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Jesse Minter couldn’t say much about the most important hire of his head coaching tenure Thursday. After all, he hasn’t made it yet.

The Ravens’ search for their next offensive coordinator is “very far along,” Minter said at his introductory news conference, but still ongoing. The qualities he values in a coordinator — “leaders,” “connectors,” “schematic expertise” — could well apply to anyone under consideration.

But one philosophy could prevail in the bid to oversee a Lamar Jackson-led offense: Less is more. The less the Ravens ask of their star quarterback, the more they’ll get in return. The less they need him to become Superman, the stronger his superpowers will become.

“I think you want the structured plays to work really well and to be really [part of] an offense that he feels great about and that he feels like he’s thriving in — and that you’re making plays comfortable for him, stuff that he’s really good at,” Minter said in an interview on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd.” “And then I think those unstructured plays, I mean, that’s where he’s the best in the world. That’s where his instincts are able to take over. He’s able to make throws, runs, everything, every which way.”

When Jackson was healthy and in rhythm this past season, he was one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks. Over the Ravens’ first three games, before suffering a Week 4 hamstring injury, Jackson completed 77.8% of his unpressured passes from the pocket for 452 yards (10 yards per attempt), six touchdowns and no interceptions, according to Sports Info Solutions.

But too often Jackson found himself improvising. In 2024, broken plays often turned into big plays; on pressured drop-backs that ended outside the pocket, Jackson completed 40.7% of his passes for 8.1 yards per attempt, six touchdowns and no interceptions. He was sacked just five times under those conditions, good for an elite 7.8% sack rate, and had 40 scrambles for 370 yards.

This past year, 12.2% of Jackson’s pass plays — almost one in every eight — turned into a pressured drop-back that ended outside the pocket, one of the NFL’s highest rates. His effectiveness as an ad-libber also suffered. Although Jackson completed an impressive 54.8% of his pressured passes outside the pocket for 11.6 yards per attempt, he threw just two touchdowns and an interception and was sacked 14 times, for a ghastly 31.1% sack rate. Limited for most of the season by lower-body injuries, Jackson finished 2025 with 31 scrambles for 223 yards — only 133 of which came after Week 4.

“I really think it’s the structured plays that we need to really make sure are tight and really make sure there’s things that he’s familiar with and really good at and willing to grow with,” Minter said on “The Herd.” “And I know he’s super excited about where we’re headed on offense, and I look forward to seeing him thrive in our offense.”

Former offensive coordinator Todd Monken, whose work with Jackson and overhaul of the Ravens’ passing attack fueled a 2024 offense that ranked among the most explosive in NFL history, welcomed Jackson’s “second play” ability. The Ravens leaned into the chaos he could create for defenses, implementing scramble rules for drop-backs that went off script.

“With a guy like Lamar,” Monken said in 2023, when Jackson won his second NFL Most Valuable Player award, “there isn’t one pass play we’re going to call more often than scramble.”

Monken’s successor could take a different tack. Among the candidates reportedly in the mix for the opening are Denver Broncos pass game coordinator Davis Webb, Los Angeles Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase and Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, a trio of young, up-and-coming assistants with limited play-calling experience but exposure to offensive gurus.

The Broncos eased the burden on quarterback Bo Nix with a heavy reliance on quick-game passing and an elite offensive line. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford thrived in an offense that could dictate matchups with tight-end-heavy personnel and generate explosive plays with creative play-action calls. And Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, who improvised even more often than Jackson, had the safety net of an efficient running game and deep receiving corps.

Minter’s relationship with Jackson is still developing, but he knows what the 29-year-old is capable of. Minter watched Jackson in practice every day from 2018 to 2020, when he was a defensive assistant under former Ravens coach John Harbaugh.

Minter coached against him in 2024, too, when Jackson had three touchdowns in a late-November win over the Los Angeles Chargers. Minter on Thursday called Jackson “the best player” in the NFL.

But he also understands that Jackson can’t do it all himself. As Minter gets to know Jackson, and as Jackson gets to know Minter and his new offensive coordinator, they’ll need to find common ground on what works and what doesn’t. The Ravens’ reinvention will be a balancing act, finding an offense that optimizes Jackson’s skill set without overtaxing it.

“I think relationships take time, and so you don’t become the head coach of the Ravens and expect to have a deep relationship with anybody,” Minter said. “So those take time. We’ve been working towards that already. We’ve had wonderful conversations. I look forward to many, many more. But with Lamar I just look forward to connecting with him, helping him become the best version of himself, creating a team identity that allows him to thrive … and put a team around him that allows him to reach that ultimate goal of bringing a Super Bowl back to Baltimore."