It didn't take long for Chargers cornerback Donte Jackson to appreciate Jesse Minter's intellect.
"He's like a mad scientist," Jackson said seven days into Chargers training camp this past summer. "He's all about putting guys into position to make plays."
Minter is now bringing his lab back to Baltimore, where he will be the franchise's fourth head coach after agreeing to terms with the Ravens on Thursday.
In Minter's first year as the Chargers' defensive coordinator in 2024, their unit jumped from ranked 24th in points and 28th in yards to first in points and 11th in yards. This season, the Chargers ranked No. 5 in total defense and ninth in points allowed.
How does Minter manufacture that success?
When he first arrived in Los Angeles, Minter brought with him four pillars his defenses are built on: block destruction, shocking effort, ball disruption, and obnoxious communication. Those are the same principles Minter will bring to the Ravens' defense, which has faltered over the last two years.
Using disguises and players' versatility, Minter wants to make the complicated be simple for his unit, and the simple look complicated for opposing offenses, without overloading defenders' headspaces.
"I really hold true to the 'concept' teaching belief," Minter said. "When we get the guys in the offseason, we're trying to understand what we're trying to take away in certain coverages, what we want that to look like. If the quarterback knows you're in this coverage, this is the likely place that the ball would go based on the quarterback's progression. And so, when you're playing a particular coverage and you know where the weak spot is, then OK, let's all conceptualize pre-snap. What would get him to throw the ball where we're at the advantage and showing him those different looks?
"⊠It all ties together. It's all calculated. And I really think that as the players really learn what we're doing, they begin to be the ones to take ownership of the disguises and all that."
There are many similarities to the scheme of Mike Macdonald, who Minter worked with during his four years (2017-2020) on Baltimore's staff. Together, they helped recraft the Ravens' defensive scheme during the 2018 offseason.
Like Macdonald, Minter relies heavily on zone coverage. The Chargers used zone coverage on 80.7% of snaps this season, the fifth-highest zone percentage in the league, according to Next Gen Stats (NGS). The Chargers also used the fourth-most split safety looks (49.6%) in the NFL, right ahead of Macdonald's Seahawks (49.4%).
Often in nickel (five defensive backs) or dime (six defensive backs) personnel, the Chargers used four-man pressures on 72.6% of snaps, according to NGS. They blitzed the third-fewest number of times, sending extra defenders on 21.4% of snaps.
The lack of blitzes didn't prevent the Chargers from affecting the quarterback. They had the 11th-most sacks in the league and were tied with the seventh-most takeaways this season. After being traded from Baltimore to Los Angeles, pass rusher Odafe Oweh exploded with 10.5 sacks in 13 games, including the playoffs.
When Minter's unit did blitz this season, Chargers safety Derwin James Jr. was often the one coming. James had the fifth-most pressures (16) on the Chargers, blitzing on 12.9% of his snaps. When Minter first arrived in Los Angeles, he said of James: "The closer he is to the action, the better he is." That could be how Minter also deploys Kyle Hamilton, who he studied a great deal before starting with the Chargers.
"He seems like he's always got the answer â I don't know how, but some way he's always got the answer," James said of Minter, per FOX Sports.
General Manager Eric DeCosta said that the Ravens wanted to hire a head coach who's an expert in X's and O's. It appears they got one.
"He's become one of the preeminent defensive play callers in the league as a coordinator," DeCosta said.
