Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti explains firing of coach John Harbaugh

BALTIMORE — Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti in his first time speaking with reporters since firing coach John Harbaugh last week said Tuesday in Owings Mills that the reason he moved on from the longtime coach was that Baltimore had blown too many fourth-quarter leads and underperformed in the playoffs.

“It’s not something winning organizations do,” said Bisciotti, who was joined on the stage inside the team’s auditorium by general manager Eric DeCosta. “We have underperformed based on our seeding in the playoffs. Very disappointing.”

Bisciotti added that he came to the conclusion last week, but that he wasn’t “100% sure” until after the Ravens lost to the Steelers in Week 18 to be eliminated from playoff contention and then relied on his “instincts.”

“I woke up Monday and I was pretty sure I was going to do it,” he said. “Timing is never right. You can’t say that timing is perfect in anything, but I got to the point that I didn’t believe that I would feel regret after I made that decision and that’s what instinct is, when you finally get to the point that you’re pretty damn sure that you are not gonna regret the decision a day or a week later then that’s the time to make the decision.”

Asked what role quarterback and two-time NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson played in the move, he said spoke to the quarterback on Monday night and that Jackson told him he did not have a problem with Harbaugh or offensive coordinator Todd Monken.

He also added that he felt it was important to seek his input along with that of a “bunch” of veteran players.

“I don’t think that the players had really a large part of my decision,” Bisciotti said, adding that it was more 80% general manager Eric DeCosta, executive vice president Ozzie Newsome and president Sashi Brown, compared with 20% of players’ feedback. “I don’t think I’d be a very good leader if I didn’t ask the top players in my organization that have been here the longest … no, Lamar did not have an outsized part of my decision.

“My decision by Monday was pretty much set. I think by the time I got off the phone with Lamar I had told him my position was pretty set.”

Bisciotti also said that he informed Harbaugh via phone call rather than in person out of logistics.

“I never dreamed of firing somebody by phone,” he said. “But the reality is when I made my decision on Tuesday afternoon, I was home and he was in his car heading to his house.”

Bisciotti said he felt like it would have been a “jerk” move to call him up and tell him to meet him at the Ravens’ facility in an hour.

The two then spoke at length two days later. Bisciotti called Harbaugh on Thursday and left a message before Harbaugh texted him back saying he could talk in about 30 minutes.

The discussion, Bisciotti said, wasn’t so much about the details of the decision but they did discuss the larger negative elements surrounding a trying year.

“Obviously it was emotional,” he said. “Most of that emotion came from me. … I was the one choked up and he was the one consoling me.”

Still, that decision came suddenly and somewhat surprisingly last Tuesday after Harbaugh had been at the helm for 18 seasons.

Harbaugh’s tenure included a Super Bowl title and a dozen playoff appearances, including four trips to the AFC championship game, as he went on to become the winningest coach in the franchise’s 30-year history. It also came just nine months after Bisciotti gave him a three-year extension that would have kept him with the team through 2028.

But it followed one of the most disillusioning and disastrous seasons in Ravens history.

Baltimore finished 8-9 and out of the playoffs for the first time since 2021 after losing two of its final three games, including to the rival Pittsburgh Steelers on a last-second, game-winning field-goal attempt by rookie Tyler Loop that sailed wide right. The defeat was a microcosm of not just this past season but the past few.

In the 2023 season, the Ravens reached the AFC championship only to be questioned over play-calling and critical mistakes in a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. A year later, Baltimore won the AFC North for a second straight year, erasing a two-game deficit with four games to play, but fell in the divisional round against the Buffalo Bills, committing three turnovers in the gut-wrenching two-point loss.

Then came this season.

The year opened with the Ravens as the favorite to win the Super Bowl. Then they blew a 15-point fourth-quarter lead in Week 1 against the Bills.

Baltimore dropped five of its first six games and struggled to keep its season afloat.

Then came a blown 11-point fourth quarter lead at home against the New England Patriots in Week 16 and the loss in Pittsburgh two weeks later in what turned out to be Harbaugh’s final act.

Bisciotti also said the decision was his alone and now was “100 percent” the time to make a change.

“This was the most difficult decision we made,” he said. “If not now, when?

“It was a wonderful, wonderful marriage. The next coach we get I want him to be a Super Bowl winning coach, too. God help him if he can rise up to the level John did.”