Ravens DC Don ‘Wink’ Martindale is generating head coaching buzz again
The Baltimore Ravens were blessed to have both Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman and Defensive Coordinator Don ‘Wink’ Martindale return for another year after the most historic regular season in franchise history.
It is extremely rare that team that finished 14-2 and dominated on both sides of the ball for the vast majority of the season is able to bring both, let alone one of their play callers on either side of the ball yet the 2020 Ravens were fortunate enough to be the seldom exception.
Both coaches were among the hottest names in last year’s pool of promising coordinators in the running to become first-time head coaches at the NFL level and each of them interviewed for multiple teams.
While Roman’s unit hasn’t torn through the league in the first 14 games as they did in 2019, what Martindale has been able to accomplish with the defense with a secondary that has been in flux since training camp and a front seven that has been banged up and relying on its young and inexperienced players a lot more than anticipated heading into the season has been nothing short of spectacular.
He is revered as one of the most brilliant and creative defensive minds of his generation and is a popular candidate to land one of the currently or soon to be vacant spots across the league. Martindale is more familiar with the hiring process this time around and is still approaching it with the same mentality.
“The thing that gives me the advantage going through the process last year and going into it this year is, I know I’m going to be myself because I love the job that I’m at,” Martindale said. “The culture that John and Steve and Eric and Ozzie that we’ve built here is outstanding. I know what I want to see when I get into those opportunities.
It is going to take ideal circumstances and a near-perfect fit of philosophy and organizational infrastructure to pry Martindale out of Baltimore and away from the Ravens. If he were to leave, it would have to be to a place and a team where he can be himself and be set up for long term success.
“A lot of people go into those opportunities and they want to win a three-hour interview. I want to win three Super Bowl trophies. I want to make sure that it’s the right fit and I’m just going to be myself because that’s worked out OK for me so far. It’s exciting to be looked at. It’s always about the players, it always has been, it always will be. It’s a humbling experience, but yet it’s also an exciting time as well.”
The Ravens and Head Coach John Harbaugh especially has always supported and never impeded or discouraged the advancement of any of their assistant coaches, executives, or other personnel staff members.
While no official requests have been made to interview a member of Baltimore’s staff or front office, the current brass will back anyone that does.
“We’ll cross that bridge if we get there,” Harbaugh said. “(I’m) very supportive of our guys getting opportunities.”
Martindale’s defenses have been among the league’s best in the three years since he took over as the play-caller in 2018. They have had back-to-back top-five finishes in total defense and are currently rank in the top five in scoring defense and yards allowed per play.
He specializes in scheming up ways and dialing up plays that not only puts whatever players he has available in a position to succeed but also exemplify what they do best and allow them to be consistently disruptive.
Martindale is also great at making adjustments from week to week, half to half, and even from drive to drive because he trusts and empowers his players to report and act on any tendencies they find within opposing offense and notices and exposes and perceived weaknesses that he finds as well.
Both of those attributes are two of the most desirable in a prospective head coach and will serve him well when he eventually does become one whether it is this year or in the not too distant future.
