I've always believed that it is time for the Ravens to transition from the Lewis/Ogden era to the future. In fact, as miserable as this season was, it may have played a role to that end by giving the bench a lot of valuable playing experience. While Ravens fans should always cherish the contributions of these players, age is taking it's toll and the day is fast approaching when others will take their places. Steve knows that sometimes in order to move forward you need to step back. It is my hope that future Raven teams will not be subject to what I call the Unitas effect. Every quarterback that has worn a Baltimore jersey has been compared to #19. To date none has come close to measuring up in the hearts and minds of Baltimore 's fans.

Who really cares if we get one good coordinator or another. They are all unproven as head coaches. I doubt the majority of us really have the knowledge to rate these guys and predict how they will work out, Everyone is just full of opinions because there is no clear choice. Garrett could be ruining his only chance to be that guy but if he needs to think it through that's fine by me. I'm not too excited about any of those guys yet. I'd be more fired up about Rex Ryan or Marty S. Gotta start somewhere though.

If Jason Garrett really wanted to be haed coach of the Ravens, he would've accepted by now. He obviously would rather be in Dallas. We need a guy who wants to be here. I think he is just using the Ravens to get more money out of Jerry Jones. The Ravens should withdraw their offer and move on.move on. Please don't hire Harbaugh! We have better options.

Why would the Ravens even consider a guy who was turned down for the UCLA head coaching job. Shouldn't the Ravens have *higher* standards than UCLA? I think Garrett realized that a few more years of coordinator experience would better prepare him in the long run, and if his salary is increased to head coach level, and he's promised his dream job in Dallas in a few years, then that's a pretty obvious choice for him. As for Ryan, I hoped they'd find someone more dynamic, but at this point he's probably the best available option, and they shouldn't let him get away. Of course, for all his faults, Billick was one of the better coaches in the NFL and they shouldn't have fired him without already knowing who they would hire next.

Hope all you folks begging for Billick's departure see what the rest of us saw: no promising candidates to replace him. There are no top quality assistants ready to become head coaches. Even Garrett was a reach--3 years coaching experience and he's ready to run a whole team? Folks are only "fired up" about the possibility of Rex Ryan because their familiar with him and saw what he's done designing a defensive scheme. Head coaching involves more than that and the fact that management isn't "fired up" about Rex may say something about how ready they preceive him to be. Only candidate who's an obvious upgrade over Billcik out there is Marty Schottenheimer who's got a good track record of getting to the playoffs and losing once there. Hope you folks are "fired up" now because I see an Orioles-esque "rebuilding" on the near horizon. Ridiculous thing is this team didn't need to go through this. This team needed tweaking, not an overhaul. I didn't like Billick much myself, but better to go with the devil you know over the one you don't. This nonsense about "discipline" is ridiculous. If "discipline" was a problem, team could have imposed it (GM's/owners fine players all the time, why is that only something the head coach can do? If the team thought it was aproblem, was nothing stopping them from correcting it.) This team had 22 penalties in Detroit last year, everyone whined about "what a disgrace that is!" and they went on to win 13 games and no one said squat about "discipline" after that. Winning cures all, folks. With tweaks this team would be right back out there contending next year. Now that's much less certain--new coach means new philospophy, new player evaluation, new player needs, new scheme. Harbaugh might minimize that some as he'd come from a West Coast offense background so there may not be many changes personnel/scheme-wise offensively, but who knows. And who knows how good this guy is, as he's never even been a coordinator. Steve and Ozzie, you guys did a bang-up job on this one!

The comparison to UCLA is ridiculous. The operations of UCLA in the NCAA and the Ravens in the NFL are completely different. The only similarity is to win. UCLA wanted a proven winner in college football plus it helped to be an ex-UCLA star QB. who won the Rose Bowl. Rick Neuheisel's only drawbacks in the college game was some of his poor off field decision.
To suggest Harbaugh is a bad choice because UCLA didn't select him is idiotic. He had no college head coaching experience and no connections with UCLA. Instead he has 10 years of NFL coaching experience.

Rich

Sure there are operational differences, but it's basic logic that coaching in the NFL requires greater ability than coaching in college, just as playing in the NFL is harder than playing in college. And a college would be more likely to hire someone with NFL experience than an NFL team would be to hire someone with only college experience. UCLA surely had other factors in their decision, but at the end of the day Harbaugh's "10 years of NFL coaching experience" are all at levels below a coordinator's position. It's not like he's coming from a team which just had a great season with dominant special teams play either...the Eagles were the only team in their division not to make the playoffs. Why is this guy even in contention? Oh yeah, because the Ravens fired Billick the one off-season when there aren't any decent prospects out there.