Fascinating decision at head coach awaits Giants
Giants general manager Joe Schoen need to make this count if he is going to hold on to his job next season.
No matter how bad Joe Schoen has been at his job as the Giants general manager in the last four seasons, he gets another redemption story. He will have a chance to hire a new head coach who can make the Giants great again like going back to when they last won the Super Bowl. Despite Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart’s lack of success this season, the Giants love his star potential which should attract interest from many coaching candidates.
Here are their options, ranked in reverse order of desirability:
How about Brian Daboll?
I know, I know he won’t get an interview to be the Giants head coach. That marriage ended when he was fired this season. This should be befuddling to Dart and Giants fans here. What was the point of firing Daboll when the Giants intended to keep Joe Schoen all this time?
Schoen and Daboll know how to work together. They’re great friends. Collaboration has become a big thing in sports, and from all accounts, those two did it so well together. It’s rare to see this. The success might not have been there, but they both knew what they wanted out of each other. They believed in each other. They wanted to make this work. There was never a sense of dissension by both parties at the time.
It would have made much more sense to give Daboll one more year with Dart learning on the job. The rookie Giants quarterback was playing well under Daboll. He struggled after the head coach was fired. He was probably due to take a dip as the season went on, but this is where Daboll’s quarterback coaching expertise would’ve been so valuable for Dart as he goes through the growing pains.
The Giants should have fired both Daboll and Schoen. They didn’t, and now you wonder what’s going on.
Who knows how to work better with Dart than Daboll?
Go all-in on Mike McCarthy
This would be the ultimate safe choice. He knows how to win regular season games, and he has coached in the NFC East from his time with the Dallas Cowboys. He won a Super Bowl. He’s a name. He would bring gravitas with John Mara and Steve Tisch as the adult in the room when it comes to being a head coach. He may be the guy who takes the Giants from Point A to Point B.
It doesn’t mean he’s the guy who can take the Giants to the championship.
But this is not what they’re hiring him for. They just want him to provide the team with direction and be the guiding light to Dart. They also want him to lead them to meaningful games in December rather than playing out the season once the baseball playoffs start.
Whether Schoen wants to go with McCarthy is another question. The guess here is that he wants a young head coach who he can work with for a long time, as he did with Daboll.
If McCarthy gets the job, it will be on Mara’s mandate.
Finding the next Dave Canales/Liam Coen
These two are the coaching standards, and they are very young. They know how to run an offense. We are going to see these two head coaches lead their respective teams (Panthers/Jaguars) in the Wild-Card round this weekend.
You figure the Giants are looking for an offensive head coach. There are plenty of Dave Canales and Liam Coens out there. This is where Schoen’s years of front office experience should let him figure out who those guys are.
If the Giants are not interested in hiring McCarthy or Jon Gruden, they shouldn’t waste their time hiring washouts such as Kevin Stefanski or Doug Pederson. I don’t think Schoen is going to do that. If he is going to hire the next head coach, he will do it his way and hire a diamond in the rough. Who knew Canales or Coen before they had success?
Why not Mike Kafka?
Giants fans can laugh at this suggestion, but this could be who Schoen really wants as a head coach.
Schoen doesn’t seem like a guy who is going to be married to a well-known coach or a safe choice here. He will go with a head coach who shares his vision. It makes more sense to work with someone he knows in the building already.
Who’s to say Kafka is not Canales or Coen? Remember, it wasn’t long ago when the Giants interim head coach was actually a head coaching candidate waiting to be interviewed. Kafka’s star rose in Brian Daboll’s first year as Giants head coach, when the Giants made the playoffs. Kafka and Daboll somehow and someway found results with quarterback Daniel Jones that year.
Kafka can definitely do well with Dart. It makes more sense to go with you-know-who than with someone you don’t really know, especially if the general manager’s job is on the line next season.