Getty Ravens RB coach Willie Taggart on the sideline as the head coach at Florida Atlantic University.
A day after officially introducing Todd Monken as the team’s next offensive coordinator, the Baltimore Ravens announced a handful of changes to their offensive and training staff.
First came the hiring of Willie Taggart as the new running backs coach on a staff that head coach John Harbaugh said is ‘still in progress’. He comes with nearly three decades of college football coaching experience that includes stints serving on the staff of Harabugh’s brother Jim at Stanford from 2007-09 and father Jack at Western Kentucky from 2001-02.
Head Coach John Harbaugh on @CoachTaggart:
“We are excited to welcome Willie to the Ravens as our running backs coach,” Harbaugh said in a statement. “Willie has been a highly successful and respected college assistant and head coach. He has a proven track record for developing players as a position coach, as an offensive coordinator, and as a head coach. A leader and a highly effective motivator, Willie’s reputation for building strong relationships with his players and fellow coaches will serve our offense well moving forward.”
Taggart’s most recent college coaching stints were as the head coach at Florida Atlantic University from 2020-22 and at Florida State prior to that from 2018-19. He also spent one year as the head coach at Oregon in 2017, two years at South Florida from 2013-16, and at Western Kentucky from 2010-12.
Ravens Promote Ascending Offensive Coach
An assistant coach that is not only being retained under Monken but was promoted to a high position is Tee Martin who is going from wide receivers coach to quarterbacks coach.
Head Coach John Harbaugh on @coachtee17:
“I am excited for Tee to take on the responsibility of being our quarterbacks coach,” Harbaugh said in a statement. “Tee has coached every aspect of the passing game and has played and coached the quarterback position at the highest levels. A dynamic and dedicated coach, he is a high-character individual who is uniquely qualified to build upon the foundation and success of our quarterbacks.”
Martin initially joined the staff under Roman’s tenure in 2021 where he coached former first-round pick Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown to his first career 1,000-plus-yard season and first for a Ravens wideout since Mike Wallace in 2016. He interviewed to be the offensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts on February 16, 2023 and is viewed as a bright up-and-coming coach that has received interest for other positions elsewhere as well.
Prior to coming to returning to the NFL as a coach after a three-year career as a player, most of his coaching experience came at the collegiate level where he most recently served as passing game coordinator and assistant head coach for two years from 2019-20 at his alma mater, the University of Tennessee and
Ravens Part Ways With Strength and Conditioning Coordinator
The team said goodbye to Steve Saunders after he served as their Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for nearly a decade.
“I want to thank Steve for his effort, expertise, and contributions to our Ravens teams over the past seven years,” Harbaugh stated. “He is one of the finest strength and conditioning coaches in the business. His methods, passion, and commitment are well-proven throughout his career. Steve helped our players be the strongest and best-conditioned athletes they could be. He is an outstanding coach, father, husband, and friend. We wish him and his family all the very best going forward with their pursuits.”
Replacing him will be Scott Elliott who is being promoted from assistant strength and conditioning coach and will be entering his fifth year with the team this offseason. He will be responsible for overseeing the team’s strength and conditioning program that assists in preparing players for the rigors of the long and grueling NFL season each year.
Ravens to Lose Defensive Coach to College Ranks: Report
According to sources per Matt Zenitz of On3 Sports, the team will be losing one of their young up-and-coming coaches not to another NFL team but to a college program as safeties coach, D’Anton Lynn is expected to be hired as the next defensive coordinator at UCLA.
UCLA is expected to hire Baltimore Ravens safeties coach D’Anton Lynn as defensive coordinator, sources tell @on3sports.
Lynn, a former Penn State star DB and the son of ex-LA Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn, worked in Baltimore the last two years.
Lynn has spent the past two years on the Ravens’ defensive staff where served as the defensive backs coach in 2021 and then transition to safeties coach in 2022. He is also the son of former Los Angeles Chargers head coach and current assistant head coach/running backs coach for the San Francisco 49ers, Anthony Lynn.
Under his direct tutelage, 2022 first-round defensive Kyle Hamilton earned the highest Pro Football Focus grade of any safety not just in the past season but in nearly a decade since 2014.
Highest-graded safety by season since 2014
With Lynn’s expected hiring, the Ravens coaching staff now has one vacancy on each side of the ball at safeties and wide receivers coach. It’s unclear whether James Urban who has been the team quarterbacks coach since 2018 will be retained in a different role but he does have experience as a wide receiver coach with the Cincinnati Bengals from 2011-17. He could end up just swapping roles with Martin when it’s all said and done if Monken doesn’t decide to bring in his own external candidate.