“Lamar Jackson Has a Lot of Say But No Power”: Ravens Owner Steve Bisciotti Wants QB’s Opinion in Coaching Search, But Nothing More

There are a lot of different ways to go about being an owner of an NFL team, but for Steve Bisciotti, it’s all about winning and being present. Where some owners elect to take a back seat and allow their front office to do all of the heavy lifting, Bisciotti chooses to insert himself. After all, when you’re the man who helped to find John Harbaugh, how could you not?

Unfortunately for Bisciotti, public perception seems to suggest that neither he nor Harbaugh have been in charge of things since the 2018 NFL Draft, where they elected to pick Lamar Jackson with the 32nd overall pick. Between the rumor mill and the various articles that have circulated throughout the city of Baltimore for the past several years, many fans seem to think that it has been  Jackson who has been acting as the puppet master from behind the scenes.

According to Bisciotti, however, that idea couldn’t be further from the truth. During his post-season press conference, the 65-year-old business executive was asked “how much of a say will” Jackson have in their upcoming search for a head coach. Seeing the moment as a golden opportunity to set the record straight, Bisciotti made sure to emphasize that

“A lot of say, but he has no power,” Bisciotti started. “They have opinions and I want them all. I care about my players very much, but I can’t give them power.”

Bisciotti had previously suggested that Jackson is more than welcome to attend the final round of interviews and to share his input with him, but he’s now making it abundantly clear that he doesn’t want any more columns in the Baltimore Sun featuring a potential power struggle. So with him having seemingly put that issue to bed, perhaps it’s now a better use of time to assess who the Ravens might actually want to hire.

At a separate point in the press conference, news broke of Mike Tomlin’s departure from the Pittsburgh Steelers, prompting Bisciotti to exclaim “Holy sh*t. Wouldn’t that be awesome. Only if John [Harbaugh] takes the Pittsburgh job.” Once he had calmed himself down, however, the Ravens’ owner kindly suggested that the media should have a conversation with Tomlin about it next.

There’s also the potential for a more offensive-minded head coach to come in, like Mike McDaniels. The Ravens’ divisional rival, the Cleveland Browns, announced that they were interviewing the former head coach of the Miami Dolphins just a few days ago, so with McDaniels already having the AFC North in mind, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see Baltimore pick up the phone and attempt to block their competitors from landing a capable play caller.

And last but certainly not least, is the betting favorite and the current defensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Chargers, Jesse Minter. Oddsmakers and prediction markets currently have Minter as the run away favorite for the job on account of him being one of the team’s defensive assistants from 2017 to 2020, back when the Ravens were still finishing as a top-5 scoring defense on a regular basis.

It’s worth noting, however, that Minter has already fielded several interviews with different teams, including the Browns and the Arizona Ravens, so the Ravens may want to make sure that they are able to put together a decent presentation for this one.