Baltimore Ravens continue their elite coaching staff

The Baltimore Ravens barely snuck into the playoffs this season after missing out on the postseason entirely in their Super Bowl follow-up campaign in 2013, but the Ravens made their two playoff games count. Their blowout victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers featured some impressive execution on both sides of the ball, and they could have easily upset the New England Patriots after a stellar performance on offense on the road.

Despite losing Gary Kubiak to his dream job as the head coach of the Denver Broncos and his partner of choice, former Ravens QBs coach Rick Dennison, the Ravens coaching staff might be even better than it was last season. It isn’t easy to top the Kubiak-Dennison partnership, but the Ravens once again managed to hire a head coach in the previous season as their offensive coordinator, as well as an OC in the previous offseason as their quarterbacks coach.

Neither Marc Trestman nor Marty Mornhinweg did a particularly good job at their respective posts last season, and it’s reasonable to state that they were two of the worst at their positions in 2014. Of course, it’s more than reasonable to state that Trestman is an elite offensive coordinator and Mornhinweg, who was a big part of Michael Vick‘s renaissance in the league with thePhiladelphia Eagles, is one of the best people you could realistically hire as a quarterbacks coach.

John Harbaugh has to be one of the NFL’s top ten coaches, and it’s scary how good this organization is at assembling a coaching staff stocked with elite talent. I mean, they had a defensive backs coach in 2013 who was so amazing in his first season as a defensive coordinator that he nearly became a head coach this season (that would be Teryl Austin, the man who made James Ihedigbo a solid starting safety).

Although the Ravens have lost top coaches to bigger and better opportunities, they have done a fantastic job of replacing them with other impressive hires. Current defensive coordinator Dean Pees is one of the most highly regarded defensive minds in the game, and there are few coaches who are better at developing linebackers.

After being a beast on the New England Patriots staff, Pees has helped develop the likes of C.J. Mosley on the Ravens, and his blitz scheme and defensive play-calling have been spot on. When Lardarius Webb inevitably bounces back and Jimmy Smith is healthy, the Ravens defense will be beyond scary (assuming Will Hill finally keeps his nose clean, but that’s a risky assumption).

Some people liked to blame Pees for the defense’s problems, but when you don’t have any healthy corners and your highest-paid CB suddenly starts sucking, there isn’t much you can do. Despite all of those issues, the Ravens were still in the top half of the league in net yards allowed per attempt, sixth in scoring defense, and eight in yards allowed. That’s a big credit to a top-three run defense and an elite pass rush, but Pees deserves plenty of credit for his innovation.

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Of course, the main focus for the Baltimore Ravens will be on the offensive side of the ball, even if the secondary is the bigger question mark. Not only do the Ravens have a new OC-QBs coach tandem, but they also have decisions to make at running back and wide receiver. Kubiak was unquestionably awesome at getting the most out his offensive line, and he has received plenty of credit for Justin Forsett‘s monster season. Torrey Smith‘s future is the elephant in the room here, but there’s plenty of reason to believe that Trestman can get a lot out of this offense.

For starters, Joe Flacco is one of the most consistent quarterbacks in the NFL, and he’s not as mercurial or difficult to coach as Jay Cutler. He throws his fair share of turnovers, but Flacco isn’t mistake-prone, has elite arm strength, and has above-average accuracy. Kubiak and Dennison did a nice job of helping him get to a bounce-back season, but that was incredibly easy to do since Forsett, the offensive line, and Steve Smith did that for him. In 2013, Flacco struggled so much since his line sucked, his running game sucked, and he didn’t have a legit No. 2 or 3 target in the passing game.

Trestman and Mornhinweg will still have some work do to do, because their job will be to try and take this offense to the next level. For as good as Ozzie Newsome is, there’s no guarantee that Flacco will have as good of a situation at receiver, running back, or even tight end next season, so there exists the possibility for Trestman to add to his legend on the offensive side of the ball by getting the most out of lesser players. He certainly managed to set up a great offense for Josh McCown and his success with Rich Gannon also earns him more “QB whisperer” praise.

Both of the Ravens newest additions to the coaching staff are highly regarded offensive minds who have plenty of experience working with quarterbacks under top coaches, and most teams could only dream of replacing departed coordinators and key positional coaches as well as the Ravens do. They were only third in the AFC North last season and have needs on their roster, but they deserve a high amount of praise for consistently winning games and consistently being well-coached on both sides of the ball.

Next: Where do the Ravens rank among the best franchises in NFL history?

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