Four Ideal External Options For Ravens Next Head Coach

With the firing of Super Bowl-winning head coach John Harbaugh, the Baltimore Ravens vacancy shoots to the top of the list of available jobs for all potential candidates looking for their next or first opportunity to lead a franchise.

There are several key pillars and cornerstone pieces on both sides of the ball that make it the best destination to land, with the most alluring being two-time league MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson, who is still under contract, in his prime and not even 30 years old yet.

In addition to all the talent on the team, the Ravens are renowned for their organizational stability and alignment from majority owner Steve Bisciotti to the front office with general manager Eric DeCosta. With all that in mind, here are four candidates who are currently assistants elsewhere who would be ideal replacements for Harbaugh in Charm City.

Brian Flores

If the Ravens want to get back to their roots of being the Bullies of Baltimore again, especially on defense and do so with a new voice that is not attached to the Harbaugh coaching tree, the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator would be a perfect fit. He comes with a Super Bowl championship pedigree from his time as a long-time assistant under Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots, during which he was a part of four Super Bowl-winning teams and six that made it to the big game. The Ravens have already added him to their list of candidates to interview, according to reports.

Flores also has previous experience as a head coach with the Miami Dolphins, where he produced two winning seasons in three years. Every time he has been a play-caller, he's shown an ability to field formidable to elite defensive units, no matter who is in or out of the lineup. During his three years in Minnesota specifically, he's shown the ability to get the best out of the available talent at his disposal highlight the strengths of his most versatile players. One could only imagine what kind of chaos he could concoct with the ultimate defensive chess piece, All Pro safety Kyle Hamilton. Hiring him would also leave the door open to retain current offensive coordinator Todd Monken whose has gotten the best out of Jackson and his weapons when he's been healthy the past three years.

Jesse Minter

With this hire, the Ravens would be righting some of the wrongs they did when they let former homegrown defensive wunderkind Mike Macdonald depart for the emerald pastures of the Pacific Northwest, where he has the Seattle Seahawks tied for the best record in the league at 14-2 and poised to make a deep playoff run. Minter has followed the exact same trajectory as the one who got away, as he also got his start in professional coaching as an assistant under Harbaugh in Baltimore before getting his first crack at being a play-caller at the University of Michigan under Jim Harbaugh, whom he then followed to the NFL and has been calling plays for the Los Angeles Chargers defense the past two years.

Making Minter his mentor's replacement would mean sticking inside the same coaching tree with the next young up-and-comer. In the City of Angels, he has put together one hell of a defensive unit with some pieces that are similar and even familiar to the Ravens, and, like Macdonald, he has shown he can get the best out of the players in his scheme. His hiring also wouldn't stop the Ravens from bringing back Monken as the offensive play-caller.

One of the biggest indictments of John Harbaugh's staff this year, in particular, was the fact that 2021 first-round outside linebacker Odafe Oweh, who recorded his first double-digit sack season in 2024, had none through the first five games of this season but went on to record 7.5 and 13 quarterback hits in 12 games after being traded to the Chargers. If Minter could work some of that magic on 2025 second-rounder Mike Green after an underwhelming rookie campaign, he could blossom into the elite edge defender the Ravens have been looking for since Terrell Suggs was in his prime and even twilight years.

Klint Kubiak

After the Seahawks poached their young head coach to follow in the footsteps of a Super Bowl champion and future Hall of Famer in Pete Carroll, it only seems fitting that the Ravens do the same to find Harbaugh's replacement. He has been able to get flashes, spurts and even stretches of elite play out of lesser to average quarterbacks, but would be able to do his best work by far with a generational talent like Jackson. The Ravens have already requested to interview Kubiak and since Seattle is on a bye this week, he is permitted to talk with other teams about perspective jobs.

Although he has never coached in Baltimore before, his father, Gary Kubiak, was a long-time head coach in the NFL with the Texans and spent a year as the offensive coordinator for the Ravens and was the play-caller for the best season of former franchise quarterback Joe Flacco's career in 2014. He has spent a lot of time around some of the brightest offensive minds the game has ever seen, between his father and San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.

Hiring an offensive-minded head coach in 1999 with Brian Billick didn't stop the Ravens from building and maintaining their defensive identity at the turn of the century and throughout the 2000's. By going with Kubiak, they would prevent a carousel of different voices for Jackson to hear from at play-caller because he'd be the one doing it, but that'd also mean having to let Monken walk and potentially orchestrate another elite offense elsewhere.

Anthony Weaver

The former player turned coach has interviewed for several head coach vacancies in recent years and could finally get his first shot with the team that drafted him in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft out of Notre Dame. He has spent the past two seasons as the defensive coordinator with the Miami Dolphins after being part of the massive brain drain from Harbaugh's 2023 staff that saw him get to call plays for just the second time in his career and Macdonald get hired to lead the Seahawks.

During his time in Baltimore as a coach, the long-time assistant went from being the defensive run game coordinator to getting promoted to assistant head coach, which meant he was Harbaugh's right-hand man when it came to running the team on a day-to-day basis. He is familiar with the Ravens' scheme, players and most members of the remaining coaching staff and could still retain Monken while making changes elsewhere. Weaver has already been requested to interview for the vacancy and since the Dolphins aren't in the postseason, he is able to be hired as soon as possible.

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