The Baltimore Ravens axed their offensive coordinator mid-season last year and thus far have not decided to replace him. But they did replace their tight ends coach with Greg Roman, who will bring along with him the additional title of offensive assistant. It is believed that he will work with coordinator Marty Mornhinweg on building the Ravens’ offense this season.
One thing that Roman believes to be true about how Baltimore is shaping up on the offensive side of the ball for the 2017 season is that they are going to re-commit to running the ball, while not becoming a run-first team, and that that is one of the major reasons that the Ravens chose to bring him in.
It is a logical choice, after all, as rushing success has been in his history with the Bills in 2015 when they led the league in rushing, and during his four seasons prior to that in San Francisco, when the 49ers had one of the best running games in the league.
The Ravens, on the other hand, have simply not run the ball very much relative to other teams. They have had the fewest or tied for the fewest carries in each of the past two seasons, while ranking at or near the top in terms of pass attempts.
One must qualify that at least a bit with the consideration that Baltimore hasn’t won a ton of games over that span of time, suggesting that they have been trailing frequently, which lends itself to more passes. But the Browns ran the ball more than they did, and Cleveland won one game, so…
It’s not as though Baltimore has necessarily been bad at running the football, either. They did start off the 2016 season rather poorly in that department, but had gotten things figured out by the end of the year, particularly with Terrance West serving as the primary ball carrier, and rookie Kenneth Dixon showed some legitimate potential as well, including in the second meeting against the Steelers.
“If we’re going to run the ball well, we’re going to commit to it”, Roman told the team’s website about the Ravens’ plans on offense heading into next season. “We won’t be afraid to adapt and adjust when we need to”.
While there is a believe that there is some work to do on the personnel front in order to establish the sort of power running offense that Roman has been known to have success with, he was complimentary of some of the pieces that they already have in place, including West and Dixon, but also linemen Marshal Yanda and last year’s first-round pick, Ronnie Stanley.
