Jesse Minter's Revival Of Derwin James Explains How He Will Further Unlock Kyle Hamilton

With Ravens head coach Jesse Minter fresh from a highly-successful stint running the Chargers defense for two years, and Los Angeles safety Derwin James one of the few physical comps on the planet for Baltimore hybrid safety Kyle Hamilton, it’s only natural to draw parallels.

Studying James’s usage upon Minter’s arrival should provide a portal into what Hamilton will be doing more of now. But the deeper you dig, it becomes apparent that, in fact, what former Ravens defensive coordinator Zach Orr finally got around to with Hamilton was basically barrowing more from Minter’s work with James.

Orr’s job was complicated by general manager Eric DeCosta misevaluating the import of an injury to defensive back Ar’Darius Washington and failing to provide requisite depth and quality at the safety position for dime looks (six defensive backs on the field), and Minter won’t face that challenge now. And Minter is a far superior schemer and play caller.

Orr already had Hamilton on a path similar to the immediate transformation that Minter culled from James (6-2, 215), the 17th overall pick in 2019 whose career was in decline due to injuries and misuse when Minter arrived with head coach Jim Harbaugh in 2024 ... and James became an All-Pro caliber defender again. There are natural clues to project to Hamilton ramping up even more in how he is deployed around the line of scrimmage and in the slot, and how frequently he blitzes, now in the hands of a true expert in Minter.

There is ample reason to anticipate that a rare athlete (6-4, 218) whose been thought of a potential Defensive Player Of The Year candidate can reach new heights in 2026.

“Kyle is a weapon,” is how Minter responded when quickly asked about Hamilton at his intro press conference. “He is a position-less player I would classify as a weapon.”

All of that is true, but James was deployed in certain ways far more than ever before under Minter, which portends the same for Hamilton.

Always In The Box

James, who was struggling more in deep coverage as he accumulated injuries, was already underdoing a metamorphosis under former head coach Brandon Staley. His free safety snaps went from 913 in 2021 (per TruMedia) to 799 in 2022 to 65 in 2023, to none with Minter in charge. Staley also started ramping up James’s slot usage in 2023, and Minter continued that with about 130 snaps there in each of the last two seasons.

Hamilton is already on that path as well, essentially becoming a full-time weak-side linebacker/big nickel corner/strong safety primarily over the last two years as well, especially once the Ravens acquired safety Alohi Gilman at the trade deadline in the middle of last season. And his usage in the slot was already on the rise, going from 101 snaps in 2022 to 152, 156 and 138 the last three years.

There is every reason to anticipate those trends continuing as Minter hunts for matchups on big slot receivers and tight ends and running backs within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.

Another key metric to keep an eye on in this regard is air-yards/target throw at Hamilton. James average depth was 8.2/attempt the year before Minter arrived, and then it was 5.5 both seasons with Minter coaching James. Hamilton’s average depth per target has actually trended up the past three seasons: 4.9 to 5.1 to 6.0. We anticipate a reversal in 2026

Blitzkrieg Bop

Where Minter really unlocked James was as a moveable pass-rush piece, with him even looking like a defensive end at times. James rushed the passer on just 6.8% of his snaps before Minter arrived, and that soared to 12.5% in 2024 and then 12.9% in 2025. The Chargers didn’t lack for pass rushers – their group was far superior to Baltimore’s for instance, especially after landing and then unlocked Odafe Oweh from the Ravens in that Gilman trade – but still the young coordinator leaned even more into sending James into the backfield.

Expect that to surge for Hamilton, especially if the Ravens issues developing natural pass rushers off the edge continues.

Hamilton rushed the passer on just 6% of his snaps in 2023 and 6.3% in 2024, with Orr taking over for Mike Macdonald and then, finally, with Baltimore’s pass rush utterly inept last season, Hamilton ended up rushing on 10.5% of his snaps. That’s still well off James’s pace, and Hamilton is younger and every bit as athletic with natural instincts to make plays behind the line of scrimmage.

Cover-4 Is Key

The more you look into the way Minter called games with he Chargers, and how much quarters coverage he played (four defensive backs deployed into corridors, each taking a quarter of the field and spread out to help negate the wave of spread-offense concepts moving from college to the NFL) the more you wonder how much of this was done specifically with James in mind. Minter played Cover-4 on 20.3% of his snaps in two years running the Chargers defense, second-highest rate in the NFL, while Orr employed Cover-4 just 6.5% of the time over these same two years (31st in the NFL in usage).

Hmm.

Last year James, when in Cover-4, allowed just 2.8 air yards per attempt, 7.7 yards per completion and allowing an opposing QB rating of just 78.3 on 117 coverage snaps in that scheme. He was the primary defender in coverage 14.5% in Cover-4, most of any deployment, with things being funneled his way in quadrants of the field were could inflict damage with his body type. Staley did not run it nearly as much as Minter, and James clearly took to it.

Hamilton played just 34 coverage snaps in Cover-4 last season (opposing quarterbacks were 3-for-3 with a touchdowns and 118.8 rating in an obviously really small sample size. There is every reason to believe that, even if this group of corners turns out to be lacking, still Minter can weaponize Hamilton in Cover-4 to create splash plays in pass defense.

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