New York Giants: Ron Rivera is a great coach, but Big Blue should pass

Ron Rivera is a solid head coach, and he should get another chance to be one in this league. It just shouldn’t be with the New York Giants.

This has less to do with just Rivera himself, and more with the state of the New York Giants and their personnel department, namely Dave Gettleman. Gettleman and Rivera worked closely together during their time in Carolina to turn the Panthers into a legitimate NFL contender – even making the 2015 Super Bowl – but it would be foolish to attempt to recreate that.

Even the biggest Gettleman supporter would have to admit that 2020 is a make or break year for the embattled GM, but bringing in a head coach that he’s already had success with would undoubtedly make his long leash even longer. You can just hear it now, “Sure the Giants went 5-11, but these two have had success together before and we need to give them more time.”

Ron Rivera had a very respectable 76-63-1 career record (54.6%) over almost nine years with the Panthers, and while Big Blue fans would kill for that kind of sustained success, how exactly that success was achieved needs to be examined more closely first.

Rivera made waves in November when he went for two, down eight points, on the road in Green Bay in the fourth quarter. After the game, he explained that the analytics there say you simply have to go for two there to give yourself a better chance to win. Hearing that, anyone would be within reason to think that Rivera is a man rooted in analytics, but that couldn’t be further from the truth (sound like anyone else we know?).

The Carolina Panthers hired their first two analytics employees this past June, and between Gettleman and Rivera the word and (more importantly) the practice was scarcely (if ever) used during their time together. The New York Giants are further behind the eight ball than any other franchise in the NFL in terms of understanding how to use analytics to their advantage, and bringing in a head coach whose nickname is ‘riverboat’ wouldn’t exactly be a step in the right direction.

Gettleman has famously mocked analytics, and used a ‘from the gut’ approach while making transactions and evaluating players (we’ve seen how that’s worked out, although he’s hit on some nice late round players that speaks to his roots as a scout). As Tim Weaver of The Panthers Wire discussed after that decision earlier this year in Green Bay, the going for two masked a large inconsistency in Rivera’s decision making, and when or why he decided to use analytics.

Via The Panthers Wire:

"Either the analytics trump his gut feelings and the “situation” or they don’t. This mix and mash he’s got going on is only going to lead to confusion and more of those infamous missed opportunities."

Ron Rivera is a fine man and football coach, who deserves credit for making the most out of this 2019 Carolina Panthers team and letting Norv Turner work his magic with Christian McCaffrey and company (something Pat Shurmur could learn a lesson in). He also surely deserves and will get another chance at being a head football coach.

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Unfortunately, that opportunity should not come with the New York Giants in 2020. The Giants’ next hire needs to signal a total change in direction, and it doesn’t mean that coach has to be young, it just means they have to be modern, and for once, maybe not have a direct link with the organization (this franchise has doomed itself by only bringing in people who it has a prior relationship with it.)

Bringing in Ron Rivera means Dave Gettleman would conservatively get at least two more years, when he really probably doesn’t even deserve one more.

The Giants are going to be hard-pressed to find the type of coach and leader to turn around this sputtering franchise, and even though they could do much worse, they should look outside of Ron Rivera.

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