The Giants believed Ben McAdoo is or someday soon will be head-coaching timber, and this is why they have called a halt to the game of musical head coaches and hired him before someone else — the Eagles, perhaps — did.
Eli Manning gets his way, gets his man.
McAdoo learned at the feet of Tom Coughlin for two years, which ought to have counted for plenty.
Manning didn’t get final say, even as the franchise quarterback, but ownership was wise to value his opinion.
Neither McAdoo nor the rest of the field — not Doug Marrone, not Mike Smith, not Teryl Austin, not Steve Spagnuolo — would have a chance unless general manager Jerry Reese repairs the roster with at least five impact free agents and draft choices on the defensive side of the ball.
No one can say for sure whether McAdoo is any more or less ready than Adam Gase will be in Miami.
But if Manning, speaking for himself and many of his offensive teammates who would treasure stability and continuity, believes it is better to find out now rather than risk losing McAdoo, the Giants listened to their franchise quarterback.
There was no perfect candidate out there, no slam dunk who would inspire the faithful to start booking their Super Bowl LI flights and hotel rooms. They all came with question marks.
McAdoo either has leadership skills or he doesn’t. He can either command the room or he can’t. He either can put together a quality staff or he can’t. The Giants either project him as a head coach or they don’t. If they couldn’t make that determination after two years, shame on them.
Never any guarantees. You can stay in-house and wind up with Ray Handley. You can import a head coach with experience and end up with Rich Kotite — who actually won a playoff game with the Eagles before Leon Hess ran a 4.4 40 to land him.
Beyond the Xs and Os, coaching now more than ever is about building relationships with your players. Starting with your franchise quarterback. Gase bonded with Peyton Manning and Jay Cutler. McAdoo has bonded with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay and now Peyton’s little brother.
Hours before Coughlin stepped down, running back Orleans Darkwa was asked if he thought McAdoo was ready to be a head coach.
“I think so,” Darkwa said. “The defense might not know him as well, but the offense really does know him and respects him as a man, as a coach as well. I would definitely think he’s ready now. I think he brings a lot of motivation to our team, and to our offense.”
Behind closed doors, the Giants saw a different McAdoo than the media did.
“He doesn’t really hide much from us. He might seem low key to y’all, but we got a better grasp of him than y’all might,” Darkwa said. “He can definitely get energetic. When you might see him out on the field, he might not be as energetic because he’s focused on the game, but he knows when to get us going. He knows when to get us ready, and a lot of the guys respect him.”
Does McAdoo, three years older than the 35-year-old Manning, have his finger on the pulse of offensive players?
“I feel so,” Darkwa said, who was hoping Coughlin might stay, by the way. “If the opportunity presents itself, I’ll feel he’d do a great job as the head coach.”
In a perfect world, John Mara was looking for an experienced head coach with something to prove. But it wasn’t the only criterion.
“People thought we were looking for a taskmaster,” then-GM Ernie Accorsi said 12 years ago when Coughlin was hired. “But that wasn’t really it. For decades, I researched and kept a book on all the great coaches in NFL history. I saw that they all had one common trait: very high intelligence.
“Vince Lombardi taught high school chemistry, Bill Walsh could have been a college professor, and Paul Brown qualified for the Rhodes scholarship. Tom Coughlin is in that mold. It’s his intelligence and football knowledge that has made him successful.”
McAdoo? He graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania summa cum laude in health and physical education.
He then earned his master’s degree in kinesiology at Michigan State.
Mara said this once on WFAN about the hiring of Coughlin: “I wanted somebody that wanted to win as badly as I do. That was a trait that you could see in him right away. He obviously had the football smarts and the experience, and you knew he was gonna bring some discipline to the team.”
When McAdoo was hired by the Packers in 2006 as tight ends coach, he said: “I’ve always been the dark horse in every job I’ve received, so I usually go in with a chip on my shoulder. To me, it’s about dreaming big, working hard, taking care of business, and having a little fun while you’re doing it.”
McAdoo, a kid with a dream from Homer City, Pa., is a risk. All of the candidates were risks. The Giants have dared to be great. Maybe McAdoo is the next Andy Reid. Maybe he isn’t.
But he offers the chance for the greatest reward. The last thing in the world the Giants needed was Manning left in the lurch and McAdoo leaving and winning a Super Bowl somewhere else.