Always searching for ways to improve, the Ravens have hired former NFL referee Tony Michalek to help them reduce their penalties.
The Ravens' 132 penalties last season were tied for the second-most in the league last year, only ahead of the New York Jets. Baltimore also had the second-most penalty yards against (1,120).
Michalek worked 23 years as an umpire in the NFL (2002-2024), including one Super Bowl. He can help with interpreting the rules, penalty explanations, and prevention.
Last offseason, the Buffalo Bills hired longtime former referee John Parry as an officiating specialist. The Bills improved from being the seventh-highest penalized team in 2023 to the 10th-highest penalized team.
The Ravens and Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken have put extra emphasis during training camp on trying to reduce pre-snap penalties, while also challenging themselves to operate with different cadences, which can lead to more false starts.
"I've said this before, it's real easy to get frustrated, which I do. I'm the king of overreacting," Monken said. "But if you do that, then you'll just go on one all the time, and that doesn't help you either. So where is that sweet spot? Now is the time to do that.
"There are a lot of things we need to work at, that just happens to be one of them that we'll continue to fight our rear ends off to be elite at it."
