The Baltimore Ravens made an early coaching shakeup early in the 2022 offseason, as they parted ways with defensive coordinator Don Martindale and hired former University of Michigan defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald as his replacement. Many are excited about the hire of Macdonald, and his first comments as Baltimore’s defensive coordinator showed why.
During his introductory press conference on Wednesday, Macdonald was asked about his time at Michigan and how he grew over the course of his year there. The defensive coordinator went into plenty of detail, talking about how he operated at the college level.
“You have a vision of how you would like it to operate. So, I think the beginning part of that big learning segment was, ‘Hey, let’s get everybody on the same page. How do you do that?’ It really just came through a bunch of conversations of how I envisioned things going, how the players envisioned things going, what the coaches thought [and] putting together a staff. So, it was great to get that experience. Just trying to create alignment within the organization, that’s not something you necessarily do as a position coach. You only have eight guys in your room at any given time. Now, you’re looking at a room full of 50 guys and saying, ‘OK, how do we get this thing to come together?’ So, that was … And credit to the players there, too. The players at Michigan are awesome guys. I just absolutely loved coaching them, and they did everything we asked.”
Macdonald spent seven years with the Ravens before leaving for Michigan. He’s had success under both Harbaugh brothers, but now returns to Baltimore to take over a defensive unit that has a storied past but struggled in certain areas during the 2021 season.