The Atlanta Falcons have started to throw out head coaching interview requests in recent days, but Matt Ryan still has his work cut out for him. Including John Harbaugh, the Falcons have already spoken to six coaching candidates, but there are a few interviews the front office have on the docket.
The Dirty Birds are expected to speak to Robert Saleh, Vance Joseph, Jeff Hafley, and Ejiro Evero this week, but that's not all. According to a report from Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, they requested to interview Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter this week, which came better late than never.
Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter has interview requests from the Browns, Cardinals, Dolphins, Falcons, Giants, Raiders, Ravens and Titans, per source. That's right—all 8 teams with openings put in for him.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 13, 2026
Minter is interviewing with the Titans and Cardinals today.
Perhaps they waited until Minter and the Chargers were eliminated from the playoffs in order to speak with him, but this is uncharacteristically late in the coaching cycle. Then again, the Steelers only fired Mike Tomlin yesterday, so things might only be getting started for the Falcons on the interview front.
Falcons need to seriously consider hiring Jesse Minter to be their next head coach
Breer's report also revealed that Minter has been requested to interview for eight of the nine head coach vacancies and only isn't perfect because Pittsburgh hasn't even been coach-less for 24 hours. That means he'll clearly be a hot commodity, but the Falcons shouldn't ignore him because of that.
The 42-year-old has ties to both John and Jim Harbaugh, and has been Jim's right-hand man since he replaced Mike Macdonald as Michigan's defensive coordinator in 2022. He even followed him to Los Angeles when he took the Chargers' head coaching job, and has done great with this defense.
In two seasons as the DC in Los Angeles, his defenses finished No. 1 (2024) and No. 9 (2025) in scoring defense, while the Chargers also ranked fifth in total defense in 2025 and 11th in 2024. And this was mostly the same personnel that Brandon Staley's defense couldn't stop a nosebleed with.
The Chargers' defense improved drastically going from Staley to Minter calling plays, as they finished 28th in total defense in his final season and finished in the bottom 10 in total defense in all three of Staley's seasons, yet Minter turned that defense into one of the league's best basically overnight.
It's nice to know the Falcons will speak to him now that they're able to, but I hope they aren't spooked by the stout competition. Minter is someone who will obviously land a head coaching job this offseason, so not treating him like a serious candidate would have been a huge mistake from Ryan.
So if the Falcons aren't able to land Harbaugh, Minter would be a welcomed consolation prize.