Football is war. And Baltimore Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh wants lines of battle.
The Baltimore Ravens are going to war. Okay, maybe not war, but they’re preparing as such.
This offseason, the team added wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to an already loaded receiving unit. The team sports Pro Bowl wide receiver Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman who is coming off a career year. Their tight end unit sports two of the NFL’s best in Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely. They have stars in the backfield with Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and even All-Pro fullback Patrick Ricard gets into the mix. And those are just the starters.
On Training Camp Report Day, Andrews said with such a talented group, they have to be “an unselfish group.” And for Harbaugh, the selflessness of his receiving talent is an advantage comparable to the Civil War.
“Wouldn’t it be an advantage if the defense doesn’t have a really good idea of where the ball is going at any given play at any given time, or if you can react to the defense after the ball is snapped,” Harbaugh said. “It’s kind of like if you think about warfare, like maybe the Civil War. You’ve got all these lines of battle, maybe we can attack them where their defense isn’t displayed quite as strongly, and we try to do that with every aspect of our defense, personnel being one of those things. If you’ve got guys all across the front that can attack effectively, that’s a good thing.”
So while the Ravens aren’t going to war, the strategy and scheming from Harbaugh to Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken in strategizing battle plans for the 2025 season is taking a focused, militant scope.