With Coughlin's Resignation Official, The Hunt For A New Giants Coach Begins

This is a weird time for Giants fans. Successful or not, the Eli/Coughlin tandem has been a staple for over a decade. They achieved the impossible together. Now, an alligator-teared Manning is without the only coach he’s ever had for the twilight of his career despite ownership essentially blaming Jerry Reese at the presser. With TC gone, there’s some giant orthopedic shoes to fill & no clear-cut choice.
Sean Payton is the easy connection. He’s got Giants ties, is the most established head coach on the obvious list of candidates & can certainly handle the NY spotlight. All other interviews would be semantics if he was free to go where he wanted – but he’s not. The Saints & Giants are in similar positions. Both have an aging star QB & some offensive firepower but little else. Both need their rosters retooled with talent, especially on the defensive side of the ball. I’m sure New Orleans doesn’t WANT to lose Payton but the haul they’d get for him would go a long way towards expediting their rebuild. It makes sense for them. Forfeiting a top-50 draft pick (and more) is something the Giants brass simply cannot do though, no matter how much we’re all expecting Reese to fuck it up.
After throwing for 4400 yards & a career-high 35 scores, Eli’s using his clout to subtly campaign for Ben McAdoo. He’s obviously a fan of the offense and, at 35 years old, doesn’t see a need to learn a 3rd scheme in 4 years. While Manning makes a good point, let’s not forget a guy who’s probably more responsible for those stats than anyone else – Odell Beckham Jr. When McAdoo replaced Kevin Killdrive, the focus was to get Eli’s completion percentage near 70%. That was asking a lot coming off a 57.5% season. While he’s hovered around 63% in the McAdoo era, it’s a far cry from what self-imposed expectations were. He’s had seasons with the same efficiency under Gillbride & for the life of me I can’t figure out how Shane Vereen’s name wasn’t called a ton more this year to get that percentage up higher. I’m not so sure we’ve got McAdoo to thank for the slight improvements in Eli’s stat line. Having a young phenom running routes who can make any QB look like a marksman explains it a bit better.
Spags will get an interview as a formality but I can’t image he gets the gig after a catastrophic 10-38 run as Rams HC. As a matter of fact, outside of his two years as Giants DC before then, he hasn’t had any success in a prominent coaching position. The resume simply isn’t there for Spags to run the show.
Adam Gase is the hot young name projected to make the leap to a head coaching position after stints as OC in Denver & Chicago. While there’s little reason to think the offense would skip a beat transitioning to his regime, it would be a monumental leap for the G-Men to go from the oldest coach in the league to one with no experience who’s two years older than their QB. Gase has some “6 degrees of separation” type ties to the Giants through John Fox & Eli’s big brother. He may very well end up a great head coach. I just don’t see his start being on the heels of HOFer Tom Coughlin in New York.
The last name worth addressing right now is Nick Saban. Why would he want to leave a premier job in Alabama where winning to a degree is a certainty & he can have his pick of all the talent in the country? He already tried to take the NFL challenge and ducked out after 2 tough years to accept the Bama gig. Saban is making a salary that’d put him near the top 5 pro coaches and is treated like a king in the south. If he’s gonna leave college, the timing would make sense. It’s the most sought-after NFL landing spot and, at 64, he’s not a fossil but you’d think the window for big change is almost closed. There’s no questioning his persona could handle the pressure. The Giants could be more of a project than he wants though, and without any roster control why would he bother?
Those are just some of the names that have been attached to the G-Men. Out of this list, the only two realistic options to me are McAdoo & Sean Payton – but there’s certainly cons to both. Is McAdoo really ready, or would the Giants just promote him to maintain a piece of familiar structure & hope it works? Is the expected $50 mil in cap space gonna be enough to add the necessary talent to justify shipping off a second rounder and whatever else it would cost to bring Payton back to NY? Is there a dark horse candidate on the list of hot coordinators looking to make a leap? I guess we’ll have to wait & see. The odds of whoever it is bringing the same stability the Giants have had for the Tom Coughlin era are slim, but it’s a pick the Big Blue brass gotta get right.