New Ravens offensive coordinator Declan Doyle is 29 years old.
That currently makes him the same age as quarterback Lamar Jackson, though Jackson turned 29 in January and Doyle will turn 30 in early March.
But Doyle has been coaching since 2016, having first served as a student assistant while at Iowa before becoming an offensive assistant for the Saints under head coach Sean Payton in 2019.
From there, he became the Broncos’ tight ends coach again under Payton in 2023 before being hired as the Bears’ offensive coordinator under head coach Ben Johnson last year.
Now he’s in his first job as a full-time play-caller and feels like being close in age with his quarterback can be an advantage.
“I think first of all, it starts with any of our players, it’s the relationship that you build,” Doyle said in a Wednesday press conference, via transcript from the team. “And so, it actually is a little bit easier for me to connect with guys because we are the same age. We grew up in the same world, and I’ve kind of had that experience every step of the way throughout my coaching journey.
“This is going to be my 11th year coaching, and I’ve pretty much been younger than every guy in the room I’ve been in. I’ve always been too young for every job I’ve ever had. And what I’ve noticed is that it really doesn’t matter. Knowledge is power, and if they feel like you can help them and they feel like you can help accelerate their career and our goals as a team, guys are willing to listen, guys are willing to be taught and to grow and to work together. And so, it is a collaboration. I do think it gives me a little bit of a unique advantage, just in the fact that we kind of come from the same world.”
As for his budding relationship with Jackson, Doyle said he and the quarterback have spoken a few times over the last several weeks.
“One of them was in the interview process,” Doyle said. “I was able to sit with him for, I don’t know, over an hour on a Zoom call while he was down in Florida. We talked about a lot of different subjects, but kind of go through his time in the past year and kind of what his vision is for what he needs to be able to operate at the highest level. I really wanted to see if we were compatible and if that was a fit. You’re trying to figure out what the coaching structure is going to look like in that way.
“And so, I got a chance to visit with him then and have had a chance to visit with him a few more times since then. [We’ve] exchanged some texts, and I am certainly very excited about the caliber of player he is, but also just in all the conversations, his willingness to listen, his hunger to learn, and his hunger to grow. I think he does — he’s a guy with a growth mindset. He’s played at a really high level, and still, I think that he wants to continue to work and feels like he can get better. And so, [I] and the rest of the staff are really excited to chase that with him.”
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