Jaguars Defensive Coordinator Search: Pros and Cons of Wink Martindale

What are the pros and cons to the Jaguars potentially hiring Wink Martindale?

The Jacksonville Jaguars are looking for a new direction on defense. 

After two years of Mike Caldwell leading the Jaguars' defense, head coach Doug Pederson fired Caldwell and seven other defensive assistants a little over 24 hours after the Jaguars' season had ended.

So with the search for a new coordinator on and a wide net already cast by the Jaguars, we are going down the road of weighing what each coordinator would potentially bring to to the table. 

First up: ex-Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.

Pros  

The biggest pro of Wink Martindale's resume is the style of football he brings with him. It is a go big or go home scheme: heavy on blitzing and aggressiveness, with Martindale willing to throw the entire kitchen sink at quarterbacks. And unlike the zone blitzing scheme the Jaguars deployed in 2023 that often ended up with self-inflicted wounds, Martindale runs a more efficient and, frankly, logical man-blitzing scheme. For the best summer on Martindale's philosophy, read this from SNY.

"You want to dictate to the offense instead of sitting there and letting them dictate to you," he said. "I think that this is a game of adjustments and matchups and everything else. But I would rather them have the headache and stay up five nights before we play them trying to figure out what we’re going to do and we try to present different looks every time we play because pressure doesn’t break pipes. That’s our philosophy.

"You have a great quarterback, you want him to make quick decisions. You have an average quarterback, you want to change up your different looks, coverage-wise and everything else. But at the end of the day, you want the quarterback on his back. I don’t care if he throws it or not, but if you get quarterback hits, they know who they’re playing against."

While every defensive coordinator likely has the philosophy of "get the quarterback on his back", Martindale can put at least his money where his mouth is. In 2022, for example, the Giants finished No. 4 in the NFL in quarterback hits. This number plummeted in 2023 as the Giants dealt with injuries, but Martindale has proven he can impact quarterbacks.

Martindale's defenses have also been good at forcing takeaways, with the Giants ranking No. 8 over the past two years in takeaways with 50. If you are going to blitz at the high clip Martindale does (No. 2 blitz rate in 2023), then you better impact the quarterback and you better force turnovers. For the most part, his defenses have done that.

Cons

There are two reasons the Jaguars should maybe be wary of bringing Martindale in, even if his scheme is one of the most respected in the NFL. Ironically, the first reason is because of his scheme. 

Martindale and the Giants ran man coverage at the third-highest rate in 2023, per Sports Info Solutions. They also ran the lowest rate of zone coverage. Contrast this to the Jaguars, who ran the fourth-lowest rate of man coverage and the second-highest rate of zone coverage and it is clear that these are two teams built very differently.

Jacksonville's projected three top corners in 2024 -- Tyson Campbell, Darious Williams and Montaric Brown -- have all been significantly more efficient in zone coverage as opposed to man coverage throughout their careers. There is a reason when Campbell first became a starter in 2021 that the Jaguars shifted their entire coverage scheme to a more zone-based scheme. While Campbell has the tackling ability to live on an island in an attacking scheme, it would be an odd fit for the entire secondary to move to a man-based scheme like Martindale's.

Then there is the fact that the Jaguars have had better defenses than Martindale's in each of the past two seasons. 

From 2022-2023, the Jaguars' defense ranked: 

• No. 10 in EPA/Play
• No. 14 in Success Rate
• No. 11 in Dropback EPA/Play
• No. 23 in Dropback Success Rate
• No. 15 in Dropback EPA/Play 
• No. 7 in Rushing Success Rate

As for the Giants: 

• No. 25 in EPA/Play
• No. 27 in Success Rate
• No. 14 in Dropback EPA/Play
• No. 20 in Dropback Success Rate
• No. 31 in Dropback EPA/Play
• No. 29 in Rushing Success Rate

In short, Martindale's defenses have been worse than Mike Caldwell's, despite his reputation -- at least in the last two years.