Ravens fill two of three defensive assistant coach vacancies
The Baltimore Ravens will have defensive coordinator Don ‘Wink’ Martindale around for another season now the annual coaching carousel is almost over and he hasn’t even been interviewed for either of the remaining two vacancies.
While Martindale is staying put, he lost three assistants in the past week, and Thursday, the team filled two of them with a pair of familiar faces.
The Ravens will be replacing defensive line coach Joe Cullen who was hired to be the defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars with Anthony Weaver and will replace inside linebackers coach Mike Macdonald who was hired to be the defensive coordinator at the University of Michigan with Rob Ryan.
Weaver is a former player who was drafted by the Ravens in the second round of the 2002 draft and was a fan favorite during his time with the team from 2002-2005.
He has served on the Houston Texans defensive staff for the last five years as the defensive line coach from 2016-2019 before being promoted to defensive coordinator in 2020.
In addition to coaching the defensive line, Weaver been hired to serve as the defensive run game coordinator as well.
While Ryan has never played or previously coached for the organization, his twin brother Rex did as the Ravens’ defensive coordinator from 2005-2008.
He does have a preexisting relationship with Martindale dating back to their time spent together with the Raiders from 2004-2008 when he was the defensive play-caller and Wink was the linebackers coach.
Ryan wasn’t coaching anywhere in 2020 but was most recently the inside linebackers coach for the Washington Football Team in 2019 and served on his brother’s staff before that as the assistant head coach and defensive assistant in 2016.
The Ravens are still looking for a new defensive backs coach after Jesse Minter was hired as the defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt University.