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A week ago, the Ravens hired Jesse Minter as the fourth head coach in franchise history. On Thursday, he got his grand introduction.

(Or is it a reintroduction?)

Minter arrived in Baltimore on Wednesday with a long list of short- and long-term objectives. Among the most pressing assignments: hiring a staff, establishing a rapport with star quarterback Lamar Jackson and the team’s veterans, diagnosing a talented but flawed defense. And the most important goal: leading the Ravens back to the Super Bowl.

Here are takeaways from Minter’s remarks during his introductory press conference alongside Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta and team president Sashi Brown. Owner Steve Bisciotti, who held his own presser Jan. 13 after firing longtime coach John Harbaugh, did not speak.

Minter will control the defense

Minter will be calling plays on defense. Even though a head coaching job comes with many more responsibilities than those of a coordinator, Minter plans to control the defense.

After all, his ability to run a great defense is why the Ravens hired him, he said.

“I think that’s a strength of mine. I think that’s one of the reasons I’m sitting here,” Minter said.

Minter isn’t worried that will take away from his oversight of the offense and special teams. He feels he has a “strong process” and the right leadership qualities.

“It starts with the relationships with the people in the building, particularly the players,” Minter said. “And I think they’ll feel my competitiveness. They’ll feel my mentality every day. And I think, I think we’ll work hand in hand together to build a great team.”

Many head coaches in the NFL come from offensive backgrounds and have started to call their own plays. There are fewer who have defensive backgrounds, but Houston’s DeMeco Ryans and New England’s Mike Vrabel have seen a lot of success.

Former Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, who was elevated to head coach of the Seattle Seahawks in 2024, calls his own plays and has his team in the Super Bowl in his second season.

As Minter said on “The Pat McAfee Show” after his opening press conference, he is the only AFC North head coach with a defensive background after Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin stepped down.

— Giana Han, Ravens reporter

Playoff poise required

Playoff failures were at the root of Bisciotti’s decision to fire Harbaugh. At his Jan. 13 news conference, he called the Ravens’ recent postseason record disappointing and pointed to a lack of poise among the team’s standouts. “A lot of our great players involved,” he said, “making mistakes that they don’t make during the regular season very often.”

Minter did not promise the world. He mentioned the Super Bowl just once. But he seemed to highlight the need for clutch performance. In his prepared opening remarks, he said the Ravens would work “to be the best team in the National Football League, and we will be at our best when our best is needed. I think that’s really important to the Ravens Flock.”

The Ravens will be expected to win a lot of games in September, October, November and December. And they won a lot of those under Harbaugh. But the Ravens are 3-6 in the postseason since 2018. Minter won a College Football Playoff national championship at Michigan, then oversaw uneven defensive efforts in the Los Angeles Chargers’ winless playoff appearances the past two seasons. There will be a grace period if the Ravens flop in the playoffs early in Minter’s tenure but not a long one.

— Jonas Shaffer, Ravens reporter

Minter wants to maximize Lamar Jackson

In addition to media and team employees, a smattering of current and former players filled the seats at the Under Armour Performance Center, including running back Justice Hill, nose tackle Travis Jones and long snapper Nick Moore. Notably absent was quarterback Lamar Jackson, but the two-time Most Valuable Player was the subject of several questions.

Minter called Jackson “the best player in the National Football League” and talked of building a team around him that can maximize his otherworldly talent. Neither Minter nor DeCosta said whether Jackson took Bisciotti up on his offer to fly him to Maryland to meet the head coach finalists, but Minter acknowledged he’s had multiple conversations with the star quarterback.

“It’s been great to get to know him,” Minter said. “I think relationships take time. You don’t become the head coach of the Ravens and expect to have a deep relationship with anybody. Those take time. We’ve been working towards that already.”

Establishing a rapport with Jackson should be one of Minter’s top priorities, especially as the Ravens work on a contract extension with the 29-year-old, something Bisciotti wants to accomplish before the start of free agency in March.

Minter also must find an offensive coordinator who connects with Jackson.

— Paul Mancano, Banner Ravens Podcast co-host

Finding the right coordinators

The sheer number of NFL coaching openings has created a scramble for assistants and, especially on the offensive side of the ball, it appears that many teams are trying to hold on to their young, coveted coaching minds. The Rams’ Nate Scheelhaase and the Broncos’ Davis Webb are among the men the Ravens interviewed during the head coach process whose teams seem intent on keeping them.

Still, Minter said the searches for his coordinators are “very far along” and he is looking to finalize the staff soon. DeCosta said a small group of Ravens players is involved in the coordinator hiring process and giving valuable feedback.

But, with Minter calling his own defensive plays and the offense in particular regressing during the 2025 season, an offensive coordinator hire looms large. On an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Minter said creativity and a focus on maximizing Jackson’s skill set will be premium qualifications for his offensive lieutenant.

“I think I’m looking for a connector and an innovator, and a scheme builder around the best player in the world,” he said.

—Kyle Goon, sports columnist

Minter will report directly to Steve Bisciotti

Until Harbaugh was fired, there were few NFL head coaches with as much power. Part of his influence was the way the organization was structured — with the head coach and the general manager serving directly under Bisciotti.

With Minter, the Ravens indicated that power structure will remain the same.

“I think that this organization, we’ve had a lot of success in a situation where the head coach and the general manager are partners and both report to the owner,” DeCosta said. “I mean, we won two Super Bowls that way. We won a lot of games that way. And we believe in that system, working together, fighting together and figuring things out together.”

The Ravens’ structure (which Harbaugh believes in so strongly that he made it a stipulation in his new job in New York) appears to grant a stable foundation to Minter, a first-time head coach. In the instances when DeCosta and Minter disagree, Bisciotti will theoretically play the tiebreaker (though Bisciotti claimed he rarely has to resolve such disputes).

When Bisciotti ceded a good deal of the hiring process to DeCosta and Brown, it could have been interpreted that those figures would have more power than Minter. Although it may take Minter time to consolidate credibility through on-field results, DeCosta’s commitment to replicating the power structure under Harbaugh shows the organization’s belief in its longtime systems.

DeCosta admitted that during the interview process he had to adjust his perception of Minter, who served as a defensive analyst and eventually defensive backs coach in his first stint in Baltimore: “My experience was with Jesse primarily in the draft years ago, when he was doing all the bottom guys in the draft board in the secondary.”

But DeCosta said he respected Minter’s rise in the coaching profession, which replicated his own humble beginnings in Baltimore as a player personnel assistant for then-general manager Ozzie Newsome.

Minter’s history with the Ravens and the Chargers (led by longtime Baltimore exec Joe Hortiz), however, also implies that he and DeCosta probably have a lot more in common than most. Minter said Harbaugh texted him, “I think they should hire you” — perhaps knowing how well Minter fits into the fabric of the franchise.

Minter’s first assessment of DeCosta’s roster was unsurprisingly complimentary, implying the start of a close partnership.

“There’s great talent here,” Minter said. “The roster has been really well constructed. We see football the same way in terms of the kind of team you want to build.”

– Kyle Goon, sports columnist

Will Minter be an ‘alpha’ coach?

Minter served as an interim head coach for one game at Michigan, but he’s never had to manage an NFL locker room. That might be the biggest unknown of his transition from defensive coordinator to head coach. He’s in charge of everyone now.

In Baltimore, he inherits a roster of extremes. On one end, some of the league’s most accomplished, highly paid veterans: Jackson, Derrick Henry, Roquan Smith, Kyle Hamilton and (perhaps) Tyler Linderbaum. On the other, dozens of young players on rookie contracts.

In Los Angeles, Minter evolved into a coach with such conviction in his leadership and teaching that players called him an “alpha.” In Baltimore, he won’t need to be a bully to get his message across. But he can’t be a pushover, either. Not when the time to win is now.

“My confidence has grown as I’ve been in those positions now for a while,” he said. “Your confidence grows. Your own style sort of begins to come out, so I think that’s really been the evolvement. But it’s really about trying to get better every day, trying to learn and grow and learn from everybody, listen to people and always be trying to get better. And I think that’s what’s led me to this point.”

— Jonas Shaffer, Ravens reporter

Below are additional highlights from the press conference: