Giants fire Ben McAdoo, Jerry Reese
Traditionally regarded as one of the NFL’s most stable franchises, the New York Giants are apparently on the verge of making some immediate changes.
They say the proof is in the pudding. And off Sunday’s 24-17 loss to the Oakland Raiders, the New York Giants said enough was enough. Off a 11-5 showing and a playoff appearance in 2016, the team opened 0-5 and currently owns a 2-10 record.
And so it began:
I’m told firings — plural — “are imminent” at #NYG. @nflnetwork
— Kim Jones (@KimJonesSports) December 4, 2017
And then this happened:
Giants fire head coach Ben McAdoo: https://t.co/vKuk6mcgMv (via @RapSheet) pic.twitter.com/gmpQQAKS4O
— NFL (@NFL) December 4, 2017
Followed by this:
Jerry Reese has been relieved of his duties as well, I was just told by someone w/ knowledge of #Giants moves.
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) December 4, 2017
And finally this:
#Giants will have Steve Spagnuolo take over as head coach and Kevin Abrams as GM the rest of the way, per person w/ knowledge of team's moves.
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) December 4, 2017
You will recall that early last week, veteran quarterback Eli Manning was benched. It ended the two-time Super Bowl champion’s streak of 210 consecutive regular-season starts. It was also a very unpopular move considering that the Giants’ biggest issues this season seemed to be everything but the play of the quarterback.
Manning may have owned a 2-9 record as the club’s starting signal-caller. But he had completed 62.5 percent of his passes for 2,411 yards and twice as many touchdown passes (14) as interceptions (7) in his 11 starts. Never mind that the 14-year pro was sacked 26 times during the season. And never mind that New York was averaging a mere 91.3 yards per game on the ground while he was at the controls.
Including last season’s 38-13 NFC Wild Card loss at Lambeau Field to the Green Bay Packers, McAdoo’s tenure as Big Blue’s sideline leader abruptly ends at a total of 29 games and with a 13-16 overall record. We are talking about a Giants’ franchise that employed Tom Coughlin for 12 seasons (2004-15) and Jim Fassel for seven years (1997-2003) prior to that. In other words, things had to be pretty bad within the organization for the McAdoo and Reese (who was hired in January of 2007) for there to be such dramatic change.
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So where do the New York Giants go from here? Does Eli Manning regain his starting job this week when the team takes on the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium? It’s already been a rough year for a team with high expectations heading into 2017 and wound up falling on its collective facemasks. Now both Spagnuolo and Abrams will try to hold things together over these next four weeks.