Brian Billick Fired as Coach of Ravens

Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL

‘Tis the season for firings and hirings. And the first head coaching vacancy is now upon us. It didn’t matter that the Baltimore Ravens won their final game of the 2007 season. In finishing 5-11, eight games worse than last year’s 13-3 mark, the Ravens fired head coach Brian Billick today. This news comes less than a year after Coach Billick signed a contract extension through 2010 and just a couple weeks after he made an announcement that he would return to coach the Ravens in 2008. So this comes as quite a shock in that sense, but I’m not at all surprised when you look at what became of the team this season. There seemed to be a lot of dissension between the players and the coaching staff. One example was back in October when I was working the Ravens/Bills game. A distraught Ray Lewis called out Coach Billick’s play calling after Buffalo won 19-14.

Coach B. led the Ravens to a Super Bowl XXXV win in 2000, but never got the team back to the big game. He did manage an 85-67 record in nine seasons, though.

I believe he’ll return to the sidelines as an offensive coordinator next season. He had an impressive stint as the Minnesota Vikings OC prior to taking the Ravens job. In fact, his 1998 Vikings were the NFL’s highest scoring offense in NFL history until the New England Patriots broke that record this season. Maybe a team like the Buffalo Bills, who are looking for an innovative OC to replace Steve Fairchild, would be interested.

I think Brian Billick is still a good coach. For an offensive guy, he never really had a lot to work with in Baltimore. If you look at his quarterbacks alone, he never had a marquee QB until Steve McNair arrived last season. And Steve was in the twilight of his career. He always had good defenses in Baltimore, but the offense never seemed to do its part. I think he can do good things with the proper weaponry and dedicated attention to just an offensive game plan.