Ravens Score Touchdown With Harbaugh, Coaching Staff

The 2009 Baltimore Ravens enter year two of the John Harbaugh era well-positioned to make another deep run in the playoffs. 

The 46-year-old head coach set the bar pretty high last season, going 11-5 with a rookie quarterback and overseeing a pair of road playoff victories.     

With a healthy mixture of veterans and young players, and the continued development of quarterback Joe Flacco, Harbaugh has everyone at The Castle thinking Super Bowl. 

And to think the Ravens almost didn’t hire him.

Prior to extending an offer to Harbaugh, who was the Eagles’ special teams coach for nine years before joining the Ravens, Baltimore targeted Jason Garrett as its next head coach.

Garrett was coming off an impressive performance as offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, who went 13-3 before flaming out in the playoffs.  He leveraged that success into job interviews with the Ravens and Falcons, both of whom offered him their respective head coaching jobs, before ultimately returning to Dallas as the highest paid coordinator in league history.    

Unfazed, the Ravens quickly turned to Harbaugh and a deal was struck within days.  Judging by last season, it worked out well for both parties.

Of course, Harbaugh had plenty of help, too.  Incumbent Rex Ryan stayed on as defensive coordinator and offensive guru and quarterback mentor Cam Cameron, fresh off a 1-15 stint as head coach of the Miami Dolphins, signed on as offensive coordinator.  With no disruption on defense and Cameron crafting a game plan suited to Flacco’s strengths, the team found instant success.

Cameron, 48, is back for year two, eager to take the training wheels off his young quarterback, much like he did with Phillip Rivers when he was coaching him at San Diego as their offensive coordinator before taking the Miami job.     

Greg Mattison takes over for Ryan, who left to become the head coach of the New York Jets.  The 59-year-old Mattison spent last season as the Ravens’ linebackers coach so he already has a rapport with the veterans and has vowed not to change much of what the team did so well last year. 

Prior to that he was co-defensive coordinator at Florida, where his teams played a similar style of aggressive, ball-hawking defense that Baltimoreis accustomed to. He also spent nine seasons coaching at Notre Dame before arriving in Florida. 

But while Cameron and Mattison expect to handle much of the X’s and O’s, the overall tone for the team will continue to be set by Harbaugh.  His ability to get the veterans to buy into his system was a big reason for the team’s success last season.  With a fresh set of distractions and a new set of expectations, how far they go in 2009 will depend on how well he can do it again.