A day after securing Marc Trestman as his new offensive coordinator, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh continued restocking his staff with the hiring of former New York Jets offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg as the new quarterbacks coach on Wednesday.
The 52-year-old Mornhinweg is no stranger to Harbaugh after the two worked together for five years under Andy Reid in Philadelphia. Needless to say, Mornhinweg’s latest stop with the Jets did not go to plan, but the longtime NFL assistant has worked with Pro Bowl quarterbacks such as Brett Favre, Steve Young, Jeff Garcia, Donovan McNabb, and Michael Vick in his career.
He’ll now be able to add Super Bowl XLVII Most Valuable Player Joe Flacco to the list.
“Marty’s got a great history and background with the offense that we were running last year and that Marc is going to build on this year,” Harbaugh said. “He’s a great quarterback teacher of fundamentals, footwork, reads, quarterback mechanics, and stuff like that in the passing game. I’m really excited about that. Marty’s a great coach and is going to be a great addition for us. I know he’ll work really well with Marc and work really well with Joe.”
Mornhinweg is the former head coach of the Detroit Lions where he collected a 5-27 record in two seasons and was infamously known for once winning a coin toss and electing to have the wind in his favor instead of taking the ball in an overtime loss to Chicago. However, he has extensive experience working in the West Coast offense going back to his days with Green Bay and San Francisco in the 1990s. He most recently worked with Jets quarterback Geno Smith, who has failed to develop in his first two NFL seasons.
Despite having not worked with his new quarterbacks coach before, Trestman acknowledged Mornhinweg’s familiarity with Harbaugh and offensive line coach Juan Castillo as a plus in trying to continue the momentum created by Kubiak last season.
“He had great success as a quarterbacks coach and play-caller [in Philadelphia],” Trestman said. “I’m really looking forward to working with Marty. We’ve never really crossed paths, but we have mutual friends in the business. This is all going to be part of a formula to continue to play at a high level offensively and continue to get better.”
Harbaugh announced current quarterbacks coach Rick Dennison will call plays at the Pro Bowl before officially joining Gary Kubiak’s new staff in Denver.
