The Ravens have said goodbye to a slew of players that helped them win the Super Bowl, but that doesn’t bother coach John Harbaugh much.
In an interview with the NFL Network on Monday, Harbaugh backed up the decisions being made by General Manager Ozzie Newsome and the rest of the front office when it came to how hard they’ve worked (or haven’t worked) to make sure key pieces from that team remain in place for the title defense. To Harbaugh, the real reason for criticism would be if the Ravens went out of their way to hold onto players because “if you try to stay the same you end up getting worse.”
“The worst mistake you can make is trying to hold a team together,” Harbaugh said, via CSNBaltimore.com. “It’s impossible.”
Selling that thought is a lot easier in Baltimore because of the way the team proved Harbaugh right with their attempts to hold onto as much of the core of the 2000 Super Bowl champs as possible. It left them with a team that got old and expensive quickly, hampering the chances to build a consistent contender and leaving the Ravens in several tough spots over the years right after winning it all.
The Ravens may well take a step back this season, but they’d be a lot likelier to regret overpaying for players like Paul Kruger and Dannell Ellerbe than they are to regret the decisions they’ve made the last couple of weeks.