Giants defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale is considered one of the frontrunners for the Indianapolis Colts head coaching job as Round 2 of Indy’s interviews nears a close, a source told the Daily News on Thursday.
The Colts are considering a rare Round 3 of interviews with a select few finalists, per NFL Network. This follows an exhaustive second round of interviews that has included eight candidates and a ninth scheduled for Saturday, per ESPN: Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen.
At this stage, Martindale is considered a front-runner to land the job after completing his own in-person interview last weekend.
But it’s also not clear how many candidates the Colts intend to include in a hypothetical Round 3 and what impact a dragged-out Colts process would have on the candidate pool.
Taking this up to the Super Bowl, if not beyond, could put candidates at a disadvantage starting their offseasons later than most.
Losing Martindale would be a big blow for the Giants. They can try to step up and head off his Colts candidacy with a raise or pursue replacement options if he leaves.
In that case, the Giants could take a run at Bengals DC Lou Anarumo, recent Panthers interim HC Steve Wilks and Seattle Seahawks associate head coach for defense Sean Desai, to name a few options.
Giants DBs coach Jerome Henderson would be a strong internal option in a promotion, as well.
