Baltimore Ravens Offseason Week in Review #1
Feb 3, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; Baltimore Ravens defensive end Haloti Ngata (92) helps up referee Jerome Boger (23) during a scuffle with the San Francisco 49ers during the second quarter in Super Bowl XLVII at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
This is the first of a planned weekly review of Baltimore Ravens offseason adventures and happenings. Everyone in these parts is adjusting to January without Ravens football, including this first-year blog – The Baltimore Wire. I will probably plan to make this a Sunday feature.
The biggest event of the week was the loss of offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell, who took the opportunity to be the head coach of the Detroit Lions. We extend our congratulations to the new coach, and our further remarks and thoughts can be seen HERE in our article on this move. Later it was learned that secondary coach Teryl Austin will be joining Caldwell as a defensive coordinator.
The vacancy created by Caldwell in this tremendously important position was the occasion for much discussion and many articles around the Ravens’ world. Coach John Harbaugh said, “We will be interviewing coaches inside and outside of the building.” The Ravens have had three OCs in the past three seasons, so maybe the fourth will be the charm … for Charm City – cool. We need it, that’s for sure.
The favorite pick would appear to be from inside the building, namely current wide receivers coach Jim Hostler. This would not be his first experience in this role, having served in this capacity for the 49ers in 2007.
External options raise more ire and controversy. The name Norv Turner has been mentioned – though he has not been interviewed and may be seen as too married to HIS offensive scheme only. I say, “Let him stay married elsewhere.”
Also named, and interviewed, was Kyle Shanahan – who, though relatively young, has served in this role for the Texans and Redskins. Though he maybe demonstrated more sense than others around him this past fall in Washington (and I’m not talking about the politicians), I’ll say what many Ravens’ fans think: He has two things against him – Redskins and Shanahan. Let’s move on quickly …
Striking me as a particularly good choice would be recently-released Browns head coach Rob Chudzinski. Our aforementioned article delves into this a bit more, but simply stated, the OC role likely fits him better than the head coach job. He could help Joe Flacco.
In other news, the word is that nose tackle Hiloti Ngata will not be playing in the Pro Bowl after all. His wife is due to deliver this coming week. To this I say, “Good, and good.” What is better than a little Ngata? Well, not better, but still good, is Hiloti not risking injury (or more knee injury) in what is honestly a worthless exhibition. He has played in the Pro Bowl four previous times in his career, so, stay home big guy and be a dad.
Of course, this is the beginning of mock draft season, and our FanSided Network of local and football sites is participating in one of our own creation – and you can see our first-round pick HERE. We took Kelvin Robinson of FSU… a rather brilliant move I must say!
This is going to be an incredibly active and interesting offseason, so stay tuned.