Our weekly five question on gameday series returns this week. Bruce Raffel, the head man of SB Nation's Ravens blog, Baltimore Beat Down was kind enough to field my questions about his team. My first question asks him to go back almost four years and get the feelings his fan base has about the franchise choosing John Harbaugh over Rex Ryan as head coach. Ryan was the incumbent defensive coordinator and a candidate.
With Rex Ryan taking his new team deeper in the Playoffs in his first two years than the Ravens went, how big is the element of the fan base that wishes the Ravens had hired him instead of John Harbaugh as head coach?
While John Harbaugh has done well to reach the post season in all three of his years and is well-liked around Baltimore, there is still a mix of fans who either loved and wanted to see Ryan given the head coaching gig here and another group that was glad to see him go and take his "act" elsewhere.
I think Baltimore fans really cannot complain about the way things have turned out. Harbaugh has proven to be a very good coach. The team was so inconsistent under Brian Billick but is three for three making the Playoffs under Harbaugh and has won at least one Playoff game each season. If Harbaugh was having less success, Baltimore fans could have more to be upset about. When you get a really good head coach, though, it is difficult to complain.
I am sure Rex would have done a comparable job if he was the head man in Baltimore. The irony of it all is that decision probably had a greater impact on the future of the Jets than on the Ravens. Either way, hindsight tells us Baltimore was going to end up with a great coach. If Rex was not there for the Jets, lord knows where this franchise would be.