Declan Doyle Could Be One and Done As Baltimore Ravens Offensive Coordinator

The impressive young rising star might not be long for the Charm City franchise if a certain historical trend for the Baltimore Ravens in the Lamar Jackson era repeats itself.

May 10, 2025; Lake Forest, IL, USA; Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle answers questions after rookie minicamp at Halas Hall. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images | David Banks-Imagn Images

Nearly a decade ago, Sean McVay hit the ground running as the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams in 2017, taking the league by storm with a seemingly instant revitalization of the once-downtrodden franchise, led by his innovative offense.

Since then, the NFL has been on the hunt for the next wunderkind on that side of the ball, and the Baltimore Ravens just might have found him with first-year offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, who is widely viewed as a rising star in the profession at just 30 years old.

It sounds like an overly optimistic and extremely hyperbolic statement to compare a first-time play-caller to someone who already proved to be arguably the greatest offensive mind of his generation and all-time. After all, McVay has guided his team to a pair of Super Bowl appearances, losing the first and winning the second, and shown the ability to be revolutionary several times over already.

However, where the lofty projection begins to come into lies within how Doyle is already being perceived and talked about by peers on the Ravens coaching staff and the players he's tasked with setting up to succeed in Baltimore.

Both defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver and two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Zay Flowers were asked to give their impressions of Doyle thus far at the conclusion of the team's third and final Organized Team Activities session last week. They not only spoke glowingly and gave ringing endorsements but also used much of the same complimentary verbiage and described the same rare traits that McVay is renowned for and that separate him from the pack.

"He is a genius," Flowers said. "He has stuff that I've never seen – plays and routes and stuff to help you get open. He teaches you in a certain way where you remember the plays where there's not too much stress on you. But, he gives you a lot, and he talks fast, too. I'm like, 'Hey, Coach, chill, chill.' He is a genius, though. I love it. We've been loving it so far."

Weaver went as far as to describe Doyle as a "human computer" because of not only how knowledgeable he is about the game but also for how amazing his recall is of previous experiences and playbooks.

"When he starts spitting out offensive information and plays from his past, it's like, he has this Rolodex of plays in his head," Weaver said. "He's almost like he has a photographic memory. So, I look forward to all the things that he's going to do with our offense."

When McVay was first making waves as an up-and-coming head coach candidate and even after he got hired by the Rams, it almost became a weekly gimmick anytime he stepped to the podium to address the media that his photographic memory and tremendous recall was put to the test. He always responded the same way by obliging the request and rattling off play-calls that were sometimes more than a dozen words long, the part of the game and situation it was called, as well as what the quarterback's responsibilities were.

It remains to be seen if Doyle will get asked to do the same next time he meets with local and national media. Nevertheless, his meticulous nature and emphasis on being detail-oriented about everything, ranging from execution of the plays to mastery of pre-snap communication and procedures such as cadence, suggest he possesses the mind of a future head coach.

"Even going against them, they do so many things right now from a cadence variation [with] some of their shifts and motions that cause problems and make us have long conversations up there in the defensive staff room," Weaver said. "Anytime that's happening, you know they're doing the right things on that side of the ball."

Doyle's career arc is on similar meteoric rise as McVay's

Oct 12, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; Washington Redskins offensive coordinator Sean McVay (left) and head coach Jay Gruden against the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cardinals defeated the Redskins 30-20. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Both of them got their starts in the NFL as offensive assistants and were groomed by a pair of brilliant minds. For McVay, it was two former Super Bowl winners in Jon Gruden and Mike Shanahan. As for Doyle, he spent the bulk of his time as an assistant under Sean Payton, another championship-winning coach, at two different stops and was with Ben Johnson last year with the Chicago Bears.

Unlike McVay, who handled play-calling duties for the bulk of his first stint as an offensive coordinator with the Washington Commanders, this year will be Doyle's first year doing so, as he held the title in name only with the Bears last season in his first time serving in that role.

While some pundits are skeptical that his age might make it more difficult for him to command a room in which there are multiple star players under his purview that are older than him or either at or around the same age, his players believe it makes him more relatable.

"It's easier to relate to him because we can just talk," Flowers said. "We can talk like we are friends and what he expects of me and what he expects of us. So, it's easier to communicate in that way. Instead of having somebody just demanding something, demanding something; he is going to let you know what he expects of you."

The last two times the Ravens hired a new offensive coordinator since Lamar Jackson became the full-time starter at quarterback has led to instant success and resulted in the unit posting not only league-leading, but record-breaking numbers in both rushing yards and passing efficiency.

Both of Jackson's MVP-winning campaigns came in his first years with Greg Roman in 2019 and Todd Monken in 2023. If history repeats itself with Doyle, who doesn't have previous NFL play-calling experience like his predecessors did, and Jackson is even a finalist for league MVP for the fourth time in his career, he would very likely be one and done in Baltimore.

Unlike Monken and Roman, who interviewed for head coach jobs elsewhere after being architects of historic offenses, Doyle's age, paired with the boost his reputation as an innovator would get if the Ravens field a top five offense and make a deep playoff run would put him on track to be a head coach at 31 years old, the same age McVay was when he got hired by the Rams.