Once the 2023 regular season concluded, the most anticipated dismissal from the NY Giants coaching staff took place on Black Monday.
Most people woke up to the news that the Giants fired offensive line coach Bobby Johnson after two seasons with the team. Johnson was a friend of Giants head coach Brian Daboll, who followed him from the Buffalo Bills to East Rutherford.
Unfortunately for the Giants and for Johnson, the offensive line ranked near the bottom of the league in both seasons he was at the helm. Evan Neal regressed as a second-year player. Tyre Phillips struggled in training camp, got waived, went to the Philadelphia Eagles, came back and looked even better. Justin Pugh, fresh off his couch, was immediately inserted into the starting role at left tackle, then left guard, and was already the second-best offensive lineman at times.
These were just several of the indictments on Johnson’s coaching abilities and it was why fans all over were screaming for his head and his job all season long. On Monday morning, Giants fans got what they wanted. So, who could Coach Dabes bring in next? We have four candidates in mind:
4. Carmen Bricillo, Raiders offensive line coach
We’ll start with the name that is making headlines early this week, as the Giants will interview Raiders offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo for the vacancy.
The #Giants will interview #Raiders OL coach Carmen Bricillo for the same role on Brian Daboll’s coaching staff, sources say. Vegas granted permission for Bricillo to interview while they conduct their GM and HC searches.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 9, 2024
Bricillo was the offensive line coach for the New England Patriots in 2021 before he joined Josh McDaniels in Las Vegas in 2022 and stayed for Antonio Pierce’s tenure
The Raiders offensive line was ranked by Pro Football Focus in the Top 10 towards the end of the season. The offensive line of the Raiders allowed a total of 40 sacks to their quarterbacks in 2023, 24 of those were to rookie Aidan O’Connell, who took over midseason for Jimmy Garoppolo, who had been taken down 14 times before being benched.
In comparison to what the Giants quarterbacks took in 2023, those numbers are drastically better than what we saw all year long in East Rutherford with 85 sacks. Change was clearly needed and Bricillo could make a big impact for this team.