Declan Doyle will call plays for the Ravens for the first time Saturday night, turning the preseason opener against the Philadelphia Eagles into his first live test as Baltimore’s offensive voice. Lamar Jackson will not play, and most of the Ravens’ starters are also expected to sit, so Doyle’s debut comes in a game built more for evaluation than for a full-scale dress rehearsal.
The Ravens will host the Philadelphia Eagles at M&T Bank Stadium at 7 p.m., giving Doyle a real game environment after weeks of handling the job only in practice. He said he is excited to watch the team play and to sit in the role for the first time, adding that nothing can fully copy the pace of a Saturday or Sunday when players are actually going out and playing ball.
That matters because Doyle is still deciding where he will work from during the regular season. He has not chosen between the sideline and the coach’s box, and he said the preseason will let him try both before he settles on one. For now, he is focused on making the operation crisp no matter who is on the field, and on scripting as much of the game as possible so the first live outing tells him something useful.
Doyle’s approach was shaped by what he has studied and by what he did last year in Chicago, where his game-day job was mainly to pass down-and-distance information to Ben Johnson as quickly as possible. He said he has watched the sequencing of Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan, and he pointed to Bill Walsh’s idea that more decisions made in the air conditioning can lead to cleaner calls because the staff is working from data and facts, not feel.
There is still a catch. Doyle wants sharp offensive execution, but the players who would normally define that standard in a game will not be on the field. Jackson is out, most of the starters are out, and the offense will have to show enough structure and communication without its usual centerpiece. That makes the night less about the final score than about whether Doyle can make the unit function cleanly when the Ravens are short on the names that usually drive it.
Anthony Weaver is facing a similar sort of preseason test on the other side of the ball. Baltimore’s defensive coordinator said the exhibition games will help him figure out where he can have the most impact during games and how best to support Jesse Minter, who will handle the defensive play-calling duties. Weaver, who spent the previous two seasons as the Miami Dolphins’ defensive coordinator, called that a work in progress. For Doyle, the answer may come faster: Saturday is the first chance to see whether the setup works when the ball is actually snapped.
