Coach McAdoo – Big Blue Shoes to Fill
By Pete Lillo
If you’re the New York Giants, replacing Tom Coughlin, two-time Super Bowl and future Hall of Fame coach, was never going to be easy. Giants’ fans probably knew the die was cast two years ago when Giants’ principal owner John Mara and his co-partner, Steve Tisch, hired former Green Bay Packers’ quarterback coach, Ben McAdoo. The Giants were one year removed from their fourth Super Bowl Championship, and McAdoo, never a NFL coordinator, did something else–coach the greatest quarterback at his position (in my estimation), Aaron Rodgers.
The G-Men provided gratuitous interviews with five other candidates, including defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who seemed like a long-shot choice at best.
So now, it’s go time for Big Blue, and it is difficult to distance McAdoo from issues the Giants experienced during the 2015 season. Consider the lapses in judgment at the end of the Dallas game to start the season, the same pattern emerging subsequently in the loss to the Atlanta Falcons, and the fourth-and-one “go for it” decision against the New York Jets. How do you explain those calls? In post-game press conferences Coughlin said, “The calls had already been made.” What does that tell Giants’ fans? If the head coach didn’t make the play calls, then they must been made by Ben McAdoo.
While Mara and Tisch kept their word, the only change made was at head coach. In his quest to become head man McAdoo was certainly helped by quarterback Eli Manning. On WFAN’s Boomer & Carton show on Aug. 3, 2016, Manning spoke highly of his new head coach.
“[McAdoo] came in here here, having never called an NFL play, and he earned the respect of our offense,” Manning said.
In 2015, the Giants ended up eighth in total offense. Manning had his best year, statistically, throwing for 35 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. A marked improvement over the last two seasons, the progression was mostly due to McAdoo’s system. So McAdoo is now the head coach, and he has said all the right things during OTA’s, mini-camp, and now a couple of weeks into training camp.
According to Giants.com in a report about McAdoo’s hiring on Jan. 15, 2016, the new head coach indicated he had been auditioning to become an NFL coach for a long time. “I have been preparing for this moment my entire professional life, and without the guidance and support of many people, I would not be here right now,” McAdoo said.
“I have been preparing for this moment my entire professional life, and without the guidance and support of many people, I would not be here right now.”
New York Giants’ head coach Ben McAdoo
On paper, the Giants are a much better team, and if everyone stays healthy, they may actually be able to win a division title, and a return to the playoffs – something that has not happened since they beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. That seems like ancient history, and Giants’ fans don’t like taking a backseat to the other tenants in the building – the New York Jets.
What does it all mean? Giants’ fans have a lot to ponder over as the new season gets underway Jerry Reese, the general manager who got to keep his job, was given a king’s ransom to sign some of the best players on the free agent market.
This draft class looks like it can also make an immediate impact, especially in areas that had massive holes over the last few seasons. Everyone has said that Reese needed to make an impact in free agency and the draft, and it appears that he might have done just that, but the jury is still out.
So McAdoo has very big shoes to fill. He may get short honeymoon with the fans, but we know how that goes with the Giants’ faithful. In the end, only one thing matters: Get back to the Super Bowl and win a fifth Lombardi Trophy.