Ravens Repairing Broken Defense, Starting With Improved Communication

The Ravens defense has been anything but consistent since former defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald departed to become head coach of the Seahawks after an historic 2023 season.

The shift from Macdonald to young coordinator Zach Orr was fairly disastrous and that transition, in and of itself, seemed to set the stage for what would follow. There were sporadic stretches where the defense looked at least a little like what people in Baltimore had become accustomed to – if you squinted hard enough and not too long – and serious personnel failures had plenty to do with it as well.

But any semblance of a baseline one could count on – from a positive standpoint at least – seemed shattered. Players were not on the same page with each other, let alone the coaching staff. Confusion seemed the norm, with a staff grasping for something to stick, but nothing was holding the collective together or allowing enough individuals to shine through themselves.

If nothing else, the move to new head coach Jesse Minter – who has probably more Macdonald in him, if anything, than he is a carbon copy of fired Ravens head coach John Harbaugh – seems to have restored a level of calmness and a positive flow of ideas on that side of the ball (insomuch as that can happen in fake spring football practices).

Unlike in recent years, where it was hard to watch and not wonder if the players were buying what the coaches were selling and whether sufficient trust existed, Minter’s resume alone commands respect and no one is wondering if he can call plays or if he can make adjustments or if he can build a defensive staff that meshes..

When linebacker Roquan Smith – his struggles the last two years emblematic of the entire unit - spoke at mini camp this week, hinting at last year’s issues, it was hard not to infer coaching was at the core of much of it:

“You definitely understand what happened and what wasn’t to the standard,” Smith said. “but you can’t bring all of last year’s woes – Oh, how things were run here last year, oh, how things were in building, how questions were asked, how the defense was run - you can’t take that, because life is not for the past in my opinion.”

And while safety/linebacker Kyle Hamilton – in many ways the outward face and voice of this locker room now - didn’t want to heap too much praise on a defense that hasn’t played a real snap yet, he was quick to acknowledge the stabilizing force that Minter projects.

“It’s been a seamless approach, everything with the same mentality,” Hamilton said after Wednesday’s session. “Never gets too high; never gets too low. Keeps us levelheaded.”

Not particularly sexy, but precisely what this unit needs after a tumultuous two seasons that featured perpetually blown fourth-quarter leads, and that ultimately cost Harbaugh his job.

Adopting Minter’s Strengths

Minter was first in Baltimore at a time when the defense was near the top of the league, and he’s incredibly similar to Macdonald, the coordinator when the Ravens became the first defense in history to lead the league in sacks, takeaways and points allowed (2023), in demeanor and age and coaching background.

Macdonald, especially by his second year here, seemed on top of everything and always a step ahead of the offense, without a shred of cockiness or hubris. It was a quiet confidence that manifested itself on game. It’s something Minter seems uniquely qualified to restore.

“You bring in a new CEO, you don't want to change the whole structure of the company, unless the company was doing really bad," Hamilton said. "But, you kind of tweak stuff here and there to say, 'If you've been good in the past, how do we get back to this? If you haven't, how do we achieve this?'

“You put your own little flavor here and there, and you confront what needs to be confronted, raise up the good and get rid of the bad. I feel like Jesse, along with everybody on the staff, has done a great job of that so far.

“We're not coming out here like a completely different team. I feel like we have a lot of the same players, a lot of the same vets that we've had, and it's just a matter of kind of resetting and getting to what we know.”

Hamilton’s thoughtful demeanor is similar to Minter and he will, unquestionably, become the signature figure of this defense on the field. Minter, who revived dominant hybrid safety Derwin James with the Chargers, called Hamilton “one of one,” Wednesday. But Hamilton isn’t taking anything for granted.

It’s clear everyone on this defense believes it is about to take leaps – and that’s also the expectations around the league -but that must be proven, and not in June. First, they need to rid themselves of the chaos and disconnected play that’s plagued them recently, and Minter is making that a daily point of emphasis.

“There's no gray area, and I feel like that's huge,” Hamilton said. "Especially in a sport like this. If you go out there, and you've got any sort of uncertainty about what the guy next to me is doing, then it's not going to look good on either side of the ball or special teams.

“So, just being connected —they always preach that. It's on our wall in the meeting rooms: Being connected and communicating is first and foremost, for sure. If we don't get aligned pre-snap and know what everybody's doing, then it doesn't matter what everybody does post-snap. So, he has been good in preaching that, and everybody on the staff is just kind of aligned with that.”

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