John Harbaugh, the 45-year-old rookie coach, has never run an offense or a defense. Joe Flacco, the 23-year-old rookie quarterback, has never taken a snap in the NFL.
But it is to these neophytes the Baltimore Ravens — a club that fell further in one season than all but three teams in the 16-game era — have entrusted their future.
The Ravens finished 13-3 in 2006, making the playoffs for the fourth time in seven years. Then came collapse: They plummeted to 5-11 last season, a nose dive that cost coach Brian Billick his job less than 12 months after getting a four-year extension from owner Steve Bisciotti.
Billick’s was not the only high-profile departure: Steve McNair, the former co-MVP who quarterbacked the Ravens the last two seasons, decided his body could no longer take the pounding and retired last month at 35.
Suddenly, the Ravens had joined the hapless Miami Dolphins as the only teams to change coaches and quarterbacks this offseason.
The expected retirement of 10-time Pro Bowl tackle Jonathan Ogden, an original Ravens player, would only add to the feeling of change in Baltimore.
“It’s been nine years since we’ve had that drastic a change,” said general manager Ozzie Newsome, referring to 1999 when Billick replaced coach Ted Marchibroda and Tony Banks replaced Harbaugh’s brother, Jim, at quarterback. “Firing Brian was the hardest thing I’ve had to do because he was a friend. John has been a special teams coordinator, which is huge. He’s been before the whole team. I like his hands-on approach. And he put together a [heck] of a staff. You’re only as good as the people around you.”
The Ravens went 85-67 under Billick and won Super Bowl XXXV despite a weak roster of quarterbacks: Banks, Trent Dilfer, Elvis Grbac, Jeff Blake, Chris Redman, Kyle Boller and McNair.
Boller and Troy Smith, who finished last season as the starter, remain on the roster, but Harbaugh hopes Flacco, the team’s top draft choice out of Delaware, takes command soon.
“Joe is [6-foot-6] and has a cannon,” Harbaugh said. “We drafted him because we believe he can be that guy.”
Newsome has a strong record with high draft picks: He chose eight players who went on to the Pro Bowl (Ogden, Ray Lewis, Peter Boulware, Chris McAlister, Jamal Lewis, Todd Heap, Ed Reed and Terrell Suggs) with his first 10 first-round picks. He doesn’t, however, see Flacco starting from day one as Boller did as a first-round choice in 2003.
“At this point, Kyle has not been what we thought he was,” Newsome said. “We feel different than we did five years ago having Kyle who has [42] starts and Troy Smith who has started [two] games. They’ll probably give us a better chance to win in September than Joe will.”
But Newsome’s ritual of showing his first-round picks pictures of their predecessors didn’t faze Flacco.
“I can’t wait to … prove to them that they made the right decision to move up to get me,” Flacco said.
Whoever’s under center has to hope the Ravens are healthier than they were last season, when nine regulars, including Ogden, Heap, McAlister and Trevor Pryce, missed at least six starts.
Newsome didn’t go as far as college scouting director Eric DaCosta, who said the Ravens could “legitimize” their roster for the next four to six years with an excellent draft, but he knew his team needed change.
“After we went through minicamp and had a chance to look at the team, we felt we’d be better off if we moved back [from their original No. 8 selection] and accumulated more picks,” Newsome said. “We felt it was a deep draft. We just needed an influx of talent, an influx of young guys. We needed to start to build the team from the bottom up.”
With a former special teams coach and, soon, a former Division I-AA quarterback leading the way.
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