Ravens Veteran Offensive Hire Has A Checkered History As Coordinator

Joe Lombardi, like rookie offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, comes from a coaching family tree that's struggled to make its own way

Jun 1, 2022; Costa Mesa, CA, USA; Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi during organized team activities at Hoag Performance Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

A strong case could be made that among all of the hires Ravens rookie head coach Jesse Minter would make, finding a proven, winning offensive mind to run that side of the ball was chief among them.

Minter’s expertise is defense, and if he wasn’t going to hire a former NFL head coach anywhere, then at the very least somewhere on that offensive staff, there had best be someone with a substantial track record of planning and devising and calling and running a successful NFL offense. Alas, no such hire was made. Anything but.

Instead the Ravens – rest assured nothing was getting done in that building that didn’t get a full smooch from general manager Eric DeCosta and team president Sashi Brown – opted to go with a novice, 29-year-old offensive coordinator who had never called plays in Declan Doyle, and pair him with Joe Lombardi (Senior Offensive Assistant Coach), a twice-failed play caller who became available (and on the cheap) with the Denver Broncos paying most of the freight having just fired him as their non-play calling offensive coordinator in order to promote someone else.

It’s a potentially dangerous coupling to be sure, especially with quarterback Lamar Jackson having only worked with established and grizzled coordinators to this point, and not showing up for all of offseason work and at odds with the front office again on a contract extension.

Tough Times With Stafford And Herbert

Doyle spent most of his career as an assistant for Sean Payton; the Payton play-calling family tree, for all the decades he has been at the top of his craft as a play-calling head coach, has been largely a failure to this point. Lombardi was once looked at as a head coach in making, but his two forays as a true play-calling offensive coordinator ended quickly and in ignominy, despite getting to work with a top-10 quarterback in his very prime in both stints (Detroit with Matt Stafford and the Chargers with Justin Herbert).

Neither stint lasted long, the second season was fairly disastrous in both instances and it’s left people around the league wondering about Baltimore’s offensive infrastructure (though the hiring of new run-game coordinator Dwayne Ledford did earn unanimously high reviews from everyone I caucused). Perhaps assistant Marcus Brady becomes a key mind in the passing game, but it’s far from guaranteed all of these hires on offense stick.

“That was a little strange to me,” said one longtime NFL personnel executive who has helped put together numerous staffs over the years. “I know those two (Doyle and Lombardi) share the Payton tree, but (Longtime assistant) Pete Carmichael never did it and Lombardi had a rough go in two spots and he ended up going back to Sean, right?

“To go from what they had, with (Greg) Roman and (Todd) Monken, that’s not how I would have pictured it. Maybe (new Bills head coach and longtime Payton protégée ) Joe Brady is an example of a guy who left Sean went out and did it on his own. Maybe Doyle can be that guy too. But Sean is so hands on, every part of that offense is his, and it makes you wonder about the guys who stayed that long and could never put their own thing together.”

One NFL GM said: “Wouldn’t you rather have like a (former head coach) Frank Reich around on that staff, even if he’s not a Payton guy? I was surprised how they put it together.”

Lombardi’s Start

Lombardi moved to the offensive side of the ball at the NFL level in 2007, on Payton’s New Orleans Saints. In 2014 he left to become the Lions offensive coordinator and was relieved of his duties before Halloween in just his second season there with the team 1-6. The fact that Jim Caldwell was head coach at the time – known as a non-confrontational leader and truly good guy (Lombardi is incredibly well liked as well as those who have toiled with him) – and he of all people went to those lengths, that soon in a season, was telling.

A Lions team that had Stafford at age 27 and Calvin Johnson still in his prime and Golden Tate in an 80-catch season and also got over 100 receptions from the running back spot, somehow ranked 21st in yards per play (5.4) and 30th in offensive points per game (17.6) at the time Lombardi was fired (there were issues on the offensive line and running the ball, to be sure). Once Caldwell took over the team ranked 8th in the NFL at 24.1 offensive points per game and finished 6-2 coming out of a mid-season bye.

Lombardi ended up back with Payton in New Orleans until 2021, when he became the Chargers offensive coordinator. He was working for a coach in Brandon Staley quite ill-equipped for the job, to be sure, but the Chargers largely wasted Herbert in 2022, they blew a 27-point lead in the playoffs to Jacksonville and that’s likely the last time Lombardi will be running an NFL offense.

With the Chargers, his scheme was maddeningly simplistic, lacked scope and depth and Herbert somehow ranked 32nd in the NFL at 6.4 air yards per attempt despite his elite deep ball prowess.

And it’s Lombardi in the mentor role, no one with head coaching experience at the NFL level on the entire staff and major questions to be asked about how this group moves forward with an offensive-roster that better get substantial upgrades in the draft and beyond.

“Joe is an exceptionally nice guy,” said one longtime NFL personnel staffer who worked previously with Lombardi. “I don’t have anything to say bad about him personally and I don’t think anyone does …. But, man, you see it … you can just kind of go over the resume and look at the numbers now.

“When Jim Caldwell fires you and takes over the offense in October, that kind of speaks for itself. I can’t sit here and tell you he was an innovator and someone making great calls and adjustments and our skill guys were maxed out their talent. I don’t want to speak badly about Joe, and he worked his tail off, it was nothing like that. But you see the results. Herbert had his worst year with Joe. I think he can help a young coordinator in a lot of ways, and he has the right mentality for that … But I’m not sure about that one, now.”

Me neither.

Subscribe On YouTube For The Best Ravevs Coverage: