Nobody else has covered this as far as I’m aware, and it has to do with a recent report on the tension between New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.
Fox Sports insider Jay Glazer’s scoop before Sunday’s action touched on the touchy dynamic between Daboll and Martindale, yet the rabbit hole apparently goes way deeper, according to The Volume’s John Middlekauff.
Prior to being a successful media member and podcasting personality, Middlekauff served as a scout in the NFL. For my money, he’s one of the best in the business, doesn’t mince words, and wouldn’t just float something out there for clickbait or bullsh*t. He has legit sources around the league. Just doesn’t “report” per se very often.
…We have ourselves an exception in this instance, and my goodness, is it juicy. You’d never know from the title of his latest 3 & Out pod video, but within this reaction to Monday night’s disastrous game between the Bears and Vikings, Middlekauff gave us quite the scoop from a very credible Giants source.
“That coaching staff can’t stand Brian Daboll. The defensive coaching staff despises Brian Daboll. They think he’s a clown. […] He constantly is ‘MFing’ the coaches. It’s one thing if you are a screamer and a yeller to yell at younger coaches, or even some of your position coaches. It’s another thing…constantly yelling and motherf*cking Wink Martindale.
He doesn’t offer any solutions. So he’s just screaming and he’s not actually saying, like, what he wants them to fix. This is not something that just happened this year when they started losing. I was told it was awful last year. That building can’t stand him. […] To the players, he kisses nice, because he doesn’t want a revolt.”
Sure makes the game ball Daboll tossed to Martindale after the 10-7 win over the Patriots seem more than a little disingenuous.
Middlekauff added that, “animosity is not even close to strong enough” to describe how tense relations are between Daboll and his staff, particularly on the defensive side. Those assistants would be “running to the hills so fast, your head would spin” if they could get out of their current contracts.
I’ve skipped to the relevant part of the video so you can hear it for yourself.
About as compelling a segment as you’ll ever hear from one man on the mic about the NFL:
What’s crazy to me is, this was apparently happening last season, but the G-Men just ate it because Daboll was reviving Daniel Jones’ career and they were winning. Never mind that they had a cupcake schedule or any of that. Daboll’s tactics were harsh. Turned a lot of coaches off. Didn’t matter. The results were there. Not so much these days
Now look! Daboll is making lemonade out of the lemony situation of Jones blowing out his knee and undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito taking his place. DeVito has won two straight starts and is outplaying Panthers No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young, whose nice-guy coach Frank Reich just got fired.
When I ranked the Giants’ roster 26th this July, butthurt fans came after me, with some arguing the merits of oft-injured Adoree’ Jackson as a CB1 as rationale for why they should rank way higher. Shocker: Jackson has missed three games and ranks 115th out of 120 qualifying corners in PFF’s grades. That was fun.
As anyone with a brain could’ve predicted, New York’s way-tougher 2023 schedule caused a crash back to earth. They’re 4-8 even with these latest back-to-back wins. Now, some of the dirty laundry is being aired out. You can only publicly deflect with humor so often!
The fact that such an uncompromising, frequently-blitzing defensive coordinator in Martindale managed to help the Giants into the playoffs last year with that trash roster still blows my mind. I feel like Daboll gets a lot of love for what he did with Jones and the offense. No less impressive was the magic act Martindale pulled off.
Sure sounds like any goodwill built up during that 10-win season has evaporated. All is not so well in the land of the G-Men regardless of how the rest of this year plays out.
I doubt Daboll will be on the hot seat given how well he fared in his first year, yet it’s worth monitoring. Not a great thing when you alienate all the people you’re counting on to make your job easier. Could lead to a toxic culture if the losing on the field persists.
Not a shock to hear that Daboll is a descendant of the Bill Belichick coaching tree, is it? Or that he served as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator for one year at Alabama in 2017. Good luck, Brian. You may or may not have a slight anger issue. Might wanna unpack that a little in the offseason…
