JANUARY 10: The Giants have not yet started searching for a Martindale replacement and are not planning to until he informs them of an official resignation, per NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo, with this standoff still going. Although Martindale is not technically gone, The Athletic’s Dan Duggan indicates neither side is aiming for a third season to come to pass at this point. Resignations are fairly rare in the NFL, due to the financial component, and it will be interesting to see if Martindale now forces the Giants to fire him.
JANUARY 9: It is fairly clear the Giants’ relationship with Don Martindale will wrap after two seasons. Brought in without ties to Brian Daboll in 2022, Martindale feuded with the 2022 Coach of the Year this season. That beef escalated Monday.
Following Daboll’s decisions to fire two of Martindale’s assistants — brothers Drew and Kevin Wilkins, who came with the defensive coordinator from the Ravens — the veteran DC cursed out Daboll in his office and stormed out of the Giants’ facility, Paul Schwartz of the New York Post reports. Martindale told people he would resign, but the Giants have not yet heard anything from the outgoing assistant.
Martindale, 60, is owed $3MM for the 2024 season. Resigning would lead to Martindale forfeiting that money, but with one year remaining on the three-year deal the vocal DC signed back in 2022, the Giants can interfere with him landing somewhere else as a defensive coordinator for the ’24 season. Martindale is believed to be flying back to a home he has in Florida, Schwartz adds.
The November report from Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer, which indicated the Daboll-Martindale relationship was in a bad place, came not long after Daboll took issue with Martindale’s approach during the team’s blowout loss to the Cowboys in Week 10. Implementing a conservative gameplan around Tommy DeVito and a depleted secondary in that matchup, Daboll did not approve of Martindale deploying blitz packages as he did during a game in which the Giants allowed 640 yards — second-most in team history. Daboll confronted Martindale about Glazer’s report privately, per Schwartz, but no explanation emerged.
Daboll is believed to have fired Drew Wilkins, the team’s outside linebackers coach, due in part because of a perception he and Martindale were operating in rogue fashion and believing, Schwartz reports, they did not always have to answer to the offense-oriented head coach. This also led to the ouster of Kevin Wilkins, who worked as a defensive assistant. Drew Wilkins had spent 10 seasons with the Ravens, the timeline overlapping entirely with Martindale’s Baltimore stay. Joining the Giants shortly after Martindale, Drew Wilkins operated as a top lieutenant on defense. On his watch, Kayvon Thibodeaux showed progression in Year 2, posting a team-high 11.5 sacks.
Daboll made a point not to be tied to coaches he was previously familiar with, instead assembling an assistant cadre featuring differing backgrounds. After Martindale and ST coordinator Thomas McGaughey‘s ousters, it is worth wondering if the former Bills OC will deviate from that strategy. The Giants finished 26th in scoring defense and 27th in yards allowed, both finishes worse than the team’s 2022 playoff season.
This Martindale matter will be resolved soon, and it marks the second time in three years a team will part ways with the veteran defensive coach. Differing on contract structure in 2022, the Ravens let Martindale go after a four-season DC run. Martindale interviewed twice for the Colts’ HC post last year. After this simmering feud led to this conclusion, it is worth wondering if another team will consider the Super Bowl-winning assistant for a top job moving forward.
What a Clown Show
If all these reports are true, and there’s no reason to believe they’re not, then Wink is lucky he wasn’t fired after that Dallas game. Frankly to act that way Wink needed to be heading a defense akin to the ‘85 Bears ( or the ‘23 Jets as they proclaimed), instead he was presiding over the ‘23 Giants.
With this being outed, I would say don’t let the door hit you on your way out,
@rock,
I agree on shifting strategy some but the Cowboys scored 14 pts in last 4 mins of the 2nd qtr. so down 28-0 at halftime with a 3rd string QB. Creating takeaways is the only real benefit the defense can do to help, of which, blitzing and pressure are more favorable. However, they really got destroyed every which way that game Dallas had like 30 1st downs. I’ve removed most from my memory.
The Giants got smoked twice by Dallas this term. First time, Week 1 on NBC, ended 40-0, largest shutout win in Cowboys history. Second time, Week 10, ended 49-17, the Pokes putting up 640 yards total offense. And Fox forced that Week 10 mismatch to 90% of the country cos Giants and Cowboys are both NFC East.
As well, NFC East and NYC are the only reasons why Daboll was anointed Coach Of The Year for 2022. Ian Eagle on CBS smartly decided not to bring that undeserved award up during the Week 18 game vs. Philly.
“As well, NFC East and NYC are the only reasons why Daboll was anointed Coach Of The Year for 2022.”
I get what you’re saying, but that roster had no business making the playoffs much less winning a playoff game but Daboll still made it happen. He made Daniel Jones look good. That alone should get you some hardware.
Made Jones look usable not good.
Kyle Shanahan deserved to be 2022 Coach Of The Year — 49ers ran the table in their division and got to the NFC Championship game. Yet Daboll got the award because NYC and NFC East.
CoY awards usually go to the coach perceived to get the most out of nothing or the coach who takes a perceived non-contender to a playoff spot. Imo despite leading arguably the best team, Harbaugh probably doesn’t win the award this year because he’s generally always been regarded as a good coach with a decent roster. Stefanski, leading a team that cycled through 4 QBs into the playoffs, and Ryans, leading a team from the 2nd worst record to the playoffs, are the leading candidates this year imo.
Shanahan helped put Purdy onto the map but the rest of the roster was stacked before that.
Bye
26th in the league in points allowed, horrible run defense despite having Dexter Lawrence, didn’t really develop any talent (Thibs looked good at times, was invisible at others, PFF grade of 58.5), no scheme other than ‘blitz a lot’. Good riddance.
Not only is Thibs inconsistent, he becomes downright invisible when his counterpart on the other side, Ojulari, is out hurt — which he is frequently.
Exactly. Sometimes you would completely forget Thibs was on the field, which is not something that should happen with a guy drafted as high as he was. I think with PFF grades, Thibs, Jihad Ward, and Ojulari were among the worst in the league. Crazy for a team that blitzes so much.
Ego is the enemy.
so sick of hearing this dopey nickname all the time
Yup, this Wink the Dink is way overrated.
nunzio1749
so we only talk about giants faults at defense not the $40 million quarterback who is awful the OC you kept who isn’t allowed to call plays presumably because he says yes sir to DaBoll the offense was horrendous also this team was an embarrassment to its fans for most of the year so DaBoll wants to go all in you better be better than this disgrace you as a head coach gave us and with DJ as our QB it won’t happen
Usually, Jones’ $40 million dollar contract is just about all of the Giants conversation. It’s nice to talk about something else for a change.
For all the heat wink is taking, it’s not like the Giants had an offense that helped the D… The offense had 9 games where they scored 14 points or LESS. They couldn’t maintain drives, they didn’t eat clock and they couldn’t move the ball. Winks defense pressured and caused turnovers. The thing is, it doesn’t matter if you force a turnover and give the ball to Tommy devito or Danny Jones. The O-line was one of the worst of all time, statistically… Defense was their best unit, by far. The defense was hung out to dry, rarely got any offensive help..Giants D got to the QB 34 times, not bad. They were out sacked by 51. That’s right a -51 sack differential…. Daboll and Schoen got a free pass bc Jones got hurt but the reality is I don’t think they would have faired any better seeing as Jones threw 6 picks and lost 4 fumbles in 6 games. This team looked unprepared all season. That should fall on the head coach, I don’t blame wink for being pissed.
If the reports of how he reacted to the assistants getting fired are true, fire him for cause and don’t pay him. Or if you want to truly mess with him, let him resign and then block him from interviewing elsewhere, which is permitted under the CBA.