Ravens make history with the hiring of DC Mike Macdonald

The Baltimore Ravens officially announced the hiring of defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald on Thursday. After days of speculation, Macdonald has returned to the place he’s called home for the better part of the last decade.

And in the process, both the Ravens and Macdonald have made a little bit of history.

Macdonald is not only the youngest defensive coordinator currently in the NFL (besting DeMeco Ryan of the San Francisco 49ers who previously held that title), but he’s also the youngest defensive coordinator in franchise history.

Whether it was Greg Mattison, Chuck Pagano, Dean Pees, or Wink Martindale, the Ravens have a lengthy history of hiring, let’s call them experienced, coaches on the defensive side of the ball.

Macdonald breaks that trend, and he does so in a pretty significant way.

The Ravens have found their guy in Mike Macdonald

At just 34-years-old, Macdonald will be a first-time defensive coordinator at the NFL level, although he did spend the past year as the defensive coordinator at Michigan.

Macdonald helped Michigan undergo somewhat of a defensive resurgence in 2021 leading the Wolverines to a Big Ten title. The Michigan defense went from being ranked 106th in defensive efficiency (per ESPN’s FPI metric) to 13th under Macdonald’s watch.

Of course, Macdonald also has ample experience with the Ravens organization and very much continues the trend of hiring from within, even if this is technically an external hire. In fact, Macdonald is technically the first “external” DC hire the Ravens have ever made.

Macdonald got his NFL start as a coaching intern with the Ravens in 2014 before being promoted to a defensive assistant, defensive backs coach, and later linebackers coach.

In fact, Martindale was previously the Ravens’ linebacker coach before being promoted to defensive coordinator, so there’s some similarity there.

Macdonald’s familiarity with the Ravens coaching staff, their players, and their system should go a long way toward making the transition as seamless as possible.

This is the start of a new era in Baltimore. Mike Macdonald is now in charge of the defense.