Giants/Twitter New York Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale shares his vision with the team.
The New York Giants are trying to establish a new identity on defense this season, and defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale is the man who’s providing the vision.
On Thursday, the Giants released a mic’d up episode of “Giants Life: A New Era” on YouTube featuring Martindale and New York’s two other coordinators — Mike Kafka (offense) and Thomas McGaughey (special teams). In the clip they used to promote the episode on Twitter, Martindale sets the tone in the defensive meeting room during mandatory minicamp and challenges the unit’s toughness.
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Inside Wink Martindale’s meeting room 👀
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“You want to see how tough your team is? Look at your short yardage stats,” Martindale says in the clip. “You shove them back, you knock them back in short yardage, and you knock them back down in goal line, that shows you how tough your team is.”
On Martindale’s projector in the video, you can see his “Defensive Vision” for the Giants laid out in five simple bullet points:
- Fast and Physical
- 1 Play at a Time Mentality
- Stop the Run
- Attack and Affect the QB
- Maximize our Personnel
The full, 19-minute episode on YouTube shows Martindale working on the practice field with the Giants defense and goes into more detail on his background, including how he got the nickname “Wink” and his experience winning a Super Bowl back when he was a linebackers coach for the Baltimore Ravens in 2012.
At the 3:20 mark in that video, the Giants huddle up around Martindale and he drops a killer line to break down the team to end practice.
“I want everybody to look over there at the skyline,” Martindale says, pointing at the New York City skyline. “Alright? We’re in the greatest [expletive] city in the world. Let’s go be the greatest [expletive] team in the world.”
Martindale served as defensive coordinator with the Ravens from 2018-2021, but this offseason he made a lateral move to join head coach Brian Daboll’s staff in New York. Now implementing his vision with the Giants, Martindale has a clear appreciation for franchise’s rich history of successful defenses.
“I think if you look back at the history of the Giants, one of the first things that stands out is their defense,” Martindale says around the 8:05 mark. “From the ground up, the foundation of this thing has come with a certain amount of swag, if you will, some toughness.
“We’re gonna attack people,” he continues. “I’m not gonna be one of those coordinators who sits there and just says, ‘four man rush coverage.’ There will be times for that, of course. But we wanna handle things on our terms, not theirs.”
Martindale has his work cut out for him in 2022, as the Giants ranked 23rd in scoring defense and 21st in overall defense last season.
Andy Reid Details Mike Kafka’s Impact on Patrick Mahomes
Just like Martindale, Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka faces a similarly daunting task on the opposite side of the ball. Kafka came over from the Kansas City Chiefs this offseason, where he last served as quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator under head coach Andy Reid.
The full episode of “Giants Life: A New Era” details Kafka’s NFL playing career, which started as a fourth-round pick out of Northwestern in 2010 and lasted until 2015. It also highlighted the 34-year-old’s burgeoning coaching career with testimonial from Reid himself.
“He was a big help to Pat [Mahomes],” Reid says of Kafka around the 14:20 mark in the video. “He kept Pat after practice, and they’d work things. Pat kinda had his own little private tutor there. And Mike, again, really helped raise him up and raise his game up.”
After helping Mahomes become both a regular-season league MVP and a Super Bowl MVP, Kafka’s new challenge is to help resurrect Daniel Jones’ career with the Giants.
Thomas McGaughey Has Survived Everything Thrown at Him
Thomas McGaughey has survived two rounds of firings since joining the Giants as special teams coordinator in 2018. He has also survived cancer.
Just watch McGaughey address the team in a meeting room around the 15:15 mark in this episode of “Giants Life: A New Era,” and you’ll understand why Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge and Brian Daboll all wanted this guy on their respective coaching staffs.
“Pros do it every single [expletive] day,” McGaughey says in his message to the team. “They do it every day, right? Amateurs do it when they feel like it. But we’re not amateurs in this room, right? You’ve got to put in the work every single day. You’ve got to make an investment every single day. Because we’re all working towards a goal.”
As the Giants try to make a leap in Year 1 under a new coaching staff, that is a decent message to rally around.
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Giants Reveal 5-Point Plan For Defensive Vision in Mic’d Up Meeting [WATCH]