Nobody’s head rolled as it turned out after a disappointing 9-7 season in Baltimore. HC John Harbaugh has one more year on his contract. DC Dean Pees retired, but could have stayed had he wanted to.
Ravens fans are griping about “more of the same old movie” after missing the playoffs 4 out of the last 5 years. So much for continuity, hehe.
Harbaugh just promoted his linebackers coach Don “Wink” Martindale to be his next defensive coordinator after the retirement of Dean Pees.
“‘Wink’ has earned the promotion to defensive coordinator,” Harbaugh stated. “His aggressive mentality will serve to take our defense to new levels.
“He is obviously respected by players, many of whom have already benefited from his direct coaching at the linebacker position. He knows the ins and outs of what we have been about on defense and has been an important contributor to our success on that side of the ball. This is an exciting day for Wink and his family, and also one for the Ravens.”
Martindale served as the defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos in 2010 under Josh McDaniels. The Broncos gave up the most yards (390.8) and points (29.4) per game in the NFL that year.
The 2018 campaign will mark Martindale’s 14th season coaching in the NFL. He broke in with the Oakland Raiders (2004-08).
Previously, he coached 11 seasons in the collegiate ranks, including three years at the University of Cincinnati alongside Harbaugh, who was then an assistant head coach. Martindale also helped Harbaugh’s father, Jack, win a Division I FCS National Championship at Western Kentucky in 2002.
Harbaugh also announced two more coaching promotions Tuesday. Mike Macdonald will replace Martindale as the team’s linebackers coach and Sterling Lucas will be a defensive quality control coach.
Other in-house coaching announcements:
Greg Roman is staying in Baltimore. Roman was not under contract for the 2018 season, which meant he could have left for another opportunity elsewhere after a successful year helping to turn around the Ravens rushing attack.
Harbaugh gave Roman a promotion to assistant head coach.
Roman will still be a massive part of engineering the run game and will still work with the tight ends, who he coached directly last season.
Under Roman, the Ravens’ ground game made vast improvements this year, going from 28th in the league (91.4 yards per game) last season to 11th (116.0).
Roman brought a different barrage of schemes that transitioned from the stretch-zone mold the Ravens employed under Gary Kubiak and in the two years following. Ravens players liked the way Roman created mismatches with a variety of different runs, often using his tight ends.
Harbaugh also brought in an old friend, James Urban, to become the Ravens QB coach.
Urban spent the past seven seasons as the Cincinnati Bengals’ wide receivers coach, working with A.J. Green and others, and was previously a quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles for two years.
Previous to his time in Cincinnati, Urban spent seven seasons climbing the ladder in Philadelphia, where he worked with Harbaugh for five years and under OC Marty Mornhinweg for four, including two as his quarterbacks coach.
Urban will have the job of helping quarterback Joe Flacco have a resurgent 2018 season in what will be his 11th year under center in the NFL.
Flacco set career-lows in passing yards (3,141), touchdowns (18) and quarterback rating (80.4) since his rookie season (with a full 16-game slate). A large reason for that was a tough first half in which Flacco was still dealing with the effects of a back injury that knocked him out for training camp and the preseason.
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