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This has been a busy couple weeks when it comes to the Ravens' coaching staff.
Former quarterbacks coach Hue Jackson left to join the Raiders and was replaced by Jim Zorn, and former Patriots defensive coordinator Dean Pees was added as Baltimore's new linebackers coach with former LB guru Vic Fangio joining John Harbaugh's brother Jim at Stanford.
As of today, according to multiple reports, we can add another coaching move to the list.
Ravens defensive backs coach Mark Carrier has reportedly been hired by the Jets as their defensive line coach, a move which will reunite Carrier with former Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan.
Carrier had spent the last four seasons in Baltimore, but opted to join the list of former Ravens players and coaches who have followed Ryan up north.
Chuck Pagano, who is the Ravens' secondary coach, will remain in that role.
Since Carrier will become the Jets' defensive line coach, I figured I'd pass along a note on the Ravens' pass rush that came out of yesterday's "State of the Ravens" press conference.
OK, OK, that transition was pretty weak. I hope we can put that behind us.
Despite having the third-ranked overall defense this season, the Ravens struggled to get hits on opposing quarterbacks throughout much of the 2009 campaign. They had just 32 sacks on the year, tied for 18th-best in the league.
The pass rush did improve towards the end of the season, as the Ravens posted 14 sacks in their last five games (including their two postseason contests), but the lack of consistent pressure on the QB left the Baltimore secondary vulnerable to deep plays down the field.
Asked yesterday if improving the pass rush is one of the areas that he'd like to see more improvement, head coach John Harbaugh quickly fired back a response.
"I'd say, yes. No question about it," Harbaugh said. "To me, we want more sacks. We want more quarterbacks tagged right in the chest. We want to knock those guys down as much as we can. I think you see it in the last weekend of football; that's what wins football games on defense and takes pressure off of the secondary. That's a big point of emphasis for us."
"Again, as a coaching staff, we want to make our guys better, the guys we've got, throughout the offseason. And then we want to add guys that can do that. The same thing with the wide receivers... Those guys play individually very well, as well as they could. It's our job to put the whole thing together and make the whole group as good as we can. That's what we want to do at every position."
