All things must pass
Roman out after 4 seasons as Ravens’ offensive coordinator
Greg Roman will no longer be the Ravens’ offensive coordinator after a four-year run in which he designed the most productive ground game in NFL history but frustrated fans by failing to build a commensurate passing attack.
“After visiting with Coach Harbaugh and after huddling with my family, I have decided that now is the right time to move on from the Ravens so that I can explore new challenges and opportunities,” Roman said in a statement released Thursday afternoon by his agent.
The Ravens enjoyed the greatest offensive season in franchise history in 2019 but also suffered some of their most frustrating defeats with Roman calling the plays. He helped unleash quarterback Lamar Jackson
as one of the sport’s most exciting offensive centerpieces, but critics wondered if he ultimately held Jackson back with unimaginative passing designs.
As Ravens coach John Harbaugh prepares to hire the seventh offensive coordinator of his 15-year tenure, he said, “this is going to be a highly sought-after job. This is one of the top football-coaching jobs in the world. Everybody’s going to want this job.”
Harbaugh praised his departing offensive coordinator and wished him well in a statement: “Greg has led the development and success of a record-setting offense in Baltimore for several seasons. He is a tremendous football coach, as well as family man and person. Greg devised and led our offense to no fewer than 26 historical NFL and franchise achievements. He established an identity for our offense.”
The 2022 season was a rocky cap to Roman’s rocky tenure.
The Ravens started hot and dominated opponents on the ground to secure a playoff spot. But their passing game, short on talent to begin with, lost steam as the year went on. They sputtered repeatedly in the red zone and did not score more than one touchdown in any of their last six regular-season games.
Fans became enraged by Roman’s play calling one final time when he sent quarterback Tyler Huntley on a goalline sneak instead of handing the ball to running back J.K. Dobbins or Gus Edwards at a pivotal juncture of the Ravens’ 24-17 playoff loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Linebacker Logan Wilson knocked the ball from Huntley’s grip, and defensive end Sam Hubbard returned it for a go-ahead 98-yard touchdown.
Harbaugh defended the call afterward, saying the execution, not the concept, was off.
Regardless, Harbaugh will now search for a new coordinator to breathe life into an offense that stagnated down the stretch each of the last two seasons. That process will be complicated by the uncertainty around Jackson’s future with the Ravens and by the lack of talent at wide receiver on the team’s current roster. There are potential internal candidates such as wide receivers coach Tee Martin and quarterbacks coach James Urban, but prominent outside candidates might be reluctant to design an offense around Jackson without knowing if the impending free agent will be around to run it in 2023 and beyond.
Harbaugh and general manager Eric DeCosta said Thursday they expect Jackson to be their quarterback next season and for years to come. “I truly believe Lamar wants to finish his career in Baltimore,” DeCosta said.
Harbaugh spoke with Jackson about the offensive coordinator search, for which he promised to cast a wide net. “He will be involved, and I’ll keep him abreast of what’s going on,” he said. “And I’m sure he’ll ask along the way. But I know his focus, like he told me, will be on getting himself ready.”
Asked if candidates might be dissuaded by the possibility of Jackson holding out next summer if the Ravens use the franchise tag to keep him, Harbaugh said: “There’s no guarantee it will go that way. We’ll cross those bridges when we get to them.”
If the Ravens are considering trading Jackson — a possibility DeCosta said he would not discuss Thursday — they could pitch a new coordinator on the possibility of working with a high draft pick in lieu of the 2019 NFL Most Valuable Player.
Roman, 50, had served as offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills before he joined the Ravens as a senior offensive assistant and tight ends coach in 2017. He was promoted to assistant head coach in 2018. He had built a reputation as a wizard of the running game, but his offenses in San Francisco and Buffalo had stagnated thanks to bottom-ofthe-barrel passing production.
Harbaugh named Roman coordinator before the 2019 season, believing no one was better qualified to design an offense around Jackson’s unique skills. The plan worked spectacularly at first as the Ravens set a single-season rushing record with 3,296 yards and led the league in scoring. Jackson won NFL MVP honors, throwing 36 touchdown passes with just six interceptions. Roman was one of the league’s most lauded assistants, with speculation building that he might be in line for a head-coaching opportunity.
The Ravens crashed in a 28-12 playoff loss to the Tennessee Titans at the end of that season, failing to score a touchdown until the fourth quarter. Fans were nonetheless thrilled that Roman would return for another go in 2020. The Ravens continued running the ball with remarkable efficiency that season but took a step back as their passing production cratered. Roman’s offense again flopped in the divisional round of the playoffs, scoring just three points on a windy night in Buffalo.
The Ravens and Jackson jumped to a hot start in 2021 but lost their way at midseason as injuries along the offensive line left them toothless against the blitz. An ankle injury to Jackson sealed their fate as they crashed out of the playoff race over the last six weeks of the season. Roman took his share of the blame as they fell to 17th in scoring despite ranking sixth in total yardage. A vocal subsection of fans begged Harbaugh to fire him, arguing that the team’s passing game would never improve with him in charge.
Harbaugh and Roman spoke multiple times between the Ravens’ season-ending loss and their parting of ways. “Greg and I spent hours talking about this in the last couple days,” Harbaugh said. “It’s an opportunity for him. … The things he accomplished here were pretty historical. We’re awfully proud of those things. Greg’s a great coach, and he did the best he could every single week, every single day.”
He added that he hopes to keep many of Roman’s concepts under the next coordinator.
“The identity of the offense is what is important, and we’ve established an identity for our offense,” Harbaugh said. “That’s an identity that we’re going to carry forward. I think it speaks well for the organization, for the city, kind of what we’re all about.”
He’ll look for candidates with new ideas to merge into that existing philosophy, with an overpowering running game — one Roman helped build — at its base.