John Harbaugh Remains Ravens Scapegoat

Modern sports coaches can only be so safe from losing their distinguished, limited jobs across their respective leagues. Competent managers are frequently scapegoated amidst failures to meet expectations, ownership changes or plain bad luck, a turnover culture that's especially pronounced within an athletic industry that's primarily concerned with asking the question, "What have you done for me lately?"

This is where John Harbaugh makes for such an enthralling protagonist within the story of the modern-day Baltimore Ravens. He's one of very few coaches to have held a team's top coaching job down for over a decade, but unlike Andy Reid, or Bill Belichick before him, Harbaugh's sufficiently lacking in recently-earned hardware to show for himself.

His last championship, Super Bowl XLVII, now stands a decade away from the current iteration of the squad, with an entire era of underperforming ball separating the present and the last time the often-stacked roster tasted any glory. And now that the Ravens' contenting hopes look to have been dramatically dashed in accumulating a 6-7 record through three months, his job is looking less secure than ever.

Shouldering the Blame

Heads usually roll after seasons of expectations fall as flat as whatever it is that the Ravens have put forth over the 2025 regular season, as they've failed to take advantage of the wide-open AFC North in adding a third-consecutive division title and another playoff appearance to Baltimore's list of accolades.

Injuries and the occasional questionable call have surely played a role in the frequent losses, but most teams are peppered with one, or both, of those common football concerns. That doesn't come close to explaining the full extent of their nagging scoring or defensive struggles, many of which can be traced back to the Ravens' personnel and how they're being united and deployed.

Harbaugh and the front office have made adjustments to fill the pass-rush hole in moving star safety Kyle Hamilton closer to the line of scrimmage, but they're still generating embarrassingly-low pressure levels.

Team management also appears to have misjudged the effectiveness of the majority of their scoring core, with nearly everyone from the star receivers to the offensive linemen falling short of an acceptable level of play.

CBS Sports' JP Acosta has taken careful note of how much cohesiveness they've lacked, even at full strength, and now approaches alignment with the antsy fan base.

"On both sides of the ball, the Ravens lack the focus of a championship team," he wrote. "Coverage busts, drops at inopportune times and the lack of any bite up front could potentially sink this team's playoff hopes. The lack of focus falls on the coaching, which is where the Ravens may have to ask themselves some tough questions after the season.