Perhaps Jesse Minter is exactly what’s needed of a head coach as the NFL hits the second quarter of the 21st century, someone whose skill set resembles a corporate chief operating officer.
Minter, 42, who spent the last two seasons as the Los Angeles Chargers’ defensive coordinator, is just the fourth head coach in the Ravens’ 31-year history. Team ownership expects him to compete for and win Super Bowls. Full stop.
Clearly, running an NFL team has become far more complex than scribbling some fancy X’s and O’s and delivering inspiring halftime speeches.
There’s the business of assembling a roster each season with a league-wide turnover that averages 25 percent to 40 percent. That means finding players in the draft and in free agency who are compatible with the coaching staff’s schemes. And, perhaps most importantly, there is the motivational trick of getting players to buy into a collective vision.
One of the more revealing comments made about Minter came from general manager Eric DeCosta.
“He does a lot with a little at times. He has a great feel for personnel,” DeCosta said after the Ravens had screened a host of candidates for the head job. “I think he’s creative. I think he’s got an authority to him. He has a presence about him. Great humility. Passion for the game. I think he understands the Ravens’ culture, the DNA in this building. And I think he’s the right coach for us.”
Perhaps, the key to that well-articulated list of Minter’s coaching virtues was the part about doing a lot with a little.
Just like corporate executives, NFL head coaches have to make the most of their resources. The league, intentionally, is a great leveler (all the better for tight playoff races) and all teams struggle with the constraints of salary caps and the roster juggling that entails.
So, getting the most out of the resources on a roster is a management skill that separates head coaches who go deep into the playoffs from those who have to keep updating their resumes.
When Minter became the Chargers’ defensive coordinator in Jim Harbaugh’s first year as head coach in Los Angeles after both made the move from national champion Michigan, he took over a defense that had been ranked 24th in the NFL in total defense the previous season.
But in 2024, the Chargers jumped to No. 11 in total defense. In 2025, the Chargers climbed to No. 5.
Impressively, Minter managed to elevate the Chargers’ defense without a pick in the first or second rounds of either the 2024 or ‘25 NFL drafts, as the team elected to shore up the offense around star quarterback Justin Herbert.
In 2025, the Chargers splurged on a one-year deal to retain aging pass rush specialist Khalil Mack, who started 11 games. But by and large, Minter made do with a roster of non-marquee players headlined by 2018 first-rounder All-Pro safety Derwin James. More typical of the Chargers’ defensive depth chart was linebacker Tuli Tuipulotu, a second-round pick in 2023 who made the Pro Bowl under Minter this past season.
Still, in the last seven games of the 2025 season (including a playoff loss to New England), the Chargers averaged fewer than 17 points per game allowed.
Like Jim Harbaugh and former Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, who is now running the New York Giants, Minter has family roots in coaching. His father, Rick Minter, was a senior defensive analyst for the Chargers the past two seasons and will take on a similar role with the Ravens.
Throughout the years, the elder Minter has worked for scores of college and NFL programs and has strong connections throughout the football world. One of his stops was Philadelphia, where he was the Eagles’ linebackers coach from 2013-2015. Several years later, the Eagles interviewed Jesse Minter for defensive coordinator.
Prior to the Chargers’ early December 22-19 overtime win against Philadelphia at SoFi Stadium, Rick Minter chatted with Eagles general manager Howie Roseman. He recalled Roseman greeting Jesse and saying he made a mistake in not hiring him three years ago.
“Look what you have done,” Roseman gushed to Jesse, according to Rick Minter.
“What Jesse is able to do in the NFL is take the current players on the roster, minimize their weaknesses, maximize their strengths, use them to the fullest of their capabilities within the scheme and get positive results,” his father said.
A player whose career was revived with the Chargers was safety Tony Jefferson. Jefferson spent 2023 as a scouting intern for the Ravens but in 2024 and ‘25, Jefferson was back in uniform playing for Minter. Jefferson played about 20 percent of the defensive snaps his first year back and about half of the snaps in 2025, his 10th season in the league.
After Roseman sang Jesse Minter’s praises pregame, Jefferson made an interception in overtime that sealed L.A.’s victory. The veteran safety was an example of Minter finding chess pieces and using them to full advantage.
Minter understands the challenge in Baltimore. He held several defensive assistant jobs with the Ravens from 2017-2020. All four seasons were winning ones, but the team was 1-3 in the playoffs.
Things haven’t changed much since then and he knows that’s why he has this chance.
“I really think building a really cohesive team that all the work that you do leads to being successful in those [playoff] opportunities,” Minter said at his introductory news conference. “So, I think we will create standards that match the goals that we want to achieve.
“And then work every day tirelessly to get to that point. Our plan will be built on being at our best late in the season, into the playoffs, and I look forward to that challenge.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Los Angeles Chargers
Issue 297: February / March 2026