Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh wasn’t engaging in hyperbole when he suggested during his season-ending news conference last week that it was a matter of “when” rather than “if” defensive coordinator Jesse Minter would be lured away from the team after two stellar seasons on their staff.
The Baltimore Ravens said Thursday they had hired Minter to replace John Harbaugh, Jim’s brother, as their head coach. The Ravens fired John Harbaugh earlier this month after 18 seasons on the job, guiding them to a Super Bowl victory over Jim and the San Francisco 49ers after the 2012 season.
“I am truly honored to serve as the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens,” Minter said via the team’s website Thursday afternoon. “This is an organization whose values, culture and tradition of excellence reflect everything I believe about the game of football and how it should be played.”
Minter, 42, got his start as an NFL assistant coach with the Ravens, spending four seasons in several defensive roles between 2017 and 2020. He then spent one season as Vanderbilt’s defensive coordinator before joining Jim Harbaugh at the University of Michigan in 2022.
Jim Harbaugh took the Chargers’ job after leading the Wolverines to the national championship in the 2023 season, and he promptly hired Minter as his defensive coordinator. Under Minter, the Chargers’ defense led the NFL by giving up an average of only 17.7 points per game in 2024.
The Chargers’ defense was ninth-best in the NFL this past season, giving up 20 points per game, and fifth in the league in total defense, allowing 285.2 yards per game. They gave up only 16.6 points per game over their final six regular-season games plus a wild-card playoff loss to the New England Patriots. New England scored 16 points, 12 below its regular-season average.
“You’re prepared,” Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz said last week of Minter’s expected departure to become a head coach. “You have a list of candidates ready if he does depart. We have a lot of great coaches on the defensive staff, and that will be considered, too, if he does depart.”
Defensive line coach Mike Elston and defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale could be among the internal candidates Hortiz spoke of. Outside candidates could include Rams pass rush coordinator Drew Wilkins and former Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.
What is certain is that the Chargers will have new defensive and offensive coordinators for the 2026 season. They are expected to hire former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel as their offensive coordinator after firing Greg Roman two days after their second straight wild-card defeat.
What also is true is that Minter left the Chargers’ defense in good hands for whomever assumes the role of defensive coordinator. Minter turned several young Chargers into potential Pro Bowl-level defenders, including outside linebacker Tuli Tuipulotu and linebacker Daiyan Henley.
Tuipulotu led the Chargers with 13 sacks this past season, his third in the NFL after he was drafted in the second round from USC in 2023. Henley, the Chargers’ third-round pick from Washington State in ’23, had a team-leading 101 combined tackles, including 52 solo.
“We’ll be able to adjust,” Hortiz said.
Minter also interviewed with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Las Vegas Raiders, Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns and the Dolphins before accepting the Ravens’ job, where his job will be to help two-time NFL MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson take the next step in a career that’s been consistently snakebit in the postseason. The New York Giants hired John Harbaugh after the Ravens fired him after he posted a 180-113 career record, the most successful coach in the 31-year history of the franchise.
“Jesse is a strong leader who possesses a brilliant football mind and a spirit that will resonate with our players and fan base alike,” Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said in a statement. “Jesse comes from a football family, with success at every level of the sport, and we are confident that he is the right coach to lead the Ravens forward.”
Said Jim Harbaugh when asked about life without Minter on the staff: “It’s really not so much of a question of ‘if,’ you know, we’ve known that. It’s a question of ‘when’ (because) of the product Jesse has established as the head coach of the defense that’s (been) so good, it’s a matter of ‘when.’”