Ravens Uptempo First-Half Offense A Major Sign Of What's To Come

With Ravens players gushing about some of the sexy changes coming to their offense with rookie coordinator Declan Doyle taking over, and the hype about “explosive” plays everywhere and quarterback Lamar Jackson’s new footwork and new verbiage and a shift to more work under center, other changes are easily glossed over.

And while we tried to best prepare as possible for the abundance of change on the way – more early-down, play-action deep shots, more multiplicity for Zay Flowers, new cadence – the idea of a an up-tempo offense fascinated us. And in our conversations with Sean Payton, the heaviest influence on Doyle, and breaking down his offense and the Bears tendencies under Ben Johnson (where Doyle spent 2025) – it was obvious this offense was going to operate faster than anything we’ve ever seen in the Jackson era.

Week 1 did not disappoint in that regard.

No NFL team was more methodical with when the ball was snapped from the time Jackson became a starter in the middle of the 2018 season through last season. Through two offensive coordinators. Against the Colts on Sunday, if you just looked at the overall time-of-possession per play, the Ravens would yet again rank right up there with the slowest teams in the NFL at 33.1 seconds, fourth most sluggish. However, this was a blowout, and they milked a huge lead and ran the final six minutes off the clock on the ground.

In the first half, the Ravens operated at 27.5 seconds TOP/play, the 8th-fastest rate in the first half of any NFL teams in Week 1. From 2019-2025, the Ravens were the fourth slowest offense in the NFL in the first half and the last two years they averaged 30.4 TOP per play in the first two quarters, even as Todd Monken took them further away from the Greg Roman attack Jackson began his career in (8th slowest).

Three seconds is an eternity when it comes to a metric like this. The difference from 1st to 32nd in TOP/play in the league is usually 4 seconds, total. Already flexing this ability to throttle up and throttle down is going to be essential to what Doyle hopes to accomplish.

Tempo, Tempo, Tempo

It made sense for Doyle to want to work fast early.

No one had ever seen his offense before, he had the element of surprise, it’s perfect playing conditions for an offense in a dome on a fast track and defenses are vulnerable early in the season. Especially with a brand new offense like this.

The Colts were running through some linebackers trying to find a rotation that works (still looking!), star defensive tackle DeForest Buckner was in his first game back from neck surgery and with so few regulars playing in the preseason, tackling can be sloppy in September. And it made sense for the Ravens to bleed the clock late (40.3 TOP/play in the second half).

The ability to attack a team in a two-minute look in a non-traditional two-minute setting is something elite offensive minds like Payton and Sean McVay prize, and we’re going to see it more here this year than we have in a long, long time.

“There are defenses where it seems to fit,” Doyle explained at the start of camp, “where you're saying, 'Hey, we're going to have an advantage if we use tempo.' There are teams where you're saying, 'Hey, I would rather us get into a formation, shift, motion, and attack them that way.'

“You always need to have the ability to do both. There are times where your guys might play better; they might be more of a flow unit where you get them on the ball and they're rolling, and the quarterback feels good. Really, that's the guy that you're talking about most. But there are times where you're going to have to mix it and start to speed up or be able to slow it down."

The more you can do, as they say. With a quarterback as electric as Jackson, it’s long made sense to lean into this trend. Doyle certainly liked what he saw from it in Week 1.

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