The Biggest Question Nobody Is Asking About the Ravens (And How They’ll Answer It)

The 2026 season is about change more than anything else for the Baltimore Ravens.

It’s an unprecedented time in the franchise’s history, with a rookie head coach for the first time in nearly two decades and an offensive coordinator who has never called plays before and a lot of college coaches without NFL experience. And while many of them have strong ties to former head coach John Harbaugh or his brother (or both coaches) this is also about establishing something new and different in Owings Mills.

With so many overarching issues with a purge of key young veterans departing in free agency, and quarterback Lamar Jackson entering what could be the final year of his contract and team hoping to get some immediate returns from an 11-man draft class, it’s easy to overlook some of the more subtle changes this franchise is making.

The biggest question no one is really asking, yet, with the pads yet to come on, is whether any of the changes made to practice and conditioning installed by rookie head coach Jesse Minter’s staff are going to result in the team being fresher and healthier and better deep into the season. A lot of ideas once considered tried and true under a veteran staff are no longer the norms. This is a fresh slate in so many ways, some that immediately come to mind and many more a bit more esoteric.

Specifically, I’m very interested to see how much differently they will train and practice and recover and plan and prepare and travel. Are veterans given even more time off in-season, or less? What plan to do that have to try to nurse an All Pro running back through his age 32 season; a time where 55 years of data point to productivity falling off a cliff.

The scope and reach of a new coaching staff touches every aspect of the organization, and the Ravens also took a holistic review of everything they were doing in the realm of rehab and recovery and sports medicine and diet and overall health and wellness, hiring Nic Gill away from the renowned New Zealand All Blacks rugby team.

So I anticipate quite a bit changes; both externally in terms of things obvious to the public and the media, and far more that is behind closed doors and we gradually become aware of as the season goes on. And all of it could impact how many players end up on Injured Reserve.

Practice Makes Perfect

Already, the Ravens have made some substantial changes to training camp. The late afternoon practices and overall daily schedule has shifted considerably. Did practices in the midday heat and humidity have anything to do with the team failing to meet expectations and experiencing cluster injuries and being unable to get some players who were drafted with medical red flags over the hump?

I can’t answer that with certainly, but teams also don’t make alterations like this and don’t make hires from an expert in another sport like they did – let alone one on the other side of the world – if they don’t believe there are inherent competitive advantages in doing do. Gill will undoubtedly have strong ideas about how and when they lift and what they do pre-game and how they vary and change their stretching and routines.

Will the times at which players eat and what they eat in the facility change much? What about post-game spreads after games? How significantly will return-to-play protocols alter and what injured player must be able to display before being cleared to practice and play?

Harbaugh was far too loyal and beholden to some members of his staff - especially on the strength and conditioning side - who players didn't like and/or respect and who were suspended for violating Covid protocols and contributed to the team being shorthanded and shoulda been gone long ago. This feels like addition by subtraction and, well, by addition.

The net of all these decisions tends to matter. It all adds up. In a league with the margins so slim, any bit of innovation or creativity in how to solve the battle with roster attrition means more than most will ever understand.

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