Ravens hire former Bengals and Eagles assistant James Urban to be Joe Flacco's quarterbacks coach

A day after acknowledging that he was “working through” the possible hiring of a coach to work directly with quarterback Joe Flacco, Ravens coach John Harbaugh announced Friday that he has added James Urban to his staff.

Urban, 44, spent the past seven seasons as the wide receivers coach for the Cincinnati Bengals.

He also was an assistant for Andy Reid with the Philadelphia Eagles from 2004 to 2010, where he worked alongside Harbaugh and current Ravens offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg.

Mornhinweg has been Flacco’s quarterbacks coach since 2016, but now he can focus solely on his offensive coordinator duties.

“Playing the Bengals twice a year, we’ve seen what a good job James does,” Harbaugh said in a statement released by the team. “He’s highly regarded around the league, including by [general manager Ozzie Newsome] and Marty. We were all excited when he became available.”

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Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs sacks Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton in the second half of the Ravens' 20-0 win on Sept. 10 in Cincinnati. The Ravens intercepted Dalton four times and forced him to fumble to end a five-game losing streak to the Bengals. (Lloyd Fox / Baltimore Sun)

Urban played college football at Washington & Lee. He worked at Clarion University in Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania before he joined the Eagles as a coaching intern during the 2003 training camp.

He had numerous roles with the Eagles, including assistant to the head coach, offensive assistant/quality control coach and quarterbacks coach in 2009 and 2010. He worked with both Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick.

“From the outside, it has always appeared to me that the Baltimore Ravens are the preeminent organization in the National Football League,” Urban said in comments released by the team. “They are first-class in every way.

“I want to win football games, do what it takes to win football games and put people in place to win football games,” Urban said. “The Ravens are about tough, physical, disciplined football, and those are appealing things to me.”