The die was cast two years ago, when Giants principal owner John Mara, and his co-partner Jonathan Tisch hired former Packer quarterback coach Ben McAdoo. The Giants were one year removed from their fourth Super Bowl Championship, and former offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride lost his luster with the front office. McAdoo was never an NFL coordinator, but he did coach the greatest quarterback at his former position – Aaron Rodgers.
Giants fans could have seen this one coming a mile away. After McAdoo came on board, there was a sense that he was going to be Coughlin’s heir apparent, despite owner John Mara’s statements to the contrary. McAdoo interviewed hours after the former two-time Super Bowl winning coach decided to leave, as doing ‘what’s best for the organization moving forward.’ The Giants had also interviewed five other candidates, including defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who seemed like a long-shot choice at best.
The only other candidates who had coaching experience were former Falcons coach Mike Smith, and former Bills coach Doug Marrone, who had a ‘very good’ interview, according to those close to the Giants. McAdoo, for his part, interviewed earlier in the week with the Giants primary rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles, and purportedly did a very good job, impressing the Eagles brass. At that point, the Giants had to move quickly, or lose the coordinator to their turnpike rivals.
Ben McAdoo Coaching the Giants is Much Ado About Nothing
Cynically thinking, as most fans do, interviewing other candidates might have been window dressing for a team that doesn’t ‘like to upset the apple cart”, with their personnel. The Giants have never been known act in an irrational manner, and have a great deal of patience, despite not being in the playoffs the last four seasons – not the Giant way. Some things didn’t make sense this year with Coughlin, despite lapses in judgement at the end of the Dallas game to start the season, the subsequent week with the Falcon loss, and the call of going for it on fourth and one against the Jets.
If you listened to Coughlin’s post game press conferences, he seemed to allude to the fact that ‘the calls had already been made’ during those games, so nothing he would have said could change the outcome. What does that tell the Giants fans? If the head coach wasn’t changing the calls at the time of plays, then it must have been McAdoo. Coughlin never seemed to take a back seat to anyone, but this was not his hire, and he didn’t request a change at the OC position.
John Mara, and co-partner Jonathan Tisch, had warned the team after last season that if they didn’t turn things around, and make the playoffs, changes would be coming. Mara, at the Coughlin press conference, stated that “the team has lost a little bit of credibility, and we need to get that back.” Mara and Tisch kept their word to their fan base, one of the most loyal in the league, but the only change they made was at head coach. There was always talk that Tisch wanted Coughlin gone after last season, but Mara overruled him, since his father, Wellington Mara, had hired the coach himself 12 years ago.
Breaking it down, what was the real change the Giants have made going into next season? Ben McAdoo was promoted to head coach. It’s reported that Steve Spagnuolo will still be defensive coordinator, and the biggest surprise, GM Jerry Reese, gets to keep his job – although he is on the watch as well. The only change is to replace McAdoo as offensive coordinator, and reports are that quarterback coach Mike Sullivan will be promoted to that position.
McAdoo was certainly helped by quarterback Eli Manning, who said last week on his weekly WFAN sports radio spot, that he thought McAdoo and he had a good working relationship, that he has the same ideas about how to run the offense, and that he could see him as a head coach. It didn’t hurt for that endorsement from Eli, a two-time Super Bowl MVP, who just turned 35, and would be looking at his third different offensive scheme in as many years. The team ended up eighth overall in total offense, and Manning had his best year, statistically, throwing for 35 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, a marked improvement over the last two seasons, and mostly due to McAdoo’s system.
Despite Eli’s endorsement of McAdoo, you could tell he was visibly and personally upset that his coach and father figure was shown the door, in a matter of speaking. No one is that naive to think that this man, who has more fire in his belly of wanting to win than most other coaches half his age, would just walk away from a team he brought back from mediocrity for the last twelve years. Nobody had to look too deep into what was happening here – it might have taken place one year too late. The Giants should have given Coughlin the respect he deserved, and better yet, the players this year to make what was to be his last run memorable. They couldn’t even beat a bad Philadelphia Eagles team on the last day of the season at home. Some parting gift.
Giants fans have a lot to ponder over the next few months. They may be happy that McAdoo was hired, seeing that the team scored a lot of points in most of the games this season, but losing many close battles in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter. They are probably scratching their heads that Reese, who has not had a great draft class in years, needs to step it up in that regard, as well as signing free agents who can contribute to the team immediately. Lastly, although Mara loves Steve Spagnuolo, and brought him back after he helped the team win the Super Bowl in 2007, the team was dead last in defense this season despite not having the personnel to judge his job.
Going forward, the jury is going to be out on McAdoo and his new staff, how he will address the upcoming draft and free agents, how he will handle working with Reese and the owners, and if he can, as Coughlin says, ‘bring the pride back to the New York Giants’. It’s going to be hard to replace the two-time Super Bowl and future Hall of Fame coach, especially since he was the one who took the fall when no one on the staff lost their job. McAdoo has very big shoes to fill, and the bar is set extremely high for him to bring the team back to the prominence they are used to achieving. There may be a ‘honeymoon’ period for him, but in this football crazed area, that won’t last too long, unless Big Blue returns to the Super Bowl and bring home their fifth Lombardi Trophy.
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