Until the Ravens rent their subsequent offensive coordinator, the id of mentioned coach — they usually’re linked to virtually a dozen names — would be the major query on followers’ minds.
As quickly as Greg Roman’s successor is launched, nevertheless, the narrative will pivot to the messy scenario he’ll inherit. It begins with the uncertainty round quarterback Lamar Jackson’s future in Baltimore, however the reality is that even with Jackson on the wheel, the Ravens’ offense was careening towards a precipice within the second half of the 2022 season. The new coordinator will likely be charged with reviving a passing assault quick on playmakers whereas holding onto the efficient components of Roman’s floor assault.
This will likely be a difficult line to stroll, even for a pointy, completed coach. With that in thoughts, listed here are essentially the most urgent questions the Ravens’ new offensive coordinator will face.
Will Lamar Jackson be the quarterback, and if he’s not, ought to the offense be tailor-made to a unique talent set?
As quickly because the Ravens introduced their parting of how with Roman, coach John Harbaugh confronted an apparent query: Would one of the best coordinator candidates even need the job with none assure that Jackson would be the group’s quarterback in 2023?
Harbaugh and common supervisor Eric DeCosta sought to dispel this line of inquiry at their season-ending information convention, saying they anticipate Jackson to be their offensive centerpiece for years to come back. Harbaugh, in flip, referred to as the open coordinator place “one of the top football coaching jobs in the world.”
It’s true that loads of coaches would relish the possibility to design an offense round Jackson’s uncommon skills and would possibly understand a chance to earn substantial credit score for serving to the Ravens climb to a different stage within the postseason. But with that upside comes important potential draw back: Jackson could possibly be traded to a different metropolis or he might maintain out over the identical summer time months when his teammates will likely be studying a brand new playbook. The Ravens’ subsequent offensive sport planner might want to have a wholesome urge for food for danger, as a result of there’s no proof this case will likely be resolved instantly.
The Ravens have made each determination over the past 4 years with an eye fixed on optimizing their group for Jackson’s abilities. Harbaugh elevated Roman within the first place as a result of he believed nobody could be higher suited to construct a “revolutionary” assault across the best operating quarterback ever to hit the NFL. Every personnel determination, each schematic tweak that adopted was designed to intensify this quest. It was a smashing success in Year 1; returns diminished from there.
It’s now not unique to vogue an NFL offense round a quarterback’s mobility. With the Philadelphia Eagles and Jalen Hurts sure for the Super Bowl, we’re watching it work on the best doable stage. Even in that context, nevertheless, the Ravens have gone to extremes in counting on Jackson’s operating capacity as their ace within the gap. Will a brand new coordinator search extra steadiness? That is perhaps Jackson’s desire; he has emphasised time and again that he thrived in a pro-style offense with coach Bobby Petrino at Louisville. And if he’s not the person on the helm, the offense might want to perform and not using a once-in-a-generation runner taking snaps.
It’s tough to ascertain the Ravens returning to the straight drop-back days of Joe Flacco given all they’ve constructed round Jackson. But with a lot uncertainty round their most necessary participant, it’s equally tough to guess precisely how the trail forward would possibly look.
Who will catch the passes?
When a brand new coordinator arrives to tune up the Ravens’ passing assault, he’ll first must assess his instruments in a large receiver group that “took on some water” in DeCosta’s phrases.
That’s placing it kindly. Demarcus Robinson led all Ravens broad receivers with 48 catches and 458 receiving yards in 2022, astonishingly low totals for a contemporary NFL offense. There had been weeks within the second half of the season when the place hardly appeared related to Roman’s sport plans, dominated by heavy personnel. Injuries to 2021 first-round choose Rashod Bateman and to Devin Duvernay, who caught three landing passes within the first three weeks, accelerated this development. But the Ravens entered the season with a deficit of expertise on the place after they traded 2019 first-round choose Marquise Brown, and the veterans they added in desperation — DeSean Jackson, Sammy Watkins — did little to vary this. It was a well-known, dispiriting story for Ravens followers who really feel they’ll by no means have good issues at one of many sport’s most enjoyable positions.
Will Roman’s alternative demand a larger funding, whether or not within the type of one other first-round choose or a commerce for a longtime star akin to DeAndre Hopkins? The Ravens used the twenty fifth general choose on Brown in 2019 and the twenty seventh general choose on Bateman two years later, so it’s not as if DeCosta has ignored their holes on the broad receiver. But Brown grew to become dissatisfied after three years in Roman’s offense, and accidents have derailed each of Bateman’s seasons in Baltimore. Will DeCosta wager on a greater end result with the twenty second general choose this 12 months?
The Ravens have one of many league’s greatest tight ends in Mark Andrews and two promising younger enhances in Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar. Bateman has loads of expertise; he simply wants to remain on the sector. Duvernay is perhaps miscast as a No. 2 broad receiver, however he did flash when the Ravens’ offense was using excessive within the early weeks of the season. The cabinet shouldn’t be naked, however the subsequent coordinator might want to determine what number of items should be added and how one can squeeze extra out of what’s there.
Will a brand new coordinator imply an entire new workers?
When Mike Macdonald changed Don “Wink” Martindale as defensive coordinator presently final 12 months, he didn’t make wholesale modifications. Two coaches who interviewed for the place, Anthony Weaver and Chris Hewitt, caught round on his workers. This was not shocking on condition that Macdonald was just one 12 months faraway from working for the Ravens and that Harbaugh didn’t need a full overhaul of his protection.
With the Ravens casting a wider web on this search and the potential for extra sweeping playbook reform, we might additionally see a larger workers shake-up on the opposite facet of the rent.
Tight ends coach George Godsey and quarterbacks coach James Urban have interviewed for the job. Wide receivers coach Tee Martin has additionally been talked about as a candidate. Would they want to stick round if a brand new boss arrives from exterior the group? Would that new boss want to wash home and produce alongside just a few trusted lieutenants?
The staffing course of would possibly give us an early trace of how a lot Harbaugh desires to start out over on offense. He has mentioned he desires to take care of an analogous id and maintain on to a few of Roman’s ideas. But the proof will likely be in what he does.
Will J.Ok. Dobbins develop into extra of a featured operating again?
Dobbins wished to hold the Ravens on his sculpted shoulders of their playoff matchup towards the Cincinnati Bengals. He felt it was the pure fruits of a season by which he got here again from two knee surgical procedures to develop into one of many league’s best runners. So Dobbins couldn’t include his frustration after he watched quarterback Tyler Huntley fumble on the purpose line on the sport’s essential play. He believed he ought to have had the ball at that second.
“I’m tired of it,” he mentioned within the dropping locker room. “I’m a playmaker. I’m a guy that my teammates feed off me when I’m on the field. I should be out there all the time.”
Harbaugh mentioned he and Dobbins talked the morning after the sport and had been on the identical web page. But Roman’s successor will inherent a gifted, bold, doubtlessly outspoken runner who expects to be nice within the final 12 months of his rookie contract with the Ravens.
Does that imply Dobbins will take the lion’s share of carries for the primary time in his professional profession? Roman believed in a balanced backfield, with Gus Edwards buying and selling off duties with Dobbins and Jackson looming because the group’s precise high menace. A brand new coordinator would additionally presumably need Edwards and Jackson closely concerned if each are round in 2023 (Edwards, the group’s strongest short-yardage menace, is beneath contract for subsequent season). Such multipronged assaults are extra prevalent than workhorse operating backs within the fashionable NFL. But sustaining such steadiness whereas additionally giving Dobbins the work he has earned will likely be a weekly problem.
Can the Ravens restore a way of function to their passing sport?
Roman’s sharpest critics at all times appeared perplexed by his intentions for the group’s aerial assault. They harped not simply on poor execution or a scarcity of playmaking expertise however on what they described because the incoherence of his designs.
“It’s still so frustrating to watch,” ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky wrote on Twitter in November, accompanied by a video clip by which he dissected a failed third-down play towards the Jacksonville Jaguars. He referred to it as one in all too many “wasted reps” in Roman’s offense.
The Ravens’ declining passing numbers, after a sizzling begin, lined up with such assessments. Their offense was by no means constructed on an incredible quantity of move makes an attempt, however over Roman’s 4 seasons, it fell from one of the vital environment friendly play-action assaults within the league to one of many least environment friendly.
Even if their id, constructed round Jackson and the elite operating manufacturing he ensures, stays comparable, a brand new coordinator must discover methods to make the passing sport work extra in live performance with what they do properly. Teams such because the Eagles, San Francisco 49ers and sure, the 2019 Ravens beneath Roman, have confirmed that is doable.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com