The retirement of long-time offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride created an opportunity for the New York Giants to bring in a new voice for the team’s offense.On Tuesday, the Giants announced the hiring of Ben McAdoo as their new offensive coordinator. McAdoo had been the quarterbacks coach of the Green Bay Packers for the past two seasons.
McAdoo was among a handful of candidates interviewed for the position, and among them was former Giants assistant Mike Sullivan. The smart money was on Sullivan to get the job, reportedly because of his prior connections and knowledge of the offense.
Dan Graziano of ESPNNewYork writes that despite the obvious logic in bringing in Sullivan, some in the Giants hierarchy had been pushing head coach Tom Coughlin to consider a more drastic change. McAdoo definitely would be a drastic change and it could very well be what’s needed for quarterback Eli Manning.
Manning is coming off the worst season of his career, having thrown a league-high and career-high 27 interceptions. He wasn’t in sync with his receivers all season and it was a big reason the Giants missed the playoffs. If there was any time for change with how the Giants do things on offense, it would be now.
McAdoo is coming over from Green Bay where he was the quarterbacks coach for none other than Aaron Rodgers, “Mr. Discount Double-Check” himself. Never mind the funny television commercials, Rodgers is one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL and the Packers have one of the more explosive offenses in the league.
It remains to be seen what type of system McAdoo will install for Manning and the offense, however I’d dare to think a version of the popular “west coast offense” could be a strong possibility.
Change is inevitable, and in this case for Manning, Victor Cruz, along with the rest of the Giants offense, it’s not going to hurt.
