Pundit Says to Focus on ‘What Can Be’ With Jesse Minter After Seahawks’ Super Bowl Win

Pundit Says Instead of Asking ‘What if’ With Mike Macdonald, Focus on ‘What Can Be’ With Jesse Minter

Watching Mike Macdonald hoist the Lombardi Trophy after the Seattle Seahawks’ dominant 29-13 win over the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl was probably bittersweet for a lot of Ravens fans.

While the soft-spoken former Ravens defensive coordinator is easy to root for and Flock Nation can take pride in his achievements, there is another world where Macdonald could still be in Baltimore.

“By achieving championship success just two seasons removed from his time in Baltimore, Macdonald might forever loom as one of the Ravens’ greatest what-ifs,” The Baltimore Banner’s Kyle Goon wrote. “What if Mike Macdonald had never gotten away? If he had never left, would it be the Ravens up on that stage, celebrating the franchise’s third Super Bowl win right now?

“It’s a question that has no satisfying answer, in part because back in 2024 there were no real grounds to keep him in Baltimore. To relitigate the past, you have to live in the conditions of the time. Macdonald was the hottest candidate of the cycle, and he was going to get a head coaching job after leading an elite unit.”

Goon said that rather than lamenting losing Macdonald to the Seahawks, Ravens fans should find hope in his success as a new era in Baltimore is underway with Jesse Minter at the helm.

The similarities between Minter and Macdonald are impossible to ignore. They spent four seasons together in Baltimore and helped evolve the Ravens’ defensive scheme – the same scheme Macdonald deployed to smother the Patriots’ No. 2 scoring offense and MVP runner-up Drake Maye.

“Like Macdonald, Minter is a creative young defensive mind who has leapfrogged up the coaching ladder extraordinarily quickly,” Goon wrote. “Like Macdonald, Minter has drawn rave reviews from the players and coaches he’s worked with in the past — very nearly all of the Chargers’ roster made sentimental social media shoutouts when he left for Baltimore, something not every coach inspires.

“Like Macdonald, Minter plans on calling his own defensive plays. According to The Athletic, Macdonald is the first head coach to win the Super Bowl while calling his own defense — an increasingly popular style for defensive head coaches. … Macdonald’s success is evidence that you can win as a head coach while calling a defense, two time-consuming roles.”