New York Giants: Ben McAdoo gets it wrong again about Manning

Former New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo continued his redemption tour. This week, McAdoo spoke to us via Peter King and his new platform on NBC Sports.

First, no one can blame the former New York Giants head coach for trying to remain relevant. He’s still a young man, who may have an NFL future in front of him. In order to rebuild his career, McAdoo may have to aggressively seek opportunities at the assistant coach level.

According to “Football Morning in America” by Peter King, an NFL head coaching position remains McAdoo’s goal. This week, King implemented a “What I Learned” section to his weekly column, and McAdoo became his first “guest”.

McAdoo’s article is an interesting read, and worth the effort to peruse. In his words, there’s a human side of McAdoo that finally appears. There’s probably a reason McAdoo was a reluctant communicator. I believe that he didn’t know what he didn’t know about New York itself, the Giants franchise, as well as the fanbase.

New York Giants

"“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” Mark Twain per Brainyquote."

All of these factors, plus a deficient roster, contributed to his demise in New York.

Previously stated, I’m not ready to throw in the towel about the football acumen of Ben McAdoo. Keep in mind, the most unpopular guy in every NFL city seems to be the offensive coordinator. In New York, Kevin Gilbride used to be called “Kevin Kill Drive”. Even during the Super Bowl seasons, fans complained about Gilbride.

I’m not giving him a ringing endorsement either.

Leadership Under McAdoo

After reading and re-reading McAdoo’s passages, he has not yet convinced me that he gets it.  In my estimation, this column almost exclusively provided damage control. I found no great insight into McAdoo’s thought process. Instead of demonstrating to the football public that he “learned” from his mistakes on the job, the entire ten paragraphs read like a compilation of cliches.

For example, McAdoo states:

"“I learned I have the broad shoulders to live with my decisions. I need that pressure; it brings me to life. Stress makes my nerve endings tingle. I learned that I’m not afraid of making the tough decision.”"

This statement represents a double-edged sword. And this mindset is where McAdoo continues to get it wrong. The tough decision should also be the right decision. For me, this way of thinking becomes the nexus of the problem I have with McAdoo’s leadership.

Also, I have trouble believing that either Tom Coughlin or Bill Parcells stayed up at night pondering their ability to make tough decisions. Sure, each developed a process, but I highly doubt that either patted himself on the back for making a tough decision. I would much rather have heard that the coach went back to the drawing board on his decision-making process. We’ll discuss that conclusion later.

Secondly, stress comes with the position of NFL head coach, so there’s no reason to chase it. I believe that folks will forgive the wrong decision for the right reason. Those same folks can probably live with the right decision done for the wrong reason. Unfortunately for McAdoo, I still feel the benching of Eli Manning amounted to the wrong decision for the wrong reason.

Think of it this way: Was it in anyone’s best interest to conduct a five-week, end-of-season training camp? My thought continues to be that the quarterback controversy became the Hail Mary pass attempt to save his job.

By exclusively focusing on the Manning decision, McAdoo ignores all the warning signals prior to Week 11. The suspensions to Janoris Jenkins and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie are not considered. His difficulty in developing Eli Apple and Ereck Flowers is not mentioned. He does mention Odell Beckham, but his solution for OBJ isn’t well grounded either. In addition, Beckham wasn’t around when the Manning fiasco took place.

Mismanaged Manning

Reading through the piece, it’s clear McAdoo misses the forest for the trees. If we stay with the benching of Manning, it’s apparent he misread dynamics surrounding the New York Giants organization.

In this specific case, McAdoo is not solely responsible for the poor outcome. Having said that, he still was a key player. Let’s backtrack for a moment. The Giants organization was completely tone-deaf and bit naïve in how they handled head coach Tom Coughlin’s dismissal. Ownership, primarily John Mara, should have been more circumspect about the raw feelings of the fanbase.

The fans’ raw feelings were again on display as the Manning situation played out. McAdoo could have learned so much at the hands of Coughlin, but he missed many key lessons. Almost disturbingly, he never wrapped his head around the intrinsic nature of New York Football Giants franchise.

He’s what he said about the Manning decision:

"“I learned there’s no easy way to make the truly tough decisions. Right or wrong, I am at peace with how I handled the decision to play quarterbacks other than Eli Manning down the stretch of last season. At the time, we were 2-9, beat up, and I told Eli we wanted to see the other quarterbacks on the roster—including our promising rookie, Davis Webb.”"

Notably, McAdoo makes no mention of Eli Manning’s consecutive game streak. In a lost season, at least there was that, until McAdoo and company took that away as well. What else was left?

I’m sorry this doesn’t pass the smell test with me. At that point in the season, both McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese surely knew their jobs were on the line. Both needed a ready excuse for losing. What better excuse exists than playing inexperienced players?

And you don’t just kick a two-time Super Bowl MVP to the curb.

If he honestly wanted to take a look at Geno Smith, there was ample opportunity. How about the 51-17 debacle against the Los Angeles Rams on November 5? There was plenty of garbage time in that game. McAdoo took a pass because putting Smith in that game would have taken a bad situation and made it worse.

McAdoo said he’s at peace with his decision that ultimately lead to the benching of Manning. The decision also looks worse now because the new regime doubled-down on Eli. Putting Manning aside, there was plenty of other holes in the sinking ship. McAdoo should at least acknowledge that the Manning decision was only the final nail in his coffin.

Learning from the past

Face it, many fans didn’t like the way Tom Coughlin was scapegoated at the end of his New York Giants tenure. Many of these same fans, rightfully so, were still on the fence about McAdoo. The infamous Manning decision may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, but there was a lot more to the terrible 2017 season than just Manning.

Here’s what McAdoo had to say about being fired:

"“I do understand the reality of this business I chose. You’ve got to win, and I didn’t win enough in my two years.”"

I don’t believe this for a second. McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese, were fired due to the wayward direction of the franchise. At that point, the organization had become a rudderless ship. Quite simply, there was no light at the end of the tunnel. And the problems continued to mount.

To be fair, owner John Mara had a lot to do with the internal strife as well, but the owner doesn’t get fired. Clearly, McAdoo had to fend for himself, and he wasn’t prepared for that. As head coach, you’re in charge of the entire on-field operation. Dealing with the media and understanding the fan base are critical elements of your job too.

Can anyone point to an area where McAdoo was or became proficient in his tenure?

Next: PFF unimpressed with New York Giants offensive line

In my opinion, there’s so much cliché and false bravado in the McAdoo summary, his words make it difficult to have empathy for him. Perhaps McAdoo will garner more clarity as his hiatus continues. Otherwise, I see a rocky road toward NFL redemption.