Knee-Jerk Reactions: John Harbaugh OUT as Ravens Head Coach

From January 19, 2008 until around 5:15 PM on January 6, 2026, a span of nearly 18 calendar years, John Harbaugh was the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. He brought the Ravens their second Lombardi Trophy, but his teams have been known as underachievers and chokers in the years since.

We don’t know the details yet, but we do know that he is out.

Sources: John Harbaugh is out as the Ravens head coach. pic.twitter.com/Rht9ssh01j

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 6, 2026

RSR staff react to the news here.

Derek Arnold

As the clock continued to tick away and we didn’t hear anything from Steve Bisciotti expressing a vote of confidence in Harbs, I let hope creep in just a bit, but in my heart of hearts I really didn’t think he would go through with it.  This needed to happen, period. I was a bit surprised in recent days to hear so many local media members agreeing as well. I saw pieces expressing this sentiment not just from our own Tony Lombardi, but from Glenn Clark and Bo Smolka of PressBox, Luke Jones of WNST, heard it from Rob Long and Jeremy Conn on 105.7, and more. Though the national media was doing a lot of their “He’s a Super Bowl Winning Coach! Who would they get to replace him?!” nonsense of course.

I think Eric DeCosta, who deserves plenty of scrutiny himself, needs the chance to hire his own head coach, and build a team without the input of Harbaugh, who had earned that right. Let’s see if his teambuilding philosophy changes now.

I appreciate all that Harbs did from 2008-2019 or so. I have my grievances with some things along the way, but now isn’t the time. However, since then it’s been wasting some very talented rosters with a should-be three-time MVP quarterback. I wish him well in his next endeavor, but I am not shy about saying I’m glad to see him go.

Let the fun begin!

Nick Polinsky

Wow, I really didn’t expect the Ravens to pull the trigger on John Harbaugh. Steve Bisciotti must have really felt that he was going to lose the fanbase if he kept Harbaugh around.

Obviously it doesn’t solely fall on coaching when things go south, but when the same issues continue to plague a team a change needs to happen at the top.

Regardless of what’s happened I still have nothing but respect for the guy. He’s kept the Ravens in contention every single year for nearly all 18 years of his tenure which is a feat in itself.

Harbaugh’s firing will surely shake up the coaching carousel around the league, and now Baltimore must turn to a coaching search of their own, something they haven’t gone though since 2008. My personal favorites would be Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak or Rams DC Chris Shula.

Kevin McNelis

This needed to happen.

Josina Anderson’s original hints at reasons the Ravens would consider retaining Harbaugh referenced the established culture in Baltimore during his tenure. It failed, though, to consider that in the NFL, culture has to change with the game. The necessary changes had bypassed Harbs, and a stubbornness to adapt slowed this team’s development down substantially.

Is he a Ring of Honor guy eventually? Sure. Did the last few seasons take some shine off of what would otherwise have been a pretty sterling tenure? Absolutely, they have.

I wouldn’t mind seeing even more changes to come. I like the idea of a young, offensive-minded coach bringing in a new staff to get the best out of LJ and this offense. Klint Kubiak or Joe Brady are a couple of names that I like, but we’ll see if Steve Bisciotti feels the same.

Chris Schisler

I could not be more proud of the Baltimore Ravens as am right now. It would have been easy to keep John Harbaugh. This after all is the franchise that has used a love for continuity as an excuse to change nothing for years. John Harbaugh is in no way a bad coach, but he’s the wrong coach for where the Ravens are. Everything has an expiration date and Harbaugh started going bad in 2023, when the AFC went through Baltimore but the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. It was growing hard to not make every loss about Harbaugh. Baltimore saw the movie so many times, they knew the rising action by heart, the climax was noted with a fumble or a moment so dumb it had to come from an Adam Sandler movie in the 2010s. The denouement was a press conference of irritating coach speak about how hard it is to hold on to leads in the NFL. The plot was getting repetitive and this organization needed a change. Embrace change. Embrace a new voice.

Change comes with risk. It could be worse, it could be better. Thank goodness it will be different. Thank goodness it won’t be the same exact downfall every single time. A football team will always have problems but Baltimore desperately needs to experience different problems. The Ravens have a generational quarterback. They were supposed to be Super Bowl favorites. Those expectations existed for reasons that had little to do with Harbaugh if we’re being honest. A culture change could be exactly what the Ravens need to get over the hump. That said, we need to forget about getting over the hump, and simply get the team back to playing good football. Harbaugh’s voice went stale and the train fell off the tracks. The next head coach has to bring accountability, urgency and a renewed energy to Ravens football. Another year of Harbaugh would have been more of the same, disappointing results with a talented roster.

Jared Pinder

I was worried for a bit that they weren’t going to do what had to be done, but they did it. They had the balls to finally get rid of the second longest head coach in the NFL. John will always have respect for finding a way to win the one championship that I have seen from any of my main sports teams I follow. However that was when I was in middle school and Harbs has rode the coattails of talent for multiple years now.

Respect the man for his past, but this had to be done. Now the Ravens become the dream destination for any potential head coaching candidate and Harbuagh will find any other home and elevate them to new heights.

Two things can be true at once: Harbs will get a new job very easily and the Ravens will now become the premier job on the market.

Jason Woolbert

John Harbaugh was a very good coach for a long time for the Ravens, but all things must come to an end.  Unfortunately I feel it was two years too late – and the man who should be head coach has the 1-seed in the NFC.  Ah well.

Harbs finishes his Ravens career with a 180-133-0 record, 6 division titles in 18 years, 4 conference championship appearances, and of course one Super Bowl win.  He’ll basically have his pick of job openings if he wants it.

It was past time for him to move on though.  The Ravens were not going to be able to figure out how to close games on his watch anymore.  The system was flawed.

We’re in open waters now, and we can only hope the next hire will be as good as the last one.

The post Knee-Jerk Reactions: John Harbaugh OUT as Ravens Head Coach appeared first on Russell Street Report.

Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2026/01/06/knee-jerk-reactions/john-harbaugh-fired/