Declan Doyle is already sounding like a clone of Ben Johnson and shows why great things are on the way for the Ravens
The former Chicago Bears offensive coordinator is looking to bring a similar mindset to Baltimore.
The Chicago Bears only had two major losses from the 2025 coaching staff after the first season under Ben Johnson with former offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and former RBs coach Eric Bieniemy both leaving for offensive coordinator gigs with other teams.
Doyle’s departure was the most surprising after taking a lateral role with the Baltimore Ravens, but one that allows Doyle to be the primary voice on offense. It’s a great opportunity for Doyle to spread his wings and lead his own offense.
It’s also clear that Doyle learned a lot from his lone year in Chicago and aims to bring some of the same philosophies he learned under Johnson to the Ravens based on his latest interview posted on the Ravens YouTube channel.
Declan Doyle sees the Ravens situation as similar to what the Bears just went through
Like the Bears last season, the Ravens have a whole new coaching regime coming in with first-year head coach Jesse Minter leading the charge. The only difference being that Minter is a defensive-minded head coach, but the culture-building aspect in Year 1 remains the same.
“I think it’s incredibly beneficial to be part of a program that kind of just had a Year 1, where you’re trying to implement the standards and the details of what we’re asking, both as a team and as an offense,” Doyle explained. “It’s really similar to what we’re going to go through here this year… That experience is really going to be invaluable for me as we work through this process.”
Having just gone through that, Doyle will be a great sounding board for Minter in carrying out the message and be a strong leader for the offense throughout the early part of the offseason and into the season itself.
Doyle is carrying over some of the fine details Ben Johnson demanded out of his offense
Offensively, Doyle is looking to run his own scheme with his own spin working with his own set of players in Baltimore. The one thing he plans to carry over from Johnson’s unit in Chicago is how detailed the offense was in every little aspect.
“The detail and championship standard that was implemented was exactly what I would emulate,” Doyle said. “The detail, there was a commitment to it every single day as far as, we’re not going to be vague about what we’re going to ask our players to do. We’re going to make sure that they understand what the expectations are and then the championship standard is holding them, and ourselves, to that every single day. The standard you walk by is the standard you accept, and that becomes the new standard. So, not being afraid to be vocal to make sure that we hold our player – our coaches – accountable.”
As for the characteristics of his players on the field, Doyle is looking to establish a similar mindset that was evident on tape when you watched the Bears offense.
“The non-negotiables are that one, we’re physical,” Doyle explained. “That starts up-front, but that also is how we are on our outside. Our little guys have to be able to beat up their little guys and go after them. That’s really how you measure the physicality of an offense. Are your receivers willing to go in there and block, and be physical, and set up some of those other things where you can create explosive plays on the backend.
The second thing I talked about was detail, but really that is, on every given play giving our players exactly where their eyes need to start, what the expectation is, giving them a toolbox of how to problem solve. Because, at the end of the day, I’m going to take zero snaps next year… they’re the ones that are going to have to solve problems. So, we need to be detailed in our teaching as far as what we’re going to teach them in the concepts and the specifics of how the spacing of the field works in the passing game, the specifics of how their jobs relate to each other in the run game, and the same thing in protection of how we make sure the quarterback can play from a clean pocket. The last thing is that we’re going to hunt explosive plays.”
That emphasis on physicality, detail, and hunting explosives is exactly what Johnson was preaching in Chicago and it helped turn that offensive into a much improved unit in one year. Doyle already preaching all of those same traits this early in the process should excite Ravens fans.
Similarities between Caleb Williams and Lamar Jackson
The biggest difference coming to the Ravens offense for Doyle is the fact that he’s working with a more experienced quarterback in Lamar Jackson, who already played at an MVP level in this league. But, Jackson shares some similarities with Doyle’s previous quarterback in Caleb Williams when you compare their dual-threat ability and arm strength as a passer.
“I think he’s certainly talented in a number of ways,” Doyle said of Jackson. “When you watch the tape, there’s not really any throws that he can’t make. He’s very arm talented. I think there’s a number of things that you watch that I think he can get even better, I think there’s even a higher ceiling to his game. You’re looking at a guy who’s been the MVP twice and yet I still think, just like all of our guys, that he still has room to grow as well.”
Once Doyle gets in the building with Jackson and starts to see firsthand what he does best, he can start polishing up his game to make him an even more dangerous quarterback.
It’s clear Doyle learned a lot from his time working with Johnson in Chicago as his offensive coordinator and is more than capable of now running a highly-successful and highly-detailed offense of his own. Luckily, it won’t be a unit Chicago will have to go up against next season, because the Ravens are going to be a great unit under Doyle’s watch.
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