Ravens OC Declan Doyle details Lamar Jackson call, vision for ‘explosive’ offense

BALTIMORE — As 29-year-old Declan Doyle interviewed to become the Baltimore Ravens’ new offensive coordinator, he spent more than an hour on Zoom with quarterback Lamar Jackson. It was less formal than a calibration. They discussed the architecture of an offense — what it should feel like, how it should stress a defense, where it might bend without breaking.

Doyle, two months younger than the two-time NFL Most Valuable Player, wanted to know whether they were “compatible.” They have traded a few text messages since. “I am certainly very excited about the caliber of player he is,” Doyle said Wednesday in Owings Mills, where he was introduced alongside new defensive and special teams coordinators Anthony Weaver and Anthony Levine Sr.

“His willingness to listen, his hunger to learn, his hunger to grow. He’s a guy with a growth mindset.” In Baltimore, as Jackson goes, so go the Ravens.

And now Doyle — who will be the league’s youngest play-caller, ascending after a season as the offensive coordinator in Chicago under head coach Ben Johnson, who handled the play-calling — has been tasked with restoring the offense to its recent heights if not surpassing them.

Two years ago, Baltimore became the first team in league history to amass 4,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing yards in the same season; the year before that, Jackson claimed his second MVP after posting career highs in touchdown passes (41) and passing yards (4,172). Doyle apprenticed under offensive wizzes Johnson and Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton.

Now, under first-year head coach Jesse Minter – who replaced John Harbaugh after 18 seasons – Doyle said he is “actively chasing” a return to that earlier form. He describes his offensive vision with three adjectives: physical, detailed, explosive. “Those are three things we want to hang our hat on,” he said. The phrasing is familiar; the implementation, he insists will not be.

They are “stripping this down to the studs,” then rebuilding around the personnel. A construction metaphor, yes, but in Doyle’s case it has some biographical symmetry. As a toddler, he napped beneath the bleachers at Kinnick Stadium at Iowa, where his father, Chris, served as the longtime strength and conditioning coach. At five, he drew plays at the kitchen table.

He briefly flirted with another life — he captained the baseball team at Iowa Western Community College — but coaching was gravitational and he transferred to Iowa his sophomore year and became a student assistant for the football team in 2016. The tight end room that season included George Kittle, T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant.

While Doyle’s father’s career effectively came to an end four years later amid accusations of racism and bullying that led to a separation agreement with the university, his son’s was just taking off. By 2019, Payton had hired him as an offensive assistant in New Orleans, where Drew Brees was the quarterback. The tight ends coach on the team at the time was also current Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell.

Three years later, Doyle interviewed for the Lions’ tight ends coach opening. Johnson, then offensive coordinator, ended up going with Tanner Engstrand, who was 14 years older and more experienced, but the two remained in touch. When Payton re-emerged in Denver in 2023, he brought Doyle with him to be his tight ends coach.