Jesse Minter: Ravens Press Conference 9/28/26

SPEAKER_1 (0:03)

Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass podcast. It is Monday, September 28th. The Ravens took down the Dallas Cowboys 34 to 31 in thrilling fashion on Sunday.

An epic victory in Rio to improve to 2-1 on the season. After the game, the Ravens flew back to Baltimore overnight, arrived early Monday morning and went right back to work. And today we had a chance to hear from head coach Jesse Minter in his Monday afternoon press conference.

Jesse Minter (0:31)

We appreciate y'all being here. Started off just really shouting out our team, players, coaches, everybody in the building, particularly the operations people that handle travel, that handle the setup of a trip like that, everything that goes into it. You know, from the flights, the hotels, obviously having to go through everything, go into a different country, just really proud of the organization and the plan in place for us to maximize it and try to be at our best for the game. And then obviously the game was a, you know, went down to the wire.

Proud of our team. It came through when we needed to. There's so many things. It's great to win a game again, but then to have like so many things that we can do better, that we can get better at, that we'll chase. And so it's an exciting time for us. We're excited to get back here and have a normal week at home with that open up for questions.

SPEAKER_3 (1:27)

Jesse, what time did you guys get in this morning, and how would you describe the flight home?

Jesse Minter (1:34)

Yeah, so I think we landed around 8.30, 9 a.m. You know, I think for the most part, I think when we got onto the plane, there was still a lot of energy and excitement. It settled down, you know, as guys were settling in and trying to get a little bit of sleep. And then, you know, the cool thing was we landed, you know, we kind of had to go through the customs as we landed back at BWI. We got back, I think there was like 55 guys in the weight room right after we landed, which was cool to see, which was, you know, they really had a kind of an optional schedule to lift today or tomorrow, and so that was fun. That was like a fun deal being in there. A lot of guys fresh off the plane, wanting to knock it out and kind of recover from the plane ride. I think that all that type of stuff helps.

And so, yeah, that was the travel home.

SPEAKER_4 (2:25)

Jesse, do you know anymore about the two centers, Jovan and Ethan, and is the planning now for Van Gogh to prepare to play there this weekend?

Jesse Minter (2:33)

Yeah, I don't have like the full, full details, but they both look like they'll be a little bit long-term type of things. You know, so I do think for this particular game, as we'll sort through making our roster better, obviously, over the next couple of days, he'll be prepared and he'll prepare to potentially play that position. We'll figure out the best five guys to put out there for this particular week, as we may add a piece or two, obviously, from losing a couple of guys. But major shout out to him to, you know, be a first-round pick and sort of deal with the pressure and things of that. And then, obviously, to be kind of rolled in there as a starter right from the beginning. And credit to the O-line coaches for, you know, over the last few weeks, starting to work them there a little bit as an emergency situation. Once we lost Danny and we were kind of down to the two, you know, you always want to have that third guy, particularly when, you know, one of the guys that we were going to potentially keep on practice squad got claimed. And so now you're trying to create depth at that position. Credit to him. He went in there in a couple of critical moments of the game, our offense score and a go-ahead touchdown and then obviously operating on the last drive.

So very, very proud of V.

SPEAKER_5 (3:50)

How up to speed was Venga with all the things that come with being a center pre-snap, all the protection adjustments and everything? Was he, was there any change in those types of duties considering it happens in the second half?

Jesse Minter (4:04)

Yeah, I think he was up to speed enough to be able to do everything that we ask our centers to do, which was really cool. Now, he plays next to him and he's there. I think those guys work really well together and making sure that we're on the right calls and the right IDs and things like that.