Chicago Bears Stock Report: Head coaching candidates to replace Matt Nagy

Chicago Bears Head Coach Candidate: Don Martindale – Stock Neutral

Don Martindale is another name that I have seen floating around — although not directly tied to the Chicago Bears. Don “Wink” Martindale has bounced around a bit in the NFL and collegiate programs. He worked his way into the NFL back in 2004 as an inside linebackers coach for the Oakland Raiders. He was promoted to Linebackers coach in 2006 and jumped ship to the Broncos for the same position in 2009.

Martindale received his first defensive coordinator job for the Broncos the following year (2010). He only held the position for that one season as the defense was last in the league in both yards allowed and points allowed. Yikes.

Martindale followed the same path from inside linebackers coach to linebackers coach and eventually defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens. His journey started in 2012 after not coaching in 2011. Martindale has been the Ravens defensive coordinator for the last four years and things couldn’t be any more different than his stint in Denver.

The Ravens were first in yards allowed and second in points allowed in Martindale’s first season (2018) as defensive coordinator. The success kept coming as the team was fourth in yards allowed and third in points allowed in 2019. Last year, the team was seventh in yards allowed and second in points allowed. Clearly, his defense has had plenty of success and it is not surprising that he’s getting some talk as a head coaching candidate.

This year hasn’t been as good, but Baltimore is still only ninth in points allowed. That said, they are 24th in defensive DVOA. This is a big falloff from where they were in prior years. In their defense, the team has had its fair share of injuries. Needless to say, Martindale is pretty far down my list of coaching candidates I like. Give me Greg Roman on the opposite of the ball over him any day.