Paid Advertisement

After rapid coaching ascent, Orr embracing new challenge as Ravens defensive coordinator

Paid Advertisement

Podcast Audio Vault

Paid Advertisement

The coaching ascent of new Ravens defensive coordinator Zach Orr has been remarkable. 

Seven years after the discovery of a congenital spine condition ended his NFL playing career just as it was beginning to blossom, the man who once roamed the middle of the Baltimore defense will now be calling it from the sideline. But as much as head coach John Harbaugh believes in Orr to make him the youngest defensive coordinator in franchise history and the second youngest in the NFL today, his lack of experience is as undeniable as the Ravensโ€™ proud defensive tradition.  

Orr is three years younger than predecessor Mike Macdonald was at the time of his 2022 hiring, but Macdonald was coming off a one-year apprenticeship running the University of Michigan defense for Jim Harbaugh. In fact, Orr will join Marvin Lewis as the only defensive coordinators in team history not to serve in the same capacity at a previous NFL or college stop, but Lewis also had 15 years of experience as a linebackers coach for four college programs and Pittsburgh โ€” working under Steelers defensive coordinators Dom Capers and Dick LeBeau from 1992-95 โ€” before being appointed the inaugural Ravens defensive coordinator at age 37.

The Lewis hiring proved to be outstanding, of course, but the unknown with Orr will linger until he begins making defensive calls this fall.

โ€œYou definitely have to think about that. Thatโ€™s going to be something that weโ€™re going to have to work through and heโ€™s going to have to get on board with quick,โ€ said Harbaugh, who is now on his seventh defensive coordinator since becoming head coach in 2008. โ€œI think heโ€™s been studying that and how to do that all the way through. Talking to him, I have a comfort level that heโ€™ll be good at it, but heโ€™s got to go do it.โ€

Orrโ€™s lack of experience is magnified with the departure of prominent defensive assistants Anthony Weaver and Dennard Wilson in addition to Macdonald leaving to become the head coach in Seattle, but itโ€™s not as though the 31-year-old hasnโ€™t been preparing for this moment. The 2016 second-team All-Pro linebacker recalls fellow coaches telling him a few years ago that he needed to start thinking like a defensive coordinator if he aspired to be one eventually.   

The manner in which the Ravens coaching staff exchanges ideas and works together made it easy for the 2014 undrafted free agent out of North Texas to begin preparing more like Macdonald, Wink Martindale, or Dean Pees. Orr also worked under Joe Cullen in Jacksonville as an outside linebackers coach when the former Ravens defensive line coach became the Jaguarsโ€™ defensive coordinator in 2021. 

(New Ravens defensive coordinator Zach Orr holds his introductory press conference in Owings Mills.)

โ€œIf you have aspirations of being a coordinator, when youโ€™re watching the film throughout the week [and] watching the film on your own, you need to start seeing how you would call the game, how you would stop certain game plans [and] certain schemes, and how you attack certain schemes,โ€ said Orr, who is the first former Ravens player to become a coordinator for the team. โ€œI always did that, always had the conversations. Being here, itโ€™s easy because itโ€™s a collaborative effort in the game plan. Youโ€™re very into that role. 

โ€œThe defensive coordinator has the final say, but here itโ€™s a collaborative effort.โ€

Still, another voice or two on the staff with play-calling experience would probably help Orr transition from coaching the inside linebackers to running the entire defensive operation. That might help explain the reported hiring of Doug Mallory to coach the defensive backs. Not only does the 59-year-old have a coaching history with the Harbaugh family, but heโ€™s served as a defensive coordinator for four different college programs over his career. 

As for where Orr plans to call plays during games, heโ€™ll be down on the sideline โ€œto look players in their eyesโ€ and gauge โ€œhow guys are feeling out there.โ€ Given his demonstrative passion interacting with the players heโ€™s coached, thatโ€™s hardly surprising.

No one would have guessed seven years ago that Orr would be in this spot, but heโ€™s done nothing but embrace the coaching life since being told his playing career was over. Grateful the Ravens gave him an opportunity that didnโ€™t afford him the time to โ€œsit there and hang my head,โ€ Orr hardly sounds intimidated about calling a defense for the first time. 

โ€œIโ€™ve seen it done. Iโ€™ve been a part of it, and what makes me confident is my preparation Iโ€™m going to put in,โ€ Orr said. โ€œIโ€™m going to prepare my butt off, and thatโ€™s where your confidence comes in anything you do. When youโ€™re not confident that you can do a job, that means you havenโ€™t prepared. If you prepare the right way like youโ€™re supposed to prepare, youโ€™re going to be confident.โ€

Share the Post:

Paid Advertisement

Right Now in Baltimore

Twelve Orioles Thoughts at start of 2025 Grapefruit League play

Luke Jones offers his latest orange musings as spring games get underway.

Dear Steve Bisciotti: Are you Tuckered out on that zero-tolerance policy?

Methinks weโ€™re kinda getting to the point where weโ€™ll soon hear from โ€œyour peopleโ€ in a two-sentence press release on the team website about the future of the kicking department of the Baltimore Ravens. Probably after lunch on Friday, theโ€ฆ

The big Ravens Maryland Lottery winner returns with his Voices of Hope to help others overcome addiction in Harford County

He bought a Ravens scratch-off Maryland Lottery ticket on Harford Road 18 months ago and T.J. Humphries is going to the games with his daughter for the next 20 years. He returns to "A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl Week"โ€ฆ

Paid Advertisement

Verified by MonsterInsights