OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Declan Doyle's relationship with Lamar Jackson began while interviewing to become the Baltimore Ravens' offensive coordinator.
Doyle spoke to the two-time NFL MVP for over an hour on a video call and it seems that lengthy conversation went very well.
“I really wanted to see if we were compatible,” Doyle said Wednesday as first-year head coach Jesse Minter introduced his three newly hired coordinators. "And if that was a fit.”
The 29-year-old Doyle ultimately accepted Minter's offer after a year as Chicago's offensive coordinator. With the Bears, Doyle helped second-year quarterback Caleb Williams throw for 27 touchdowns and 3,942 yards while reaching his first postseason.
In Baltimore, he'll add the role of primary play-caller and the challenge of helping Jackson, also 29, return to the level that twice earned him the league's top individual honor.
“I’ve always been too young for every job I’ve ever had,” Doyle said. “And what I’ve noticed is it really doesn’t matter. Knowledge is power and if they feel like you can help them, if they feel like you can help accelerate their career and our goals as a team, guys are willing to listen, to be taught and to grow and to work together.”
Jackson threw only 21 touchdown passes last season, his fewest when making at least 13 starts, and rushed for a career-low 349 yards. The Ravens missed the playoffs for only the second time since drafting Jackson in 2018, precipitating John Harbaugh's firing and Minter's arrival.
Doyle praised Jackson's “hunger to learn” and suggested his clearest path to improvement is within the scripted offense.
“The challenge with him for a defense is that they have to defend two plays on every play,” Doyle said. “They have to defend the first play that we call ... and then they have to defend the second element, which is him creating on his own. That second act, that’s the stuff that he’s done since he was a kid.
"That first play can be more consistent at times — with his eyes, with his footwork, within the system.”
Minter also introduced defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver and special teams coordinator Anthony Levine Sr.
Weaver played four of his seven NFL seasons in Baltimore, held multiple assistant roles under Harbaugh and interviewed for the Ravens' head coaching position, among others. However, Minter will call defensive plays.
“This job, and being a coach here with this staff and these players, is hardly a consolation prize,” said Weaver, who was also previously a DC in Houston and Miami. “I’d be lying to you if I said seriously that I wasn’t disappointed that I didn’t get a head job. But ultimately, I just came back to, why am I doing this to begin with?
"Selfishly, I’m in it to try and win a Super Bowl, right? To be part of a group that’s forever. ... Secondly, I’m here to serve. I’m here to serve players and help them reach whatever God-given potential they have.
"I don’t need to be a head coach to do that.”
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FILE Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver stands on the field before an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, Sept. 18, 2025, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
TRUCKEE, Calif. (AP) — Eight backcountry skiers have been found dead and 1 remains missing after an avalanche near Lake Tahoe in California, officials said, making it the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. in more than four decades.
Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon announced the deaths at a news conference Wednesday.
Search and rescue crews were dispatched to the Castle Peak area of the Sierra Nevada after a 911 call Tuesday afternoon reporting an avalanche had buried 15 skiers. Six of them have been found alive.
It is the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. since 1981, when 11 climbers were killed on Mount Rainier, Washington.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Crews faced treacherous conditions Wednesday in their search for nine backcountry skiers still missing a day after an avalanche in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. Six others were found alive and rescued.
The group was on a three-day trek in Northern California's Sierra Nevada on Tuesday morning when the avalanche occurred as a monster winter storm pummeled the West Coast.
Two of those rescued after several hours of searching were taken to a hospital for treatment, said Ashley Quadros, a spokesperson for the Nevada County Sheriff's Office. Heavy snow and the threat of additional avalanches slowed the rescue effort in the mountains near Castle Peak, northwest of Lake Tahoe.
The area near Donner Summit is one of the snowiest places in the Western Hemisphere and until just a few years ago was closed to the public. It sees an average of nearly 35 feet (10 meters) of snow a year, according to the Truckee Donner Land Trust, which owns a cluster of huts where the group was staying near Frog Lake.
The Sierra Avalanche Center warned Wednesday that the risk of avalanche remains high and advised against travel in the area. Multiple feet of snowfall and gale force winds in recent days left the snowpack unstable and unpredictable, and more snow was predicted to fall, the center said.
Nevada County Sheriff Capt. Russell Greene said authorities were notified about the avalanche by Blackbird Mountain Guides, which was leading the expedition, and the skiers' emergency beacons. The sheriff’s office said Tuesday night that 15 backcountry skiers had been on the trip, not 16 as initially believed.
The skiers were on the last day of a backcountry skiing trip and had spent two nights in the huts, said Steve Reynaud, an avalanche forecaster with the Sierra Avalanche Center. He said the area requires navigating rugged mountainous terrain. All food and supplies need to be carried to the huts.
Reaching the huts in winter takes several hours and requires backcountry skills, avalanche training and safety equipment, the land trust says on its website.
Blackbird Mountain Guides said in a statement said the group, including four guides, was returning to the trailhead when the avalanche occurred.
“Our thoughts are with the missing individuals, their families, and first responders in the field,” Blackbird said in a statement Wednesday. The company said it is helping authorities in the search.
Several Tahoe ski resorts had been fully or partially closed due to the weather. Resorts, which use controlled explosions and barriers to manage avalanche threats, were not expected to be at as high of a risk as the backcountry, the center said.
The area near Donner Summit was closed for nearly a century before the land trust and its partners in 2020 acquired Frog Lake, which is framed by 1,000-foot-high (300-meter-high) cliffs. Donner Summit is named for the infamous Donner Party, a group of pioneers who resorted to cannibalism after getting trapped there in the winter of 1846-1847.
In January, an avalanche in the region buried a snowmobiler and killed him, authorities said. Each winter, 25 to 30 people die in avalanches in the U.S., according to the National Avalanche Center.
Watson reported from San Diego and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu and Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed.
Snow covers a street sign on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026 in Truckee Calif. (AP Photo/Brooke Hess-Homeier)
This image provided by the Nevada County Sheriff's Office shows members of a rescue team in Soda Springs, California on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (Nevada County Sheriff's Office via AP)
Cars are covered in snow during a snow storm on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 in Truckee Calif. (AP Photos/Brooke Hess-Homeier)
Trucks are lined up along Interstate 80 during a storm on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 in Truckee Calif. (AP Photos/Brooke Hess-Homeier)
A vehicle is buried in snow during a storm on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 in Truckee Calif. (AP Photos/Brooke Hess-Homeier)
A road is plowed during a snow storm on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 in Truckee Calif. (AP Photos/Brooke Hess-Homeier)
This image provided by the Nevada County Sheriff's Office shows members of a rescue team in Soda Springs, California on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (Nevada County Sheriff's Office via AP)
