Giants DC Wink Martindale compares Josh Allen to Dan Marino, Derrick Henry and . . . Steph Curry?
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen speaks with media after a practice session in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, north-west of London, Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. Credit: AP/Steve Luciano
Wink Martindale loves to make comparisons when it comes to Giants’ opponents.
This week he had a particularly intriguing one for Bills quarterback Josh Allen: quarterback Dan Marino’s arm, running back Derrick Henry’s legs, and Steph Curry’s mindset.
Wow.
“(Steph) thinks he can hit it anywhere on the court, and that’s the same way Josh is,” Martindale said. “He’s just an unbelievably elite quarterback in finding extra time to hit the open receiver in tight windows, and he’s got one of the strongest arms in the league.”
In preparing for the Bills on Sunday night, Martindale and the defensive assistants had to consider a completely different set of challenges from Miami, which often relies on its offensive speed to quell opponents.
“It’s a completely different challenge,” Martindale said.
If the Giants defense is to have success at Buffalo, inside linebacker Bobby Okereke should be in the middle of it. He seems to be comfortable in his first season as a Giant.
“I think (that’s from) just getting a better understanding of Wink’s system, getting a better understanding of how my teammates play around me and just feeding myself with confidence and positivity,” he said. “Just trying to do that for the guys in the group. You’ve got to have faith, you’ve got to believe in yourself, even when other people don’t, and that’s how we are going to turn this thing around.”
Surely, Martindale has studied how the Jets and Jaguars defeated the Bills.
“It's a copycat league,” he said. “You see things that you like, there's different situations, whatever it could be, but you always take things and see things and tweak it or say this is similar to us in our scheme. You can do things like that, yes."
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
