Let’s role-play for a moment. Congratulations, you got your wish — John Harbaugh has been fired.

The Baltimore Ravens have pulled the rip cord at just four weeks and a 1-3 record against some of the NFL’s best teams, with a pile of injuries mounting.

So now what?

Who is coaching this team? One of the two embattled coordinators? Are they still shooting for a Super Bowl berth? Are they still going for the playoffs? Is 2025 just done, and we’re playing out the string until the first week of January?

No, genuinely — now what?

After sitting through the slog that was the Ravens’ 37-20 loss in Kansas City and sifting through a locker room that was as somber as a mortuary, I understand why fans are hot under the collar this week. It wasn’t just another brick in the 1-6 record against the Chiefs during the Lamar Jackson era — it was truly embarrassing, with the wheels coming off of not just the game plan, but the season itself.

Social media is rife with pitchfork-wielding folks who would like to see Harbaugh and his coaches skip the hot seat and be shot straight out of a cannon from Fort McHenry.

The Banner’s comment section has been lighting up throughout this disappointing first month of the season with comments like these:

“Harbaughs messaging has become so stale and uninspiring and it shows with how this team is performing, it’s time for a change,” writes Joseph T.

“Harbs has lost the team,” writes Tess H. “It’s time to move on - across the board.”

“I want a coach who can beat the good teams,” writes John L., “anybody could win with this team but we need a Super Bowl coach.”

There is righteous fury and a thirst for accountability — but for as much as the Ravens’ buck stops with Harbaugh, there’s a reason these major personnel decisions aren’t decided through fan polls. Left alone with the levers of power, fan bases would cycle through coaches after every loss. They would make billionaire team owners — largely a fickle, demanding lot — look as patient and judicious as Buddhist monks.

Should Harbaugh be feeling heat? Sure. And in fact, he is.

You can sense the urgency and blame-sharing as Harbaugh called his offensive coaches out on Monday afternoon. All phases failed on Sunday, but Harbaugh had particular ire for the play call on an interception Lamar Jackson threw downfield in contested coverage. The Ravens, Harbaugh said, were in the wrong play to pick up an inside linebacker blitz, and Jackson had no checkdowns. So instead, he made an ill-advised throw that was picked off by Kansas City’s Leo Chenal.

“I thought the linebacker (Chenal) made a nice play, but it wasn’t a good play for us,” he said. “It wasn’t a good play call. It wasn’t a play where we put our guys in the right position in that situation. I’m not happy with it at all. None of us are.”

He picked on the Ravens’ inability to stick to the running game, the delay of game penalties that killed a first-half drive, and the low number of offensive snaps to round out a carousel of critiques for offensive coordinator Todd Monken — who has led Baltimore to back-to-back top-five scoring offenses in his first two seasons, and even now the unit is third in scoring.

In the same press conference, Harbaugh was protective of defensive coordinator Zach Orr, who was without half of his starters by game’s end against the Chiefs. But Orr has been under fire since Week 1, when the Ravens blew a two-score fourth-quarter lead to the Bills, and it’s mostly been a rough first month of the season ever since (for the second season in a row under Orr).

That protectiveness may have to do with Orr’s status as Harbaugh’s handpicked successor to Mike Macdonald (who has started 3-1 in Seattle this year, rankling some fans who wished he had actually replaced Harbaugh two years ago).

To me, Harbaugh is not actually an unfit coach. But his own fan base has come to know all his warts, weaknesses and flaws over nearly two decades. Like in a long marriage, the trials are a good opportunity to dust off old grievances: Harbaugh is not bold enough, he doesn’t seem to connect to his players enough, he doesn’t win the biggest games.

There is real validity to some of these arguments, but I’ve always been surprised how quickly Harbaugh’s strengths and track record are discounted. Yes, I’ve disagreed with some of his politics, but I’ve never suggested Harbaugh’s job should rest on that.

Harbaugh has actually won a Super Bowl. He boasts a regular season winning percentage (.618) higher than Bill Walsh and Chuck Noll — and even luminary contemporaries like Pete Carroll, Sean Payton and Sean McVay.

He’s often compared unfavorably to Pittsburgh rival Mike Tomlin, yet has a higher playoff winning percentage (13-11 to 8-11) than him, as well as more recent playoff success. It was only last year that the Ravens had an inspiring 4-0 finish to the regular season that helped clinch the division after a rough-and-tumble start.

Andy Reid, who just beat his former assistant Harbaugh, knows what it’s like to have a fan base constantly grinding for his downfall despite a perennially high floor. He went 14 ringless seasons in Philadelphia — some of my most vivid memories in college are watching Eagles fans curse Reid out for his timeout management — only to land in Kansas City and become one of the greatest coaches in NFL history.

I don’t think Harbaugh is one of the all-time greats, but he is very competent in a field that is notoriously inhospitable to newcomers. Just in January, I argued he had earned an extension even though he had yet to win a second-round playoff game (and no, just because owner Steve Bisciotti signed Harbaugh to a new contract doesn’t necessarily prevent him from making a change).

I don’t think Harbaugh’s résumé precludes him from being fired ever — but I think it should preclude him from being fired right now.

The biggest issue with firing Harbaugh or any Ravens coach is that it isn’t the best thing for the team. There are questions about Monken’s ability to run an offense and Orr’s ability to run a defense. Would either of them be a good interim coach to turn the season around? What about Chuck Pagano, who last was a head coach in 2017 and is presiding over a secondary that hasn’t exactly been nails? There is no enticing mid-season option to step into the vacuum.

As bad as a 1-3 start is, and as bad as it might get before the Week 7 bye, the season isn’t over by a long shot. The AFC North is particularly weak, with Joe Burrow out until December and the Browns being ... well, themselves. The biggest contender is the Aaron Rodgers-led Steelers, and I would put money on them hitting some chaos somewhere along the road.

The hardest road trip on the schedule left is at Green Bay — games at Miami, Minnesota, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh (in Week 18) are all winnable. Even if the Ravens have a losing record at the bye, as long as some of the injuries they face are short-term, the season isn’t lost — and neither is Harbaugh.

But there is a tipping point. Harbaugh shouldn’t be out the door, but he should be on trial. Given the talent the Ravens started the season with, they should at least be 2-2 if any small thing in Buffalo goes a little different.

It will be hard to ignore calls for his job if this roster — which many people, including myself, picked to win the Super Bowl — doesn’t even make the AFC playoff field. Bisciotti has talked about hoping to see Jackson and Harbaugh win a Super Bowl together, but if this season keeps swinging in the wrong direction, it’s more likely he’ll take a chance on a new coach than a new quarterback to achieve that dream.

But at a minimum, Harbaugh has earned the chance to use the rest of the rope he has to save the season if he can. He has salvaged some rocky starts before.

“Yes, we have been down these roads, and we understand,” he said. “The fans have been down these roads, too. ... It’s a tough league, and there’s going to be these challenges, and that’s why it’s so meaningful when you can overcome them and come through the other side and have success or take it all the way to the end and go deep in the playoffs or win the Super Bowl. That’s why it’s just such an amazing thing, and I think why it’s such a compelling environment to be a part of. So, you’re in the thick of it right now.”

Indeed, Harbaugh is in the thick of adversity right now. It’s not such a sure thing that he and the Ravens will ever emerge on the other side at all.

But of anyone who could navigate the Ravens from the thicket, Harbaugh is still by far the best option. He deserves to be judged for this season — until it is truly and finally over.