Ravens HC Jesse Minter Called More Dime Coverage Than Anyone In The NFL Week 1. Get Used To It

The strength of the Ravens roster is clearly on the back end and the rookie head coach is going to lean heavily into that as he rebuilds Baltimore's defense

Sep 13, 2026; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Baltimore Ravens head coach Jesse Minter looks on during the second half against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

When the Ravens set their initial 53-man roster, three things jumped out at us.

We were going to see more 11 personnel than ever before, and they leapt from last in the NFL the last five years (40%) straight to 60% (NFL average) in the first half before losing starters Zay Flowers and Ja’Kobi Lane to injury.

We were going to see an emphasis on jumbo packages with a suspect group of blocking tight ends outside of “Joker” Durham Smythe, and the Ravens were third in the NFL in Week 1 in usage of an extra offensive lineman.

And we were going to see oodles of dime coverage, with defensive backs everywhere in Jesse Minter’s new defense. And even though he got carved up by the Colts in those looks last year with the Chargers, man, did we get a serious dose of dime. It was dime, all the time. (Okay, not really, but it was the hallmark of the game plan).

The secondary was the strength of the roster, it entered the season in superior health and depth to most other units and they didn’t put all those guys on the team not to use them. And use them they did. Minter used six defensive backs on the field for a remarkable 43% of the Ravens snaps in his first game at the helm; no other team played it more than 25%, and the average NFL team employed it on six percent of its snaps in the opening weekend.

Styles make fights and opponents will dictate changes, but this read like me as a statement of intent, and the fact that Minter didn’t budge after the Colts carved through him on the opening drive in these looks meant quite a bit. This was a noteworthy debut in many aspects, and the usage of dime was high even by Minter’s standards.

Play To You Strengths

Minter has extreme flexibility in how he deploys his defensive backs and even with TJ Tampa injured again, he has a great mix of body types and skillsets. He didn’t have linebacker Teddye Buchanan, who made great strides in coverage as a rookie and could be back from his ACL recovery next week. So that perhaps played a role. But this didn’t feel like a fluke.

Minter averaged dime usage 23% of the time in his two years running the Chargers defense. He incorporated more than Week 1’s usage just three times in his stint there. With Hamilton able to toggle between slot corner and strong safety and free safety and linebacker – it expands the ability to mix and match others, and the Ravens still have pieced who could help this secondary on the practice squad as well.

The Saints rallied in a wild second half against Detroit last week, only to fall short in controversial fashion. Small sample size, but they are probably going to have to chuck the ball around with young quarterback Tyler Shough to try to keep pace with the Ravens offense, and we suspect this dime trend is no fleeting thing.

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