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Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti broke his yearslong silence Tuesday, a week after firing longtime head coach John Harbaugh.
Bisciotti, who has not held a news conference in Baltimore since 2018, was insightful and engaging as he discussed the most difficult decision he’d had to make since becoming full owner of the franchise in 2004.
Here were the most important takeaways from Banner staff writers in attendance.
Bisciotti relied on instincts when he fired Harbaugh
Bisciotti ended one of the most significant football relationships of his life — he described his partnership with Harbaugh at one point as a “wonderful 18-year marriage” — based on his “instincts,” he said. He woke up Monday morning after the Ravens’ brutal 26-24 loss in Pittsburgh fairly certain he was going to fire his head coach. “You can’t say the timing is perfect in anything, but I got to the point where I didn’t believe that I would feel regret after I made that decision, and that’s what instinct is.”
For a gut decision, though, it had been rolling around in Bisciotti’s mind for some time. He acknowledged that he had expressed some thoughts about change to his decision makers, including GM Eric DeCosta, about three to four weeks before the season ended. While reports last week cited details leading to Harbaugh’s dismissal — either losing the confidence of players or attaching his future to coordinators that management wanted to jettison — Bisciotti was (somewhat refreshingly) lucid about the franchise’s big-picture struggles and regression over the past two seasons.
Bisciotti acknowledged that he had expressed some thoughts about change to his decision makers about three to four weeks before the season ended. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Banner)
Bisciotti said he wasn’t happy with the Ravens losing fourth-quarter leads over the last few years, didn’t appreciate that the team went from the AFC Championship Game two seasons ago to out of the playoffs this year, and thought key position groups never developed on the field. He also cited great players (not explicitly stated, but probably at least including Lamar Jackson) for not performing their best in the team’s biggest games. While not all of these problems were directly Harbaugh’s fault, he felt strongly that the track record demanded significant change at the top.
“People were saying we were underachievers,” he said. “We were. And we had to own that.”
— Kyle Goon
So, what does that mean for the impending hire?
Bisciotti both took ownership of the big decisions for his franchise and suggested that he would rely more on his staff than he did when Harbaugh was selected 18 years go.
Yes, he considered input from players like Jackson, but Bisciotti said he alone had the final say.
The decision on Harbaugh’s successor, however, will be more collaborative. Bisciotti acknowledged that he is sitting out the first round of coaching interviews and waiting until the Ravens settle on a group of four to five finalists. He said he’s open to candidates of all shapes and sizes: first-time head coaches and retread coaches, offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators, even college coaches. The Ravens are prioritizing leadership at the position, DeCosta said. They’re looking for someone who can connect with players and add X’s-and-O’s value.
Bisciotti, left, and newly-hired John Harbaugh at a press conference in 2008. (Rob Carr/AP)
Harbaugh was Bisciotti’s first head coaching hire, but the second, he said, will be more so one for DeCosta, executive vice president Ozzie Newsome and team president Sashi Brown to make. Jackson’s input will be considered, but he will not have any decision-making “power,” Bisciotti said.
The expectations are clear for the next hire. The Ravens expect to operate from a position of strength in this search, and Bisciotti said it’s not a “tough job,” unlike many others. Playoff appearances are the expectation. If Bisciotti, 65, remains owner for the next decade, he suggested that two more Super Bowl rings would be a reasonable dream. Patience would be granted for Harbaugh’s successor, he said, but only so much.
— Jonas Shaffer
The Ravens are all in on Lamar … with caveats
Bisciotti wants Lamar Jackson to be the Ravens quarterback for years to come, but he was firm about one thing Tuesday. Jackson has a lot of say over the organization — but no power.
“I have the power,” Bisciotti said.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson leaves the field after the Steelers defeated the Ravens earlier this month. (Jerry Jackson/The Banner)
As with general manager Eric DeCosta and the other leaders across the franchise, Bisciotti values Jackson’s opinions and will hear what he has to say. But ultimately, Bisciotti gets to make the final decisions.
Jackson is notoriously hard to get a hold of. He has no agent and runs on his own time in the offseason. Recently leaked legal documents from the NFLPA’s collusion lawsuit gave an inside look into what negotiations between DeCosta and Jackson looked like, and they don’t resemble standard conversations between businesspeople.
Bisciotti is aware of who Jackson is, calling him “really, really a nonconfrontational person.”
But Harbaugh’s firing seems to have Bisciotti pushing Jackson to be more present. Bisciotti said he asked Jackson whether, as has been suggested, he had issues with Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Todd Monken. Jackson said he didn’t. Jackson acknowledged that changes were probably needed, but demurred from expressing a strong opinion, preferring to leave that to Bisciotti and DeCosta.
“I said, ‘Well your opinion matters,’” Bisciotti recounted.
Bisciotti also said he invited Jackson to be a part of the in-person interview process — going so far as to offer him a spot on his plane.
“I said to Lamar last night, ‘When they call me up from Florida, you better get your ass up here, too,’” Bisciotti said.
Bisciotti also made it clear that he wants Jackson — scheduled to have an onerous cap hit of $74.5 million next season — to renegotiate his deal prior to free agency so that DeCosta can build a roster knowing how much cap space he has to work with.
“The urgency of that matters to me because we’ve got free agents, and I don’t want to go into free agency with that hanging over our head,” Bisciotti said. “And I made that clear to Lamar. And I think he was very appreciative of my stance and hopefully willing to work with Eric and not get this thing dragged out into April like it was the last time.”
— Giana Han
Is former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin a candidate?
Harbaugh, left, and Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, right, talk before a game in Pittsburgh earlier this year. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)
Bisciotti was asked whether Mike Tomlin, whose departure from the Steelers was announced during the press conference, might be a candidate for the Ravens’ opening. He reacted with surprise.
“Holy shit, Mike [Preston], wouldn’t that be awesome? Only if John takes the Pittsburgh job,” Bisciotti joked, eliciting laughter from his audience.
“Good for Mike. Yeah, I don’t know. Talk to [DeCosta]. I love Mike. I mean I’ve admired Mike for 18 years,” he said. “That’s really shocking that he did it that way, but that’s kind of crazy. Didn’t know that.”
Tomlin and Harbaugh were the two longest-tenured head coaches in the NFL. Reports indicate Tomlin’s decision to step down means the Steelers maintain his rights, and any team wanting to hire him would need to facilitate a trade.
— Paul Mancano
Bisciotti shared thoughts on his ownership plan, explained his decision to step back as public face of the team
A decision based on instincts indicates just how urgent it is to Bisciotti that the Ravens win soon. While the next coach will have some decent runway to succeed, Bisciotti is not in this for the long haul. His plan is still to sell the team perhaps in the 2030s — he has seen how passing down franchises causes divisions in families, and he reaffirmed that he doesn’t want that for his own family: “I want to win a couple of Super Bowls and get the hell out.”
Family is one of the reasons that Bisciotti has taken a less active role in the day-to-day operations of the franchise. In the early 2010s, he poured effort into running NFL owner committees with an eye on getting into the Football Hall of Fame someday, but said he started stepping back when he realized he was putting his family (especially his wife) second. Since then, he has largely run the franchise from a distance: “I invented working remotely,” he joked at one point.
DeCosta said the Ravens are prioritizing leadership at head coach position. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Banner)
The implications are twofold: Bisciotti is going to defer to his chief decision makers for much of the input in the next head coach of the Ravens, citing DeCosta, Brown and Newsome as the three primary players. But Bisciotti also wants to make the most out of this competitive window with Jackson by chasing Super Bowls again, which he cited directly when he said how important it is to get Jackson extended before free agency begins.
— Kyle Goon
Mum on Tucker, but forgiving of Loop
In his sprawling hourlong session, there was really only one topic that Bisciotti showed no interest in talking about: Justin Tucker.
It was the first time Bisciotti had spoken since The Banner published an investigation revealing that 16 Baltimore-area massage therapists had accused him of inappropriate behavior. Tucker was subsequently waived by the Ravens in May and suspended for 10 weeks following an NFL investigation. The all-time leading scorer in franchise history has still not signed with any NFL team.
Bisciotti issued a series of terse answers in response to several questions about Tucker. When asked what role he played in the franchise’s response to the allegations against Tucker, he said “none.” He said he deferred to DeCosta and Harbaugh for how to handle it. When asked if things would have been “different” had Tucker remained with the franchise, he said “no.”
Ravens place kicker Tyler Loop, right, reacts after missing what would have been the game winning field goal in Pittsburgh. (Jerry Jackson/The Banner)
The most he had to say on anything having to do with Tucker was on his successor, Tyler Loop. Bisciotti said “yeah, maybe” Tucker would have made the field goal in Pittsburgh, but added, “I feel terrible for Tyler. He’s gonna learn from this.” While describing what a “terrible job” being an NFL kicker is, he said he had seen enough from Loop that “he’ll be our kicker next year.”
— Kyle Goon
Our staffers covered the press conference live with quotes and insights. Here’s a selection of what they had to say.
