Big Blue View
Seth Weissman asks: 1. Whose decision was it to fire Daboll: Schoen’s or Mara’s?
2. (a) Why do you think Bowen was retained? (b) Do you think he’ll be gone at the end of the season when they Giants select a new head coach?
Ed says: Seth, it was clear from their statement that this was an ownership decision. Whether Joe Schoen made an effort to change the mind of John Mara and Steve Tisch I don’t know.
Why was Bowen retained? Only an educated guess here. Defensive players really do not know Mike Kafka. Before now they only knew him to say hello. They had never dealt with him. Perhaps because of that the feeling was they needed to give players on that side of the ball some form of continuity.
Truthfully, the time to fire Bowen would have been several weeks ago after the loss to the Denver Broncos. Brian Daboll’s lack of willingness to do that had to contribute to him ultimately losing his job.
Nicholas Carratura asks: Schlottmann has been pretty good in relief of Schmitz who is also having his best year so far. Do you think it would make sense to try one of them at guard considering neither of the starting ones are the long term answer and being able to play both Schlottmann and Schmitz would make a lot of financial sense?
Ed says: Nicholas, Schlottman does have guard experience in his past. The last time he spent any significant time there, though, was 2020. That is a long time ago. Besides, going off Pro Football Focus grades Schlottmann has been a decent backup center but was not a good guard.
I do think the Giants need to upgrade — and get younger — at guard next season. I don’t think a Schlottmann/Schmitz duo is the answer.
Michael George asks: In today’s Giants news Mike Lupica of The Daily News said of Joe Schoen:
“Keeping him could be a deal breaker for the best coaching candidates, too, because what rising star wants to stake his career on a boss who could have one foot out the door?”. Are there any hard data to support his argument? Have there been any “rising stars” who have had successful careers with the so-called “embattled” GM who hired them?
Ed says: Michael, I’m sure there are probably a few guys out there who would want to bring their own GMs. My guess? The Giants have a structure they like, whether it has been successfully recently or not, and that type or hand all the power over to a head coach structure is not the Giants’ preference. It never has been. Not for Bill Parcells. Not for Tom Coughlin. Not for anyone.
I do like the idea of a head coach and GM coming in together and being on the same timeline. But Lupica didn’t do any research to say that it doesn’t work. Les Snead was GM of the...
