After a disappointing 8-9 season and locker room tensions, the Baltimore Ravens did something they hadn’t for 18 years: fire their head coach. However, it seems like they won’t be moving far away from the AFC North to replace John Harbaugh, as they announced an update on the former Cleveland Browns head coach, Kevin Stefanski.

“We have completed an interview with Kevin Stefanski for our head coach position,” the Ravens posted on their various social media accounts this Friday.

The Ravens wish to build their roster and coaching staff around their franchise quarterback, Lamar Jackson. While Stefanski might not excite many in the fan base, he’s one of the more established options and is a known offensive mind on the market. And there’s plenty that the recently fired head coach can bring to the table for the Ravens:

• The biggest disadvantage Stefanski had with the Browns was their unstable QB room. That wouldn’t be an issue in Baltimore with two-time MVP Jackson.
• Stefanski has a reputation for bringing steady leadership to unstable situations. His two playoff appearances with the Browns and the fact that he stayed in Cleveland for six seasons back that claim. Before him, they burned through ten full-time head coaches in the 21 seasons.
• Stefanski’s instant success helped change the culture in Cleveland and put the team on the track to success, something that the Ravens are certainly vying for after firing their third head coach. 
• Stefanski was a defensive back in college at Penn, but he’s been an offensive-leaning coach. He has worked with tight ends, running backs, and quarterbacks in Minnesota before becoming their offensive coordinator in 2019.
• Under him, the Vikings offense jumped from 19th in scoring to eighth, averaging 25.4 points per game, another aspect that would be quite attractive to Jackson and Co.

At the same time, Baltimore can provide a stable position to Stefanski, given that they are searching only for their fourth head coach in history. However, the security blankly depends on the fact that he needs to have good leadership and connection with the locker room and Jackson, something Harbaugh struggled with in 2025.

Stefanski’s time with the Browns spanned six years and provided more success to the franchise with a 46-58 record than they had seen in the last decade. However, the Browns’ collapse wouldn’t squarely fall on him.

The Browns had 13 different starting quarterbacks during Stefanski’s tenure, including three this season (Joe Flacco and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders). The latter fact led to a rough 5-12 season with the team finishing near the bottom of the league in both points scored and total offense.

However, it won’t be as easy for the Ravens to land the two-time NFL Coach of the Year.

What we know so far about the interviews

There’s been a string of firings in the league after the 2025 regular season. Harbaugh, Stefanski, and former head coaches of the Arizona Cardinals, Jonathan Gannon, the Las Vegas Raiders’ Pete Carroll, and the Atlanta Falcons’ Raheem Morris were all let go after disappointing seasons. Previously, the Giants had fired Brian Daboll, and the Titans let go of Brian Callahan.

Of these, Stefanski has already interviewed with the New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders, and he’s scheduled to meet with the Tennessee Titans next. But the opposite is true for Stefanski as well.

Baltimore, meanwhile, has also spoken with Denver Broncos’ defensive coordinator and offensive pass game coordinator Vance Joseph and Davis Webb, as well as Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, for the vacant spot.

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For the Ravens, though, the job goes beyond a resume. The next head coach has to get the most out of Lamar Jackson. That relationship matters. It had become clear that Jackson and Harbaugh weren’t always aligned, and that tension likely played a role in the decision to move on.

Harbaugh’s fallout with Lamar Jackson might’ve been the breaking point

During the 2018 season, Harbaugh was struggling with a 4-5 record with Joe Flacco under the center. However, he brought in the Ravens’ rookie Lamar Jackson to start the final seven games. Lo and behold, the 32nd overall pick helped Harbaugh with a 6-1 record in those starts. Team owner Steve Bisciotti had revealed then that the thought of firing Harbaugh after that season had crossed his mind, but Jackson, quite literally, had saved his job.

Since arriving in Baltimore in 2008, Harbaugh has delivered stability. A 180–113 record during his career is pretty solid. But there’s also the other side of that resume. There hasn’t been a Super Bowl appearance since the 2012 season, and with the rosters he’s had over the years, fair or not, expectations were higher.

Critics will point to the 26 blown double-digit leads and argue that the warning signs were evident for a while. Supporters will counter with the 13 winning seasons with 11 double-digit wins and argue that kind of consistency should earn a coach more patience. Still, this year felt different from the start.

The Ravens ended 8-9, and much of that drop can be attributed to Lamar Jackson missing time and not playing at full strength, as injuries limited him to just 13 games. Because of that, his production fell across the board, with fewer passing yards each week (49.3) and a big drop in touchdown throws. He also had his lowest completion total (63.6 per cent) since his rookie year and the 2022 season.

As a result, the offense never found its rhythm this season, which played a major role in the team’s disappointing finish. A poor finish and no playoff berth were enough reasons to let go of Harbaugh. But there was more to it.

According to NFL insider Ian Rapoport, the bigger issue was what was happening behind the scenes. Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson weren’t aligned, and that tension didn’t stay contained. It filtered through the locker room.

“At the end, players just simply had doubts about whether or not they wanted to play for him as their head coach,” Rapoport said. “The opinions of players was valued here. It was listened to. It went to all levels. And it’s not just Lamar Jackson.

“Now, it started, it sounded like to me, with Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson not being on the same page. It continued throughout the locker room. Maybe not 100 percent, but more than enough for the Baltimore Ravens to say that among the reasons to move on, this was a big one.”

In the NFL, once a head coach loses the locker room, the clock usually starts ticking. And when the quarterback, especially a franchise QB like Jackson, starts to lose faith, front offices will understandably pay attention. Then, the decision often becomes less about what a coach has done and more about whether he can still lead the room.

For a franchise moving on from a Super Bowl-winning coach over locker room friction, Stefanski’s first and most important test won’t be on the field, but in winning the trust of Lamar Jackson and the players Harbaugh lost.