The Baltimore Ravens fired John Harbaugh on Tuesday after it became clear that it was time for the team to hit the reset button and get a fresh start with someone new. After 18 years together, both sides will move on and, while the move was certainly shocking, it felt like things weren't great between Harbaugh and some of the players.
A hot topic of conversation following the Ravens' heartbreaking loss to the Steelers was when Lamar Jackson was asked a question about Harbaugh's future with the team. Instead of saying that he wants Harbaugh to be back in Baltimore as his head coach, Jackson sort of sidestepped the question and talked about how stunned he was about the loss the team had just suffered.
ESPN Ravens beat reporter Jamison Hensley was the one who asked the question. While appearing on The Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday, he was asked what prompted him to even ask Jackson that question in the first place.
"Lamar Jackson's the face of this franchise and his opinion carries a lot of weight... When John Harbaugh is in his 18th season and you have a Super Bowl favorite team not make the playoffs, there's going to be a lot of questions about John Harbaugh's job security," Hensley said. "We've been asking John Harbaugh about his job security for two weeks and I just thought it was time for Lamar Jackson to have his chance to weigh in. And I believe if I asked him, 'Hey, do you want Derrick Henry to be your running back? Do you want Zay Flowers to be your wide receiver?' He would have said, 'Oh, yes, you know, I definitely want to play with those guys.' But for Lamar to basically say, hey, you know what? I'm focusing on the loss. For him to not give John Harbaugh a vote of confidence at that point was pretty telling too."
Lamar Jackson’s comments spoke volumes about John Harbaugh’s future
It was a good question from Hensley and clearly, it got the type of response that told us a lot of what was happening behind the scenes. Instead of having Harbaugh's back and saying, "Yeah I want him back in Baltimore next year", Jackson never gave his head coach that support and, while that's probably not the reason Harbaugh was fired, it certainly didn't help the situation.
The hope is that the Ravens can hire a head coach this offseason that can connect with Jackson and get him back to being that MVP-level quarterback we all know he can be.