Harbaugh says benched Marcus Williams will play ‘great football… coming soon’

Ravens coach John Harbaugh declined to comment Monday on whether demoted starter Marcus Williams would return to action Sunday against the Denver Broncos, saying only that the safety will give us “great football throughout the season and beyond.”

Williams, who has struggled throughout the season in his first year under new defensive coordinator Zach Orr, played an active role in Sunday’s surprising loss to the Cleveland Browns but he didn’t play a single snap. Ar’Darius Washington and Eddie Jackson, who allowed two touchdowns in coverage, including the decisive score at the endwere the Ravens’ starting defensive backs, along with versatile Kyle Hamilton.

After Sunday’s game, Harbaugh called the decision not to play Williams a “personnel decision” and said the Ravens were “kind of working through some things.” On Monday, he called Williams “a great player” but declined to comment on when he would play. The 28-year-old is completing the third year of the five-year, $70 million contract he signed in the 2022 offseason.

“I have the utmost confidence in him as a player, as a person and as a professional,” Harbaugh said. “He’s a great person. He is a hard working man. He plays hard, trains hard. He does everything at the highest level and I expect him to play great football for us throughout the season and very soon.

According to Pro Football Focus, Williams has 163 receiving yards this season and is on pace to match his career high. Of the 62 defenders who have played at least 300 defensive snaps this season, he was ranked as PFF’s No. 57 player at the position. Jackson is number 56.

Williams was not seen in the locker room after Sunday’s game in which the Ravens threw 334 yards to Jameis Winston. When a reporter on Monday pointed out that Harbaugh said Williams’ demotion was an “internal situation,” Harbaugh interjected.

“I don’t think I have anything else to say about it,” he said. “That’s what we do. There are lots of things happening all the time. And a lot of it is, in a way, our business. It’s a sense of belonging to home. This is between us. And it’s not something we need to tell everyone. I don’t think you tell everyone about your family business. I don’t think everyone asks different things from everyone. There are some things we can just keep to ourselves and this will be one of them. I never come here and talk about why we put guys up or put them down. I’ve never done that. So I probably won’t start doing it now.

Still, Harbaugh left open the possibility that the Ravens’ defense, which ranks last in the NFL in passing yards, could undergo further changes. The team shook up its coaching staff almost three weeks ago with the hiring former coordinator Dean Pees as senior advisor.

“It depends on what changes are available to us,” Harbaugh said. “We intend to continue to turn over every stone in our defense, as well as every other part of our team, to get in the best shape possible over the course of a long season.”