NFC East

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.   

Philadelphia Eagles safety Anthony Harris escorted Audrey Soape to a father-daughter dance in Texas, honoring a request from Soape's mother.

NBC10 Philadelphia's Aaron Baskerville reported Holly Soape, a native of Minnesota, began following Harris when he was a member of the Minnesota Vikings. The Soape family built a friendship with the veteran defensive back through social media.

That led Holly to ask Harris to attend the dance with Audrey since Audrey's father and grandfather had both died.

"He was so kind and so sweet and just made the entire night absolutely magical for her," Holly told Baskerville.

Harris said he was "just trying to be a human ... just show some sympathy for that family and try to show some support there."

The 30-year-old spent six seasons with the Vikings before signing with the Eagles in 2021. He made 14 appearances for Philadelphia and finished with 72 tackles and two interceptions.

Micah Parsons had one of the best rookie seasons for a defensive player in recent memory, and he already knows what he has planned for an encore: bring a Super Bowl back to Dallas.

"Man, that's been in the back of my mind since I stepped in the league," Parsons told Todd Archer of ESPN. "It's sad we went out bad the way we did, but the opportunity and the potential is there. We've just got to take advantage of it next year. I think we've got all the right pieces, and we're going to keep getting smart pieces this year and take it from there.

"But I'm telling you, like, I ain't never been a loser in my life. I've always been a winner. I'm going to bet me into a bowl. I just don't know when and how, but I know it's in my plan and God's plan for me to be in a Super Bowl."

Parsons is coming off a stellar rookie season that saw him compile 84 total tackles and 13 sacks. The Penn State product is an overwhelming favorite to win Defensive Rookie of the Year, and Pro Football Focus gave him an 89.8 overall grade for the season.

Despite sitting out the entire 2020 season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Parsons excelled moving all over the field in defensive coordinator Dan Quinn's system. He proved himself capable of lining up anywhere from middle linebacker to edge-rusher as a down lineman, forcing opposing offenses to locate him before the snap.

The Cowboys went 12-5 during the regular season and won the NFC East before being upset by the San Francisco 49ers in the Wild Card Round. 

With Quinn spurning head coaching advances to return to Dallas for a potential Super Bowl run in 2022, all signs point to Parsons having a chance to complete his goal next season. 

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 NFL may be unable to publicly release details from the investigation into the Washington Commanders' workplace culture without the "explicit permission" of team owner Daniel Snyder.

ESPN's Tisha Thompson reported the update Friday amid hearings by the U.S. House Committee for Oversight and Reform, which also noted Washington originally sought a written report from Beth Wilkinson about her law firm's findings but only received the results via oral presentation.

The Commanders were fined $10 million by the NFL in July after Wilkinson's investigation.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell didn't mention Snyder's apparent ability to restrict access to details from the probe when asked in October, saying it was important to protect those who were interviewed throughout the process:

That not only affects the investigation that you're going through, but it affects future investigations and the credibility of that. So when you make a promise to protect the anonymity to make sure that we get the right information, you need to stand by that. And so we're very conscious of making sure that we're protecting those that came forward. They were incredibly brave, incredibly open, and we respect the pain that they probably went through all over again to come forward.

Goodell added "steps were put in place to make sure that it does not happen again."

At the same league meetings where Goodell made those remarks, 12 former members of the Washington organization delivered a signed letter seeking the release of details from the investigation.

Two members of the House Committee for Oversight and Reform, representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi and Carolyn Maloney, sent a letter to the NFL commissioner Friday morning that stated their hearings have raised questions about his original explanation for not releasing the details, per Thompson:

You have claimed that the NFL did not release Ms. Wilkinson's findings in order to protect the 'security, privacy and anonymity' of the more than 150 witnesses who courageously spoke to Ms. Wilkinson and her team. The Committee's investigation and the NFL's own legal documents raise serious doubts about this justification.

A statement from the committee Friday said Goodell "personally instructed" Wilkinson to deliver a verbal overview of her findings rather than compile a written report, per Thompson. The committee said that decision was a "stark departure" from previous investigations involving the NFL.

The committee also pointed to a document signed between the Washington franchise and the NFL in September 2020 that referenced a "joint legal strategy" regarding the release of information from the investigation, which gave Snyder the ability to block the release of documents, per Thompson.

Meanwhile, the NFL removed itself from the agreement in October when Congress began investigating the Commanders. Krishnamoorthi and Maloney told Goodell that created a "legal limbo" where both the league and the team can say it's unable to release the documents, according to the ESPN report.

The House Committee for Oversight and Reform hasn't provided a timetable for completing its probe into the Washington situation.