In search of a suitable defensive coordinator to take Wink Martindale’s job, head coach of the New York Giants Brian Daboll has dug into his background for a candidate. According to a report on NFL Network, the Giants have asked the Buffalo Bills for permission to talk with linebackers coach Bobby Babich.
In 2006, the forty-year-old Babich started working as a graduate assistant coach at Kent State. He was hired as an administrative assistant by the Carolina Panthers coaching staff in 2011, five years after he was initially hired in the NFL. Babich joined the Panthers as a defensive assistant the next season. He signed a three-year contract to become an assistant defensive backs coach with the Cleveland Browns in 2013. After the 2015 season, he returned to collegiate football, serving as defensive pass game coordinator and secondary coach at FIU. He then returned to the NFL in 2017, signing with the Bills, where he spent a season as their assistant defensive backs coach before spending four years as the safeties coach and two years (2022–2023) as the linebackers coach
Leslie Frazier, a former defensive coordinator for the Bills under Daboll, was Babich’s boss while he was on the Bills staff. Babich has never been a defensive coordinator at any coaching level. Babich is the son of Bob Babich, who only had head coaching experience with North Dakota State from 1997 to 2002. Bob Babich coached at the collegiate and professional levels from 1984 to 2021. In addition, Bob Babich served as defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2013 to 2015 and the Chicago Bears from 2007 to 2008. He concluded his coaching career with his son on Sean McDermott’s coaching staff with the Bills.
The Giants are considering seven candidates for the defensive coordinator position, which became available after Martindale left. The younger Babich is one of them. Coach Anthony Campanile of the Miami Dolphins, Coach Dennard Wilson of the Baltimore Ravens, Coach Jerome Henderson of the Giants, Coach Derrick Ansley of the Los Angeles Chargers, and Coach Shane Bowen of the Tennessee Titans are among the other candidates being evaluated for the position.
