Steve Bisciotti says the quiet part out loud about decision to fire John Harbaugh

A week after the Baltimore Ravens fired long-time head coach John Harbaugh, owner Steve Bisciotti and general manager Eric DeCosta held a press conference. In this press conference, both Bisciotti and DeCosta had several transparent quotes. No quote was more honest, though, than what Bisciotti said led to Harbaugh's firing.

"We led the league in giving up big leads in the fourth quarter," Bisciotti said. "It's not something that winning organizations do. We have underperformed based on our seeding in the playoffs. Very disappointing. A lot of our great players involved making mistakes they don't make in the regular season very often. ... In the last 10 years, we've won the third most games in the NFL and yet, people were saying we were underachievers. We were, and we had to own that. ... I fell on my instincts. ... I got to the point that I didn't believe I would feel regret after I made that decision, and that's what instinct is."

Steve Bisciotti's assessment was perfect

Bisciotti is spot on with his comments. Harbaugh's 18 blown second-half leads are the most of any coach within the past 35 years. Furthermore, since 2022, the Ravens have lost nine games with a win probability of 90 percent or higher, which is the most in the league by a wide margin. Harbaugh's poor decision-making was a key factor in these late-game collapses. Derrick Henry being on the bench for the Ravens' final two drives against the New England Patriots is the most egregious example.

Just as importantly, the Ravens routinely underperformed in the playoffs. Winning just three playoff games with a quarterback as talented as Lamar Jackson is unacceptable, and it's largely on Harbaugh. The Ravens have been the No. 1 seed twice and won 11-plus games four times during the Lamar era. This season, however, disappointment reached new heights as the Ravens were Super Bowl favorites but failed to even make the playoffs.

Whatever way you slice it, the time had come to move on.

You have to give Bisciotti credit for making the difficult decision to move on from Harbaugh. Yes, it was clearly time for a change, but Harbaugh had been the Ravens coach since 2008, and firing him was not viewed as a certainty even after a disastrous season. Frankly, I don't think this would be a move every owner would have made.

Bisciotti's openness about the reasoning for the move is also something he deserves credit for. He easily could have given a short answer, but he didn't hold back, and it's clear that Bisciotti is willing to do whatever it takes to get the Ravens back into Super Bowl contention.

So far, the Ravens have conducted eight interviews, and they have four more interviews scheduled for their head coach opening. As of right now, Kliff Kingsbury, Jesse Minter, Klint Kubiak, and Brian Flores are four names that stand out to me. Regardless, whoever the Ravens hire will need to be able to handle late-game situations better than Harbaugh.