Declan Doyle Not Hiding From His Influences While Trying To Create New Ravens Offense

It’s been a long time since any coach on the Ravens staff was being askied about what its like to create a playbook for the first time or adjust to calling plays at an Organized Team Activity practice for the first time.

But, during rookie offensive coordinator Declan Doyle’s media session after practice Tuesday, a good bit of the intrigue and questioning was about exactly what steps the coordinator is taking to indoctrinate himself into this new position and put his stamp on an offense that needs major improvement from a year ago.

June football is barely an approximation of what September will hold, let alone January, but these sessions are honestly more vital for Doyle – considering the level of expectations here and how much of the job he hasn’t done before – than pretty much any of the players, and it was clear that he’s trying to simulate as much of game day as possible, which acknowledging that this is nothing like the real thing.

Here’s what stood out as Doyle was able to speak publicly to the offense he is trying to create on the field for the first time.

This Will Be A Sean Payton/Ben Johnson Hybrid

A Doyle regular season offense doesn’t exist. Doyle himself recognized that some – or perhaps much – of what he things is going to work might have to be tweaked or scraped. But he did not shy away from what we have been drilling down on in this space for weeks as we dissect what 2026 could hold – Doyle is a product of his coaching family trees and that’s largely Payton (in New Orleans and Denver) and one year with Johnson in Chicago.

“Being able to pull from different systems to organize an offensive process has been awesome,” he said, which makes us feel even better about the studies we have done on Payton/Johnson tendencies on first down, as well as in short-yardage.

Doyle lit up when asked about putting a playbook together for the first time.

“It’s cool, because I’ve spent a lot of time not doing that,” Doyle said, “where you’re working your way up under people who have opinions.”

It’s clear all along Doyle has been starting to weave his own tapestry of what he wants to lean into most from the offenses he’s been involved in, to create his own hybrid. “You pull ideas as you go through all the different spots, and you have opinions on the ways it’s being coached and taught.”

Doyle isn’t trying to pretend he’s something he’s not – even if top receiver Zay Flowers joined Lamar Jackson in gushing about his genius lately. There’s nothing tangible Doyle can prove in June, outwardly, and he seemed quite sincere when accepting that what he thinks “is going to work here,” might not be what takes hold.

“You’ve got to be able to pivot,” Doyle said. “…Either hit the gas or hit the breaks.”

Tempo Matters, Cadence Matters

This offense is going to lean into a more sped-up cadence far more often than we’ve seen in past coordinators. It’s something Payton and Johnson prize and it’s clearly already impacted Doyle’s nascent ascent to concocting his own thing. While there weren’t many specifics discussed about this new entity on offense, the ability to vary cadence to try to “stress the defense” as Doyle put it is already on display even in these football facsimiles.

“A lot of times it gets overlooked and not worked on enough,” Doyle said. “A lot of times guys in college are coming from faster systems, and they’re not utilizing cadence as much. It’s a weapon we can use … We need to make it an advantage to ourselves … We have to work on different cadences.”

The Ravens have generally been stuck in a sluggish mode routinely among the slowest to snap the ball in the NFL since Jackson became their QB. They have utilized the third most time on the play clock of any team since 2019; Doyle and Payton aren’t operating that way and neither will Doyle.

This is going to create another layer to the inherent learning curve, especially pre-snap with the shifts and motions on top of the changing pace of snaps, but once the season begins Doyle called those infractions “unacceptable.”

Expect More Rave Reviews From Locker Room

Doyle having just turned 30 is a dynamic the players on this offense – both new (ie rookies) and returning – are going to continue to embrace. Jackson spoke of how “smooth” the offense was last week and the different ways he can relate to someone at the point in his life Doyle is (they are nearly the same age).

Doyle is quite bright and is relating to these players and teaching them in a style much different from how Greg Roman and Todd Monken – grizzled coaches with proven systems and more of a bully pulpit – used to. Of course, Jackson did win MVPs with them.

Hope springs eternal in the NFL this time of year, and we won’t know for months whether this offense has the goods or not. But the age dynamic is working in his favor now with top receiver Zay Flowers referring to his as a “genius” and noting “it’s easier to relate to him; we talk like friends.”

And when Flowers said: “instead of having someone demanding something,” you couldn’t help but think he just kinda called Monk a 'Boomer." Players absorb info differently now and certainly are coached differently through the amateur ranks and college.

This staff is leaning into that college dynamic. Plenty of old heads would cringe about that Flowers using the F-word (friend, get your head out of the gutter) about a coach. We’ll see if Doyle has enough bad cop in him, and whether or not they end up regretting not having more proven old heads around on the offensive staff come Thanksgiving.

His Game-Day Routine Is Uncertain

Doyle is trying to replicate game situations every chance he gets during these limited sessions and glorified seven-on-sevens. He’s a thoughtful guy and obviously detail oriented so is taking a measured approach to whether he will perform his play calling duties from the sideline or the coaching box, something that can’t be determined on practice fields behind the team facility.

So Doyle will try both in the preseason and then make a decision. "There are pluses and minuses to both,” he said. “I’d like to experience both.”

Head coach Jesse Minter, an established defensive play caller, is trying to give Doyle as much to work with as possible, so they are having plays called in during some sessions of the OTAs, which Doyle admitted was a first for him to see done this time of year.

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