On Thursday, the Baltimore Ravens announced that Eric DeCosta would officially take over as general manager on Friday, January 11. The 47-year-old front office man was squarely in place to succeed the legendary Ozzie Newsome for years. Owner Steve Bisciotti announced the plan of succession last year, in his state of the Ravens press conference. During the course of his tenure with the Ravens, DeCosta constantly drew interest from other teams, many wanted him to leave Baltimore and become the general manager for their franchise. DeCosta, however, was committed to the Ravens, and the Ravens were committed to him.

DeCosta got his start in the NFL as an intern for the Washington Redskins in 1995. In 1996, DeCosta joined the Baltimore Ravens as a scouting intern in 1996. In 1997, the Ravens hired him to be an area scout. He was promoted to director of college scouting in 2003. In 2009, the Ravens again promoted him, this time to director of player personnel. In 2013, the Baltimore Ravens extended Ozzie Newsome’s contract by five years, to run into the 2018 season. The plan to transition from Newsome to DeCosta was put in place at that moment, and the Ravens finally fulfilled it five years later. The Ravens plan to keep Ozzie Newsome around, but all responsibilities of the general manager will fall on DeCosta’s shoulders.

DeCosta made a splash move to start his first day on the job. As part of head coach John Harbaugh’s retooling of the coaching staff, DeCosta and the Ravens promoted Greg Roman to the offensive coordinator position and demoted Marty Mornhinweg from the said position. Roman has experience calling plays for running quarterbacks that fall in the same vein as Lamar Jackson. Coach Harbaugh also offered Marty Mornhinweg another position on the roster, pass game coordinator. If Mornhinweg chooses to stay, he would be responsible for setting up the passing attack under Roman.