The Falcons interviewed former Ravens and Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale for their defensive coordinator vacancy on Tuesday.
UPDATE: The Falcons completed their interview with Wink Martindale on Tuesday afternoon. This marks the first completed interview for Atlanta’s defensive coordinator position.
After moving on from defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake over the weekend, the Atlanta Falcons have wasted little time in lining up interviews for their coaching vacancy. On Tuesdsay, CBS’s Jonathan Jones reported that Atlanta will be interviewing former Ravens and Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale for their open defensive coordinator position.
The Falcons are interviewing Michigan DC and longtime NFL coach Wink Martindale for their vacant defensive coordinator position, sources tell @NFLonCBS.
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) January 14, 2025
Wink Martindale is an experienced and Super Bowl-winning NFL coach, starting as a linebackers coach with the Oakland Raiders all the way back in 2004. He eventually got his first defensive coordinator opportunity with the Denver Broncos back in 2010, before heading to the Ravens for the next decade. Martindale worked his way up to the DC spot in Baltimore in 2018, and had three straight years of top-3 finishes in scoring defense from 2018-2020.
After a bit of a downturn in 2021, Martindale then took the defensive coordinator job with the New York Giants from 2022-2023. Those years didn’t go particularly well—although the Giants did improve defensively in 2022 and lead the NFL in takeaways in 2023. Martindale spent the 2024 season as the defensive coordinator for the Michigan Wolverines.
Martindale would give the Falcons an experienced coach who does have some genuinely elite NFL defenses on his resume, but it’s been awhile since those heights.
This comes after a report on Monday night that the Falcons would also be interviewing former Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo for the same position. It appears Atlanta is moving quickly with interviews, and these two are notably not from Raheem Morris’ close coaching tree. It’ll be interesting to see who else Atlanta brings in over the coming days and weeks.