Source: Ravens making OC change to prevent another team from poaching from staff
- Published
The Baltimore Ravens are making offensive staff changes, which were first reported by The Athleticon Friday. Pro Football Weekly has learned that some of those changes were preventative in nature — that the Ravens feared having one of their key members poached by another team.
The Ravens promoted Greg Roman from QB coach to offensive coordinator after teams had sniffed around him for a similar role elsewhere, PFW learned. Former offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg has been offered another position on the team’s staff, which is believed to be something commensurate with an assistant head coaching title.
Although that title possibly would come with a similar salary, or perhaps even more, it would mean that Mornhinweg would be watching someone else call plays.
Mornhinweg helped shape the complete redesign of the Ravens’ offense following the hip injury to starter Joe Flacco and with the switch to rookie quarterback Lamar Jackson. Baltimore finished 6-1 down the stretch, won the AFC North title and watched as the rival Steelers were knocked out of the playoffs. Of course, the offense stalled in the playoff loss to the Chargers, a team the Ravens had beaten on the road two weeks prior.
Still, considering the way the Ravens’ offense finished each of the past two seasons after slow starts, it’s a bit surprising that head coach John Harbaugh is making this move. Roman is now Harbaugh’s sixth offensive coordinator since 2012.
A source told PFW that Harbaugh wanted an even higher rate of runs with Jackson at the helm. From Week 11 through Week 17, with Jackson starting, the Ravens rushed for 1,607 yards on 316 attempts. During that time, they dropped back to pass only 180 times — a nearly 64-36 run-pass ratio. Roman was considered the main run-game architect, but Mornhinweg had called the plays the past two seasons.
Roman previously was an offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers from 2011 to 2014, and later with the Buffalo Bills in 2015 and 2016. His official title with the Ravens had been TE coach.
It’s not known whether Mornhinweg and some other offensive coaches — all of whom have a year left on their respective deals — will be back with the team, although all had standing offers to stay. It’s believed that the staff will not remain completely intact as some assistants consider taking other jobs elsewhere.
Harbaugh wanted to keep Roman and Mornhinweg, which was the impetus for this move. But it’s still possible he could lose one of them.
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