Baltimore Ravens: The Team, The Legends, and What’s Coming in 2026
A Team Named After a Poem
The Ravens exist because of one of the messiest relocations in NFL history. In 1996, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell struck a deal with Baltimore and moved his franchise south. Cleveland kept everything — the name, the colors, the records, the history. Baltimore got what was, on paper, an expansion team. But they got to pick the name.
Fans voted. The winner: Ravens — a direct nod to Edgar Allan Poe, who lived in Baltimore, died in Baltimore, and wrote the poem that made a raven famous. It’s a better origin story than most franchises can claim.
Their first game was in 1996. By 2001, they were Super Bowl champions.
What the Team Actually Looks Like on Paper
The Ravens play in the AFC North, the most physically punishing division in football. Their home is M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, which opened in 1998 and sits next to Oriole Park at Camden Yards — two iconic venues sharing the same block of the city.
Steve Bisciotti owns the franchise. Eric DeCosta runs the front office as general manager. As of 2026, Jesse Minter is the head coach, taking over after John Harbaugh’s 18-year tenure ended following a disappointing 8–9 season in 2025.
Team colors: purple, black, and metallic gold. The mascots are three costumed characters named Edgar, Allan, and Poe, plus two live ravens called Rise and Conquer who appear at home games.
Two Super Bowls, Both Worth Knowing
Super Bowl XXXV, January 2001. The Ravens held opposing offenses to fewer than 6 points per game throughout the entire playoffs. The New York Giants scored 7 in the final. Ray Lewis, already the most feared linebacker in football, won MVP. That defense — Lewis, cornerback Chris McAlister, safety Rod Woodson — was genuinely historic, not just good.
Super Bowl XLVII, February 2013. This one was messier and more dramatic. Joe Flacco threw for 287 yards and three touchdowns against the San Francisco 49ers, and then a power outage in the Superdome killed the lights for 34 minutes. The Niners nearly came back. They didn’t. Flacco won MVP and immediately signed one of the largest quarterback contracts in NFL history.
Those are the only two championships. But the Ravens have been competitive for most of their 30 years — 8 AFC North titles, a 276–208–1 regular season record through 2025, and a third-highest winning percentage among active NFL franchises.
The Players Who Made This Franchise
Ray Lewis
The Ravens drafted Lewis in the second round in 1996, right after selecting Jonathan Ogden with their first-ever pick. Ogden became a Hall of Fame offensive lineman. Lewis became something else entirely — a symbol.
He played 17 seasons in Baltimore, won Defensive Player of the Year twice (2000, 2003), made 13 Pro Bowls, and retired in 2013 after winning that second Super Bowl. His pre-game ritual — the squatting, the Psalm 91 speech, the powder — became as recognizable as any play he made. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018.
Ed Reed
If Lewis defined the defense from the front, Reed defined it from the back. He played safety in Baltimore from 2002 to 2012 and finished his career with 64 interceptions, the most by any safety in NFL history. His football IQ was genuinely unusual — he could read quarterbacks the way a chess player reads a board. Nine Pro Bowls. One Defensive Player of the Year. Hall of Fame class of 2019.
Jonathan Ogden
Ogden was the franchise’s first-ever draft pick, taken 4th overall in 1996. He played left tackle, made 11 consecutive Pro Bowls, and protected the blind side of every quarterback Baltimore had for 12 years. His Hall of Fame induction in 2013 was long overdue.
Lamar Jackson
The Ravens drafted Jackson 32nd overall in 2018, the last pick of the first round. He took over the starting job midway through his rookie year and hasn’t stopped redefining what a quarterback can do since.
Jackson has two NFL MVP awards (2019, 2023). His 2024 season was one of the most efficient passing seasons in league history: 41 touchdowns, 4 interceptions, a 119.6 passer rating — fourth highest for a single season in NFL history. That same year, Baltimore became the first team ever to combine 4,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing yards in one regular season.
He also holds the NFL record for rushing yards by a quarterback. The combination of arm talent, elusiveness, and football sense at his position hasn’t existed before. Other mobile quarterbacks scramble when the pocket breaks down. Jackson treats running as an equal option from the snap.
The 2025 season was rough — ankle and hamstring injuries cost him real time, and the team stumbled to 8–9. Jackson healthy in 2026 with a new coaching staff around him is a different conversation.
How Baltimore Plays Football
The franchise identity has shifted across two distinct eras, but the underlying attitude hasn’t. Baltimore football is physical. It has always been physical.
The early Ravens were built around the defense. The 2000 unit allowed 10.3 points per game during the regular season. That figure remains one of the lowest in NFL history for a 16-game season. Lewis and Reed were the stars, but the entire structure — coordinator Marvin Lewis’s schemes, the depth on the defensive line — made it work.
The current Ravens offense is something different. Under Lamar Jackson, the read-option is not a gimmick — it’s the foundation. Baltimore’s rushing attack has led the league in yards per carry multiple times since Jackson arrived. In 2024, running back Derrick Henry added 1,921 rushing yards, combining with Jackson to give defenses two completely different problems to solve simultaneously.
What hasn’t changed: the Ravens hit people. Pass rushers, run stoppers, safeties who tackle in the open field. The aesthetic changes; the disposition doesn’t.
The 2025 Season and Why It Matters for 2026
The 2025 season was supposed to be a Super Bowl run. The preseason betting lines said so. The roster — featuring Jackson, Henry, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, safety Kyle Hamilton, linebacker Roquan Smith, and cornerback Jaire Alexander — was loaded enough to support that expectation.
What happened instead: a 1–5 start, a persistent pass-rush problem, offensive line inconsistency (particularly at right tackle), and Jackson’s injury issues limiting his mobility. The Ravens finished 8–9 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2021. A Week 18 win over Pittsburgh would have clinched the AFC North. They lost.
Two days after the season ended, John Harbaugh was dismissed. He had been the second-longest tenured head coach in the NFL. His departure closed an 18-year chapter in Baltimore.
What the Ravens Are Building for 2026
Jesse Minter is now the head coach. He’s 39 years old, worked with the Ravens secondary from 2017 to 2020, then followed Jim Harbaugh to Michigan and the Los Angeles Chargers. His defense at Michigan was excellent with far less talent than Baltimore currently fields. The hire signals the organization wants to rebuild its defensive identity while keeping Jackson at the center of everything offensively.
The 2026 offseason added edge rusher Trey Hendrickson, a legitimate pass-rush presence the 2025 team badly lacked. The NFL Draft brought in offensive guard Vega Ioane in the first round, plus a double-dip at wide receiver and two tight ends.
The schedule has an unusual entry: a regular season game in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil against the Dallas Cowboys. The Ravens play in Week 4. Domestically, the AFC North race with the Cincinnati Bengals projects as the division’s central story through the second half of the season. Baltimore carries one of the league’s easier schedules based on 2025 opponent records, which matters in a year where the team needs early momentum under a first-year head coach.
M&T Bank Stadium and Going to a Game
The stadium opened in 1998 after two seasons at Baltimore Memorial Stadium. It holds roughly 71,000 fans and sits at 1101 Russell Street, walkable from downtown Baltimore and accessible by light rail. Parking lots open three hours before kickoff, and the tailgate culture around the stadium is substantial — pit beef sandwiches, Old Bay wings, and a Maryland-specific drink called the Orange Crush (orange vodka, triple sec, orange juice, and soda) show up at serious tailgates in the parking lots.
Inside the stadium, alcohol is sold to fans 21 and over. Cameras with zoom lenses under 6 inches are permitted. Video cameras are not. The NFL bag policy applies — clear bags only. Charging stations are available near sections 106, 117, 132, 144, 500, and multiple club-level locations.
The crowd chant — the “Seven Nation Army” bass line that starts quietly and builds until the whole stadium is doing it — is one of the genuine atmospheric moments in NFL football. It happens organically during big defensive stops and playoff games. If you’re going for the first time, you’ll hear it and understand immediately why people come back.
The Rivalries That Define the AFC North
The Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers have played twice a year since 1996, and almost every game has had something at stake. It’s a rivalry built on defense, field goals, and genuine dislike. Both fan bases travel well. Both coaches — through the Harbaugh years — treated the other game as a separate season. The all-time series is close, and games between these teams trend toward low scores and late swings.
The Cincinnati Bengals, specifically the Joe Burrow era, added a second credible rival to Baltimore’s schedule. The Bengals knocked the Ravens out of the playoffs in 2021 and have made AFC North races genuinely unpredictable. The 2026 matchups between these two teams will draw national broadcast attention.
The Cleveland Browns connection is stranger and more personal. Baltimore’s franchise is the relocated Cleveland Browns — Art Modell took the team, Cleveland eventually got an expansion team in 1999 that took back the name and history. Ravens fans and Browns fans have been processing the weirdness of that relationship for 30 years.
How to Follow the Ravens
The official website is baltimoreravens.com, and it carries the most current injury reports, official roster moves, and ticket information. The Ravens Flock at baltimoreravens.com/fans is the team’s official fan community — fan club listings, contests, and local Ravens Nests (organized fan clubs in cities across the country for out-of-market fans to watch games together).
Social handles: @Ravens on Twitter/X and Instagram, BLTRavens on Snapchat, and the official Facebook page at facebook.com/baltimoreravens with 2.4 million followers. Local radio coverage comes through 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore and WNST 1570 AM, both of which have strong daily shows during the season. National TV games run on CBS, NBC, ESPN, and Amazon Prime depending on time slot.
The Ravens app carries live scoring, stadium navigation, closed captioning for hearing-impaired fans, and digital ticketing. If you’re attending a game in 2026, the app is the most efficient way to manage entry.
Questions People Actually Ask
How many Super Bowls have the Ravens won? Two — Super Bowl XXXV after the 2000 season, and Super Bowl XLVII after the 2012 season.
Why are they called the Ravens? Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote “The Raven” in 1845, is buried in Baltimore. When the team needed a name, fans voted and chose the reference.
Who is the current quarterback? Lamar Jackson, a two-time MVP who has been the starter since late in the 2018 season.
Who is the head coach in 2026? Jesse Minter, hired after John Harbaugh was dismissed in January 2026 following an 8–9 season.
Who owns the team? Steve Bisciotti, who purchased a minority stake in 2000 and became majority owner in 2004.
When did the franchise start? The Ravens played their first game in 1996, though the franchise was officially established on February 9 of that year.
Is M&T Bank Stadium open for tours? Yes — stadium tours can be booked through baltimoreravens.com/stadium/tours on dates listed on the site.
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