Will Bill Cowher Be the Next New York Giants Head Coach in 2012?

Less than a week away, the Giants will begin the 2011 season against the Washington Redskins.

The team they field will be a lot different than the one they hoped they would field when the lockout ended a little over a month ago.

They lost tight end Kevin Boss to the Oakland Raiders and wide receiver Steve Smith to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Both were favorite and reliable targets for quarterback Eli Manning since they came into the league in 2007.

Center Shaun O'Hara and guard Rich Seubert were both released. Both were seasoned and respectable veterans, but were missing multiple games due to racked-up injuries.

And on defense, Pro Bowl defensive end Osi Umenyiora is recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery and could be out until at least next month.

First-round rookie cornerback Prince Amukamara broke his foot in the first week he was signed and could be out until at least November.

Cornerback Terrell Thomas, who was developing into the top defensive back for the Giants, tore his ACL in the preseason game against the Chicago Bears and will be out for the season.

Less than 24 hours later, rookie defensive back Brian Witherspoon and rookie defensive tackle Marvin Austin both suffered season-ending injuries.

In the last week, the Giants also lost linebackers Clint Sintim and Jonathan Goff to season-ending injuries as well.

I think it's safe to say that this has gone down as one of the worst offseasons in Giants history.

And with the offseason shaping up the way it is, it doesn't give the Giants very high expectations for the upcoming season.

In the NFC East alone, the Eagles are the heavy favorites to repeat at the division champions and the Cowboys looked improved when Jason Garrett took over as the head coach.

Plus, back to the losses of Smith and Boss in the offense.

Since coming over in the same draft class in 2007, they had been huge parts of the Giants offense. And now with both of them gone, it causes a lot of unknown in 2011.

Smith's departure leaves Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham as the only two receivers left in the offense from a season ago.

Boss's departure leaves a huge vacancy at the tight end position. Is Travis Beckum ready to start and can he consistently catch and block as a regular? Bear Pascoe is more suited as a backup and a second blocking tight end on the offensive line.

That puts pressure on Manning to try to make something out of Domenik Hixon, Victor Cruz, Derek Hagan and Devin Thomas. Michael Clayton was released before the final cuts.

Manning threw 25 interceptions a year ago, some of which were caused by his receivers tipping passes into the air and into the arms of defenders. If he has trouble trying to get the ball to other guys, the mistakes could still happen.

It also puts a lot of the focus on the running game with Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs. If the Giants have problems throwing the ball, defenses may start to stack the box and load up for either running back.

Plus, offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, who has earned the nickname "Killdrive" from a lot of Giants fans in the past, is not exactly the most creative mind when it comes to calling plays.

On defense, we know defensive coordinator Perry Fewell will try to bring the pressure, especially from the defensive line.

They still have Justin Tuck and second-year end Jason Pierre-Paul ready, and Mathias Kiwanuka will shift to linebacker again, so their pass rushers are still there.

But their defensive backfield is thin. Aaron Ross shifts to being a starter, and he has been extremely injury-prone over the course of his career.

When you mention all of these things, it has the recipe for disaster.

Plus, when you look at the Giants schedule from Nov. 6 on; when the Giants play the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium...

It's at the Patriots, home against the 49ers and Eagles, at the Saints, home against the Packers, at the Cowboys, home against the Redskins, at the Jets and home against the Cowboys.

An utterly brutal second half to a schedule.

Which then brings me to the head coach, Tom Coughlin.

Since coming to New York in 2004, Coughlin has done an amazing job, posting a career 65-47 record, along with a 4-3 postseason record which includes a Super Bowl back in 2007.

Coughlin's worst season was his first in 2004, where they finished 6-10, but it was also Manning's rookie season and he was brought in to start in Week 10. (The Giants were 5-4 before Eli took over for Kurt Warner and suffered through the growing pains of a rookie season.)

Since then, Coughlin has finished no worse than 8-8, which was twice during his seven seasons.

He's also won two division titles and been to the playoffs two other times.

But in recent times, the Giants have missed the playoffs two straight seasons; 8-8 in 2009 and 10-6 in 2010.

Usually a 10-6 record is a great thing, but the Meltdown in the Meadowlands still lingers in Giants fans and the organizations mind of where the Giants blew a 31-10 lead over the Eagles with less than eight minutes to go and lost 38-31, which was then followed up by a 45-17 embarrassment against the Packers at Lambeau Field the day after Christmas.

Giants owner John Mara is not thrilled that his team is not making the playoffs; especially not with the brand-new MetLife Stadium that was built a year ago and the fact that the team they share the stadium with, the New York Jets, have reached the playoffs and made the AFC Championship while the Giants sat at home.

2009 is strike one. 2010 is strike two.

If the Giants don't make the playoffs and have a sub-par season, is 2011 strike three for Coughlin in New York?

Could Mara really fire the coach that brought the organization's third Super Bowl trophy?

Or, could Coughlin, who just turned 65 years old, be coaching in his last season.

Entering the 2011 season, Coughlin is the oldest coach in the NFL. Coughlin was signed to a one-year extension for 2012, but that was mostly for the fact that the Giants didn't want to have Coughlin be the "lame duck coach" for the 2011 season.

That brings me to the speculation of who could take over as the next head coach if Coughlin is let go, or decides to retire after 2011.

We all know the rumors. Jerome Bettis helped create a lot of them himself.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher has been rumored to be waiting for the Giants job to open up.

Publicly, Cowher has said he does not want Coughlin's job, but that shows the respect Cowher has for Coughlin, plus he has too much class to say he wants a job that is currently occupied.

Cowher, who was with Pittsburgh for 15 years (1992-2006), accumulated a 149-90-1 record and a 12-9 postseason record, won Super Bowl XL with the Steelers in February 2006 and coached one more season with them before he resigned in January 2007.

Bettis claimed that if the Giants didn't make their Super Bowl run in 2007, Cowher could have taken over the job if the Giants had fired Coughlin around that time.

It seemed like it made sense around then. Coughlin had to go to the Giants front office after the 2006 season and tell them why he deserved to keep his job, especially when people thought Coughlin was losing control of the team and his players.

Tiki Barber and Jeremy Shockey were speaking out publicly against Coughlin, and the Giants were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs of the 2005 and 2006 seasons.

But the Super Bowl XLII run not only saved Coughlin's job in New York; it got him a four-year extension worth about $21 million.

So Cowher continued to work as an analyst for CBS on The NFL Today. Cowher has been linked to quite a few head coaching vacancies during his time away from Pittsburgh: the Jets, Bills, Browns, Buccaneers and Falcons, but Cowher has turned down all of those coaching opportunities.

Part of the reason why Cowher may have turned down a lot of those opportunities was the fact that Cowher's wife, Kaye, was battling skin cancer, which she died from on July 23, 2010. Nobody really knew Cowher's wife had the disease until after her passing.

In a New York Post story which used an ESPN source, Cowher has a three-team wish list with the Houston Texans, Miami Dolphins and the Giants.

Of those three, the Giants would seem to make the most sense. Cowher works in New York with CBS and of the three teams, the Giants have the more established team with a franchise quarterback.

Plus, you can throw in the fact that Bettis, a former Cowher player in Pittsburgh, has stated over and over that Cowher is holding out for the Giants job.

Cowher will be 55 years old by the time the 2012 season would be coming around to start next September, so he's got at least one more good run in him as an NFL head coach before retiring for good.

Despite both coaches being well respected in the NFL, Cowher's very different from the way Coughlin is as a head coach.

Even though he has calmed down a lot from his previous dictator-like years in the past, (especially when he was with the Jacksonville Jaguars and early on with the Giants), Coughlin is still more of the no-nonsense type coach and tends to have players turn away from his style, even if he does win.

Cowher has been a player-friendly coach from his days in Pittsburgh who was very well-respected and even loved by his players. His type would be welcomed by the Giants players, and they could likely thrive in his system.

Even if Coughlin has an extension for 2012, it's not guaranteed that he would have a job if the Giants miss the playoffs a third straight season.

If Coughlin isn't back for 2012, I expect Mara to bring Cowher in to coach Big Blue.