Wink Martindale is an excellent football coach. Make no mistake about that certainty. <\/p>\n
Wink Martindale is also one of the most aggressive defensive coordinators the sport has ever seen. His over 48% blitz rate as New York Giants defensive coordinator in 2023 ranked among the highest in the league, as did his 44.7% mark the year prior (2022). <\/p>\n
Whether it was his four-year stint as Baltimore Ravens defensive play-caller (2018-2021) or his two years in the same role for the Michigan Wolverines most recently (2024-2025), the man has never wavered from his \u201cattack the quarterback\u201d ways.<\/p>\n
Wink is a guy who abides by the familiar \u201cget after \u2019em\u201d mantra around these parts \u2014 one Rex Ryan popularized in his six-year head-coaching stint over a decade ago. Perhaps this is why Martindale remains a somewhat popular fan choice to become the New York Jets\u2019 next defensive coordinator. <\/p>\n
The fans who want to see that happen received good news on Saturday, when it was revealed that Martindale flew to New Jersey to take a second interview for the job<\/a>. <\/p>\n The fans who are a bit more cautious about making Wink the team\u2019s next defensive boss remain locked into what ailed Aaron Glenn\u2019s rookie head-coaching season with the Jets, and it doesn\u2019t directly relate to the following simple formula\u2026 <\/p>\n Blitzing + modern football = bad.<\/p>\n Wink Martindale represents dangerous territory in a more fundamental fashion.<\/p>\n Defensive aggression isn\u2019t inherently bad<\/p>\n Look, the aggressive defensive mind isn\u2019t automatically a counterproductive idea. Brian Flores continues to represent the NFL\u2019s mad bomber, and his Minnesota Vikings defenses have remained stout (finishing third in yards allowed per game this past season). <\/p>\n Following Flores\u2019s league-leading 48.0% blitz rate, per , the Atlanta Falcons ranked second with a 33.9% blitz rate. One of the teams playing on Championship Sunday, the Denver Broncos, blitzed the quarterback 31.9% of the time this past season. <\/p>\n Rounding out the top 12 are the Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns, and Indianapolis Colts. <\/p>\n While only three of the top 12 blitz-heavy teams made the playoffs, Wink\u2019s aggression alone isn\u2019t the reason for the concern from a Jets perspective. <\/p>\n Sending pressure religiously, despite every tangible stat making it clear that blitz rates have decreased significantly over the last 12-15 years, also isn\u2019t inherently a bad defensive mantra to own. It\u2019s simply a matter of understanding the present landscape.<\/p>\n Unlike the pre-2012 NFL, where guys like that would send second-level defenders on a delayed trigger, today\u2019s sport doesn\u2019t provide enough time. Quarterback efficiency is all the rage, thanks to the offensive-focused rules, evidenced by sky-high completion percentages and historic low yards-per-completion marks. <\/p>\n There\u2019s just not enough time in the dropback for those blitzes to hit home. Therefore, mugging the A and\/or B-gaps with standing defenders has become standard across the league, as defensive play-callers need to at least give the offense something to think about pre-snap. <\/p>\n The danger of preconceived identities<\/p>\n If Wink Martindale sticks to his usual blitz-heavy ways as the New York Jets\u2019 defensive coordinator, success is certainly possible. \u201cPossible\u201d is the keyword, however. <\/p>\n The main concern about Martindale is how specifically convicted the head coach is on his defense\u2019s core philosophies. <\/p>\n Does Aaron Glenn want Wink because he thinks as he does, or because he wants an aggressively attacking defense? Is it similar in the way he thought about the also-old-school-type in Steve Wilks?<\/p>\n Or, does he want him because he believes he can be a tremendous play-caller in the modern National Football League?<\/p>\n Last offseason, Glenn made no bones about his team\u2019s identity. He pointed to Justin Fields as his quarterback, hired Charles London as the quarterbacks coach, and drafted big fella Armand Membou in the first round. <\/p>\n Everything Glenn did pointed to a preconceived idea of who the 2026 Jets would be as a team. This includes deploying a blitz-heavy, press-man-specific defense. <\/p>\n That\u2019s simply not the way to attack things \u2014 especially in today\u2019s league. <\/p>\n Team identities are crucial, but they must be formed organically. Attempting to force-feed a preset identity<\/a> down the throats of a particular roster creates a set of unfortunate circumstances that cannot be avoided in the end. <\/p>\n In other words, there\u2019s nothing wrong with an NFL head coach wanting his offense to deploy an excellent rushing attack. There is, however, something extremely wrong if achieving that rushing success comes at the cost of other areas (i.e., passing game, offensive creativity, etc.). <\/p>\n That rushing attack must happen organically, so the competition can\u2019t take advantage of those preconceived notions and goals. For those interested in an example, watch the Week 2 tape of the Jets\u2019 30-10 loss<\/a> to the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium, when Sean McDermott\u2019s defense overplayed tendencies in a dominating fashion.<\/p>\n The way New York\u2019s defense routinely featured a single-high look with man coverage \u2014 against Josh Allen \u2014 was beyond mind-boggling. <\/p>\n Two major issues plagued the New York Jets’ defense against the Buffalo Bills:<\/p>\n 1. Coverage predictability (too much Cover 1 against third-and-passing situations).
2. A complete lack of game-planning specificity. Who are the Bills? Who’s Josh Allen? They played it as if they were\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/FytYZ6AVgU<\/a><\/p>\n