Ravens Rookie Coach Jesse Minter Is Getting Exposed: Hiring Outside Help Could Save The Season

Jesse Minter, the aspiring head coach, is undermining Jesse Minter, the proven defensive coordinator. Or perhaps, Jesse Minter, the esteemed defensive play caller, isn’t nearly skilled enough to overcome Jesse Minter, the guy who is still pretending to be an NFL head coach.

However you want to frame it, Minter is getting exposed in the second half of games in embarrassing fashion and general manager Eric DeCosta is getting unmasked for being fraudulent with another suspect roster and for hiring a staff full of novices who are collectively failing at a historic rate. Minter and his band of start-ups are blowing 10-point leads in a flurry that fired head coach John Harbaugh couldn’t ever touch their lack of cunning and expertise is eviscerating this team in the clutch. To call them overmatched right now would be complimentary.

Minter needs to do something about it, and do it now.

Maybe the Ravens players weren’t quitting as they allowed 35 unanswered points after leading, 13-0, at the half over the Bengals, but they damn sure weren’t trying their best either. They are making Minter look like a naïve joke; their lack of tackling and mental focus in the second half is not NFL caliber. It appears as if they are walking all over this staff, making them look silly for all the boastful talk about this roster all offseason long. It’s an ugly look.

“Not really good enough, starting with me,” was the joist of what we got from the rook coach, who was getting abused by garbage QBs so of course he got utterly punked as Joe Burrow for four touchdown passes and a perfect rating in the second half against his impotent pass rush and utterly predictable schemes. Mind you, Minter is handcuffed by another roster devoid of sufficient playmakers in their prime - a $19M corner who wouldn’t start for a real contender, a $20M linebacker whose been maybe $6M guy the last three years, and a $30M edge rusher who has yet to show up in the second half of a football game and whose former team, the Bengals, do not miss him one bit.

The season might be slipping away as Minter hinted ahead of a trip to Buffalo: “Right now, I think it's just a big point in the season for us to determine what type of team we want to be.” Unless this organization takes major corrective action to try to prop Minter up in a way that should have been emphasized when the staff was originally put together (a former head coach or two on this staff; Miami is the only staff without it), expect more of the same results.

They had best take one of the measures we suggest below, immediately. First, let’s first quantify the extent of Minter’s defensive failures.

Historically Bad

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) passes the ball during the second half against — Oct 25, 2026; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) passes teh ball during the second half against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Coaches are judged in no small degree based on how they adjust at halftime and how they change tendencies and tactics from week to week. Minter seems entirely lost in the second half as a coordinator despite having incredibly favorable game conditions on that side of the ball, and the pressure is breaking him; passing on chip-shot field goal to go up 16-14 with the game sliding away, instead having Snoop Huntley (with Lamar Jackson out three weeks with what Minter kept calling a “day-to-day injury") try a fourth-down pass was telling.

Minter probably knew his garbage second-half defense was cooked anyway, but how about doing something about it instead of playing ridiculous amounts of dime coverage with inept defensive backs with zero ball skills? Sitting back in nickel/dime over 80% of the time, again, being scared to blitz (30%), again, isn’t working. Selling out to keep a shell on everything and giving up the fifth-most big plays in the second half doesn’t look very smart.

The Ravens have a +65 first-half scoring margin and a -70 in the second half – that appears to be a first in NFL history through seven games of a seasons. Coupled with the fact the Ravens have now DeCosta-ed 17 times since 2019 – blown a double-digit lead to lose – and three times already this season including back-to-back weeks against division foes, Minter needs to show he is cut out for this soon if he doesn’t want this to be a lost season with the upcoming schedule.

They have allowed 114 points in the second half, most in the NFL, and the next-worst scoring differential is -51. Here are 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 %: 81.3% (28th( TD-INT: 8-0 (32nd)

He is failing at both parts of his job, he is in a difficult position with a Machiavellian GM pulling his strings, but the idea he could put together a staff this short on proven NFL chops with his dad, Rick, as the sage shoulder for him to lean on was a joke.

Time To Make A Hire

Dec 21, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens assistant coach Dean Pees walks the sidelines prior to the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

There are many reasons why Minter’s best buddy Mike Macdonald hired Leslie Frazier for his staff, and it was a blight not to lean into this (longtime NFL head coach and coordinator Todd Haley explained on “The Daily Flock Show”). And there’s a reason we have seen a slew of coordinator moves already this season, like the Cowboys bringing in Mike Pettine (remember him) or Texans coach DeMeco Ryans taking over defensive play calling or Sean Payton (mentor to Ravens OC Declan Doyle) doing the same in Denver.

More such moves are coming around the NFL, we can all remember when the Ravens brought back Chuck Pagano or Dean Pees or Jerry Rosburg to the fold to assist in some capacity. It worked better at some times than others, but this staff needs real help, right now.

Who Should Get The Call?

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton shouts frustrations toward head coach Marvin Lewis after the offense failed to score a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium on Nov. 27, 2016. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Marvin Lewis might not want anything to do with being in an NFL building trying to bail out some kid who probably got hired too soon who should have been all over him in February to join his staff. He has seen it all and done it all and has oodles of AFC North head coaching and coordinating experience and saw this Ravens defensive lineage at its birth.

He knows Ozzie Newsome incredibly well and this front office is losing all touch with that era (check out Solomon Wilcots, who knows Newsome well, breaking it down here). Lewis can take things off Minter’s plate and help him immeasurably. This is an ongoing defensive crisis and needs to be dealt with as such.

Wink Martindale has his faults, and he hasn’t been a head coach, but I got news for you, he knows firsthand what a fraud DeCosta is building defensive rosters and he would be a vital check on the front office. Minter better realize the same thing Martindale and Zach Orr and others around here did – all the money in the secondary and all the over-drafted corners with no ability to impact the ball in flight won’t win for you.

Few can dial up the blitz like Martindale, he has Harbaugh and Michigan ties like Minter and the Cowboys should have hired him and not Pettine. Having him help create man-coverage pressure looks that run counter to Minter’s pansy schemes is necessary; his zones were picked apart by bad QBs, and the real gauntlet has just begun.

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