OWINGS MILLS, Md. — A strong defensive mind is what put Jesse Minter on the radar to become an NFL head coach, and he isn’t planning to shy away from that as he takes charge of the Ravens.
As many anticipated when Baltimore announced Minter as the fourth head coach in franchise history, the former Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator confirmed Thursday that he intends to call the defense on game days. Ex-Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald did the same when he became Seattle’s head coach in 2024 and now has the Seahawks in the Super Bowl in his second season.
It’ll mark the first time since the end of Brian Billick’s tenure in 2007 that a Ravens head coach will call plays on either side of the ball.
Minter is the franchise’s first head coach with a strong defensive background after Billick (1999-2007) and Ted Marchibroda (1996-98) were offensive-minded coaches and John Harbaugh (2008-25) was primarily a special teams coordinator. Of course, the 42-year-old Minter began his NFL coaching career with the Ravens as a defensive assistant and defensive backs coach from 2017-20.
“I do plan on calling the defense. I think that’s a strength of mine,” said Minter, who will hire a defensive coordinator to aid in that process. “I think that’s one of the reasons I’m sitting here, but I also think it’s my leadership qualities. I have a really good process to do what I need to do to be ready to call the game, but I also have the ability to be the head coach and to impact the entire roster — the entire team — and make sure that it’s our offense, our defense, our special teams, and that there’s no divide there.”
This will be the first time the Ravens enter a season with new offensive and defensive coordinators since 2005 when Billick promoted Jim Fassel on the offensive side and Rex Ryan on the defensive side to replace Matt Cavanaugh and Mike Nolan respectively.
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With former offensive coordinator Todd Monken becoming Cleveland’s head coach, former special teams coordinator Chris Horton following Harbaugh to the New York Giants, and defensive coordinator Zach Orr pursuing opportunities elsewhere, the Ravens are set to have a clean slate at the coordinator spots for the first time since their inaugural 1996 season. Marvin Lewis remained the defensive coordinator in the transition from Marchibroda to Billick in 1999 while Ryan stayed on as the defensive coordinator when Harbaugh replaced Billick in 2008.
The biggest challenge for Minter will be hiring a strong offensive coordinator to mesh with two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson and an offense that regressed this past season after a record-setting 2024 campaign. The first-year head coach said he’s looking for “leaders and connectors and relationship builders and schematic expertise” on both sides of the ball in which players will believe.
“I know that I’m in charge of all that, but it really starts with the relationships with the people in the building, particularly the players,” Minter said. “I think they’ll feel my competitiveness, they’ll feel my mentality every day, and I think we’ll work hand in hand together to build a great team.”
Same chain of command
A couple weeks after owner Steve Bisciotti indicated the Ravens’ chain of command — in which both the general manager and head coach answer to him — was unlikely to change, Eric DeCosta confirmed that power structure will continue.
A member of the organization since being hired as a personnel intern in 1996, DeCosta cited the partnerships between former general manager Ozzie Newsome and Marchibroda, Billick, and Harbaugh over the years as well as his own seven-year alignment with Harbaugh as evidence that the structure works. With Bisciotti admittedly not as engaged in day-to-day operations as he once was, some had wondered if he might elect to have a young head coach answer to a veteran general manager in a kind of structure many other teams employ.
“We’ve had a lot of success in a situation where the head coach and the general manager are partners and both report to the owner,” DeCosta said. “We won two Super Bowls that way. We’ve won a lot of games that way, and we believe in that system — working together, fighting together, and figuring things out together.”
8Minter’s vision
Though treading carefully when asked about Baltimore’s underperformance in the postseason in recent years and 2025 defensive struggles, Minter touched on both topics indirectly as he neared the end of his opening statement.
“We will be at our best when our best is needed,” Minter said. “I think that’s really important.”
Indeed.
