Ever since the final stretch of their season began to tailspin into a complete disaster, the New York Giants and their fans have been fighting the good fight to make it through the finish line and arrive at the all-important offseason.
As depressing as it sounds, they’ve now completed the difficult race and the excitement of retooling the front office (and eventually roster) is in full motion. It’s telling of the decade-long dysfunction that has consumed the Giants organization that while other teams are concerned about surviving and advancing through the playoffs, all there is to look forward and talk about in New York is what names are going to become the team’s next general manager and head coach.
What’s more alarming–and angering the fanbase–is how often these types of searches are occurring for the franchise. Since the end of the 2015 season, the Giants have fired two general managers and three head coaches, all of the latter combining for one winning season.
Former general manager Dave Gettleman announced his retirement from a four year post following the Giants’ embarrassing 22-7 season finale loss to the Washington Football Team on January 9th and an underperforming 19-46 record at the helm. Not long after that, the Giants cut ties with head coach Joe Judge after an abysmal six game landslide to close out a 4-13 season and an overall record of 10-23 since he was hired in January 2020. Judge became the third consecutive coach to be fired by the Giants after two seasons or less.
The repetitive turnover within their ranks is why co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch promised to be diligent and hold a “comprehensive” search for the newest candidates to join the Giants’ leadership. The pair of football powers must recruit exceptional leaders who can pinpoint the Giants back in the direction of success they’ve modeled themselves on since John’s grandfather–Tim Mara–started the franchise in 1925.
“We are united in our commitment to find a general manager who will provide the direction necessary for us to achieve the on-field performance and results we all expect,” Tisch said in his portion of the statement released on January 10th.
“We are looking for a person who demonstrates exceptional leadership and communication abilities, somebody who will oversee all aspects of our football operations, including player personnel, college scouting and coaching,” John Mara added.
It appears that Mara and Tisch have held onto their oaths to their loyal yet growingly dissatisfied customers. The Giants have been buried in their search for Gettleman’s replacement for over two weeks and have whittled down three options from a starting group of nine candidates, a number more than double that which the Giants considered back in 2017.
The current finalists are Bills assistant general manager Joe Schoen, who was the first candidate the Giants interviewed for their role, Chiefs executive director of player personnel Ryan Poles and 49ers assistant GM Adam Peters. Schoen has been a hot name for several NFL teams with general manager vacancies, given his time serving as Brandon Beane’s wingman in Buffalo and being an integral member of the personnel group that evaluated and selected quarterback Josh Allen who’s bloomed into an incredible franchise piece for the long-run.
There’s a very good possibility that Schoen’s name is called upon to fill the office, with the announcement believed to be made by the Giants before next week, according to reports.
Once that decision is finalized and the Giants’ choice is settled in, all efforts quickly switch to executing the head coach search which is among the eight team coaching carousel dominating NFL discussions outside of the postseason. Unlike the previous searches for Judge and Pat Shurmur, the Giants insist the new general manager will be the person leading the charge.
“[The new general manager] will lead the search for head coach,” Mara said in a press conference with local reporters regarding the changes within the organization and previewing the offseason ahead. While Mara and his partner in Tisch want to hand over as much of the reins as possible to the head of the front office, the former didn’t shy from asserting his role in the job and saying ownership will have the “final stamp of approval”.
It also doesn’t mean the Giants will simply invite the general manager’s league connections to interview for their head coach opening. According to reports, there is no “package deal” for the partnership and the Giants will sift through an equally diverse list of candidates for a new coach.
The Giants have already requested permission to speak with Dallas Cowboys’ DC Dan Quinn regarding their vacancy, according to multiple sources. Bills’ offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, partners with Schoen, is expected to receive an interview request as well.
Yet, there’s another name circulating the coaching carousel for the Giants’ job. A name that should peak fans’ interest for his homegrown savvy and the impact he could have on the future of the Giants’ roster.
Brian Flores.
It’s been a tough fall from grace for Flores, the former head coach of the Miami Dolphins who was fired on Black Monday following three seasons with the team, the latest ending on a seven-game winning streak that had the Dolphins on the cusp of the postseason. However, it isn’t taking long for him to get back on his feet and earn some serious consideration from a few NFL teams, notably the Giants.
Sources around the league have reiterated convincingly in the past week that the Giants are “high” on Flores and would have interest in conducting an interview with him, regardless of who fills their general manager position. Another source deeply connected to Flores told ESPN that the former coach—a Brooklyn native with ties to certain current and former members of the organization—has similar interest for the franchise and that the Giants would be his first choice.
As of Friday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Giants are “expected to request permission to speak with Flores”, given he is still under contract with the Dolphins despite his dismissal. Yet earlier this week, one local New York sports radio host was already prepared to one-up Schefter with a special update to the situation of his own.
On Wednesday, in speaking about the subject of the Giants’ search on the daily “Carton and Roberts” show for WFAN, co-host Craig Carton unveiled a “confirmed” piece of news regarding the possibility of Flores and New York. Per the longtime radio voice, the Giants have already set the ball in motion on an interview.
“I have good news if you’re a die hard Giants fan,” Carton said. “I have had it confirmed, the New York Giants have reached out to Brian Flores, they want to bring him in for an interview. I can tell you as a fact, [the Giants] have picked up the phone and have called Brian Flores.”
If Mara and Tisch can get Flores to visit East Rutherford for an interview and they have a semblance of a reason to believe he would work well with the new general manager, Flores is certainly a viable option for the Giants to consider in the path less traveled of signing a person off the organization’s tree.
Need more “why”?
At the forefront is his respectable degree of experience and success as a head coach in Miami. In the first three years of his deal, Flores earned a 24-25 overall record while helping the Dolphins’ to two winning seasons and near postseason berths in both.
The first season of his tenure in Hard Rock was a learning curve for the former Patriots’ assistant, as the Dolphins went 5-11 behind a journeyman turned project quarterback in Ryan Fitzpatrick. Then, in 2020, Flores’ leadership brought the best out of Fitzpatrick and fortified the Dolphins’ defensive unit to improve the team to 10-6 and a 2nd place finish in the AFC East.
In 2021, behind second year quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, the Dolphins started the year 1-7 before winning eight of their last nine to close out at 9-8. Unfortunately, the incredible turnaround wasn’t enough for Dolphins’ brass, who decided the Flores experiment was over in the most shocking coach firing of the season.
Flores is not an offensive guru—the ideal candidate the Giants should pursue in order to fix an atrocious offense that averaged 9.3 points in the final six weeks of the season—but his staff was able to improve Miami’s offense production. From 2019 to 2020, the Dolphins’ offense went from a -188 point differential (306-494) to 66 (404-338), a turnaround that shot them up from 25th to the 15th best offense in the league. That was accompanied by a sixth ranked defense that gave up the 20th most points to opponents.
Miami’s numbers dropped a bit in 2021, but they still had an offense behind Tagovailoa that did well at moving the ball and scoring a decent amount of points on lesser opponents like the Giants. Yet again, when you’re making a comparison to the Giants offense that had the worst red zone percentage in the league, anything is better than that.
As for Tagovailoa, the 2020 first-round pick out of Alabama flourished in the Flores’ option offensive scheme and has the potential to bloom into a talented versatile quarterback if surrounded with the right weapons. After a year of learning behind Fitzpatrick, Tagovailoa became the starter and threw for 2,653 yards, 16 touchdowns (23rd ranked) and a QBR of 50.1 (18th best).
The subject of the quarterback is where things could get really intriguing for the Giants in a partnership with Flores. A key factor for the beckoning to Giants ownership to hire Flores from some in the New York market has been the coach’s connection to and affinity for Texans’ quarterback Deshaun Watson.
For a while now, reports have circulated about Flores’ desire to form a tandem with the beleaguered quarterback wherever his NFL coaching career lands next. Likewise, Watson’s camp has some believing that he is willing to waive his no-trade clause with Houston and go where Flores goes. Carton was among the believers when talking about his wish for the Giants to pursue Flores for the sake of getting Watson.
“To me, whatever GM thinks the highest of Brian Flores,” Carton declared as his choice Wednesday. “Because Brian Flores is the easiest and most direct connection, based on what I believe, Deshaun Watson. I have a chance to go get the quarterback.”
The thought of the duo joining forces in East Rutherford has Giants fans dreaming of an unfamiliar scenario where they suddenly have not only a head coach that reflects their city and who can bear the noise that comes from the visceral media, but also a highly skilled quarterback with potential to be dubbed a generational talent. The Giants would likely have their own grand trifecta in the front office and the pocket–GM, Fores, and Watson–but a package deal like that comes with a price that the Giants conservative front office may not want to even lightly consider.
As it stands, Watson has been inactive from the Texans’ roster the entire year in light of 22 lawsuits alleging sexual assualt and inappropriae behavior against him. The suits have yet to be settled in court, and the impending legal troubles have kept Watson off the field as the Texans refuse to let his outside controversies stain the image of the team and distract the focus of the season. Watson has been requesting a trade from the Texans since the end of the 2020 season because of disagreements with recent changes to personnel, but his situation has greatly impacted his market value along with Houston’s previous unwillingness to listen to offers.
Even if the Giants find a way to bring Flores to the Big Apple, there is a strong possibility that ownership immediately shuts down the prospect of trading for Watson. Not only would a deal likely require selling the farm in terms of draft picks, but the Giants have tried to model themselves on a non-dysfunctional, professional franchise since the dawn of time even as that image has been tainted by the team’s recent performances. John Mara has even made it clear he doesn’t want those kinds of players and personal issues affecting his business and locker room.
Speaking about the power he will bestow on the new general manager and head coach to lead the team towards progress in the personnel department, Mara said that the only exception to him signing off on “99.99%” of draft selections and free agent acquisitions of the .01% of players that have off-field conduct issues. By all intents and purposes, Watson appears to fit the bill.
Nonetheless, the sound of a Flores-Watson partnership is music to some New Yorkers ears and that same party is continuously pressing for the Giants to make things happen.
“The New York Giants are in a position that they will never find themselves in again,” Carton said. “They can get a coach that the fanbase will like from the jump street, and at the same time can go get a top-5, top-6…a generational talent at quarterback.”
“And it’s going to cost you draft picks to get him, but so what?”
The Giants are currently caught in a dilemma regarding their own quarterback situation. Earlier in the season, reports indicated the Giants planned to return with Daniel Jones as their quarterback in 2022. Jones, the team’s No. 6 pick in 2019, has had three seasons to show he can definitively assume the throne held by predecessor Eli Manning for 16 years as the Giants’ franchise quarterback but has failed to show enough to achieve full confidence of evaluators.
The 2021 season never lived up to expectations for Jones and the Giants offense which was bogged down by constant injuries, underperforming offensive weapons and a porous offensive line that surely had an impact on the gunslinger’s individual success. Despite those circumstances, Jones has not progressed enough in the area of durability either, missing the final six games of the season with a neck strain that adds to his total of 10 games missed over his first three years in the NFL.
This all makes the 2022 season a prove it year for Jones if he wants to remain the proud face of the Giants franchise moving forward. The Duke product is eligible for a contract extension from the Giants already, but they are electing to see if their faith in him holds up behind a new front office and a properly revamped offensive line. There’s also the possibility of the new general manager wanting to draft his own quarterback or the Giants bringing in a veteran free agent to challenge Jones for the starting job, all together creating a lot of uncertainty towards how things will look in that area of the offense come September.
Watson, meanwhile, finished the 2020 season with a league-leading 4,823 passing yards, 33 touchdowns and seven interceptions. That season’s performance also became the best in Texans’ franchise history, making Watson the leader in the above categories and in passer rating.
There is truly a lot to consider when it comes to the prospect of a Brian Flores hire by the Giants, and it likely will be a looming decision that earns much criticism from the other side of the aisle that thinks it’s a mistake to even welcome Flores to the facility for a sit-down with ownership. Yet, there are definitive pros and cons, and if the Judge era taught us anything it’s that you can’t get any riskier than with a head coach that comes in with zero head coaching experience.
If the skeptics still need proof that Flores is worth even a phone call, just look at the interest he’s receiving around the league.
Flores has also attracted interest and been interviewed by a few other NFL teams, notably the Bears and Houston Texans who’ve also moved on from their coaches after brief stints. Like they are prepared to do with the coaching search in general, the Giants are bound to not waste any time bringing Flores in to speak and give a taste of his resume to the new general manager. It would be a lost opportunity should New York let a candidate of his standing get swooped up before their eyes because they had their necks buried in the sand.
The question is will that person like what Flores brings to the table. Stay tuned to find out!
