Baltimore Beatdown
Dean Pees will be sticking around in a senior advisory role on a part-time basis after helping turnaround the Ravens defense.
Moving two-time Pro Bowl safety Kyle Hamilton into a more traditional role and replacing high-priced veteran Marcus Williams in the starting lineup with former undrafted free agent Ar’Darius Washington helped turn the Baltimore Ravens pass defense from a glaring liability through the first 10 games of the regular season to an overwhelming strength down the stretch and in the playoffs.
However, that personnel change wasn’t the only impactful move the team made to help turn around their defense during the season. Head coach John Harbaugh brought back longtime defensive assistant and experienced play-caller, Dean Pees, in a senior advisory role to act as a soundboard for first-year defensive coordinator Zach Orr to learn from and bounce ideas off of and the two banded together to help lead the unit into stability and greater prosperity.
“[I’m] just appreciative of Dean and the job he did,” Harbaugh said Wednesday at the end of season press conference. “I know Zach feels the same way [and] defensive coaches. He helped us. It was a good thing to have Dean come back and experience it. We connected this to our roots in terms of the structure of the defense, because Dean was a big part of that from 2012 and 2011 [to] 2010 even, as a linebacker coach, and then on through as a coordinator through [2017]. It was kind of good to get reconnected to a lot of that, and he was a good eye and ear for the players and coaches.”
Pees was the Ravens defensive coordinator when they won the second Super Bowl title in franchise history in 2012 and called plays for Orr during the entirety of his playing career before a congenital neck condition forced him to retire following the 2016 season. When asked if Pees would be staying on the staff for the 2025 season, Harbaugh that it was a “little more nuanced thing” and that he is open to the possibility.
“He’s interested in continuing in some sort of a role,” Harbaugh said. “I do think he’s at that stage of his life where it’s probably not going to be that full-time thing like he did the second half of the season. Mel, his wife, is amazing. She was here [and] she’d come by and be in the cafeteria and be around, and it was great to have her around. They’re at that time of their life where they have some different priorities with their grandkids and stuff. But he is going to be still connected. He’ll still have a role as a consultant for us. That’s my plan, [and] that’s his plan, and that’s great.”
As much credit as Pees got for the part he played in the Ravens’ defensive turnaround from a schematic standpoint. Harbaugh reiterated the fact that it took and always takes collaborative “team effort” to accomplish such impressive feats. He also expressed...
