Baltimore Beatdown is all about Almost Ravens this week! In addition to our reader-driven bracket narrowing down the biggest near-acquisitions in team history, our staff will also be providing their opinions on their favorite moves the Ravens almost pulled off. Today, we’re focusing on the coaches that were nearly hired by the team:
Art Modell firing Bill Belichick when the Browns moved to Baltimore is, by far, the biggest and coolest ‘what if?’ in Ravens history. But would Belichick have still become
one of the greatest coaches of all-time? Better yet, would he have still drafted a certain unheralded quarterback out of Michigan in 2000? These are, of course, unanswerable questions, but one reason to think it would have worked: Belichick was always better at coaching than he was managing team personnel. But if he was paired with Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens could have built a dynasty. What could have been… – Nikhil Mehta
My favorite coach the Ravens almost hired in Kyle Shanahan. Instead of Shanahan, the Ravens hired Gary Kubiak for their offensive coordinator role in 2014. Kubiak led the team’s offense to notable success that year and was poached by the Denver Broncos for a head coaching job. Shanahan might have had the same trajectory in Baltimore as well, or maybe things work out differently and he’d be around for a longer time. Either way, Shanahan has established himself as one of the league’s top offensive masterminds and head coaches in recent years, and having him in Baltimore early on would have been a positive. – Frank Platko
It has to be Bill Belichick for me. A Maryland raised guy who learned football from his dad in Annapolis coaching at the Naval Academy, he’s arguably the smartest football mind the football world has seen. When Art Modell moved his football franchise to Baltimore from Cleveland, Belichick was informed he’d be sticking on to coach for the team. Instead he was fired after the move was made official. Belichick is giving a lot of credit for laying the groundwork for what the Baltimore Ravens would become as an organization. Belichick would obviously move on from the Cleveland/Baltimore debacle and end up piloting one of the greatest dynasty’s in any sport with Tom Brady in New England. Who knows, maybe without Brady it wouldn’t have led to anything. But I sure think about what could have been if Belichick had been handed the keys the Ravens organization, paired with Ozzie Newsome as the General Manager. The Ravens have two Super Bowls. How many could they have if arguably the greatest coach in NFL history was there? – Zach Canter
t would feel wrong to choose someone other than perhaps the greatest coach of all time here. While Bill Belichick’s track record without Tom Brady at quarterback isn’t great, you still have to imagine he would have success in Baltimore with the absurd level of talent on the defensive side of the ball in the 2000s. Rather he would have survived the early years of the franchise finding its footing is another question, but picturing one of the NFL’s greatest defensive minds with Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs, and Haloti Ngata on the field together in their prime is certainly an exciting scenario. – Dustin Cox
