It's getting borderline impossible to justify Shane Bowen’s employment with the New York Giants. He clearly can't get the most out of his defense, and every week is the same. The pattern is clear: The offense builds a lead, the game hits the fourth quarter, and everything falls apart in the same ways that have defined Bowen's entire tenure.
It's why Keith McPherson’s comment on WFAN Sports Radio will catch Big Blue Nation's attention. He told Giants fans to relax because Bowen’s fate is all but sealed. In his exact words, “He’s fired. He’s terminated. He’s just finishing out the term.” He painted Bowen as someone simply playing out the clock until the offseason housecleaning begins.
Keith says Giants fans can tone down the Shane Bowen anger, because he's a lock to be fired at the end of the year anyway: pic.twitter.com/YmzcpD51VH
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) November 19, 2025
The idea makes sense on paper, but it does exactly nothing to ease the frustration for fans who have been forced to watch the same mistakes unfold for two straight seasons. And that's a problem.
Shane Bowen’s tenure with the Giants moves toward an expected finish
The Giants are giving up 375.1 yards and 27.3 points per game — both bottom-five rankings among the league. Those numbers fit what just about everyone has seen for weeks.
The most glaring example was the 19-point meltdown against the Denver Broncos in Week 7 of the 2025 season. Bowen leaned on his soft zone approach once the fourth quarter began, and the defense sat back while Denver marched down the field without any meaningful resistance.
Pass-rusher Brian Burns was seen on the sideline, frustrated with the decision to drop eight into coverage on the final drive, and the call helped set up a last-second loss that would define another lost season.
The same approach showed up earlier in the season against Dallas. The Cowboys worked their way through the Giants’ coverage with ease because the pass rush never had the chance to do what it was built to do. Bowen repeatedly rushed three despite having Dexter Lawrence, Abdul Carter, Brian Burns, and Kayvon Thibodeaux. He even used Thibs as a quarterback spy on a critical third down against the Chicago Bears, which only added to the confusion.
Personnel choices created their own set of problems. Bowen acknowledged that Lawrence was not on the field during a pivotal sequence in the Broncos game, and that decision became one of the moments fans pointed to when questioning his overall feel for the job.
Other than those specific examples, the biggest indictment of his tenure has been the fact that the run defense still can't stop a nosebleed. No one makes stopping the run look more like rocket science than Bowen.
McPherson’s message makes sense because everyone knows the firing is coming, but that does not make the waiting any easier. Fans still have to sit through the same issues every week while the team delays a move that feels overdue. It would make so much more sense to make the change now and limit the chance for more habits to form that only set the group back even further.