Declan Doyle's Vision for the Ravens Offense

Declan Doyle has a routine that he follows before every game.

Since he was a 22-year-old quality control coach for the New Orleans Saints, Doyle has always walked the field three hours before kickoff, simulating four offensive drives in his head.

Seven years later, Doyle will now take what's in his head to the whiteboards in the Under Armour Performance Center, where he was formally introduced Wednesday as the Ravens' offensive coordinator.

Taking over one of the most star-studded offenses in the league, headlined by two-time MVP Lamar Jackson, Doyle knows how he wants his offense to play and the three pillars the unit must follow.

"The way we want our offense to look, the nonnegotiables, are that we are physical, we're detailed, and we're explosive," Doyle said. "… That's kind of my vision for what the offense is, and that's what kind of the way me and [Head Coach] Jesse [Minter] have discussed it. Obviously, that can look different ways depending on the personnel. We're still in the early stages of really stripping this down to the studs and rebuilding it around the personnel that we have here."

Doyle previously said on "The Lounge" podcast that he wants to hunt explosive plays. He had success doing so in Chicago, where he was the Bears' offensive coordinator in 2025, working with Head Coach Ben Johnson. Johnson called the plays, but Doyle was heavily involved in the game-planning process, often running meetings while Johnson was dealing with head coaching duties.

Doyle said it all starts with the run game and moving the line of scrimmage to generate those big gains. Having Jackson and Derrick Henry in the backfield will make things far easier for Doyle in his first year, but he's open to any plays that stress a defense.

"We want the ability to morph," Doyle said. "I'm not necessarily like, 'Hey, we need to run the ball 50 percent and throw the ball 50 percent.' We need to do whatever is best against this defense as much as possible."

The Ravens offense is looking to return to form this fall after a drop-off in production last season. After having the No. 1 offense the year prior, the Ravens were 16^th in yards per game and 11^th in points in 2025. That decline was in part due to an injury-plagued season for Jackson, who spent an hour with Doyle on Zoom during the interview process. The relationship between the 29-year-old Doyle and the 29-year-old Jackson is already beginning to take shape, and the two will be eager to hit the ground running.

"Certainly in 2024, this offense was something to be reckoned with and certainly something that we're actively chasing to kind of get back to," Doyle said.

To reach the level of execution that the Ravens offense had in 2024 requires everybody to be on the same page. Having strong attendance at OTAs would help get a jumpstart on the onboarding process of Doyle's offense.

"We would expect [the players] to be here and, certainly, it is voluntary," Doyle said. "But, if you want to say that you're going to win a championship – [and if] you want to say that you have championship standards, and those are your goals and your expectations – certainly that's going to take work, that's going to take collaboration, and that's going to take the beginning of building the relationship with their coaches [and] other players starting off this next regime on the right foot."

Doyle will be a first-time play-caller this fall, but he's been preparing for an opportunity like the one in Baltimore since he stepped into the league.

"I knew that the first time I was going to call plays, probably, wasn't going to be in a smaller setting, it was probably going to be with the bright lights," Doyle said. "I felt like I needed to prepare for that early. So, in that way, I've kind of been preparing just to be able to call [the game] and kind of how your mind works, but really the work during the week is what counts, and that's been a part of really every job that I've had."

Minter said that during last offseason, he spent time studying systems and envisioning what he would want his coaching staff to look like if he ever got a head coaching gig. After he was named the Ravens' head coach last month, Minter received glowing recommendations for Doyle in league circles, including from current head coaches.

"The thing that stood out to me about him is he's a connector, he's a collaborator, and he's creative," Minter said of Doyle. "He's got a great vision for what our offense should look like."

Minter added that Doyle's experience in Chicago with a first-year head coach was an added benefit since he'll help build the foundation of a new era in Baltimore.

"Just really excited to be here and really excited to start building this thing from the ground," Doyle said.

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