The Baltimore Ravens made a big coordinator switch during the 2022 offseason, going from then-defensive coordinator Don Martindale to Mike Macdonald. The first-year NFL defensive coordinator did a phenomenal job with the Baltimore defense in 2022, learning on the job and growing at a rapid rate.
At his end of season press conference with general manager Eric DeCosta, head coach John Harbaugh was asked about Macdonald and how confident he is in him after the way the season ended on defense. Harbaugh praised the growth of Macdonald and the defensive unit, and talked about his excitement for the group moving forward.
“I’ve known Mike [Macdonald] a long time because he was here for seven years. So, pretty much, we all had a pretty good feel for what Mike was going to do and how he was going to go about his business. So, I thought he’s been great since the first day he got here. [He was] very clear in terms of what we were trying to accomplish with our defense, in terms of building a certain vision, a certain scheme set into our structure, and teaching the guys and training the guys how to do it. You saw it evolve throughout the course of the season as we were growing as a defense, and guys were beginning to understand better and better what we were trying to do. We’re just beginning with that. There are a lot of things we can still build into the defense that’ll we’ll be able to do now we’re going into our second year. Mike did a great job; all the coaches on defense did a great job of growing the defense, and I’m looking forward to what we’re going to build it into going forward.”
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