How Giants DC Wink Martindale Uses Fronts and Speed to Dictate to the Offense

Over the last 5 seasons, no defensive coordinator in the NFL has utilized the blitz more than Wink Martindale. In fact, Martindale’s defenses have ranked first in blitz frequency in 4 of the last 5 seasons.

The trademark of his blitzes seems to be chaos and speed, with defensive backs rushing often. The Giants, for instance, ranked 3rd in the NFL in sacks by defensive backs in 2022.

Yet the key reason these blitzes work so effectively is that Martindale’s fronts force the offense to set the protection in a certain way, creating the opportunity for the defense to then attack the soft spots.

This 3rd-and-10 against Seattle last season was a great example. Pre-snap, the Giants were threatening to blitz with 6 men on the line of scrimmage and a potential 7th rusher in safety Xavier McKinney hovering nearby:

From the end zone angle, you can see that the Giants had two defensive linemen in the A-gaps, 2 safeties threatening the B-gaps, and defensive ends outside of both tackles:

The Seahawks needed to set the protection to have their tackles account for both defensive ends while also protecting the A-Gaps.