Monday was the day the New York Giants sent their three coordinators to the podium to face the media. The one coordinator that everyone wanted to hear from was defensive guru Wink Martindale, a man who has built a solid resume in his 15-plus years in the NFL.
Martindale started by saying how excited he was and outlined his plan for molding his defense the next few weeks.
“I’m happy with where we are at right now defensively. I think personnel and (head coach Brian Daboll) has done a great job of gathering some smart, tough, and dependable players,” Martindale said. “We’re going to be on the process of the next three preseason games finding out who’s the smartest, who’s the toughest and who’s the most dependable — because all three of those factors are what we’re going to build on. I like where we are at.”
One unit Martindale is focusing on is the secondary where he gets to tinker with his versatile safeties Julian Love and Xavier McKinney.
“I mean those guys you can move around are fun to coach because the number one thing is how smart he (Love) is — how football smart he is. He understands little things and it’s a valuable piece to have when you’re putting a defense together in this league,” he said.
McKinney is currently wearing the defensive headset and calling the defensive signals. In most NFL defenses, a linebacker usually draws that assignment. Martindale hands it off to a safety but he said that could change.
“Well, I don’t think that’s written in stone yet. I’ve always thought that to survive in this league you’ve got look at everything and just because something’s always been done one way, it doesn’t mean that’s the way you have to do it,” he said. “That could change week to week on who we have wear the green dot. The biggest thing is to get them all communicating. If you look out there it’s not just X, it’s Julian Love has one, then we mix in some linebackers and things like that. You just reminded me I’ve got to turn in the green dot list for the New England game, thank you.”
Another thing the Giants have going for them is their defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson, who drew praise from Martindale.
“I think he’s the best secondary coach there is in the league. I love our first group of secondary players and now we’ve just got to keep building on depth of that secondary,” he said. “I love how they compete; I love how they practice and I’m excited to see them play against another team. It’s going to be fun to watch. That’ll be a process and I’ll keep you all up to date on that. I really love how they compete.”
