John Harbaugh: Ravens Press Conference 9/29/25

SPEAKER_2 (0:03)

Welcome in to the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. It is Monday, September 29th. Today, the Ravens held their standard Monday afternoon press conference with head coach John Harbaugh.

John Harbaugh (0:15)

Okay, appreciate everybody being here to work on the next game coming up. The Texans game on Sunday. Be at home and we're going to look at all the things we need to do to be the best we can be in that game. And there's a lot of factors, a lot of things we're dealing with, for sure. Like a lot of teams are, I'm sure. But that'll be our opportunity to get to get going and get our momentum going a little bit. And that's a really good team. I've just been watching them on tape. The Texans defense is playing at a high, high level. Very aggressive, very fast, very well coached. A lot of good players, a lot of good pass rushers, good coverage guys playing good football. Then offensively, obviously young quarterback working to find their way in a little bit, running the ball, good backs, trying to play complimentary football with their defense. So that's what we're looking at right now. What questions you have?

SPEAKER_4 (1:07)

John, specifically with Lamar's injury, do you have any update with that? And do you expect him to practice Wednesday? Do you expect him to play on Sunday?

John Harbaugh (1:16)

Yeah, we've got a pretty good feel on all the injuries, you know, with the different guys right now where we're at. Really not commenting on those things today.

We'll comment on them later in the week a little bit more. I can't give you information on Broderick and Nnamdi. Nnamdi is going to be out for the year. That's going to be a year-long IR. Broderick will not be. That will be the four-week IR.

SPEAKER_5 (1:41)

John, with MetaVK, obviously, it's a match, but there's a lot of concern with that. What's his long-term prognosis before? Are you guys confident he'll be able to return next year? Is his career in jeopardy? What can you share?

John Harbaugh (1:52)

Yeah, that's a good question. It's like, and just if I'm trying to, I guess I'm trying to explain it in the best way I can in terms of what I'm allowed to tell you. Like a lot of that is something, things that he needs to address with you guys in his time. So I really can't speak for him, wouldn't want to. Those are questions that would be best answered by him going forward, and he may be still getting some information on that as well, but I believe that for him to answer.

SPEAKER_7 (2:26)

You know, obviously, you have so many injuries, I'm sure it's hard to sort of directly evaluate, you know, especially your defense, where you lost, I don't know, three or four starters yesterday in the course of the game. That being said, this is the second year where that side of the ball will start out pretty slow. Obviously, if there's a competition and there's the injury, how much confidence do you have in Zach or to be the one to turn the defense around?

John Harbaugh (2:49)

Yeah, I have confidence in all of our guys, including Zach, our players, our coaches. And I watch our guys every day. I watch how they work. I watch how well they coach. I'm in meetings. I watch the meetings. I know the schemes that we're running. I know the soundness of what we're doing. I understand who's, you know, what we're up against, you know, from week to week and play to play. Even in this game, you know, this is a challenging game against, you know, good offense. They were healthy. They got their guys back. And complimentary football wise, you know, defense is putting some tough spots, you know, field position wise, for sure. And I think that had something to do with it. We got some stops early in the red zone with some short fields.

And then we didn't play as well in the red zone. They made a couple of plays in there that they end up getting touchdowns on.

So, yeah, you know, that's what you do. You believe in your people. And we have really good people and good players. I thought a lot of the young guys stepped up, you know, they got their opportunities that had never played before, you know, and went out there in that environment and played well. You look at the individual performances, there's a lot of really good things there. And the things that, you know, when I watched the tape, you know, I was, I felt better watching the tape, I can tell you that, a lot better watching the tape than I did standing on the sideline watching the game. I felt like there was a lot of really good play going on. And I think the things that were issues were very definable and also sometimes a result of some, you know, some real tight plays being made by them, you know, in some situations. So those are plays that we just got to start making, you know, start making, you know, get some turnovers, get, knock some balls loose, get some TFLs, you know, create some things. We were a step from getting a couple sacks at times, you know, I thought Pat did a good job of getting the ball out a few times, things like that. So, you know, we're not, we're not too far away on defense. I really feel confident that we're going to play good, really good defense this year. I really am, and I know the fans hear that, and I hope they have a little bit of confidence in us that we, we've been down this road before a little bit. We do need to get healthy for sure. That's, that's an important part of it as well. But also play with the guys that we've gotten, let's go play some good defense.