If you believe New York Giants GM Joe Schoen, tabbed by ownership to begin the organization’s search for a new head coach, that effort has barely begun.
“We’re going to do everything we can right now to support [interim head coach Mike] Kafka,” Schoen said at his bye week press conference. “That’s our primary focus right now is to give Kafka everything he needs in order to succeed over these next four weeks, support him and his staff. At the appropriate time, we’ll get into potential coaches research and we’ll do thorough collaborative research and come up with the best coach to lead the New York Giants going into the 2026 season.”
Schoen also said on Tuesday that he believes the Giants’ opening “will be an attractive job for many coaches.”
Whether Schoen is still the general manager when the Giants select the replacement for the fired Brian Daboll remains to be seen. Despite what he said about not having fully begun the search, you can bet that Schoen has been working to at least find who does and does not want to be considered.
Let’s look at some of the potential candidates, and the recent news about them.
Chris Shula: “Not a better guy”
The 39-year-old Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator is expected to be hotly sought after when the 2026 coaching carousel begins in January.
Rams insider Erin Coscarelli of the Bleav in Rams podcast and FanDuel Sports Network West was a guest recently on the ‘Valentine’s Views’ podcast. She wondered if Shula, who will have options, would see New York as the right opportunity.
“I don’t know if he’d be interested in to go from an LA very comfortable winning culture and then having to totally redevelop it and and reinvest in it and really start from scratch,” Coscarelli said. “There’s not a better guy that can do it, but is it the right opportunity for him? I wonder.”
Reality is, though, there are only 32 NFL head-coaching jobs.
“Not a lot of these types of opportunities come up for these potential coaches,” Coscarelli said. “I think for him, for Chris Shula, it’s is he capable of putting a staff in place where he can focus on the defense and give your quarterback and the culture sort of a boost that it hasn’t seen before. And I agree with you, there’s something about why is it so hard to coach a winning franchise for the Giants? I wonder that myself.”
The Giants clearly need a culture change. One of the questions with any first-time head coach is whether or not that person can lead an entire room, whether or not he can establish a standard and hold players accountable to it.
“He has a football legacy. He is an alpha male. He can connect with other young alpha males and he finds a way to bring people together. Obviously, he’s learned it from the best in Coach McVay. It translates in bringing out the best in his players.”
As NFL teams learned when plucking from the Bill Belichick coaching tree, hiring a highly-regarded assistant from the staff of a top-tier head coach does not guarantee bringing that type of success to your franchise.
“Sean McVay has had seven different former assistants or coordinators move on. And they still can’t really replicate what McVey is doing,” Coscarelli said. “So, I don’t know. If it were me, I’d want to be in the McVay camp for as long as I possibly can until like the most perfect situation were to come up.”
[The full interview with Coscarelli is below].
Mike McCarthy throws his hat in the ring
The idea of former Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy taking the reigns of the Giants does not excite most of the team’s fan base. The idea of Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin getting the job does.
There are two odds things about that.
First, McCarthy’s record in 18 years is almost identical to Tomlin’s in 19. In some ways, it is better. McCarthy has a .608 regular season winning percentage, a Super Bowl title, 11 double-digit win seasons, 12 playoff berths and an 11-11 record in playoff games. Tomlin has a .625 winning percentage, a Super Bowl title, 11 double-digit win seasons, 12 playoff berths and an 8-11 record in the postseason.
Also, McCarthy has an established record as an offensive coach that might make him a natural fit to oversee the growth of Jaxson Dart. Tomlin, since the retirement of future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger, has made a mess of the Steelers’ quarterback situation.
McCarthy also navigated a messy situation in Dallas where owner Jerry Jones was always omni-present, winning 12 games in three straight seasons. Being head coach of the Giants comes with its own challenges because of the team’s unique ownership structure.
All of that means it isn’t difficult to argue that McCarthy is a better fit for the Giants’ job than Tomlin.
McCarthy was on the Pat McAfee Show on Thursday praising Dart.
I am certain he was sincere when he said “every quarterback coach in the United States would love to coach this guy”, but make no mistake about what McCarthy was saying. That was a campaign speech, sending a loud and clear message to 1925 Giants Drive in East Rutherford that the 61-year-old McCarthy is one of those people interested in being Dart’s next head coach.
Las Vegas oddsmakers have apparently anointed McCarthy as the favorite, at least for this week.
Baldy supports Steve Spagnuolo
NFL insider Brian Baldinger thinks two-time Giants and current Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo “would be a pretty good choice.”
Spagnuolo had a terrible 3+ season stint as head coach of the Los Angeles Rams, compiling a miserable 11-41 (.212 winning percentage) record.
That raises the question of whether or not Spagnuolo, a great defensive coordinator, is truly head coach material. There are, though, lots of reasons to consider Spagnuolo for the job.
Spagnuolo knows what winning looks like. He has four Super Bowl rings — one with the Giants, three with the Chiefs. He was worked for Tom Coughlin, Joe Gibbs, John Harbaugh, Sean Payton and Andy Reid. He loves the Giants, and the Giants’ organization loves him.
Spagnuolo has also been part of winning with the Giants. He knows what Giants football is supposed to look like, what the standard and the culture are supposed to be when the Giants are at the top.
That’s not a bad place to start. The questions, of course, would be what did Spagnuolo learn from his failure with the Rams and what sort of offensive staff would he be able to put in place to support Dart?
Lou Anarumo’s name never seems to show up when Vegas oddsmakers post their lists of who they think has a chance to become the Giants’ next coach. If Schoen is still part of the process once the season ends, though, I think it is virtually a fait accompli that the Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator will get consideration.
Anarumo and Schoen were together for several seasons with the Miami Dolphins. Anarumo is a Staten Island native who worked under Pat Shurmur as Giants’ defensive backs coach in 2018. He is highly-respected for his work as defensive coordinator with the Colts and previously the Cincinnati Bengals. He interviewed for the Giants’ job in 2022 when it went to Daboll.
Not that it matters, but Anarumo’s son, Louis, is currently a pro scout for the Giants.
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