Ravens Coaching Search Indicates Numbered Days for DC

No one should be comfortable with an 8-9 season, especially when that's arriving in place of championship expectations.

The Baltimore Ravens indicated their willingness to make whatever drastic changes are needed to get back on top two days after missing out on the playoffs when they fired John Harbaugh after 18 seasons as the squad's head coach. And once the front office removes the coaching staff's linchpin, other dominoes usually fall shortly afterwards.

Todd Monken and Zach Orr are the next two top-ranking on-field figures that everyone's looking at. Offensive coordinator Monken is already starting to field head coaching interviews elsewhere, having posted a middle-of-the-road scoring scheme despite a lethargic offensive line and a quarterback hitched with numerous injuries as a direct result of that lack of protection. If nothing else, Monken is just trying to go where he's wanted, with Harbaugh's dismissal reportedly resulting from his refusal to fire his offensive coordinator at season's end.

Interestingly, Orr's place in the Ravens' future has gone relatively overlooked. The defensive coordinator presided over a bottom-10 stopping unit, now underwhelming in both of his two seasons on the job. Maybe he hasn't been a talking point because everyone's assuming that the new head coach is going to clean house, and in Orr's case, that might be for good reason.

Straying from Baltimore's Identity

Over their brief spell as an NFL operation, the Ravens have put together a recognizable identity through their hard-hitting defense through contributors largely compiled through savvy draft picks.

It wouldn't be fair to imply that Orr was working with a stacked deck, just like how Harbaugh and Monken never had all of the offensive linemen and weapons to truly contend for genuine playoff standing. But his process, the one that got exposed when defensive captain Kyle Hamilton was forced to miss the second half of the Ravens' regular season finale, deserves all of the questions that the fans have pitched at the franchise.

Orr's token "prevent offense" strategy resulted in a lot of soft coverage, which regularly enabled opposing quarterbacks to get back into games by stringing together so many small plays on the lowly-ranked pass defense. They warded off a few game-winning drives between fall and winter, but there was a reason why these guys were always on the ropes in the fourth quarter.

Baltimore Ravens Defensive Coordinator Zach Orr — Nov 2, 2014; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Baltimore Ravens linebacker Zach Orr (54) catches the ball during warm-ups before playing the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

The coaching staff over-relied on older pieces who weren't worth as much trust as they once were, with Marlon Humphrey getting repeatedly burned over the course of the season while the pass-rush demonstrated few signs of life. Their rushing defense somehow fell in the middle of the pack despite nearly every running back they faced enjoying career days in their matchups, taking advantage of the stoppers' season-long inability to tackle.

Orr's blitz package was even closer to the bottom of the barrel, another category in which he lacked the deceptive tactics of his beloved predecessor, current Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald.

Orr, still just 33 years old, has good standing in the Ravens organization, having enjoyed a Pro Bowl season in his short time as an NFL linebacker, and he earned some trust in picking the defense up from their slow star in his rookie year as defensive coordinator. But after a real serving size has revealed the mismanagement of this most recent roster, he seems like the next-likeliest candidate to feel the sweeping changes of the offseason.

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