2. Mike McCarthy, former Green Bay Packers head coach
Interviewed: 1/3/20
Big Blue’s “plan B” at head coach, McCarthy is probably a safe bet to have some success with the NY Giants but they are obviously looking for a bit more than that. The biggest positive McCarthy would bring is his history of developing quarterbacks.
He helped develop Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers and has a ton of offensive coordinator and quarterback coach experience. But the feeling I get is that the Giants are not looking for his breed of head coach.
While McCarthy does have one Super Bowl win, four NFC Championship appearances and nine total playoff appearances with the Green Bay Packers, there are some who would say McCarthy underperformed late in his tenure and could not win another title after his first one in 2010 despite having plenty of chances.
Low points that include blowing a twelve-point lead in the NFC championship game in the last three minutes to the Seattle Seahawks and effectively wasting years of Aaron Rodger’s prime. The brass in Green Bay figured this out late in 2018 and canned McCarthy, who despite interviewing for a few head-coaching openings, could not get hired.
Recently, however, McCarthy has interviewed with just about everyone in the NFL who has a head coaching vacancy, giving the appearance that time has healed his standing within the NFL. So if the Giants want him, they will have to go after him hard, which I do not really see happening unless their primary candidate is gone.
McCarthy will bring along his West Coast offense that the Giants previously had with Ben McAdoo…we saw how that ended. Given how his offense sputtered despite Rodgers being sharp, it further proves he may only be a mediocre hire at best.