Ravens Coordinator Declan Doyle Prioritizing Player Development In Week 2 Seems Odd

Ravens offensive coordinator Declan Doyle addressed some of his many questionable decisions that played a heavy role in blowing an early 11-point lead in Sunday’s’ debacle to the Saints, and, oddly, spoke about the need to develop players rather than simply win in just his second game calling plays.

Doyle’s weekly Thursday press conference was quite different than all that came prior, when players were regaling him for being a “genius” and gushing about how “explosive” this scheme was. And some of his answers were, frankly, bizarre. Doyle managed 84 net yards from 26 plays in the second half – that’s pure failure - and he abandoned some heavy personnel in favor of doomed 11-personnel looks. Doyle was probed about a failed deep shot to special teams guy Chris Moore in a critical third-and-one, and a subsequent punt, as well as why Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson didn’t show up more in the run game in the second half.

“It falls squarely on the play caller,” Doyle said of the play calls that are most in question.

What struck me and others as strange, however, as Doyle spoke, was how much emphasis was placed on player development for a Super Bowl or bust team, and the influence general manager Eric DeCosta – who likes to watch games stalking from the sidelines – cast over in-game thought patterns. Doyle sounded more like a functionary of the personnel department on Thursday at times talking about carving our roles for late-round pick tight ends Matthew Hibner and Josh Cuevas rather than an offensive coordinator living in the moment and trying to win each play in an effort to win the game.

“Trying to get those young guys involved, whether that’s Hibner or Josh, I think they’re both very capable players,” Doyle said of his rookie tight ends when asked about why do-everything blocking TE/Joker Durham Smythe played significantly less in Week 2 than Week 1 despite being a vital cog in their running and passing success.

DeCosta hired a rookie head coach, Jesse Minter, and a rookie coordinator, by design and never interviewed an experienced head coaching option. All of this, for better or worse, is on him. It’s supposed to be a Super Bowl roster yet 20% of the initial 53 were rookies and, boy, I surely hope there isn’t pressure being exerted to push them early on.

Player Development?

Smythe played 40 snaps in a blowout win over the Colts, when he could have been rested late but wasn’t. On Sunday, Smythe played just 31 snaps, and only 13 in the second half, while Hibner and Cuevas played 14 in total that half. Smythe out-snapped them 18-10 in a strong first half Sunday, and he out-snapped them 40-26 in the dominant opener.

And reserve receivers Devontez Walker (12 snaps) and return guy LaJohntay Wester (11) played nearly as many reps as Smythe and Henry in the second half (13 each). And when asked about getting away from his heavier veteran personnel as the game went on Doyle sounded more like he reports directly to DeCosta than Minter.

“You’re seeing us try to develop that room,” Minter said of a TE room legitimately under scrutiny this offseason. “And there’s going to be times when you have to play without Durham, just the way the season goes, and the way that room always goes. And we want to make sure those guys are ready to go when they get their number called.”

So that process starts, in earnest, six quarters into the season, with the Saints destroying a bad offensive line and in need of help in way only Smythe, of this group of TE/WRs can provide it?

The Ravens had a +7.92 EPA with Smythe on the field and -2.97 when not. Even in barely using Henry in the second half, there was still a role for this key player over the rookies or journeyman who got reps. The Ravens had a +11.80 EPA with Mark Andrews and Smythe on the field; it was pretty obvious in real-time which personnel groups were working, but we still got more 11 personnel than anything else (-6.67 EPA).

With Andrews and Smythe on the field (15 plays) Doyle rolled up 162 yards (10.8/play), with a rushing TD, while Jackson went 7/7 for 127 yards a TD pass. Especially down two top receivers plus your left tackle, you would try to put the game in the hands of Jackson, Henry, Andrews and Smythe (as a blocking functionary), because Wester is a return guy and Moore is a 33-year old who was just on your practice squad and Hibner and Cuevas are day-three draft picks.

Hibner and Smythe together in the backfield, in heavy groupings, did provide a winning look for the Ravens, but that happened only four times. I still don’t get it.

What’s The Focus?

Call me crazy, but I want my offensive play caller – especially one who got hired at age 29 with zero prior experience actually doing this job – to try to be exclusively focused on winning the game and leaning into what’s working and staying away from what’s not. I want him being more fixated on feeding Henry than cultivating a tight end room Week 2. It’s part of why I was banging the drum for Darren Waller all offseason (2 TDs Sunday for Carolina).

After the way the last two years played out here, I’m far less concerned with how many reps rudimentary contributors get (but boy is being able to crow about how the 47th guy on his roster being a hidden gem right up DeCosta’s alley). This isn’t even about Doyle, it’s about the people truly in charge, and what he was brought into.

It’s a portal into how this roster has been constructed on the offensive side of the ball (OL and play maker issues) and the power dynamic at play with DeCosta here for a generation and most of the coaching staff doing something they’ve never done before. Baltimore and Miami, the most tanking team in the NFL, are the only staffs in the league without anyone with prior NFL head coaching experience in place anywhere. Hmm.

“He can’t say that out loud, even if that’s being drilled into his head,” said one longtime NFL executive who has been involved in the hiring of many coaches and coordinators. “He sounds like a personnel guy.

“If this is a rebuilding team, or it’s Week 15 and the season is going down the drain, talk to me about player development. He’s supposed to be trying to win the game and win a Super Bowl. These aren’t preseason games, man. That’s what the preseason is for.”

One general manager who saw the exchange told me: “Very odd. It shows you how much control DeCosta has.”

We’ve seen Pat Ricard play 50 snaps with regularity in a role similar to Smythe’s. We know certain run concepts and tactics work pretty damn well in the regular season with this roster and this QB and RB.. Play to your strengths, don’t outsmart yourself and if you’re hearing the GMs voice in your head game day, tune him out.

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