Ravens Insider: Ravens owner ‘very intrigued’ by top coach candidates from previous cycles

ExtremeRavens · 2026-01-13T23:14:04Z

Don’t be surprised if the Ravens’ next coach is someone who’s been fired from the top job before.

At the team’s headquarters in Owings Mills on Tuesday, owner Steve Bisciotti said that Baltimore would strongly consider someone who’s already been a head coach and didn’t get a fair shake the first time.

“I am very intrigued by coaches that were the hottest offensive and defensive coordinators — five, six, seven years ago in their cycles — and got jobs and went to teams that were noncompetitive and didn’t have a quarterback,” Bisciotti said.

The Ravens, who last week fired coach John Harbaugh after 18 seasons with the organization, have already interviewed Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, former Browns coach Kevin Stefanski and Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph — all former head coaches who were eventually fired.

There’s another common thread: all but Nagy finished their previous stops with losing records.

Baltimore is also expected to interview former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel and former Jets coach Robert Saleh. McDaniel went 35-33 across four seasons in Miami. Saleh had a 20-36 mark in three-plus years and never had a winning season.

But the losing records — and just one playoff win among the seven — aren’t mistaken for a lack of viable options to Bisciotti.

“If our final candidate is an ex-coach who has a losing record, you all are going to have to understand that we are going to be able to judge that failure with his circumstances and marry that up and not disqualify them,” he said.

“You have to remember that they were the hottest coaches in their cycle, and they got jobs, and they got tough jobs, and I don’t think we have a tough job.”

The Ravens have already requested to or have interviewed more coaches than they did the last time they sought a new coach in 2008. With 15 currently in that group, Baltimore has more than doubled the total of six from Bisciotti’s first search.

Baltimore, as Bisciotti put it, should be the best job available. The Ravens have a franchise quarterback in Lamar Jackson under contract for at least two more seasons. With Jackson, Baltimore has reached the playoffs in six of the past eight seasons, earning the AFC’s No. 1 seed twice.

The Ravens’ opening is so appealing, Bisciotti said, that college coaches have reached out to the organization about the vacancy — even though the team has not contacted them.

“I don’t know how hard that would be,” Bisciotti said about a college coach’s transition to the NFL. “But if I was a college coach dealing with that portal and the NIL, I’d be at my doorstep. I can’t imagine what these guys are going through.”

Retread hires have been successful for organizations in the past.

Bill Belichick went 37-45 in five seasons with Cleveland before winning six Super Bowl titles in New England. Pete Carroll was fired from both the Patriots and the Jets before winning a Super Bowl in Seattle and transforming the culture. Tony Dungy, who criticized the move to fire Harbaugh, won two playoff games with Tampa Bay in six years before leading Peyton Manning and the Colts to a Super Bowl victory.

“If I hire an offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator, none of y’all can say anything about his poor record the first time he was a head coach,” Bisciotti said. “It would be very easy for me to try and avoid those ex-head coaches, because they have losing records. But I’m telling you, we are keen to their circumstances, and we won’t let their first shot at a job influence us negatively.”

Some candidates would be first-time head coaches in Baltimore if hired, including Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver and Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak — both of whom have ties to the organization. Weaver served as a Ravens defensive assistant from 2021 to 2023 and played in Baltimore under former coach Brian Billick, while Kubiak’s father, Gary, was the team’s offensive coordinator during the 2014 season.

That familiarity, however, can complicate how candidates are evaluated, Bisciotti said, because it can give those with inside knowledge of the organization an edge in interviews.

Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti reacts to news of Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin stepping down during a press conference at the Under Armour Performance Center. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff)

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Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti reacts to news of Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin stepping down during a press conference at the Under Armour Performance Center. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff)

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“You’re kind of handicapping fairly a person that has seen us from afar, but has no intimate knowledge of us,” Bisciotti said. “Eric’s pretty smart and capable of handicapping that knowledge and taking it out of it when he’s looking at them as equals.”

Bisciotti also made clear that Baltimore is not prioritizing one side of the ball over the other in its search. Instead, he framed the decision around assembling the right staff — not just choosing a coach.

DeCosta said that the hiring process will continue with additional first-round interviews over the next several days before the Ravens narrow the field to a small group of finalists. Those candidates would then be brought in for full-day, in-person sessions across the organization, a process DeCosta likened to a “three-week NFL draft.”

“It’s not just the head coach,” the general manager said. “It’s, who [are their] coordinators? What are they going to look like? Offensive line coach, secondary coach. [We need to] find the right combination of coaches that make us better.”

In a search that Bisciotti described as deliberate and wide-ranging, Baltimore is betting that the right hire will matter more than the fastest one. They are in no rush to make a decision.

Have a news tip? Contact Michael Howes at mhowes@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/Mikephowes.

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Ravens Insider: Ravens owner ‘very intrigued’ by top coach candidates from previous cycles

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