The Baltimore Ravens have been a franchise that has long been known for their stellar special teams play. Not many teams take the special teams aspect of the game as seriously as Baltimore, and they’ve won countless games due to key plays in that aspect.
Ravens special teams coordinator Chris Horton spoke to the media on Wednesday, and talked about many different topics. When he was asked on his thoughts about Baltimore’s special teams unit from 2021, Horton expressed that he felt like his group did a good job over the course of the year.
“I feel like we did a great job. Our players played hard. I stood up here every week and I said in order to be at the top, you just have to be better than the team you played the week before. We gave up a play – that kickoff return [for a touchdown]. Those things, I’ll never let it go, but we did finish pretty high on kickoff coverage. Because we did a really good job earlier in the year of just putting that play in our back pocket, and we came back and we coached it. So, I do feel like our guys have done a great job, will continue to do a great job, but it’s going to be different. There’s going to be a lot of different guys. But it’s my job as a coach, [special teams coach] Randy’s [Brown] job, and [special teams coach] T.J.’s [Weist] job to challenge those guys, get them better, and get them ready to play. So, when September 11 rolls along, we’ll be ready to roll.”
The Ravens’ special teams play is at or near the top of the NFL year in and year out, and that was the case once again in 2021 despite a rough overall year that encompassed injuries and so much more. Moving ahead into 2022 expectations for the unit are high once again, and many expect them to deliver due to great play and great coaching.