New York Giants Should Keep Tom Coughlin
By Ryan Ratty
The New York Giants shouldn’t make Tom Coughlin the scapegoat
18 injuries and counting. That number right there has summed up the New York Giants’ season in 2014. This year will be the third straight Tom Coughlin will not bring his team to the NFL playoffs. That being said, with how problematic the New York media is, there has been some clamoring regarding Coughlin and his job security. There are many arguments why the Giants should start fresh, but despite his three down years in a row, Coughlin needs to be brought back in 2015.
For starters, as I said earlier, the Giants have dealt with a ton of injuries in 2014. The main injury was on the offensive side of the ball in Victor Cruz. With Odell Beckham Jr. arising into one of the game’s top playmakers from the wide receiver position, many Giants fans are forgetting just how good Cruz was for this team in 2012. Yes, Cruz had a down year in 2013, but before his season-ending knee injury, Cruz was having a decent season. For what it’s worth, imagine a combination of Cruz and Beckham Jr. The easiest way to make the playoffs is to win your division. In the NFC East, there aren’t two cornerbacks from any roster that can shut down this duo.
It’s not just on offense where the Giants have suffered. The defensive captain of this football is Jon Beason. After trading a conditional draft pick for him a couple of years ago, Beason has thrived in New York’s 4-3 defensive scheme. Beason has been out since Week 8 , and at that point in the season, the Giants were still in things with a 3-4 record. Top cornerback Prince Amukamara has been out for the season ever since tearing his biceps in Week 8. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Robert Ayers have also missed a ton of time.
Over the 2013 offseason, the Giants had huge holes on the offensive line and in the defensive secondary. Knowing that, the Giants went out and spent a lot of money to upgrade their weaknesses. Walter Thurmond was brought in to be a starting cornerback, but he tore his pectoral and never got time to help the Giants. Geoff Schwartz was one of PFF’s top-rated guards in 2013 and he has started just two games in 2014. Knowing that both of those players haven’t been healthy, the Giants are lacking production from both of those areas again in 2014.
Injuries have hampered the Giants tremendously, but critics will say injuries happen to every team. Even though the Giants have been handcuffed because of injuries, they also deploy one of the youngest rosters in the league. New York has won the past two games and although they played the Tennessee Titans and the Washington Redskins, it should be said that these young players are starting to look like real playmakers for the Giants. Over the past few years, the Giants have found some quality young players via the draft. Damontre Moore, Devon Kennard, Weston Richburg, and Johnathan Hankins are just a few players that are really starting to find their niche in New York.
Playing in the New York media’s spotlight is sometimes too daunting for many teams. Bill Arnsparger and Ray Handley are just two coaches that couldn’t make it in New York. Arnsparger lasted just three seasons, while Handley lasted only two seasons. Knowing that coaching in New York is a problem for many, that leads me to my next point. If the Giants get rid of Coughlin, the main question is, who will be their new head coach?
Over the past few years, there have been a ton of quality head-coaches-to-be. Bruce Arians and Gus Bradley were successful coordinators before becoming head coaches, but with the offseason around the corner, there aren’t a ton of coordinators around the league that have been rumored to become a head coach in the offseason. Sure Adam Gase and Darrell Bevell are having great years once again for their respective teams. Despite that, both of them haven’t run a 53-man roster before, and it is extremely risky to bring in a new coach to work with a quarterback that has devoted every snap of his career with the Giants.
Coughlin has been the coach of the Giants for 11 years. Out of all those years, Coughlin has had just three losing seasons. Coughlin has been a head coach in this league for 19 years and he has built two teams from the ground up. Super Bowl-winning coaches don’t come around too often in this league. The Giants, despite their record, still have one of the best coaches in the entire world on their roster. Things need to improve in New York, but they can’t if the Giants don’t retain Coughlin in 2015. Bringing in a new coach would only hurt the atmosphere surrounding this football team and that is something that cannot happen if the Giants want to continue to build their franchise through their younger players. Bringing back Coughlin is the right decision for the short-term and the long-term.