Forced to assess the 2017 season far sooner than anticipated http://www.jaguarscheapstore.com/gardner-minshew-ii-jersey-cheap , Ravens coach John Harbaugh acknowledged changes must be made for Baltimore to snap its three-year run missing the playoffs.


Harbaugh will fill the void left by the retirement of defensive coordinator Dean Pees, but said Thursday he will bring back offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg and attempt to keep the rest of the staff intact unless ”guys get opportunities to go somewhere and do some different things.”

Pees announced his retirement Monday, less than 24 hours after the Ravens (9-7) were bounced from the playoff chase with a 31-27 loss to Cincinnati.

The in-house contender for the coordinator job is Ravens linebackers coach Don Martindale. Chuck Pagano, fired as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts on Monday and Baltimore’s defensive coordinator in 2011, is also among those being considered.

Asked to describe what he’s looking for from Pees’ successor, Harbaugh replied: ”Definitely continuity. I’m a believer in this system. I think this system has been something that’s been developed over a long period of time, and we have worked really hard every single year to make it better. We’ve evolved it and grown it, and I think you see the results.”

The Ravens have long been known for their defense, and this year that unit was the strength of the team. Baltimore recorded three shutouts, led the NFL with 34 takeaways and ranked 12th in yardage allowed.

The offense, on the other hand Nick Bosa Jersey , needs help. Harbaugh lauded the performance of quarterback Joe Flacco , who rebounded from a back injury to come on strong during the Ravens’ late-season playoff push.

But the coach was unrelenting in his assessment of the wide receivers, noting that there were too many dropped passes and far too few big plays from a unit built around veterans Mike Wallace and Jeremy Maclin and featuring 2015 draft pick Breshad Perriman, who is thus far a first-round bust. Baltimore ranked 29th in net yards passing per game (189.4).

”That’s an area we’ve got to look at really hard,,” Harbaugh said. ”The passing game wasn’t where it needed to be.”

Tight end Benjamin Watson led the team with 61 catches and six touchdowns. Wallace and Maclin combined for only seven scores, and Baltimore had only five catches of at least 40 yards.

”We want to get playmakers. That’s something that we need,” Harbaugh said. ”We’re going to add players. It’s not to say that we can’t add some players through free agency. That’s the way that the salary cap works. The draft will be the major part of it.”

Covering a variety of topics in a session that lasted nearly 40 minutes, Harbaugh said he and owner Steve Bisciotti, along with general manager Ozzie Newsome, are looking forward to improving upon a three-year stretch in which the team has gone 5-11, 8-8 and 9-7.

”Our focus is on, can we be better tomorrow than we were today? And that’s just the truth of it Dwayne Haskins Jersey ,” Harbaugh said. ”To me, that’s our focus. It’s not looking back and saying, `Hey, we didn’t do this or we didn’t do that.’ Everybody is full speed ahead to be the best we can be, and has been for the last three years.”

Had Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton not thrown a 49-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-down play with 44 seconds left, the Ravens would have spent this week preparing for the playoffs amid a city bathed in purple. Instead, Harbaugh was left trying to appease a fan-base that responded to mediocrity and the team’s take-a-knee stance during the national anthem on Sept. 24 by staying away in record numbers on Sundays.

”We understand our fans. We understand what they respect,” Harbaugh said. ”And we want nothing more than to get it there, so we can have that moment, we can complete that pass and we can have the whole city going crazy and dancing in the streets. That’s what we’re fighting for.

”I wanted it to happen this year. I wanted it to be the miracle year this year. Maybe we could have done it, and then all of a sudden, it’s not to be. OK, are we going to lament it and look back and beat ourselves up http://www.ravenscheapstores.com/marquise-brown-jersey-cheap , find reasons that aren’t there and point fingers? That’s not what I’m going to do. That’s not what leaders do. Let’s go to work.”

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FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Now that Kyler Murray has decided to play in the NFL instead of reporting to spring training as a first-round draft pick by baseball’s Oakland Athletics, the questions can shift to the Heisman Trophy winner’s height.The former Oklahoma star says everyone will get their answer at the NFL combine next week. And that was after Murray listed himself at 5-foot-10 Monday before accepting the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s top college quarterback.“I’ve been a 5-10 projected in the first (round), I mean, that’s crazy to me, the fact that I’m already projected that high,” Murray said. “I’m not over 6-foot. I haven’t seen that since I’ve been alive.”The 21-year-old who won three state championships and didn’t lose a game as a high school quarterback in the Dallas area said football became a factor in his decision simply because he finally had a chance to play again.After signing a contract for a $4.66 million signing bonus as the ninth overall pick in June by Oakland, Murray led Oklahoma to the College Football Playoff in his only season as the starter while posting the second-best passer efficiency rating in Bowl Subdivision history.Before throwing for 4,361 yards and 42 touchdowns and running for 1,001 yards and 12 scores, Murray’s only extensive college experience was a rough freshman season at Texas A&M in 2015. After transferring to Oklahoma, he was the backup to 2017 Heisman winner Baker Mayfield, the top pick in last year’s draft.“Obviously my career as far as the early stages of my college career Jaylon Ferguson Jersey , it wasn’t looking too hot,” said Murray, who like Mayfield lost in the CFP semifinals. “And then after this past season, it was to go in and kind of put myself in the best possible situation. I think I did pretty well.”Murray said he hasn’t decided the specifics of his participation in the NFL combine, but Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley believes his time in the 40-yard dash could be an eye-opener. Murray said it’s been “two, three years” since ran a 40, at 4.3 seconds.Most of the attention will be on his height, however. Reminded before the O’Brien ceremony that the 1938 Heisman winner from TCU was 5-7, Murray said he knew that and added, “So me and him have got something in common.”Given the obvious chance to clarify, he still declined to offer anything more specific than the already-mentioned 5-10.“I don’t wake up in the morning and measure myself so I don’t know that,” he said. “It’s definitely not 5-7.”In the same setting a year earlier, Mayfield shot back at a question about whether he could go in the top 10 of the draft by saying his goal was to be the No. 1 overall choice.After the Browns made that happen Quinnen Williams Jersey , Mayfield won the job early in the season and led Cleveland to seven wins in 2018 after the Browns were coming off a two-year record of 1-31. Now Murray will try to move up the draft board the same way Mayfield did, with a different set of issues to address.“I’m never the biggest guy on the football field,” Murray said. “That’s not the way I think, ‘I’m the smallest guy on the field, I have to go out there and do this and do that.’ I just go out there and play.”Murray also thinks the economics prove his love for football. The deal with Oakland called for him to receive $1.5 million after approval last summer by Major League Baseball and $3.16 million on March 1. Murray must return six-sevenths of the money he received, or $1,285,714.“Obviously the money wasn’t a big deal. I literally played football for free,” Murray said. “I could have not even played this football season and just went and worked on just being a professional baseball player. I decided I was going to go play football and now I’m here.”