I’ve been asked “what do you think of the Ravens’ new coach” more frequently this year than my wife has asked me what I want to do about dinner.
And that’s not just because my wife doesn’t really care what I want because she’s already finished the spaghetti.
The Giants got to hire this year’s “slam dunk” candidate. John Harbaugh is a former Super Bowl champion who was regularly in the playoffs during his 18-year run with the Ravens. Casual fans in New York don’t really know the minutiae of why the Ravens decided it was time to move on. They just simply get to enjoy the feeling of having “won” the coaching cycle by hiring the coach who was in the most demand.
We all want to feel like we’re winning. We judge everything in terms of “wins” and “losses.” We outrageously suggest that a coach, executive or owner may have “won” a news conference simply because he or she didn’t say anything that will be ruthlessly mocked for weeks to come.
Any time a trade is made, we immediately want to know who “won” the trade. Giants fans feel like their team won. It’s absurd. We have no earthly idea what Harbaugh will do as Giants coach. I think he’ll find at least mild success because he has a history of that, but Pete Carroll did lots of winning in Seattle and couldn’t replicate that in Las Vegas.
We have no clue if the Giants “won” their hire. But we still want to know if the Ravens won theirs.
Most football fans outside of Los Angeles (and since it’s the Chargers, maybe not even a ton of them) and Michigan didn’t really know about Jesse Minter before he was hired as Harbaugh’s replacement. Lots of people have wonderful things to say about him. Players appear to like him. He comes from great stock. He has undoubtedly succeeded in improving defenses, lifting Michigan to the No. 1 defense in the country and then lifting the Chargers from a bottom-third defense in the NFL to the No. 1 scoring defense in just one season.
But how will he do as head coach? I have no earthly idea.
My gut tells me he will improve the Ravens defensively. Ignoring the track record would be silly. I don’t know if he can make Mike Green a superstar or help Roquan Smith rediscover the level of play that made him a $20 million man. But I think he can scheme to his strengths and have guys in the correct spots. I would be stunned if the Ravens were in the bottom third (or even the bottom half) of NFL defenses again next year.
But will the Ravens compete for a Super Bowl title? That’s far less certain. If they have a healthy Lamar Jackson under center, they will have a shot no matter what. There is absolutely a floor to what a team can be with a full season of a healthy Jackson. The Ravens have been a playoff team every time they have had that.
I think there’s a risk in pairing a first-time offensive play-caller (Declan Doyle) with a first-time head coach. Jackson is so good that it’s hard to imagine any capable offensive mind screwing it up, but I can’t ignore the risk. Hopefully Doyle proves to be the offensive wunderkind the Ravens clearly believe he can be.
The difference in being “in the mix” and having a chance to win a Super Bowl has regularly been found in the margins for the Ravens. They have struggled with self-inflicted wounds in big spots (see Andrews, Mark; January 2025 divisional round, or Flowers, Zay; January 2024 AFC championship game). They have been too bullish about their internal options at certain positions (see line, offensive; 2025 season, or rush, edge; basically every year post-Terrell Suggs).
The question will be whether Minter can demand a level of accountability that prevents players from making terrible or brain-lapsed decisions and whether he (and his staff) can coach more out of draft picks who may have otherwise disappointed. If he can, the Ravens might be able to take that next step quickly.
I certainly don’t think it was a bad hire. To be fair, I’m not sure what team made a bad hire. Everyone who got a job was qualified. The biggest reaches were probably the Browns hiring Todd Monken and the Steelers hiring Mike McCarthy, but neither is a bad coach. Just questionable timing.
But I can’t tell you that the Ravens “won” their hire either. We’ll find that out down the road.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox and Courtesy of the Los Angeles Chargers
Issue 297: February / March 2026
Originally published Feb. 18, 2026