It was a season ago that the Baltimore Ravens dumped nearly their entire coaching staff, ousting Brian Billick and bringing in young gun John Harbaugh.

Harbaugh might have been green when it came to leading an NFL team, but he proved his worth last season in taking the Ravens to an AFC Championship Game appearance.

This season, the Ravens have said goodbye to the final holdover from the Billick era; Rex Ryan is now in charge of his own team in New York.

But take a look at the 2009 Ravens coaching staff, study them a bit, and there is something oddly familiar. We’ve seen these guys before.

That’s because Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens general manager, has a pretty good mold for what he wants his coaching staff to look like.

He finds coaches that fit his mold, just like players, and just drops them in. If that sounds a little too similar to an old-fashioned sci-fi movie, I apologize. But the system works.

So I present to you your 2009 Ravens coaching staff, led by The Mastermind himself, Ozzie Newsome… Read the rest of this entry »

Change is supposed to be a good thing, but it may be hard to convince fans in Baltimore that a minor overhaul of a storied and respected defense will end up helping their football team.

Despite a familiar chorus of criticism directed at the offense, most of the Ravens’ moves this offseason have involved the defense. Unfortunately, not all of the changes were entirely voluntary.

Defensive coordinator Rex Ryan has found a new home, this time in New York as a head coach. Under Ryan, the Ravens defense never finished worse than sixth in the league in yards allowed, and they also consistently ranked near the top of the league in rushing yards allowed as well as turnovers.

And it is not just Ryan who’s gone. He took with him star linebacker Bart Scott and safety Jim Leonhard, who filled in for the injured Dawan Landry for nearly the entire 2008 season.

Top it all off with the fact that three-time Pro Bowl selection Chris McAlister, the team’s lockdown cornerback for the last nine seasons, is gone as well.

For the Ravens, the combination of coordinator and player changes will lead to some pretty glaring differences on the field. Given the team’s depth and breadth of defensive talent, however, you can be sure that Baltimore will again be ranked among the league’s best defenses. Read the rest of this entry »

Coming off a surprising and superb 2008 campaign, expectations for the Baltimore Ravens are high as the 2009 season approaches. But the offseason has not been kind to General Manager Ozzie Newsome and company, who have parted ways with a number of big names. Newsome did his best to fill the team’s biggest holes, but even wizards fall short sometimes.

The good news for Ravens fans is that the core of the team is still intact. For a group that found its way to the AFC Championship, that is not an insignificant statement. Ray Lewis and Ed Reed still lead a strong defensive unit and Joe Flacco and Derrick Mason anchor the offense—hardly a bad place to start on either front.

Unfortunately, the weaknesses threatening a repeat of last year’s playoff run will sound all too familiar. In training camp, the Ravens two weakest positions will line-up face-to-face on every down. Read the rest of this entry »