Ravens Reportedly Interested in Kirby Wilson as OC

Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Ravens recently narrowed down their list of offensive coordinator candidates to four according to Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun.

While three of the four applicants (Kyle Shanahan, Scott Linehan and Jim Hostler) have experience under their belts as offensive coordinators at the professional level, the Ravens also have their sights set on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ current running backs coach, Kirby Wilson.

Many believed that Wilson would have been the one to assume the offensive coordinator position in Pittsburgh once Bruce Arians left town. Due to his knowledge of the offensive personnel as the team’s running backs coach (2007-present), Wilson would have been a fine in-house choice to replace Arians.

Unfortunately for Wilson, an accidental house fire hospitalized him the week before Pittsburgh’s last postseason appearance in January of 2012. Because Wilson was hospitalized with severe burns, it all but forced the organization to look for other candidates to replace Arians when he retired that spring.

As sad as it sounds, it might behoove Wilson to move on from Pittsburgh if he is looking for a promotion from his current role. If Todd Haley can keep his job as the offensive coordinator after he essentially pissed the early stages of the regular season away with his play-calling, then Wilson probably missed his window to run the offense on a full-time basis in Pittsburgh.

I cannot blame the Ravens for their current interest in Wilson. He has a wealth of knowledge about Pittsburgh’s personnel and the rest of the personnel within the AFC North, and the veteran running backs coach could be primed for a promotion at this stage in his career.

Wilson will interview later this week according to Zrebiec’s article, so it will be interesting to see if he can outshine the other three candidates to fill the void left by Jim Caldwell.

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