Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson said on Wednesday that he was “shocked” to learn that John Harbaugh was fired as the team’s head coach earlier this year, but he’s embracing the arrival of the new coaching staff.
Jackson said that the “atmosphere is smooth” with head coach Jesse Minter, offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and the rest of the new arrivals in Baltimore. He also said it’s been energizing to go back to square one with new voices in the room.
“Everything is just new basically besides upstairs,” Jackson said. “Coaching staff is just new and I can say it’s a breath of fresh air because everything is just new.”
Jackson missed a couple of days of voluntary work last week, but he’s been in attendance for more of the offseason program than in previous years and said that all of the changes led him to take a different approach this time around. The Ravens hope that will help the team reach the Super Bowl for the first time since Jackson joined the team.
Safety Malaki Starks jumped right into a leading role for the Ravens during his rookie season, but the 2025 first-round pick wasn’t thrilled with his overall body of work in 2026.
Starks played the most snaps of anyone on the Baltimore defense and finished the year with 84 tackles and two interceptions, but said last week that he doesn’t “think enough is said about entire draft process and how much of a toll that takes on you coming into the league.” Starks said he’s more comfortable with the process of preparing for the season this time around and has added muscle he believes will help him have “a breakout season or whatever you want to call it.”
“How I played last season was okay, but it’s not the standard I set for myself,” Starks said, via the team’s website. “I know I can play at a higher level. There were plays I should’ve made and didn’t. This season, I’m expecting to make them.”
Safeties were key to new Ravens head coach Jesse Minter’s defense with the Chargers and they’ve also been vital to Baltimore’s defensive success over the years. With Kyle Hamilton and Jaylinn Hawkins on hand in addition to Starks, that figures to be the idea for the coming season as well. That would make a leap for Starks a welcome development over the coming months.
When Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson’s was absent from the team’s organized team activities last week, head coach Jesse Minter said that Jackson had a “couple of things going on” and was expected back soon.
Minter was proven correct on Tuesday. The Ravens shared video of Jackson in uniform with a helmet on as he made his way to the practice field.
Tuesday’s workout is the team’s fourth of nine scheduled OTAs this year. The sessions are all voluntary, but Jackson has a $750,000 bonus tied to his attendance at 80 percent of the team’s offseason program. Jackson did not attend enough sessions to qualify for that bonus the last two years.
Jackson was working in a familiar offense in those seasons, but the Ravens have a new offensive coordinator in Declan Doyle in Minter’s first season in the top job for Baltimore.
Edge rusher Trey Hendrickson was never going to re-sign with the Bengals once he hit free agency. The only question was: Where was he going to sign?
Hendrickson ended up with the Ravens, a day after Maxx Crosby failed a physical with Baltimore to negate a trade with the Raiders.
On Wednesday, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow reacted to his former teammate landing with an AFC North rival.
“Not very surprising,” Burrow said, smiling, via Shelby Dermer of The Cincinnati Enquirer. “I know Trey. I love Trey. I just know how he operates.”
Burrow and Hendrickson were teammates for four seasons, but both were injured last season. The quarterback played only eight games and the edge rusher seven, which are big reasons for the Bengals’ 6-11 record last season.
Both are now healthy, and if they stay that way, Hendrickson will chase after Burrow for two games this season. The teams are scheduled to meet Oct. 25 in Baltimore and Dec. 31 in Cincinnati.
“That’ll definitely be fun,” Burrow said.
But Burrow said it’s always fun when the Ravens and Bengals play, regardless.
“Any time we play the Ravens, that one is circled,” Burrow said. “That goes back years when Lamar [Jackson] and I were a lot younger. That’s always a battle when we get after it.”
The Cowboys have not played an international game since 2014 when they traveled to London to play the Jaguars. That is the only international game they have ever played.
For the first time, the Cowboys will give up a home game to play internationally in 2026, traveling to Rio de Janeiro to take on the Ravens.
The game in Brazil will take place Week 3 in a demanding start to the season for the Cowboys.
They play Washington at home in Week 2 before a 10-hour flight to Rio and an 11-hour flight home. The NFL then is sending the Cowboys to Houston for a noon CT game the following Sunday, which is followed by a Thursday night game at home four days later.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones dismissed the idea that travel is a concern.
“The wear and tear is a lot less than a night out on the town,” Jones told Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports on Tuesday from the league’s May meeting. “Everybody ought to think about that. Stop, stop. It isn’t like they [would be] home in bed resting up.”
The Cowboys also have a stretch where they play three games in 15 days — the Titans at home on Nov. 22 followed by a Thanksgiving Day game against the Eagles and then a Monday Night Football game at Seattle on Dec. 7. The Monday night game on the West Coast will shorten the Cowboys’ off week in Week 14.
“Part of being a player, part of being that-age person, part of being all of that shape they’re in and what have you, is they’re able to have a little extracurricular in many ways,” Jones told Epstein. “It can be a lot more damaging just walking down the block.”
