Baltimore Beatdown
After retaining both playcallers and with almost all of their key pieces under contract, Baltimore is primed to make another run in 2025.
Continuity is crucial to maintaining a high level of success and continued evolution in sports, especially in the NFL. After finishing with the best record in the league and the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs in 2023, the Baltimore Ravens coaching staff was heavily poached from last offseason on defense in particular and they lost some key contributors and starters on that side of the ball in free agency as well.
This led to a major regression in the unit’s performance through the first 10 weeks of the 2024 season until personnel and schematic adjustments were made that led to an incredible turnaround. As a result, the Ravens had the stingiest defense in the league from Week 11 through the first two rounds of the postseason.
With the news of the reported extension between the team and offensive coordinator Todd Monken on an extension, after he interviewed but was passed over for multiple head coach vacancies for the second year in a row, the Ravens will be returning their entire coaching staff. It will mark their first time bringing back both playcallers since the 2021 season when they retained Greg Roman and Don ‘Wink’ Martindale.
When the Ravens weren’t actively beating themselves with penalties and turnovers this past season, they were the hardest team to beat by far. With only less than a handful of starters and key contributors slated to become unrestricted free agents, they shouldn’t have a hard time running it back on the personnel front as well as long as two-time Pro Bowl franchise left tackle Ronnie Stanley and First Team All Pro fullback Patrick Ricard is at the top of their priority list.
The retention of Monken in particular could prove to be just as, if not even more impact than any outside addition the Ravens could bring in as a free agent or through the NFL Draft. He was the orchestrator of the most potent and most balanced offense in the league in 2024 which made history as the first to finish the season with 3,000-plus rushing and 4,000-plus passing. Under his guidance, franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson was named league MVP for the second time in his career in their first year together and is expected to receive the honor for a third time and second year in a row after he had an even more sensational season in year two.
“I really am excited about 3.0, that iteration of this offense going forward, because we found ourselves through the last offseason and into this season, in terms of how we want to organize the offense and tie it all together and use the different platforms that you can use,” head coach John Harbaugh said in the end of season press conference. “We’re kind of in every world offensively, and it’s not easy to do that, but we can do...
