Ravens’ John Harbaugh already deserves to be in the Hall of Fame conversation

Some coaches are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Baltimore Ravens‘ head coach John Harbaugh belongs to the second camp and already merits Hall of Fame consideration given his accomplishments thus far.

The most heartwarming moment of the Ravens’ 2021 season arguably came in a historic win against the Kansas City Chiefs when Baltimore was one yard from a first down and victory: Harbaugh emphatically yelled to Lamar Jackson, “Lamar! Do you want to go for this?”

Jackson ultimately sealed the victory, and Harbaugh was later praised for the confidence he placed in his franchise quarterback.

Harbaugh’s storied 14-year coaching career is made up of a myriad of influential moments like those, and he will go down in history as not only one of the best Ravens’ coaches of all time, but one of the best coaches, period.

The Ravens have made the playoffs in nine of his 14 seasons on the job — could 2022 give Harbaugh his tenth ticket to the postseason?

Pro Football Focus’ Conor McQuiston recently ranked the league’s head coaches ahead of the 2022 season and had Harbaugh sandwiched between New England Patriots’ Bill Belichick and Kansas City Chiefs’ Andy Reid.

"Harbaugh’s head coaching career includes many iterations of offenses helmed by the typically solid yet unspectacular Joe Flacco that generally lacked upper-echelon talent. Despite this, the Ravens have always fielded above-average offenses — and tremendous defenses.””"

Ravens’ John Harbaugh is pretty much a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame

In his rankings, McQuiston considered many variables and used detailed analytics to divide the league’s head coaches into four tiers.

Harbaugh, Belichick, and Reid all belong in Tier One as future Hall of Famers — each of these three coaches has “enjoyed success for at least a decade, won at least one Super Bowl, and played in multiple conference championships.”

Some NFL pundits have since criticized the list, which notably excluded Los Angeles Rams’ Sean McVay and Pittsburgh Steelers’ Mike Tomlin from the top-10, but regardless of the exact ordering, most would agree Harbaugh deserves to be up there in the upper echelons of the league’s coaches.

Harbaugh has a plethora of achievements to his name including a Coach of the Year award, a Super Bowl, four division titles, and a record that’s good enough for the 5th best winning percentage in NFL history.

The fierce, resilient, and lovable head coach has grown to become one of the most recognizable faces of the franchise along with Lamar Jackson, and it should come as no surprise that he already warrants Hall of Fame consideration at 59 years old.

He may not be on Belichick’s unrivaled “winning” level yet, but he’s close behind.

In 2022, Harbaugh will continue forging his legacy and help steer a revenge-hungry Ravens team to success in a crowded AFC landscape. If anyone can take Baltimore to the Super Bowl this season, it’s John Harbaugh.