Did Lamar Jackson, Ravens players essentially get John Harbaugh fired?

Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti stunned members of the football world when he announced on Tuesday that he had relieved head coach John Harbaugh of his duties "following a comprehensive evaluation of the season and the overall direction of our organization." 

It sounds like conversations involving quarterback Lamar Jackson and other Ravens players resulted in Bisciotti parting ways with Harbaugh less than 48 hours after Baltimore's season came to an end via a brutal Week 18 loss at the rival Pittsburgh Steelers. 

John Harbaugh lost the Ravens locker room before dismissal

"It is not just [that] they didn't go far enough in the playoffs," Ian Rapoport said during a Tuesday appearance on NFL Network, per Scott Polacek of Bleacher Report. "My understanding, after talking to several sources involved, is simply that Harbaugh lost the locker room. At the end, players just simply had doubts about whether or not they wanted to play for him as their head coach."

For a piece published early Wednesday morning, Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic noted that "the Ravens were leaning toward moving forward with Harbaugh" before "plans changed as [Tuesday] unfolded."

"The result was something neither side initially anticipated," Zrebiec continued. "That was clear by the Ravens not even having a statement ready for when the news broke Tuesday evening. That was clear by the fact that Harbaugh didn’t even get the opportunity to inform his staff of his departure."

Meanwhile, Rapoport added that the "opinion" of Baltimore players was "valued" and "listened to" before Harbaugh was officially shown the door.

John Harbaugh, Lamar Jackson weren't on the same page?

"It is not just Lamar Jackson," Rapoport explained. "Now, it started, it sounded like to me, with Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson not being on the same page. And it continued throughout the locker room. Maybe not 100 percent, but more than enough for the Baltimore Ravens to say among the reasons to move on, this was a big one."

It certainly now seems that there may have been at least some legitimacy to the recent report that claimed Harbaugh had allegedly grown "tired of" Jackson after Jackson had fallen asleep in some team meetings. Jackson raised eyebrows when he declined to confirm or deny that he wanted to continue playing for Harbaugh while speaking with reporters shortly after the Ravens lost to the Steelers in Week 18.

In total, Jackson accumulated a postseason record as a starter of 3-5 under Harbaugh. They tallied just one AFC Championship Game appearance and no Super Bowl trips together.