4. This might be John Harbaugh’s finest work as coach of the Ravens

This is not a statement that I’m making lightly. In the 2019 offseason, the Ravens traded away Joe Flacco, allowed a long-time veteran in Terrell Suggs to leave, along with impact starters C.J. Mosley, Za’Darius Smith, Eric Weddle and John Brown. It was assumed that the first full season of the Lamar Jackson era would be a rebuild after all that veteran talent walked away. And those assumptions looked to be correct when the Ravens lost two consecutive games in Weeks 3 and 4 when their new-look defense struggled against Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield.

But coach Harbaugh didn’t allow panic to seep in and as the team worked to fix the struggling defense, the new-look offense also grew more and more confident in its identity. Baltimore got back into rhythm, winning divisional match-ups against the Steelers and Bengals, before moving on to the stretch of the season that was supposedly going to be difficult. Instead, the Ravens have been blowing through that and currently stand at 9-2, on top of the AFC North and on the heels of the Patriots.

As excellent as some of the individual players on the team have been this season, Harbaugh deserves a fair bit of credit for believing in his quarterback and putting him and the rest of the team in the best position to succeed.