New York Giants Football: Ranking the five worst head coaches in franchise history
By Matt Clark
2.) Pat Shurmur 2018-Present
Pat Shurmur became the head coach of the New York Giants following the firing of Ben McAdoo and General Manager Jerry Reese and the disaster that was the 2017 season. Shurmur had spent parts of the previous two seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, who had a prolific offense, despite having career backup Case Keenum as the starting quarterback. As a result, they came within one game of making the Super Bowl, allowing Shurmur to be viewed as a brilliant offensive mind and head coaching material.
Many felt that the Giants were just a solid Head Coach away from becoming a contender again, pointing to the fact that most of the core that went 11-5 just two seasons before, was still in tact. Shurmur was expected to be the man who led the franchise back to the promised land in the twilight of Eli Manning’s storied career.
After beginning the 2018 season 1-7 under Shurmur, it became clear that faith was misplaced and the Giants began a rebuild, moving on from players like Odell Beckham Jr., Olivier Vernon, Landon Collins, Damon Harrison and Eli Apple & controversially drafting their quarterback of the future, Daniel Jones with the sixth-overall pick in the 2019 draft.
After beginning the 2019 season 0-2, with Eli Manning as their starting quarterback, Shurmur and the Giants opted to make the move to Daniel Jones. The move paid immediate dividends, as the team would win their first two games with Jones as the starter, giving Giants fans hope that they were progressing in the right direction.
However, they have lost the six games since in embarrassing fashion. The eight losses in the 2019 season have been marred by poor game management and offensive play calling on behalf of Shurmur, as well as the inability of the coaching staff to correct the turnover issues of Daniel Jones, a porous offensive line and a lackluster defense, leading to Giants fans calling for the dismissal of Shurmur.
Shurmur’s biggest issue is his refusal to make adjustments. His lack of game management has been called into question and many experts have suggested he needs to shed his offensive play calling duties to offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Mike Shula to focus solely on game management, but Shurmur has declined to do so. After the 2-8 start to the season, others suggested he needed to shake up his coaching staff. Again, he refused to make changes, insisting that he is seeing positive progression towards building for the future. Shurmur’s lack of willingness to make appropriate adjustments could end up resulting in his demise as the head coach of the Giants. Eric Smith further pushed the narrative that the Giants are an under-prepared football team, when he stunningly revealed the lack of preparation that went into the week leading up to the Jets game.
Despite only going 7-19, one of the worst records in the NFL during his tenure as Head Coach, Shurmur is yet to have any major locker room or personnel issues come to light, which is why he remains at number two. If controversies begin to spring up, he could vault to the top of the worst Head Coaches in Giants franchise history list, as he already has one of the handful of worst records of all-time in terms of coaches with 50+ games under their belt.