The Ravens interviewed Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter for their head coaching vacancy on Wednesday.
Minter, 42, has long been considered the favorite to land the job in Baltimore. After several
years coaching in college, he broke into the NFL as a Ravens defensive assistant in 2017. He spent four seasons in Baltimore – three under defensive coordinator Wink Martindale – before taking a defensive coordinator job at Vanderbilt in 2021. Minter then served as Michigan’s defensive coordinator on Jim Harbaugh’s staff in 2022 and 2023 before following Harbaugh to Los Angeles for the Chargers’ DC job.
That path is very similar to that of former Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, who is now the Seahawks’ head coach. He arrived in Baltimore a few years before Minter, but they worked together closely until they both left for college DC jobs in 2020. Macdonald, of course, went to Michigan first and only needed one year to get an opportunity. It took a bit longer for Minter, which is why it has taken him longer to get a head coaching opportunity. Now, he has completed his second year as the coordinator for one of the league’s top defenses.
It makes sense, therefore, that Minter is a leading candidate for a job that many thought should have been Macdonald’s. For a myriad of reasons, going from Harbaugh to Macdonald was not realistic, but the Ravens now have the opportunity to hire Minter and, hopefully, find similar success to what Macdonald has in Seattle.
