John Harbaugh Likely To Remain With Ravens In 2019
The Ravens’ announcement that they would retain head coach John Harbaugh in 2019 has not done much to quiet speculation concerning Harbaugh’s future in Baltimore. Indeed, we recently heard that the Dolphins are mulling a trade offer for Harbaugh, and Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reported this morning that two teams are considering such an offer (presumably, the Dolphins are one of them). The fact that Harbaugh and the Ravens have not engaged in substantive extension talks, coupled with the fact that Harbaugh’s current contract only keeps him under club control through 2019, has kept the rumor mill churning.
Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network (video link) reports that Baltimore brass did speak with Harbaugh’s agent last Monday, but no real progress was made. Nonetheless, the Ravens want Harbaugh to return in 2019, and Harbaugh — despite speculation to the contrary — is perfectly content to head into next year without an extension.
Harbaugh wants to return to the Ravens and has no intention of forcing his way out. Plus, Rapoport says that Harbaugh does not really want to be traded, because he does not want the team that would acquire him to be weakened by having to send draft compensation to Baltimore. So as of right now, it sounds as though Harbaugh and the Ravens will spend a 12th year together.
Meanwhile, Harbaugh’s defensive coordinator, Don Martindale, has generated some head coaching buzz for the work he has done with the Ravens’ defense this year, though we have not heard of any interview requests for him. Per Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com (via Twitter), Martindale does want to be a head coach at some point, but he is also happy to remain in Baltimore as Harbaugh’s DC as long as Harbaugh wants him to.
Latest On Ravens, Harbaugh
We’ve been hearing mixed things about John Harbaugh for a while now. The Ravens announced they hope to keep the coach longterm with an extension, but rumors have continued to swirl that Harbaugh isn’t willing to commit to Baltimore and that he may want to explore his options elsewhere. Numerous teams have been reported to be interested in trading for the coach, including the Broncos and Dolphins.
We have a new update on Harbaugh today, as Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports the Ravens have “yet to have any dialogue” with Harbaugh about a new contract. La Canfora writes that the “situation is being watched closely” by other front offices, and that several teams still have hopes of trading for him after the year. If the Ravens have a quick playoff exit, it could increase the chances that the two sides part ways this offseason. It’ll be one of the biggest stories to monitor the next few weeks, and we should know a lot more after the team’s game against the Chargers tomorrow.
NFL Reserve/Futures Contracts: 1/3/19
Here are the latest reserve/futures contract signings from around the NFL. These deals will go into effect on the first day of the 2019 league year, with players joining their respective clubs’ offseason 90-man rosters:
Baltimore Ravens
- LB Ejuan Price
- LB Matthew Thomas
Detroit Lions
Pittsburgh Steelers
- QB Brogan Roback
- WR Ka’Raun White
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- DE Hunter Dimick
- LB Corey Nelson
Washington Redskins
Unknown Team Considering Trade Offer For John Harbaugh
- Schefter reports that at least one team that is considering a head coaching change is also considering calling the Ravens about a potential trade for head coach John Harbaugh if Baltimore is eliminated from postseason contention today, and Jay Glazer of FOX Sports (via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk) says multiple teams are thinking about making a run at the 11th-year HC. The Ravens announced earlier this month, despite weeks of rumors to the contrary, that Harbaugh would remain in Baltimore in 2019, but his future with the club still does not feel like a slam dunk. Florio suggests that Baltimore would want at least two first-round picks in exchange for Harbaugh.
Latest On Ravens, Harbaugh
- While the Ravens came out and announced that John Harbaugh would be back in 2019, it’s been made clear that his status in Baltimore is still up in the air. There have been reports that Harbaugh isn’t interested in signing an extension and may want to test the market. While Rapoport does confirm that’s a “real possibility”, he does note that Harbaugh’s agent Bryan Harlan was in town to begin talking with the Ravens this past Sunday. It had previously been reported the two sides hadn’t talked at all, so it seems like there’s been some progress there.
Ravens’ Terrell Suggs Plans To Play In 2019
Terrell Suggs is gearing up for the final game of his 16th regular season, but he does not believe that it will be his last game in the NFL. Suggs says he still plans on playing next year, even though he is 36 and will be out of contract at the end of this campaign. 
“I don’t feel that itch,” Suggs said this week (via Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com). “Ain’t no hair standing up on the back of my neck right there.”
Suggs also isn’t worried about this being in his final days with Baltimore. Sunday’s contest, his 229th game with the Ravens, be his last in purple, gold, and black, but that’s not at the forefront of his mind.
“Nah, there’s a lot of things that are always a possibility,” Suggs said. “You can’t really harp on the negative. It possibly could but that hasn’t crossed my mind like, ‘Oh my God.’ We’ve got business to handle. We’ll cross every bridge when it’s time to come there.”
The Ravens’ franchise history doesn’t give us much of an indication on how they’ll handle Suggs. While Ray Lewis and Jonathan Ogden spent their entire careers in Baltimore, players like Ed Reed and Haloti Ngata wound up elsewhere.
This much is clear: Suggs still has plenty to offer, even at his advanced age. Through 15 games, Suggs has 32 tackles and seven sacks to his credit.
National Scout Expected To Join Packers
- The Ravens are expected to lost national scout Milt Hendrickson to a front-office role with the Packers, Jeff Zribiec of The Athletic writes. In the 2018 offseason, the Packers were denied by the Ravens in attempting to make the move. He served with the team since 2005. Hendrickson is good friends with Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst and lives in Wisconsin.
Harbaugh Extension Not A Done Deal
It’s the time of year where the coaching carousel is about to be in full swing, and there are a ton of rumors floating around. While there are a slew of coaches who are near locks to be fired come next Monday, the biggest stories of the week have been about two coaches who are staying put, John Harbaugh and Pete Carroll. The Ravens suddenly announced Harbaugh would be back in 2019 after there was a ton of speculation that he’d be fired if Baltimore missed the playoffs. While the team announced in their statement they were going to try to work on an extension and all appeared to be well and good, his long term future with the team is apparently very much still in doubt.
There’s a “real chance” that Harbaugh opts not to sign any extension from the Ravens, notes Peter King of NBC Sports. King writes Harbaugh may “coach his final season and take his chance on the market in 2020.” Harbaugh was expected to be pursued by several teams if he was let go by the Ravens, and would likely have his pick of at least a few jobs if he decides to go that route in 2020. For what it’s worth Harbaugh didn’t sound particularly excited after the Ravens announced he’d be back in 2019, calling the news a “non-story”, according to Jamison Hensley of ESPN (Twitter link). Coaches very rarely willingly switch teams, but it sounds like Harbaugh could be an exception.
Harbaugh Extension Not A Guarantee
- Despite the team’s surprise announcement yesterday that John Harbaugh would return to coach the Ravens in 2019 and that the team hoped to work out an extension with him, the two sides haven’t had any talks on an extension yet, according to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports. La Canfora seems to think that an extension is still far from a guarantee, and writes that “numerous significant matters would have to be resolved” before any deal could get done. It will be an interesting situation to monitor, especially if the Ravens end up missing the playoffs.
John Harbaugh Will Return In 2019
After a lot of speculation about his job security, John Harbaugh will be returning to coach the Ravens in 2019, the team announced in a tweet.
The brief statement read “John Harbaugh will continue as our coach for the 2019 season, and [we] are working on an extension to his existing contract, which expires after the 2019 season.” It had previously been reported that Harbaugh had been on the hot seat and was facing “mounting pressure” in Baltimore. One recent report said that Ravens players were expecting Harbaugh to be fired if the team didn’t make the playoffs, but that clearly wasn’t the case. The Ravens are still far from assured a playoff spot with two games to go, but ownership clearly appreciated how Harbaugh was able to stabilize the team and get things turned around after it looked for a while like their season was collapsing.
The Ravens have won four of their last five games since making the switch to Lamar Jackson under center, and can still very easily win the AFC North. The decision to bring back Harbaugh could have an interesting domino effect on the rest of the league, as Mike Garafolo of NFL Network noted in a tweet that “other teams would’ve been ready to pounce” had Harbaugh been let go. That echoes the sentiment we’ve heard all season, which is that Harbaugh would’ve been the hottest head coaching candidate out there, and would’ve been pretty much guaranteed to have found a new job. This move means there will be at least one more job opening for other candidates than there would’ve been if he hadn’t been retained.
The announcement comes the day before the team’s pivotal Saturday night game against the Chargers in Los Angeles. Jackson has led the team to a 4-1 record, but has faced five relatively weak defenses, and will get by far his toughest test yet in a nationally televised game. Fortunately for Harbaugh, his job will now be safe no matter what happens.