John Harbaugh addresses job security as Ravens' playoff hopes dwindle: 'I try to do the job, not keep the job'

A surprisingly poor season has the Baltimore Ravens on the verge of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2021, and with those postseason hopes dwindling after the Week 16 loss to the New England Patriots, team leadership fell further under the microscope. John Harbaugh has been a model of consistency throughout his 18-year tenure in Baltimore but suddenly faces real questions about his job security.

When asked whether he is concerned about his grip on the job, though, Harbaugh brushed off the threat of a firing.

"Coaching at any level is a day-to-day job," Harbaugh said on the heels of his eighth loss this season. "Your job is to do the best job you can today and to do everything you can to help your players -- and your coaches if you're a head coach -- be the best they can be every single day. It's never been about keeping a job. There's no such thing as 'your' job or 'my' job. We have responsibilities. We're given opportunities to steward those responsibilities, and you're given a job to do that until you're not."

The Ravens' only road to the postseason is to win the AFC North, but to do so would require them to win out and the Pittsburgh Steelers to lose out. Anything short of those results would force Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and the rest of the star-laden roster to watch the playoffs from home. That is a precarious situation that few would have expected the preseason Super Bowl contenders to find themselves in for the final two weeks of the campaign.

A losing record also remains on the table for the 7-8 Ravens, who have finished under .500 just twice in Harbaugh's prolific run.

"I try to do the job, not try to keep the job," said the 63-year-old Harbaugh. "There's no such thing as 'having' a job. It's just 'doing' a job. So my focus is on, and it has been for the last 18 years here and last 41 years in coaching, to try to do the best job I can today and fight as hard as I can so the guys have the best chance to be successful today.

"Anything after today, I'm not thinking about because it's not given for us to think about. We don't have control over that except for the job we do today. If we do a good enough job today, then the opportunity to do that job or do a different job will be there tomorrow. That's what you hope for."

Harbaugh regularly has Baltimore in the mix with the best teams in the league but has not broken through for a Super Bowl victory in 13 years. To boast a two-time MVP in Lamar Jackson and a typically elite defense but to be in the midst of a championship drought only emphasizes the sting of this particularly underwhelming season.

Who would replace John Harbaugh?

Harbaugh set a high bar over 18 years as the winningest coach in Ravens history and the third-winningest coach in the NFL since his arrival. Finding a successor who can uphold that standard is no guarantee. But the Ravens would be an attractive destination for potential candidates if they were to make a move.

Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady has long been regarded as a premier assistant coach, at both the college and NFL levels, and will likely hear his name swirl as a target for head coaching opportunities this offseason. He has experience with an MVP-caliber quarterback in Josh Allen and could make excellent use of Jackson and his supporting cast.

If the Ravens were inclined to stay within the Harbaugh tree, they could look toward Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. The former Baltimore defensive backs coach has experience working under both John Harbaugh and Jim Harbaugh, won a national championship at Michigan and built back-to-back top-10 defenses upon his return to the NFL.

Former head coaches including Robert Saleh and Brian Flores could also emerge as priority candidates. Other star coordinators such as Klink Kubiak and Chris Shula could be in line for opportunities, too.