The many possibilities for Ravens coaching staff of Jesse Minter currently under construction

With the head coach now in place the biggest question becomes the offense and leadership in getting Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens’ attack ready to win a Super Bowl. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the frantic NFL job hunt with so many new staffs being assembled around the league and the endless possibilities for new head coach Jesse Minter.

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the recent hiring of Jesse Minter as the new head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. They speculated on potential staff changes, including the possibility of retaining some current assistants and the potential for new hires like PJ Volker and Chris Horton. They emphasized the importance of the offensive coordinator role, with names like Joe Brady and Cliff Kingsbury being mentioned. They also touched on the dynamics between Minter, Eric DeCosta, and Lamar Jackson, noting the potential for a smooth transition due to Minter’s familiarity with the organization and the league.Luke Jones and Nestor discuss staff creation and possibilities for new Baltimore Ravens head coach Jesse Minter

Action Items

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Organize and run the ‘A Cup of Soup or Bowl’ tour next week (Monday–Friday) at the specified venues to raise awareness for the Maryland Food Bank; confirm daily locations and logistics (Faidley’s Monday, El Guapo Tuesday, Koco’s Wednesday, Pizza John’s Thursday, Costa’s Friday).
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Confirm and schedule Brandon Stokely to appear on next week’s show as planned.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Confirm and schedule Trent Dilfer and his wife Cass to join next week’s show as planned.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Bring Jesse Minter to Owings Mills on the Thursday after the storm (coordinate timing and logistics once weather clears).
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Arrange to bring Luke Jones out to at least one event during next week’s tour.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Prepare and present tributes for Michael Brown and for the 25th anniversary of Super Bowl 35 during next week’s programming (plan segments, guests, and content).
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Distribute candy cane scratch-offs and run giveaways during the ‘A Cup of Soup or Bowl’ events to raise awareness and support for the Maryland Food Bank.

Outline

Jesse Minter’s Introduction and Initial Reactions

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the topic of Jesse Minter’s hiring as the new head coach of the Baltimore Ravens.
• Nestor mentions upcoming events, including a “cup of soup or bowl” tour and a Super Bowl 35 anniversary celebration.
• Nestor highlights the significance of Jesse Minter’s connections with John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin.
• Luke Jones discusses the potential changes in the coaching staff and the impact on Lamar Jackson and the offense.

Potential Coaching Staff and Offensive Coordinator

• Luke Jones speculates on the possibility of Joe Brady or Cliff Kingsbury as the offensive coordinator.
• Luke notes the lack of a recognizable network for Jesse Minter to draw from, similar to Mike McDonald.
• Discussion on the potential continuity of the coaching staff and the importance of the offensive coordinator role.
• Luke mentions the possibility of some Ravens staff members being retained, such as Chris Horton as special teams coordinator.

Jesse Minter’s Background and Coaching Philosophy

• Luke Jones discusses Jesse Minter’s background, including his time with John Harbaugh and Jim Harbaugh.
• Luke highlights the potential for new perspectives and ideas from Jesse Minter’s coaching network.
• Discussion on the potential for some Ravens staff members to return, such as PJ Volker as linebackers coach.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of the offensive coordinator role and the potential for continuity in the coaching staff.

Eric DeCosta’s Influence and Staff Dynamics

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the dynamics between Eric DeCosta and Jesse Minter.
• Nestor speculates on the potential for a smooth transition due to the familiarity with the Ravens organization.
• Discussion on the potential for some Ravens staff members to stay, such as Randy Brown and Chris Fort.
• Luke notes the importance of the offensive coordinator role and the potential for continuity in the coaching staff.

Jesse Minter’s Relationship with Lamar Jackson

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss Jesse Minter’s relationship with Lamar Jackson and the potential impact on the offense.
• Luke mentions the importance of Jesse Minter having an opinion on Lamar Jackson and the offense.
• Discussion on the potential for some Ravens staff members to stay, such as T Martin as quarterbacks coach.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of the offensive coordinator role and the potential for continuity in the coaching staff.

Defensive Coordinator and Staff Structure

• Luke Jones discusses the potential for Jesse Minter to call plays on defense initially.
• Discussion on the potential for some Ravens staff members to stay, such as Drew Wilkins as pass rush coordinator.
• Luke mentions the possibility of Jesse Minter hiring a former head coach as defensive coordinator.
• Discussion on the potential for some Ravens staff members to stay, such as Joe Cullen as defensive coordinator.

Potential Staff Members and Coaching Network

• Luke Jones discusses the potential for Jesse Minter to hire coaches from his network, such as PJ Volker.
• Discussion on the potential for some Ravens staff members to stay, such as Chris Horton as special teams coordinator.
• Luke mentions the importance of the defensive coordinator role and the potential for continuity in the coaching staff.
• Discussion on the potential for some Ravens staff members to stay, such as Randy Brown and Chris Fort.

Impact of Jesse Minter’s Hiring on the Ravens

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the potential impact of Jesse Minter’s hiring on the Ravens organization.
• Discussion on the potential for some Ravens staff members to stay, such as Randy Brown and Chris Fort.
• Luke mentions the importance of the offensive coordinator role and the potential for continuity in the coaching staff.
• Discussion on the potential for some Ravens staff members to stay, such as Drew Wilkins as pass rush coordinator.

Future of Lamar Jackson and Staff Stability

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the future of Lamar Jackson and the potential for staff stability.
• Discussion on the potential for some Ravens staff members to stay, such as Randy Brown and Chris Fort.
• Luke mentions the importance of the offensive coordinator role and the potential for continuity in the coaching staff.
• Discussion on the potential for some Ravens staff members to stay, such as Drew Wilkins as pass rush coordinator.

Upcoming Events and Community Engagement

Discussion on the potential for some Ravens staff members to stay, such as Drew Wilkins as pass rush coordinator.

Nestor Aparicio announces upcoming events, including the “cup of soup or bowl” tour and Super Bowl 35 anniversary celebration.

Discussion on the importance of community engagement and the impact of the Ravens organization on the community.

Nestor mentions the importance of the offensive coordinator role and the potential for continuity in the coaching staff.

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Jesse Minter, Baltimore Ravens, head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, Lamar Jackson, coaching staff, Eric DeCosta, John Harbaugh, Mike McDonald, Super Bowl 35, staff creation, player development, coaching philosophy.

SPEAKERS

Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive, positively, getting through this snowstorm, getting through the new hiring of Jesse Minter as the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Luke Jones is going to join me. We’re going to be doing a cup of soup or bowl next week, beginning on Monday. We’re going to be at faidley’s at Lexington market. Tuesday, we’re going to be at El Guapo and Catonsville. Wednesday, we’re going to be Koco’s in lauraville. Thursday, back at Pizza John’s and Essex on my side of town. And then we’re going to wrap things up on Friday, Friday football frenzy. We’re going to be doing a cup of Super Bowl at Costas in Timonium at the racetrack. So come on out and say hello. I’m probably going to drag Luke out at some point. Jesse Minter will be dragged out to Owings Mills on Thursday, after the storm, after it’s cleared, after whatever’s going to happen around here over the weekend, we’ll actually have two teams in the Super Bowl by then as well. Brandon Stokely is going to be on next week with me. Trent dolfer and his wife Cass are joining me. It is the 25th anniversary of Super Bowl 35 on Wednesday. If you’re out at Baltimore positive, if you’re listening on W N, S T am 1570 you’re going to hear a whole bunch of throwback stuff. In addition to the hiring of John Harbaugh’s mentor Rick mentors son, Jesse Minter, who Mike Tomlin knew, is an assistant in Cincinnati. I’m sure Rex Ryan knew him as well. And here we are. We have a new coach. The purple plumes of smoke that came out, if you’re on the wnst tech service on Thursday, brought to you by cold roofing and Gordian energy Luke made it happened. And I guess, more than anything, the first thing is, what’s going to change, and who are the coaches going to be and all of the and is Lamar going to like it? We went through that a little bit. What do you see here? The Joe Brady thing? And I guess this will all work itself out, maybe by the time people even hear this. But the conjecture is all offensive minded Coach Young well, they got a young coach. They got a guy from the system. Much isn’t going to change because of the hardball thing. Certainly defensively, Kyle Hamilton and roquan Smith are going to recognize the defense this year, but Lamar and the offense and the offensive coordinator, where are we?

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Luke Jones  02:08

Luke, well, I mean, that’s the big question, and I don’t know if we can definitively say where that’s going to go, because if you’re talking about someone like Joe Brady, who’s interviewing for Head Coach spots like he did here, you know, if it’s Cliff Kingsbury, you know, it doesn’t, doesn’t seem like he’s a finalist for any of these head coaching gigs. I mean, obviously he’s talked to teams including the ravens, but, you know, there’s been some chatter that Lamar and some of the other offensive players would like him to be the offensive coordinator. So we’ll see where that goes. I think if there’s one concern about Jesse Minter, and frankly, I would have said the same thing about Mike McDonald as a head coach. And if you go and look at Mike McDonald’s staff in Seattle, there aren’t a lot of names there you recognize. I mean, Josh binds and a couple others. But when you do have a coach who’s worked in one place, or in this case, one family, where you worked for John Harbaugh and then had one year at Vanderbilt and then worked for Jim Harbaugh, there isn’t necessarily this easily recognizable network for him to draw from in terms of his assistance. Now, as I just said, I mean, Mike McDonald, it’s not like McDonald took six guys from the Ravens with him when he went to Seattle. I mean, it was very minimal. That’s worked out just fine. So I think what it means again, OC is the big question here, what that means for Lamar Jackson, what that means for the rest of the offensive players, where, clearly, there was no shortage of smoke this past year in terms of frustration with monk, and how much of it was fair and how much of it was just, you know, everyone’s looking out for number one when things aren’t going well. A lot of times. I mean, that’s life. One in five things were not going well. Exactly, exactly, so, so that’s the big question. But just in a general sense, looking around at what the coaching staff is going to be, that’s where I do look at this thing and say there’s probably going to be some some continuity, more continuity here than you would think. And I would point out, go, Look, go. Look at John Harbaugh staff in 2008 there were four or five carryovers from Billick staff. I mean, that’s not, that’s not out of the ordinary, right? Generally, when you say it carried over Marvin Lewis, and I’m saying right, so, I mean, John Harbaugh carried over Rex Ryan, as awkward as that looked on paper, with Rex wanting that job. But point with that is, in this case, when you do have, you are bringing in someone that you have familiarity with. And I’ll, I’ll continue to remind Jesse, mentor, hasn’t been with the Ravens in five years. Now, going on six years, there are only nine players left from 2020 and that includes free agent Patrick Rico. Hard potential cap casualty, Marlon Humphrey, right? I mean, you know, there aren’t a ton of players like Kyle Hamilton, never worked with Jesse Minter, right? So the point, point with that is, you know, he’s coming in, he’s going to have some fresh and different perspectives. I would hope he’s going to have some ideas for some assistance to come in that don’t necessarily have any ties to the Ravens. I’ll give you a name right now, and I don’t think this is he’s going to be their defensive coordinator, but right down the road in Annapolis, PJ Volker is the defensive coordinator at Navy. He and Mitch are best friends, going back to they went to college together, so I don’t think that again. I don’t think that means Volcker is going to be the defensive coordinator, but coordinator, but could he be the linebackers coach? For example, I could see that scenario. In fact, he tried to hire Volcker away to join the charger staff a couple years ago, and Volker, at the time, said, No, you do wonder now, with his best buddy being a head coach, and you don’t even have to uproot your uproot your family and move across the country. You do wonder if that will be a possibility, as far as the staff, but I think there’s a potential for some ravens staff. You know Chris Horton as special teams coordinator kind of tops the list in my mind. I think there’s some others. And this goes back to what I was saying before, as far as Yes, the Ravens decided to make the Steve bishodi decided to make the decision to move on from John Harbaugh after 18 years. I don’t think that was necessarily a sign that they felt they needed to completely turn the organization upside down, but I think it was clearly a sign of refreshing revamping.

Nestor Aparicio  06:39

John going to take with him. By the way, John brought a few other reports.

Luke Jones  06:43

I mean, he’s trying to take everyone with him, but, but at the same time, as is the case with any organization, if you have coaches that are under contract and you feel that there could be a fit with the new head coach, you’re going to keep as many guys that you think highly of on retainer, as you can right? So whether that ends up being Chris fort and whether that ends up being Randy Brown, even, you know, I this is something I was failed to mention to you that I thought was interesting at the bashati da Costa press conference. I mean, Randy Brown and John Harbaugh have a friendship that goes way back. I mean, they, they work together in Philadelphia, one of the more interesting dynamics that, you know, it wasn’t top of mind, but Randy Brown was at that press conference, and I thought that was interesting at the time. It could be very simple that the Ravens want to keep Randy Brown around and they say, Hey, you’re the one who scouted, identified and coached Tyler loop after year one. We’re not giving up on him just yet.

Nestor Aparicio  07:42

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We want to keep you around to continue to develop him. So there could be a possibility or or maybe they decide Randy, well, look, man, John put his guys under contract thinking he was here for four years. So all those guys you know under contract to John that that’s the loyalty that you give when your boss is the king and was considered unfireable. John Harbaugh was considered unfireable around here, so literally, the minute he got fired. I mean, even apparently the Costa didn’t know about it. And there’s questions about the Costa and har ball and whether this has been kumbaya with the two of them as well, because Harbaugh skipped mentioning him when he got his gig the other day. So who knows what’s really going on? What really bubbled up about who threw who under the bus and how John lost his job here? I got to think that John feels better than anybody. John came out of this with double the pay, double the power he’s been anointed in the biggest city in the world, even though he probably won’t get along with the mayor there the town. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, like, so John has taken a turd and completely come out of the car wash on the other end, made all over again he’d have to do he didn’t even have to win eight games this year. Like, so that all that being said, John left behind contracts, right? And the Randy Brown thing, why he’s in the room? He works there, yeah, I don’t think he had any choice to put the beat.

Luke Jones  09:09

I don’t, I don’t, I don’t think it was a case where he didn’t have a choice. I’m guessing, if he didn’t want to be there, he didn’t have to be. I don’t

Nestor Aparicio  09:15

think he has bashati in his phone either. So if he wants to hear what the shot he has to say, he had to show the room like and that’s fine, and that’s fine, but my boy’s not Steve anymore. He’s Mr. Bashati. Now, you know, you know, like, literally,

Luke Jones  09:26

my point with that is John Harbaugh is going to have plenty of people that come from Baltimore to join him in New York, whether we’re talking about present assistance or guys that have been assistance for him in the past. And at the same time, Eric want him in the building. If they don’t want to be there the same time. I think there are going to be Raven’s assistants that were on this staff with John Harbaugh that will stay. I’m not saying it’s going to be, like the entire staff or anything like that. Like, believe me, but this is not going to be the bloodletting that it would be if you hired somebody a power three and four out of the building, right? You were three and 14. Like. Like, isn’t coming here, taking the gig and saying, I’m taking John’s guys unless he really knew him, and they were close too.

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Nestor Aparicio  10:05

But like, just as an example, you know, if they had hired a strong head coach, if they had hired someone who had a backbone and an end and a whole this guy is a hardball guy. To your point, the only guys he’s worked with the last eight years are going to be hardball guys. In this case, the other guy works in military, so there’s a very straight this is not shocking to me, but I really did think they wanted culture change, and I wrote it length about culture change. This is going to be easy for them, an easy transition for them. Now, whether Lamar signs on, like, how they get on that. But in the building, in the building, this isn’t everybody diving under their desks afraid of the boogeyman, because they know this guy, and they knew when he was a kid, seven years ago. I mean, most of the employees that are in the building are the same. They’ve added staff because they’re always they make billions of dollars over there. They do it. They they add people to replace you and me to ask questions around there. But in a general sense, he’s going to walk in that building and know where everything is, where everybody is from. Val at the secretary stand to, you know the security to he knows everybody. He knows the airplanes. He knows how they travel. This is not going to be a culture shock to the building. It’s going to be an assimilation, right?

Luke Jones  11:22

It will be but, but it is going to be a different head coach. I mean, it’s different. He hasn’t been there in five years. He’s and Eric has more power, by the way, this time, that’s, and that’s a, that’s a that’s a fair observation as well, in the same way that I talked about how okay over the years John Harbaugh, when he’s a fifth year or a sixth year head coach who would just want a Super Bowl when he’s a 10th year head coach, when he’s a 15th year head coach, that is a different dynamic than a first year head coach coming into the building, right? Even someone who’s familiar with you know he but Jesse Minter, six years from now, they’ll probably be more pushback if he has a disagreement with Eric Decosta, that that’s human nature. The interesting thing to me is how I disagree with you more now than I I disagree with you more now, like in a way that I feel comfortable when to debate it, that I wouldn’t have one in 2009 necessarily. I mean, that’s just human nature.

Nestor Aparicio  12:14

I don’t ever think you’re nuts. If I thought you were nuts, I would just say I think you’re out of your mind. But I think this particular thing for me is familiarity and who Eric is and who they are, and what, how it’s comfortable, but the power play with Eric in this given this young guy the job, who was the young guy in the building? It was Mr. Da Costa down the hallway. He sees Eric as a senior guy.

Nestor Aparicio  12:44

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I’m fascinated by what happened in that building the last six months with John, with Lamar, with Eric. I know Steve had no I mean, he doesn’t even know half the people in the building anymore, so he’s checked out. But I think he was checked into John Harbaugh’s ear. And I think Jesse Minter has a new billionaire best friend who’s going to be on the phone with him, because that’s who Steve has been historically. Steve likes this. I’m out. I’m above the fray. I had nothing to do with this. I wonder if Steve bashati had a conversation with a young Jesse Minter seven, eight years ago, when Eric or John came to him and said, This young kid’s going to be a head coach somewhere, he might be Boston College, you know, but this guy, he’s a ball coach’s son. He’s 28 years old. He’s in our building. What you know, he’s going to be a head coach somewhere. Steve would always gravitate to those kinds of humans. Back in the day, Steve seems like an arrogant, well, chan billionaire who is just gone from knowing a young Phil Savage, a young Eric Decosta, Young Joe Ortiz, the way I did. Steve doesn’t give a flying F, and that came across in the press conference last week. So this is easy for Steve. It’s easy for Sashi. Sashi doesn’t look like he had any stake in this. This guy clearly knows him some Chad steel too. So this is just really comfortable. And I’m not shocked by it, because I think they want a lot of games here, and they like their system. It says to me, they just didn’t like John anymore. You know, they just didn’t like John anymore, and John had a lot of power and had a lot of prick in him and had a lot of paranoia in him. I’m interested to see what this is going to be, because this feels like

Nestor Aparicio  14:31

fumigating the place of the old air of a 63 year old our head, dishonest guy, and this young guy that they all know and trust as the young kid down the hallway the way I knew Eric, and so Eric became the billionaire’s best buddy who you know, who’s checked out of of relationships in the community, in the media and locally, this guy doesn’t have to do any of that. All he’s got to do is come. And be an X’s and O’s Ball Coach, because they’re going to fold him in. I mean, you’re not going to see much of him, and when you do, he’s going to be smiling. He seems like a decent guy. So I hope he stays that way. And he didn’t get he didn’t get $100 million he got made rich. He didn’t get made wealthy. And Eric’s in a position that, if this doesn’t go well, and Lamar goes the wrong way, and they have to go to the draft to get arch Manning two years from now, because this thing falls apart, Eric will keep his job. I mean, I’m convinced of that Eric will keep his job, and they’ll ride out even a bad Lamar year or two here, if they have to part with him in whatever way, because of him, because of money, because of his agent, because of his mother, because he wants to play in Vegas or he wants to be in Miami, or what, whatever, whatever that would be. Lamar is not quarterback for life now. Jesse Minter might be coach for not life, but for 10 years. Jesse Minter, how about this, dude? Let’s make a pinky. Pinky bet. Here is Jesse Minter, going to survive Lamar, yes. I say yes, I say yes. Wholeheartedly on that.

Luke Jones  16:03

I think it’s impossible to know that right now. But, I mean, that’s fine.

Nestor Aparicio  16:08

I I think he has more power than Lamar has, in some ways, coming into the building that Lamar now succinct for his supper and play well. Or they’re just gonna, they’ll, they’ll be okay with a bad year and an exit strategy that keeps the hardball to cost, the bishati mentality of what they are, what kind of football players they want. Because clearly, Steve looked at this and said, I like the players Eric’s picking. I don’t like the way John’s maneuvering this, making the ingredients because you like Starks, you like Wiggins, you love Hamilton, you love Lamar.

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Nestor Aparicio  16:50

I don’t know. We could take some we could take some Trenton Simpsons and sprinkle in some things we haven’t loved about Eric’s drafts. But in a general sense, Eric very safe at this point to pick football players for the foreseeable future, because the owner one thing the owner doesn’t want to do is come in and destroy the guts of the franchise. I mean, that that’s clear in hiring Minter.

Luke Jones  17:13

No, he did just fire an 18th year head coach. I mean, that

Nestor Aparicio  17:17

hired his young assistant, okay,

Luke Jones  17:19

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but, but you, also were saying, you know, you not you. Everyone was saying three months ago that John Harbaugh was never going to be fired, and they did that. So, you know, I think you’re making assumptions just like you did before. I I don’t know if Eric dicost is completely safe. If this thing goes in such a poor direction that you’re suggesting

Nestor Aparicio  17:39

that Minter wouldn’t be a very good coach if he comes in here and takes over a team that, let’s be honest, by April 30, when the draft is over, you, you will be high. Will think it’s the best team in the division. You will have evidence that the Bengals suck even though burrows good. You will think the Browns suck no matter who they hire. And we will all think the Steelers suck because they don’t have a quarterback so on May 1, Jesse mentor will be expected to win 11 or 12 games, right?

Luke Jones  18:12

I mean, sure. I mean 1211, 10 or 11, yeah. Well, we don’t

Nestor Aparicio  18:19

have to guess on this. They’ll put a Vegas line on it. What’s it gonna be? It going to be? It’ll be 10 and a half or 11. That’s what you’re going to need to bet on it. It’s not going to be eight. It’s not going to be nine. You know, he’s going to be expected to win next year. So I so I don’t

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Luke Jones  18:33

understand why that doesn’t put any pressure on Eric to Costa, if he ended up hiring the wrong guy,

Nestor Aparicio  18:39

Lamar gets hurt again, they’re going to go something and something like, that’s all that has to I mean, I just, I just did not go well, just, and then all of a sudden they are in the quarterback business at a 74 million I mean,

Luke Jones  18:50

you love talking about the post Lamar era. Man, it’s amazing.

Nestor Aparicio  18:54

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But we’ll just Lamar era opens Friday morning, right? The current Lamar era is, are we going to renegotiate and give us space so we can get you a better football team? And that’s going to be what we’re talking about after the

Luke Jones  19:05

snowstorm, right? Well, we’re going to be talking about the staff and then that. I mean, they’ve got, because they’ve got to get the staff, right. I mean, the one thing we we have talked about it, but it is of the utmost importance, because I talked about it in a vacuum. I would have preferred offensive minded head coach that you have in lockstep, but that’s speaking in hypotheticals, right? That guy has to be there. It’s one thing to say you want to hire the next Sean McVay, but if you don’t see the next Sean McVay in the 17 or however many candidates they ultimately interviewed, you can’t force it.

Nestor Aparicio  19:40

So Nate shield house gets the dolphins job and recruits Lamar a year from now. You know? I mean, that’s, that’s the game you play as to, we could have had Mike McDonald here, right? Or whatever. We could have had Rex Ryan here many years ago. Steve would have made a mistake, right, and brought him in, right, instead of John so and I’ll give Steve and Aaron. I’ll give him all the benefit. To the doubt they win a lot of football games around here they do, and they’ve done it in this system, and that’s what they decided to keep. And I’m not I’m people ask me, how would I think of the higher I think it’s the safest thing they almost possibly could have done, in a lot of ways, also an inexpensive thing, and also a thing that probably gives them the best chance to not upset Lamar, not have a post Lamar era, actually win 12 or 13 games next year, actually be playing this week next year. If they do that, I’m not good. I’m not going to look like the village idiot, because I’m not betting against them doing that. Yeah.

Luke Jones  20:32

I mean, it’s Jesse Minter, of all the candidates, was always, you know, first of all, he was perceived by around the league as one of the better up and coming candidates in this hiring cycle. You go back and look at lists that were different rankings and lists that were put together three, four months ago, you’d find Jesse mentor, maybe not at the top, but he was near the top. He was certainly in the top five or six that were being talked about because of the horrible connection, because of comparisons to Mike McDonald, and what McDonald was doing in Seattle, so, but I think you look at most of the betting, you know, and like a lot of the betting markets, I mean, that stuff is interesting, but I think a lot of people put too much into that, but he was always viewed as a favorite for the job in that way so, and it made sense because of the familiarity factor, because of the perception that even so many fans have talked about, and you can’t tell me that internally. You know Steve Basti and Eric dicost, if they were being honest, and they knew how this was going to go. You know, if you had told them two years ago that John would be out two years, you know, in two years, they would have been saying, man, be really nice to hold on to Mike McDonald then. So I think as much as, yes, the familiarity and the horrible connection, I think they’re the other major element to this is feeling like they’re able to reverse losing Mike McDonald, which they think will immediately pay major dividends for their defense from an X’s and O’s standpoint. And they think Jesse Minter has the emotional intelligence to coach a football team, to run a football team, and when you see the reaction from the likes of Derwin James at his old old place, you can kind of see why they feel that way, because it’s been overwhelmingly positive, and players seem to love the guy, not just as a person, but as a ball coach, because of how much

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Nestor Aparicio  22:37

he’s horrible, approved by both of them, right? So, you know, he comes through. If Jim and John Harbaugh like your football, then they’re all about football. They I saw John’s press conference last week. You know, it’s all about and it is, and that’s a big Yeah, and that and, but Jesse Hunter passes that test for sure.

Luke Jones  22:56

But the unknown is all the other stuff that’s tied in to being a head coach, and that’s where I’m interested to see what this staff looks like. I mean, obviously the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. I mean, haven’t even mentioned it. Quarterbacks coach, oh no, does T Martin hang around? Lamar likes him. I don’t think you’re going to promote him the offensive coordinator. But considering you know Jesse Minter, you know, familiarity, knowing how things work here, you know whoever the OC is, if they can work with Team Martin, and that keeps Lamar happy, then Lamar doesn’t want a new quarter, then that could be a very that could be a very seamless transition there where you say, Okay, let’s get back to the best things that Todd Monckton did, except we have a new dynamic here, from a personality standpoint.

Nestor Aparicio  23:39

Is, is Jesse Minter going to have an opinion on that? Which is opinion on Lamar, and how

Luke Jones  23:44

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important he better have an opinion on Lamar.

Nestor Aparicio  23:47

I mean, he’s a defensive coach, has a coach in a quarterback room, but obviously, sure spends his whole days trying to stop Lamar like literally on the inside and the outside, because he was on this side of the fence eight years ago, when Lamar was playing electronic football out there with Marshall yonda. He was here with Flacco. Was here, by the way, Jesse Minter was so he saw that whole transition. I interested to hear what his philosophies on offense are, because I don’t know that he’s been asked that. I don’t know that he’s been asked a lot of questions. Dude, I went looking for B roll on him. He hasn’t been a head coach anywhere. I mean, around here, you don’t even he never sat in front of you and as a young man. And when you work for these conglomerates now, you’re not just allowed to go sit on somebody’s couch with a podcast in your hometown and just bullshit. You’re just not allowed to be human being. You’re under contract to you’re under John Harbaugh. John Harbaugh would rather die than send his assistants over here, although he sat in his office and swore to me that Jesse Minter would be here back in 2019 he was going to send all his young assistants over, and I was going to get to know them like Billick did a million years ago. And a lot of those guys went on to be Jim Schwartz and Brian Rex, Ryan and Mike Patton and Jack Del Rio and down the line um. Um, I had Matt Simon on recently, by the way, for the 30 Super 35 anniversary this week. But seeing his thoughts on offense when he’s worked on the defensive side, that’s it’s gonna be interesting press conferences. And I think hearing a new voice, and I know you’re getting into this too, what his face looks like, what his mannerisms are, the tone of his voice, we’re going to get used to hearing his voice in the way that we didn’t know what John Harbaugh or Brian Billick sounded like. We knew what March of Broda sounded like from the 70s. I remember that from my dad. But even his voice just seeing the first press clippings at 520 on Thursday night, when I heard it was him, it’s not easy to find there aren’t NFL films pieces about him, or Cincinnati old B roll of him and his dad and like, I haven’t seen any of that, maybe the Ravens will get a handle on a lot of that, because he’s not anonymous. To your point, he knew Mike Tomlin is a kid in Cincinnati, and he’s been a ball coach’s kid. But I’m, I’m interested in what hours and hours and hours of him is going to sound like when in Florida next month, at the owners meetings, he’s going to be at the table for an hour having eggs and bacon and talking about things, things we learn quickly. John liked Jesus. John liked scripture. John didn’t golf. John didn’t have hobbies. Billick didn’t fish. Bill you know, like, well, I don’t know anything about him. But I know, when you’re a young Ball Coach, and this is all you’ve wanted to do, I don’t know. Does he like baseball? Did he play lacrosse as a kid? I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know anything about him. And when I went sniffing, when you work in the league for a decade, and you you don’t give interviews, you know, you don’t get to know the Luke’s and the Nestor is along the way. The way I really knew young coaches 25 years ago had friends reached me and say, Who do I know in the process? Like, well, I know Anthony Weaver, because he was around 20 years ago here. But, you know, I was in the building in 17, 1819, before 20 and covid, and I didn’t have any access to stand and talk to Jesse Minter because Eric said, Hey, talk to that young guy. He’s going to be a coach. Well, I mean, it’s, that’s Rick Minters kid like that sort of thing left the media when Billick left, quite frankly, and something you never really experienced.

Luke Jones  27:12

You know, can’t say that I really did. So it’ll be interesting, because he’s a first time head coach at any level. Who does he bring in? And I would assume, I mean, Rick Minter. His dad was a defensive analyst on the charger staff. I would assume there’s going to be something like that. But I think for as much focus as there is on the offensive coordinator and what that’s going to mean, and how important that’s going to be, because of Lamar Jackson, because of the fact that Jesse Minter is a defensive guy, right? You need to get that right. I am interested to see what they do with the defensive coordinator spot. There are two different ways you can go. There you can go with it is a promotion to for a position coach somewhere, whether it’s the chargers, or somewhere that that that Jesse Minter has encountered someone or the friend of a friend, right? I mean, that’s kind of how this works. And you say, I met his buddy down in navy. I mean, I don’t know if he’d be the defensive coordinator, though, but point is, that’s not going to be a assuming Jesse Minter is going to call play call the defense, at least initially, that tends to be how it works, right? Mike McDonald calls the defense in Seattle. Is he going to do that forever? Well, I think a lot of that has to depend on what does his staff look like, and how do guys develop. I think a lot of times you’ll see a head coach who has a expertise on one side of the ball or the other. They’ll call plays. They get a few years into it, there’s someone that has been developed or groomed to do that within the organization, and then eventually they hand that over, because there are other things to the job. So I think the defensive coordinator has a potential to be a really strong position coach elsewhere that you can then promote, even though it’s not a traditional, you run the defense kind of a coordinator job or and this is where it’d be interesting, and this is where I’ll point out that Mike McDonald the last couple years now, I looked at it, and I think they missed each other by a year, but I could be wrong on this. But you know who Mike McDonald’s had on his staff in Seattle, Leslie Frazier, sober, head coach. And I do wonder, and maybe maybe mentors, Father fulfills this role because he’s a ball coach, a head coach, you know, I’ll be in at the college level, and maybe that’s sufficient. But I do wonder if maybe you look at your defensive coordinator spot as almost like an assistant head coach, and then you then you kind of go back to like what John Harbaugh did, like cam Cameron. Even though John and Cam are similar, I think they’re identical in age, almost the same age, but John brought cam Cameron in as his offense coordinator, and he had just. Been a head coach. So I think regardless of how that ended five years later or four years later, I think there’s absolutely something to be said to hiring someone on this staff that has former head coach experience, whether that would be a defensive minded guy that might just fit in well and give mentor some perspective on the other parts of the job, because it’s not just running your defense. It’s going to be way more than that. Or, you know, or do you, like I said, you kind of take that spot and a really, really good position coach somewhere that you pluck that guy and say, Hey, you’ll be the defense coordinator here. You’re not going to call plays on Sundays, but you’re going to help me put together the game plan every week. So that’s still going to be a really important job. So because I can’t do all that by myself as the head coach, so there anyone when you come in and you’re been the defensive coordinator, it’s really hard to give that up. I mean, even with Bill, like, I don’t think events here. I mean, that’s the one thing with hardball. You didn’t have to think about that so much, because he wasn’t going to run either side of the ball for sure in the beginning, so I don’t think he’s going to give that up, but he’s going to have to delegate some at least, right? You’re not going to be able to because let’s not act like being the defensive coordinator is, oh well, you know, you show up at nine o’clock and you’re leaving by 330 right? I mean, it’s that’s a full time job. So yes, he’s still going to run the defense, and I fully I’d be surprised if when he has his press conference next Thursday, if he says he’s not going to call the defense on Sundays, but that said he’s going to need a defensive coordinator that’s going to help him with the game plan, right, and help put that together and help carry that out. And he’s going to need position coaches who are going to teach the defense as much as I talked about. The potential for some staff carryover. I’m not sure there’s going to be a ton of that on the defensive side of the ball because of what happened with the defense the last couple years. Right going back to the conversation you and I had a couple days ago, where you and I have both talk to people who would know, people who have a much greater level of expertise in us that flat out, said that the Ravens weren’t that terribly well coached this past year, and could kind of see, you know, with their defense and with different elements of the football team that broke down. So, you know, this is where I think it’s going to be interesting. Because, yeah, he has ravens ties, and there are hardball ties. But again, go to Mike McDonald’s staff in Seattle. You don’t see a you don’t see that staff littered with former ravens assistance. You know there’s a like Josh binds is on that staff. Gonna see the giant staff litter with former Ravens? No question. But I that’s where I look at that and say, okay, Mike McDonald didn’t have to rely on a bunch of former ravens coaches. So you know one thing, a lot of these ball

Nestor Aparicio  32:49

coaches out there and these young guys want to meet people they haven’t met. And that’s and

8

Luke Jones  32:53

to me, it to me, it’s not just who you know, but it might be who you know and who they know, right? It might be that Jesse Minter has a friend somewhere in the league. And obviously he has friends all around the league, because all these guys, you know, combine and Senior Bowl and all that. But he talks to someone and says, Okay, I’m looking for someone to, you know, to coach my outside linebackers. Do you have anyone in mind? Do you know anyone? Did you work with anyone the last five and and it might be, oh my gosh, dude, I know you don’t know this guy, but that guy.

Nestor Aparicio  33:28

How about this dude here? I’ll be really honest that, because I know a lot about this, because I’ve had so many of my friends get head coaching jobs. 25 years ago, Jesse Minter has had 300 calls in the last day from anybody who’s ever had a sandwich with him at the combine, literally, like, literally anybody who he ever sat next to in a symposium somewhere and said, Oh, you’re Rick Minters kid. Oh yeah, you’re hardballs guy. Oh, really, you’re coaching the defensive assistant to the assistant to the assistant. That was 10 years ago. There’s plenty of beer and cheer and moving around. His phone’s off the hook. He’s got six guys who want to be his linebackers coach. In his circle, in PJ Volker circle, in the Vanderbilt circle, in the hardball circle, somebody he met at Michigan who was an undergrad assistant, who went on as a Purdue, like it’s just going to be the way it is, really. I mean, he’s not going to have any lack of faces and and resumes that he could look at, in addition to the people like Cliff Kingsbury we’ve heard of, who will bring his own system, right? If he hires an offensive guy, that guy’s going to want to bring a run this into that, and a quality control like all of them. Yeah. I mean, it’s Kingsbury filled out a whole staff in Arizona, right?

Luke Jones  34:40

But I would also, I would also point out, because of mentors past with the ravens, I wouldn’t dismiss the possibility of some former ravens assistance coming back like, you know, and I’ll just throw this name out there as one example. I haven’t heard this, but drew Wilkins was kind of a wink Martindale guy. He’s the pass rush coordinator for the Rams right now. Or could drew Wilkins be, and he worked, worked with Jesse Minter. You know, they were at similar places in their respective coaching careers, back in 2017 1819, could drew Wilkins be on this staff, right? Could they bring back someone like Joe Cullen?

Nestor Aparicio  35:15

8

I don’t take a gig as an offensive coordinator. Could he could?

Luke Jones  35:19

I mean that to me, would be a fascinating that would be intriguing. Now, the feeling is, he’s getting a gig next week. The feeling, well, the feeling would be, I mean, I don’t know if he’s gonna be a head coach this year. I mean, he’s still young. I mean, he would have still been like a dark horse, like I mentioned him as someone I was intrigued by, but he would have been an off the beaten path because he’s only the pass game coordinator there, but it could be Davis Weber Nate, she’ll house as the offensive coordinator. Now the unders. The problem with that, that you run into is, if that guy is amazing as a rock star with Lamar Jackson in 2026 you’ll lose him. He could be a head coach next year or and that would be the thought of someone like Cliff Kingsbury

Nestor Aparicio  35:56

isn’t afraid of that. Neither is McDonald they brought great guys. They get promoted. You can’t be was, though, that’s why Harbaugh brought Greg Madison in there. And I think to some degree, Basti saw that and leaned into that a little bit. I mean, like, literally, bishad is a management thing either thought that was a, yeah, get some guys around here. We’re not gonna lose Yeah, you know.

Luke Jones  36:16

And I think that, yeah, you know, in the case of where they ran into trouble with John over the years was it could. It could be either one any given year, right? Whereas now, where you have a defensive minded head coach, and the same would have been true if they had hired an offensive minded head coach, where you say, All right, yeah, you might lose the coordinator on the other side of the ball. In terms of that, whatever the head coach’s expertise is, you could lose that other guy. But in John’s case, I mean, you had years where you could lose both your guys. I mean, think about it, it didn’t happen. But post 2023 Mike McDonald went to Seattle. Todd Monken, there was interest in Todd moncken, you know, there were, he was, he went on interviews the last couple Not, not you know well, even now he’s going on interviews, but there was the possibility of losing both your coordinators. So at the very least, from that standpoint, your defense now, which, let’s face it, the Ravens defense, lost its way the last couple years. There’s no question about that, despite the talent, despite the money spent, whether the talent was overrated in certain spots or not, it’s still underperformed, right? I mean, on paper, that defense absolutely underperformed this year. And yeah, the Matta BK thing was a big thing, but that doesn’t absolve everything that went down. But now the thought is that that side of the ball should be ironclad. And the thing that you liked about what Jesse Manor did with the Chargers was yes, yes. He had Derwin James, yes. He had Khalil Mack. But there were other guys, including adopt aoway, who I don’t think this necessarily means the ravens are bringing him back, but there were guys that he seemed to get more out of than the previous regime got, whereas what happened with the Ravens defense these last couple years, guys kind of took, you know, either plateaued or regressed, and how much of that were was on the players themselves, guys have to be accountable, but how much of that was also on the coaching? And we talked about it a lot, the brain drain post 2023 not just McDonald, but Dennard Wilson and Anthony Weaver and Zach Gore moving from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator. I mean, that was a lot that they lost all at one time, and that absolutely took.

8

Nestor Aparicio  38:33

They won it all, all in on Zach Orr instead of Anthony Weaver, instead of a different defensive coordinator at that time. When it, when that, when that time came, John promoted from within and felt strongly about Zach or or bashati felt, I, you know, again, John would always say Steve never, but I don’t, you have to tell me you’ve been in the we both love Zach Orr, and it’s a shame it didn’t work out in the way that it didn’t work out. And I guess he’ll, if John loved him, he’ll be in New York with John doing something probably right. Yeah.

Luke Jones  39:02

I mean, I look I I certainly hope Zach orb is still working in the league. I’m not expecting him to be a defensive coordinator this coming year somewhere. But I’ll also point out, because I don’t want to shortchange him, he was involved in that process that I talked about back in 2018 where Mike McDonald and Jesse Minter and a lot of their assistants, you know, headlined by wink Martindale becoming the coordinator at the time. But that’s when they revamped their defensive system. Zach, or was part of that as well. So sometimes Zach or Jesse Minter are close as well, yeah. So, you know, I’m guess I, you know, I, I don’t think it’d be I think it’d be wise for Zach to get a fresh start somewhere. I think it would. But yeah, they know each other. Sure. So that’s but that’s why I said just even go back and look at the assistance 2017 1819, 20 guys that have since moved on. It might be elsewhere, or might be code. At the college level. And again, I’m just, you know, I don’t know where everyone is off the top of my head, but I would not be shocked to see a couple of those guys back as well. But at the same time, you know, the Ravens like certain assistants that are still under contract. You know, if Eric Decosta likes certain assistants that are under contract, they’re, you know, I think there’s very much a possibility, if not a likelihood that you’ll see some of those guys retained. As I said, Generally, you made the point, if it’s a big name guy coming in from that’s an outsider like Sean Payton, you know, if it’s someone like that, or if your team was just so incredibly horrible, like three and 14 terrible, where you just say, we need to wipe the slate clean. This was terrible. There were no redeemable qualities about this football team, and we need to start a new I mean, the Ravens weren’t that this year, right? So, yeah, I think you’re going to see some staff members retained, and you’re going to see probably at least a couple familiar names return. And then, yeah, I think Jesse Minter is going to put, you know, he’ll have some unique ideas and some fresh people that maybe he worked with at Michigan, or he worked with at Vanderbilt that will show up here, or just friends of friends, right? You know, where he might say to a couple guys with the chargers, it’s like, hey, you know, I know you’re not coming because you like working here, and you don’t want to uproot your family. But you know, who do you have in mind? Like, who do you think would be a good linebackers coach? Who do you think would be a good guy in the secondary that I could talk to? You know, that, that you could vouch for? I mean, there’s a lot of that that goes on as well. I mean, John Harbaugh, you know, what was it? It ended up, you know, it was, it was through his family that he didn’t know Todd moncken. But you know, his brother in law and his sister knew Todd Monckton and and recommended, and regardless of how this past year played out, his first two years, Todd moncken worked out just fine. I mean, Todd Monken made Lamar Jackson a better player than a better quarterback than he had been. So you know, you never really know how that’s going to play out. And that’s what makes this fascinating, because, oh yeah, all these factors always exist, but you also still have an ongoing hiring cycle going on right now. So as much as you might want to hire Cliff Kingsbury or Joe Brady to be your offensive coordinator, they’re still wait and see with some of those head coach openings, and whether they would, you would be their top choice, you know, to be a coordinator even so. So there is some of that, and that’s why to go back to our point that we made a little bit earlier. I don’t mind that the press conference is going to be delayed a little bit here, because maybe by next Thursday, we’re going to see some resolution here in terms of who is going to be the offensive coordinator, who is going to be the defensive coordinator, who might be staying on the Ravens staff who might be coming back that was with the Ravens years ago. So it is all very interesting, and it’s all very important. They’ve got to get this figured out before they then turn to the next big ticket item of the offseason, which will be working out an extension with Lamar Jackson.

Nestor Aparicio  42:58

All right, lots of things ahead. I want to send some love out to the curio family and foreign daughter family. I am wearing my curio gear here today because we lost Michael Brown fine on Thursday. Just a tremendous guy. I’m going to be paying tribute to him. We’re also going to be paying tribute in the theme of purple here to the Super Bowl 35 team. The 25th anniversary of whiskey Joe’s is Wednesday. I will have two beers in honor of Bobby Nick as well as all of you who joined us along that journey. I’m going to be featuring various Purple Rain not just the book, but like conversations with Rod Woodson, Shannon, sharp Tony, saragusa, Trent, Dilfer, Ray, Lewis, on and on and on and on and on and on and on all of our Hall of Famers, the Baltimore bullies, which I’m sure will show up on ESPN at some point next week as well. We will have two teams in the Super Bowl. What Super Bowl was this 50? I don’t, oh, man, you put me on this. I don’t know. I don’t know. And I certainly don’t know the damn Roman numerals. I will know. I never could figure the Roman numerals out. And it’s L, VII, is all I knew. Because I think this is Super Bowl 60, isn’t it? Is it San Francisco, right? Is that LV, Lz, X, LX, LX, LX, LX,

Luke Jones  44:09

8

Roman numeral lessons, right? Because

Nestor Aparicio  44:12

Chad Steel had me blackballed in the NFL because I’m a bad guy and I don’t care about football. I have candy cane scratch offs to give away. We’re going to be raising awareness for the Maryland food bank. A cup of soup or bowl begins next Monday. Get the snow out of here. We’re going to be at faint these next Monday. We’re going to be Tuesday at El Guapo. I said State Fair earlier. We’re going to be at El Guapo across the street because they have that Mexican tortilla soup that I love, and it’s a cup of Super Bowl. And I need to mix things up. Man, cannot live on Maryland crab soup alone, although on Wednesday, I will be having cream of crab soup in my favorite at Koco’s. You know, I was going to do a crab soup tour, and I’m like, how am I going to get better cream of crab soup than Koco’s, or better Maryland crab soup than Costa? So I’m going to do that on Friday, and then on Thursday they do have a crab cake, and they do have crab soup at Pete. John’s but I snuck in there the other day. I know you’re wearing a hat, Luke. I snuck into pizza, John. I didn’t tell anybody. My wife knows, but I snuck in and I got a cheese steak, and I got crinkle cut fries and gravy. And if you get the crickle cut fries and gravy, you got to stay. You don’t take that to go. It doesn’t taste as good, but the gravy at Pizza, John’s good too. So maybe I’ll get a hot beef sandwich or something I’m working next week, a cup of soup or bowl for the Maryland Food Bank charities all week. Great people coming by, friends of mine. Some of my old Essex goons are going to show up at Pizza John’s next week too. So that’s going to be fun as well. Super Bowl. 35 love all week long. Jesse Minter, new head coach, everything is out of Baltimore. Positive. Stay with us. You.