Steelers' Biggest Rival May Have Rushed The Hiring Process As New Details Are Disclosed About Ravens' Jesse Minter

The Pittsburgh Steelers have already had an impactful 2026 offseason after Mike Tomlin announced that he would be stepping down as the head coach of the franchise the day after his team was eliminated from the postseason. The fan base was grateful to Tomlin for his time with the franchise, but also happy to move on, and the organization conducted an immediate search for his replacement. Enter Mike McCarthy. Pittsburgh was one of three teams looking for a new head coach in the AFC North alone, which is unheard of in the division as Tomlin, John Harbaugh, and Kevin Stefanski all moved on.

Cleveland is still searching for its head coach, but the Steelers and Ravens have each landed on their top candidate. Pittsburgh got McCarthy, and Baltimore landed on Jesse Minter. Minter had worked for the Ravens in the past, and he spent the last two seasons as the defensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Chargers. A lot has been made about the hire in Pittsburgh, but after new information about the coaching search from Baltimore, beat writer Jeff Zrebiec came out in The Athletic noting that it can be inferred that the Ravens may have rushed their hiring process a little bit.

"The Baltimore Ravens were inclined to wait. After a two-plus-week search, after 20 formal interviews and many more informal conversations with interested parties, they were still eager to have more talks with head-coaching candidates," Zrebiec wrote. "Yet, waiting to interview more candidates — coaches participating in Sunday’s conference championship games aren’t permitted to meet with teams until next week — suddenly felt perilous. The Las Vegas Raiders were making a push for Minter, and the Ravens risked losing a guy who had aced the interview process and checked just about every box in their head-coaching search."

Don't get it twisted, the Ravens were very impressed with Minter and his football acumen. However, the organization still wanted to comb through more candidates that were coaching in the conference championship games on Sunday. The Las Vegas Raiders seemed to be a threat when it came to hiring Minter, which forced Baltimore to move quickly.

Minter seems like a great hire, so this isn't the end of the world for Baltimore. The franchise would have liked to have been able to speak to some other candidates and take some more time, but Baltimore couldn't risky losing Minter to Las Vegas. Las Vegas is somewhat attractive as a coaching destination as the team has the number one tight end in football, Maxx Crosby, Ashton Jeanty, the number one overall pick in 2026, and Tom Brady as part of the organization. Zrebiec gave some insight as to who else Baltimore was interested in.

"[Davis] Webb, [Nate] Scheelhaase and [Chris] Shula were all potential targets for second interviews next week if the search had persisted through the weekend," Zrebiec wrote. "However, it didn’t because the Raiders helped the Ravens make a decision that they might have made by the middle of next week anyway."

Pittsburgh was in a similar situation to Baltimore, although the Steelers had no reason to rush with the hiring of McCarthy. No other team seemed to be interested in him, yet Pittsburgh hired him before the team could meet with Chris Shula or Nate Scheelhaase in person.

Steelers Will Look Back On The 2026 Offseason For Some Time

Due to the Steelers and Ravens having one of the biggest rivalries in the league, this hiring cycle is going to be looked back on for quite some time. Minter and McCarthy's tenures with their respective teams will be compared to one another, and each organization will either be crucified or praised based off of how these hires work out.

What do you think about the Ravens rushing to sign Minter? Let us know in the comments below!

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