Puzzling Ravens: Is it the coach? Time will tell

Remember all the hoopla at the start of the 2025 NFL season? The Baltimore Ravens weren’t just Super Bowl contenders—they were treated like a lock by many. 

The roster was stacked, the hype was breathless. Dissenting opinions were dismissed as football heresy.

Fast-forward to now, and suddenly everyone’s staring at the sideline like it owes them money.

Harbaugh: the fall guy?

That sideline, of course, used to belong to John Harbaugh, who has somehow gone from “steady hand” to “root cause analysis” in record time. The Ravens have become classic underachievers. In sports code, it’s a case where someone needs to be blamed, and they’ve already tried yelling at the kicker.

Go figure. This is a roster that oozes star power. Drips with it. And at the center of it all is Lamar Jackson, a multiple MVP winner who can do things with a football that causes defensive coordinators to wake up in a cold sweat.

Which makes this whole thing even more baffling.

Strange happenings

How does a team this loaded keep arriving in January like it forgot its luggage? How does a preseason favorite to win it all morph into a postseason question mark? 

The Ravens weren’t supposed to be good. They were supposed to be inevitable.

And yet here we are, holding philosophical debates about whether this era of Ravens football is elite… or just really good at convincing us it is.

Can new coach handle what's expected?

Now that Harbaugh has been kicked to the curb, let’s not pretend the hard part is over. Whoever replaces him won’t be inheriting a rebuild. They’ll be inheriting a stopwatch. 

Tick. Tick. Tick.

The next coach won’t get time. Or patience. Or grace. 

Harbaugh’s successor will get expectations—immediate, suffocating, Super Bowl-shaped expectations. Same goes for Lamar and the rest of the crew. Fair or not, this is the deal now.

I say give them three years.

Time will tell

Three seasons to turn talent into championships. Three shots at proving this team will finally live up to its potential. Three chances before the truth finally emerges. Super Bowl victors or Super Bowl wannabes?

If these guys fail to deliver, this era of Ravens football won’t be remembered for MVPs, highlight reels, or regular-season swagger. It’ll be remembered as the group that had everything—except the ending.

Who's really at fault?

And that’s when we’ll finally know the answer.

Was it really the coach all along?

Or was this a truly great team that simply faded when the lights got brightest?

Stay tuned. The clock is already running.

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