The reasons for firing Ravens failing general manager Eric DeCosta go far beyond the reasons for keeping him.

A clear-eyed billionaire who wanted to win badly would have dismissed him when he fired former head coach John Harbaugh in January, but that’s not what we get in Baltimore. There were a litany of reasons to accept that the entire culture in Owings Mills was warped as the 2025 campaign came undone, but Steve Bisciotti chose sides instead and absolved DeCosta of blame and absurdly claimed he “bats .800” on the job and is some kind of a savant; that’s farcical given his pathetic record in the draft, free agency, the trade market and, worst of all, in negotiating contracts including the one with Lamar Jackson that trumps all else.

Everybody in the NFL sees it – boy does Eagles GM Howie Roseman who just undressed him in the Cam Jurgens trade – but unfortunately, the only person that matters can’t bring himself to do the hard work of rebooting an entire front office that has been living off the regulation of genius Ozzie Newsome for nearly a decade now. But that Jurgens trade – a second round pick in 2028 that could end up in the top 40 overall selections – while making an terrible line demonstrably worse as he replaced rookie Vega Ioane at center, that should be the end.

The case for ending this charade regime, led by the most overhyped and under-delivering GM in recent NFL history – the kind who inherits Jackson on a rookie deal on the cusp of his first MVP season (he should have three) and wastes his 20s - is deep. Leave it to DeCosta to make the pass protection demonstrably worse year after year, while failing to get the QB signed in a reasonable manner year after year.

If for no other reason than this dynamic, DeCosta would be fired on the spot if there was actual accountability and if this owner really cared, with the 2026 season already worse than last year and the team getting DeCosta-ed (blowing a double-digit lead in the second half to lose) or blown out every week.

Three quarterbacks getting hurt in one half doesn’t happen in professional football, for whatever reason, and the lack of adjustments from a scheme-and-personnel standpoint were staggering to NFL execs who watched the film. Lamar Jackson being lost likely for the season and back-up Snoop Huntley being immediately jumped behind the line and abused on the blitz was ugly;trying to have undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano, with no reps since preseason, drop back repeatedly against that was far below grade.

“That can’t happen,” one GM said. “What the (heck) was the OC doing? They didn’t do nearly enough to help that kid. They threw him to the wolves ... That was hard to watch, man.”

Another GM said: "I don't know what the hell they were thinking. That's karma when you do what they did to Maxx," referring to DeCosta's cowardly act pulling out of a trade for star Maxx Crosby in March.

With a coaching staff full of novices getting outclassed after halftime every week, that’s all on DeCosta. He wanted puppets. Boy, did he get them.

Abject Failure

Ravens QBs dropped back 17 times in the first half; they were hit nine times and sacked four times and hurried four times. Both tackles – Ronnie Stanley and Roger Rosengarten - proved they were no match for Greg Rousseau (that’s what a real passer rusher looks like, DeCosta, but he’s no Oweh!). But they didn’t get nearly enough help from the backs and tight ends. Somehow rookie coordinator Declan “Genius” Doyle thought this was a good day to run 11 personnel nearly 66% of the time (three receivers and one back) while his quarterbacks got dismembered.

Happy Halloween! Trick or Treat!

The Bills had an astonishing pressure rate of 64.5%, and a sack rate of 13.3%. Simple twists and stunts were totally befuddling to this offensive line. They had complete and utter disrespect for Doyle and this line (and by default the failure GM behind them both) as well they should – how about blitzing on two of every three plays for the entire game?

Yeah, that happened. Ravens QBs completed nine passes on 20 dropbacks against the blitz for 69 yards. Overmatched rookie head coach Jesse Minter almost tried to laugh off the atrocity after the game, pretending he’d have to look at the film first, and even Monday he failed to speak stringently enough to the extent of the problem (of course this team is walking all over him, and it's time to sell at the deadline).

“There’s a lot of things we still need to improve on,” Minter said, “in particular with the offensive line - pass protection, the run game. We’re chasing improvement and we’re chasing continuity, which we haven’t quite had.”

No Surprises

Of course, trying to squeeze a few more years out of Ronnie Stanley, who thought his career was over years ago with chronic ankle/lower leg issues, was always silly. When he came back to DeCosta at the combine a few years on a soft market, that was the time to walk away not extend (we said repeatedly on the radio at the time). Right tackle Roger Rosengarten is a replacement level guy at best far more comfortable running than trying to hold up against a real pass rusher.

The interior OL has been a cruel joke on any and all Ravens QBs just waiting to land since DeCosta chose a fringy edge defender with limited pass rush in the second round (Zion Young, a profile he has misevaluated with staggering consistency) instead of any center in the draft after letting Tyler Linderbaum be among his massive exodus of young talent in March. Pretending Danny Pinter or Jovaughn Gwyn could play was cute (our guy Brian Baldinger and a legion of execs said it had no chance).

They couldn’t even realize that rookie Vega Ioane was the solution at center despite him faring quite well, and Jurgens has led the team to two of its worst yards before contract games for Baltimore running backs (0.75 and 0.30) in recent history since coming out of concussion protocol to move back to a position he hadn’t been playing in Philly …. where he was about to get benched. DeCosta lit $10M on fire giving it to John Simpson.

It’s the stuff that ends a charade of a GM career in places serious about winning. But Bisciotti couldn’t be bothered to take part in almost all of his own head coaching search; DeCosta has sucked up to him for years, Bisciotti speaks about him like David Rubenstein speaks about baseball fraud Mike Elias) so don’t hold your breath waiting for anything to change in Owings Mills. The press conference hyping DeCosta when they fired Harbaugh was shameful in realtime and looks like a weak Vaudeville routine now with the passing of just a few months.

The Castle and The Warehouse are one in the same: Reality doesn’t matter, accountability only extends to coaches/managers and the joke’s always on the paying customer.

Thursday night should be a doozie. Wonder if DeCosta will break out the sunglasses at night in primetime again? In a real organization, he'd be reading his termination papers through them by now.

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