Ravens coordinators matching wits as they kick off the Jesse Minter era

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Thursday was offensive coordinator Declan Doyle’s day to shine. On Friday, defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver’s unit hit back.

It’s early days of Ravens training camp — and of the Jesse Minter era — but it seems as if the players are buying in to what the new staff is asking them to do.

After a relatively quiet first day, the offense and the defense have taken turns showing each other up. Meanwhile, the special teams are running countless reps as they acclimate new players into new systems.

The Ravens coordinators spoke for the first time in training camp, and these are the biggest takeaways from their interviews.

Hitting the button

Wearing the title “offensive coordinator” is not new for Doyle. But wearing the headset to call plays is.

As Doyle stalks the practice field, directing his guys as he tries to outwit Minter’s defense, he’s been wearing the headset to get used to the feeling and rhythm of it.

“It’s just hitting the button, practicing it,” Doyle said. “Obviously, this will be the first time I’m calling it down there. And, whether I’m up in the box or on the field, you hit the button. Similar to how we’re doing it with our guys, like putting them through these stressful situations.”

Doyle hasn’t decided whether he’ll be hitting that button from the box or the field, but he has a plan to figure out what the best option is.

Doyle plans to call from the box in the first preseason game because it’s at home, and “it would be easier to be on the field at home.”

He’ll head to the field for the second game, which is in Minnesota, and then he’ll reevaluate for the third game.

“You have these games to be able to do that and kind of see what your flow is and what fits best, not only communication with the staff but the players, the quarterback, all that stuff,” Doyle said. “And so I kind of want to just go through that, a little bit of a dry run.”

Doyle is also getting a ton of practice when it comes to the plays he’s calling, not just the method of it. Minter is a new head coach, but he’s an experienced play caller and he’s not taking it easy on his offense.

Doyle also has a huge asset in Lamar Jackson, who is versatile as well as experienced at making decisions pre- and post-snap. Doyle said Jackson’s control will vary play to play.

“There are different areas of the field where he might have a little bit more freedom because of what we’re expecting from a defense,” Doyle said. “Obviously, we’re very early in the install, and so, as we kind of get to those things and he starts to master really this system, then you start to be able to put more and more on him.”

Rushers everywhere

Despite the down year last season, Weaver is confident in the guys he has in his pass rush, and they’re rewarding that confidence.

After recording 58 regular-season sacks in 2023 and 53 in 2024, the Ravens had just 30 last season.

The addition of former Cincinnati Bengals star Trey Hendrickson was an obvious boost, but from the starters on down, the pass rushers have put on a show.

Hendrickson, Mike Green and Tavius Robinson have been constantly pressuring Jackson. Green and Robinson have also terrorized Tyler Huntley when he’s in. Meanwhile, Skylar Thompson has had no peace because rookie Ethan Burke is constantly in the backfield.

When asked to evaluate the defense from an offensive player’s standpoint, wide receiver Zay Flowers mentioned the pass rush.

“Sometimes you do not really know what is going on in the back end, and you watch film, and sometimes it looks like it would be a sack,” Flowers said. “[In] the back end, I feel like they are everywhere.”

Having players who can get to the quarterback on their own has made life easier for Weaver.

“You don’t have to try to scheme up these free runners or things like that,” Weaver said. “You can use the complexity of illusion to let those guys go in.”

Even so, Weaver isn’t ready to call it a success. Right now, “sacks” consist of a pass rusher getting into a position in which he has a shot at the quarterback and the ref calling the play dead. The players aren’t forced to bring the quarterback to the ground.

“I don’t think anything’s really real until we put the pads on,” Weaver said.

Besides, he knows, after the outstanding day the defense had, the offense will be “chomping at the bit tomorrow.”

Ready to kick it

For the first time since training camp began, kicker Tyler Loop attempted a field goal in a live scenario.

After Jackson and his offense failed to score in the red zone, Loop came out for a 35-yard attempt. He made it and then was asked to save the day again after a flag negated a touchdown for Huntley’s offense. He made the 34-yard field goal, too.

The third red-zone series led to his biggest challenge of the day. A sack, an incompletion and another sack pushed Thompson’s offense back in three plays. Loop made a 56-yarder.

The live reps are important for any young player but especially one whose rookie season ended in a playoff-disqualifying missed field goal. Loop spoke to the media in June for the first time since the Pittsburgh Steelers game, when he missed the kick. He said he moved on quickly and came back confident

Special teams coordinator Anthony Levine Jr. said Loop is “ready to go.”

In addition to the improvements Levine expects from any second-year player, he said he’s seen everything he wants to see from Loop thus far.

“[He’s] come in, being consistent, taking the coaching,” Levine said. “Coach Randy Brown has been working with him, very detailed, making sure that he’s staying sharp. So the most important thing what he’s doing right now is taking coaching and just having the confidence that he has in himself.”