Ex-Ravens DC Zach Orr Was Flogged Then Fired After 2 Seasons. Jesse Minter's Defense Is Significantly Worse

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Ex-Ravens DC Zach Orr Was Flogged Then Fired After 2 Seasons. Jesse Minter's Defense Is Significantly Worse

Nov 5, 2026; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens head coach Jesse Minter looks on from the sideline during the second half against the Jacksonville Jaguars at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Jason La Canfora · Baltimore Ravens On SI

Fri, November 6, 2026 at 5:12 PM UTC ·

9 min read

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The Baltimore Ravens gushed about what a remarkable defensive mind Jesse Minter was when they hired him at age 42, with just two years of experience as an NFL defensive coordinator, to replace John Harbaugh, who is building a credible case for the Hall of Fame and might be the NFL Coach of the Year this season.

They hailed him as a genius of sorts and leaned into to any and all comparisons to true unicorn Mike Macdonald, former Ravens coordinator who went 10-7 as a rookie head coach in Seattle and won the Super Bowl last season. They hailed the fact Minter had Ravens roots - serving as a young assistant in Baltimore before - and therefore was an extension of their culture and winning formula and understood all the vast intricacies of what made them such a first-rate organization.

You see, what owner Steve Bisciotti and team president Sashi Brown and general manager Eric DeCosta were pushing out highly accomplished veteran coaches to hire young, cheap and malleable replacements, the implication was they had all the answers within their front office; these bright young minds coupled with DeCosta's Lombardi-worthy roster would immediately put them over the top.

"Exciting time for us," Brown said when introducing Minter as head coach. "Thirty years in the books of Ravens football history here in Baltimore, and we're at an important time for our locker room. We know we have the talent to go out and pursue championships now. When we set out to find our new coach, we wanted to make sure that we were very serious about bringing a great leader, but also a great person to this organization, to our locker room, and we found that in Jesse Minter."

And indeed, Minter has made a remarkable and indelible imprint in his first nine games on the job - the season is effectively over in November after four straight ugly defeats, and this product is less professional-grade than before (three QBs hurt on about 12 snaps has to be a record). Minter actually increased the franchise's already record rate for blowing double-digit, second-half leads to lose. Minter, unquestionably, has made the defense - his calling card and the one thing his very presence was supposed to make demonstrably better - a failure in ways beyond what his predecessor, Zach Orr, dragged for two years by critics before getting fired, could muster.

Minter to this point has been unfit to perform either duty he was hired for, things are only getting worse, and everything about his messaging and lack of accountability and pathetic lowering of standards from week to week to try to obfuscate from just what an abomination this is should be beneath this once-proud franchise. Instead it captures exactly what DeCosta and Brown have constructed - with the worst cap situation in the NFL for years to come it will get worse . And if the Ravens allow him to keep wearing both hats, and if they abstain from gutting this roster at the trade deadline like any competent staff would spend every waking hour trying to do , it will only reveal even further how detached from reality they are.

"I believe in our guys," Minter said when asked about the trade deadline Thursday. "I think that there's a lot of things that we need to look at and improve on, butI do think that we have a team... Inreally all three phases,there's spurts of good enough football. There is a real inconsistency, I would say, at all three levels, all three phases. Andagain,some of that isdue to whatever, but that is what it is ... I do think there's a good opportunity for this team."

SPURTS OF GOOD ENOUGH FOOTBALL IS THE NEW "PLAY LIKE A RAVEN."

That's the best they can offer. Lamar Jackson props them all up, or they fail. Will they allow Minter to be unmasked at two jobs instead of one and will they keep this Frankenstein roster through the deadline and run it back in 2027?

How Bad Is It?

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Trey Hendrickson (91) watches the Bengals huddle during a timeout in the fourth quarter of the NFL Week 7 game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. The Bengals scored 35 points in the second half to win 35-13 on the road. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Minter's defense is quite likely going to get worse, given it already has shown strong quitting tendencies (as former Ravens luminaries have pointed out on social media and as former coordinator Wink Martindale made very clear on "The Daily Flock Show" ). Minter got exposed by Trevor Lawrence on throws of 10 yards or more (8/10 for 193 yards and TD) and passes to the middle of the field (12/14 for 154 yds and TD).

Minter had no solutions; nothing even remotely close (it's the roster and the culture).

He can't get $19M corner Marlon Humphrey to cover a glorified tackle eligible 50 yards downfield or a first-round safety, Maliki Starks, who he was supposed to turn into a star in Year Two, to ever make a play on the ball or be the last line of defense when desperately needed. They jumped offside to give Jacksonville a critical fourth-down conversion before falling apart to give the game away in the first half (the penalties are shameful and they lead the league pre-snap - no surprise to regular readers . Their $60M fully guaranteed "closer" Trey Hendrickson was held without a pressure, hurry or hit, let alone a sack, and he can't play the run and will be 33 next season.

Well, at least he had that revenge game against the Bengals! (If the Raiders keep Maxx Crosby, and Lamar decides to stay in Baltimore, best not dress him for that game with Vegas. Mad Maxx has every reason to hold a grudge against this front office).

And Orr didn't have a $150M defensive roster and an alleged All-Pro edge rusher; he had Kyle Van Noy and Dre'Mont Jones past their prime. Let's compare the 2025 and 2026 defenses (and, again, these numbers will get worse this season):

2025 2026

Points/Drive Allowed:2.20 2.31

TD% Allowed:23% 24%

Opposer Pass Rating:89.6 96.1

Pass Plays 25+ (thru 9 G):17 18

Yards/Attempt:7.0 7.6

INT%:1.8% 1.4%

Sack %:4.8% 5.9%

Pressure Rate:31.7% 35%

Hold up, Orr gets killed for having to blitz to generate any pretend pass rush at all with a decidedly cheaper and lesser roster and he has to survive virtually all of last season without Nnamdi Madubuike after the September injury, and he still outclasses his successor? How's that happen?

Minter is scared to call a game like a big boy and bring any heat, he has Hendrickson and Madubuike and Mike Green in Year Two (another alleged breakout) and Calais Campbell is back and instead of fixing their massive hole at hole in the second round DeCosta give Minter another edge presence, Zion Young, who they called a pass rusher and we told you he was not. (Then DeCosta trades a potential top 40 pick in 2028 for whatever is left of Cam Jurgens, while concussed, right before the Eagles were benching him ).

But this is a first-rate operation. Surely not just an attempt to stay in power.

And Minter barely has a better sack rate or pressure rate than Orr despite all of that, and he wants to play dime all the time and zone it up because he is prettified of allowing big plays ... and he has arguably the worst second-half big play defense in the NFL despite all those 10-point leads and has allowed more passes of 25 yards or more at this stage of the season than Orr despite not playing a playoff team schedule like Orr did and getting mostly garbage QBs so far.

This is a complete and total disaster, folks, and he is trying to push some narrative about SPURTS OF GOOD ENOUGH FOOTBALL. (Am I the only one who immediately flashes to Richard Hell And The Voidoids ? Probably)

When are these spurts and how long do they last? How do we make the more consistent?

They never seem to occur when ish gets real. Not for his garbage defense. Not nearly enough.

Zach Orr wasn't the problem, just like Chuck Pagano and Dean Pees, brought in to help him, weren't the problem. And Minter, with a staff that includes his dad but no former NFL head coaches ( by design ) ain't fixing it, either. Marvin Lewis came on "The Daily Flock" and told you the pieces don't fit the defense and the message isn't getting through with repeated communication breakdowns. And the entire league knows Minter is overmatched and the people most responsible for all of it are always too stubborn to admit mistakes, they just double and triple down on it.

That's how you get a $370M roster of aging and failing players making vastly more than they are worth, and that's how you get an ugly and lengthy rebuild that is ahead whether Jackson sticks around for it or not .

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/ravens/onsi as Ex-Ravens DC Zach Orr Was Flogged Then Fired After 2 Seasons. Jesse Minter's Defense Is Significantly Worse .

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