Ravens WR Zay Flowers Says Jesse Minter Brings ‘Different Energy'
The general public begs famous athletes to be transparent. Often, when athletes are transparent, they get crushed for their honest opinions. Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers was reminded of that catch-22 recently.
Flowers appeared on the April 16 episode of “4th & South with Jarvis Landry and Leonard Fournette.” It was a nearly 90-minute conversation, but Flowers’ comments about former Ravens head coach John Harbaugh’s practices were clipped to high heavens.
Flowers credited Harbaugh for always having the team prepared. He also said, in part, “Bro, we were full pads. However many practices in pads you can get, every single one. We [were] doing 1-on-1s Week 17. … Lowkey, that’s why we had a lot of injuries.”
The NFL‘s current collective bargaining agreement, ratified in 2020, limits the number of padded practices per season, as explained here.
At any rate, Flowers went viral. Ahead of the 152nd Kentucky Derby, Flowers joined Marty Smith on “SportsCenter” and clarified his perspective on Friday.
First, Flowers praised newly hired Ravens head coach Jesse Minter. Baltimore fired Harbaugh, who had been head coach for 18 years, at the conclusion of the Ravens’ disappointing 8-9 season in January. Harbaugh is now the head coach of the New York Giants.
“We love him,” Flowers said of Minter. “Everybody - Lamar [Jackson], me, Derrick [Henry], the whole defense love him. It’s just like a different energy. It’s like, he’s confident, but it’s calm. He’s about business. He’s ready to get it started. We’re ready to get it started, and it gives everybody a new opportunity.”
Smith then referenced Flowers’ “4th & South” comments about Harbaugh’s hard practices, which earned a smile from Flowers.
“It’s practice,” Flowers said. “I started playing football when I was four, so I’ve been practicing for a long time. It just depends on how much you run. You run a lot - the more you run, the more your body breaks down, I feel like. It was really not a shot at him because we was always prepared to go play. We was always prepared to win games, and that’s what we did in my three years there.”
The Ravens have won a lot since they drafted Flowers 22nd overall in 2023. But they haven’t won enough for a team led by two-time NFL MVP and three-time All-Pro quarterback Lamar Jackson, who remains ringless entering his age-29 season.
Baltimore went 13-4 in the regular season before losing in the AFC Championship Game to the eventual champion Kansas City Chiefs in Flowers’ rookie year.
The Ravens again dominated the regular season in 2024, going 12-5 and winning the AFC North for a second straight year. Then, Baltimore disappointed in the playoffs again by losing to Buffalo in the Divisional Round.
Last year, they failed to make the playoffs altogether, losing to Pittsburgh on a missed Tyler Loop field goal as time expired in Week 8. Two days later, Harbaugh was out.
Minter arrived in Baltimore after serving as the Los Angeles Chargers’ defensive coordinator for the past two seasons. There’s usually - emphasis on usually, not always - a grace period for first-year head coaches taking over a team far away from contending. But Minter’s Ravens are expected to win now and win big.
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This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 1:17 PM.