State Of The Ravens: General Manager Ozzie Newsome Stepping Down

BALTIMORE, MD — Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti said that general manager Ozzie Newsome will step down after the 2018 season, and assistant general manager Eric DeCosta will move up to fill the role. Bisciotti made the announcement Friday during his annual "State of the Ravens" address.

Newsome, who has been with the Baltimore Ravens for 22 years, has been its general manager since 2002.

His contract was re-negotiated in 2013 to last for five years, at which point the idea was to hand over the reins to DeCosta in 2018, according to Bisciotti, who said he reaffirmed the game plan after the Green Bay Packers offered DeCosta an opportunity there.

Newsome will continue with the team to ensure a "smooth transition" and will be the "highest paid scout" in the league, Bisciotti said. The comment was a joke, the BaltimoreRavens.com noted; at the press conference, Bisciotti said he regretted not building up the Ravens scouting personnel after losing three in-house experts trained under Newsome, whose first two draft picks were Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden and Ray Lewis.

The loss of its promising scouts "caught up to the team," the BaltimoreRavens.com reported.

The team ended with a 9-7 record, after a season that started with quarterback Joe Flacco coming off a back injury over the summer and being sidelined briefly with a concussion from the Dolphins game on Oct. 26.

"We probably were boring," Bisciotti said. "Part of that was protecting Joe [Flacco] and getting the ball out quickly," he said, which resulted in "pretty ugly offensive numbers."

He added that he was "proud of the way we fought back as a team." Said Bisciotti: "If we could recreate the last half of the season, we'd maybe still be playing."

The current state of the Ravens is "disappointed, embarrassed and determined, but not stagnant," Bisciotti said on Friday.

According to Bisciotti, the team had problems that plagued the league, such as attendance down overall during the 2017-2018 season; the main problem for the Ravens, he said, was with the team not winning.

"We've got to win," he said, noting he hopes "that solves the majority of problems" with attendance.

Baltimore Ravens President Dick Cass sent a letter in late December asking fans to support the team, stating there had been "higher" and "noticeable" numbers of no-shows. In that letter, Cass wrote: "There are a number of reasons for the no-shows, but surely the one-time protest in London has been a factor."

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Bisciotti dismissed the idea on Friday that players kneeling was the main issue driving down attendance.

“I wish I had known about it the night before,” he said regarding the decision of several players to take a knee during the national anthem when they played the Jacksonville Jaguars Sept. 24 in London. "I was not pleased with it...but I’m not going to put that on our attendance...I'm not going to say that that is the main issue."

Later, Bisciotti said: "The majority of our attention will be on offense this year."

Watch the State of the Ravens press conference here, which started at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 2.

Pictured, Baltimore Ravens owner Stephen Bisciotti before an NFL football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London, Sunday Sept. 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)