Zach Orr has seen the Ravens’ defensive brand from both sides of the field. He was a hard-hitting, All-Pro linebacker in his injury-shortened career as an inside linebacker, and he imparted that physical mindset on his players as the team’s inside linebackers coach the past two years.
Now Orr takes over for Mike Macdonald as the team’s defensive coordinator after Macdonald last week was named the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. At age 31, Orr is one of the youngest in the league in his new role.
Orr says that commitment to physicality will remain a cornerstone of the Ravens’ philosophy in a style that he calls “organized chaos.”
“I want our defense to play together, first and foremost, 11 people playing as one,” Orr said as he met with the media at the team’s Under Armour Performance Center on Feb. 6 after being introduced as defensive coordinator.
“The next thing is, I want it to be violent. Very violent and physical. That’s just the standard here. Everything we’re going to do is going to be with physicality and violence. Then, just execution, executing at a high level.”
“Present a lot of problems to the offense,” Orr added. “Never give the answer to the offense before the snap. … Hit everything that moves. We’re going to play violent. We’re going to play together, and we’re going to execute.”
Orr described a whirlwind search process that heated up after the Ravens lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game. Within a few days, Orr had interviewed with both the Ravens and the Green Bay Packers for their defensive coordinator job, and after the Seahawks named Macdonald their head coach, John Harbaugh extended Macdonald’s old job to Orr.
Orr noted that his first order of business will be working with Harbaugh to fill out a staff that has been raided after the Ravens’ outstanding season, in which the team finished 13-4 and became the first defense in NFL history to league the league in sacks (60), turnovers (31) and scoring defense, allowing a league-low 16.5 points a game.
In addition to Macdonald leaving, the Ravens lost defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson, who has been named the defensive coordinator with the Tennessee Titans, and defensive line coach Anthony Weaver, who was named the defensive coordinator with the Miami Dolphins. And there’s a vacancy for the inside linebackers coach with Orr’s promotion.
“We have to get ready to get some coaches in here,” Orr said. “Credit to the coaches that got opportunities at other places. They’re heck of coaches, and that’s why they got those opportunities, but now we’re just going through that process of figuring out who’s going to come in and do a heck of a job for us.”
The Ravens also could face roster upheaval on defense, with more than a dozen players set to become free agents next month including defensive tackle Justin Madubuike, linebackers Patrick Queen, Jadaveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy, and defensive backs Arthur Maulet, Ronald Darby and Geno Stone.
Orr has no experience calling plays, one of the most prominent jobs for coordinators, but clearly neither Harbaugh nor Orr view that as a significant impediment.
Orr described the “collaborative effort” of the defensive staff in creating and implementing game plans, and he said his experience in that effort has prepared him for play-calling duties.
“[The] defensive coordinator has the final say so, but here it’s a collaborative effort,” he said. “You see the process, and you’re very much a part of the process, even as an assistant coach.”
Orr originally joined the Ravens as an undrafted rookie out of North Texas in 2014, and soon became the latest in a long line of undrafted inside linebackers to have success with the team. In 2016, he became a full-time starter and led the Ravens with a career-high 133 tackles en route to second-team All-Pro honors.
After that season, though, Orr had to retire because of a congenital condition in his neck and spine.
“It was tough initially when I had to … hang up the cleats, hang up the pads, hang up the helmet,” Orr said. “But like I said, I had great support from my family and the organization. … Talking to the organization, they were like, ‘I know you want to get right into coaching. We want you to come right back up here and get to work, and I did that. I learned what it took to be a coach in the National Football League.”
Orr worked as a coaching and personnel assistant for the Ravens from 2017-2018, then spent two years as a coaching analyst. His first stint as a position coach came in 2021 as the outside linebackers coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
After one season there, Orr returned to Baltimore and spent the past two seasons working with the inside linebackers, which included a pair of Pro Bowl selections this year in Queen and Roquan Smith.
“I have an immense amount of respect for ‘Zo’ and the way he goes about work, day in and day out,” Smith said in a statement released by the team. “While it’s unfortunate that his career was cut short due to an injury, I feel like he carries that passion over to the game of football and coaching.”
Smith called Orr a “great fit” for the defense and added, “I’m fired up with him leading the charge.”
Photo Credit: Joey Pulone/Baltimore Ravens