Wink Martindale's focus on new team, and he's changed Giants' 'D' in hurry

It’s hard to imagine these Giants without Wink Martindale. In a matter of mere months he has so deeply engrained himself in the fabric of the organization that it sometimes feels as if he and his spirit have been here all along, wise-cracking through the halls and mixing up diabolical blitz potions in his lab.

And yet there was a time very early on in Brian Daboll’s tenure as head coach when someone else was the defensive coordinator of the team.

Patrick Graham, who had been the Giants’ defensive coordinator the previous two seasons and a candidate to become the next head coach this winter, was poised to retain his title under the new regime. He wound up leaving to become the coordinator of the Raiders shortly after Daboll said he would retain him. Daboll, with an empty desk in the defensive office, had to move on to his next set of candidates.

Enter Martindale.

“When Pat decided to go to the Raiders we interviewed Wink along with a bunch of other guys and we felt he was the right fit,” Daboll said.

So right, in fact, that Daboll said he has never thought back to those fateful January days or wondered what course this season might be on had Graham stayed and Martindale, who had already parted ways with the Ravens, had gone elsewhere.

“I’ve never thought about it,” he said. “But I’m glad he’s here.”

So is just about everyone else on the team.

“He came in here telling us how he likes his defense to play and we adapted to it,” defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence said. “We love his approach every week and every day. We lead as players but he is the leader of the whole room so we respect him and trust what he has to say. But he also listens to us. That gains our trust.”

It’s one of the reasons why as much as Martindale is trying to publicly distance himself from any extra motivations he may feel facing the Ravens on Sunday, the team where he coached for the previous 10 years of his career — “I want this game to be about the players,” Martindale said — his guys certainly understand what is at stake for their tone-setter-in-chief.

“You fight for your coaches and you fight for the guys next to you,” Lawrence said. “We’re fighting for our family.”

Martindale insists he holds no grudges toward the Ravens. He said he has a “deep love” for a lot of the coaches and members of the front office there and said he and Ravens head coach John Harbaugh are “family.” His departure from Baltimore, he said, was simply a case of wanting to try something new.

“We helped build something that they are on their 15th year of doing right now,” Martindale said. “The exciting part about coming here is it’s Year One … I got to go someplace new and try to build it again.”

Under Martindale, the Giants' defense has improved dramatically. They are firmly in the top half of the league in just about every significant defensive category: 12th in total yards allowed, eighth in passing yards allowed, seventh in rushing yards allowed and ninth in points allowed. More importantly they are tied for second in the league in wins.

Martindale has gotten exactly what he wanted from his lateral career move. He said he is “reenergized” by being with the Giants after going to work at the same building with the same people for a decade. The Ravens are an organization generally lauded for their consistency and continuity, but that can also wear on people like Martindale who like to look for different challenges and sceneries.

Martindale said he and Harbaugh had discussions about that and other matters after the 2021 season and decided to part ways.

“I always believe that wherever you are at is where you are supposed to be,” he said. “It was just time.”

Timing that couldn’t have been any better for the Giants.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

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.