Giants’ Charlie Bullen Withdraws From DC Searches, Signs Extension

Next season will be the third in New York for Bullen, who joined then-head coach Brian Daboll‘s staff in 2024. Two weeks after the Giants fired Daboll last November, interim head coach Mike Kafka canned defensive coordinator Shane Bowen. Kafka handed interim DC responsibilities to Bullen for the rest of the year.

Although the Giants’ defense improved on Bullen’s watch, his future had hung in the air since the Giants brought in new head coach John Harbaugh in mid-January. Harbaugh went on to pick Dennard Wilson as his defensive coordinator. However, evidenced by Bullen’s extension and promotion, the 41-year-old has clearly won over Harbaugh.

In his first season working with Harbaugh and Wilson, Bullen will play a key role in attempting to improve a bottom-of-the-barrel run defense. The 2025 Giants gave up 145.3 rushing yards per game, the worst mark in the NFC and the second-highest figure in the league. Only the Bengals (147.1) had a tougher time against opposing ground games.

Meanwhile, both Cleveland and Arizona have now seen two potential defensive coordinators withdraw from their searches. Texans defensive backs coach Dino Vasso elected to stay in Houston last week. Bullen is also content in his current role, leaving rookie Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur and first-year Browns HC Todd Monken to look elsewhere. The next DC in Cleveland will have an especially difficult act to follow replacing the acclaimed Jim Schwartz, who resigned after the team didn’t promote him to head coach.