Don Martindale, Sean Desai to interview for Giants' DC opening
Don Martindale during pre-game warm-ups before the Ravens played against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021, in Baltimore Credit: AP/Terrance Williams
Two years after the Giants interviewed Don "Wink" Martindale for their vacancy at head coach, an entire new regime will meet with him to discuss the possibility of his becoming the team’s defensive coordinator.
Martindale, fired by the Ravens after four years leading their defense, is interviewing for the newly opened position with the Giants this weekend, according to NFL Network. He is one of as many as a half-dozen candidates who will be vying for the job vacated when Patrick Graham accepted the same position with the Raiders on Friday night. NFL Network also reported that former Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai will be interviewed.
As late as the middle of this past week, the Giants believed Graham would remain with them. Even though he interviewed for the job of head coach that eventually went to Brian Daboll, they planned to retain Graham, who had been their defensive coordinator the past two seasons.
The condition on Graham’s return seemed to hinge on whether he became the head coach of the Vikings. He was a finalist but did not get the job.
When former Patriots co-worker Josh McDaniels was named the Raiders’ head coach and asked Graham to interview, the Giants could not block it. When their staff was in flux, they already had allowed him to interview for the Steelers’ defensive coordinator position and were not permitted to deny a similar request, even for a lateral move such as this.
Martindale, 58, was believed to be high on Daboll’s list for defensive coordinators before he decided to try to keep Graham, and he remains so now that Graham is gone.
In his first three years with the Ravens, Martindale’s defenses ranked sixth, 13th and 12th in the league before injuries and other issues dropped them to 21st in 2021 and led to his departure. He was the Broncos’ defensive coordinator before arriving in Baltimore as a linebackers coach in 2012.
When Martindale interviewed with the Giants in 2020 for the job of head coach that went to Joe Judge, he raved about his connection with the team.
"It wasn’t just a good one, it was a great one," he said of the experience.
Desai has far less experience and at age 38 has been a coordinator in the NFL for only one season, but he is considered one of the bright young defensive minds in the league.
After graduating from Boston University, he earned a master’s degree in higher and postsecondary education from Columbia University in 2005 and a doctorate in educational administration in 2008 at Temple University. He worked at Temple as an adjunct professor and a defensive coach for two years before turning to football as a career path.
The Giants have plenty of other options they will consider before filling the job, including Vic Fangio, Mike Zimmer and Steve Wilks — who have NFL head-coaching experience that could be beneficial for a relatively young Giants staff — along with familiar names from their own past such as Pepper Johnson, Dave Merritt and current defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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