Declan Doyle's 3 Biggest Immediate Challenges As The Ravens Rookie Coordinator

The Ravens haven’t exactly made things easy for rookie play caller Declan Doyle

The 30-year-old takes over as offensive coordinator at basically the same age as Lamar Jackson, only without any of the experience. Jackson is embroiled in another contract stalemate with the team, his attendance at Organized Team Activities can’t be taken for granted and there are a host of personnel questions about this offense in 2026.

Todd Monken is a skilled and accomplished play caller, and he couldn’t get this offense to be very functional a year ago. Excuse me for not giving Doyle – who comes from a Sean Payton family tree that has produced a slew of misses as play callers and maybe one hit (Joe Brady) – the benefit of the doubt. I believe he’s got his work cut out for him, and he has some difficult problems to solve.

Here are his biggest challenges:

Getting Lamar To Buy In

The onus is totally on the coach to maximize what they get out of the starting quarterback whenever he is in the building and certainly Doyle already learned his lesson about overstepping what he should say about entirely voluntary sessions. Of course, with no starting center on the roster – if that’s still the case some a week from now – it’s going to be even more difficult to get the install going as well as one would home.

Jackson to this point in his career has only been with coordinators who were tired-and-true and proven in what they could do. Lamar can be unique and he’s not cookie cutter and reaching him and connecting with him can be tricky based on plenty we’ve heard over the years.

Doyle doesn’t bring the bully pulpit those other coordinators did and Doyle can’t reference all the things he’s accomplished in the past like they could. Totally different dynamic. And if the cast around Jackson isn’t as good as it was for, say, Monken, two years ago, that will only make it more difficult.

And if the 32-year-old running backs actually looks like a 32-year-old running back, then I could see even more cause for alarm in this QB/OC combo.

Scheming Up Better Starts

Again, you aren’t going to be able to convince me this will be a better offensive line this season or that the roster has requisite proven pass catchers. So this staff better have some new ideas and tricks up its sleeve. And, yeah, I’m a skeptic. I’d put more money on Jesse Minter blowing out his offensive staff after one year like his buddy Mike Macdonald did in Seattle than I would on this staff being close to as competent as Monken’s.

Anywho, the Ravens offense was stagnant and predictable and bogged down by penalties and poor blocking to start games, and it torpedoed the significant gains they made in 2023 and 2024.In case you forget just how far they tumbled, and the hole Doyle needs to dig out of, here’s a friendly reminder:

First Half Stats 2024 2025

Points Per Drive 2.63 (4th) 2.10 (15th)

Touchdown % 32.3% (3rd) 21.8% (18th)

Yards/Play 6.9% (1st) 5.4% (17th)

Air Yds/Att 8.5 (1st) 6.5 (17th)

Yards/Rush 5.4 (1st) 4.9 (5th)

Big Plays (20+yds) 39 (2nd) 28 (15th)

If you want to sell me on Minter’s defense making significant gains and taking pressure off the offense, absolutely. And that could make numbers approximating the 2025 figures equate to more wins and a better season. I’m also not sold this group gets to the 2025 levels, and perhaps not close to it.

Fixing The Red Zone

Jackson was an absolute RZ genius in his two MVP season and the other season (2024) when he should have been MVP. Monken in that same season had the Ravens operating as the premier first-down, second-down, third-down and redzone offense in football. Then it all fell apart.

And you’re telling me Doyle, who has never been granted permission to call a play anywhere else, including all that time with Payton (who, by the way finally divested himself of play-calling for 2026, long after Doyle was gone), has the answers? And he has them without Tyler Linderbaum and Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar here anymore? And has them stuck with another year of perpetually disgruntled Rashod Bateman and with his best target, Zay Jones, a no-show in the redzone and endzone, as fully explained here.

The Ravens had 59 redzone drives last season, top 10 in football, but their 47.5% conversion rate was dismal (27th), they resorted to Derrick Henry wild cat passes and lacked sufficient playmakers in tight quarters, and Mark Andrews is a year older and slower and somehow now the top option at “move” TE. The rookie receivers and tight ends should help in theory, but we’re talking mid-round pics and late-round picks who all have some warts.

Defaulting to Lamar running more in tight-quarters might not be the call, either, as he approaches age 30. The year before they led the NFL at 74.2%. So did Monken get dumb all of a sudden or were the personnel failures at the line of scrimmage undermining everything else?

Good luck, Declan!

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