Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Giants: random thoughts

Doesn't anyone want to coach for the Giants? I really wanted Romeo Crennel to be the new DC for the Giants. I would have thought he would want to come back to NY as well and relive his glory days in NJ. He was a Parcells discovery but was not the DC until he got to NE under Bellichick. Giants contacted him but he signed with the Chiefs. I guess he wanted to be reunited with Charlie Weis and Scott Pioli, the GM, with whom he has more recent contact and experience. Crennel and Coughlin were on the staff of the 1990 Giants Superbowl team together, but they have not worked together for the last 20 years.


Coughlin also interviewed Perry Fewell, the DC in Buffalo under Jauron who became the interim coach when Jauron was shown the door. I don't know if Coughlin offered him the job, but he seems to be pursuing other offers, rumored to be Chicago under Lovie Smith. (Editor's note: Fewell accepted the position on Thursday.) Is it possible that Coughlin has a bad reputation managing coaches? Or perhaps everyone feels that the Giants are in for a major overhaul on that side of the ball after the defense showed to be one of the worst in football this past year. It's not that they don't want the challenge, it's just that they would rather go to a place where they have a chance for success. Firing Sheridan after one year may not give prospective coordinators the feeling that the leash is too long in NY. Firing Waufle may send the same signal. Giants may end up with Jauron, who is an excellent coordinator. But - I am not clear how the money works for Jauron. he still has 1 or 2 years left on his contract in Buffalo and he would certainly not get as much money as a DC as he did as HC, so there is little incentive for him to work this year. We'll see.

January 15th update: The fact that Fewell has now accepted this position doesn't change the fact that Coughlin may have created a bad reputation as a coach's coach. I don't know that much about Fewell, but the defenses in Buffalo were pretty good. It's Jauron that was lost.

How good is the NFC East? We always crow with pride that it is the best division in football, but I am not sure that is the case this year. Two teams made the playoffs from the NFC East and the third place team (Giants) had a .500 record. That sounds pretty good, but since there are 2 wild cards, if two divisions provided them, there is no particular distinction there. The NFC South had only one playoff team, but they also had 3 teams with a record of .500 or better. Two playoff teams came out of the NFC North, where the 3rd place team, Chicago, was 7-9, only one game worse than the 8-8 Giants. The worst team in the NFC East was Washington at 4-12, but the Redskins got swept by the NFC East this year, going 0-6. That means that against the rest of the league, the Redskins were a not-quite-as-awful 4-6. There are enough indicators back and forth so that we can say that the division has probably come back down to earth and was not decidedly better than the rest of the league in 2009.

Jets have a chance this weekend against the Chargers. I am not saying they will win, but the matchups seem to be pretty good for them. Chargers don't stop the run very well and the Jets run the ball very well. Chargers get all of their offense from the passing game and the Jets are very good at defending the pass, with Revis, the best CB in football and a host of interesting blitzes that can confuse the opposing qb and offense. Jets should try to run the ball and keep the score low. While Rex Ryan has not proved himself yet as a great coach, Norv Turner has the reputation of this generation's Marty Shottenheimer - doing well in the regular season and finding a way to mess up the playoffs. Even if the Jets don't win this weekend, you have to say that they are set up to go on a good run and be a very competitive team for the next few years. They have an excellent OL with a mixture of youth and age, some young growing playmakers on offense, a qb that looks like he will be very good and an excellent defense led by a coach with a creative defensive mind.

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