John Harbaugh, the winningest coach in Ravens history and the longest-tenured coach in Baltimore professional sports history, has been fired.

In a statement released by the team, owner Steve Bisciotti said the “incredibly difficult decision” was made after evaluating the team’s disappointing season and “the overall direction of our organization.”

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“Throughout what I firmly believe is a Hall of Fame coaching career, John has delivered a Super Bowl championship to Baltimore and served as a steadfast pillar of humility and leadership,” Bisciotti said. “He and his family have deeply embedded themselves in this community. For these profound contributions, on and off the field, we should all be forever grateful.

“Our goal has always been and will always be to win Championships. We strive to consistently perform at the highest level on the field and be a team and organization our fans take pride in.”

In his own statement released by the team, Harbaugh said he was obviously disappointed by the decision, but he also had “GRATITUDE & APPRECIATION” for the Ravens organization.

“Gratitude to the owner and organization who was willing to bring in a head coach who made his mark with Special Teams success. A difficult thing to do … and Appreciation for all the moments, all these years, that are etched into eternity," Harbaugh said.

The firing, which comes two days after a prime-time loss to the rival Pittsburgh Steelers ended a disappointing season short of the playoffs, is a surprising shakeup for one of the NFL’s most stable organizations.

Harbaugh, 63, was the NFL’s second-longest-tenured active head coach, behind only the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin, and one of seven to have won a Super Bowl title. In March, he signed a contract extension through the 2028 season that was believed to be among the richest in the NFL.

But the Ravens’ postseason struggles and roller-coaster 2025, which started with Super Bowl hopes and finished with only Harbaugh’s third losing season, proved his undoing. The Ravens will now begin their search for only the fourth coach in the team’s 30-year history.

Bisciotti, whose first and only head coaching hire as owner was Harbaugh, then a Philadelphia Eagles defensive backs coach, will have the NFL’s most attractive and pressure-packed opening of this coaching cycle. Asked in April about his expectations for the franchise’s next three decades in Baltimore, Bisciotti told the team website, “I want to win now. I don’t give a damn about 30 years from now, I really don’t.”

He pointed to the team’s “window” with quarterback Lamar Jackson, a two-time league Most Valuable Player who is 76-31 as a starter in the regular season but just 3-5 in the playoffs. “I hate it that every year, you just have to start back over again,” Bisciotti said. “But you know what? This is not for the meek.”

Harbaugh, seated next to Bisciotti during the interview, added: “And when we win it, we’re going to start all over again.”

Playoff failures defined Harbaugh’s second decade in Baltimore, just as playoff successes defined his first. Harbaugh, hired in January 2008 to replace head coach Brian Billick after then-Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett turned down the job, helped guide the Ravens to AFC championship game appearances in three of his first five seasons.

In 2012, despite uncertainty around quarterback Joe Flacco’s future, a near-revolt by players, and a triceps injury that sidelined legendary linebacker Ray Lewis for much of his final season, the Ravens overcame a December slide and surged in the playoffs. A 34-31 win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII secured the franchise’s second NFL title in 12 years.

As the league changed, Harbaugh evolved with it. His defenses, coordinated by future NFL head coaches like Rex Ryan, Chuck Pagano and Mike Macdonald, were among the league’s most creative and influential. His experience as the Eagles’ special teams coordinator, and commitment to drilling the phase in practice, gave the Ravens a unique edge.

Harbaugh was also one of the NFL’s first head coaches to embrace analytics in his fourth-down decision-making, though the aggressiveness he showed in the late 2010s and early 2020s had faded in recent years.

Harbaugh’s most significant adaptation likely saved his job — and supercharged Jackson’s ascent. In 2018, the Ravens started the season 4-5 and were staring down the possibility of a fourth straight year without a playoff appearance. With Flacco sidelined by a hip injury, the Ravens rebuilt their offense around Jackson’s skill set, changing on the fly from one of the NFL’s most pass-happy teams to a ground-and-pound attack that embraced quarterback-driven runs and option concepts. The team won five of its six final regular-season games and claimed its first of two straight AFC North titles.

In 2019, the Ravens won a franchise-record 14 games, Jackson earned unanimous MVP honors for only the second time in NFL history after a record-breaking season, and Harbaugh was named the league’s Coach of the Year. From 2019 to 2024, only the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills had a better regular-season record than the Ravens.

“I think John’s grown and grown and grown,” Bisciotti told local reporters in 2022. “It’s kind of interesting. I don’t feel like I’m just signing up the same guy [to contract extensions]. I think that’s really a compliment to him. I really feel like there’s a rebirth in John as the years go on. Things that mattered to him don’t matter as much anymore.”

Harbaugh leaves Baltimore with a 180-113 record (14th-most regular-season wins all time), 13 playoff wins (seventh-most) and six division titles. He’s one of five coaches in NFL history to lead his team to the playoffs at least 12 times over his first 17 years on the job.

Over time, however, the Ravens’ postseason flops became an albatross around his tenure. In 2019 and 2023, they entered the playoffs as Super Bowl favorites and the conference’s No. 1 seed, only to lose in the divisional round and AFC championship game.

Last season, the Ravens again finished the regular season as the NFL’s best team, according to FTN’s efficiency metrics, but lost in a heartbreaking divisional-round game. Poor run game performances and ill-timed turnovers became signatures of the team’s playoff exits.

This past offseason, with the Ravens a popular pick to win the Super Bowl, Harbaugh implemented a performance review system that demanded accountability and encouraged better practice habits from players. Instead, most position groups backslid.

On offense, the running game sputtered. The pass catchers struggled to separate. Jackson’s accuracy and elusiveness behind a leaky offensive line were diminished. Coordinator Todd Monken’s play-calling came under fire from fans and players alike.

On defense, the Ravens couldn’t stop the run early in the year, couldn’t stop the pass late in the year and couldn’t pressure the quarterback for much of the year. Cornerback Jaire Alexander, a high-profile offseason addition to a secondary heralded as one of the NFL’s best, barely played before being traded after Week 9. Outside linebacker Odafe Oweh followed a 10-sack 2024 with no sacks in five games before he was dealt, too.

Key injuries set the Ravens back as well. Jackson missed three games with a hamstring injury, another with a back contusion and was limited by lower-body injuries over the second half of the season. Defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike, the Ravens’ best pass rusher, suffered a season-ending neck injury in Week 2. Inside linebacker Roquan Smith and cornerback Marlon Humphrey both missed games during the team’s 1-5 start, which matched the worst in franchise history.

The Ravens rallied and entered Week 18 with a chance to complete the first AFC North three-peat in league history. But they rarely looked like Super Bowl contenders, a missed opportunity in a year when the Chiefs missed the playoffs and the Buffalo Bills fell short of regular-season expectations.

Fan discontent simmered throughout the season. Harbaugh was booed as he left the M&T Bank Stadium field after a blowout Week 5 loss to the Houston Texans, one of a franchise-worst six home defeats.

The fan base’s anger reached a boil Sunday, when the Ravens allowed 23 second-half points in their last-second loss to the rival Steelers.

After the game, Harbaugh was asked whether he wanted “another shot” with the team in 2026.

“Yes, I love these guys,” he said. “I love these guys.”

Harbaugh is expected to become a top candidate for the teams with head coaching vacancies this offseason. His successor, meanwhile, will inherit a talented roster with a handful of key starters set to hit free agency, but a manageable salary cap situation and a projected 11 draft picks.

Harbaugh’s departure will reshape the Ravens’ coaching staff. It will also test Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta’s alignment with the next head coach, an organizational strength for decades under former general manager Ozzie Newsome and now DeCosta. Since the franchise’s inception in 1996, homegrown Ravens players have earned 137 Pro Bowl selections, the most in that span.

Potential external coaching candidates include Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, a former Harbaugh assistant who now serves under his brother, Jim; Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores; Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, who serves under Macdonald and whose father, Gary, coordinated the Ravens’ offense in 2014; and Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady.

A search is expected to begin this week.