One of the major factors that needed to be ironed out between ex-Ravens head coach John Harbaugh and the New York Giants was the organization’s chain of command.
Accustomed to a collaborative power structure in Baltimore in which the general manager and head coach both answered to ownership, Harbaugh wasn’t about to become the new head coach of the Giants if it meant having to defer to general manager Joe Schoen. In fact, all indications are that Harbaugh will have the final say in the event of a disagreement, which is a big deal despite Schoen downplaying that as “just something on a piece of paper” on Tuesday.
At the very least, watching that situation play out begs the question of whether the Ravens will maintain the same chain of command with what could be a rookie head coach and Eric DeCosta, who is now in his eighth offseason as general manager and has spent three decades with the organization. While owner Steve Bisciotti admitted discussing that matter with team president Sashi Brown last week, it’s worth noting Harbaugh was a first-time head coach in 2008 when Ozzie Newsome had already won a Super Bowl and spent more than a decade in charge of football operations in Baltimore.
According to Bisciotti and Newsome, there was never a power “standoff” between the GM and coach in which the owner needed to break a tie.
“I don’t spend nearly as much time around [the team facility] as I did, but when I had both John and Eric and Ozzie reporting to me, it came naturally in 2008 that they would both report to me,” Bisciotti said. “It never dawned on me if Ozzie had come to me and said, ‘What do you mean John reports to you? I’ve been here forever. I’ve already built a Super Bowl team. I think he should report to me.’ I think I would’ve just said, ‘Yes, OK.’ I don’t think it really matters.
“I don’t know that I need to burden Eric with that. I think that this is such a partnership that I don’t think that power of one over the other is necessarily a good thing because then the coach goes into every argument feeling like he doesn’t have half the power. I think it works even though I work remotely.”
It’s a sharp contrast from what’s transpired in Buffalo this week with the firing of longtime head coach Sean McDermott and the promotion of general manager Brandon Beane to president of football operations. There’s no debating who’s in charge of the Bills’ football operations as the new head coach will be hired by Beane and answer to him.
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Though you wouldn’t anticipate a first-time head coach coming into a job planning to butt heads with an experienced GM, the Ravens’ more collaborative structure has to be a strong selling point in the current debate over which job opening that includes an MVP quarterback is the league’s best.
Special teams coaches on retainer
There’s been no shortage of speculation about Harbaugh bringing other coaches and players from the Ravens to New York, but there may not be the special-teams pipeline one would anticipate.
According to NFL Network, Baltimore has blocked special teams coordinator Chris Horton from interviewing for lateral positions and could also retain special teams assistants Randy Brown and Anthony Levine. Of course, this would largely depend on whom the Ravens hire as head coach and whether that individual has other ideas for those positions. For what it’s worth, there were multiple assistant holdovers from Brian Billick when Harbaugh replaced him in 2008.
Horton has been on Baltimore’s staff since 2014 and in charge of special teams since Jerry Rosburg retired in 2019.
Given a longtime friendship and a working relationship that dates back to some time together in Philadelphia, one would assume Harbaugh would be interested in Brown being part of his staff in New York, but the latter was the key figure in scouting and identifying kicker Tyler Loop as the replacement for Justin Tucker last offseason. Though it remains to be seen how Loop rebounds from his season-ending missed field goal in Pittsburgh, the Ravens may prefer keeping Brown — who attended the Bisciotti-DeCosta press conference last week, for what it’s worth — to continue working with the 24-year-old kicker in 2026.
After finishing a disappointing 23rd in special teams DVOA in 2024, the Ravens ranked 12th in that department this past season.
