John Harbaugh's Recent Signings In NY Might Reveal Much About Ravens WR Failures

When a franchise falls as short of expectations as the Ravens did last year, and fire a coach with over 15 years on the job, a blame game will ensue.

There is a battle for optics – a struggle for hearts and minds about what truly went wrong and which parties were most responsible for it. Depending on the situation, clearly the football operations department had some massive whiffs on draft picks and signings at critical position over the years like pass rusher and receiver. And, they would tell you, privately, in some of those cases it was a failure from the coaches to sufficiently develop that talent and put it in position to succeed.

There were some awful traits that characterized the 2024 and 2025 Ravens, and we might never know the full truth about what went into certain personnel failings and how much John Harbaugh, as tenured as he was a head coach, had a hand in those decisions being such significant mistakes.

But for as early as it is in Harbaugh’s regime with the Giants, where he clearly commands full authority over football operations (with general manager Joe Schoen keeping his job coming as a shock to many in the industry) I couldn’t help but watch their flurry of signings last week and shake my head. Harbaugh couldn’t help himself reuniting with Odell Beckham, Jr after a brutal run in Baltimore together and also added veteran receiver Braxton Berrios and Ju-Ju Smith Schuster.

Is this 2020? They able to back to the future in East Rutherford?

A Young Man's Game

Even with some of their serious injuries at the receiver spot, this was over-the-top. And it feels like Harbaugh telling on himself about the constant stream of over-the-hill and, subsequently, often over-paid, receivers that have been showing up in Owings Mills, year after year. But not this year! At least not yet!

Hopefully the Ravens resist the urge to add one along the lines of what Harbaugh just did – guys who cannot separate and get deep and lack burst and speed. It’s a young man’s game at that position, and even with rookie coordinator Declan Doyle almost certain to use 11 personnel (three receivers) far more than we’ve seen in Baltimore for a long time, they desperately need to get a look at their rookie receivers and youngsters like Devontez Walker before they go for DeAndre Hopkins version 8.0.

Not to say that at some point in time they won’t need a proven route runner and winner to bring some leadership and guidance beyond what Zay Flowers, the Ravens’ most accomplished receiver, could provide. But not now. Not during this mini camp stage in which Harbaugh is hording them up the New Jersey Turnpike.

There was probably plenty of overlap between coaches and personnel staff about the long list of aging pass catchers to come this way (Jeremy Maclin and DeSean Jackson and Dez Bryant and Sammy Watkins and I could go on). But perhaps it will prove to be more of a Harbaugh habit than a DeCosta fetish.

I certainly hope so.

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