Thursday night will mark the first time Zach Orr will serve as the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator in a regular season game.
While preseason games are more of a football-like substance, now the games will actually matter, starting with a trip to the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in the very first game of the entire 2024 NFL regular season.
Now we’ll see if Orr, 32, can pick up where Mike Macdonald left off.
The first challenge will be trying to limit/slow down Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and the rest of the Chiefs’ high-octane attack.
While everything in the preseason was pretty smooth, now it’s going to be a lot different,” Orr told the media after practice on Labor Day.
“It’s a lot of different personnel groups. It’s more game-plan-specific.
“In the preseason, we just kind of had our call sheet and we just ran our plays.”
Orr, who served as the Ravens inside linebackers coach last season, is in his third stint with Baltimore. This is his second go-around on John Harbaugh’s coaching staff, and he also played for him from 2014-16.
Orr continued to discuss the differences between being a DC in the preseason versus the postseason.
“You have to be prepared situationally,” he continued, “for what’s happening right now and then what’s going to happen.”
He then provided a specific illustration of these concepts.
“For example, let’s say you’re defending a play around midfield, are they getting into the red zone?
“You have to already be thinking about what that team does in that situation, what your call is going to be, and how your guys are all playing.”
Zach Orr is certainly not being “eased into it.” You can’t ask for a tougher first assignment than what he’s up against in the opener.
