Rebuild or Rebirth?

By: Peyton Schultze

Lamar Jackson helped guide the Ravens to an AFC North crown and a playoff berth.

As February 3rd approaches, it will be exactly 6 years to the day from the last time the Baltimore Ravens lifted the Lombardi Trophy in the city of New Orleans for the second time in franchise history. Very shortly after their magical run (led by the urgency to get former linebacker, Ray Lewis, another title before his retirement), the Baltimore Ravens’ front office would reward their starting QB at the time, Joe Flacco, with millions of dollars after a series of extremely impressive postseason wins en route to a Super Bowl XLVII championship. The future seemed bright for Baltimore: they were able to conquer the mighty New England Patriots, still had a dominant defense, and Joe Flacco seemed to prove himself as an elite quarterback in the league. All seemed bright at the moment, so what could go wrong and prevent Baltimore from contending for years to come?

In that same breath, it will be exactly 5 years since the Seattle Seahawks shellacked the Denver Broncos in one of the most lopsided Super Bowls of all time. After a defensive performance of the ages in the Super Bowl against Peyton Manning and the elite Broncos’ offense, the Seahawks and their Legion of Boom seemed like they could rattle off consecutive Super Bowl championships and become a full blown football dynasty among the greats of the Brady-led Patriots and Montana-led 49ers. Seattle had all the pieces necessary for a title contender: an elite quarterback, a great head coach, and one of the best defenses of all time to lead them into the future. All seemed bright at the moment, so what could go wrong and prevent Seattle from creating a dynasty?

For the Ravens, the answer to their complicated problem stood within the organization and the ever-evolving NFL around them. Joe Flacco proved year after year that he was not elite and a liability at times. A once-great defense was starting to fade from the top ranks of the league. The Ravens even found themselves with legal troubles off the field involving their players, such as former running back, Ray Rice. The Ravens, simply put, were unable to react to their surroundings. They refused to change from their past ways, preventing them from being anything more than a mediocre team over the past several seasons and not being bad enough to rebuild, but not being great enough to contend. As for the Seahawks, why were they not able to dominate the league for years? It simply relies on one play:

While one play typically does not define a season, nevertheless a potential dynasty, the Seattle Seahawks proved that one play can change the course of league history for the better or the worse. After their devastating loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, Seattle became a team that started to turn on each other and eventually made the future dynasty crumble before the eyes of the league. Defensive stars such as Richard Sherman started to vocally criticize how Russell Wilson was treated by the Seahawks’ coaches. Marshawn Lynch started to decline and began to lose his game-changing big play ability. And Pete Carroll even started to lose control of a locker room based solely off of emotion and hard work. One play had destroyed the Seattle Seahawks’ franchise, so how could they ever recover and rise from their own ashes to compete among the NFL’s best once again?

Not projected to be a threat in the NFC at the start of this season, Seattle has proven doubters wrong and is as dangerous as any team in the postseason.

Yet, here they are again, once again relevant as the New Year arrives and the playoffs begin. Once projected to be mediocre teams that would likely not make the playoffs, the Ravens and Seahawks have rebounded from their past struggles and built solid teams based on committed schemes to compete for a world championship. But these resurgences from two of the league’s finest organizations did not just come out of nowhere. For Baltimore, it began as soon as rookie quarterback, Lamar Jackson, was inserted into the starting lineup for the Ravens. Since Jackson’s arrival, the Ravens have rallied off 6 of 7 wins to propel them into the playoffs as a Super Bowl dark horse to be reckoned with. But this rebirth from the Ravens is not just due to Jackson. As John Harbaugh and Co. have built an offense to play to the strengths of the still-raw Jackson and his running ability to compliment a dominant defense filled with speedy youngsters and steady veterans, the Ravens have found themselves as a team that nobody wants to play in the playoffs due to their awesome ability to control the clock by running the football and play great defense.

Meanwhile, in Seattle, the Seahawks have rebounded from a 4-5 start to reach a 10-6 record and schedule a matchup with the Cowboys in Jerry World on Saturday night. After a poor start to the season that involved Russell Wilson having to constantly air it out for the ‘Hawks to have a chance to win, Seattle reconstructed their offense to commit to running the ball and using play action to take deep shots down the field with WRs such as Doug Baldwin. In addition, zero members of the former Legion of Boom remain other than linebacker, Bobby Wagner, which has forced Seattle to throw young players into the fire. Yet it has paid off and the Seahawks have a solid defense featuring solid and young players and elite defensive captains such as Wagner and pass rusher, Frank Clark. But Seattle still remained a team hiding in the shadows until proving themselves as a true contender with a huge win over Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 16 on Sunday Night Football. Seattle is also dangerous right now, and their limited, yet solid, roster lurks in the NFC and is ready to snatch a few key wins.

Pete Carroll has had one of his best coaching seasons of his impressive career in leading Seattle to the playoffs in 2018.

Yet for the Ravens and Seahawks, their sudden resurgence should have been noticed earlier. After all, both teams faced drastic offseasons involving key personnel decisions. The Ravens drafting Jackson and trying to surround their offense with outside weapons such as John Brown and Michael Crabtree. The Seahawks cutting Richard Sherman and shopping Earl Thomas on the market consistently. These bold choices speak well to the clear direction of both front offices, which has proved to be an effective way of “rebuilding”. Or is it rather “retooling” with some new faces and using what has worked in the past? The credit for these teams should not only solely go to the players, but the head coaches of both teams. John Harbaugh and Pete Carroll have produced some of the best coaching seasons of their accolade-filled careers and have controlled their respective locker rooms over the course of the season. Long gone are the days of the outspoken Seahawks that used the media to their advantage, or the formerly rowdy Ravens and their outspoken ways. Instead, Harbaugh and Carroll have reshaped locker rooms with fresh new faces with quiet, yet feisty, personalities. Both coaches have used smart offensive schemes to surround their best players with smart play calling and players that play to the strengths of their quarterbacks. In addition, both teams feature several outstanding coordinators on defense in Ravens’ DC, Wink Martindale, and Seahawks’ DC, Ken Norton Jr., both of whom have elevated their respective defenses this season to keep up with the dynamic offenses that are so common in today’s NFL.

The Ravens face a tough Wild Card matchup with the 12-4 Chargers, a team they beat two weeks ago.

As both teams prepare for their matchups over the Wild Card Weekend, the Ravens and Seahawks have reminded the league of the proper way to rebuild with new faces. Both teams feature dynamic quarterbacks, very good running games, and spectacular defenses that have been able to shut down some of the best offenses in the league, and have managed to slide into the playoffs with few talk. In the case of the Ravens, a lot of credit can certainly be given to a team that has one of the best defenses in the league. And in the case of the Seahawks, a lot of credit can certainly be given to a team that features one of the best players in the league in Russell Wilson. But for both teams, a majority of the credit can also be given to two spectacular front offices that have shown the path for other NFL teams on how to win in the league, even with rosters that may be worse on paper than others around. The once-dominant Ravens and Seahawks have underwent a major rebirth mid-season in 2018 and are major threats in their respective conferences in the one of the most wide-open years in recent memory.