{"id":63318,"date":"2025-11-24T20:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T20:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/63318\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T20:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T20:48:08","slug":"what-you-need-to-know-about-giants-interim-dc-charlie-bullen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/63318\/","title":{"rendered":"What you need to know about Giants interim DC Charlie Bullen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Giants<\/a>\u2019 new interim defensive coordinator isn\u2019t a household name.<\/p>\n

Charlie Bullen<\/a>, the Giants\u2019 outside linebackers coach the past two seasons, has never been a DC or a play-caller before.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s the role he\u2019s stepping into, at least for the coming weeks, after Monday\u2019s firing of Shane Bowen<\/a> as defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of faith in Charlie,\u201d interim head coach Mike Kafka said Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s a smart coach. I think he\u2019s detailed. He\u2019s aggressive, and his room has had a lot of production. I think he\u2019s ready for the task, and I know he\u2019s ready for the task.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you need to know about Bullen:<\/p>\n

COACHING EXPERIENCE<\/p>\n

Bullen boasts 18 years of coaching experience, including 12 in the NFL.<\/p>\n

He spent seven seasons with the Miami Dolphins from 2013-19, working as a defensive assistant, assistant defensive line coach and assistant linebackers coach.<\/p>\n

With the Dolphins, Bullen overlapped with Giants general manager Joe Schoen, who was Miami\u2019s assistant director of college scouting in 2013 and the director of player personnel from 2014-16.<\/p>\n

Bullen then served as the Arizona Cardinals\u2019 outside linebackers coach from 2020-22, working under then-DC Vance Joseph, who is now the defensive coordinator behind the Denver Broncos\u2019 dominant defense.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Bullen became the outside linebackers coach for the University of Illinois, but he spent only one year there before taking the same job with the Giants before the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

GIANT RESULTS<\/p>\n

Outside linebackers coach is a significant job for the Giants considering how much they\u2019ve invested in the position.<\/p>\n

Brian Burns flourished in his second season under Bullen, as his 13 sacks this year mark a career high through just 12 games. His 17 tackles for loss are tied for his career best.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a less productive pairing for rookie pass rusher Abdul Carter, the No. 3 overall pick in April\u2019s draft, who has just 0.5 sacks and one tackle for loss through 12 games.<\/p>\n

Kayvon Thibodeaux has 2.5 sacks in 10 games this year after recording 5.5 sacks in 12 games under Bullen last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharlie Bullen has been a great asset to me and the rest of the guys in the room, and continuing to kind of grow,\u201d Thibodeaux said in August. \u201cNot just my ability on the field, but know what weight I want to play at, know what size, know what side of the ball I like and just figuring out what works for me and kind of just honing in on it, using that as my strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thibodeaux added that Bullen helped him more with his mindset than with any particular technique.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the consistency of greatness,\u201d Thibodeaux said. \u201cIt\u2019s understanding that, \u2018Yeah, you know it, but let\u2019s just go over it three more times.\u2019 I think it\u2019s that 10,000-hour mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

OTHER OPTIONS<\/p>\n

Notably, Bullen got the Giants\u2019 interim defensive coordinator job over several internal candidates with more experience.<\/p>\n

Secondary coach Marquand Manuel, who is in his first year with the Giants, was the Atlanta Falcons\u2019 defensive coordinator from 2017-18.<\/p>\n

Defensive line coach Andre Patterson was the Minnesota Vikings\u2019 co-defensive coordinator from 2020-21, and he also served as the assistant head coach in the second of those seasons.<\/p>\n

Patterson was previously a defensive coordinator at \u200b\u200bWestern Michigan University in 1989 and at UTEP from 2010-12. He has been on the Giants\u2019 staff since 2022, as has inside linebackers coach John Egorugwu.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of experience on that defensive staff with [Patterson], with Marquand, with [Egorugwu],\u201d Kafka said Monday. \u201cThose guys are gonna do a great job, and they\u2019re gonna be a great asset for Charlie.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Giants\u2019 new interim defensive coordinator isn\u2019t a household name. Charlie Bullen, the Giants\u2019 outside linebackers coach the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,33159,31548,33160,33163,33162,80,33161],"class_list":{"0":"post-63318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-arlington-headlines","10":"tag-arlington-news","11":"tag-charlie-bullen","12":"tag-giants","13":"tag-interim-defensive-coordinator","14":"tag-joe-schoen","15":"tag-mike-kafkfa","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-shane-bowen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}