To Sons Of Anarchy fu.

Win.

I know he was the head coach, but still a good sign (I hope)

…and there was much rejoicing…yeaaaaaaahhhhhhhh…

We should remember that the 1996 Ravens were the opposite of what they came to be known for later on. They had a remarkable Offense and a poor Defense.

Their Offense was 2nd in passing DVOA, passing yards and passing TDs thanks to a miraculous season by Vinny Testaverde and two top ten WRs, but Hill contributed to that success too:

a) development of then rookie and future hall of famer Jonathan Ogden, who made the first of many Pro Bowls to come

b) generally okay pass protection (16th in the league with 6.5% ASR)

c) a weirdly good season by 31 year old TE Brian Kinchen (55 catches for 581 receiving yards, 4th in DYAR), even though he never had more than 30 catches or 350 yards in any other year and dropped to 11 catches and 95 yards in the next year. And while 581 yards seems low for our Gonzo-Gates-Gronk-Graham-gera, back then in those pre-Gonzo-1996 times only 1 TE (Sharpe) had more then 750 yards on the season, and only four had more targets than Kinchen’s 76. It was a different game back then. I think Marchibroda was calling the plays back then, but I don’t know him well enough to judge whether his playcalling was just extreemly TE-friendly in general, which could also explain Kinchen’s uptick that year (but not his decline the next). (Sidenote: Kinchen’s success must have had something to do with Hill, but I should say that we should not consider it all too much, since we do have an extra TE Coach in Scelfo who will be much more instrumental in developing Gonzo’s heir than Hill.)

The Ravens run game was… also second in the league in DVOA thanks to two top ten RB (who also ranked 1st and 2nd in success rate) being part of their committee and Testaverde’s incredible feature of being possessed by an alien that made a All-Galaxy scrambler out of him for just that one season. But Hill also posted the best runblocking line per FO.