The hard left turn from the John Harbaugh era has turned out to be more of a merge lane for the Baltimore Ravens.
For eight years of his coaching career, Jesse Minter either coached on John Harbaugh’s staff as a positional assistant or anchored himself as a defensive coordinator for Harbaugh’s brother Jim. Now he becomes the chosen change agent to replace John. Now he returns to work with Eric DeCosta, who made his transition from assistant general manager to the full GM title during Minter’s first four years as a Ravens assistant. Now he’ll guide Lamar Jackson, whose first three years as an NFL player overlapped with Minter’s time on Baltimore’s staff.
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This is what a known commodity looks like. From DeCosta and Jackson to team owner Steve Bisciotti. It’s also what a Harbaugh product looks like, which, lends some lingering curiosities to what looks like a hand-in-glove fit.
Those curiosities orbit Jackson and what this hire means for the future of the Ravens and a franchise quarterback who currently has two years left on his contract and 20 questions about how this is all going to culminate in the Super Bowl breakthrough that Baltimore is reaching for.
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From a baseline football standpoint, there’s little question that Minter comes in looking like a very good hire. Not only does he present as a young 42-year-old with potentially decades of NFL coaching ahead of him, but his coaching creativity and intuitive ability to bond with his players has some echoes of former Ravens assistant Mike Macdonald. The same Macdonald who departed the John Harbaugh tree to become a head coaching revelation with the Seattle Seahawks the last two seasons, culminating with (thus far) an NFC title game appearance Sunday. Like Macdonald before him, Minter seemed destined to get a head coaching shot, and this cycle did not disappoint. He was a finalist for the Atlanta Falcons job before it went to Kevin Stefanski, and he was slated to have second interviews with the Las Vegas Raiders and Cleveland Browns before the Ravens hired him.
Jesse Minter was lauded for his ability to connect with his players as a defensive coordinator. The Ravens are hoping for the same thing, particularly with QB Lamar Jackson. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
(Robert Gauthier via Getty Images)
All of which gives you different vantages on Minter’s hire. He was a high producing defensive coordinator with the Chargers who parlayed it into being an in-demand head coaching candidate. And the hope, clearly, is that he can instantly spin the kind of gold with the Ravens that Macdonald has with the Seahawks. If that comes to fruition — and Minter carves out the kind of head coaching career that either of the Harbaughs have achieved — it means he is as much the future of the Ravens as Jackson. If not more.
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And that’s where this gets interesting because we are still waiting to see how the coming moves ultimately impact Jackson. Already, the notion that Baltimore would pair its quarterback with an offensive-minded head coach has been flattened. Harbaugh was not that. And now Minter is not that. It’s a reality that makes the Ravens’ offensive coordinator hire — and Jackson’s input into that hire — a paramount decision. As it stood, Bisciotti publicly opened the door to Jackson weighing in on the head coaching hire. To date, we don’t know if Jackson took that opportunity.
Now the question arises as to his involvement in filling the next offensive coordinator. Not to mention what Jackson thinks of Minter and the new-but-familiar direction of the franchise. Certainly, Minter will be asked plenty of questions about Jackson at his introductory news conference. What kind of communication did the two have in the process? Is there a preexisting relationship from when Minter was a defensive assistant for the Ravens? And how will this factor into the contract extension that Baltimore wants to work out with Jackson by the start of free agency?
If that sounds like the Minter hire created more questions about Jackson’s future than it answered, that’s because it likely did. And the answers are going to have to come from the head coach and quarterback, whose relationship will be the defining element answering whether Minter’s first two years as Ravens head coach end up being Jackson’s last two years as the team’s franchise quarterback.
Minter could represent the best case in Baltimore, which would be to inject some new energy into the building and Jackson, then ride that to the Super Bowl that has eluded the Ravens star. But Minter could also be here to transition to life after Jackson, if for some reason there is no extension in the cards and the Ravens have to make a radical change. While it’s certainly nothing close to an apples-to-apples talent or performance comparison, it’s worth noting that part of Macdonald’s success in Seattle has been tied to transitioning from Geno Smith to Sam Darnold.
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That’s nothing close to what it would feel like to eventually move away from Jackson, which would be a seismic event in the franchise and city. It’s hard to even fathom at this point, with Minter’s hire clearly meant to inspire some kind of repairing of the Jackson situation. But even the levels of necessary repair continue to be nebulous at this point, because neither Jackson or the Ravens have publicly aired whatever rift — or stall — made it necessary to move on from John Harbaugh.
Perhaps the closest we’ve gotten was in Bisciotti’s statement about the hire Thursday, when he called Minter “[A] leader who will authentically connect with our players and inspire them to championship levels.” The “authentic connection” feels like it’s some Jackson subtext, appearing to make the bond between coach and quarterback one of the highest priorities.
For his part, Jackson hasn’t said anything yet. Regardless of his words, his willingness to work a contract extension in the next two months will speak volumes. With a gargantuan salary cap number of $74.5 million each of the next two seasons, it’s imperative for the Ravens to get an extension done prior to free agency to provide operational cap space and free-agency flexibility. If Jackson won’t do that extension, it will likely force Baltimore to restructure his deal and push money into future years — which is taking a problem and pushing it out. That’s messy and it would reflect on the relationship between Jackson and ownership in a telling way.
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For now, we’ll wait to hear what Minter has to say about Jackson and vice versa. There’s reason to believe it will be a good partnership. But questions remain, and they begin when Minter steps to the podium as the Ravens’ first answer to making the most out of the next phase of Jackson’s career.
