Marvin Lewis Could Help Fix The Ravens' Defense. If Jesse Minter Calls, He'll Listen

The Baltimore Ravens badly need someone with NFL head coaching experience on their staff, ASAP, to try to help the franchise pull out of a seven-season funk with a collapsing second-half defense.

Rookie head coach Jesse Minter seems overmatched and bewildered right now – allowing 35 unanswered points to the Bengals Sunday was a nadir for the once-proud defense – and some alarming missteps from the offseason are already coming to roost. Building one of only two coaching staffs in the NFL that included no one with former NFL head coaching experience was really something, especially for how novice most of the staff was, and there are obvious issues with players being undisciplined to the system once playing with a lead, repeated communication mishaps, pathetic tackling and massive issues with pass rush and coverage.

The general manger is out of his depth, too, and already made a ridiculously desperate trade for a slumping offensive lineman in concussion protocol, and who has been running the team as if his job might be in the balance. Eric DeCosta should have been fired when head coach John Harbaugh was, and he seems to be squirming now. The building in tense, the GM, coach and players have proven to be chokers; the two-time MVP quarterback (Lamar Jackson) is injured, the team can’t manage its messaging about his high-ankle sprain in a coherent manner (abhorrent PR is very much their brand) and they’ve blown 13-point leads in successive weeks to division foes.

Worst of all, they have DeCosta-ed – losing a game in which they lead by double-digits in the second half – a record 17 times since the start of 2019 (he is the constant) – and already done it three times this season in Minter’s first seven games. As always, we have a plan to help the perpetually underachieving franchises in this town; the Ravens should have hired Marvin Lewis when they put the staff together and they need to call him now (like I did Monday).

The Commanders just brought in former head coach Steve Wilks to help their overwhelmed young defensive coordinator and the Cowboys brought in Mike Pettine to do the same thing and head coach DeMeco Ryans took over play calling on defense in Houston and the Broncos, who nearly went to the Super Bowl last year and could do so this year, turned things around once head coach Sean Payton took over offensive play calling.

Lewis ran the Ravens defense at its heights, had a great run as Bengals head coach, helped young head coach Antonio Pierce as an assistant head coach with the Raiders in 2024, and follows the league closely doing syndicated calls of NFL games on the radio. He’s watching Ravens film, he knows their culture and history like few could, and he is at a stage in his career where it’s not about his padding resume, but rather helping young coaches succeed in a place he cares deeply for.

Would Lewis Come Back To Baltimore?

Sep 10, 2017; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs (55) greets Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis after their game at Paul Brown Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

So when I tooK the pulse of the Ravens systemic issues with Lewis on “The Daily Flock Show” (a deep dive on their defensive woes) Monday I had to ask if he’d try to help his buddy Ozzie Newsome out and be a resource for Minter if the team reached out. Lewis wouldn’t consider leaving his home in Arizona for much, but this would pique his interest should the Ravens do the right thing.

“Well, I would be remiss in saying I wouldn’t listen,” Lewis said about any hypothetical Ravens interest. “You’ve got to listen. And there are people you want to help, and more important than me; it’s somebody I would want to help and support. That’s what’s important more than anything.”

When former Ravens defensive mastermind Mike Macdonald left to become head coach in Seattle – the one that got away – he didn’t bring in a family member to be his mentor, he secured the services of successful former head coach and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier. They won a Super Bowl in Year Two. It should have been a prerequisite for Minter’s staff, and the Ravens have a history of doing this sort of thing in-season, be it Dean Pees and Jerry Rosburg rejoining the franchise out of quasi-retirement.

They need Lewis.

He was invaluable for Pierce, he has recent experience at Arizona State University as well so still understands how to relate to young players and his wealth of experience is unlike anything on this staff currently. He did special projects for Pierce, helped with inactives and was a sounding board for him to sit in on coordinator meetings throughout the week and offer insight to the head coach in private.

“Thursday and Friday he gave me about four minutes in practice where I could go over a special situation that may come up in the game, where it’s a backed-up situation for the offense or the offense threw a big pass and now it has the ball at the 25-yard-line. And I wouldn’t tell those coordinators what the situation was going to be for the day, because we wanted them to think on their feet and be ready to call it that way …

“A lot of things like that I did, and I was a part of the defensive meetings and I’d look at the opposing defense and would go in and talk to the offensive coaches. “When you do this, this is always their response.’ We saw a little bit of that yesterday (in the Ravens game) I think in how Cincinnati kept building their formations.”

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Oct 18, 2026; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Baltimore Ravens head coach Jesse Minter in the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Browns at Huntington Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Scott Galvin-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Ravens badly need new eyes and ears in their meeting rooms. Here’s their second half rankings:

Yards Per Play: 6.0 (29th) Passing Yards: 147 (29th) Yds/Att.: 8.0 (30th)

INT/Att.: 0.00% (T-last) First Downs: 12.3 (30th) 3rd Down: 44% (24th)

QB Rating: 117.0 (28th) Comp %: 71.3% (28th) TD-INT: 8-0 (32nd)

Both of Minter’s starting corners were embarrassed by the Bengals Sunday, Lewis noted in our discussion how much Nate Wiggins was attacked, while Marlon Humphrey lost the plot in coverage and suffered in tackling. Their corners and safeties do not have an interception all season; their culture is warped and on Monday Minter hinted at how deep it runs.

“We have guys that care and want to do it right,” Minter said, “but there's also moments in the game where it's like, 'Who's the guy that's going to grab everybody together, get them together on the sideline? I think as a team, we're working through who that is.

“Who is that person? Who are those players? There’s guys that want to do it, and then there's guys that maybe they're dealing with something, or they're not playing the way they want to play, so they don't feel like they can do it in those moments.”

Maybe a former head coach could help the rookie figure out how to bring it out of them.

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