New York Giants

Don "Wink" Martindale is reportedly close to joining Brian Daboll's coaching staff with the New York Giants.

Per ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Giants are finalizing a deal to make Martindale their new defensive coordinator.

Martindale's departure from the Baltimore Ravens last month came as a surprise. 

Head coach John Harbaugh said in a statement Jan. 21 that the two sides "agreed to move forward in separate directions" after multiple conversations. 

The Ravens hired Martindale to be their linebackers coach in 2012 and promoted him to defensive coordinator in 2018 after Dean Pees retired.

Baltimore's defense ranked in the top three in points allowed and top seven in yards allowed in each of Martindale's first three seasons in charge.

Eric Eager of Pro Football Focus ranked him as the second-best defensive play-caller in the NFL entering the 2021 season behind Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley. 

The Giants are rebuilding their organization after a 4-13 season. General manager Dave Gettleman retired in January after four years with the club. The Giants fired Joe Judge as head coach after he went 10-23 in two seasons.

Joe Schoen was named general manager Jan. 21 after spending the previous five years as an assistant general manager for the Buffalo Bills. Daboll, who worked with the Bills for four seasons as offensive coordinator, was named Giants head coach the following week.

Martindale's track record of success on the defensive end should go a long way toward helping a New York defense that finished 18th in Football Outsiders' DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average) and 23rd in points allowed (24.5 per game) in 2021.   

With Brian Daboll taking over as head coach, the New York Giants are working to fill out his staff for the 2022 season. 

Per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, the Giants are interviewing Don Martindale and Sean Desai this weekend for their vacant defensive coordinator position. 

Per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, Patrick Graham vacated his job as Giants defensive coordinator to take the same position with the Las Vegas Raiders. 

Daboll told reporters he was hoping to keep Graham in New York. The two previously worked together, alongside new Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels, on Bill Belichick's staff with the New England Patriots from 2013 to 2015. 

Martindale is one of the most well-known defensive coordinators in the NFL. The 58-year-old spent the past 10 seasons working on John Harbaugh's staff with the Baltimore Ravens, including the previous four years as defensive coordinator. 

Harbaugh said in a statement on Jan. 21 that Martindale and the Ravens agreed to part ways. 

The Ravens finished in the top three in points allowed and top 10 in Football Outsiders' defensive DVOA in each of Martindale's first three seasons as defensive coordinator. 

Desai worked on the Chicago Bears' defensive coaching staff for the past nine seasons. He was promoted to defensive coordinator in January 2021 following Chuck Pagano's retirement. 

The Bears finished 13th in Football Outsiders' DVOA in 2021. 

New York is getting a fresh start in 2022 with Daboll and first-year general manager Joe Schoen. They are looking to turn around a franchise that has posted five consecutive losing seasons.     

The Las Vegas Raiders are reportedly hiring Patrick Graham as their defensive coordinator, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. 

Graham served as defensive coordinator for the New York Giants for the last two seasons. 

Graham heading to the Raiders comes after SNY's Ralph Vacchiano reported before New York hired Brian Daboll that Graham would have been interested in remaining with the Giants if he didn't land the team's head coaching position. 

According to Vacchiano, Graham was popular with Giants players, and the team's ownership liked him a lot. The 43-year-old was invested in the Giants, having turned down the opportunity to interview for the New York Jets head coaching job last year.

Daboll also expressed interest in retaining Graham as defensive coordinator, telling reporters he hoped he would remain with the team in 2022. 

Graham's decision to join the Raiders in the same position is especially surprising after he told Zack Rosenblatt of NJ Advance Media that coaching the Giants defense was his "dream job." 

However, Graham does have strong ties to Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels. He worked with McDaniels for the New England Patriots from 2012-15.

Graham will replace former defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, who spent just one season in Vegas. He helped improve the team's defense but has since joined Frank Reich's staff as a defensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts. 

Graham had the Giants defense ranked No. 21 in total defense and No. 23 in scoring defense during the 2021 season. Those numbers aren't great, but his defense often had to make up for the offense's mistakes. 

As for the Raiders, the franchise's defense ranked 14th in yards allowed and 26th in scoring last season under Bradley. Graham will hope to improve those ranks in 2022. 

The New York Giants responded Thursday to the allegations levied against them in Brian Flores' lawsuit against the NFL and its teams.

"Brian Flores has raised serious issues in the filing of his complaint," the Giants said in a statement. "The specific claims against the Giants and Mr. Flores' allegations about the legitimacy of his candidacy for our head coach position are disturbing and simply false."

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Flores alleges, in part, that the Giants had already made the decision to hire Brian Daboll as head coach days before they interviewed Flores. The team met with Flores last Thursday and officially named Daboll as head coach the next day.

According to Flores, the instance was just one example of NFL teams conducting sham interviews with Black head coaching candidates just to satisfy the Rooney Rule. Under the rule, teams are required to interview at least two candidates of color for head coach openings.

Flores included text messages from New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick as part of the evidence to support his lawsuit. Belichick mistakenly sent Flores congratulatory messages for landing the Giants position, apparently thinking he was texting Daboll.

The Giants vehemently dismissed the notion that Belichick would have any knowledge of their hiring process. New York pointed to the timing of the text messages, noting that Daboll had only had a zoom interview and the team wouldn't make a decision without meeting a coach in-person.

"And to base that allegation on a text exchange with Bill Belichick in which he ultimately states that he 'thinks' Brian Daboll would get the job is irresponsible," the team stated. "The text exchange occurred the day before Coach Daboll's in-person interview even took place."

The team later added, "In addition, Mr. Belichick does not speak for and has no affiliation with the Giants. Mr. Belichick's text exchange provides no insight into what actually transpired during our head coaching search."

The Giants provided Flores' itinerary for this time with the organization last Thursday. New York stated that it gave full consideration to hiring him before ultimately deciding on Daboll.

"Our hiring process and, most certainly, our consideration of Mr. Flores was serious and genuine," the team stated. "We are disappointed to learn that Mr. Flores was under the mistaken impression the job had already been awarded."

The New York Giants have hired Buffalo Bills player services coordinator Laura Young to be their director of coaching operations, per Jordan Raanan and Field Yates of ESPN.

Per Raanan, Young is believed to be the first woman hired by the New York Giants organization for its coaching staff.

Young worked for the Baltimore Ravens as an executive assistant from 2004 to 2009 before moving to the New York Jets (2009-2015). She was the assistant to the head coach from 2009 to 2014 before working as the manager of football administrative services for one year.

She then moved over to the Bills, serving as the manager of football administration services/assistant to the head coach from 2015 to 2017 before heading over to the player services coordinator role.

Per Raanan, Young was also one of the Bills' COVID-19 protocol coordinators over the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Bills team reporter Maddy Glab interviewed Young in March 2021 regarding her role with the team, most notably her added responsibilities on the COVID-19 protocol side:

Young is the coordinator of player services in a normal year and works with players and their families in the transition to Buffalo along with assisting the player development team in the daily needs for players. She continued to do that last season and, like many others, added many responsibilities having to do with the pandemic to her plate. This all ramped up when players showed up for training camp in late July.

Among other comments, Young said regarding her responsibilities:

One of the greatest attributes of this organization is the people I get to work with on a daily basis. Each day we needed to set up and take down about 400 tables and chairs, move video equipment and pipe and drape so that we could have walk-through and practice. It was an all-hands-on-deck approach with strength and conditioning, trainers, equipment, operations, PR, coaches and video all pitching in to get it done. 

That teamwork and camaraderie is a reflection of the selflessness of people in this organization.

Young's reported hire continues an exodus of Bills heading down the New York Thruway toward New Jersey.

Of note, the Giants' general manager (Joe Schoen), head coach (Brian Daboll), offensive line coach (Bobby Johnson) and quarterbacks coach (Shea Tierney) are all with Big Blue after working on the Bills' staff last year, per Raanan.

The New York Giants reportedly plan to keep defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to work under new head coach Brian Daboll, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.

Daboll confirmed the news at his press conference Monday.

"The players respect him," the new coach said of Graham.

The only holdup could be if Graham earns a head coaching job, with the 43-year-old "still in the mix" for the Minnesota Vikings opening, per Rapoport.

If he is not hired by Minnesota, Graham would remain in New York after spending the past two seasons as the team's defensive coordinator and assistant head coach under Joe Judge.

Graham also spent 2016 and '17 with the Giants as the defensive line coach, coinciding with the organization's last playoff berth in 2016. Ralph Vacchiano of SNY reported ownership "loves" the coach, which likely contributes to him remaining on staff.

Prior to his first stint in New York, Graham spent seven years with the New England Patriots under Bill Belichick, serving as a defensive line and linebackers coach after starting as an assistant. From 2013-15, he was on the same staff as Daboll, who was the Patriots' tight ends coach.

Daboll went on to become the offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2017—the Crimson Tide won the national championship that season—before running the Buffalo Bills offense the past four years. The squad was in the top three in points scored in each of the last two seasons.

Graham hasn't had as much success as a defensive coordinator, including one failed season with the Miami Dolphins when his team finished dead last in points allowed in 2019. Things went much better in 2020 with the Giants when the team ranked ninth in points allowed and 12th in yards allowed.

The unit regressed this past season (23rd in points allowed), but still ranked 15th against the pass and tied for 14th in takeaways. 

Keeping Graham should maintain some continuity for a squad that has had a lot of staff turnover in recent years. Daboll will be the fifth different permanent head coach for the Giants in eight seasons, featuring just one playoff appearance in this stretch.   

Newly hired New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll released a statement to the team's fanbase soon after Big Blue brought the 46-year-old aboard on Friday:

The ex-Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator replaces Joe Judge, who went 10-23 in two seasons before the Giants parted ways with the former New England Patriots special teams coordinator following New York's 4-13 campaign in 2021.

New York has been marked by coaching instability, with the team firing a head coach every other year since the 2017 season. Ben McAdoo lasted 28 games (13-15) before Pat Shurmur was axed after his two seasons (9-23).

Judge's Giants showed promise at the tail end of the 2020 campaign, but the 2021 team collapsed down the stretch when it lost its last six games.

A season-ending neck injury to quarterback Daniel Jones played a part in the Giants' futility, but they still lost each of those games by 11 or more points.

They ultimately finished second-to-last in scoring each of the last two seasons, and the team's performance on that front will be a point of emphasis for Daboll, who will be the Giants' fourth head coach in six seasons.

New York can only hope he brings stability and success a la Bill Parcells or Tom Coughlin, who won two Super Bowls each.

This won't be an easy task for Daboll. The Giants have missed the playoffs nine of the last 10 years. They have lost 10 or more games in each of their last five seasons, going 22-57 since 2017.

After the season, general manager Dave Gettleman retired, and the Giants soon parted ways with Judge afterward.

Now New York has hired ex-Bills assistant general manager Joe Schoen to lead football operations, and he has chosen Daboll to work hand-in-hand with him in hopes of leading this team to brighter days.

The dominoes are beginning to fall after the New York Giants hired Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll as their next head coach.

For starters, it appears Bills quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Ken Dorsey will either receive an in-house promotion to assume Buffalo's OC job or follow Daboll to the Giants and become their offensive coordinator, per ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The 40-year-old Dorsey has been the Bills' quarterbacks coach since 2019. He's overseen the growth and development of quarterback Josh Allen, a two-time Pro Bowler who has emerged as one of the game's brightest stars.

The former University of Miami star quarterback, who helped lead the 2001 Hurricanes to a national title, played professionally from 2003-2010 with the San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns and the CFL's Toronto Argonauts.

He joined the Carolina Panthers as their quarterbacks coach in 2013 and stayed there until 2017. During that time, the Panthers made the playoffs in four of five seasons, and signal-caller Cam Newton won the 2015 NFL MVP award en route to leading the team to an NFC Championship.

Dorsey joined the Bills' staff in 2019, and he's established a great rapport with Allen.

“I think when he got here three years ago my career definitely changed. In terms of just how I viewed football and to have a guy in the room that played the game,” Allen told reporters regarding Dorsey (h/t Nick Wojton of Bills Wire) this week.

"Just the way that he approaches the game, he’s competitive, smart, he works his ass off. I appreciate what he’s done for me in my career so far...again, wherever the chips fall."

At the time, Daboll was heavily rumored for other coaching jobs. With that in mind, Allen publicly endorsed Dorsey for the OC role should Daboll leave.

Bills head coach Sean McDermott said the team would field Allen's input and keep him in the loop on the team's OC decision if Daboll left, which is now official.

As for what may happen on the Giants and Bills' staffs, Art Stapleton of the Bergen Record and ESPN's Dan Graziano speculated on what could be next. 

As Stapleton noted, former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Wink Martindale has been linked to the Giants' DC role, with ESPN's Jordan Raanan also mentioning the possibility.

Whomever runs the Giants' offense will oversee a unit that finished second-last in scoring each of the last two seasons and last overall over the two-year period.

A season-ending neck injury to quarterback Daniel Jones played a part in the offense's dysfunction, as did a litany of other ailments.

However, the Giants' offensive line (minus left tackle Andrew Thomas) struggled mightily all season, and a midseason offensive coordinator change from Jason Garrett to Freddie Kitchens did not jumpstart the team's offense as hoped, although the latter OC only had Jones as his QB for one game.

Still, the Giants' offense hasn't been able to get it going for the last few years, and now it's up to the Daboll-led regime to get that right.

If Dorsey leaves with Daboll, he will reunite with ex-Bills assistant general manager Joe Schoen, who just took the Giants' GM job last week.