I want to talk about firing coaches.
I’ve always understood the appeal for fans to scream about firing coaches. It’s easy. It’s thoughtless. When you’re mad about something, anything, you don’t have to consider the reality of the suggestion. You don’t own the jersey of a coach. You probably haven’t had a particularly meaningful connection with a coach the way you may have with a player.
It makes sense … even when it doesn’t make sense.
I’ve tried to take a different approach to the topic. Calling for a coach to be fired requires zero thought. When mixed with the presence of actual thought, results can be far less clear. I mean, sometimes they’re still quite clear. I can’t imagine any human in Denver would present a meaningful argument against firing Nathaniel Hackett, for example.
You know this column is leading toward Greg Roman. And in your mind, you might think the decision to fire Greg Roman would as obvious as the one involving Hackett. You might finally be correct.
Separating from the “I’m unhappy so I want to fire a coach” version of takery, the topic requires you to ask the question, “Does this person DESERVE to be fired?” And there’s been no actual argument for that. In 2019 and 2020, Roman produced a pair of top-10 scoring offenses. In 2021, the Ravens were sixth in yards and their dropoff in points could easily be contributed to, you know, the entire freaking team being injured.
And early this season, the Ravens were performing as a top-10 offense again. While many Ravens fans continued to voice their displeasure in Roman’s system, the system continued to produce. There was no actual argument for firing him. “Yeah, but it won’t work in the playoffs” was the best attempt, but those saying it needed to only check their betting slips to remember how inadequate they are when it comes to attempting to predict the future.
The best argument to be made was, “Yes, I have to admit that the results are good, but I just feel like we could do things differently and maybe they could be better.” Imagine presenting this to the CEO of your company when you tell them you want to fire the regional sales director.
“Sure, we’ve been consistently making or surpassing budget but I just don’t love his pitch, so I’d like to try someone else. I can’t promise he’ll be as capable but you never know, he might be better!”
So yeah, while I’ve never been a Greg Roman “fan,” per se, I’ve largely dismissed the idea of firing him midseason. I’ve talked about the possibility of overhauling offensive philosophy in the offseason. But Roman hadn’t done anything that suggested he needed to be fired.
There’s a reason that sentence was written in past tense.
The problem isn’t that the Ravens “abandoned the run” in their Week 15 loss to the Browns. Using that phrase wipes out all consideration of game circumstance. The issue is not (specifically) that Tyler Huntley threw the ball 30 times while J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards ran just a combined 20 times (despite averaging 9 yards per attempt).
Numbers can be skewed. For example, on the first offensive play of the game Demarcus Robinson fumbled the ball backward for a 7-yard loss, forcing the Ravens to throw the ball on second and third downs in situations in which they may have or even likely would have run the ball otherwise.
But context be damned in the fourth quarter. With 10:03 remaining in a two-possession game (or in other words, plenty of time), the Ravens had a first-and-10 at their own 40-yard line. Tyler Huntley completed a pass to Robinson for a 6-yard gain. And then everything went to hell. For reasons I will surely never be able to ascertain, three more pass plays were called.
With a backup quarterback. Who had been playing poorly. On a windy night. When your running backs were finding significant success. In your primary run first offense. Against a bad run defense. With next to nothing at wide receiver. And again, plenty of time. And again, the running backs were averaging 9 yards per carry. In a game the Ravens needed to win to stay atop the AFC North. In America. On the same night when Cecily Strong would say goodbye to SNL. And that’s not related but I’m riffing and stay with me.
THAT’S the one. That’s the fireable offense. There’s no defense of it. John Harbaugh had decided it was four-down territory and three straight pass plays were called. (To be fair, I probably wouldn’t have run it on fourth-and-4 either, but I think you understand the point.)
This is a level of malpractice that can … or should … cost someone his gig. If the Ravens lose because Tyler Huntley isn’t good enough and the Browns key in on the run because of it, so be it, I guess. You hope that getting Lamar Jackson back on the field fixes that.
But what fixes the insanity of this stretch of play-calling?
So you guys have me on your side. At least to some extent. I’m not “rooting” for Greg Roman to lose his job. That’s weird and you need a comfort puppy or something if you think that way. But I’m on board that it’s time. Not even “after the season” time. Now time. This is that bad. This is to play-calling what “Christmas Shoes” is to an electric Christmas party playlist.
Realistically, I still don’t expect it. There is an argument to be made that even if Ravens leadership wanted to make this move, it might not be practical. With their roster constructed as it is, Roman’s offensive system is probably their only hope for success. Why have another play-caller confined to Roman’s system? Perhaps there is a scenario in which Roman remains as offensive coordinator since the team would be running his system anyway while another assistant takes over play-calling duties. I can’t imagine John Harbaugh would love emasculating Roman in that way, but it would be deserved.
Would it solve anything? Probably not. But again, a fireable offense was committed. If Greg Roman, this far into his coaching career, doesn’t know better than to do this then I just don’t think he can be trusted to call plays any longer.
It’s time. We can deal with the rest of the equation after the season ends.
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