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Atlanta’s list of candidates keeps growing, and they’re not shying away from scouring the ranks of defensive-minded coaches for their head coach vacancy.
The latest candidate is an interesting one, as the team is one of eight (!) to request an interview with Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. The longtime Harbaugh disciple—he was with John in Baltimore from 2017-2020 and has been with Jim at both Michigan and with the Chargers—is a hot name because of the strength of the defenses he coordinated both in college and now in the pros.
Minter took a Chargers defense that was 28th in points allowed and 24th in yardage allowed in 2023 under Brandon Staley and got it to 1st and 11th in 2024 and 9th and 5th in 2025, creating a suffocating unit that has the Chargers in the playoff picture despite a very hiccup-y offense. Regarded as a potential head coach in waiting the past couple of years, Minter’s going to get a real shot in 2026; while we continue to think the Falcons won’t go with a defensive-minded head coach, it feels likelier they’d take a shot on a rising star like Minter or Carolina’s Ejiro Evero than a more experienced hire on that side of the ball.
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The knock on Minter, of course, is the same as Jeff Hafley, Evero, and Aden Durde: They’re all defensive coordinators with fairly limited NFL experience in that role and no NFL head coaching experience. You have to take a shot on up-and-coming coaches at times, the way the Falcons did with Arthur Smith in 2021, but you have to make sure they’re ready and have a smart pool of coordinators and position coaches to draw on.
The Falcons now have a lengthy list of candidates to sort through as January rolls on, and would likely prefer to have someone in-house soon to begin powering through a critical offseason. We’ll see who gets second interviews and who else might be added to this list.
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