Other than the fact that the New York Giants' defense led the NFL in takeaways in 2023, Giants fans don't have many good memories of Wink Martindale. The first memory that comes to mind is his power struggle with Brian Daboll, where somehow, their egos got them both fired before Joe Schoen.
Since being ousted by Daboll, he hasn't even coached in the NFL again. He spent the last two seasons at Michigan and nearly landed the Jets' defensive coordinator job, but talks fell through because Woody Johnson refused to allow Aaron Glenn to defer play-calling duties to Martindale.
After the Jets' fiasco, the expectation was that Wink wouldn't land another NFL DC job this cycle, but boy, we were wrong. After all, chaos does follow him, as Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer reported that he could receive a look from Mike LaFleur for the Arizona Cardinals' defensive coordinator opening.
The Arizona Cardinals could be looking at making Wink Martindale their next defensive coordinator
Breer prefaced his report by saying that this could only happen if Texans' DB coach Dino Vasso doesn't take the Cardinals' DC job, but it recently came out that he is planning to stay in Houston. So that means their search is right back to square one, so the 62-year-old could get a look.
If there's any team that would hire Martindale, it's the Cardinals. After all, LaFleur is already assembling the Avengers of goofball coaches by hiring Nathaniel Hackett to be his OC, so what's the harm in hiring another coach who no other team has interest in hiring? As a Giants fan, it's hilarious.
There's no denying that Martindale is objectively a good defensive mind. The defensive scheme that Mike Macdonald employed and helped the Seahawks win the Super Bowl was originally employed by Wink in Baltimore and later the Giants, but his hotheadedness is why teams are steering clear of him.
The Cardinals' defense has been one of the worst in football for years on end, so it's not like they can get much worse by pairing LaFleur with a DC with previous experience. But considering he's a coach whose scheme is predicated on blitzing more than anyone else in football, his track record isn't great.
The Cardinals are one of the most incompetent franchises in the history of the NFL, and this is precisely why. They hired a first-time head coach who didn't even call plays as the OC of the Rams, and he's surrounding himself with the NFL coaching staff equivalent of the All-American Rejects.
Martindale is a high-risk, high-reward hire because he loves to be aggressive, but he also loves control. So if this blows up in their face as many fans expect, LaFleur will have been better off hiring the game show host... and the Giants can only laugh and say they tried to warn them.