Indianapolis Colts Head Coaching Candidate: Wink Martindale

The Indianapolis Colts are moving toward the 2023 season in need of a new Head Coach of the team. The Colts, for the last four and a half years, were led by former Head Coach Frank Reich who did a good job steering the team to a 40-33-1 record during his tenure with the team. However, it came time for the team to make a change at the position, and Reich was ultimately fired and a new Head Coach will take charge.

In this series, we will look into each of the head coaching candidates that the Colts interview for the job vacancy and look into each of their respective backgrounds.

Next up is New York Giants Defensive Coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale.

Don “Wink” Martindale began his coaching career at his alma mater in 1986 at Defiance as a secondary coach before taking on defensive coordinator duties the following year. From 1988-1993, Martindale was a defensive coordinator at three Ohio high schools before returning to college coaching at Notre Dame as a defensive assistant at Notre from 1994-1995. Martindale also coached at the University of Cincinnati (special teams and linebackers coach), Western Illinois (defensive coordinator and linebackers) and Western Kentucky (defensive coordinator and inside linebackers) from 1996-2003.

Martindale then made the move up into coaching in the NFL when the Oakland Raiders in 2004 as the linebacker coach and would depend the next five seasons with the team in the same position.

In 2009, Martindale was named the Denver Broncos linebackers coach and then promoted to defensive coordinator in 2010. Martindale joined John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens staff in 2012 as the linebackers coach and stayed in the same position for six seasons before being promoted to defensive coordinator.

Martindale is in his first season as the defensive coordinator for the New York Giants after moving from the Ravens to join new head coach Brian Daboll’s staff in New York.