Big Blue View
With Brian Daboll having been fired as New York Giants head coach on Monday, GM Joe Schoen will now lead a search for a new head coach. I posted the list of potential candidates below a week ago, but it is appropriate now to bring that list back to the forefront
Below, a list of 10 coaches worth consideration.
Lane Kiffin — The only current college head coach on my list, and an OBVIOUS candidate. You want a head coach who you know can help Jaxson Dart continue his upward arc as an NFL quarterback? How about the guy who helped him become a college quarterback worthy of being a first-round pick? That’s Kiffin, a guy known for his ability as an offensive coach.
Kiffin has NFL experience, having coached the Oakland Raiders in 2007 and part of 2008. Granted, that didn’t go well. Kiffin’s Raiders were 4-12 in 2007 and he got fired when Oakland was 1-3 four games into the 2008 season.
Still, Kiffin was 32 years old when he took the Raiders’ job. He isn’t that same young, brash coach.
Kiffin is 50 now. He is 114-53 (.683) at Tennessee, USC, Florida Atlantic and Ole Miss. At each stop, Kiffin has had more success. At Ole Miss, his teams are 52-19 (.732) with five straight bowl game appearances.
Kiffin has worked for Pete Carroll and Nick Saban. He has been open about his struggles to overcome alcoholism.
With so many openings in college football, Kiffin is going to be able to pick the job he wants this offseason. If he wants to try the NFL again, the Giants make a lot of sense.
Mike Kafka — The Giants’ offensive coordinator has been sought after for head-coaching jobs during each of the past three offseasons. He has interviewed with the Carolina Panthers, Arizona Cardinals, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Seattle Seahawks, Tennessee Titans and New Orleans Saints.
I don’t know if Kafka can be an NFL head coach. I wonder if he has the ability to lead an entire locker room and be the public face of an organization. I do believe the Giants should interview him as a serious candidate, especially if they want some continuity for Dart. Now that he is interim head coach he has a terrific chance to prove to the Giants, or someone else, that he can be the top guy.
Brian Flores — This would be a tough one, but one the Giants should think about. The Giants were named in Flores’ as yet unsettled lawsuit against the Giants alleging discrimination and saying his 2022 interview for the head-coaching job that went to Daboll was a “sham.”
It would also be difficult because the Giants would have to trust that Flores, 44, has changed the coaching style that fractured his relationship with Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and perhaps alienated other players when Flores was Dolphins head coach has softened.
No one, though, doubts Flores’ ability to...
