The Baltimore Ravens saw a good amount of their coaching staff leave for other opportunities during the 2021 offseason. Most notably, former passing game coordinator David Culley became the head coach of the Houston Texans, while former defensive line coach Joe Cullen is now the defensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, one very underrated loss for Baltimore was seeing former linebackers coach Mike Macdonald be hired away to become the defensive coordinator at the University of Michigan.
At the 2021 Big 10 Media Days, Michigan Head Coach Jim Harbaugh was asked a question about Macdonald and what he would bring to the Wolverine defense. Harbaugh said that he got a ringing endorsement from his brother John, who is the head coach of the Ravens. According to Jim, John even went as far as to say that Macdonald “probably” would have been the next defensive coordinator in Baltimore after Don Martindale.
“I hadn’t been around Mike a lot, except the times I had gone to Baltimore and visited there and talked some football. My brother John was like, Yeah, this is the guy I would hire and probably would be our next defensive coordinator here in Baltimore after Wink.”
Jim took John’s advice to heart and thought it was “awesome” that his brother would recommend someone so important to his staff.
“This came from John and I even asked him, I said, John, I mean, that’s pretty awesome that you would recommend somebody you think so highly of that’s on your staff. And he said, Well, I really love Michigan football and I really love you, so I want to see you both be successful.”
John’s recommendation seems to be paying off so far, as Jim had glowing things to say about his new defensive coordinator.
“Tremendous at coaching pretty much all the positions on defense and really good communicator, really good installer, really good on the field, really good at identifying traits in players and where they can be plugged into and then moved around.”
Macdonald is expected to do big things at Michigan. The endorsement that John gave his brother likely made the hire easier for Jim. If the opportunity presented itself, Macdonald could have done great things with the Ravens in succession of Martindale, whenever that time would have come. However, he’ll look to take the Wolverine defense to the next level and help another Harbaugh brother have success on the football field.
Aside from being Baltimore’s linebackers coach, Macdonald also spent time as the team’s secondary coach in 2017 and as defensive assistant in both 2015 and 2016. He was hired by the Ravens as an intern in 2014.
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