OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Jesse Minter and Declan Doyle had a lot to do.

As the new head coach, Minter was busy building his Baltimore Ravens staff, implementing a defense, getting familiar with an organization he had been away from for five years and embracing every aspect of a move across the country to start a dream job.

Hired to run Minter’s offense, Doyle had only been in Baltimore for a couple of days. He barely had time to move into his new office, never mind laying out all the plans for establishing and teaching an offensive scheme.

All of those things could wait. They had a message to deliver to Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, and they felt it needed to be done in person.

Months later, that early February trip to South Florida to spend a few hours with Jackson resonates more for what the two coaches heard and observed than what they said.

“I knew Lamar, had talked to him on the phone a few times. He was involved in the interview process,” Minter said. “I knew he was excited about something different, but I wanted him to really be excited about Declan and the direction of the offense. We came away from that meeting like, ‘Wow, this dude is all in. He’s really excited.’

“He told me right then that he was going to be there for a lot of the offseason program. That was the first thing he told me, without me even bringing it up.”

Minter and Doyle said plenty, too. They wanted to make sure Jackson understood they viewed this as a partnership, and Jackson was the reason they were so excited about their new roles.

“Both of us honestly wanted the job because of him,” Minter said.

In many ways, that meeting on Jackson’s turf between the two-time league MVP coming off his most challenging season, the first-time 43-year-old head coach and the 30-year-old first-time play caller set the tone for the season. The Ravens get things underway Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis.

For Minter, a longtime defensive assistant and coordinator, Sunday is a culmination of a rapid rise since he left Baltimore following the 2020 season. He was one of the most coveted head-coaching candidates in this cycle after two strong years of leading the Los Angeles Chargers’ defense. But the Ravens’ job, vacated by the abrupt firing of one of his mentors, John Harbaugh, was at the top of his list.

For Jackson, this is his ninth season, yet it hasn’t felt that way as he prepares. It will start with the ongoing questions about the 29-year-old’s future in Baltimore — his contract expires after the 2027 season — and his adaptability to Doyle’s offense.

“I feel like I’m a rookie or a second-year guy,” Jackson said earlier this week. “It’s not about the new system or the new coaches or anything like that. The past is the past, and you can’t dwell on that. I’m focused on what’s going on right now. I’m just excited to get back out there and start the season off better than we did last year.

“I want to win (Sunday) and focus on winning a whole lot more games this season, and hopefully that gets us to the promised land.”

It’s been a successful walk-up for Minter’s Ravens. The players have embraced his understated, workmanlike approach. They spent the summer raving about Minter and the new staff’s attention to detail and structure. The good vibes were evident from the start of the offseason program, and they haven’t relented.

The player buy-in is exemplified by the star quarterback, who has spoken boldly about the offense’s potential, responded to Doyle’s hard coaching and put in the work on the field and in meeting rooms.

“I think it was important for him to express to us that, ‘Hey, I’m bought in, I’m ready to go and I’m excited about what’s new,’” Doyle said. “You only can go as fast and as far as your operators. Those positions are trigger points, and he’s certainly one of those. He was hungry to learn it, and it really hasn’t changed all the way up until now.”

Two-time league MVP Lamar Jackson has voiced his excitement for the Ravens’ new offense throughout the offseason. (Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)

There’s been a lot of time over the past several months spent dissecting what led to the end of Harbaugh’s successful 18-season tenure. It’s a topic team officials and some veterans have grown weary of. However, one thing that’s undeniable, even for Harbaugh’s most vocal defenders, is that change can be necessary. It creates a different energy, too.

Minter has ridden that wave while staying true to himself and his coaching principles. After a coaching search that featured more than 20 interviews, he understood he wasn’t hired to build a team culture from scratch or to scrap everything his predecessor established. The Minter touch has been more subtle.

His practices started earlier but were a little shorter and less frenetic. He chose season-long captains rather than selecting them weekly. He focused on the details and situational football. Within the facility, he’s spent as much time as possible with different players and position groups, all while getting the defense ready as its play caller.

“I think I’m pretty good as a multitasker myself, but watching Jesse bounce around like he does is really super impressive,” general manager Eric DeCosta said. “At one point — because my office is over here, and his office is right there — I would be going over there to see him, and he’s never in his office. Because Jesse is coaching defense. He is always with the defense.”

There would be preseason practices where Minter’s voice didn’t rise above the din of a typical training camp workout. Veteran defensive lineman Calais Campbell described Minter’s coaching style as “matter of fact.” Cornerback Keyon Martin said coaching moments with Minter were more of a conversation than a lecture. But when something needed to be said, Minter got straight to the point.

“I’ve been very impressed and surprised at how he’s kind of progressed throughout the years,” said veteran cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who had Minter as one of his position coaches earlier in his Ravens career. “When you come from, obviously, Harbaugh (was a) very alpha-type, leader-type guy. I was interested to see how different team meetings would be. It’s been really good how Jesse has addressed the room and how he’s addressed just small situations.”

Humphrey recalled a moment early in training camp where the defensive backs were debating a coverage question. In the very next meeting, Minter addressed it immediately, outlining how it would be done.

Minter has been a part of successful defenses pretty much everywhere he’s been, so his hiring was accompanied by an expectation that he would help fix the Ravens’ defense. The questions mostly revolved around how he would lead the entire team. The Arkansas native is not prone to fiery speeches or outbursts. He operates on an even keel. He’s never going to be the “win the news conference” or “create a headline” type.

Ravens defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver had a seven-year playing career and is now in his 17th year as a coach. He said Minter is the most “personable and normal” head coach he’s ever been around.

Minter, however, showed this summer he’s not afraid to let his guard down. At a team dinner during road joint practices with the Minnesota Vikings, Minter took the microphone and belted out the lyrics of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” The players went wild.

“I didn’t feel like I had to go in there and try to prove, ‘Oh, I have to try and be this way that I’m not really (like),’” Minter said. “They know me. They wanted me to be myself. It’s definitely made it really comfortable — not comfortable in a sense that it’s going to be easy, but comfortable in a sense of, I can just operate and be myself, get the thing rolling the way I wanted to, have freedom to feel like I can change things that I want to change.

“But also I have a ton of respect for the way it’s been done here forever, beyond who the coaches were. There’s a cool understanding of how the organization has been built and also them wanting a fresh look at certain things.”

It’s not that Jackson and the previous coaching staff had poor relationships. He, Harbaugh and ex-Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken mostly got along and won a lot of games — and set some records — together. Yet, last year’s wildly disappointing and, at least for Jackson, injury-plagued season proved challenging for all involved.

Jackson and the coaches didn’t appear to be on the same page at times, particularly as it pertained to his injuries.

Coaches and players alike were frustrated, and some in the Ravens locker room felt change was necessary. As owner Steve Bisciotti was mulling the decision following the gutting Week 18 loss to rival Pittsburgh, Jackson told him he didn’t have a problem with Harbaugh or Monken. He remained neutral. However, Bisciotti decided change was needed, and getting a “reset” and new voice for Jackson factored into the decision.

“It’s an organizational thing,” Jackson said. “One coach had been here 18 years and did a lot of great things for the team, a lot of great things for the organization, brought a Super Bowl here. Now, we have a new coach, and everybody’s excited to see what he’s going to bring.”

Minter and Doyle both did their homework on Jackson before they were ultimately hired. Doyle’s research included a call with Monken, who worked with Doyle’s dad, Chris, as a graduate assistant at Notre Dame. Doyle also spoke with Jackson during his interview process. Doyle told Minter he planned to visit Jackson in South Florida this offseason if he got the job.

“I wanted to start and build that relationship as quickly as we can,” Doyle said. “We both viewed it that way. This is a relationship business, and that’s the bottom line. It will never change. Analytics and all that stuff can make its way in, and it’s all important, but this business is all about people. That’s where it needed to start.”

Minter, Doyle and Jackson spent a couple of hours together. They spoke a lot about family. When they did venture into football discussion, it was more in generalities and not necessarily focused on X’s and O’s. Minter and Doyle did relay how they envisioned the offense operating.

“There’s a lot of outside noise going on, and people are going to feel however they want to feel about you,” Jackson said. “But your head coach and your offensive coordinator want to come down and get a glimpse of you and see how you’re doing — that means a lot. Those guys want to know who they’re going to have as the leader of their team. I appreciate that.”

Jackson made clear to Minter and Doyle that he would do his part and he was good with being coached hard. Doyle has certainly obliged. He’s been on Jackson and the offensive players about every detail, including how tight they are lined up in the huddle. Jackson said Doyle “cussed him out” one practice for running the wrong play.

Meanwhile, Jackson has responded by texting his coaches with questions or ideas. He embraced Doyle and quarterback coach Israel Woolfork’s suggestion to shift to a left-foot forward stance in the shotgun to help with timing. During an off day from training camp earlier this year, Jackson and Doyle watched film together for several hours. After Tuesday’s practice, Jackson hustled upstairs for a quick meeting with Minter.

“When you have an MVP-caliber quarterback, it’s a partnership with the head coach,” Minter said. “I needed him to feel that. I needed him to feel how important it was that the relationship side between myself and ‘Dec’ was going to be really important, that both of us wanted the job because of what he’s capable of.

“It’s easy to say it over the phone or whatever, but for him to kind of feel the excitement that we had to be able to work with him and to have him as our quarterback, truthfully, that was probably the main thing.”