Ravens on Full Alert As Technology Comes to the Forefront

Ravens coach John Harbaugh is not thrilled about virtual playbooks and meetings.

The increased dependence on technology because of restrictions with COVID-19 also brings a bigger threat of hacking, along with other potential issues and breakdowns.

Harbaugh said the Ravens are taking extra precaution to make sure their proprietary information is not compromised.

In fact, it's been an ongoing conversation with the team's technology team.

“Yes, it’s a big concern. My level of involvement has been every time I read something in The Wall Street Journal or New York Times that talks about how messed up Zoom is or some of these other deals that came out this morning, I immediately text it to our IT people," Harbaugh said. "[Director of football administration] Nick Matteo is one of those guys, and they assure me that we are doing everything humanly possible, and I remind them that that’s what Wells Fargo and all those other places said about our private information.

"I’ve got some real concerns about that, and hopefully we’ll be okay. It’s kind of like that. We’ll see what happens. I really wouldn’t want the opposing coaches to have our playbook or our draft meetings. That would be preferable, if we can stay away from that.”

Teams will have to rely more heavily on these technological platforms during the NFL Draft if personnel still cannot congregate at the main headquarters. Baltimore general manager Eric DeCosta is confident the team will be able to seamlessly adapt to the changes.

DeCosta, however, has other concerns about security, but they have little to do with technology.m

"I have more confidence in Zoom than I do in Ozzie [Newsome], John [Harbaugh], Steve [Bisciotti] and Dick [Cass], with a copy of our draft board that they just leave in the car on their front seat or something like that," DeCosta said.

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