Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti and general manager Ozzie Newsome have employed scores of smart people in their organization for years, and have even had a Harvard graduate — center Matt Birk or fullback Kyle Juszczyk — on the field for many of those years. Second-year guard John Urschel is an unabashed smart person.
So what happens when a Harvard analysis of each NFL team’s “core roster” gives the Ravens just a nine percent chance to make the playoffs, ahead of only bottom feeders like the Jacksonville Jaguars (three percent), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (three percent), Tennessee Titans (two percent), and Oakland Raiders (one percent)?