Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman has reportedly been in talks with Stanford about their head coaching position. Could his departure be good for the Ravens?
The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel first reported that Stanford has “talked” with Roman about the coaching vacancy, noting that Roman had previously coached at Stanford with Jim Harbaugh in 2009 and 2010.
His two-season stint was his only exposure to college football as Roman followed Jim Harbaugh to the San Francisco 49ers in 2011, serving as Harbaugh’s offensive coordinator.
Roman came to Baltimore several years later, starting as an assistant and working his way up to offensive coordinator in 2019, when he won the AP’s NFL Assistant Coach of the Year award.
Roman has received his share of criticism from Ravens’ fans in the past few years, but would a split actually be in both parties best interests?
Source: Stanford has talked with Baltimore Ravens OC Greg Roman about its coaching vacancy. Roman was on Jim Harbaugh's Stanford staff in 2009-10.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) November 30, 2022
Not known how many other candidates there are at this time.
Ravens’ Greg Roman is on the radar for vacant Stanford head coaching job
There’s no doubt that an experienced coach like Roman could revitalize the Stanford football program. Stanford’s former head coach, David Shaw, was the winningest coach in program history and resigned after 12 seasons.
Roman would bring with him the offensive know-how to tailor schemes to fit a quarterback’s natural talents — he helped tinker with the 49ers’ offense for Colin Kaepernick and the Bills’ offense for Tyrod Taylor, and one could argue he’s been instrumental in Lamar Jackson’s rise, too.
Baltimore went 14-2 during Roman’s first season as offensive coordinator, and the Ravens also set the league’s single-season team rushing record (3,216 yards). Lamar Jackson won league MVP that year and has been thriving in the Ravens’ run-heavy scheme ever since.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh spoke briefly about the Stanford rumors and said “we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” At the very least, Roman will finish out the 2022 season with Baltimore before making the career change.
Just a year ago, defensive coordinator Wink Martindale left for the New York Giants. Seeing Roman leave as well could cause some instability in the team dynamic, though depending on how the rest of the Ravens’ season plays out, such a shake-up could be more than welcome.