Mike Kafka got a ringing endorsement from New York Giants’ coordinators this week for the team’s full-time head-coaching position. That, though, is not going to move the needle as Kafka’s interim head coach audition for the real job continues over the next six games.
Victories, demonstrating the ability to guide the growth of rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, marked improvement from the team’s woeful defense, and signs that players being held accountable and buying what Kafka is selling will.
While Kafka tries to deliver those things as the team’s interim head coach, there is plenty of rumor mill gossip and speculation regarding who the next coach will be.
Is Marcus Freeman a candidate?
On Sunday, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports said the Giants were not entertaining the idea of hiring a current college coach as their head coach.
Despite that, Art Stapleton of NorthJersey.com put Freeman, the 39-year-old North Dame head coach, on his list of early candidates. He wrote:
CEO leader to rebuild what has been broken here with Giants if Freeman would make the leap. He seems to have great command of the program and a dynamic personality. Ability to build a staff in the NFL would have to be vetted as an integral part of his candidacy.
Valentine’s View: Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss, Dart’s college coach for three seasons, is not coming to the Giants. Indications are that if Kiffin leaves Ole Miss he will head to Florida as their next head coach.
That leaves Freeman as the only college head coach who would be on my list. He has never coached in the NFL. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in Round 5 of the 2009 NFL Draft, but never played a regular-season game. A medical condition forced him to retire after a single season.
Freeman is a CEO head coach, and this is a plus in my view. Can he transition from leading college players to leading grown men in the NFL?
Jordan Ranaan of ESPN wrote that Pierce, Steve Spagnuolo, and Lou Anarumo, all with ties to the Giants’ organization, are “destined for interviews.”
Valentine’s View: I would not be surprised by any of that. The Giants are a famously loyal organization, perhaps to a fault, and they love to turn in-house to familiar faces when they can.
I don’t know if Spagnuolo, a great defensive coordinator, can succeed as head coach. I do know I have often wondered if the Giants would have saved themselves a lot of aggravation by just giving him the job in 2018 after he had served four games as interim head coach. What if Spags could bring ex-Giant QB Davis Webb as offensive coordinator? Or, convince Kafka to stay in that role to guide Dart?
As for Pierce, I understand the appeal. He was a tremendously smart player and defensive leader who helped the Giants win a Super Bowl. He would be a CEO style coach. His tenure with the Las Vegas Raiders, 9-17 overall and 4-13 in 2024, was not promising.
One more college coach to consider
Ranaan wrote that Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell “is someone multiple sources said the Giants have done background work on in recent years.”
Valentine’s View: I know little to nothing about Campbell other than what you can find when you research him online. Nonetheless, hiring Campbell to be the next head coach would be a Joe Judge-like stunner, in my view.
Campbell, 45, might be a great coach. He has never played or coached in the NFL. As a player, he was a Division III star at Mount Union. Where he played college football is, to me, not a factor. What is a factor is that his coaching stops have been at Mount Union, Bowling Green, Toledo, and Iowa State, where he has been head coach since 2016.
I am not sure any of that is evidence that he could coach in the NFL or handle a media market like the one he would step into as Giants head coach.
The Tim McDonnell, Chris Mara factor
GM Joe Schoen is running the search for a new head coach. That does not mean Schoen is making the decision. He is not. Giants’ ownership more or less allowed Schoen to hire the coach he wanted when he became GM in 2022. That call is almost always made by Giants’ ownership, though, and it will be this time. Schoen will have a voice, but John Mara and Steve Tisch will make the decision.
Tim McDonnell and Chris Mara will have voices, too.
That has been a point of discussion lately, once again raising the Mara family influence and nepotism discussions.
McDonnell, the team’s Director of Player Personnel, is Mara’s son-in-law. Chris Mara has the title of Senior Player Personnel Executive, but doesn’t have a clearly defined place in the front office. He is, though, part of ownership and John Mara’s brother. Both have voices, and should be expected to use them.
It should not stun anyone that both will be part of the process. They were part of it in 2022, as well. Go back aand look at the itinerary of the Brian Flores interview process with the Giants to see that for yourself.
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