Ben McAdoo is in the final stages of building his coaching staff. The coordinators are in place, including Mike Sullivan to replace McAdoo as offensive coordinator. Sullivan was promoted from quarterbacks coach, so he is intimately familiar with Eli Manning and the offense.
The New York Giants will run McAdoo’s version of the West Coast offense in 2016, the same offense that performed so well since his arrival. The Giants were 28th in total offense the year prior to McAdoo’s installment as offensive coordinator. In the two years McAdoo has been OC and playcaller, the Giants finished 10th in total offense in 2014 and 8th in 2015.
The improvement in the offense can be attributed to a number of things, one for instance is the emergence of superstar Odell Beckham Jr.. McAdoo had never called a play before 2014, but he’s called every one on offense since then. However, the question as to who calls plays in 2016 is still up in the air.
McAdoo said recently on SiriusXM NFL radio, “I’m going to be actively involved in the offense. We feel we have a pretty good foundation down after two years. We’ll see how the staff develops, no determination has been made whether I’ll continue to call the plays or not, but I’ll be heavily involved in the preparation part of things.”
As a first-time head coach, McAdoo may be concerned with how much he will have to deal with during the course of a game. McAdoo was an eyewitness to game-losing clock management errors by Tom Coughlin last season and perhaps he doesn’t want to catch the same blame he did in his first season.
“You work your whole career to be able to call the plays and have a chance to do that, whether you’re on offense, defense or special teams,” McAdoo said. “It’s something I really enjoy and love to do.” The other option as playcaller would appear to be Sullivan, who called plays for two years in Tampa Bay.
McAdoo may be teetering now, but it’s a safe bet he will be calling the plays come August. He has chemistry with Manning that they have developed over the past two seasons. One of the reasons he was hired as head coach was for continuity. He should maintain that same consistency on offense.