Bisciotti Delivers a Masterful Presser

“We went backwards the last three years”

For years I’ve opined about Steve Bisciotti. Ever since I had the pleasure of sitting beside him during our first Ravens Rap show in Ocean City, MD several years ago, I marveled at his ability to answer questions poignantly and honestly with full transparency. His answers are journeys that take you to places you didn’t initially expect but by the conclusion of the journey, the answers are so clear, so obvious that you are almost embarrassed that you didn’t think of it yourself.

On Tuesday, January 13, 2026, Bisciotti and his unique skillset was on full display once again. Some answers were very direct and to the point, followed by intentional silence to allow the audience to fully absorb what was said. The pregnant pauses were accompanied by “ah-hah” moments as his responses hit home.

In this piece, I’ll focus in on a few of those “ah-hah” moments with some commentary of my own. I invite you to do the same below. Bisciotti’s commentary is parenthesized…

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“I staked out a position that I thought I had come to with a lot of thought and a lot of prayer, and I gave it a lot of time, too. I think I talked to you, [Eric DeCosta], three or four weeks ago, and I guess the hardest part was the reasons and unfortunately, most of these can’t get traced back to John [Harbaugh], necessarily, but factually, we led the league in giving up big leads in the fourth quarter. It’s not something that winning organizations do. We have underperformed based on our seeding in the playoffs, [which is] very disappointing. [There were] a lot of players involved – a lot of our great players involved making mistakes that they don’t make during the regular season very often. But I just thought it was something that in the last 10 years, we’ve won the third-most games in the NFL, and yet people were saying we were underachievers, and so we were, and we had to own that.”

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All the things that frustrated you about the Ravens; all the things that made me dread doing The Good, Bad & Ugly each week, summarized above in one paragraph. As Steve would later say in the presser, there is never a good time [to fire your head coach], but we went backwards the last three years. The insanity had to end.

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“But I got to the point that I didn’t believe that I would feel regret after I made that decision. And that’s what instinct is. When you finally get to the point that you’re pretty damn sure that you are not going to regret the decision a day or a week later, then that’s the time to make the decision.”

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Bisciotti has quipped several times in the past about being a C student at what was then Salisbury State University. I’m guessing Steve was only a C student because he went to college for things other than just classwork. But answers like this are born of a brilliant mind – the kind that separates self-made billionaires from the average bloke. Apparently, all C students are NOT created equal.

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“Yes, it was interesting because, obviously, it was emotional. And I’ll be honest with you, most of that emotion came from me. I told my brother [that] it was the craziest firing in the world. I was the one choked up, and [John Harbaugh] was the one consoling me. He said, ‘You don’t owe me anything,’ and you can picture John. ‘You don’t owe me anything,’ He said, ‘You gave me 18 years.’ He said, ‘You picked a special teams guy. Who does that?’ He said, ‘You altered mine and Ingrid’s life forever because you took a chance on me. I am happy and content and disappointed, but I love you and I respect you, and I respect your decision.’”

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Does this sound like animosity to you? Does this sound like an owner disrespecting his head coach who couples as a dear friend just because they spoke about the firing by phone and not in person? Hardly. What it does sound like is two men who have gotten to know each other extremely well during the past 18 years; two men who love each other; and two men who understand that sometimes there’s an impasse. Sometimes things do end – for the better. We can all learn from the excellence and humility of Steve Bisciotti and John Harbugh.

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‘[John, you are] 63 years old. Alison just went to law school. You’re an empty nester. If you go to work for somebody else, I get offset, so I’m saving a whole lot of money, but I’d be more than happy to give you a very expensive, paid vacation for a year if you and Ingrid would pray on that and come to the decision that you could go out and travel and golf together and rifle.’ She’s a marksman now, and they do love to travel when they’re free. I said a whole year of that at 63 is a lot different than if you take another job, and [your next opportunity for that is] at 75. And as we get older, you start realizing that five-year chunks are changes in your life. And so I really, really, really would have hoped that he took a year off out of this crazy business that you work 80 hours a week and got a chance. Because I said, ‘Like your friend Sean Payton, you’ll still be the hottest coach next year, and you can do a little broadcasting, and you can do a little traveling and then you can get back into it.’”

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

In case you are unaware, the “offset” is part of practically all contracts for NFL head coaches. Simply stated, if John signs a new 5-year, $100M deal with another team, it offsets the 3 years at $17M per remaining on Harbaugh’s deal with the Ravens. But despite the cost effectiveness of the offset language for Bisciotti, he still encouraged John to live his best life for a year while Steve finances it. Take the $17M, go have fun with your bride. Step away from the never-ending 12-hour days and take the free ride.

These are not heated discussions between brand new adversaries. Instead, they are friendly chats between lifetime friends.

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“[Lamar Jackson will have] a lot of say, but he has no power. I have the power. They have opinions, and I want them all. I care about my players very much, but I can’t give them power.”

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Lamar has the Ravens by the short hairs given his contract situation and given the lack of a franchise tag option. At least that’s what I thought. But with this short statement from Bisciotti, I was reminded who really is the boss. Bisciotti would go on to explain that if they can’t get a new extension done with Lamar, they will create voidable option years in his current deal to trim his cap number in 2026 to allow the team to build the roster they need to win now. Power has not been usurped. Maybe it was never lost at all.

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“If K Tyler Loop makes that field goal [in Pittsburgh], is John Harbaugh still here coaching this team? (Jerry Coleman) 

(BISCIOTTI) “For a week.”

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When Bisciotti answered the question, I was taking a drink and nearly spit the contents all over my computer. Steve said what we all had hoped he would. We all feared that Harbaugh would get a hall pass if the Ravens reached the playoffs. But apparently the internal conversations he’d had 3 to 4 weeks prior with DeCosta carried enough weight that it wouldn’t affect his clarity of thought. A win in Pittsburgh was not going to camouflage the stain upon his franchise. Steve’s answer may have also hinted that he didn’t think the Ravens could beat the Texans in the wildcard round.

As for Coleman, he should have just shut up after that first question. Instead, he just can’t control his inner drama-seeking supermarket tabloid rag journalist.

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“Next year, I heard that we were contemplating [changes]. I wasn’t even the decision-maker, [but we were] contemplating replacing the offensive coordinator and the defensive coordinator, and that may have been the final nail in the coffin. I thought, ‘If I’m already here, and my gut is telling me it’s time, why would I let John rebuild an entire staff?’ Because I’m going to be sitting here next year saying, ‘What the hell did I do last year? Last year was the time.’ So, it wouldn’t have been fair, because I think we had run our course, and if I didn’t have the guts to say to my partners, ‘You’re on the fence, and I’m on the fence, and I’m slipping on this side, and I believe that your love for John and your respect for John is holding you back this much.’ I need you to move this much. I tried to take my love and respect of John out of it, and it’s [executive vice president and general manager Eric DeCosta’s] best friend, so I don’t know that he could, and I admire him for it, but I had to look at them and say, ‘You’re pretty close to me. You’re not there. I’m going to push you over the edge. I’m going to make the decision.’ And I made the decision by myself, and they understood.”

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Bisciotti had the same concerns that many of us did by running it back again with John. He didn’t want another year to be wasted. And he acted on that instinct. But that couldn’t have been easy. It doesn’t sound like Eric DeCosta could strip away the friendship he has with Harbaugh to decide on John free of bias. A true leader can do that. That’s Steve Bisciotti.

Steve Bisciotti NEEDS to be on a microphone more

HE’S BETTER THAN EVERYBODY

Listen to what he had to say yesterday #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/rbIb6HcY48

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 14, 2026

The press conference was masterful, and Bisciotti the maestro. I could have listened to him for hours but then, that’s not his style. He prefers to pick his spots, to step up to the dais not when called upon, but when he thinks it is needed most, preferring instead to lean on his partners.

Yesterday left us all wanting more, but it was a clear and present reminder that he runs a first-class operation. And perhaps most importantly to fans, it proved that the competitive juices still run through his veins like a freight train.

And that’s a good thing for RavensFlock.

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Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2026/01/14/lombardis-way/bisciotti-delivers/