Admittedly, I had pre-determined before watching Super Bowl LVII that I would attempt to write a column about “what we learned” from a Ravens perspective. And as I sat down late Sunday night to start attempting to express those lessons in column form, a few were obvious.
1. The Ravens should hire Donna Lewis to play their Kickoff Party next season.
She’s apparently back, and if “I Love You Always Forever” ends up in the final season of Stranger Things this year, it will be the definitive song of the summer. It’s a far greater banger than “Running Up That Hill” could ever dream to be. There’s no price I’m not willing to pay.
2. I’m both extremely intrigued by the idea of Eric Bienemy as Ravens offensive coordinator and terrified of what it might mean if he ends up in Washington.
It’s certainly possible that the Ravens were really waiting until after the Super Bowl because they wanted to hire Eagles quarterback coach Brian Johnson — now thought by many to be up for an in-house promotion to offensive coordinator in Philly with Shane Streichen expected to be the next head coach in Indianapolis — and not Bienemy. But given John Harbaugh’s connection with Andy Reid, it’s easy to get carried away with the idea that Bienemy, a coach seemingly overqualified for the job, is the desired target.
The Commanders are reportedly also interested. If Bienemy ends up being announced as the offensive coordinator in Washington early this week, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he chose Washington over Baltimore. The Ravens might not have prioritized him after all, or he might know something about Ron Rivera’s future and a new ownership group in D.C. that would make him think he was going to be a sort of “head coach in waiting.”
But it would be kinda hard to at least not think about the possibility that he would have chosen the Commanders over the Ravens, right? And if that were true … there would only be one reasonable assumption that could possibly be made about why he would spurn one of the most stable organizations in American pro sports for a literal sewage dump, wouldn’t there? Which brings us to No. 3 …
3. I can’t believe anyone in the stratosphere of the Baltimore Ravens could possibly watch that game and think to themselves, “You see, this is why we have to move on from Lamar Jackson.”
I just … absolutely cannot fathom the thought process.
Patrick Mahomes proved for like the six billionth time that he’s more “Guardian of the Galaxy” than “human quarterback.” At halftime, Mahomes was hobbling off the field with his team down by double digits against one of the best teams ever assembled in the salary-cap era.
And then in the second half, the only drive where the Chiefs didn’t score a touchdown was the one where they purposely stopped at the 1-yard line because they didn’t want to score one. And he did it with exactly one exceptional playmaker (tight end Travis Kelce) to work with. Given that, it might genuinely be the most unreal performance a quarterback has ever delivered in the playoffs.
He’s insane. He’s the most talented quarterback in the history of football. It’s unlikely he’ll match the unheard of accomplishments of Tom Brady … but it isn’t impossible. And he’s 27 years old.
And yet the opinion still exists that the Ravens’ best path to competing in the AFC is to sign up for a scenario where they’re definitively worse at the quarterback position. It’s madness. And even remembering that the Chiefs have still somehow been vulnerable at times when Mahomes has been hurt or their offensive line has been in shambles, the list of quarterbacks waiting to pounce in the AFC for the foreseeable future also includes Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Trevor Lawrence.
Remember when Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers created a “golden age” of AFC quarterbacks? It’s quite possible this group is … better. And in an era when playing defense is drastically more difficult because the NFL has bent rules toward offense.
Hell, there were 73 points scored in the Super Bowl and yet one of the biggest storylines is how well the Chiefs’ defense played in the second half.
And yet, somewhere, a Ravens fan woke up on Feb. 13 and thought to themselves “get some draft picks and Derek Carr and give it a shot.” I’m keenly aware of the debate about fully guaranteed money, but what we witnessed in the Super Bowl only fortified my belief that even if fully guaranteed isn’t the most desirable scenario, it has to be more desirable than “not having a quarterback.” How can you possibly know that you’re going to have to take down the man that might well be the best quarterback to ever play the game and think that the better answer is, “Well, maybe we could find a good quarterback too?”
I can’t fully guarantee that if Lamar Jackson gets his record breaking deal from the Ravens that it would lead to him taking down Mahomes in the future and winning a Super Bowl. Who could? And I can’t fully guarantee that the Ravens wouldn’t be able to find a quarterback who somewhere down the road could develop into a Jalen Hurts type of player for them.
But if the Ravens are going to get over the Mahomes hump in the near future, it is unfathomable to consider them having even close to as good of a chance without him than they do with him … no matter what that costs.
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