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John Harbaugh summed up his plan for coaching staff changes during the Baltimore Ravens’ bye week.
It took under-fire head coach John Harbaugh just one sentence to sum up his plan regarding changes to his coaching staff during the bye week, after the Baltimore Ravens slipped to a fourth-straight defeat and fifth out of six games into the 2025 NFL season.
Harbaugh saw his banged-up team lose 17-3 to the Los Angeles Rams at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday, October 12, but he won’t make any changes to the staff because he doesn’t “think there’s any obvious move there that would make us better,” per The Baltimore Banner’s Jonas Shaffer.
John Harbaugh again said he doesn’t expect to make any changes to the Ravens’ coaching staff during the bye.
“I don’t think there’s any obvious move there that would make us better.”
That’s a curious statement when the Ravens have problems in all three phases. The offense has sunk without so much as a whimper while franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson nurses a hamstring injury, and defensive coordinator Zach Orr’s unit continues to be among the most generous in football.
Harbaugh was forced to publicly defend Orr’s position after Week 5’s 44-10 demolition at the hands of the Houston Texans. Similar questions will increase in both number and volume, but Orr still has the backing of a senior player.
Offensive coordinator Todd Monken might not be able to say the same after he’s been unable to scheme creative ways to still move the ball without Jackson. Monken lacked the right calls even when Pro Bowl backup Tyler Huntley, who was smartly elevated from the practice squad before the visit of the Rams, replaced erratic Cooper Rush.
It’ll take more than Jackson’s anticipated return to restore some of the goodwill Monken had enjoyed.
John Harbaugh Feeling the Pressure
Harbaugh hasn’t experienced what he’s going through now often during his 18 years in charge. He’s beset by questions about the quality of his coaching and the soundness of his decisions, specifically those made to choose the coaches around him.
An increased level of pressure might be alien to Harbaugh, but it’s inevitable after the Super Bowl winner has developed a damaging habit of not winning when it’s expected. The difference now is this isn’t any playoff curse, but misery in the regular season.
What’s worse is much of the misery has been self-inflicted in ways that don’t reflect well on Harbaugh and his staff. Wasting double-digit leads has been a trend for too long, just like failures to protect the football, but the Ravens are also finding new ways to lose, and Harbaugh’s coordinators seem to be out of answers.
Ravens’ Coordinators in Focus for the Wrong Reasons
The most common way the Ravens are losing games this season involves a once-proud defense folding too easily on a weekly basis. The Rams weren’t anywhere close to their best, but they still amassed 255 yards and scored a touchdown through the air and on the ground.
Orr has long looked out of his depth as a play-caller, but the 33-year-old retains the support of a player who’s seen the lot during his pro career. Nose tackle John Jenkins is a 13-year veteran of eight teams who’s “seen a lot of football,” and believes “Zach is a good DC,” per Ravens.com (h/t Ravens Vault co-host Bobby Trosset).
13-year NFL vet John Jenkins on Zach Orr:
“I’ve seen a lot of football. … Zach is a good DC. I’ve been around a lot. I stand behind him 110 percent.”
via @Ravens
While Orr is winning over experienced figures in the locker room, Monken may need to do some damage control after his short-yardage calls failed miserably against the Rams. He should start by explaining why he kept the ball out of two-time NFL rushing champion Derrick Henry’s hands at the one-yard line.
Henry didn’t hear his number called until tight end Mark Andrews had been stuffed on two “tush push” style QB sneaks with the game tied at 3-3 in the second quarter. Henry had been working the Rams over, averaging 5.1 yards per carry en route to 122 rushing yards, but he was dropped for a loss on fourth down.
Harbaugh was content to blame a lack of push up front for the failures, per Shaffer, but Monken’s decision to take the ball away from Henry was bizarre.
John Harbaugh on the Ravens’ tush push failures: “It should get pushed in on the first one. And if not the first one, it should get pushed in on the second one.”
Harbaugh said the Ravens failed there because they didn’t get any push up front.
It’s one more reason why Harbaugh and his staff must use the bye as a time for some humbling self-assessment. They haven’t been good enough at putting the healthy players available in positions to succeed.
Problems at the coaching level have only been magnified by high-profile injury-enforced absences. Those same issues can still cost the Ravens when their lineup is back on a par with the league’s most-talented teams.
James Dudko covers the New York Giants, Washington Commanders, New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens for Heavy.com. He has covered the NFL and world soccer since 2011, with bylines at FanSided, Prime Time Sports Talk and Bleacher Report before joining Heavy in 2021. More about James Dudko
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