ExtremeRavens Posted 8 hours ago Posted 8 hours ago Late Wednesday morning, Ravens coach Jesse Minter introduced the three coordinators who will lead his first NFL staff. Minter wore a black hoodie, gray blazer and an eager grin, proudly showing off the three prominent leaders of his 25-person staff, which he finalized in a matter of 21 days. “We’re on a sprint as a coaching staff up until April 6 to make sure that we’re ready for the players,” Minter said. Here are three takeaways from the coordinator introductions: Coaching staff is embracing ‘new age’ Ravens Executive vice president Ozzie Newsome started using the phrase in the mid-aughts. Former coach John Harbaugh wrapped his arms around it in 2008, his first year on the job. A year later, the team’s marketing department full-court pressed what has since evolved into a long-standing mantra for football in Baltimore. To “Play like a Raven,” legendary defensive tackle Haloti Ngata once said, means “being nasty and playing rough, tough football. … It’s a nastiness where you’re going to impose your will on teams.” Minter’s fingerprints will inevitably mark up these Ravens while, he said, maintaining the integrity of those who built a reputation before him. But he wasn’t afraid to embrace change. He twice referenced a “new age” rebrand of what it means to play like a Raven. “There’s a foundational way that the Ravens play that we need to play like, but I also think that there’s a new age and a new way to do things, and that’s the reason we’re all sitting up here,” Minter said. “Change can be embraced, change can energize people, and so we really look forward to it. I think it’ll be up to everybody watching us to see what’s different about it. Not necessarily us, but everybody [will be] watching to determine what maybe the differences are.” This was a pressing question from the moment owner Steve Bisciotti fired Harbaugh. Would they steer into a completely new direction? Or might they promote someone with close ties to the organization and stay on the same course that has blocked them from football’s ultimate prize? With Minter, it seems they’ve struck a balance. With his staff, he’s maintaining the credibility of folks who have walked the hallways in Owings Mills, rounded out by coaches from different backgrounds who check specific football and relational boxes. Minter solved his coaching staff puzzle “irrelevant of pro experience, college experience or years of experience.” His staff represents what they’re calling a “new age” of what it means to play like a Raven. What that looks like will become more apparent once they get on the field together. Doyle has no fear about being a first-time play-caller Three hours before every NFL game Doyle has been a part of — as a quality control coach in New Orleans, tight ends coach in Denver then non-play-calling offensive coordinator in Chicago — he stepped onto the turf by himself. There, he’d walk up and down the field simulating four offensive drives in his mind. “I knew that the first time I was going to call plays probably wasn’t going to be in a smaller setting,” Doyle said. “It was probably going to be with the bright lights. I felt like I needed to prepare for that early. So, in that way, I’ve kind of been preparing just to be able to call it and kind of how your mind works.” Cheesy? Perhaps. Did it help? We’ll find out. Doyle is 29 years old, the same age as Lamar Jackson — a fact that is sure to be rehashed ad nauseam. In Chicago, he was the offensive coordinator under NFL Coach of the Year finalist, Ben Johnson. Now, he’ll call plays for what was an historically great offense just two seasons ago. Doyle wasn’t timid about these new responsibilities. For one, he said they’re in the early stages of “really stripping this [offense] down to the studs and then rebuilding it around the personnel that we have here.” That starts with Jackson, the quintessential dual-threat quarterback who Doyle praised for having Superman-like qualities. Doyle has every intention of utilizing Jackson’s mastery to chase explosive plays. And he won’t shy away from the kind of trickery that became a regular part of Johnson’s Bears offense. Doyle has three nonnegotiables: “that we are physical, we are detailed and we are explosive.” He side-stepped any analysis of the 2025 offense, which struggled to consistently find its footing, but referenced Baltimore’s 2024 group — the first in NFL history to eclipse 4,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing yards in a single season — as “something to be reckoned with” and the kind of success they’ll chase. That starts in optional team activities. Two years in a row, Jackson has forfeited $750,000 by failing to attend at least 80% of the team’s voluntary workouts. That clause is etched into the two-time NFL Most Valuable Player’s contract through 2027. He’s seemingly ignored it. Doyle did not directly mention Jackson, but in his first meeting with local reporters, he said he “expects” players to be there. He didn’t bite his tongue about why. “If you want to say that you’re going to win a championship, you want to say that you have championship standards, and those are your goals and your expectations,” Doyle said, “certainly that’s going to take work, that’s going to take collaboration, and that’s going to take the beginning of building the relationship with their coaches and other players starting off this next regime on the right foot.” For Weaver, Ravens DC is ‘hardly a consolation prize’ There were 10 NFL head coach vacancies. Weaver interviewed for five of them, including the Ravens. All five passed over the former Dolphins defensive coordinator. So Minter called him, with a proposition of returning to coach the team that drafted him and helping re-establish a dominant Ravens defense. Weaver admitted he was disappointed to not get a head job this cycle. It made him take stock of his own priorities. He looked in the mirror and asked himself why he was still coaching. The answer was simple: to hoist a Lombardi Trophy and to help players get the most out of their careers. “I don’t need to be a head coach to do that,” he said. “I can certainly do that from this seat.” Ravens defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, shown at Wednesday's news conference, admitted to having some disappointment about not being named a head coach during this offseason's hiring cycle. (Brian Krista/Staff) Furthermore, Weaver’s perception of the Ravens’ defensive coordinator opening, even without being a play-caller, is a more prestigious role than most other coordinator jobs around the league. That’s because he played for the kind of teams contemporary players revered, and he helped coach the most recent example of a Ravens defense atop the NFL. With this job, he said, “you’re the dude.” Even though Minter will call the plays, he and Weaver have already talked at length about what’s needed in that room. Minter wants a defensive coordinator who can lead men through brick walls and someone to articulate scheme and buy into the selfless role of building a championship contender. He found Weaver. And despite the disappointment of being passed over by several NFL teams, Weaver found Minter. To him, coaching the Ravens is “hardly a consolation prize.” Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn.x.com. Sam appears as a host on The Sun’s “Early Birds” podcast. View the full article Quote
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