The Giants and new head coach Brian Daboll thought they would not have to go through a search process to locate their defensive coordinator. Think again. That is not the case and interviews are underway to find the successor to Patrick Graham.
Don “Wink’’ Martindale, high on Daboll’s list, has already been called in. Sean Desai, after one year running the Bears’ defense, also was scheduled to come in this weekend for an interview.
Daboll, on Saturday, interviewed Teryl Austin, the Steelers’ senior defensive assistant and secondary coach. Austin, 56, is reportedly under strong consideration to be the defensive coordinator in Pittsburgh. He interviewed with the Giants in 2016 for the head-coach vacancy that was filled by Ben McAdoo.
Others will also get the chance to make a pitch for themselves. It will be no surprise at all if Martindale ends up with the job.
Daboll was introduced as the head coach last Monday and announced he had decided to retain Graham, with the caveat that Graham had pending a second interview with the Vikings for their head coach job. Knowing that, Daboll began preliminary work to prioritize whom else he would want to investigate for his defensive coordinator role. Graham did not get the Vikings job, but on Friday was hired to be the Raiders’ defensive coordinator. Graham will be reunited in Las Vegas with newly hired Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels — the two worked together on Bill Belichick’s staff in New England.
Martindale, 58, impressed Giants ownership two years ago, when he interviewed for the head coach position that went to Joe Judge. His 10-year stay with the Ravens, the past four as the defensive coordinator, came to an end after the 2021 season, as Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh opted to make a change.
Martindale’s Ravens’ defense finished in the top 10 his first three seasons before a rash of injuries contributed to a fall to 25th in 2021, leading to his ouster. Martindale would bring an aggressive style and personality to the Giants.
Desai, 38, last year became the first person of Indian descent to rise to the level of an NFL coordinator. He arrived in the NFL in 2013, hired by then-head coach Marc Trestman, and he was retained in Chicago by John Fox and then Matt Nagy, until Nagy was terminated after this past season. Desai’s résumé is a bit different from many coaches in that he has a master’s degree in higher education from Columbia and a doctorate in educational administration from Temple.
Other veteran options for Daboll to fill the defensive coordinator job are two recently fired head coaches, Vic Fangio (Broncos) and Mike Zimmer (Vikings). As of this weekend, though, Fangio and Zimmer were not believed to be Giants candidates.
The Graham scenario unraveled quickly.
He spent three hours last Wednesday interviewing with the Giants for their head-coach position, which he had very little chance to get. As soon as Joe Schoen was hired as general manager, Daboll became the favorite to be hired the next Giants’ head coach, based on his familiarity with Schoen from their four years together in Buffalo and, further back, their one year together in 2011 with the Dolphins.
Word out of the Giants is that Graham was great in his interview. Prepared, of course, and also so passionate that those in the room felt as if they wanted to suit up and hit the field with him. Still, Graham was passed over. And how often does an employee feel good about staying in his same job after he has been told he won’t be advancing in his own company?
Slipping back into his same role, this time without Judge, perhaps Graham’s best friend in the business, was never going to fit snugly. Daboll worked with Graham in New England and this relationship was already comfortable. Comfort would have spread throughout the defensive side of the ball, with Graham’s schemes and ways of doing things carrying over. Would that have been a good thing?
And there is the matter of the lawsuit Brian Flores filed against the Giants, claiming they conducted a “sham’’ interview with him, alleging that a decision had already been made to hire Daboll as the head coach before Flores came in. Graham and Flores are close and Graham staying with the Giants would have, at the very least, been cumbersome to navigate on a personal level.
There is a trickle-down effect here. Daboll believes in allowing his coordinators to make the call on several assistants and Graham was in the process of doing this for the Giants, with Jerome Henderson remaining as defensive backs coach.
Daboll still needs a defensive line coach, a linebackers coach and whatever quality control and other assistants he desires on the defensive side of the ball. What for a few days was on Graham’s plate, now will get served to someone else.
