Why the N.Y. Giants Should Not Retain Tom Coughlin and Jerry Reese
The end of the year is usually a time for joy; however for the New York Giants, the end of the year is looking anything but festive and more along the lines of uncertain.
Once in control of their destiny, the Giants are potentially looking at a fourth straight season with no playoffs, a possibility that could become fact even before they take the field on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings if Washington wins its game Saturday against the Philadelphia Eagles.
What’s more, cracks in the organizational structure appear to have gotten to the point where not even the strongest of industrial glue can fix them.
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There is plenty of blame to go around for the Giants' season turning out the way it has.
If the season does indeed end on January 3, 2016, team owners John Mara and Steve Tisch will have the unenviable task of assessing just how much of the blame falls on the different parties who collectively contributed to yet another disappointing campaign.
Whether changes are made remains to be seen, and it won't happen until early next year at the soonest—if they are going to be made.
Until then, let’s take a look at the two men whose respective seats are hotter than the flame of the Yule Log who could be part of any changes that might be made by ownership.
General Manager Jerry Reese
When Jerry Reese was named general manager in 2007 after Ernie Accorsi’s retirement, Reese's first draft class was about as close to perfect of a class as the Giants have had in years.
That year, you might remember, Reese actually pulled double duty as both the new general manager and as the director of scouting, a position he ultimately handed off to Marc Ross, whose career path has included stops with the Eagles and the Buffalo Bills.
Somewhere along the line, the Giants moved away from tried-and-true draft techniques such as focusing on the offensive line.
They instead took gambles on players with injury history, players whose skill sets weren’t a fit for what the coaches were running, players whom no one else heard of, players who were "athletes" rather than "football players" and players who in hindsight just didn’t have what it took to be successful in the NFL.
Cold Drafts
In an article written earlier this month, I outlined the Giants' last six draft classes, breaking down the number of starters, backups and players out of the league.
When a team has poor drafts that don’t yield at least backups who can be developed into potential starters, that team now becomes dependent on free agency.
Similarly, if that team doesn’t have the big bucks to compete with the rest of the league (which was the case for the Giants prior to 2014’s major spending spree), it then has to hold its breath that the gambles it takes on guys who aren’t commanding the big money for a reason work out.
Simply put, it’s a vicious cycle and is no way to build a football team.
While injuries have certainly been a part of the draft failures, the bottom line is that the failed draft classes of the last six years have set the Giants back—not a good thing either considering its franchise quarterback is advancing in years.
Let’s hone in on the last three draft classes.
| 2013 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 2014 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 2015 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Totals | 20 | 7 (35%) | 9 (45%) | 3 (15%) |
The Class of 2013 yielded OL Justin Pugh and DT Johnathan Hankins, the latter of whom is on injured reserve.
Third-round pick DE Damontre Moore is with the Miami Dolphins; fourth rounder QB Ryan Nassib is still waiting in the wings; fifth rounder S Cooper Taylor was bounced around this year before finally landing back with the team when injuries to guys in front of him struck; seventh rounder OL Eric Herman is with the Baltimore Ravens and RB Michael Cox is out of the league.
The Class of 2014 yielded starters Odell Beckham Jr. (first round), Weston Richburg (second round) and Devon Kennard (fifth round).
The backups include DT Jay Bromley (third round), who couldn’t move past Markus Kuhn on the depth chart, RB Andre Williams (fourth round), S Nat Berhe (fifth round) and DB Bennett Jackson (sixth round). The latter two are currently sitting on injured reserve.
The Class of 2015 yielded OT Ereck Flowers and S Landon Collins, who are starters. DE Owa Odighizuwa (third round) and S Mykkele Thompson (fifth round) have been on injured reserve; WR Geremy Davis (sixth round) hasn’t earned a game uniform in the last four weeks, losing out to Myles White, who was added after the start of training camp; OL Bobby Hart (seventh round) has been solid in spot relief duty.
The last three drafts appear to be a start in the right direction, but there is still a long, long way to go to make up for the failed classes before these that have put this team in a hole.
The Black Hole
If the draft is the foundation of a team, it’s probably safe to say that the failed draft classes have forced the team to use the Band-Aid approach: free agency.
The problem is that until 2014, the Giants really didn’t have the cap space to be competitive in free agency. When they have, they have't gotten the most bang for their buck.
Let’s look at 2014’s free-agency signing bonanza, which Big Blue Interactive has summarized in a nice, neat little package.
Of the 50 restricted, unrestricted and returning Giants signed, 12 are still technically under contract; of those 12, eight (Mark Herzlich, Trumaine McBride, Josh Brown, Rashad Jennings, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, John Jerry, Robert Ayers and Jerome Cunningham) are on the active roster.
Of those eight, there are three starters (Jennings, Rodgers-Cromartie and Ayers), with Brown playing a key role and Jerry having moved into the starting lineup due to the season-ending injury to Geoff Schwartz.
If that’s not unsettling enough, according to Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News, the Giants shelled out more than $116 million in free-agency contracts in 2014. Number of playoff wins to show for it: zero in 2014 with 2015 not looking very promising.
If you're looking for Reese to spend wildly this coming offseason, guess again. Eventually he's going to have to pay for key pieces such as Pugh, Hankins, Richburg and Beckham.
This coming offseason he's going to have to make decisions on Jason Pierre-Paul and Prince Amukamara.
Regardless of what kind of cap space the Giants have in the coming years, a budget has to be set aside for keeping the core building blocks around. That means that free-agent pickups will likely have to come from the bargain bin.
The Bottom Line
The Giants organization rarely fires general managers, believing in stability.
While Reese and those reporting to him on personnel matters can’t completely be held responsible for injuries, the fact of the matter is that the team has not gotten the best return on its investment in the drafts or in free agency.
If changes are coming, the general manager, who if history repeats itself will probably be given another chance to fix this mess, should be atop of the list of changes that need to be made.
Head Coach Tom Coughlin
When Coughlin first arrived on the scene, he vowed to clean up the injury situation and to instill pride and discipline in a team that had pretty much given up on his predecessor, Jim Fassel.
The problem with Coughlin is that he went at it a little too hard, at first, finally changing his ways and delegating some of the locker-room policing to trusted veterans like Eli Manning, Shaun O’Hara, Chris Snee, Antonio Pierce, Michael Strahan and others.
The system worked like a charm. Unfortunately, Father Time claimed those leaders, and, for whatever the reason, they were never really replaced.
While that’s not so much Coughlin’s fault, there are a few things that have surfaced that are of concern that are of his doing.
Team Management
The Week 1 game at the Dallas Cowboys was unfortunately a sign of what was to come. Questionable play calling, mental lapses in managing the game clock, making assumptions at critical junctures—all of those factors would go on to add up, costing the Giants a total of seven losses out of eight in which they lost by a single score or less.
How could Coughlin, notorious for his attention to detail, his preparation and his game management, have this happen?
This brings up another question: Have the Giants players subconsciously tuned out the head coach?
When Coughlin pleads with them to finish games, when he stresses the importance of playing above the Xs and Os, is the message really getting home to his entire team? The results would suggest that it isn’t, whether that’s consciously or otherwise. If the message isn’t hitting home, that’s not good at all.
One more point that needs to be made was illustrated during Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers when, down 35-14 at one point, the Giants came roaring back to tie the game.
Inside the NFL captured a sideline rant by an emotional Beckham screaming at his teammates, some of whom shown in in that clip were sitting calmly on the bench, to get up and fight back.
Again, have the players simply tuned the head coach out? Their actions during games would sure seem to support that theory.
The Personnel Decisions
Loyalty is a very hard quality to find in a lot of people these days, but Coughlin appears to have it in spades. Yet sometimes being too loyal to someone can have an adverse effect.
Let’s look at a few personnel decisions. First, there was the decision to make defensive tackle Kuhn a starter until a season-ending knee injury finally removed him from the lineup for good.
On the surface this decision is about as big of a head-scratcher as they come given that Kuhn was thought to be on the bubble during training camp.
What about the decision to run with a four-man running back committee for most of the season, a decision that in part crippled the running game?
Certainly Orleans Darkwa earned snaps after running well in the preseason, but why try to force-feed Williams on a small handful of carries when it was clear last season that he is at his best when given the rock multiple times?
Anyone remember the decision to put Preston Parker ahead of Dwayne Harris? It took for Parker to have multiple drops before the Giants really gave Harris that full-fledged chance to be the slot receiver, a role that Harris has handled a lot better than Parker.
Although Parker and Harris are both credited with four dropped passes apiece per Pro Football Focus, Parker’s drop rate is 36.6 percent while Harris’ is a hair under 8 percent.
Loyalty is great, but when you're in a bottom-line business, talent should trump all.
The Beckham Factor
The potential final nail in Coughlin’s coffin might just be how he’s handled the very talented but still maturing Beckham these last two years.
There’s little doubt that Beckham is a unique talent, a player who has the potential to be right up there with some of the all-time great receivers of the game.
But he’s also young, and it said quite a lot that Coughlin, the 69-year-old head coach, turned to the 43-year-old Sean Ryan, he team's receivers coach, to get into Beckham’s ear and try to keep him calm rather than handling the all-important task of trying to protect the team’s best offensive skill player by himself.
What’s more, how could Coughlin, who admitted to reporters both after the game and during his conference call the day after that there had been considerations of benching Beckham for a bit to let him calm down, not carry through with the plan?
There are two possible answers.
One, Coughlin is either overwhelmed by the suddenly larger-than-life Beckham, or two, because he has been coaching for his job, he sacrificed the very same values and pride that he spoke of when he was first hired in 2004.
The Bottom Line
Coughlin will go down in Giants franchise history as one of the best head coaches to patrol the sidelines since Bill Parcells.
Unfortunately, the NFL is a lot different now than it was when Coughlin first took the reins of a shattered franchise.
While Coughlin has made some attempts at change, he doesn’t seem to have changed enough to keep up with the continued evolution of the game.
Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.
Follow me on Twitter @Patricia_Traina.
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