ExtremeRavens Posted 16 hours ago Posted 16 hours ago The Ravens rolled out the purple carpet for Jesse Minter. About two dozen players present and past — Travis Jones and Justice Hill and Ray Rice and Jamie Sharper among them — filled most of the first three rows in the team’s auditorium in Owings Mills on Thursday. They were there to see the former assistant who’d coached Baltimore’s defensive backs in 2020 before turning defenses around as a coordinator for Vanderbilt, Michigan and the Los Angeles Chargers. Minter, 42, was formally introduced as the fourth head coach in the Ravens’ 31-year history. He was joined on stage by general manager Eric DeCosta and team president Sashi Brown, with owner Steve Bisciotti among the audience. Minter’s words spoke to the culture of the organization without being overly revelatory, though he did provide some insight on his vision and play calling and more. “The we is important,” Minter said in his opening remarks, his wife Rachelle, their three young children and his father, Rick, among the family members in the crowd. “It takes everybody to be successful.” Quarterback Lamar Jackson was not one of the players in attendance — only two starters were — but Minter said that he has had multiple conversations with the 29-year-old two-time NFL Most Valuable Player. “Relationships take time,” Minter said. “You don’t become the head coach of the Ravens and expect to have a deep relationship with anybody. We’ve been working toward that already. “With Lamar, I just look forward to connecting with him, helping him become the best version of himself, creating a team identity that allows him to thrive, which he’s already proven to be the best player in the National Football League and put a team around him that allows him to reach that ultimate goal of bringing a Super Bowl back to Baltimore.” Minter’s work is cut out after the Ravens, Super Bowl favorites at the start of the season, finished 8-9 and short of the playoffs for the first time since 2021, leading to the firing of Minter’s predecessor, John Harbaugh, who had coached Baltimore the past 18 seasons, won a Super Bowl after the 2012 season and became the franchise’s winningest coach and the 14th-winningest coach of all-time. Harbaugh has known Minter since he was about 12 years old, when Minter’s father, Rick, was long ago the coach at the University of Cincinnati and Harbaugh’s boss there. So, it was hardly a surprise that the two had a few conversations before Baltimore hired Minter, with Harbaugh texting, “I think they should hire you.” “I love John,” Minter said. “[It’s] really just like, take the foundation in place and build on it, make it better, put my own spin on it and not try to be John Harbaugh, not try to be Jim Harbaugh, be myself, connect with everybody, make it about all of us, and I really look forward to doing that.” It didn’t take long for Bisciotti, DeCosta, executive vice president Ozzie Newsome and Brown to come to the same conclusion about hiring him, either. Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta, right, said that a group of select players were part of the process in the search for a new coach that led to Jesse Minter, left. (Kevin Richardson/Staff) After Harbaugh was fired Jan. 6, a search for his replacement began almost immediately. More than 20 candidates were interviewed with the list quickly whittled to a handful of finalists for second interviews in Owings Mills. “He just blew us away in person,” DeCosta said of Minter. “As good as his Zoom interview was, spending time with him in Baltimore was even more than I hoped. While he was with me in my office I started to imagine Jesse as our head coach.” That decision was further cemented by feedback Ravens brass got from others in the organization about Minter. That included a small group of players on offense and defense. Though DeCosta did not say which players, he said that they met with all the finalists, either in person or via Zoom. He also said that some are still involved in the process for hiring coordinators and other positions. “Their opinions are valuable, very helpful,” DeCosta said. “They came at it from a different perspective as players.” Bisciotti, who crashed an ESPN interview later in the day, also said that the decision to hire Minter was DeCosta’s and that he simply approved the move, adding that Minter and DeCosta will work well together. “He stood out,” Bisciotti said of Minter. “We got some good candidates but he stood out, so we’re really happy with him.” Minter was a popular candidate in the coaching cycle. He had job interviews with eight teams, including the Las Vegas Raiders, who made a strong push to make him their next coach after parting ways with Pete Carroll. Once the Ravens’ job opened, however, there was little doubt in Minter’s mind. “You really have no idea what jobs are going to be open as you get towards the middle and end of the season,” he said, adding that his feelings for Baltimore strengthened after reconnecting with people in the building. “You feel like you might be a candidate, but when this job opened this became the one for me. This is the one that I wanted.” Now, Minter’s vision for what the Ravens can be will begin to take shape. Already, he has begun to fill out at least some of his staff, though he declined to officially announce any hirings. He did, however, say that the process is “very far along” in some cases and he is close to finalizing some of his assistants, including offensive and defensive coordinator. In terms of what he’s looking for from all of his assistants, he wants “leaders and connectors and relationship builders and schematic expertise.” Most importantly, he added that he wants coaches who players believe in and ones who are willing to “dive deep” and “build really strong relationships.” “I think when they feel it, it’s collaborative,” he said. “They feel it’s ours and not just the coaches and this is what the players do, this is what the coaches do. It’s all of us.” There was a lot of “we” and “us” throughout. That pertains to the chain of command, too. During Harbaugh’s tenure, DeCosta, who has been the general manager since 2019, made personnel decisions with the coach having plenty of sway. Both reported to the owner. The structure will remain the same under Minter, though it’s not totally clear to the exact extent. “I think it’s a partnership with Eric and I,” he said. “That’s really what I was looking for in this whole process. I know we see football the same. We see what building a team looks like the same.” One thing that will remain the same for Minter from his old job is that he will continue to call plays on defense, which could impact who ends up being his defensive coordinator among a pool of candidates that includes former Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator and ex-Raven Anthony Weaver, Kansas City Chiefs defensive line coach Joe Cullen and Denver Broncos defensive pass game coordinator Jim Leonhard. “I think that’s a strength of mine,” Minter said of calling defenses. “I think that’s one of the reasons I’m sitting here.” It certainly played a factor. After being one of the best defenses in the league in 2023 under then-defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, Baltimore took a big step back each of the past two seasons under first-year coordinator Zach Orr. In particular, the pass defense was leaky and the pass rush ineffective. Other problems persisted, too, from communication to more fundamental skills such as blocking and tackling. Nothing has stood out more, though, than the Ravens’ regression in the postseason, which was the biggest reason Harbaugh was fired. After reaching the AFC championship game after the 2023 season, Baltimore lost in the divisional round of the playoffs the next year and didn’t make the postseason this past season. The Ravens have won just two playoff games over the past five years and worse yet have often not been at their best when the stakes have been at their highest, but the belief is that Minter can help turn that around. View this post on Instagram It was only a handful of years ago, of course, that he was first on the Ravens’ radar as an assistant in an office that he shared with three other coaches about 30 steps down the hall from the much bigger one he occupies now. When he arrived in Baltimore this time, much of the team’s staff lined the grand foyer and large staircase to welcome him earlier this week. He thanked them, said he was excited about the opportunity but that he’s most looking forward to making it “we” and about “all of us.” He also said that he has a vision of what it will take for the Ravens to get to that next level of winning the franchise’s third Super Bowl title. “I really think building a really cohesive team that all the work that you do leads to being successful in those opportunities, so I think we will create standards that match the goals we want to achieve,” he said. “Our plan will be built on being at our best late in the season, into the playoffs, and I look forward to that challenge.” Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1. View the full article Quote
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