By NOAH TRISTER
OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — John Harbaugh is leaving the Baltimore Ravens after 18 seasons as their coach, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the Ravens haven’t announced the decision.
The move comes after the Ravens were one of the league’s most disappointing teams this season, going 8-9 and missing the playoffs after entering Week 1 as one of the Super Bowl favorites. Baltimore’s season ended Sunday night when Tyler Loop missed a last-second field goal, allowing Pittsburgh to hold on for a 26-24 victory in the game that decided the AFC North title.
Harbaugh went 193-124 including the postseason. He led the 2012 Ravens to a Super Bowl title and reached the AFC championship game on three other occasions. This season was only the sixth time Baltimore missed the postseason under Harbaugh. That’s the same number of times the Ravens won the AFC North with him at the helm.
But most of Baltimore’s postseason success came in his first few seasons. The Ravens went to the AFC title game three times in his first five years as coach, culminating in their run to a Super Bowl title as a wild card, when Harbaugh beat his brother Jim’s San Francisco 49ers for the title.
At that point, Harbaugh was 9-4 in the postseason, but after that he was just 4-7. After three straight seasons without a playoff berth, Lamar Jackson arrived in 2018 and led Baltimore to a division title. But Harbaugh’s lone trip to an AFC title game with Jackson was wasted two seasons ago when Baltimore lost at home to Kansas City.
This season was a mess pretty much from the start, when Baltimore looked great for much of its opener at Buffalo before blowing a late lead. Indeed, squandering fourth-quarter advantages become a troubling trend for the Ravens in Harbaugh’s last few seasons, and after a hamstring injury sidelined Jackson, Baltimore stumbled to a 1-5 start in 2025.
Harbaugh and the Ravens worked their way back into contention and eventually reached Sunday’s winner-take-all matchup as a favorite to beat the Steelers. But despite Derrick Henry’s early dominance on the ground and Jackson’s sensational fourth quarter, another season ended in excruciating fashion.
AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this report.