John Harbaugh: Ravens Press Conference 12/22/25

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. It is Monday, December 22nd. The Ravens lost to the New England Patriots 28 to 24 on Sunday. They are now seven and eight on the season. Today, we had head coach John Harbaugh's weekly Monday press conference.

John Harbaugh (0:18)

Good seeing everybody. Appreciate you being here. Focus, had a chance to look at everything and study it and talk to all the coaches and see a few of the players.

And we have a short week, quick turnaround. We'll be back in tomorrow with the players who have to have our game plan ready tomorrow, at least getting started on it with the first and second down plan tomorrow when we practice and beginning rate for Saturday night for a game that we will be all in to play our best football. Our most complete game of the season. That'll be our goal and come out with a win. What questions do you have?

SPEAKER_3 (0:52)

John, do you have anything, any updates as far as Lamar and his back?

John Harbaugh (0:57)

Lamar has a back contusion, painful, certainly. Salman here getting treatment this morning and this afternoon early, and he'll be working, he's been classified as day to day on that. Nothing beyond the contusion, but I don't want to, I don't want to minimize the severity in the pain level of that because it's legit and that's where it stands.

SPEAKER_4 (1:18)

I don't talk about Derrick Henry's lack of usage for the last few possessions. There's a sense of a rotation. Kyle, it was a rotation to have Keaton Mitchell at the time. Who decides the rotation, and if not you, why not say, no, no, this is Derrick Henry, we need to have him in the game right now?

John Harbaugh (1:38)

Yeah. Well, we have a rotation. The rotation is Derrick and Keaton are first and second down backs. And we came to that in the last few weeks and made sure that on all those plays, it was one of those two guys that that obvious pass was third down only for Rasheen, which I think he had nine plays on. And then the rotation was two to one as far as starting the series off. And depending on how long the series goes, you know, Derrick gets four or five, three, four or five runs, and then he needs a break. So, Keaton comes in or vice versa. The last series was a conversation between Willie and Derrick, and they decided that Keaton was going to start the series off as part of the rotation, and that Derrick was going to come in in that series. If I had been looking back on it right now, to your point, I'd have grabbed it and I said, no, I'll put Derrick in the game, you know. But that's not really the way it works in real time. It's the guys doing the rotation, the coach doing the rotation, and it's also the plays that are called. Certain plays are set up for Keaton, and that opening play was more of a Keaton play of the series. So I think that had a lot to do with him starting the series, and the idea would bring to bring to bring Derrick in after a few plays. I would have at least probably would have wanted him in after we got the first down, you know, if I had grabbed it, if I had seen it. But I'm also looking at the play. The play that was set up on first down was a play action pass initially. That's a sweep play that Keaton takes most of the time. So that's going to draw eyes and draw attention to the play. And I can see why you'd want to put Keaton out there in that play. So I think there's a lot of layers to it in game. Things are moving fast and that's the way it goes.

And you look back at it and you say, you know, I think there's logic going the other way for sure. And you just put Derrick out there for whatever the play is. And we've all been happy with that as well. So that's how it went.

SPEAKER_5 (3:30)

Coach, in real time, were you aware that Derrick could not touch the ball after the second TD?

SPEAKER_6 (3:36)

How much conversation do you have?

John Harbaugh (3:37)

Well, we're talking about six plays. So we're talking about six plays that went back to back in a series. We're trying to get the first down. So no, the conversation is not really geared toward, you know, who's going in the game on a play because plays are getting called fast. And players are running on the field fast based on the game plan, what the rotating coach decides to do, what the tag on the play is and who's got that play. And there's reasons for all that that are game plans. So I'm not defending all that. And you, heck no, you can pick plays or who goes in or when they go in. But it's not just as simple as, oh, Derek Henry didn't play the whole fourth quarter. You know, it was those plays back to back. He was going to go in. That was part of the plan. And it was felt in making those decisions, guys running on and off the field, as players are being called in the rotation to go that direction. As I look back on it, I'm like, sure, I see the point. But I'm also not in the midst of saying, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, time out. You know, Keaton, come on. I want Derek in the game in that moment. So that's a reality too. So just, I'm not trying to make excuses for it, but try to put it in perspective, you know. That's how it works.