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 that because of our quarterback, because our quarterback is capable of living in all of those different offensive worlds, and that’s tough for a defense to defend. How we can continue to evolve that so we can operate it more efficiently, more effectively, more quickly with less verbiage and all those kinds of things, where everybody is even more and more on the same page, that’s what we’ll be striving for.”
The addition of five-time Pro Bowl running back Derrick Henry worked out better than anyone could’ve imagined. He rushed for just under 2,000 yards in the regular season, broke several franchise records, and, most importantly, took a lot of pressure and attention off of Jackson in the run game.
While it is often hard to imagine an offense that was so historically prolific being even more productive the following season, the Ravens are more than capable of achieving such a lofty feat because of all the integral pieces they’re returning, can reasonably bring back and could potentially add in between free agency and the draft.
A few positions they could either upgrade, reinforce and/or run back offensively include offensive guard, wide receiver and offensive tackle. Starting left guard Patrick Mekari is slated to be a free agent while Daniel Faalele is heading into the final year of his rookie deal this fall, Tylan Wallace deserves to be brought back but shouldn’t prevent the Ravens from adding another explosive young wideout and they should have a contingency at left tackle just in case Stanley isn’t re-signed or franchise tagged.
As far as defense goes, the Ravens firmly believe in never having enough quality cornerbacks and pass rushers so they’ll likely look to add those two spots the most. However, safety should be a priority as well so that two-time Pro Bowler Kyle Hamilton isn’t pigeonholed into playing predominantly in the traditional role he had to transition to help stabilize a coverage unit that was a glaring liability to start the season.
An underrated area of improvement for the Ravens where they lacked consistent ball security, playmaking ability and decision-making in 2024 was at punt returner. The signing of former All Pro Donte Harty last offseason didn’t work out due to injury and while they got some solid returns from Desmond King, Wallace and Steven Sims, they’d like more from that spot because of the potential edge it could give them in the playoffs.
“From a personnel standpoint, we’d like to get settled there,” Harbaugh said. “Kickoff return is different than punt return. [General manager] Eric [DeCosta] and I talk about this a lot. You can find kickoff returners – running backs seem to be very valuable in this new return game thing, and we have really good running backs. We have three guys who are really good at it, as running backs, so I’m pretty excited about those guys going forward. Punt return is a whole different thing.”
Ending the Kansas City Chiefs’ reign of supremacy in the AFC and making it to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2012 is going to require that the Ravens be well-rounded and disciplined in all three phases of the game. Having a lot of carryover from one year to the next like they are slated to have in 2025 can go a long way when it comes to their ability to run it back with the ultimate goal of a championship on the line.