John Harbaugh was a real success story for the Baltimore Ravens. A special teams coordinator early in his career, he became the team’s head coach in 2008 and even led them to victory in Super Bowl 47.
But after failing to make it back to another Super Bowl with Lamar Jackson as his quarterback and a disastrous 2025 season, he was let go by the franchise this summer. That hasn’t stopped his former players from taking indirect shots at him or his coaching style.
John Harbaugh Is Being Singled Out by the Ravens
An 8-9 season, where they outright missed the playoffs, ended Harbaugh’s time with the Ravens. But he was among the most sought-after names in the coaching market and quickly found a new home with the New York Giants.
On the other hand, the Ravens chose to move forward with former Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. And, from the accounts of players who have seen both coaching styles, the difference is night and day between the two.
Wide receiver Rashod Bateman and offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley were among the ones who took an indirect shot at his coaching style. While not taking his name explicitly, they did point to the new coaching staff being more detailed and communicative.
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Now, Deshon Elliott and Patrick Queen have joined that list. Despite now playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, both of them were drafted by the Ravens in 2018 and 2020, respectively.
Their main issue for them was that the conditioning training was not on par with other aspects of the program. As a result, they believed it led to an increase in injuries, particularly hamstring pulls.
For Chad Johnson, though, that wasn’t the right way for Elliott and Queen to go about things. On the latest episode of the “Nightcap” podcast, he criticized them for what he called “undermining” of the coaching staff, most notably Harbaugh.
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“As far as the players taking shots at the coaches, you don’t want to undermine him,” Johnson said. “You don’t want to undermine him. Harbaugh has had success for a reason when he was in Baltimore; he had success.”
Even though it didn’t result in the Ravens winning a third Super Bowl championship in franchise history, he did lead them to six AFC North division victories. And the former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver believes his coaching style was a key reason for that success.
“Now, most of the time, that success didn’t end in the championship or lifting the Lombardi trophy, but he did have success,” Johnson added. “And the way he did things is one of the reasons why you were always in contention year in year out. Obviously, having the player and the quarterback he did in Lamar Jackson, it helps that cause as well.”
Still, he was firmly against the idea of taking shots at the departing head coach in favor of the new guy coming in. Moreover, he believed those comments could cause a problem for Minter as well, as the expectations start to build in Baltimore.
“So now people are expecting, based on what you’re saying, expecting you guys to reach the promised land,” Johnson continued. “I’m not saying you’re making it worse on yourself, but you’re making it worse on everyone else, including your head coach, based on what you said about your former head coach.”
It remains to be seen how the Ravens fare under a new coach for the first time in nearly two decades. But at the very least, the team expects to see major improvements over a defense that finished 22nd on PFN’s Defense Impact Metric last season, given Minter’s stellar work on that side of the ball for the Chargers.
