John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens changed offensive schemes last year, as Todd Monken took over as the team’s new offensive coordinator.
The results were pretty impressive in Year 1, as the Ravens boasted the sixth-ranked offense in the NFL and went a league-best 13-4.
However, Harbaugh thinks that Baltimore is still learning the system.
“I think it progressed naturally,” Harbaugh said, via Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk. “We’re just beginning. We’re just starting. We’re one year into this thing. There are so many things that I feel like, looking back on it now, they actually were baby steps. They were hard steps for us to take, because it was a seat change in terms of offensive philosophy, but they were baby steps looking back on them.”
Those baby steps produced an MVP-winning campaign for Lamar Jackson, who threw for 3,678 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions while completing 67.2 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 102.7. He also rushed for 821 yards and five scores.
But Harbaugh thinks the Ravens can do better.
“We have so, so far to go,” added Harbaugh. “I met with Todd. I met with all the coaches individually. I met with Lamar a couple of days after that. I met with different players, and we have a direction right now on where we want to go. We want to be tight. We want to be locked in. We want to understand how this offense applies to Lamar and our players, and we want to do right by our players, and we want to do right by Lamar and build the best operation that we can for him so his talents can really shine. I think we’re just starting with that.”
As impressive as Baltimore has been since Jackson took over as the club’s starting quarterback midway through 2018, the Ravens still haven’t had much playoff success.
This past season marked the first time under Jackson that Baltimore made it to the AFC Championship Game, where it ultimately fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in a listless offensive effort.
Perhaps the Ravens need another year of Monken’s system to make a Super Bowl appearance. Or, maybe the front office just needs to add some more weapons this offseason.
Whatever the case may be, John Harbaugh seems to think his squad has just scratched the surface of its potential.
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