The Baltimore Ravens have spent training camp establishing a new standard under head coach Jesse Minter, but one frustrating issue from the John Harbaugh era resurfaced during Sunday’s practice.
Baltimore’s offense committed eight false-start penalties during a hot, physical practice, according to The Baltimore Banner. The total marked the offense’s highest number of false starts in a single practice this summer and came less than a week before the Ravens’ preseason opener.
The penalties immediately brought attention back to a problem Baltimore has dealt with in recent seasons. Ebony Bird’s Conner Burke pointed to pre-snap mistakes as a familiar issue that carried over into the Minter era.
There is one significant difference, however. Minter and offensive coordinator Declan Doyle are taking an aggressive approach to correcting the mistakes before the regular season begins.
Ravens’ Pre-Snap Penalties Resurface Under Jesse Minter
The Ravens’ eight false starts involved both rookies and veterans as quarterbacks worked on varying their cadence.
Minter explained after practice that the Ravens are deliberately working on changing the cadence to make Baltimore’s offense more difficult for opposing defenses to anticipate.
“We were really trying to mix it up, not letting the other side know what we are always operating on,” Minter told reporters after practice. “So we want to be able to do that. You really want to be able to use that as an advantage, as a weapon. I think it is a great message of just the focus and the details that are required for that to become a real weapon, and not something that puts you behind the chains like it did a few times today.”
The mistakes come after Baltimore dealt with similar problems under former head coach John Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Todd Monken.
According to NFLPenalties.com, the Ravens ranked in the top half of the NFL in both false starts and illegal formation penalties during the 2024 season.
Baltimore improved in 2025, but pre-snap penalties remained an issue. Roughly one out of every three Ravens penalties came before the snap.
Minter and his staff are now trying to prevent that problem from carrying over into the regular season.
Declan Doyle Takes Different Approach to Ravens’ False Starts
While the penalties themselves are familiar, the Ravens’ response to them has changed.
Doyle has established consequences for players who commit pre-snap penalties during training camp. When an offensive player is flagged, the coordinator has pulled him for the following play and, in some cases, for the remainder of the series.
That approach puts an immediate emphasis on accountability as Baltimore attempts to turn its changing cadence into an advantage rather than a source of penalties.
The Ravens have made pre-snap communication a priority throughout the offseason. Minter’s comments Sunday indicated the team has no intention of abandoning the strategy because of one difficult practice.
Instead, Baltimore wants players to become comfortable enough with the system to execute it without putting the offense in difficult down-and-distance situations.
The timing gives the Ravens an opportunity to address the mistakes before the games count.
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