Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert handed off to wide receiver Derius Davis, who hoped to carry around left end on a bit of misdirection. Except Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton tossed aside receiver Keenan Allen attempting to block and dropped Davis for a 2-yard loss.
Several weeks later, the Houston Texans tried to run a screen pass to running back Devin Singletary. Hamilton fought off his block and stood up Singletary, and Roquan Smith added a thunderous finishing touch as Singletary was buried after a 2-yard gain.
Those plays are just two of many that epitomize how the Ravens’ defense is anchored in physicality. The coaches may change, the players may change — as they will, potentially seismically so, this offseason — but a team built on the foundation of Ray Lewis and the physical, old-school philosophy of its head coach, and one that taps into the blue-collar psyche of its city, is going to hit and hit hard.
“We play a brand of football that people don’t want to play,” linebacker Patrick Queen said. “Everybody wants to be out here being cute, playing basketball on grass and stuff, and we aren’t with all that. You can do all that stuff. We’re just going to hit you in the mouth every play.”
Queen is one of several key defensive players expected to leave as a free agent this spring, and the Ravens are also reeling from a plundering of their defensive staff. Coordinator Mike Macdonald, defensive line coach Anthony Weaver and defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson all have moved on to promotions elsewhere.
Macdonald has been named head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, Wilson is the new defensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans and Weaver was named to that job with the Miami Dolphins.
Macdonald was the architect of a Ravens defense that was historically impressive in 2023. The Ravens became the first defense in NFL history to lead the league in sacks (60), turnovers (31) and scoring defense, allowing 16.5 points a game.
The Ravens held their opponents to no more than one touchdown in nine of 17 regular-season games as they rolled to a 13-4 record and the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Then in the playoffs, Macdonald’s defense shut out both Houston and Kansas City in the second half.
That made the Ravens’ offensive mistakes in the AFC championship game all the more frustrating and costly. The Ravens committed three turnovers and abandoned their top-ranked running game in a 17-10 loss to the Chiefs.
Orr Takes Over With “Organized Chaos”
With Macdonald off to Seattle, the Ravens have turned to Zach Orr as the team’s new defensive coordinator, and he said the Ravens’ defensive style will be “organized chaos.”
Orr’s playing career was cut short by an injury, but he quickly ascended the coaching ranks. At age 31, Orr is one of the youngest coordinators in the league. He spent the past two years as the Ravens’ inside linebackers coach, where he mentored a pair of Pro Bowl picks in Smith and Queen.
“Zach is super talented, super enthusiastic,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “He’s very smart. He has prepared for that job. … I think when you’re a linebackers coach, that’s an advantage because you’re in the middle of the defense. You understand the whole defense inside and out. You have a big picture. [It] helps with defensive play calling, for sure.”
Other than one season as an assistant coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Orr has spent his entire professional career with the Ravens. He made the team as an undrafted rookie out of North Texas in 2014 and joined a long list of undrafted inside linebackers who blossomed with the team.
In 2016, Orr 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 was forced to retire because of a congenital condition in his neck and spine.
Before long, Orr got a call from Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti essentially inviting him back into the organization on the coaching end.
“I didn’t have time to sit there and hang my head,” Orr said. “I got right back to work, and they helped teach me and get me ready for my second career, which is coaching. They’ve been with me every step of the way.”
Orr worked as a coaching and personnel assistant for the Ravens in 2017 and 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.
A year later, he returned to Baltimore as inside linebackers coach. Now after two seasons working under Macdonald and firmly rooted in Baltimore — “I bleed purple and black,” he said — Orr succeeds Macdonald and hopes to continue the Ravens’ bruising defensive legacy.
“I want [the defense] to be violent,” he said. “Very violent and physical. That’s just the standard here. Everything we’re going to do is going to be with physicality and violence.”
Players say that message is imparted from the minute they join the organization.
Defensive tackle Michael Pierce, who originally made the Ravens as an undrafted rookie in 2016, calls it “the brand.”
“When you come in here, that is stressed,” Pierce said. “By now, most people know the brand that is synonymous with the Ravens. Anytime you have that decal on your helmet, you know what’s expected of you.”
New Faces, Same Idea
The Ravens’ defense in 2024 could undergo major changes, with more than a dozen players set to hit free agency in March. That includes Pro Bowl picks Queen and defensive tackle Justin Madubuike, edge rushers Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy, and defensive backs Arthur Maulet, Ronald Darby and Geno Stone.
There also figure to be at least three new coaches, and Orr said filling out that defensive staff topped his to-do list once he earned the defensive coordinator job.
Orr’s task will be to assimilate any new faces into the scheme, but with the organization’s history, and the punishing reputation of the AFC North, players know what they sign up for.
Indeed, to a college player on a predraft visit, a wide-eyed rookie or a veteran on a midseason tryout, posters of Lewis, Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata and other thumpers on the walls of the team’s Under Armour Performance Center convey the message loud and clear.
“It starts up top, with Coach Harbaugh,” Hamilton said. “Everything he preaches [is] just physicality on both sides of the ball and special teams. It’s just the way that we operate. … I feel like they do a good job of drafting people who have that mindset, signing people who have that mindset. Even if you may not [have it] when you come in, you adapt once you get here. You really have no choice.”
Hamilton and Smith are two of the poster boys for this generation of Ravens defenders — fast, physical players who are fundamentally sound tacklers and who exact punishment upon anyone who harbors the idea of carrying the ball against them.
Smith, quarterback Lamar Jackson said, “brought the Ray Lewis juice back for our generation.”
Regardless of how the roster turns over, with Orr building off Macdonald’s philosophy, with Smith bringing the “Ray Lewis juice” and Hamilton patrolling all over the field, the Ravens’ physicality will endure.
“We have that mindset,” Smith said. “Line ’em all up, we’ll knock ’em down.”
Photo Credits: Kenya Allen/PressBox and Joey Pulone/Baltimore Ravens
Issue 285: February/March 2024
Originally published Feb. 21, 2024