Mike McCarthy Remains a Fan of Linebacker Blake Martinez
It’s been two years since Giants inside linebacker Blake Martinez has seen Mike McCarthy, his head coach in Green Bay, for any lengthy capacity.
Sunday, that will change as Martinez will line up against McCarthy’s Dallas Cowboys in a game where the linebacker is no doubt looking to show his former head coach how far he’s come over the last two seasons.
Martinez, chosen in the fourth round of the 2016 draft by McCarthy, developed into a top-line starter for them, leading the team in tackles by a wide margin from 2017-18 with 144 in each of those two seasons and 20 tackles for a loss.
After seeing his role shift from an attacker to a clean-up type of role last year under defensive coordinator Mike Pettine, hired by head coach Matt LaFleur who replaced McCarthy, Martinez still racked up the tackles. Still, some of those clean-up tackles weren’t necessarily made close to the line of scrimmage.
That has changed with Martinez’s jump to the Giants, where he’s reunited with Patrick Graham, now the Giants defensive coordinator and Martinez’s position coach in Green Bay.
Martinez, a team captain, has been enjoying more of an active role in the defense, leading a unit that currently ranks fifth in the NFL in yards allowed.
Martinez is currently the second-ranked inside linebacker in the NFL, and his 23 defensive stops (plays that resulted in zero or negative yards) leads the league, according to Pro Football Focus.
Martinez, who has yet to miss a defensive snap this season, leads the Giants in tackles with 43 and is tied for the team lead in sacks (2.0).
This weekend, Martinez will lead the Giants defense into Arlington against McCarthy’s potent Cowboys offense ranked first in average yards per game and third in scoring.
"I think he’s been very consistent. Blake has total command of the defense," McCarthy said of his former player. "He’s super productive – I mean, his tackling numbers speak for themselves – but they’re doing a really good job of keeping people covered up front.”
According to McCarthy, the big thing for Martinez has been getting comfortable in Graham’s defensive schemes almost instantly.
"He’s doing a heck of a job running it, but he looks very comfortable,” McCarthy said. “Obviously, he had the opportunity to work with Patrick in Green Bay and has played a lot of good football throughout his career. Blake looks like he’s been doing a heck of a job in New York."
For Martinez, Sunday's game is shaping up to be his toughest task yet as the Giants' leader on defense. Martinez will lead the Giants into battle against a top-rated offensive line, a former rushing leader in running back Ezekiel Elliot, and a passing leader and a dual-threat quarterback in Dak Prescott.
The Giants' defense is coming off arguably its best performance of the season in a 17-9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams last week, and Martinez believes the unit is even better than how it performed in that game. It's just a matter of not beating themselves to get there.
"It was just, every single week we're hurting ourselves," he said. "There's nothing teams are doing that we can't stop, no matter who's out there, who's on the field, who's up, what personnel we have in, we can go and compete against anybody.
"I think [Sunday] we showed that, but we also showed the things that are hurting us. We've just got to keep fixing those things and keep minimizing those as much as possible."
