The Baltimore Ravens have become known for their uncanny special teams ability over the last handful of years. The team hired former Philadelphia Eagles special teams coordinator John Harbaugh as its head coach in 2008 and has seen the unit’s performance soar since.
Despite Harbaugh’s special teams acumen, his group has struggled on that side of the ball over the last few years. Special teams coordinator Chris Horton was asked if his unit has performed adequately in 2024 so far, to which he said, “Not at all.”
“Not at all. Not at all. When you talk about our standard, there is no way … If anyone is out there watching that tape, you can’t say we’ve played a complete game [in] all six phases. Now, we’ve done a lot of good things. Last week, we covered more kicks than we’ve covered in a game, and I thought our kickoff team played pretty darn good. As we continue to go on, and we continue to develop our young guys, we’re going to get to do a lot more. And we believe that as long as we come out here and we work hard and we continue to get better, we’ll start to see what we do in practice come to life on gameday, because that’s really where it counts, and that’s the most important [thing].”
The Ravens’ special teams unit has been derailed by significant penalties and poor execution this year. They need to step up in the coming weeks and months, especially if they genuinely want to compete for a Super Bowl.