Nick Wright dubbed the Ravens’ decision to fire John Harbaugh on Tuesday as a “very risky maneuver” while suggesting that it made keeping quarterback Lamar Jackson “so much easier.”
Wright was on FS1’s “First Things First” when news broke that Harbaugh was out in Baltimore after almost two full decades.
“I don’t know who the best available head coach is, because I don’t even know who the best available D coordinator for the Cowboys is. And I don’t know for the Ravens, their appetite, with two years left on his deal, giving Lamar a fully guaranteed top of the market deal, which is the only thing he’d want,” Wright said. “This was coming, and even if they won this weekend, barring this team making the Super Bowl, I believed this was coming, and I’ve thought it was the biggest story in the NFL the last three weeks and now it’s here.”
Wright questioned the relationship between Harbaugh and Jackson previously, as the dynamic between the two was increasingly in the spotlight following a report by the Baltimore Sun late last month that indicated the QB was wearing thin on the coach.
The Ravens made the move official on Tuesday evening after a “comprehensive evaluation of the season and the overall direction of our organization,” team owner Steve Bisciotti said in a statement.
Harbaugh spent 18 seasons as the head coach of the Ravens and won one Super Bowl for the organization.
In a statement of his own, Harbaugh said he had “GRATITUDE & APPRECIATION” for the Ravens.
While Wright suggested that the move will make it easier to keep Jackson in Charm City, CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones reported that it wasn’t a given and that his involvement in the search for a new head coach could be an indicator of whether Jackson will stay long term.
“This is major. This is a franchise that doesn’t typically make moves like this,” Jones said. “What it means, we can’t say just yet, because we have to see who they hire.
“But certainly and surely if the Baltimore Ravens want Lamar Jackson in their future, they will involve Lamar Jackson in their present, which is now a head coaching search.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
