Could the Giants’ defensive coordinator be on the move?
The first domino of the 2024-2025 coaching cycle has fallen as the New England Patriots have hired Mike Vrabel as their next head coach. It was first reported by Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL.com before being officially announced by the Patriots.
The Patriots’ decision to hire Vrabel is hardly surprising and was widely considered to be a given once they fired Jerod Mayo after the season.
The move, however, could have some resounding impacts for the New York Giants. Shane Bowen was Vrabel’s long-time defensive coordinator at Tennessee, while TE coach Tim Kelly was his offensive coordinator. Executive Advisor Ryan Cowden was also close with Vrabel at Tennessee as well.
The Giants can’t block Kelly from interviewing for offensive coordinator, nor could they block Cowden for interviewing for general manager (Eliot Wolf is the Patriots’ Executive Vice President of Player Personnel).
Thigs get more interesting once we get to Shane Bowen. It has been a surprise that the Giants didn’t fire Bowen as their DC after the 2024 season (finally) ended. The Giants’ defense played hard all season long, but Bowen’s scheme didn’t fit the players well.
Bowen has historically build his defense on zone coverage principles and called a high rate of Cover 4 as the defensive coordinator at Tennessee.
He did make some adjustments this season but the Giants still played one of the highest rates of zone coverage — usually Cover 3 — in the NFL. Unfortunately, they were also one of the worst zone coverage teams in the league as well. Cornerback Deonte Banks and linebacker Bobby Okereke were poor fits in particular, and appeared lost for long stretches this year.
Mike Garafolo is reporting that Vrabel could try to “pry Bowen away” from the Giants.
Breaking news from The Insiders on @NFLGameDay with @MikeGarafolo and @TomPelissero: The #Patriots are hiring Mike Vrabel as their new coach, sources say. We took a look at all that it means. pic.twitter.com/9rbjlxLUwB
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 12, 2025
Vrabel and Bowen had a good relationship at Tennessee and fielded strong defenses there, which could lead to interest in a reunion.
The Giants’ tumultuous coaching changes a year ago were an embarrassment to the team that they’d likely want to avoid repeating. It’s possible that the Giants didn’t fire Bowen in the hopes that Vrabel would request an interview with him once he was hired as a head coach.
If so, we might see the Giants grant Bowen permission to interview for the lateral move. That could be an elegant solution to John Mara’s complaints about the defense as well as put Bowen in a situation where he can build his defense from scratch.
That’s obviously speculation, but we’ll keep an eye on the situation as it develops.
