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Former Titans defensive coordinator replaces Wink Martindale
The New York Giants have a defensive coordinator. After a weeks-long search, the Giants are reportedly hiring the former Tennessee Titans Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen will replace Wink Martindale.
Dianna Russini of The Athletic was first with the report.
Bowen, 37, was defensive coordinator at Tennessee for the past three seasons. The Giants interviewed him early in the search after the Titans fired then-head coach Mike Vrabel.
The Titans opted to keep Bowen until they hired new head coach Brian Callahan and then got Dennard Wilson from the Baltimore Ravens to become their defensive coordinator. Wilson had also apparently been a top target for the Giants’ opening.
Now, the Giants’ defense will be led by the man Wilson replaced in Tennessee.
Bowen was a defensive assistant with the Houston Texans in 2016 and 2017. He joined the Titans staff in 2018 as outside linebackers coach and was promoted to defensive coordinator by Vrabel in 2021.
In 2021, Tennessee ranked sixth in the NFL in points allowed. In 2022, they are ranked 14th. Last season, the Titans fell to 27th in the 32-team league in points allowed.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports that the Giants They have started scheduling interviews. with defensive coaches who worked with Bowen at Tennessee.
The Giants currently have openings for an outside linebackers coach and an assistant outside linebackers coach following the dismissals of Drew and Kevin Wilkins. Perhaps there will be other changes and the Giants will look to make the transition to Bowen’s defense as seamless as possible.
Reporting on the Giants’ signing of Bowen, SB Nation Miracles of Music City wrote this:
Bowen seemed to be a perfectly adequate coordinator for most of his time with the Tennessee Titans. The defense was good last season when they were supposed to be really good. Most of that isn’t Bowen’s fault. The Titans were crushed by injuries and simply not having enough good players in the secondary.
That’s not a ringing endorsement, but it’s not a condemnation of Bowen either.
Bowen appears to have run a 3-4 base defense at Tennessee. However, philosophically Bowen is different from Martindale. The Giants attacked 45.4% of the time in 2023, second most in the league. The Titans blitzed just 22.0% of the time, 24th. In 2022, the Giants led the league with a 39.7% blitz rate, while the Titans had 18.1%. In 2021, Bowen blitzed just 21.3% of the time.
Turron Davenport, who covers the Titans for ESPN, offered this summary of Bowen’s defensive philosophy:
“He ran a 3-4 but also used four down lines at times. There wasn’t much pressure from the CBs, but he blitzed the nickelbacks and safeties a lot. They’ve been really good in the red zone (best in the NFL last year),” Davenport said.
“Bend but don’t break the defense.”
Jimmy Morris of Music City Miracles relayed this evaluation:
“He’s pretty good. I would say that in most seasons he was the coordinator, the defense performed almost exactly how he should have based on the opponents and available personnel. He definitely didn’t deserve to be fired. He is simply a Vrabel type; “He came with him from Houston, so there was really no scenario in which he was going to stay with the new regime.”
In addition to Bowen and Wilson, the Giants interviewed defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson, Bobby Babich (Bills), Brendan Daly (Chiefs), Daronte Jones (Vikings), Anthony Campanile (Dolphins) and were interested in Derrick Ansley (Chargers).
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