After hiring Jesse Minter to become their fourth head coach in franchise history, it’s clear what the Baltimore Ravens’ top priority has to become. They’ll be looking to fill their coordinator openings relatively soon.
Minter is a defensive mind. He confirmed during his introductory press conference on Thursday that he will call the plays. That’s a key part of why he was brought to Charm City. Still, the defensive coordinator role remains a high priority on the team’s checklist. More notably, though, the offensive coordinator vacancy has quickly become the most urgent need.
There’s no rush, and as they did with their head coaching search, the Ravens will likely take their time finding their next offensive and defensive coordinators. However, Minter offered an update on the search to fill those positions. And the team might be closer to finding those coaches sooner than fans think.
“I won’t confirm any hires at this point. [The offensive and defensive coordinator] searches are going really well,” Minter said. “They’re very far along, I would say. We’re finalizing a few of those pieces.”
Regardless of who those coordinators end up being, they cannot be worse than what Baltimore had last year. Simply put, Todd Monken and Zach Orr were not up to the standard in 2025. Monken has since departed to take the Cleveland Browns head coaching gig, and Orr is expected to join the Dallas Cowboys as a linebackers coach. With them gone, Ravens fans are eagerly awaiting the next update on their coordinators.
Ravens must find upgrades at key coordinator spots
Much of Baltimore’s 2025 season was ravaged by injuries. Stars were taken out on both sides of the football. Still, even when they were healthy, the offense was inconsistent, and the defense was horrendous.
Offensively, the passing game lacked creativity, and the playcalling from week to week limited Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry from taking over the game for all four quarters. It felt like Monken had a restriction on his stars at times and lost a sense for the game late in contests. Of course, when you have talented playmakers, they’re still going to shine, but Monken clearly took a step back this past season.
Defensively, if it weren’t for the extraordinary efforts of versatile safety Kyle Hamilton, the unit likely would’ve had a historically bad year. Orr’s two-year tenure was just abysmal. His schemes were far too passive, and he failed to generate much pressure at all. It allowed for far too many chunk plays, and overall, the defense very rarely put together statement-making stops.
Minter is confident they’ll find the right men for the open jobs. It really can’t get much worse than it was in 2025, but with many stars in the midst of their primes, they have to find competent, playcalling-ready coordinators to take over. With Jackson entering his age-29 season, there’s simply no more time to wait if Baltimore wants to capture that Lombardi Trophy.