Martindale is known for creating confusion and scheming up free rushers to the QB;
he helped create the undefined “amoeba” that countered modern NFL offenses. With the New York Giants in 2023, he stuck with his base 3-4 and blitzed on 45.4% of drop backs, more than all but one NFL team, while mixing coverages — including a lot of Cover 0.
What that looks like in practice at Michigan will depend on personnel, but Martindale’s favorite buzzword is “positionless.” Players will move pre-snap to sow confusion for the quarterback and offensive line.
“We mentioned earlier how they have a positionless defense. It’s real, and they can mix and match a lot of different players,” Giants OC
Mike Kafka said of the Martindale defense.
Or to hear Martindale describe his own system:
“The biggest challenges for our opponents are the same things as the biggest challenge for us. There’s a lot of time put into studying protections and seeing how they’ll react. And by the time we get to – like today we put in our pressures – it’s easy for us to teach, easy for our players to learn. But yet it’s something completely different,” Martindale said in 2022.
“And you’ve heard me say this many times before: It’s a positionless defense. So, just because a guy, let’s use (safety) Julian (Love) again, has safety next to his name in the program, he can play anywhere on the field. Why can he do that? Because the way we teach the system; he’s a smart player. And wherever we need him and wherever I think his skillset would fit us best is where we play him that week. And you’ve already seen two different defenses, and it's a credit to the players because they’re studying their tails off not only with what we do but what they do. And it’s a long process.”
But perhaps the biggest reason Martindale landed on Michigan’s radar: His hire will allow the Wolverines to maintain some defensive continuity despite three different defensive coordinators in four years.
Jesse Minter said his time in Baltimore with Martindale and others was like getting “my masters or my doctorate” by learning from “the greatest minds in football.”
“A master class of learning, trying to help where I could, trying to help rebuild the defense in my time there with Wink and Mike [Macdonald], and we had great success, and it was fun to be a part of,” Minter said prior to the Rose Bowl.
“We had a lot of good times together,” Macdonald said of Martindale. “A lot of great defenses that we worked together on. Big takeaways are constant, open communication with the guys. ‘Keeping it real,’ and he likes to say. His aggressive mindset, definitely take that from him. … A lot of positives.”
