According to evening reports, the Baltimore Ravens reached a decision on how to replace their 68-year-old defensive coordinator, Dean Pees, who announced prior to the conclusion of the regular season that he would be retiring as the campaign ends. They have turned to their top in-house candidate, Don ‘Wink’ Martindale, to fill the void.
The internal promotion continues a pattern that has existed literally for as long as the franchise. Marvin Lewis was the Ravens’ first defensive coordinator as the upstart franchise got up off the ground, and since then, every defensive coordinator to follow would be culled from the assistant coaches already on staff, including Brian Billick, Rex Ryan, Chuck Pagano, and, finally, Pees himself.
Pees had been with the Ravens since 2010, serving two years as the linebackers coach before being promoted to defensive coordinator following Pagano’s departure. Pagano was preceded by Greg Mattison, who was the team’s linebacker’s coach. Martindale is yet another defensive coordinator coming from the ranks of former linebackers coaches. Even Lewis, with the Pittsburgh Steelers, came from a linebacker background.
Martindale is a widely-respected and highly-regarded position coach, who had even previously been interviewed for vacant head-coaching positions, so this move is by no means unexpected. His work alone is an example of that, as the Ravens have done a very good job of developing linebackers under him.
With the move, the Ravens have also moved Mike Macdonald from defensive backs coach to linebackers coach. The team also has Chris Hewitt on staff as the secondary coach, so that is a redundancy. Sterling Lucas, previously a defensive administrative assistant, has been promoted to a quality control coach.
Martindale, who has been on the Ravens' staff since 2011, has the support of the locker room.
At his season-ending news conference last Thursday, Harbaugh said continuity was a priority when choosing a defensive coordinator.
"I'm a believer in this system," Harbaugh said. "I think this system has been something that's been developed over a long period of time, and we have worked really hard every single year to make it better. We've evolved it and grown it and I think you see the results."
