NFL Still Loves Ravens vs. Chargers ‘Harbaugh Bowl’ for Primetime

The NFL made sure to put the Chargers in a key primetime game again this year.

Justin Herbert | David Butler II-Imagn Images

When the Los Angeles Chargers play the Baltimore Ravens in Week 10 next season, it won’t have the luxury of being classified as The Harbaugh Bowl any longer. 

Jim Harbaugh remains head man for the Chargers, even if all the headlines and buzz this offseason around the team have centered on the arrival of big-name offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel. 

But Jim’s brother, John, left the Ravens this offseason. In a poetic twist, the Ravens replaced him with Jesse Minter, former defensive coordinator for Jim’s Chargers. 

The fun connections don’t stop there. Tops among the rest, of course, is Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz’s longtime connections to the Ravens. 

It is, in other words, still a hot item for the NFL when it comes time to make the schedule. 

Ravens vs. Chargers in primetime was priority for the NFL

Jim Harbaugh | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

One doesn’t need a deep explanation to know the NFL cares much about these sorts of connections when crafting the schedule. 

The Chargers visit the Ravens on a Monday night in Week 10, November 16. Blake Jones, the NFL senior director of broadcasting, recently told Eric Smith of Chargers.com that they put the game in that window hoping that both teams would really be in full gear by then. 

"All those connections really just add on top of what is already a great AFC contender matchup. It's two really good football teams, two great quarterbacks going at it,” Jones said. “That one, we used to call it The Harbaugh Bowl, but it still has that same level of engagement and same level of excitement and we wanted to make sure it was going to be in a featured window.”

So, the other thing here: The data and metrics used still very much support this being a popular, desired matchup, despite one of the Harbaughs exiting the stage. 

It helps that both teams project to be great. Justin Herbert vs. Lamar Jackson is a fantastic quarterback matchup in a league where there just aren't that many in this particular elite bracket. 

Both quarterbacks, too, will likely need to deal with defenses that project to be elite or close to it again. 

Tack on the many fun connections and storylines between the two organizations and it’s not hard to see why, despite needing to strip the game of its fancy Harbaugh Bowl name, Ravens-Chargers remains a priority for the NFL. 

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