NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Power Players: Ravens HC Jesse Minter

Episode Date: September 7, 2026

Jourdan Rodrigue is joined by Ravens head coach Jesse Minter to talk about the steps he has taken to install new offensive and defensive systems, the importance of clarity when establishing a culture within the organization, and how he prepares his defense for always-evolving NFL offenses. Plus, Minter explains the benefits of practicing against and with Lamar Jackson and new offensive coordinator Declan Doyle. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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If you love football and want to understand what's really happening on the field, check out our show, NFL Pro. Every week we break down the biggest plays, trends, and matchups using exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content you will not find anywhere else. Whether you're new to football, a fantasy football fanag, or a diehard fan. NFL Pro will help you analyze the game like a pro. Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Mike Yam.

And I'm Trevor Sycambe, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Show. Are you ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Because if you aren't locked in with us on the NFL Fantasy Football Show, you're already playing from behind. Whether you're a first-time player or a grizzled vet chasing another championship, we give you the advantage and the confidence you need to make every move counts. Listen to the NFL fantasy football show on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The entire draft room groans because you just took the guy they wanted. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league.

I'm JJ Zachary Eisen, host of the award-winning late-round podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. Listen to the late round fantasy football podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to NFL Daily's power players where we talk to smart people inside the sport about how they do football and peel back the curtain a little further for our listeners. I am of course Jordan Rodriguez. And today I am joined by Jesse Minter, the first year head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Jesse Minter runs one of the more interesting and modern defensive schemes we see in football right now, developed, over many years as a defensive assistant under former Ravens head coach, John Harbaugh and Baltimore. Then within the college game at Vanderbilt and Michigan, the latter under Jim Harbaugh.

Minter became the defensive coordinator under the Jim Harbaugh, led Chargers in 2024, but it really seemed only a matter of time before he was in consideration for head coaching roles around the league. And it felt fateful in a way that he eventually became the Ravens' new head coach this offseason. Minter, of course, has big shoes to fill in an organization. that is used to success. He does not seem afraid of the task or to try to challenge traditions with the idea to modernize and evolve certain processes and schemes. So it's going to be a new defense, a totally new offense in Baltimore,

and people around the league are fascinated by what this all will look like as the season begins. Really excited to get into this one, you guys. Jesse Minter, thank you so much for joining me today on NFL Daily's Power Players, fresh off a walkthrough, I hear. How was the walkthrough today? Really good. You know, it's that, it's our last day before the guys have the four-day break. So trying to keep the focus high and the intent high and get out of what we want to get out of these last couple hours together and then send them on their way to enjoy a much earned

and much-deserved break right before we get into week one. It's sort of perfect timing that we're catching you right now. And again, know that it's so busy right now. So thank you again for your time. But the installations have to be so intentional right now. And all through the the summer and you guys are doing new things on both sides of the ball in Baltimore. I'm curious, how did you plan for that? What was your process? What did you really want to accomplish? And how did you want to design your installation and like the way that you guys practice? Yeah, I think to your point, it's very intentional and knowing that there's going to be a lot of new. And so there's sometimes where you structure your day to walk through, you know, to get ahead,

for the next day. And we felt like this year we were a big, meet in the morning, have a brief walk through right at the beginning of practice, get a chance to run everything. And then the walk through in the afternoon was a chance really for us to double down on our install from that day, not to jump ahead. And so I think the learning has been really good. The guys have picked up on how we've operated. I just feel like every decision you make is just with intent in mind of, is it going to make us retain information? Is it going to allow us to teach? Is it going to allow us to do this in an order that makes sense from a scheme install standpoint?

And so hopefully it's worked out. I guess we'll find out here soon. I feel like that would probably reach a lot of different types of learners. I know every team does their install to practice differently as a first year head coach, but a very experienced head coach. Obviously, you spent a lot of thought about how you want to do this. for me, I would think that staying same day, being present in the current install, like learning progression and teaching progression, that would really help me maybe upload more information over

time. Is that something you're hoping that happens or seeing? Yeah, definitely. And I feel like sometimes when you do so many walkthroughs to get ready for a practice and then you do the practice, but then the first thing you do is really, you know, you may watch the tape, but then you go to the next thing. Again, we really wanted to have like the opportunity to walk through corrections and to walk through that second part of an install where it's like, okay, now we've seen all these, whether it's certain routes or runs or, you know, fronts and coverages from the offensive perspective, like you really double down on that day's install.

And so that was our first, you know, two to three weeks of training camp was kind of sticking with that deal. and hopefully it's allowed us to learn. You know, I think when you, when you teaching systems, like, you have to really understand the foundation because now that you're in season, now you're, you know, you're pulling from different areas that you installed and you're putting a game plan together.

And when you have a really good foundation, it allows you to move and to make sense and then to adjust in-game if you have to and go back to something maybe from earlier in camp. So hopefully it's worked out well and excited to put it into motion next week. Yeah, second quarter, you know, middle of the season, October, November,

you're thinking back to like Thursday in August, right? I'm sure. I mean, it definitely happens. It could be the second quarter of the first game, you know? And especially in an opener, you know, you kind of, I don't think you ever assume in an opener, you know, it's not like, hey, this is what they've done. You know, they've spent just the same amount of time

that we have studying ourselves. you know, that they spend. And so you go into it with a little bit of knowing that it's going to be adjustments that may win the game, you know. And so to have that foundation from training camp is really important. I think that when you talk about giving multiple answers to scenarios, just like you're alluding to here, to me, that's a part of building clarity within a team, within each phase of what you're trying to do.

And obviously that starts in meetings and then applies into the walkthrough. but where does emphasizing that type of clarity and that type of flexibility, where does that help when you're building an overall culture? Yeah, I think it's so important. You know, culture is like this word that everybody talks about. It gets thrown around a lot. But in reality, it's your standards and sort of what's acceptable, what the players begin to accept from each other,

what the coaches accept from the players, you know, like actions and in vision of what you want to, how you want to operate, what you want it to look like. And to me, just the more clear the better, when you leave it up for debate and you leave it up for gray, oftentimes it can go a few different ways. I think when you're clear and concise, they understand sort of what the standard is, what the expectation is, then it certainly helps in those things. And they really just, you know, I think, I think guys really want to know, like, hey, it's a Friday practice tempo. What is, what do you want this to look like?

It's a Wednesday practice. What do you want this to look like? It's a walkthrough. What do you want this to look like? And so I think we've tried to be really crystal clear and what we want to get out of all those things. And then also taking feedback from the guys and making sure that we all see it the same way and that we're all on the same page. I think it's probably so fun once things start to click or, or the big picture is it becomes more clear as the pieces of it are put together.

You know, we at NFL Daily and at Power Players, we love your defense. Like we, we've studied it. We appreciate it. And that it has its rules, of course, but it changes. It's evolved over time. You've really taken things that you've learned or the way the game has changed and applied it to what you do now. I have to feel that as a player, that would probably be very exciting to be a part of.

What about your scheme? I'm going to make you talk about yourself a little bit here now. But what about your scheme or your system in general? Do you think best attacks what we're seeing from modern offenses right now? Yeah, a couple things. I think number one, like it's about the players that you have. And, you know, so the last couple of years had a great group there with the Chargers. And you try to build around who you think can impact the game.

You know, so with Derwin James, Khalil Mack, Tully, Dayon. I mean, so many great players, Tar Heap still, just like you can go on and on about the guys that we had there. And then I think you look at just like numbers and metrics of what really impacts winning. And, you know, 10 years ago, like it was always about the turnover margin. And I still think that that's super important. And we want to try to attack the ball. We want to play coverages that allow you to get interceptions that can tilt the turnover margin. But it's really the explosive play rate.

And so I would say that almost everything is built from a sense of like, how can we keep the ball inside and in front, not let these guys throw the ball over our head. There's so many great receivers or so many great quarterbacks or so many great weapons. And so those guys' ability to score quickly in a one or two play deal can really can really put a dagger into your winning percentages. And so that's the main thing. And then I think as those metrics and numbers change over time, time, like your scheme evolves and adapts. And so now more and more people are getting a little bit bigger.

They're going to more of a run game. So you've got to have answers for that while not completely going away from, you know, kind of your overarching theme and philosophy of how you want to play. So I think in a general sense, like we want to attack what offenses do. We want to have a flexible enough system that we can match up against any type of offense. We can try to take away what they do best. We can try to make them execute things that. that maybe they're not as good at that the numbers would say.

But then we also just sort of, you know, you respect and know that, you know, there's a bunch of great play callers. There's a bunch of great players. It's going to come down to how you play, you know, in your play style and how physical you play and what you emphasize in that regard. And then it's going to come down to being able to adjust. You're never going to go into a game with a perfect game plan. There's not a perfect call.

And so being able to adapt and adjust as the game is going on in real time, I think we have a system built to hopefully be able to do that. And you said it perfectly yourself. You know, one of the things that I think has been interesting to watch and was when you were with Los Angeles for the past couple years of defensive coordinator was your front structures were so aggressive. They could be so aggressive. But at times they could also maybe bait the offense into doing something that you

really wanted them to do, essentially, that would help you stick to your A plus plan. And then behind that, and you have a lot of versatile. players in Baltimore too. And behind that, really cloudy, really kind of trying to win the mathematical game and make the quarterbacks hesitate and all of that. How the players being as versatile as they are, I imagine it's a double-edged sword because, A, what a great thing, right, for a coach to have. And the wide world is open to you. But now you got to go do it. Right? You got to go plan for it. What is that process like between you and your players and you and your assistance as well? You know, it's really fun.

Sometimes it's as simple as, you know, switching two guys in a particular call the first time you run it and then switching their positions the next time you run it. And, you know, to your guys, it's the same defense and it's everybody doing the same thing to the offense. It may be a different picture. It may get identified differently because bodies being in different places. And so, again, like trying to create a system where when you first install this thing in the spring that they understand, they could be in a bunch of different spots within these coverages and these pressures and these calls. And then, you know, I think going into games, like with enough, with the ability to make some of those small subtle switches where you're not having to reinvent the wheel every week,

I think over time there's a lot of guys, you can draw up a lot of great pressures and a lot of great schemes. But if it's every week, things are brand new. I feel like you kind of lose like the system, you lose the ability to adjust. And so we try to keep everything within the framework of how we operate and what we call things and how we wanted to go. But I think we have enough, you know, to be able to move different guys around and create these, you said it, like to create cloudy pictures when the ball snapped. I mean, that's the whole goal, I think, of any defense with the great quarterbacks that are

out there. So it's fun to get to the point, you know, and we got a bunch of smart guys, versatile guys here. so it's fun to be at the point where we can talk about this and talk about this thing. And oftentimes it's these guys saying like, hey, me and you could just switch spots right here. And it becomes really cool when you kind of turn it over into their hands as well and do this thing together. Yeah, I think players are smarter and smarter every year. They see more football, more film is available to them. Coaches too.

And I'm kind of jealous, honestly, because it feels like you and this Ravens offense and Declan Doyle and especially, you know, Lamar. And some of the things that the looks that they must throw at you guys, it must be really fun and maybe some frustrating moments too, but probably really competitive and functionally competitive. And before I let you go, Jesse, I'm curious what that intentionality is like, building functionally competitive practices where you're getting all of the looks that you know you'll see from a number of offenses, but that also people will probably be trying to copy from your own offense as the season progresses.

Yeah, I think when, And especially as a head coach, like for the first time putting together, you know, your philosophy in all three phases, they got to be interlocked. And interlocked means different things. Like it doesn't just mean, you know, we want to be complimentary. We want to run the, like, we want to have an extremely versatile offense that presents all the different things that are kind of trending throughout the league to us in practice. And defensively, we want to do the same thing. We want to kind of have tools in our toolbox of all the different ways that people play. so that in training camp and in the off season,

you know, we're seeing all these different things. And again, it's like when we can show our offense, a lot of the different looks, and they can show us a lot of the different looks, and it makes it really fun. It makes it competitive. You sort of see like the counterpunches each day from one side versus the other. And I think it makes the coaches better,

the play callers better, the players better, versus, you know, you line up and have. have like a really maybe maybe a system that's unique and doesn't doesn't show around the league sometimes that can that can create challenges when you get to the the weeks where you're playing kind of like the invogue offenses and so that was intentional of just trying to find that with Declan and he does a great job really really good job running a lot of the different things that are that are you know popular right now but also having his own flare and his own flavor and his own tricks up his sleeve. So I'm excited to see how that looks. Man, I am so excited to watch you guys

this year. Jesse, thank you so much. Really appreciate. Again, taking the time right before your kickoff. Very, very much appreciate you joining me on Power Players today. Yeah, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. That was Jesse Minter, the Baltimore Ravens head coach. This, of course, was another episode of NFL Daily's Power Players. I really appreciate conversations like that where somebody's not just telling you what results they hope to achieve or what goals they have, but how they're trying to go about actually doing it. One of my favorite parts of that conversation was Jesse Minter talking about the walkthrough and how he wants to install and upload information and be able to call back to it and what that process meticulously has to look like

over the course of many, many days in the summer that you're calling back to in November. Coming up in your feed this week on NFL Daily, we've got game preview. We've got real live, regular season football. It is week one, baby. Football is back. I'm Brett Coleman. And I'm Trevor Sikkimam. If you love football and want to understand

what's really happening on the field, check out our show, NFL Pro. Every week we break down the biggest plays, trends, and matchups using exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content you will not find anywhere else. Whether you're new to football, a fantasy football fan,

or a die-hard fan. NFL Pro, will help you analyze the game like a pro. Listen to NFL Pro on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The entire draft room groans because you just took the guy they wanted. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm JJ Zachary Eisen, host of the award-winning late-round podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who

to circle and who to cross off. Listen to the late round fantasy football podcast on the IHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Whether you're a seasoned NFL fan or new to the game, there's one place to keep up with all of it, the league's newest podcast, the NFL report, hosted by me, Andrew Siciliano. It is your home for everything football, breaking news, expert analysis, game picks, and hear from your favorite players too.

Join me at an all-star cast of experts for everything you need to know from around the league. Get new episodes of the NFL Report Monday through Friday all season long. Listen to the NFL Report podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Mike Yam. And I'm Trevor Sycamma, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Show. Are you ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Because if you aren't locked in with us on the NFL Fantasy Football Show, you're already playing from behind. Whether you're a first-time player or a grizzled vet chasing another championship,

we give you the advantage and the confidence you need to make every move counts. Listen to the NFL fantasy football show on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.