Just when Michigan football fans were starting to feel good about the return of Wink Martindale for the 2025 season, another NFL team is on the radar to hire away the Wolverines defensive coordinator.
Martindale has already interviewed with two NFL teams for their coordinator jobs -- the Colts and Falcons. Both teams ended up hiring others. The Bengals were also interested but went with Al Golden, the former Notre Dame defensive coordinator.
With Rod Moore now slated to be back, along with Derrick Moore, T.J. Guy, Rayshaun Benny, Ernest Hausmann, and Jaishawn Barham all coming back, along with Zeke Berry and others in the secondary, the defense has the chance to be elite once again.
However, losing the defensive coordinator would be a blow and according to Jordan Raanan of ESPN, if the Saints end up hiring Mike Kafka as their head coach, there's a good chance Martindale will be his defensive coordinator.
"Interesting tidbit on this: If Mike Kafka gets the Saints job multiple league sources expect him to bring Wink Martindale as his defensive coordinator. They obviously worked together with the Giants and were key to the initial success in 2022," Raanan wrote on X.
It will be interesting to see what happens and who Sherrone Moore targets if Martindale leaves. There are still moving parts though because Wink is expected to make $2.7 million. So are the Saints willing to pay him about $3 million to be their defensive coordinator?
That might be the most important question.