The Baltimore Ravens shuffled defensive coordinators, parting ways with Don "Wink" Martindale and hiring Mike Macdonald away from the University of Michigan. The change was partly to shake up a defense that began to falter in 2021.
Martindale was a heavy-pressure coordinator, throwing a cavalcade of blitzes which left quarterbacks never quite sure where the pressure was coming from. In 2020, the Ravens led the NFL in blitz percent (45.3%). In 2021, that figure fell to No. 6 (32.4%), per Next Gen Stats.
The change in coordinator signifies a desire to rely less on the blitz moving forward, but Macdonald said Wednesday that doesn't mean lacking aggression.
"The aggressiveness absolutely is going to carry over, but I think you've got to look through the lens [of], 'What does aggressiveness actually mean?'" Macdonald said, via the team's official website. "It's about keeping the offense off-balance and where they're not really believing what they're seeing on a down-to-down basis. So, a lot of times, that will come with the schemed-up pressure -- that'll happen. A lot of times it could be a fake pressure, it could look like this coverage and play like another one. You're changing the stress points of the zones and things like that and just trying to create doubt at all times. You want to be the one pushing the envelope, rather than the other way around."
Macdonald spent seven seasons with the Ravens working his way from coaching intern in 2014 to defensive assistant (2015-2016), to defensive backs coach (2017) and finally linebackers coach (2018-2020). His familiarity with the mainstays of Baltimore's system should lead to a fluid changeover.
In one year as defensive coordinator at Michigan under John Harbaugh's brother, Jim, Macdonald's defense did attack, but it usually wasn't in the form of all-out pressure. Instead, Macdonald mixed coverages behind pressures to throw off quarterbacks. Utilizing a mix of zone and man, and disguising pressures, Michigan's defense went from the 95th ranked scoring unit to eighth in 2021, allowing just 17.4 points per game. It helped that Michigan boasted two potential first-round picks in the 2022 NFL Draft in Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo.
"It's just the willingness to just try to keep putting your players in the best position so they can succeed," Macdonald said. "If you let that kind of guide your decision process, you end up at a pretty decent spot.
"The first thing you want is a cohesive unit. You want everybody to have each other's backs. There's a certain style it takes to play like a Raven. You want it to be multiple. You want it to be flexible and adaptable. It needs to be complimentary, light enough when you can adjust to certain things and simple for the players so they can go play the way you expect them to go play."
The Ravens' secondary was decimated by injury in 2021, and Baltimore will have several key free agents to make decisions on, including defensive lineman Calais Campbell and edge rusher Justin Houston. But with pieces like Odafe Oweh, who is coming off an impressive rookie campaign, the building blocks are there for Baltimore to get back to being a lock-down unit.
"Ultimately, our goal is not even top 10, right?" Macdonald said. "You want to be No. 1. So, that's the standard."