House opened a $14 million building on East North Avenue. March-Grier said about 95% of her clientele is African-American. She added that the lack of clinicians in Baltimore who specialize in grief and trauma and treat Black people highlights the need for the free, culturally sensitive services she provides that reach over 2,000 people annually. “No one should grieve alone,” March-Grier said. — Maya Lora Back to top Arts Jerry Jackson/Baltimore SunTerri Lee Freeman. Terri Lee Freeman Director, Reginald F. Lewis Museum Terri Lee Freeman has never met a mountain she couldn’t move. As the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture emerges from the pandemic, Freeman’s staff is beginning to inch the taxpayer-supported institution forward. Freeman is pleased that attendance at Maryland’s premiere Black museum crept up from 19,236 in-person and virtual visitors last year to 20,614 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, as visitors responded to an Afro-Futurist art exhibit and an interactive display inviting guests to imagine the future of Black Baltimore. There’s still a way to go before the Lewis hits the benchmark of 70,000 visitors annually, but Freeman is confident the goal is achievable. And though the museum just missed the state-mandated requirement to raise 50% of its annual budget last year, Freeman expects the Lewis to meet or surpass that target in 2023-24. In August, a new permanent installation exploring the history of lynching in Maryland will open. “I’m really pleased at how the community is engaging with our content,” Freeman said. — Mary Carole McCauley SHAN Wallace. SHAN Wallace Artist, photographer and muralist Much like the Orioles last year, artist SHAN Wallace had the city behind her for the unveiling of her new Orioles stadium mural in May. “I’ve received so much love and encouragement around it,” Wallace said. Over the summer, the East Baltimorean — whose work has appeared in the Baltimore Museum of Art and in exhibits across the country — concluded her stint as the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s inaugural artist-in-residence. She kicked off 2024 teaching a teen photography class at the Walters Art Museum; creating a large piece for D.C.’s National Museum of Women in the Arts, where she’ll be featured in this year’s “Women to Watch” exhibit; and pushing forward on “Glory Days,” a documentary that she said captures her experience as a partygoer in Baltimore’s LGBTQ+ nightlife scene. “The gay scene really raised me,” Wallace said. “I wouldn’t be who I am without gay nightlife in Baltimore, which at one point was just so vivid, and so active and so lively.” — Abigail Gruskin WordsmithJerry Jackson/Baltimore SunWordsmith. Wordsmith Songwriter, poet and BSO Partner Ask the hip-hop artist and activist Wordsmith (aka Anthony Parker) what he’s looking forward to in 2024, and he responds with a “to-do” list that would wear out a battalion. He is about to embark on a national tour as part of a musical trio performing “Concerts for the Human Family” based on themes of love, unity and reconciliation. He’ll spend March and April working with students at the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Penn North branch to rehearse and perform a play inspired by a museum exhibit celebrating Black female geniuses. He has a big Black History Month concert coming up in Montgomery County. Oh, and did we mention that the community action group he founded, Rise With a Purpose, serves lunch every Friday to homeless members of the Penn North neighborhood? “I don’t want people to remember me primarily as a musician,” Wordsmith said, “but as a good man who was reliable and who tried to lift his city up.” — Mary Carole McCauley Back to top Business P. David Bramble. P. David Bramble Managing partner, MCB Real Estate P. David Bramble had a negative view of developers until he became one himself. Now the West Baltimore native looks back with pride at local and national projects his MCB Real Estate has worked on since 2007. The Baltimore firm, founded with partner Peter Pinkard, has brought new homes and grocers to distressed areas and transformed contaminated sites. The MCB managing partner considers the reinvention of Baltimore’s Harborplace his most challenging project yet. MCB is seeking city approval to demolish retail pavilions it bought out of receivership for a mixed-use project set in parkland. Bramble, a lawyer who began rehabbing rowhouses after law school, is encouraged by support from both city residents and officials, despite some strong opposition to proposed apartments and offices. While MCB expects to pose a ballot question allowing the project, opponents are exploring one to block it. “Most people recognize that it’s time for really big, sweeping change, huge change, and this project can be the trajectory setter for that change.” — Lorraine Mirabella Delali Dzirasa. Delali Dzirasa CEO, Fearless Delali Dzirasa’s Baltimore software company was at a crossroads. Fearless had been building software with a social or civic impact since 2009, growing in 14 years from a basement startup to about 260 employees as it expanded from government to commercial contracts. “We looked at our mission and vision, to create a world where good software powers things that matter,” said Dzirasa. But some societal sectors seemed left out, he said, and it was time to “think a little bit bigger about how we actually drive this kind of impact around the world.” In August, Fearless launched a new business model to overcome blockers that can derail digital transformation, establishing two new divisions. Fearless Digital develops software, while Denver-based Fearless Guides, an acquisition, coaches leaders in developing people, operations and strategies. Fearless now aims to generate $1 billion in revenue, work in 10 countries and improve 100 million lives, by 2030. Dzirasa looks forward to “the blank canvas of how are we going to solve this? …I’ve always been driven by impact and how do we build things that help people.” — Lorraine Mirabella Maurissa Stone (LaKaye Mbah Photography/handout) Maurissa Stone Organizer, The Black Canni Maurissa Stone got into her line of work “as a result of a painful problem.” Stone, who has worked in community development, non-profit management and consulting, saw racism embedded in policies and practices throughout workplaces and organizations, meaning “your ability to survive as a Black person has less to do with what you’re bringing to the table and more to do with your ability to negotiate the culture.” Seeking solutions, she started Living Well Center, now at Baltimore Unity Hall on Eutaw Place, as director of innovation. It started in Remington in 2009 “to house a community that’s focused on addressing harm and healing for Black people.” In October, hoping to broaden access to Maryland’s legalized recreational cannabis industry and as a healing tool, she launched the Black Canni conference of pharmacists, growers, and business and legal experts. “There’s a stigma attached to cannabis. But cannabis today is not the scary dude on the corner anymore.” Stone, who offers DEI consulting through Iona Concepts, hopes to spread a Black Canni movement beyond Baltimore. “My work is rooted in liberation for Black people.” — Lorraine Mirabella Back to top Education Heidi M. Anderson. Heidi M. Anderson President, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore Heidi M. Anderson became president of the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, one of Maryland’s four historically Black colleges and universities, in 2018. Under her tenure, the university, located in Princess Anne, saw increased enrollment along with HBCU’s nationwide. Additionally, the school saw its first U.S. News & World Report ranking in 2023 after the publication listed it as one of the top HBCUs in the nation.. “One great year of rankings does not make a great university,” Anderson said in a news release. “But our sustained rise in the rankings indicates that we are on the right trajectory of performance. Our rise in the rankings is a reflection of the quality of our students and faculty and the commitment of our leadership team to sustained excellence.” Anderson did not make herself available for an interview. Anderson holds a Ph.D. in pharmacy administration and was previously the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Texas A&M University-Kingsville from 2015 to 2017. She served as the provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia from 2013 to 2015. — Caitlyn Freeman Katrina Caldwell. Katrina Caldwell Vice provost for diversity and inclusion, Johns Hopkins University Katrina Caldwell had a busy first month when she joined the Johns Hopkins University in 2020 as vice provost for diversity and inclusion. In addition to being in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, a swastika was found in a campus building. Caldwell has 30 years of experience leading colleges and universities’ diversity missions, primarily in Chicago. As DEI initiatives are scrutinized as a zero-sum game at a national level, Caldwell remains clear-eyed that diversity means everyone deserves to be in environments that support their goals, needs and what they need to feel safe to thrive. Higher education institutions, whether public or private, have a responsibility to change the conditions of their community, especially if that community is marginalized, Caldwell said. Community members, in conversations with Caldwell’s office, have said they want a stronger, mutually beneficial relationship with the university. “It’s not about just giving out money,” Caldwell said. “It really is about building relationships.” She’s leading Hopkins’ $6 million, five-year Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan, which evaluates the institution’s culture and advances future goals in areas like research, health equity and academics. Hopkins just completed a year-long campus-wide climate study that will be presented in February. — Lilly Price David Heiber. David Heiber Founder, Concentric Education Solutions Just 1% of all venture capital funding in 2022 went to Black-founded companies. This fall, David Heiber was in that 1%, having received a $5 million series A round from Maryland-based New Markets Venture Partners. Heiber’s education technology start-up, Concentric Education Solutions, is used by 200 schools in six states to conduct home visits that reconnect chronically absent students with school, in addition to tutoring and mentoring services. His employees visited 20,000 homes in Baltimore last year. “It’s an anomaly in and of itself,” Heiber said of the $5 million investment. “It gives us a tremendous visibility.” A former teacher and school administrator in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., he started his company in 2010. He plans to use the funding to hire chief executives and scale the company’s software infrastructure. Concentric created an re-engagement app to track why students miss school and to share that information with educators. The company also provides mental health counseling. — Lilly Price Back to top Food Jasmine Norton. Jasmine Norton Owner, The Urban Oyster In just seven years, Jasmine Norton has been through the highs and the lows of the restaurant industry. But 2024 is looking particularly bright. Norton, a self-taught chef, launched her seafood business, The Urban Oyster, in 2017 after leaving a career as a sales manager in New York City. She started out shucking oysters at farmers markets, festivals and brewery pop-ups before opening her first brick-and-mortar, in Locust Point, in 2019. The restaurant proved to be short-lived, shutting down in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Norton, however, was determined to make a comeback. She moved into the kitchen at the Hotel Revival in Mount Vernon, turning out chargrilled oysters and shrimp tacos for curbside pickup. Later, she launched a spinoff business, The Urban Burger Bar, inside of Hampden’s Whitehall Market. As a new year begins, she’s about to open a new dining room for The Urban Oyster. The restaurant will debut in February at 914 W. 36th St. It’s garnering buzz not only for the food — new dishes will include lobster cavatelli and oxtail lasagna — but also for its significance: Norton believes she is the first Black woman to own an oyster bar in Baltimore. “I’m a woman of my word,” she said recently, standing in front of the restaurant. “This is not only redemption for the brand, this is redemption for the community, for everyone who supports us. We’re bigger and better being here.” — Amanda Yeager Chris Simon. Chris Simon Founder, BLK Swan and BTST Services Baltimore foodies have likely heard of BLK Swan, the trendy Harbor East restaurant and nightlife spot that Chris Simon opened in 2021. What they may not know is that Simon has also found success in a very different field: mental health treatment. Simon, who has a master’s degree in social work from Morgan State University, founded BTST Services in 2008, inspired by a job working as a mentor in group homes. The company offers psychiatric rehabilitation, medication management and therapy to clients throughout Maryland. Sixteen years in, BTST has nearly 300 employees and offices in Baltimore, Lanham, Frederick and Hagerstown. Simon has partnered with celebrities like Taraji P. Henson and Charlamagne tha God to destigmatize mental health treatment. The company is poised to expand after a recent investment by Webster Equity Partners. Simon declined to share a dollar amount, but said he wants to offer services outside of Maryland next. He’s getting ready for growth on the restaurant front, as well. In February, he’ll open Prim & Proper, a new restaurant and social club in downtown Baltimore with chef Calvin Riley and partners Berry and Janell Clark of Papi Cuisine. Simon’s vision is for the restaurant to bring an upscale experience to the downtown dining scene. “I’m always working to fill the void,” he said. — Amanda Yeager Back to top Health Dr. Esa Davis. Dr. Esa Davis Associate vice president for community health, University of Maryland Baltimore and senior associate dean for population and community medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine Dr. Esa Davis is quick to say that she stands on the shoulders of giants – more specifically, the shoulders of her grandmother, who worked as a registered nurse in an intensive care unit in North Carolina for more than 40 years. Her grandmother, a bright and caring woman who ran her own hair salon when she wasn’t working the night shift, had always wanted to be a physician, Davis said. But as a child born in the segregated South, that wasn’t possible. She hoped one of her five children would go into medicine, but although all of them graduated from college and received master’s degrees, none of them chose that path. “She then tried to work on her grandchildren,” Davis said with a laugh. Inspired by her grandmother, Davis became a family physician, treating patients for more than 20 years. She has a particular passion for helping mothers and their babies, and is a widely published researcher funded by the National Institutes of Health. In May, the University of Maryland School of Medicine said that Davis would serve as the University of Maryland Baltimore’s inaugural associate vice president for community health and the senior associate dean for population and community medicine for the school of medicine. In these roles, Davis will work with the communities surrounding the schools to promote public health and will help direct the development of a population health strategy for the School of Medicine. — Angela Roberts Tiffany Tate. Tiffany Tate Executive director, Maryland Partnership for Prevention Tiffany Tate had every intention of returning to California when she came to Baltimore in the 1990s to get her master’s degree at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. And yet, nearly 30 years after she graduated, Tate still lives in the city and loves it as much as she did when she first learned about its many strengths and challenges as a student. Tate, executive director of the Maryland Partnership for Prevention — a nonprofit that aims to boost national and local immunization efforts — sees public health as a calling, rather than a career. She particularly believes in the power of technology to give health workers the freedom to more creatively and efficiently serve their community. Before the coronavirus pandemic began, Tate created software to help parents register their children for flu shot clinics at their local schools and prevent workers from being “buried under 10,000 pieces of paper.” That same software ultimately became key to Maryland’s pandemic response, when the state health department contracted with Tate’s organization to allow Marylanders to use it to schedule vaccine appointments and for health care providers to report immunization data to the state. The software, PrepMod, was also used in two dozen other jurisdictions and states around the country, and Tate’s nonprofit donated it to historically Black colleges and universities. “I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d be able to contribute to my field in this way,” Tate said. — Angela Roberts Dr. Michael Zollicoffer. Dr. Michael Zollicoffer Baltimore pediatrician Dr. Michael Zollicoffer, or Dr. Z, as he is better known to his patients, is proud to say that he followed in his father’s footsteps. In 1962, his father, Dr. Lawrence Zollicoffer, became the fourth African American to graduate from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. While the elder Zollicoffer had graduated from the historically Black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University at 17 years old, he waited for 10 years — until the University of North Carolina would admit him — to begin studying for his medical degree. The younger Zollicoffer also graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. And just as his father joined other Black physicians to open the Garwyn Medical Center in Baltimore, Zollicoffer opened his own medical practice almost 40 years ago. Throughout his career, Zollicoffer has mentored dozens of medical students, training them to champion the needs of their underserved patients. Zollicoffer is still known to make house calls to people who are too ill to come to his office or who don’t have transportation. “If the insurance is good or not, we’ll still see you,” he said, “and if you don’t have anything to pay, then you don’t pay.” — Angela Roberts Back to top Legal Maj. Gen. Janeen Birckhead. Maj. Gen. Janeen Birckhead Adjutant General, Maryland National Guard Where “opportunity meets preparation” is how Maj. Gen. Janeen Birckhead describes her 30-year military career. Before assuming her current post as Adjutant General of Maryland, the two-star Army general came from a family that prized community service and civic engagement. As a teenager growing up in Snow Hill, her mother, civil rights icon Fannie Ward Birckhead, urged her daughter to serve her community, from raising money via bikeathons, to volunteering as a candy striper at Peninsula Regional Hospital in Salisbury. Now, as the only Black woman leading a state military, Birckhead oversees 6,000 Guard members and civilian federal and state employees as they navigate everything from operating COVID testing sites, to preparing Marylanders for natural disasters and beefing up the state’s cybersecurity infrastructure. Service is a “part of who I am at the grassroots level,” she said. “I see that in this role I’m able to impact people’s lives for the better.” — Lia Russell Kerri-Ann Lawrence. Kerri-Ann Lawrence Lab Director, Forensic Services Section, Baltimore County Police Department Kerri-Ann Lawrence is a stickler for procedure with a strong sense of justice, useful qualities for the head of Baltimore County Police Department’s forensics lab. “When something is wrong, it just irks me so much,” Lawrence said. “I might not be a lawyer but I’m still fighting for others.” At 17, she immigrated to Baltimore from Jamaica with her family. After a semester at Towson University, she joined the U.S. Army, serving her first year in South Korea. Lawrence began her career in Baltimore County as a crime scene technician in 2004, earning master’s degrees in intelligence analysis from Johns Hopkins University and forensic science from National University. She became lab director in September. “I was filled with so much emotion: ‘Little me, all the way from Jamaica,’” she said. “A vet in the military, all of this and now I’m here.” — Cassidy Jensen Back to top Politics Angela Crenshaw. Angela Crenshaw Superintendent, Maryland Park Service Angela Crenshaw called her role as the first Black woman to lead Maryland’s Park Service “astounding” — but she also understands the responsibility of restructuring an agency that, in her words, has had “a trying year and a half, two years.” Crenshaw was named the Park Service’s acting superintendent following the arrest of former Gunpowder Falls manager Michael Browning on rape charges. He was convicted of a misdemeanor sex offense. Crenshaw was officially appointed superintendent of Maryland’s Park Service late last year. “What’s that saying – life comes at you fast?” she said. Crenshaw started at the Department of Natural Resources in 2008 in its Boating Services division and became a park ranger in 2013. As she moves the Park Service forward, Crenshaw wants to be available to her staff to provide a safe and welcoming environment for rangers and visitors, noting Maryland’s “history of segregation” on its public lands. “I know that sounds simple, but it hasn’t been in the past — the recent past and way back,” said Crenshaw. — Hannah Gaskill Darlene Hammond. Darlene Hammond Councilwoman, Federalsburg Darlene Hammond had become used to working behind the scenes for her community — whether she was mentoring young people, volunteering during elections or serving on the board of a Caroline County-created advisory group to improve services for residents. So when she stepped into the spotlight in her small town last summer by running and winning a seat on the Federalsburg town council, it was something of a new experience, and in more ways than one. Hammond, a former pharmacy technician, became one of the first two Black council members in Federalsburg’s 200-year history after an NAACP and ACLU-led lawsuit to create a more equitable voting system there. Hammond said she’s trying to use her new platform to inspire civic engagement for a community that still struggles to get involved, even after a historic victory. “Your vote is your voice, and it does matter,” Hammond said. “If you want change you have to show up. You have to sit in that seat. It can’t be an empty seat.” — Sam Janesch Brandy James. Brandy James Councilwoman, Federalsburg More than four months after a monumental victory that made her and a colleague the first two Black residents of Federalsburg to win seats on the town council in history, Brandy James said she’s still just getting started. “It does bring a different mindset to the council, a different perspective,” James said. A crisis intervention expert who conducts trainings for police agencies, James was elected to the four-person town council in Caroline County in September after an NCAA and ACLU-led federal lawsuit to create a more equitable voting system. The lawsuit followed a long line of similar cases over several decades, particularly across Maryland’s Eastern Shore, to align with the Voting Rights Act. James said while the council hasn’t made any major decisions in her short tenure so far, she’s looking forward to focusing on issues like affordable housing, developing programs for the elderly and bringing more daycare centers to the 2,800-person town. — Sam Janesch Back to top Religion Rev. Robert Turner. Rev. Robert Turner Senior pastor, Empowerment Temple AME Church Martin Luther King Day found the Rev. Robert Turner taking on the same challenge he’d tackled 15 times since taking over as senior pastor of Empowerment Temple AME Church in West Baltimore: walking the 42.9 miles from its campus on Primrose Avenue to the White House. The preacher with the booming voice chatted with passers-by and Instagram followers along the way. Thirteen hours later, he led a demonstration calling for the creation of a commission to explore how the government could make reparations for slavery. Each of his 16 walks has drawn attention to a civil or human rights issue, and for Turner, the soreness and shredded sneakers are well worth the trouble. “With Maryland’s large Black population, it should be a no-brainer that people in its largest city should lead on these issues,” he says. “Baltimore and America are still suffering from the issue of race.” Since taking over at Empowerment, the megachurch founded by the charismatic Rev. Dr. Jamaal H. Bryant in 2000, he has stabilized its once shaky financial picture, spearheaded a building renovation, started a monthly fresh-food giveaway program, created community prayer stations, founded a benevolence committee to help locals with bills, and even found time to write a book. “Creating a Culture of Repair,” which offers 120 ideas for helping to heal racial divides, is to be published in April. He’ll be making another walk to Washington in honor of Black History Month on Presidents’ Day (Feb. 19), where he again hopes to convince political leaders and others to see the urgency of the reparations issue. “We are growing for Christ,” he says. — Jonathan Pitts Back to top Sports LSU Lady Tigers forward Angel Reese gestures for a three point basket scored by a teammate3 against the Coppin State Eagles during a non conference homecoming game for the St. Frances Academy Panthers alum and NCAA basketball champion…(Karl Merton Ferron/Staff Photo) Angel Reese Power forward, LSU women’s basketball team As long as she’s playing for the Tigers, Angel Reese will be known there as “The Bayou Barbie.” But after leading the reigning NCAA champions to an 80-48 rout of Coppin State at the Eagles’ Physical Education Complex Arena on Dec. 20, the 6-foot-3 junior reminded media members that she was “The Baltimore Barbie” first. That loyalty has endeared the Randallstown native and St. Frances graduate to thousands of basketball fans in and around the Baltimore area. It wasn’t that long ago when Reese herself was enthralled by another Baltimore star, Angel McCoughtry. “Seeing what Angel did in college and the WNBA, winning Olympic gold medals with Team USA, that inspired me to dream big,” she said. “Being someone that this next generation of kids can latch onto and build their dreams around means a lot to me, and I take that responsibility seriously.” — Ed Lee Chad Steele. Chad Steele Senior vice president of communications, Baltimore Ravens Chad Steele and his family were at a hibachi restaurant in Hunt Valley in 2016 when a nearby table overheard him talking about leaving for the Super Bowl the next day. When Steele said he worked for the Ravens, the man’s young son from the other table started glowing over the jersey and autographed picture of wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. he’d received for Christmas. Seeing the reaction, Steele handed his phone to the boy: Smith was on the other end. “What did that cost the Ravens?” Steele says. As the son of an Army colonel, Steele moved 14 times growing up, so community has always been important. “Some of them I was accepted, some of them I wasn’t,” he says. Which is why he finds his role with the Ravens so rewarding. Whether it’s connecting the media to the team, or connecting with fans, relationships and having an impact is what matters most to the father of two. Said Steele: “That’s the best part.” — Brian Wacker Larry Stewart. Larry Stewart Coach, Coppin State men’s basketball team Reviving the Eagles basketball program wasn’t going to be simple — even for someone with the gravitas of Larry Stewart, a two-time Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Player of the Year and a five-year NBA veteran who is regarded as one of the greatest players in the school’s history. Still, Coppin State’s lackluster record thus far is a sobering reminder that expectations should be reasonable. Stewart remains committed to restoring the Eagles to their previous heights of four MEAC Tournament championships with the last occurring in 2008. “There’s a fiery side because I love the game of basketball and I want to win,” he said. “But I also understand that it’s about patience. I see the game a certain way, and I played the game a certain way. So if your team is not on that level, you have to have patience with them. Over time and with that patience will come the wins.” — Ed Lee Frances Tiafoe. Frances Tiafoe Professional tennis player When tennis phenom Frances Tiafoe reached the 2022 U.S. Open semifinals, he was the first American man to do so since 2006 — and the first Black American man in 50 years. The next year, “Big Foe,” currently ranked no. 14 in the world, reached a career-high ranking of no. 10. It wouldn’t have been possible if not for his early training at College Park’s Junior Tennis Champions Center, which the Hyattsville native credited as “the only reason why I am where I am in my career.” “It gave me 24/7 access to play the sport and made me fall in love with the game,” Tiafoe said in an email interview. He launched a charitable fund there last summer with the USTA foundation and was inducted into the USTA Mid-Atlantic Hall of Fame in December. With three ATP singles titles under his belt, his sights are set on breaking into the sport’s top five. “I want to keep making the DMV proud,” he said. — Abigail Gruskin Back to top Living Legends Alvin O. Gillard. Alvin O. Gillard Executive director, Maryland Commission on Civil Rights This month is Alvin O. Gillard’s last as executive director of the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, a position he’s held for nearly 10 years. The commission is the state’s anti-discrimination agency which investigates complaints in areas like employment, housing and public accommodations. Gillard manages the day-to-day operations and will retire at the end of February. “This agency is as relevant today as it was when it was created,” Gillard said. “We’d like to think the progress that we’ve made renders agencies like this obsolete. But that absolutely is not based in reality.” By Gillard’s own estimation, he has spent over 40 years promoting civil rights. And he doesn’t see a future where work like his won’t be needed. He encouraged Marylanders to not “rest on past gains” and to be proactive about attacks on voting rights, reproductive rights and affirmative action. “While we make progress, we are also fighting many of the same fights over and over again,” Gillard said. — Maya Lora Warren C. Hayman. Warren C. Hayman Former Morgan State University educator Warren C. Hayman has shaped generations of students through his decades of work in education. “My motivation for my work is helping students of color to succeed in school and in life at all levels,” Hayman said in an email. He worked for 42 years at Morgan State University as assistant dean of education until 2004. Then, he joined the school’s Urban Educational Leadership Program, which prepares future leaders, as a program coordinator until retiring in 2021. Along with his work at Morgan, Hayman was on the Baltimore County School Board for 10 years. He has been the president of the Dunbar High School advisory board for the last 10 years. Hayman said his greatest accomplishment was helping develop the Dunbar High School Health Partnership, which pairs Dunbar students with Johns Hopkins resources. The program has produced doctors, pharmacists, college professors and nurses, among other professions. — Tony Roberts Joanne Martin. Joanne Martin President and co-founder, The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum Forty years ago, Joanne Martin pawned her wedding ring to help establish the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum. Now, the celebrated gallery boasts 150 life-sized exhibits, draws 80,000 visitors annually and — thanks in part to a $2 million grant last year from the federal government — will complete an expansion at its site on North Avenue in 2026. Martin, who has two masters degrees and a Ph.D. in educational psychology, stays determined to build on the legacy of the museum set forth by her late husband, Elmer, who died in 2001. “I have commitment, passion and drive to tell our [African-American] story, uncompromisingly and unapologetically, and to light a spark in children and make them want to learn our past,” said Martin, a historian and author who lives in Gwynn Oak. “If I can make young people cry [at the starkest museum displays], then they have grabbed hold of history in an emotional way,” she said. “They must feel the importance of human life through the sacrifices [their forebears] have made, and how precious their own lives are now.” — Mike Klingaman Ernestine Shepherd. Ernestine Shepherd Bodybuilder and community health activist Decades ago, Ernestine Shepherd’s sister inspired the now 87-year-old to adopt a fitness regime many in their 20s would struggle to emulate. Today, Shepherd keeps a tribute to her sister in her bedroom: Christian Larson’s “The Optimist Creed,” which she reads every day. “When she died, she said to me, ‘I want you to keep doing what we have been doing and help as many people as we can to live a healthy, happy, positive, confident lifestyle,'” Shepherd said. Recognized twice as the oldest female bodybuilder in the world, Shepherd trains clients at YouFit gym in Randallstown and hosts a community walk in Druid Hill Park once a month. The lifelong Baltimorean also travels all over the country to speak on the importance of walking and encourages others to pursue healthier lifestyles through exercise. Living according to the creed, Shepherd strives to “give so much time to improving myself that I have no time whatsoever to criticize others.” — Maya Lora Kevin Richardson / Baltimore SunBernard C. ‘Jack’ Young. Bernard C. ‘Jack’ Young Former mayor of Baltimore Bernard C. “Jack” Young has been busy since leaving Baltimore City Hall in 2020. He alternates days as a “climate volunteer” at Dunbar High School and NAF Academy, and at his church when he isn’t spending time with his five grandchildren. On top of that, the longtime East Baltimore councilman is still who people turn to when they need help finding a job, paying water bills, or getting their trash picked up. “Just issues that make a person’s life better,” said Young. Young left office as acting mayor in December 2020 after shepherding the city through a ransomware attack, disgraced Mayor Catherine Pugh’s “Healthy Holly scandal,” and the pandemic. Observers applauded him for steering the city through some “troubled times,” stepping up after representing East Baltimore for nearly 25 years on the council. “Public service was my life,” Young said of his 25-year career in politics. “People knew to turn to me because I got stuff done.” — Lia Russell Back to top View the full article

Dennard Wilson’s stay in Baltimore turned out to be a short one. The Tennessee Titans are set to hire the Ravens’ defensive backs coach to be their defensive coordinator, according to multiple reports. Wilson, 41, spent just one season in Baltimore after being passed over for the Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive coordinator job last year. A former safety who was born in Upper Marlboro and starred at DeMatha Catholic High School, then Maryland, Wilson signed with Washington as an undrafted free agent in 2004 but suffered a career-ending knee injury in the preseason. He then turned to coaching, spending time with the St. Louis and Los Angeles Rams, New York Jets and then the Eagles. In his one season in Baltimore, the Ravens had one of the best secondaries in the league. This season, the Ravens allowed the fewest yards per pass (5.7) in the NFL, were seventh in completion rate allowed (61.3%) and sixth in passing yards allowed per game (193.1). Second-year safety Kyle Hamilton was also named an All-Pro and selected to the Pro Bowl, safety Geno Stone was second in the NFL in interceptions with seven, and cornerbacks Brandon Stephens and Ronald Darby emerged as dependable defenders on the outside after injuries hampered 2019 All-Pro Marlon Humphrey. Wilson would replace Shane Bowen, who is a holdover from coach Mike Vrbael’s staff. Vrabel was fired earlier this month after six seasons in Tennessee. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Chiefs’ Travis Kelce to Ravens kicker Justin Tucker: ‘I can one-up you every time’ Baltimore Ravens | Seahawks hire Ravens DC Mike Macdonald as next head coach Baltimore Ravens | Ravens 2024 offseason guide: Pressing questions, salary cap space, team needs and more Baltimore Ravens | Mike Preston’s final report card: Position-by-position grades for Ravens’ 2023 season | COMMENTARY Baltimore Ravens | The Ravens have the 30th pick in the 2024 NFL draft. Here are five potential targets. Titans general manager Ran Carthon also worked with Wilson when the two were with the Rams, where Carthon was director of player personnel and Wilson served as defensive quality control coach from 2012 to 2014 and defensive backs coach from 2015 to 2016. Tennessee had one of the league’s better run defenses this past season, but its pass defense was porous, ranking 29th in completion percentage allowed, 23rd in yards per pass and 18th in passing yards allowed per game. Wilson is the second Ravens coach to leave Baltimore this offseason after defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald was officially introduced as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks on Wednesday. View the full article

Ravens kicker Justin Tucker said Monday he’s “willing to let it all go” when it comes to the dustup with Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes before Sunday’s AFC championship game, but the Kansas City Chiefs stars apparently are not. Speaking Wednesday on his “New Heights” podcast, Kelce said Tucker violated an “unwritten rule” and “poked the bear” by stretching and placing his equipment where Mahomes decided to warm up in the end zone at M&T Bank Stadium. Kelce reacted by tossing Tucker’s helmet, footballs and kicking tee aside, which was caught on video and shared widely on social media. “If you want to be a [expletive] about it, you keep your helmet and your football and your [expletive] kicking tee right where the quarterbacks are warming up . … If you’re not going to pick that up, I’ll happily move that for you,” Kelce said on the podcast, which he hosts weekly with his brother and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce. Tucker said Monday, after the Ravens’ 17-10 loss, that he’s done the same thing during his 12-year career and “never really had a problem with anybody.” Several users on X, formerly Twitter, also shared photos of Tucker warming up in the same spot in the opposing team’s end zone before several games during his decorated 12-year career, in which he’s become the most accurate kicker in NFL history. However, Mahomes, the star quarterback and two-time league Most Valuable Player, also took issue with Tucker, who he thought was trying “to get under our skin.” “I’ve had seven years of doing that same warmup routine, and there’s only been like three occasions where there’s been a kicker that wasn’t … moving out of the way,” Mahomes told a Kansas City radio station Tuesday. “It was in Baltimore all three times.” Tucker said he “just thought it was all just some gamesmanship, all in good fun, but they seem to be taking it a little bit more seriously and I’m totally willing to let it all go.” Jason Kelce, a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and Super Bowl champion, agreed with his brother, saying Tucker is “a legendary kicker and he knows how to poke the buttons.” Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Titans reportedly hiring Ravens defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson as defensive coordinator Baltimore Ravens | Seahawks hire Ravens DC Mike Macdonald as next head coach Baltimore Ravens | Ravens 2024 offseason guide: Pressing questions, salary cap space, team needs and more Baltimore Ravens | Mike Preston’s final report card: Position-by-position grades for Ravens’ 2023 season | COMMENTARY Baltimore Ravens | The Ravens have the 30th pick in the 2024 NFL draft. Here are five potential targets. “He does this. And there’s other kickers that will do it, too, other punters. You know, it’s definitely unwritten that you stay out of the way of the other team when they’re trying to utilize the field. You find a way to work on the other side of the field when it makes sense. That’s part of the game within the game. You can tell he’s playing it in these clips, you can see his facial expressions — he knows what he’s doing.” Travis Kelce said Tucker was “poking the bear” and making the star tight end — and boyfriend of pop star Taylor Swift — look like the “bad guy.” “I mean, he was kind of winking at me, being a [expletive] about it, trying to get under the skin. I get it. But me and Pat? We’ve been having the same mentality for this game all week long, man. And it was a — you’ve got to go in there and have the right mindframe, right mindset, and we just weren’t in a joking mood. We were ready to get after it. “So, Justin, sorry if we took it to a level that you didn’t think it’d get to that way, but if you’re going to be a [expletive], I promise you I can one-up you every time, dude.” He did on Sunday, at least, as Kelce caught 11 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown as the Chiefs advanced to their fourth Super Bowl in the past five seasons. They’ll meet the San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. View the full article

After masterminding a historic defense for the Ravens in 2023, Mike Macdonald will get a shot to run his own team next season. The Seattle Seahawks are hiring Baltimore’s defensive coordinator to be their next coach, a source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Baltimore Sun. At 36 years old, he will be the NFL’s youngest head coach. NFL Network, which was first to report the news alongside ESPN, reported Macdonald has signed a six-year deal. He replaces Pete Carroll, 72, who stepped down earlier this month after 14 seasons in Seattle, where he led the Seahawks to their only Super Bowl title in 2013. This season, Seattle finished 9-8 and missed the playoffs. Macdonald, meanwhile, had become one of the hottest candidates in the league, interviewing this year with at least a half-dozen teams after helming a Baltimore defense that over the past two seasons ranked in the top five in scoring, total yards, rushing yards, red-zone touchdown rate and third-down conversion rate. Along the way, he also drew high praise for his intelligence, high-level defensive schemes that wreaked havoc for opposing offenses, as well as his ability to connect with players. This season, the Ravens became the first team in NFL history to have a defense that led the league in sacks (60), takeaways (31) and points allowed per game (16.1), despite fielding a unit that entered the year with questions about its secondary and defensive front and was without a bona fide pass rusher. They also ranked first in passing yards allowed per play, first in rushing touchdowns allowed per game, second in overall yards allowed per play and had several players who flourished in his scheme. Veteran outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy had a career-high nine sacks in the regular season, while fellow outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney also experienced a resurgence, matching his career high with 9 1/2 sacks. Defensive tackle Justin Madbuike, meanwhile, led all interior linemen with 13 sacks, while inside linebacker Roquan Smith led the team with 158 tackles and inside linebacker Patrick Queen surpassed his previous career high from a season ago with 133 tackles. Dubbed a “mad scientist” by Smith, Clowney, a 10-year NFL veteran, called Macdonald the smartest defensive coordinator he’s ever been around. He’s also been dubbed in league circles as a defensive-minded version of Sean McVay, the Los Angeles Rams coach who, at age 30, was the youngest NFL coach in history when they hired him in 2017. McVay then became the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl and be named NFL Coach of the Year when the Rams won the title in the 2021 season. Related Articles Baltimore Ravens | Ravens 2024 offseason guide: Pressing questions, salary cap space, team needs and more Baltimore Ravens | Mike Preston’s final report card: Position-by-position grades for Ravens’ 2023 season | COMMENTARY Baltimore Ravens | The Ravens have the 30th pick in the 2024 NFL draft. Here are five potential targets. Baltimore Ravens | Lamar Jackson, facing heavy criticism after Ravens loss, still has his teammates’ faith Baltimore Ravens | For Ravens, this season was supposed to be different. In the end, it wasn’t. Like McVay, Macdonald’s rise has been rapid. He first arrived in the Ravens’ Owings Mills offices in 2014 as a coaching intern after serving as a graduate assistant and safeties and defensive quality control coach at the University of Georgia, and his brilliance and tireless work ethic quickly paid off. Macdonald was promoted to a defensive assistant the following year then continued to work his way up the ranks, serving as defensive backs coach in 2017 before being promoted to linebackers coach the next year. When the University of Michigan had an opening for a defensive coordinator after its 2020 season, Harbaugh suggested Macdonald to his younger brother Jim. In his first and only season in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines went from ranking 84th in total defense the year before to 20th. Michigan also routed Ohio State and went on to the College Football Playoff, with three of its defensive players being selected in the first 45 picks of the NFL draft. Following the departure of defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale after Baltimore’s 2021 season, Harbaugh lured Macdonald back for the opening, and in his first season as the Ravens’ defensive coordinator, only four teams had more sacks. This season, Baltimore’s defense produced two All-Pros — Smith and safety Kyle Hamilton — and four Pro Bowl selections, including Queen and Madubuike. Said Clowney: “I’ve been saying it since I got here, Mike Macdonald is the smartest defensive coordinator I’ve ever had.” And now he’ll take his talents to Seattle. This story might be updated. View the full article