Coaching Matters: 2022 Baltimore Ravens Coaching Staff Preview

Eli Grabanski previews the 2022 Baltimore Ravens' coaching staff in search of buy-lows, fantasy football sleepers, and risers based on play-calling and historical data.

After every NFL season, NFL teams take the time to evaluate not only the players but also the coaching staff and front office as well. While many teams choose to retain the same head coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator, a few other teams opt to go in a new direction with their coaching staff.

The Baltimore Ravens let go of former defensive coordinator Don Martindale this past offseason, but otherwise, they will be bringing back many of the key coaching staff members from 2021. John Harbaugh will return as the Ravens' head coach and Greg Roman will be back as the team's offensive coordinator. Mike Macdonald is the only new coordinator and will serve as the team's defensive coordinator for the 2022-2023 season.

This article will look at the potential impact this coaching staff will have on the players and try to pinpoint the Ravens players' fantasy values in it.

The Baseline

To get a better understanding of the value the Ravens coaches bring to this team, we can look at the NFL league averages in each of the past two years in a variety of statistical categories and then compare them to the averages achieved by the Ravens coaches. Here are 'The Baseline' NFL league averages over the past couple of years:

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

Defense Impact

Previous Coaching Staff

In order to get an understanding of how the Ravens' fantasy players may be impacted this year, we also need to take a look at how former Ravens defensive coordinator Don Martindale's defenses performed during his time with the team. By doing this, we will have a better understanding of where the new coaches are starting from and where the primary changes will occur.

Former Defensive Coordinator: Don Martindale 

2022 Offense

2022 Offensive Coordinator: Greg Roman

Greg Roman was initially hired by the Baltimore Ravens in 2017 to be the team's tight ends coach and eventually was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2019. Before joining the Ravens, he served as the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers (2011-2014) and the Buffalo Bills (2015-2016). Let's dive into some statistics from Roman's prior experiences as an offensive coordinator to get a better understanding of how the Ravens may utilize their offensive players in 2022.

QB Impact

RB Impact

WR Impact

TE Impact

Greg Roman Takeaways & Expectations

Over the course of Greg Roman's career, his offenses generally haven't attempted many passes with a career average of just 28.75 pass attempts per game. Strangely enough, last year Roman seemed to shift his philosophy slightly with the team attempting 35.94 passing attempts per game – the highest mark of Roman's career. While it is a little encouraging to see him finally post a season average that is higher than the league average, there's a good chance it isn't the trend going forward given his previous history and the offensive personnel that the Ravens will have next year. This passing usage may make it more difficult for Lamar Jackson to put up high passing yard totals and will likely limit the number of fantasy-relevant pass-catchers in this offense.

Luckily for fantasy football purposes, the rushing work a quarterback receives can easily offset lower passing totals and be a bit of a cheat code. The good news is Greg Roman is the king of getting rushing production out of his quarterbacks. In his 131-game career as an offensive coordinator, Roman's quarterback room has averaged 8.01 carries per game.

Roman has worked with mobile quarterbacks in the past like Colin Kaepernick, Alex Smith, and Tyrod Taylor, but with the Ravens, he's gotten the opportunity to design an offense around the quarterback of his dreams in Lamar Jackson. Jackson is already one of the greatest running quarterbacks of all time, and Roman will clearly give him plenty of opportunities to utilize his biggest strength as a player. Roman's offense combined with Lamar Jackson's rushing ability makes Jackson an intriguing quarterback in fantasy leagues this season. Jackson should be one of the first five quarterbacks off the board in your fantasy drafts and has the legitimate upside to finish as the number one fantasy quarterback in 2022.

Examining Greg Roman's running back rooms over the course of his career it's a bit of a mixed bag. In the 131 games that Roman's been an offensive coordinator, on the ground his running back room has averaged 23.16 carries, 104.51 rushing yards, and 0.82 rushing touchdowns per game.

Clearly, Roman's running back room will get a decent amount of work on the ground during the 2022 season if old tendencies hold true. In terms of the distribution of carries, how often is it going to one player versus Roman rolling with a running back by committee approach?

Examining the data, Greg Roman tended to take a bell cow approach earlier on in his career and has utilized a running back by committee approach more in recent years. Having said this, it is harder to say whether or not this recent running back by committee trend will continue in 2022 with former 2nd-round pick J.K. Dobbins finally returning from his season-ending injury. With his talented lead back healthy, it is likely that Roman will go back to his old ways and give Dobbins somewhere between 50-75% of the team's season tailback carries in 2022.

The final aspect we should look at concerning Greg Roman's running backs is how much he has traditionally utilized them as pass-catchers. Over the course of his career, Roman's running back room has averaged a putrid 3.45 targets per game which is one of the worst marks among active play-callers.

This receiving usage is discouraging to see and limits the Ravens running backs' fantasy ceilings quite a bit – particularly in PPR formats. Overall, Greg Roman has provided his running backs with an above-average number of carries, has been successful with both the bell cow and running back by committee approaches, and won't utilize his backs much in the passing game. Based on this information, running back J.K. Dobbins will get his fair share of carries but have a capped ceiling with the lack of receiving work and teammate Gus Edwards getting some work on the ground as well.

Looking at the wide receiver position, Roman has provided his wide receivers with an average of just 16.15 targets per game over the course of his 131-game career as an offensive coordinator.

Roman's usage of the position has been lackluster over the course of his career, with his entire wide receiver room failing to see at least 15 targets per game in half of his completed seasons. This kind of usage suggests that the Ravens' offense is only capable of supporting one fantasy-relevant wide receiver, so you should probably not plan on drafting any of the team's wide receivers outside of Rashod Bateman.

Finally, Roman's historical usage of tight ends is pretty encouraging. Over the course of his career as an offensive coordinator, Roman's tight end room has averaged 7.59 targets per game.

Despite his team generally not throwing the ball a ton, Greg Roman will still find a way to get his tight ends a fair amount of work in the passing game. Considering how shallow the tight end position is, Mark Andrews should once again be one of the better fantasy options at the position in 2022.

Fantasy Relevant Players: Lamar Jackson, Tyler Huntley, J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards, Justice Hill, Tyler Badie, Rashod Bateman, Devin Duvernay, James Proche II, Mark Andrews, Nick Boyle, Charlie Kolar, Isaiah Likely

2022 Defense

2022 Head Coach: John Harbaugh

John Harbaugh primarily comes from a special teams background, spending time as the Philadelphia Eagles special teams coordinator from 1998 to 2006. Because of Harbaugh's background as a defensive back in his college football playing days at Miami University Ohio (1980-83) and his time as the defensive backs coach for the Eagles in 2007, we will look at some of the defensive statistics of his teams since he became the Ravens head coach in 2008.

2022 Defensive Coordinator: Mike Macdonald

Mike Macdonald will be replacing Don Martindale as the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator in 2022. Despite being just 34 years old, Macdonald has 14 years of coaching experience – including seven years with the Baltimore Ravens (2014-2020) in a variety of positions. He most recently served as Michigan's defensive coordinator (2021) and the 2022 season will be his first year as a defensive coordinator at the NFL level.

Other Notable Assistants

Special Teams Coordinator: Chris Horton - Chris Horton is a former NFL player who has been the Baltimore Ravens' special teams coordinator since 2019. His previous coaching jobs include being the quality control assistant at UCLA (2012-2013) and the assistant special teams coach of the Baltimore Ravens (2014-2018).

QB Coach: James Urban - James Urban has been the Baltimore Ravens quarterbacks coach since 2018. He's been involved in coaching since 1997 with previous roles as the Philadelphia Eagles quarterbacks coach (2009-2010) and the Cincinnati Bengals wide receivers coach (2011-2017).

RB Coach: Craig Ver Steeg - Craig Ver Steeg has been with the Baltimore Ravens since 2008 in a variety of roles and became the team's running backs coach in 2019. He's been coaching since 1984.

WR Coach: Tee Martin - Tee Martin has been the Baltimore Ravens wide receivers coach since 2021. He previously coached at the high school and college levels from 2006 to 2020 and prior to joining the Ravens in 2021, the former NFL quarterback was the assistant head coach and wide receivers coach for the Tennessee Volunteers (2019-2020).

TE Coach: George Godsey - The Baltimore Ravens will have a new tight ends coach for the 2022 season, moving from Bobby Engram to George Godsey. Godsey has been coaching football since 2004 and at the NFL level since 2011. In the NFL, he's worked as a tight ends coach for the New England Patriots (2012-2013) and Miami Dolphins (2019-2021). Godsey also has offensive coordinator experience with the Houston Texans (2015-2016) and the Miami Dolphins (2021).

OL Coach: Joe D'Alessandris - Joe D'Alessandris has been involved in coaching since 1977. At the NFL level he's been the assistant offensive line coach for the Kansas City Chiefs (2008-2009), the offensive line coach for the Buffalo Bills (2010-2012), the offensive line coach for the San Diego Chargers (2013-2015), and the Baltimore Ravens offensive line coach since 2017.

DL Coach: Anthony Weaver - Anthony Weaver joined the Baltimore Ravens coaching staff in 2021 as the defensive line coach & run game coordinator. He's been involved in coaching since 2010 and had jobs in the NFL with the New York Jets as an assistant defensive line coach (2012), the Buffalo Bills as a defensive line coach (2013), the Cleveland Browns as a defensive line coach (2014-2015), and the Houston Texans as a defensive line coach (2016-2020) & defensive coordinator (2020). He also played in the NFL as a defensive end for the Baltimore Ravens (2002-2005) and the Houston Texans (2006-2008).

ILB Coach: Zachary Orr - One of the few coaching staff changes for the Baltimore Ravens in 2022 was moving on from Rob Ryan and bringing back Zachary Orr from the Jacksonville Jaguars to serve as the team's inside linebackers coach. Orr coached in a variety of roles for the Ravens from 2017 to 2020, most recently as a coaching analyst.

OLB Coach: Rob Leonard - Another coaching staff change on the defensive side of the ball for the Ravens is at their outside linebackers coach position – going from Drew Wilkins to Rob Leonard. Leonard will be entering his 10th NFL season in 2022, previously spending time with the New York Giants (2013-2018) and Miami Dolphins (2019-2021) in a variety of roles.

Secondary Coach: Chris Hewitt - Chris Hewitt has been involved with coaching since 2003 and a coach for the Baltimore Ravens since 2012. With the Ravens, he worked as a defensive back coach (2012-2019) and pass defense coordinator (2020-2021) prior to taking on his current role as the secondary coach/pass game coordinator. Hewitt also played defensive back at the NFL level for the New Orleans Saints from 1997 to 1999.

Safeties Coach: D'Anton Lynn - D'Anton Lynn has been a coach on the Baltimore Ravens since 2021, primarily working with the team's defensive backs. As a coach in the NFL, he's worked in a variety of roles on the defensive side of the ball for the New York Jets (2014), Buffalo Bills (2015-2016), Los Angeles Chargers (2017), and Houston Texans (2018-2020).

Enjoy this series? Be sure to check out all of the other 'Coaching Matters' team previews!

AFC North: Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers

Follow Eli Grabanski on Twitter: @3li_handles

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