The running back position has become a lower personnel priority for many NFL teams in recent years, but Ravens coach John Harbaugh says it’s a high priority in Baltimore this offseason.
“We need another back,” Harbaugh said, via ESPN. “What type of back that is? I think we’re talking about it. We have a pretty good idea of the type of back we want to add.”
Does that mean the Ravens will use their first-round draft pick, No. 16 overall, on a running back? This year’s draft is expected to be a good one at the position -- so good that the top two running backs, LSU’s Leonard Fournette and Florida State’s Dalvin Cook, will likely be off the board before the Ravens pick. Baltimore could use its first-round pick on another running back, like Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey or Texas’s D’Onta Foreman, or could hope to hit on a late-round running back. (One running back we can safely say the Ravens won’t draft, given their history with Ray Rice, is Oklahoma’s Joe Mixon, a talented runner whose draft status is in question because he was caught on video assaulting a woman.)
But whether it’s the draft or free agency, Harbaugh said he and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg are in agreement that last year’s run offense wasn’t good enough.
“Marty believes in running the football, and I believe in running the football,” Harbaugh said. “We have not run the football well enough or enough, really, for the last two years. That has to change.”
And that means that after Terrance West and Kenneth Dixon shared the running duties last year, the Ravens will make a change this year.