ExtremeRavens Posted September 2 Posted September 2 At a microscopic level, the lines look like routes in the Ravens’ offense. Zoom out, and the creases and furrows around coordinator Todd Monken’s eyes shape a lifetime spent in the game. It’s all the 59-year old has ever known. “When I look at a football field, I think about it’s been my life,” he told The Baltimore Sun. “I’ve been part of a team since I’ve been 5 years old.” That’s not all Monken sees as he gazes toward a 120-yard long, 53 1/3-yard wide patch of grass. “I see opportunity,” he continues. “I see grass. I see space. But more importantly I dream of great players, because that makes [crap] a lot more fun.” To play in Monken’s scheme is as much that as it has been staggeringly historic. In 2024, Baltimore became the first team in NFL history to top 4,000 yards passing and 3,000 rushing in the same season. It led the league in yards per game (424.9) and was tops in offensive defense-adjusted value over average (35.1%), per FTN Fantasy. Quarterback Lamar Jackson had career highs in passing yards (4,172) and touchdown passes (41), while running back Derrick Henry boasted a career best in yards per carry (5.9) en route to the second-most rushing yards (1,921) in the NFL. The year before, in Monken’s first year as the architect of the Ravens’ offense, Jackson won his second NFL Most Valuable Player Award and Baltimore reached the AFC championship game. All of which begs the question, what will the third act provide? As Jackson is fond of saying, the “sky’s the limit” when it comes to the offense. Monken also believes his quarterback is just “scratching the surface.” “It started [to jell] last year after the first year in the offseason with [Harbaugh] saying here’s what we did, here’s what I think is us,” Monken told The Sun. “Where do we take this to 2.0 and where do we take for this Lamar?” Jackson’s view? Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken takes questions after an August practice. Monken enters his third year leading the Ravens' historic offense. (Kim Hairston/Staff) “I’m pretty much knowing what coach thinks,” he said of Monken. “He wants me to do certain things the way he has designed them. We just have to follow suit, and it is pretty good. Just piggyback off of each other.” That, along with more nuanced changes, could lead to even greater heights for the offense. Zay Flowers, fresh off being the organization’s first wide receiver selected to a Pro Bowl after 1,059 yards and four receiving touchdowns on 74 catches, got faster this offseason running hills in a weighted vest all summer. Henry is entering his second season in the scheme and that much “more comfortable” with the offense. The Ravens also added three-time All-Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who, even at age 33 remains a crafty route runner with elite hands, particularly in contested catch situations. And the offensive line is ostensibly intact from a year ago with left tackle Ronnie Stanley and center Tyler Linderbaum coming off Pro Bowl seasons. With everything built around Jackson, Monken says, the quarterback has been more vocal and intentional as well. It hasn’t gone unnoticed by others, too. “It’s the attention to detail and getting things exactly the way he wants it,” quarterbacks coach Tee Martin said. “Whether it’s a route, whether it’s a protection, he checks to something [and thinks], ‘Could I have checked to something different?’ The conversation has more depth, and it’s good to see that. It makes for great conversations in our meetings, and it makes for growth in our system, because sometimes he suggests things that, as coaches, we see it one way, but he’s the quarterback out there playing, and so we listen to him. “Todd has done a great job of taking his suggestions and implementing them into our system, whether it’s a play or just a way to tweak a play.” Monken also a lot of hands to feed, though. Add in receiver Rashod Bateman, who is coming off career highs in touchdowns (nine) and receiving yards (756), tight ends Mark Andrews and the ascending Isaiah Likely and he is suddenly faced with a math problem. There is only one football to go around. “That’s hard,” Monken said of balancing the distribution. “But it’s a great problem to have. “I think our players have done a great job of understanding this — that they’re going to get theirs over the course of a season. But there’s no guarantee that’s going to happen every week … especially at the skill spots.” Ravens wide receiver Rashod Bateman runs during camp. Bateman is one of several wide receivers expected to contribute in 2025. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) From where he sits — literally, up in the booth during games, and figuratively as one of the sport’s more creative minds — it doesn’t matter who touches the ball. “I like to think I’m relatively flexible,” he says. “I’m not so stuck where we don’t do that. No, no. No, no, no. I’ll do anything to score points. I’ll do anything to get in the damn end zone. “Now, we better be damn efficient at it and we better be damn good at it, but to say that’s not us? No that is us, whatever it takes to score.” Leaning on long experience helps. Monken comes from a family of coaches. His late father, Bob, who died last August after a long bout with Parkinson’s, coached for 30 years at Lake Park High in Illinois, where as a young boy Todd would saddle up to watch his father’s practices. His cousin, Jeff, is the coach at Army. His brothers and uncles are also coaches. “We talk a lot of football,” Jeff Monken told The Sun. “Probably our whole life our conversations have been about football.” That included when the two were drawing up plays in sandlot games during their formative days in Illinois, where they grew up about 30 minutes apart. “He’s got a great mind in terms of developing scheme and calling the right plays at the right time recognizing what can and will be successful,” Jeff continued, adding that he has even borrowed from his older cousin when designing his plays. Jeff also knows another side of Todd, one that has come in handy in Baltimore on more than a few occasions. “He’s very funny and very witty,” Jeff says. “He’s always got a one-liner or a comeback.” It’s that ability as a play caller coupled with an engaging personality in front of the camera and behind closed doors that has made him a coaching candidate each of the past two years. Monken has interviewed with the Bears, Jaguars and Raiders in that span. His only head coaching job, however, remains Southern Mississippi from 2013 to 2015. With coaches skewing younger seemingly every year, Monken’s odds of landing a head coaching job perhaps grow longer by the season, but he’s not worried about that now. A rematch against the Bills, who knocked the Ravens out of the playoffs in January, awaits Sunday night at Highmark Stadium. That’s where opportunity begins again, for Baltimore and for Monken. “We’ve got these core principles of what wins,” he said. “Not turning it over, being explosive, being physical up front, scoring touchdowns in the red zone, conversions on third and fourth downs. If you follow these things you’re going to win and you’re going to be really good on offense. You put your brain power into these areas that win. “Well, at least you try to, but sometimes you [mess] it up.” Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1. Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, right, speaks with wide receiver Anthony Miller, left, during training camp. Monken helped the Ravens lead the NFL in yards per game in 2024. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff) View the full article Quote
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