The Ravens personnel department and veteran players – many of them still on the roster - deserve significant blame for a brutal 2025 season. No one should ever forget that or let history be rewritten otherwise.

A team doesn’t fall as far from expectations (as overinflated as the media and sportsbooks were, frankly, about the overall roster) as Baltimore did without it being a collective effort. And the default in those situations, especially with an owner who is nearing the end and closer to cashing out who didn’t want to put in the time and effort required to recast the totality of his football operations is to whack the coaches and keep the rest.

Which brought John Harbugh’s relatively unprecedented run to an end in Baltimore. And it was, absolutely, time for him to go.

As the Ravens Organized Team Activity sessions played out, and more players were probed about moving on from that 2025 disaster, it seemed they, too, felt like change was necessary. They sent out some verbal clues to such, and were inferring that the coaches certainly were a part of the problem here. And boy did they brim with excitement about the different voices, and younger faces from a staff with a much heavier college bent than Harbaugh’s latter staffs.

It was a common theme throughout each week of media sessions. Quite a bit was heavily inferred, if not outright said, if you knew what to listen for:

Zay Flowers

Flowers flourished in Todd Monken’s offense, but plenty was written last season about some of the younger players on the side of the ball feeling disconnected from the staff as the unit regressed almost across the board in every phase of play. Not sure if you could call any of these zingers, but the zeal with which he kept calling 30-year Declan Doyle, who has never called a play in this league, a “genius,”’ was noteworthy and unmistakable.

“He has stuff that I've never seen – plays and routes and stuff to help you get open,” Flowers said, oh-so-emphatically. “He teaches you in a certain way where you remember the plays where there's not too much stress on you.” 

Not exactly shots fired, or anything like that, but my ears perked up the moment I heard it. Certainly over the top for OTAs and a guy who has never actually done the job.

As for that age dynamic …

“Yes, it's easier to relate to him,” Flowers said, “because we can just talk. We can talk like we are friends and what he expects of me and what he expects of us. So, it's easier to communicate in that way. Instead of having somebody just demanding something, demanding something; he is going to let you know what he expects of you.”

Doyle better be real careful about being perceived as too much their equal, and the “friendzone” is no place for a coach to be, especially one this green. And is you thought there may have been a chasm between Todd Monken and some of his young stars, well ...

Kyle Hamilton

Hamilton is very careful and thoughtful about what he says. He’s incredibly smart and has done an exceptional job communicating about this coaching transition. Teaching at a granular level matters so much, even at this level, and I found it quite revealing when he was asked about new secondary coach Mike Mickens, who has no NFL pedigree but worked with Hamilton at Notre Dame, where his mind went.

“It's his first time in the league, so he kind of has a little taste of what it's like,” Hamilton said, “but very technique driven. I feel like that's more-rare than people would think in the league — to have a DB coach that really hones in on technique rather than just being an install king. Making sure guys out there aren't just doing the right thing, but doing it the correct way. So, I think he's really good at that.

Install King! I like it!

And considering that Hamilton has only been in the league four years, and the first two were spend with genius coordinator Mike Macdonald, this timeline kinda speaks for itself.

Roquan Smith

Nobody had to wear the failures of Zach Orr’s two years at the helm as a coordinator more than Roquan Smith, who was the embodiment of it. His play fell into steep decline while a former Ravens linebacker called the plays and leaned into too much man coverage and had to blitz too much in critical spots because they had to pass rushers.

Smith took ownership for an ugly 2025 and both rookie head coach Jesse Minter and experienced coordinator Anthony Weaver have vowed that Smith will be back as an elite linebacker in 2026. Smith wears the dot to communicate with coaches on play calls, and the Ravens defense consistently looked lost and disconnected the last two years.

And when Smith was asked about what excites him more about Minter’s defense, it took about two seconds before “communication” came out of his mouth.

"I just think there's a method behind the madness,” Smith said, “and there is clear, clean communication on what's expected in each and every thing. That always allows each and every player to play to the best of their abilities and play fast as well, where you're not hesitating or anything like that."

Hmm.

Smith did divulge a little more about what went wrong under old management and what must change now, well, sure sounded like coaches/coaching was at the forefront of his mind.

”You definitely understand what happened and what wasn't to the standard,” Smith said. “But you can't bring all of last year's woes with you – how things were run here last year, how things were in the building, how questions were asked, how the defense was run. You can't take that because life is not about the past, in my opinion. There were good things and there were bad things. You learn from the bad things, but you're not taking those things into the next year.”

 Team president Sashi Brown and general manager Eric DeCosta could not have gone in a more diametrically different direction with this coaching staff. Time will tell how much was truly on that old staff. I have a feeling I know what a lot of the players truly think.

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