Ravens staffer picks up steam in Giants’ search for D-coordinator
Just when it looked like the Giants were expanding their defensive coordinator search, one candidate jumped to the front of the line.
Head coach Brian Daboll conducted a second interview Saturday with Ravens defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson, The Post confirmed, after Chiefs linebackers coach Brendan Daly emerged as the seventh candidate under consideration. ESPN first reported both interviews, which were held virtually because the Ravens and Chiefs will meet Sunday in the AFC Championship game.
The Giants could have plenty of competition for Wilson, who also is on the short list for Rams and Titans vacancies. Wilson spent four seasons with the Jets as defensive backs coach and later as pass-game coordinator (2017-20) before moving to the Eagles for two seasons (2021-22) and on to the Ravens.
Daboll and Daly overlapped for three seasons (2014-16) on the Patriots coaching staff when Daboll was coaching tight ends and Daly worked his way from a general defensive assistant to defensive line coach.
Neither Wilson nor Daly has prior playcalling experience. The same can be said for three other candidates: Bills linebackers coach Bobby Babich, Dolphins linebackers coach Anthony Campanile and the top inhouse option, defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson.
Former Titans defensive coordinator Shane Bowen and former Chargers defensive coordinator Derrick Ansley — who took over playcalling when head coach Brandon Staley was fired in mid-December — are the exceptions.
Daly joined the Chiefs as defensive line coach and run-game coordinator in 2019 but moved to focusing on linebackers — away from the only position he had known since coming to the NFL in 2006 — before the 2022 season. It was a self-initiated diversification step toward becoming a coordinator.
“I was kind of interested in evolving a little bit, challenging myself in doing something that was a little bit out of my comfort zone,” Daly said at the time. “I think that’s how you get better. That’s how you grow and improve. That was a big part of it from my perspective.”
The Giants are looking to replace Wink Martindale, whose ugly divorce from Daboll after two tense seasons together seems to be doing neither any favors in coaching circles. Martindale interviewed with the Jaguars before they went in a different direction and reportedly was contacted by the Eagles, who instead hired Vic Fangio.
Daly could bring some concepts familiar to Giants fans given that he is working under former two-term Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo with the Chiefs.
Wilson might be able to keep a semblance of familiarity for the players through one degree of schematic separation. He is working under Ravens defensive coordinator Mike MacDonald, who previously was a linebackers coach under Martindale in Baltimore.