Wink Martindale Excited by Giants' New Additions to Defense

Martindale now has a bunch of new pieces that bring speed to his "positionless" defense.

If New York Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale has a little extra pep in his step these days, you can chalk that up to the fact that he is brimming with excitement over the fun he's going to have this year mixing and matching different personnel to create headaches for opposing offenses.

With good reason. Martindale not only has some new faces, such as corners Deonte Banks and Tre Hawkins, edge rusher Boogie Basham, and linebackers Isaiah Simmons and Bobby Okereke, but this unit now has something it didn't have an abundance of last year: speed.

"I think that the biggest thing you will see is the difference in our speed," Martindale said Wednesday. "As soon as we can catch the execution up with the speed, it’s going to be fun for you guys and our city and fans to watch."

One of the biggest newcomers to the defense has been Simmons, the eighth overall pick in the 2020 draft selected by the Cardinals, who traded him to the Giants for a seventh-round pick.

The Cardinals seemingly could never quite figure out how to optimize Simmons's talents, and the results showed. In 50 career games (37 starts), Simmons has posted 258 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 16 pass breakups, four interceptions, and 7.5 sacks playing a hybrid linebacker/safety role.

Martindale wouldn't go into specifics as to how he planned to deploy Simmons in the Giants' defense, but he did show genuine enthusiasm over having such a versatile chess piece that he characterizes as a perfect fit for his positionless defense.

"I loved him coming out of the draft," Martindale said, noting that he spoke with Simmons's former college coach, Dabo Sweeney, among others, to get input on what they thought the player's strengths were. 

"I went back the last three years and looked at his productivity and things he did well, and I think it fits our system great. It’s not what position you are going to play him at. We will play him wherever you need him because he can do so many different things." 

Martindale, who said he believes in Simmons' ability, praised the player for making the adjustment so smooth.

"It’s been great," he said. "I think he fits perfectly. It’s going to take a while for all of us to gel, not just Isaiah, but all of us to gel together because we just haven’t had that many reps together yet besides practice, but I am saying just seasonal, game reps, it’ll take a little to bit to gel, which every team is going to go through that. I think he’s perfect for this defense."

 Simmons is just one piece, but an important one that will open up a lot more starting this weekend against the Dallas Cowboys.

"I think that we can be excited about it, and like I said, it’s going to be fun to watch," he said of the defense. "I know one thing: the fans are excited about it because I’ve had more people come up this year than ever last year. 

"When you have a home-field advantage like we do, it is big time for us. Especially defensively. When that stadium gets rocking, it gets everybody’s juices flowing on defense, and it’s fun to watch."

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