Examining Baltimore Ravens’ path back to AFC Championship | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

somebody asked me this yesterday I was on radio in Baltimore because there are some Ravens fans that have consternation about John Harbaugh they won a Super Bowl 12 years ago they're in the mix from time to time they've been the one seed twice the last five years but they haven't been back to the Super Bowl they've won three playoff games I believe since winning Super Bowl 47 should Harbaugh be on the hot seed should he be blamed for it it's like look at what he has dealt with in the last 12 years the back end of the Patriots dynasty which went right into the front end of the Chiefs Dynasty yeah how can anyone blame Harbaugh and the Ravens for not being back to the Super Bowl when you go from whatever woke Tom Brady up presumably the drafting of Jimmy Garoppolo in 2014 so they win three more from 2014 through 2018 and then it goes into to the Chiefs who win three from 2019 through 2024 I mean what do you expect and would you rather be irrelevant would you rather have like one playoff birth every three or four years or would you rather be a team that is there in the conversation and you understand you're going to come up against some damn good teams and sometimes you're going to win and sometimes you're going to lose and if you don't win at all against a team like the Chiefs you're at least in the conversation and so I think I understand Ravens fans are frustrated but one team has Patrick Mahomes and one team doesn't it's it's that simple well right and the the other part of this is I mean you go from you know the 2021 and 2022 right where you don't have Lamar Jackson for basically all of December You know despite that they still won you know in 2022 enough to get into the postseason and give the Bengals all that they could handle right in that game that was played um at whatever they call the Bengals stadium now so you know I I think that when you at it that way I that gives me that much more respect for Harbaugh and what he's done know over the course of so many years it's really hard I think to put teams together that win in different ways and the Ravens of you know 2024 are very very very different philosophically from an offensive standpoint at least than the Ravens that won back in 2012 just given who the quarterback is so you know if you don't look at it that way and you don't say okay well Harbaugh has done such a good job that he can win a Super Bowl with Joe Flaco and then change his offensive philosophy to fit somebody like a Lamar Jackson so that they can not just be competitive but actual winners right when Lamar Jackson is on the field that means that they are going to be a contender for a title you know whether not yeah obviously they got Patrick Mahomes standing in the way they got burrow in their own division yes but like that team is going to be as competitive as any as long as number eight is healthy and on the field and that to me is a huge credit to Harbaugh at a certain point though the narrative takes over for everyone in Baltimore most notably John Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson can you win the big game in the postseason and with each passing year that they don't it becomes more of a talking point that the people in the middle of it the folks in The Crucible have to find a way to ignore and you have to find a way to reverse it it gets harder each year I mean they've had the one seed twice they got blown out by the Titans in the 2019 postseason and then last year everything was set up for them to go to the Super Bowl and and here comes the Chiefs and they just didn't get it done and I just think that and it's difficult at this stage of the season to fast forward to hey special regular season that makes you a top seed and you're hosting a playoff game because it's a lot of work you got to put in just to get back in position to do that and I think one of the challenges when you had a great season that ultimately evaporated in 3 hours on a Sunday in January going back to Z and zero and climbing the mountain again knowing that the last time you climbed the mountain you got thrown all the way to the bottom when you finally got close to the top but that's that's part of the reality for the Ravens they got to dig out of zero and zero and get back there but when they get back there it's going to get more and more intense until they finally do it the question of whether or not they can yeah there is and and that's the same thing for so many other AFC teams right I mean the bills for one that that's certain know the Bengals can they get back to where they need to be with everything that's going on there and Jamar Chase and all that I mean I I don't know you know the kind of last ride with t Higgins um so yeah I I understand what you're saying about the narrative you know with the Ravens and whether or not they can actually get over the hump and things like that I mean you look at this graph got up there now me the Texans to me are have as good a shot to reach the AFC championship game as any of these teams and look at what CJ stad did as a rookie and you talk about the jump between year one and year two quarterbacks and they've done a great job I think of surrounding him of talent so it's going to be very difficult for the Ravens and for any team to get back to the AFC Championship game I mean I feel like you and I at least would pencil in the Chiefs because that's just look it it's been the floor for Patrick Mahomes overtime of the AFC Championship game so until until that doesn't happen like I'm I'm penciling in the Chiefs but it's going to be tough in that Gauntlet for any other team to emerge and there are a lot of great quarterbacks in the AFC Lamar Jackson among them we'll see if he can make it back there and then climb over that mountain and get back to the Super Bowl okay you have a chance to win $1 million in the NBC sweep Stakes on Yahoo fantasy just download the redesign Yahoo fantasy app or go to nbcsports.com fantasy million for additional details what are you waiting for for hi it's Mike Florio thanks for watching PFT on YouTube hit subscribe for the latest news and Analysis from pro football talk